David Zapatka You’re in a crosscourt dinking rally and your opponent continues to put you under pressure with consistent dinking that tries your patience. The rally becomes more difficult as your opponent pushes you closer to the sidelines with shots close to the net. How long can you dink like this? Is it a battle…
Tag: Pickleball
Sports, February 2025
Relishing Pickleball: Teaching Pickleball to Your Relatives
David Zapatka With the holidays behind us, there has been quite a bit of talk about how to introduce relatives to pickleball, the game we discovered and love. The debate about how best to do this centers around two concepts. The first is to begin teaching new players how to serve. The second is to…
January 2025, Sports
SaddleBrooke Pickleball Association Celebrated Grandchildren’s Day
Raymond H. Goettsch The SaddleBrooke Pickleball Association (SPA) celebrated Grandchildren’s Day on Nov. 29 on four or more courts at the Ed Robson Pickleball Center. Twenty-some grandchildren participated, with grandparents and parents watching and joining in. SPA Board member Tina Donovan organized the event with several other SPA members. The grandchildren were introduced to pickleball…
Sports, December 2024
SaddleBrooke Pickleball Association Honored Greg Davis
Raymond H. Goettsch On Oct. 24 SaddleBrooke Pickleball Association (SPA) honored the late Greg Davis by naming the first aid location at the Ed Robson Pickleball Center the “Greg Davis First Aid Station.” Greg was a longtime, loyal SPA member. He was a medic in Vietnam, and after his service, he became a paramedic in…
November 2024, Front Page
POP Tennis Drop-in Returns
Do you like playing tennis? Do you like pickleball? Then perhaps you should try POP tennis. It’s played on a reduced-size tennis court with a paddle and 75% inflated tennis balls. You play doubles, so there is less court to cover versus tennis, and it’s not as quick and has less side-to-side movement than pickleball.…
September 2024, Sports
Mary Gajeske Embroiders the Flags for SaddleBrooke Pickleball
Raymond H. Goettsch SaddleBrooke Pickleball Association (SPA) has adopted a new logo. Now, this is where Mary Gajeske comes in. Mary has been embroidering items for 20 years, and she has embroidered flags and T-shirts with SPA logos for 17 years. She uses a sewing machine with a hoop attachment for embroidering. When Mary receives…
August 2024, Sports
Rally Scoring Can Take Many Forms in Pickleball
Raymond H. Goettsch Under standard pickleball scoring, players can only score points when they are serving, and players cannot score points when their opponents are serving. However, rally scoring is often used in group play or round robin play when players are on more than one court and will play with different opponents in the…
August 2024, Sports
Proposed New Rules for 2025 Could Change the Game of Pickleball
Raymond H. Goettsch Every year pickleball players submit proposed changes to the rules of the game to USA Pickleball, and other players have the opportunity to comment on the proposed changes. The decision as to which proposed rule changes will be adopted is made at the end of the year. This year has generated many…
May 2024, Front Page
SPA Members Shine at State Tournament
Raymond H. Goettsch The SaddleBrooke Pickleball Association (SPA) sponsored four teams in the Arizona Pickleball Players League (APPL), and three teams advanced to the Arizona state tournament and earned medals. Other SPA members advanced to state in separate teams, advancing to state and receiving medals. On April 7 in Mesa, SPA’s Soft Serve team (women…
Sports, April 2024
SPA Players Compete in Dinking in the Desert
Raymond H. Goettsch On March 15 through 17, more than 148 members of the SaddleBrooke Pickleball Association (SPA) played in the second annual Dinking in the Desert intramural tournament. The tournament was for men’s doubles on March 15, women’s doubles on March 16, and mixed doubles on March 17. Due to the weather, the men’s…