A Pickleball Twitter Beef Between Mark Cuban and Gary Vee

McGuffin's Magic Moment. A Pickleball Monster? A Drill to Master the Speedup.

Have you ever wondered what billionaire trash talk sounds like? Well, the pickleball world found out Saturday night. 

Media moguls Mark Cuban and Gary Vee went head-to-head on Twitter with the likes of Lebron, Brady, and KD tagged. Cuban directly called out Major League Pickleball in the process. Gary Vee told him to bring his big talk to the pickleball court.

It appears the MLP vs VIBE Pickleball friendly rivalry will be dropping the 'friendly' moving forward. Fans are already anticipating an MLP vs VIBE 'Super Bowl' in the future following the exchange. Let's pull back the curtain on this juicy pickle drama.

It's Nationals Week, which means eight straight days of pickle from Indian Wells, CA!

PPA Texas Open Results

Back and Forth for Faster Volleys

When you watch the pros, you realize dinks are more frequent and consistent. The game tends to collapse to the net. The dink war escalates to a firefight and you need to ensure that your troops are ready.

The speedup is a critical time in any point and something you can and should drill for.

Federico Staksrud’s favorite drill for faster volleys at the kitchen is remarkably simple and effective, but you’ll need a partner who’s at your skill level or higher to run it with you.

With each player on complimentary sides of the kitchen, start hitting volleys at each other at different angles while slowly sidestepping in unison:

This drill works your hand-eye coordination as well as your ability to move with the volley when necessary. 

For an extra challenge, Federico suggests starting at opposite ends of the kitchen and moving to the opposite side in a scissor formation.

Grab a partner, try out the “kitchen sweep,” and take a video of your attempt. We want to see fast hands, people!

We all want more energy without the jitters, sketchy ingredients, or sugar lows. Organifi Red Juice will keep you moving with powerful adaptogens.

First off, Red Juice doesn't contain any caffeine - and it doesn't need any. An organic fruit blend packed with ginseng and cordyceps provides energy support when you need it without keeping you up at night. Research-backed delicious superfoods support pickleball performance.

And, each glass of Red Juice only contains 2 grams of natural sugar for sustainable energy - no sugar crash mid-meeting or mid-game!

Best of all, Red Juice tastes amazing! Like a healthier fruit punch, bursting with berry flavor...Oh yeah, did we mention it's 100% organic?

Our pickleball community loves Organifi's products and enjoys the performance benefits on the court.

Let's Settle This on the Court

Mark Cuban sat courtside at the PPA Texas Open Saturday, but not to watch Luka Dončić cook the rest of the NBA. The new VIBE Pickleball investor was scouting a women's doubles semifinal match to kickstart his 2023 draft board.

After taking in some pickleball, Cuban went to Twitter to talk sh*t to a few of the celebrity owners in Major League Pickleball. 

Never one to back down from a Twitter War, MLP Investor Gary Vee stepped in and challenged Cuban to take the discussion off the interwebs and bring it to the pickleball court.

It's doubtful that we see this come to fruition, but if it does, The Dink and the rest of the internet will be there.

PPA Texas Open Recap

Championship Sunday was a monumental day for Tyson McGuffin. Barstool's "Most Electrifying Man in Sports" finally beat Ben Johns in a gold medal match. Three years (since McGuffin has bested Johns) in the making, the win was celebrated appropriately with a member of the McGuffin Mafia (pictured above). Congratulations, Tyson.

The loss did not ruin Johns' afternoon. Ben teamed up with his brother Collin Johns to bring home the men's doubles title. He and Anna Leigh Waters continued their unbeaten streak in mixed doubles.

Waters tweaked her knee in the women's doubles match earlier in the day. The resilient 15-year-old slapped on a knee sleeve and won the women's doubles match, her mixed doubles match, and completed the triple crown with a win in singles.

Steve Deakin's return to the PPA Tour already resulted in a medal. He teamed up with James Ignatowich to steal bronze in men's doubles. Also climbing the podium was MLP team owner Travis Rettenmaier. Rettenmaier and Etta Wright started as the 19th seed, but strung together six straight back draw victories to take bronze.

The PPA Tour's next stop is in two weeks at the Takeya Showcase in Newport Beach.

The Atlantic's Weak Take

With a headline like, “America Has Made a Monster Out of Pickleball,” The Atlantic has solidified its position on the sport. Similar to the recent HBO Real Sports’ episode which focused exclusively on the noise issue, The Atlantic mocks pretty much everything about the game’s expansion. 

“Pickleball might have gladly remained in the capable hands of its amateur paddlers. But somewhere along the way, this innocuous, mildly paced, favored-by-retirees sport was swept into a maelstrom of commercialization.”

Lines like this make the article read less like a genuine critique of unsavory aspects and more like a poorly-conceived, pedantic, contrarian thinkpiece (see, Atlantic? We can use big words, too!).

To a certain extent, we can understand the writer’s jabs at over-commercialization in pickleball. But critically, it doesn’t offer any solutions to this perceived problem. 

The article ends: “In the beginning, pickleball was simply a backyard game intended to bring joy and entertainment. Did it need to be anything more than that?”

Is this a question that required 1,100 words of preamble, Atlantic?

Raw Carbon. Raw Power. 

Pickleball’s most innovative handle company is back at it again. ProXR Pickleball introduces the first ever Carbon Paddle combined with XR Handle technology.

The ProXR Pickleball Carbon Paddle features the handle technology that has revolutionized hitting in major league baseball, professional hockey and now pickleball!

ProXR Pickleball’s patented ergonomic handle design enhances players’ ability to snap their wrists, creating more topspin for power, more sidespin on spin shots and quicker hands during those heated exchanges at the net. 

Learn more about why the best in the sport are adding ProXR technology to their game at proxrpickleball.com!

Woah-hio!

The world’s second-largest pickleball facility is coming to the Cincinnati area. The Pickleball Lodge is so huge, it will open in phases, and is still seeking investments for the full build-out.

But what a build it will be: 17 indoor courts, five outdoor courts, cushioned playing surfaces, space for corporate events, bar & restaurant, grandstand-style seating, and more.

Phase one is slated for opening early next year. That’s plenty of time to move to Ohio! Check the PicklePlay app to find the newest courts in your area.

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