👋

I just got back from the APP event in Sacramento, and man, I learned some valuable lessons!

This is why I love pickleball so much—I eat, sleep, and breathe it, yet every tournament teaches me something new.

Can’t wait to share what I picked up:

First things first—you have to apply pressure to your opponents.

The days of getting away with soft, lofty shots are long gone. Almost every shot needs a bit of spin to let your opponents know you’re there. If you’re not keeping the pressure on, trust me, the other team will.

One way to do this is by mixing up your dinks so your opponents can’t find their rhythm.

Think slicing dinks (backspin), rolling dinks (topspin), holding dinks (to mess with timing), and even taking balls out of the air to steal time from your opponent.

The team we lost to had so much variety in their game—I never felt settled at the kitchen line.

Moral of the story: having a wide range of shots in your arsenal lets you dictate the game and keeps the other team on their heels. 🎯

Now, let’s get to this week's video:

A Tricky Way to Be Deceptive in Pickleball (All pros use)

There is something subtle that pros do (that you probably never noticed) that could take your dinking game to a whole new level.

See what it is in the video–in Under 60 Seconds.

Since getting back from California, I’ve been laser-focused on boosting my awareness and adding more variety to my game at the kitchen line.

And if you noticed, I didn’t say a thing about speeding up shots. That’s because everything I mentioned was about creating different variables to force a popup—not about going full throttle.

Here’s the deal: it’s tough to consistently speed balls up off the bounce and actually win. 

But if you can mix things up at the net, cut down on errors, and keep your opponents feeling that nonstop pressure—that’s the real winning formula. 🔥

Till next week!

-Tanner

P.S. My paddle, the CRBN TruFoam Genesis, is currently SOLD OUT. BUT, if you want to pre-order it, you can use TAN10 at checkout to save 10%.