⚡ The Fastest Pickleball Serve — 72 mph, Crocs, and comment-section chaos
🏆 Pickleball Has Arrived — CBS viewership numbers that change everything
🔪🪝✌️ Three Backhand ATPs — knife, hook, two-hand… pick your weapon
⚡ Faster Hands, Crosscourt — the drill I didn’t know I needed
🇻🇳 Vietnam Pickleball Diaries — heat, spin, and a whole new speed

Let’s get to it!

Don’t let me explain this one.

Just go watch it.

It clocks 72 mph, which immediately sent the comments into chaos.

Tennis players rushed in to remind us their serves hit 140–150 mph.
Others debated legality.
Some roasted the outfit.
A surprising number focused on the Crocs.

Here’s my take:

A 72 mph serve on a court half the length of a tennis court is, IMO, impressive.

Quick math (no PhD required):
That’s basically the chaos equivalent of a 144 mph tennis serve.

All I know is:
• It looked legit
• It looked brutal to return
• And now I desperately want to know how fast my serve is

I do own the Boomstick.
I do not own Crocs.
Unclear which matters more.

Which means I clearly need a speed gun.

For pickleball, obviously.
But also to check how fast my chickens can run…
whether the odometer on my electric bike is lying to me…
and I’m sure I’ll find many other extremely important uses.

Now, go read the comments.
They’re half the fun. 🏓😏

This past weekend marked a historic moment for professional pickleball.

Championship Sunday on CBS delivered:
• 1.05M peak viewers
• 791K average viewers

The largest pickleball broadcast ever.

And here’s the part that really matters:
this wasn’t a fluke.

Professional pickleball outperformed several mainstream sports in the same weekend time slot — including NBA games, Premier League soccer, and men’s and women’s NCAA basketball.

Let that sink in.

Pickleball isn’t “emerging” anymore.
It’s here.

What I love most about this moment isn’t just the numbers — it’s what they represent:
• sustained growth
• real audience demand
• and a sport that’s finally being taken seriously on gold-standard networks

This kind of momentum doesn’t happen overnight. It’s built on community, belief, incredible athletes, and a lot of people pushing the sport forward behind the scenes.

And if this is what “early stages” looks like?

The future is ridiculously bright. 🏓✨

I just learned something new:
there are three different types of backhand ATPs.

Who knew?

This reel breaks them down as:
• the Knife ATP
• the Hook ATP (his #1 pick)
• the Two-Handed ATP

And the guy in the video casually pulls what looks like a no-look ATP, which “looked” extremely legit.

If you were only practicing “an ATP” up to this point…
you can thank me for adding a few more styles to your quiver.

Now, Lance (my husband), loves going for the ATP — even when the geometry feels… optimistic.

I’m learning to respect the confidence, or at least remind myself that he’s learning when they don’t work.

And honestly?

He’s landing more and more of them, which already puts him miles ahead of me — I still default to lobs whenever I get pulled wide.

I need to start hunting ATPs as religiously as I stalk Ernies.

So I’m curious 👇
Which backhand ATP are you using the most — knife, hook, or two-handed?

Or are you like me and just now realizing there are levels to this we haven’t unlocked yet?

I’m always hunting faster hands.

And after playing in Vietnam this week — more on that later — let’s just say the speed-ups I’m seeing are coming out of nowhere. Blink and it’s already past you. No warning. No tells. Just bang.

Which is why this drill immediately caught my attention.

I’ve done plenty of fast-hands drills… but almost always straight across the net.
This one?
Crosscourt.

Watch the reel here 👇

What I liked about it:
• The visual box was a nice touch
• Elbows stay in, swings stay compact
• It forces you to react in different directions — not just straight ahead

And the comments sold me even more. Multiple higher-level players chimed in saying this exact drill noticeably improved their hand speed — and that it’s easy enough to sneak into warm-ups.

That’s my favorite kind of drill:
Simple.
Repeatable.
Immediately useful.

So yes — this is officially going on my drill list.
If faster hands are on your wishlist too, this one’s worth a look.

Let me know if you’ve tried it.

I finally did it.

I played pickleball in Vietnam — and it’s been an absolute blast.

I was told by Chris and Susie Harradine (of U.S. Pickleball Camps, RacketPro + the CoEBRA coaching program) that if I wanted the highest level play in Ho Chi Minh City, I needed to go to 002 Pickleball Club.

They were right.

Chris, Susie, and Collin Johns were actually here a few weeks ago, training the coaches, so I knew I was walking into something special.

First surprise: ratings mean something different here

I almost skipped the “2.5” open play… until Stella (who helps run the club) explained:

Vietnam 3.0 ≈ Malaysia 3.5 ≈ USA 4.0+

She was not kidding.

Their “2.5” felt like 3.5

and their “3.0” felt like a solid 4.25–4.5 back home. Fast hands, heavy spin, and zero freebies.

Tonight, I’m playing with the “3.5s”, which should feel like 5.0+ (hope I don’t get my butt kicked, but they all told me to come and that I’m “Good Player”).

Second surprise: the style of play

So much spin.
So many disguised speed-ups.
So many “how did that just happen?” moments.

A lot of players here come from table tennis and badminton, and it shows. The reflexes are lightning-quick, the attacks come out of nowhere, and the ball does things you don’t expect.

Imagine if Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee played pickleball. . . that’s what it feels like... Respectfully disorienting.

Third surprise: open play done right

What really impressed me was how open play is run.

Instead of paddles up and hoping for the best, Boko (one of the facility managers) orchestrates the courts — matching players, rotating teams, and making sure the games stay competitive.

Honestly? This is how open play should be, so you don’t get lame games.

And the best part?

We don’t speak the same language — but it doesn’t matter because we all speak pickleball. In fact, they were all kind enough to keep score for me in English (even though sometimes I couldn’t understand if they were saying 5 or 9, or 6/7).

I’ve squeezed in 10+ hours of play the past 3 days, made new friends, and learned some new tricks I can’t wait to try back home.

I’m sad to be leaving — and incredibly grateful I got to share the court with my Vietnamese pickleball people. 🏓🌍

From pickleball officially flexing on mainstream sport, to leveling up your ATP game…

If this edition had you rethinking your serve speed, your shot selection, or how universal pickleball really is — send it to a partner who appreciates both skill and story.

If this landed in your inbox via a friend, hit subscribe so you don’t miss next week’s drop…

Until next week…
may your serves bring chaos, your hands stay fast, and your pickleball adventures take you farther than you ever expected.

— Janelle 🏓✨

P.S. I could stay in Vietnam longer — work, workouts, and nonstop pickleball is a hard life to leave.

I’m missing my man (and my chickens, cat, and kids—not in that order, of course)… but next stop is New Zealand 🇳🇿.

Paddle packed. Lance meeting me there.
No clue what the pickleball scene is like — but I’ll report back. 🏓✨