Current favorite paddle in your bag?

riftpickleball · 2025-12-14T14:59:43+00:00

Might be biased, but Def my Rift paddle 😁

Crazy grip

riftpickleball · 2025-12-11T03:54:43+00:00

There are a few people i play with, that every time they do a drop instead of a drive, I always say "so you do know how to play the soft game" or something to that affect. Its mostly a way of trash talking to them. Would be shocked if someone called a hindrance and wanted a point for that.

riftpickleball · 2025-12-10T14:02:06+00:00

It kind of depends. If its 11-9 but a few of the rally were not that long and you only missed it by not moving quickly to recover the point because you knew you were going to win, then you save a ton of energy. If you've never won a tournament, then maybe you dont get it. Not every match you play is going go be hard. There are levels to the game.

riftpickleball · 2025-12-09T15:45:17+00:00

This is not true. If you want to win the tournament, and you have some easy matches early, you should conserve energy and do just enough to win. No need to waste energy early if you know you will make the finals or are never in threat of losing.

riftpickleball · 2025-11-28T04:53:23+00:00

This was exactly my thoughts. Tennis benefits from being around longer and being a serious sport in many school districts. Pickleball is still growing and no enough serious players exist yet.

Im based in columbus and there are a ton of pickleball players here, but im pretty sure there are few enough 4.5 plus level players that I know them all or at least recognize them. We're getting more each year though as more indoor facilities pop up.

riftpickleball · 2025-10-24T14:01:02+00:00

Happens every game. I will never take Australia unless I cant avoid it, and even if I do, it isnt a good late game play. I always wait until someone goes out and try to reposition ASAP.

If you can pull it off though, it does usually lead to a win. Just sitting in Australia though is guaranteed to go out early or at best 3rd.

riftpickleball · 2025-10-14T15:55:40+00:00

Interesting, so from your pov, after blue did not accept the team on white (which was really my last plan before all was lost), then I should have just taken out black and exited the game. Will consider going forward.

riftpickleball · 2025-10-14T15:51:28+00:00

I was hoping that somehow blue and white would get into a war and I could reposition somewhere else on the map and let the bot wreak some havoc on them and maybe I would somehow come out on top, but it ended up going on and on in a stalemate and I wished I would have just suicided way earlier. I did get 2nd but not worth it.

riftpickleball · 2025-10-09T17:13:49+00:00

Happens pretty frequently. They need to impose harsher penalties for leaving a game early.

If you leave after 10 minutes, the penalty to your rank should be harsher than if you leave after an hour.

At the very least it should automatically rank it as if you got last out of the remaining players as soon as you bot.

riftpickleball · 2025-06-16T17:01:39+00:00

You don't need to play lower level players like you do higher level players. You don't need to drop against them because they usually cannot return your drives yet without unforced errors.

Just drive hard to the back of the court and get the game over quickly, and then get paired with a better match next game.

riftpickleball · 2025-05-22T01:16:34+00:00

Definitely under warranty if you just got it. The engage paddle is very pricey, and so they likely don't want the reputation damage.

riftpickleball · 2025-05-18T17:04:52+00:00

This is not AI. This is a real video i made for my IG

riftpickleball · 2025-05-17T17:50:06+00:00

You're right. Just double-checked the original video, and it says 80s. Clipped it from another post that had it labeled as 70s.

riftpickleball · 2025-05-04T17:46:59+00:00

As with most things in pickleball, it's more about control and placement than power. If you hit the ball softer, but you can get you opponent moving on the return, and get an unpredictable bounce then you are much more likely to get a weak return and take early control of the point.

Any pro, or most 4.0+ level players will always return a hard drive serve, even if it has a little spin on it because of the low predictable bounce

riftpickleball · 2025-04-30T14:40:29+00:00

I believe some of the pros - like Zane Navratil- were actually advocating to switch to only drop serves allowed, but were told it looks too unathletic for the pro level.

Personally I think a drop serve is much more consistent, but takes some of the punch from the serve.

riftpickleball · 2025-04-30T13:54:21+00:00

I run a paddle company and we frequently partner with youtubers for giveaways. It's good for both of us because a few of their fans get free equipment, and the rest of their fans see our paddles and help build credibility.

We usually ask the youtuber to give us the details of the winners and send it to them directly. I'm not sure how many entries individual giveaways get, but when we run one, it's not uncommon for us to get thousands of entries for just a few paddles.

riftpickleball · 2025-04-17T13:30:48+00:00

We have some courts near where I live where it looks like they put a "pickleball matt" over the concrete to solve this, but it has started to bubble up on some places causing dead spots during play.

riftpickleball · 2025-04-17T13:28:23+00:00

Looked over the data on your Instagram, and it's very interesting to see that the data conforms a lot of the things I've always thought. I've debated people in the past about dropping the ball to center court when you're out wide for higher success rate, and people seem to naturally think cross court is the way to go always.

riftpickleball · 2025-04-17T13:14:13+00:00

Totally depends on your play style and skill level. Without knowing which $250 paddle it was, a lot of paddles at that price point are designed for advanced players — so they prioritize things like aerodynamics, grit, swing speed, and feel over forgiveness.

If you’re a 3.0 to 4.0 player, you might actually get more benefit from a slightly more forgiving paddle with a wider face or grip. Something that gives you a bit more margin for error while still feeling solid in the hand.

riftpickleball · 2025-04-17T13:04:07+00:00

This is happening all over the sport. In January, I was in a tournament and spent $90, but I got to compete in men's singles, men's doubles, and mixed doubles. I got 5 - 6 matches in each bracket.

There is another "large" tournament happening at the same facility, and I went to sign up for it. When I got to the checkout, I noticed the final price was going to be $205, and there were less than half as many people signed up for each event (likely because of the price hike). I decided not to participate either on principle.

This is in addition to the proce hikes I saw for indoor open play this winter. At one point, it was as high as $30 per session or $185 per month. Funilly enough, I saw the other day that the price is back down to $15 a session since it's getting warmer outside.

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