Paddlegate part 2736 + PPA Cincinnati Drama

A week of pro pickleball without drama?! Come on… We should all know by now that that simply isn’t possible! If you aren’t deep into the nitty gritty of the pro scene you’re missing out on some juicy stuff… But don’t worry! I’ve got you here with everything you need to know.

It feels like the “topic of the week” in pickleball just oscillates between a few things. One week it’s a partnership breakup, then it’s paddles, then it’s lighting concerns, court issues, cheating… and then it all repeats. We are currently in the paddle phase of things.

To my understanding (and I am no expert on this stuff!), the UPA-A gave paddle companies a deadline of 9/1 to have paddles updated to new standards. According to UPA-A president Jason Aspes, companies have known about this for “close to a year”. I don’t know what the change in “power” threshold was, but I know that spin generation had to go from 2200 RPMs to 2100 RPMs - a 4.5% change.

As a pro, I feel like this all kind of came out of nowhere. We are definitely currently in a landscape of ever-changing rules and a lot of reactionary decisions, but thankfully, even if it came out of nowhere for me, it did not come out of nowhere for my paddle sponsor, JOOLA. They were on top of all communications sent out by the UPA-A and had new, approved paddles for me in Orlando stamped with a fresh serial number marking compliance.

For other pros, this came out of nowhere for both them and, seemingly, for their manufacturers/sponsors as well. A lot of brands had some paddles fail, but most were able to field at least some usable options for their players. The biggest brands that did not have viable paddles approved by the deadline are Proton and PIKKL. Both companies have a lot of players that are regularly on podiums, including Andrei Daescu, Meghan Dizon, CJ Klinger, Gabe Tardio, and Tyra Black.

This chaos has been funny to watch as someone who has been relatively unaffected by it. I do feel for these players, having to both find and switch to an entirely new paddle on the fly would be a nightmare when your game has developed around a specific piece of equipment. Furthermore, the last thing you want to do when you miss a ball is question whether it was you or the paddle you’re using and wonder if you should switch to the other random paddle you have in your bag that you’re also not used to. I hope their sponsors can get it all sorted with the UPA-A ASAP (sorry for the acronym soup there).

I am playing mixed with Andrei this week, and on Tuesday he played with the Paddletek Christian Alshon TKO-C. I told him he was a good partner for using Christian’s paddle but that he should support me too and use mine. He must’ve gotten confused though because Wednesday (about 30 minutes before our match), he decided he was going to use a JOOLA Perseus. He must’ve thought that was my signature paddle! I’ll try to get him right today though, don’t worry😂😂😂.

Gabe is also struggling a little with what to use and I’ve seen him hitting with, I think, 5 different paddles this week. His game is so built around spin and the PIKKL paddle was perfect for that - Gabe doesn’t even have any lead on his usual paddle just so he can maximize the whip he can get. I hope he settles on a paddle and gets used to it quickly, else him and Ben may be a hair more vulnerable than they have been. **update: I texted Gabe and he has actually used 7 different paddles in the last two days😂😂😂

Besides all this paddle business, there’s also been a fair number of funny crashouts and other drama this week. Just yesterday, Tyson McGuffin and Mo Alhouni got into it. Alhouni has now gotten into it with multiple players regarding his line calls. I thought Tyson handled the situation well and I am glad he was able to win the match. I played Mo in mixed and the match was uneventful, but regardless, automated line calls can’t come soon enough. I am often surprised we don’t have more drama around line calls than we do at the pro level.

The other notable crashout belongs to Zane Ford (who unfortunately wasn’t able to use his usual paddle). People were rating this water bottle kick on twitter…

The funniest thing to me though about this kick is not even the kick… but that CHRISTIAN ALSHON WAS PLAYING ON THE COURT BESIDE IT AND STOPPED PLAY MID POINT (and lost said point because of it😂🤦🏽‍♀️) Christian and these hindrance calls man. The gift that keeps on giving.

Yesterday evening after play concluded I had the pleasure of participating in an event called “Pickleball for All” put on by the PPA and Carvana. Ben Johns and I played in an exhibition match with a couple of amazing para-pickleball players, Taylor Nichols and Zack Sikora. After the match, they even encouraged Ben and I to give the chairs a try and we played a game in the chairs as well!

This was my first experience in a wheelchair, and, as expected, I was awful. It presented me with an entirely new perspective both on how lucky I am to be able-bodied and on just how amazing these para-athletes are. I could hardly move! It was an amazing experience and I feel so blessed that being a pro-pickleball player has expanded my horizons and worldview so much. Kudos to these amazing athletes! 👏👏

That’s all for this edition folks! I will have a full tournament recap for everyone on Monday. Make sure to tune into the rest of the tournament- today the Round of 16 starts and things really start to heat up. So many great matches across all events! Hopefully my matches remain drama free, but man do I enjoy a bit of drama in matches I am uninvolved in😂! If you enjoy reading please share with a pickle friend who you think would also enjoy❤️. Appreciate you all and catch me on PickleballTV!