2015 Pickleball Rocks Player of the Year Announced

Throughout the year, people use NominateAPlayer.com to tell us all about their favorite players.  Many times they tell us about players they know who win lots of tournaments.  But also they tell us about people who have had tremendous impacts on their communities or towns.  Additionally, as we travel across the country to tournament after tournament, we ask the question, “who is your favorite pickleball player?”  Again, we get many answers.

This year, there was a common theme both in the online voting and seemingly everywhere we went.  That theme was the name Moore.

Scott Moore and Daniel Moore

In a very short period of time, Scott and Daniel Moore have had an amazing impact on the sport of pickleball.

Yes we heard a lot about how great of players they both are, but many times we also got comments like, “they are such great people off the court”, and “they are always working to help pickleball in so many ways.”  Those types of comments go a long ways towards making our final POY decisions, and in this case we got plenty of great comments.

Let’s talk about how they did on the courts this year.

We found that between the two of them, they participated in 15 sanctioned tournaments in 2015.  Between the two of them, they entered 41 events and brought home 32 medals, including a whopping 25 gold medals with 6 of their golds coming from NationalsVII.   Scott Moore - Pickelball Rocks Player of the Year  And yes, Dad Scott entered 6 events at Nationals VII and medaled in all six.   They’ve simply had an amazing year!

Winning isn’t everything though, and these two were winners outside the tournament circuit too.  Scott and Daniel are seen regularly shaking hands and doing clinics for everyone from beginners to the best players players on the planet.

And speaking of the planet, they covered that too.  Daniel has been the key player to bring the country of Japan into the pickleball frenzy.  We can’t wait to play there some day soon.  Daniel Moore

So as you can see, this year’s pick was actually a pretty easy one.  Yes, we have many new and exciting players coming into the great sport of pickleball and the future is bright.   We look for these two guys to be bright beacons for us for a long, long time.

Congratulations to our 2015 Pickleball Rocks Players of the Year:  Scott and Daniel Moore

Scott and Daniel Winner Header

 

 

The Pickleball Magazine Launch Announcement

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT:

The Launch of The Pickleball Magazine – CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE

For the very first time in history, the sport of pickleball will have its own official magazine.

Launching in January 2016 is The Pickleball Magazine.

Pickleball Magazine will be produced by Dollard Publishing Inc. of Pittsburgh, PA.
This great magazine will be close to 70 full color pages covering everything you can
think of in the world of pickleball.

Each issue of Pickleball Magazine includes:

*  Instructions from some of the best teachers and coaches
*  Tournament Schedules and Results
*  Facility of the Month – Recognizing those outstanding places to play.
*  Player Profiles – The stars of pickleball at every level
*  Pickleball Destinations – WOW places to play pickleball
*  Rules Q and A and much more!

It will be published 6 times a year and subscribing is easy.

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE

If you are a USAPA Member you will receive the magazine digitally via email as part
of your membership.

If you are a USAPA Member you can subscribe for the printed version mailed
to your home for only $12 a year.    NOT A MEMBER?  JOIN the USAPA Today!

If you are not a USAPA Member you can receive the digital version via email
for $4.97 a year or the printed version mailed directly to your home for only $20 a year

The Pickleball Magazine - Subscribe Today

Can’t wait to start receiving our copies.

Get yours today!

-Rocket, Josh, Abby, Zack and Stephanie

The Pickleball Rocks Team

 

 

 

NO COUPONS OR ADDITIONAL DISCOUNTS MAY BE APPLIED.

Carolina Courts Hosts Successful 2015 North Carolina Holiday Smash Pickleball Tournament

The Second Annual North Carolina Holiday Smash Pickleball Tournament was held on Saturday November 21st at the beautiful 16 court indoor facility at Carolina Courts in Concord, NC. Teams from 5 South Eastern states completed for the gold in both age and skill groups.

Tournament Director Bob Nibarger, who is also the USAPA Piedmont District Ambassador and JoAnnah Michael, USAPA Mountain District Ambassador, were the co-hosts for the tournament.

North Carolina Smash Pickleball Tournament

This year all “back in” registrations and brackets were managed by PickleballTournaments.com, who according to Bob “did a fantastic job” with all the logistics. Bob recalls last year that he and Joe Borrelli, North Carolina Coastal District Ambassador, spent 4 hours in a McDonald’s booth doing the brackets on their laptops.

The tournament next year will be a Round Robin and be held the Saturday before Thanksgiving on November 18th and 19th at Concord.

Visit the North Carolina Web page www.northcarolinapickleball.net for photos and information on this tourney and North Carolina Pickleball.

Congrats to all the winners!

What is the Best Pickleball Paddle for Control

We get that question a lot at the Pickleball Rocks world headquarters. 🙂 People will call, email or come up to us at a tournament and say, “I don’t need more power. What is the best paddle if I want control?”

Coming from a lifelong love of tennis and over seven years of pickleball playing experience, we always answer that question like this:

The best paddle for a player wanting great control is always going to be a graphite faced paddle.

Graphite pickleball paddles

And here is why:

Graphite is a very hard surface, so when the ball hits a paddle that has a graphite face (surface), the ball will deflect off that paddle instantly. In other words there is no “give” to the surface so the ball doesn’t sink into it.  Where ever you point the paddle, that is the direction the ball will go.   If you are familiar with tennis racquet strings, it is the same science for paddles (kinda).  When you want greater control in a tennis racquet, you string it tight so the ball doesn’t sink into the strings very far.  The ball leaves the strings quicker, rather than sitting on the strings for an extended period of time. Therefore it is easier to control and hit your target.

If you want more power from a tennis racquet, you string it looser and the ball sinks into the strings and then is catapulted out as a high rate of speed.  Just FYI, that concept for getting more power does NOT apply with pickleball paddles and here is why.  Unlike tennis racquet strings which build up power as the ball hits the strings, sinks into them, and then is flung out, the face of a pickleball paddle works quite differently because the deflection is totally different.   Yes the paddle “gives” (especially different thickness of fiberglass and the new carbon fiber and kevlars), but it rebounds back very slowly, more like a foam Tempur-pedic pillow than stretched tennis strings.  A paddle face does not build up more power from the ball sitting on the paddle longer.   Therefore, when you read deflection specifications for pickleball paddles, do not equate higher or lower deflection as a sure sign of more or less power.  It just doesn’t work that way.   Power and speed comes from a combination of many things, like weight distribution in the paddle head and handle, what the core of the paddle is made of, the size of the honeycomb compartments inside, and the various paddle face compositions.

Anyhow, back to great control.  Since the pickleball doesn’t sit on the graphite paddle face very long, you do get an increased ability to have great control and it is easier to direct the ball to an exact spot on the court.

So if you want a great control paddle, look for a paddle with a graphite face.  They will all say “Graphite” right on them.  Since we are Pro-Lite Pickleball fans, we love and use the Blaster Graphite and the Magnum Graphite (the best selling graphite paddle of all time), but most manufacturers have one or more models with graphite faces.  So find one that feels good to you.

 

So, for you control enthusiasts (like us), until the paddle manufacturers come up with a diamond faced paddle (that would definitely be harder, but probably a tad more expensive), the graphite paddles will be the best for you.

Keep us posted on your pickleball progress on the Pickleball Facebook page.  We look forward to hearing the success stories.

Pickleball Rocks!

Rocket

Humble but unashamed product plug:  The Magnum Graphite and the Blaster Graphite are both available at great prices at PickleballShopping.com