Tag: pickleball

Relishing Pickleball

David Zapatka Are you looking for an enriching retirement activity? Are you interested in quality exercise while having a good time? Are you interested in a social environment where you can meet friendly, fun people? Are you interested in making new friends in your community? Consider giving the fastest-growing sport in the world, pickleball, a…

Relishing Pickleball: Is Pickleball a Good Bet?

David Zapatka The Pickleball Players Association (PPA) and Genius Sports, a publicly-traded sports data and tech company, recently announced a long-term deal that sets the stage for sports betting in pickleball. Can you imagine walking into one of our local casinos, hearing raucous cheers and seeing a pickleball match on the big screens in the…

Relishing Pickleball

David Zapatka Reader Liz Houser writes, “I just moved to SaddleBrooke in April and learned to play pickleball in early May, thanks to my enthusiastic neighbor Shawne. I just read your article about Common mistakes numbers 11 and 12, I found them to be very helpful. Would you be so kind as to send me…

Relishing Pickleball: 2020 Pickleball Rocks Players of the Year

David Zapatka 2020 was a crazy year. Many pickleball tournaments were cancelled. Public pickleball courts were closed and padlocked. That being said, Arizona pickleball players found ways to safely play, and even through the pandemic, new players found pickleball in record numbers. For 2020, Pickleball Rocks Clothing and Equipment Company recognized a mixed doubles pair…

The Creekers

Left to right: Bill Vollink, Tom Dean, Jim Malone, Greg Dinnocenti, Doug Warren, Steve Shapiro, Dave Mungo, Doug Stacken, Doug Christy, Pat Kolark, Dave Thomas, and Brian Leikhus. Absent from photo: Jeff Grass and Al Skoglund

Steve Shapiro The Arizona Pickleball Players League (APPL) expanded to the Tucson area in 2021. Before the expansion, the league had been in the Phoenix Metro/Casa Grande area. The APPL is made up of a men’s and women’s league for skill levels 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, and 4.5/5.0. Quail Creek took part in the Tucson area…

12 Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them (Mistakes 5 and 6)

David Zapatka This 12-common-mistakes column began after playing with some very excited, highly-motivated, new pickleball players at our community courts recently. After playing a couple games, this question was posed to me: “What should we do to improve and become 3.5 players?” We reviewed the first four mistakes the past two months. This month, we…