🤷‍♀️ The Most Relative Concept in Pickleball — line calls, truth, and pure chaos
🎯 The Short-Shot Sorcery I Need — getting puppeteered into fixing my game
📝 The Modern Third-Shot Drop Cheatsheet — every drop that actually matters
🥞 The Vietnamese Pancake — the compact counter I’m stealing immediately
💸 Elon’s $1 Pickleball Courts — plus Baby Elon with a paddle, because why not

Let’s get to it!

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This reel from @thepickleballclinic had me laughing because… yeah.
Pickleball line calls might be the purest example of “it depends” in the entire universe.

Philosophers spend centuries arguing whether truth is absolute or relative.
Pickleball settles it in 0.2 seconds.

It’s all perspective.

One angle says the ball is clearly out.
Another angle says it’s clearly in.
Sometimes you swear you just got ripped off.
Other times, you feel like your shot was out, and are pleasantly surprised when the other team calls it in (guess they had a better angle).

Then there are those players and times when line calls seem to depend entirely upon whether the other team is winning or losing

That’s why this reel is so funny. It’s painfully accurate.

Watch it and tell me if you recognize yourself, your partner, and at least three other people from league.

This week I ran into a player who absolutely owned me with the short shot. Full puppet-master mode.
Yes, Cameron — I’m talking about you.

I’d drive it?
He’d just slice it into the kitchen like it was nothing.

I’d expect the soft one?
He’d punch it right back at my feet.

And the disguises… savage. You’d swear he was going deep, then boom — perfect feathered short. Try to protect against the short ball and he sends it deep behind you. It felt like he had the remote control to my movement.

This wasn’t just the fourth-shot magic I shared last week (if you missed that, here’s the link). Cameron can place any ball in a way that leaves you out of position and second-guessing everything.

So when I stumbled on this YouTube short, the part that grabbed me was simple:
how to block a drive short or deep on command.

My default answer to everything is just… hit it deep. Keep them back.
But that’s exactly why players like Cameron can eat you alive.

I need the short-shot option. The one that steals time, steals positioning, and ends points because your opponent is stuck on their heels waiting for depth.

Here’s the tutorial if you want to see the tips for nailing the short shot counter:

Thanks to Cameron, I’m officially on a mission. I want to disguise depth, drop balls short on command, and turn my opponents into puppets.

Next week I’m diving into every short-shot, soft-block, and depth-disguise tutorial I can find.

Full report coming in the next Five Dink Friday.

Because I want to be as deadly as Cameron.

I stumbled on a fantastic Briones Pickleball Academy tutorial this week that breaks down every major third-shot drop and exactly when to use it.

I’m a drive-and-drip girl at heart, but every so often I run into someone who can handle — or punish — both. So when I found this video, my brain went: yes, this is the homework I need. More tools, more options, more ways to make people miserable.

Definitely watch it so you can see the technique in action.

And because I wanted something I could actually reference, study, and drill, I made a clean little cheatsheet. I figured you might be able to use it too.

The “short return fixer.”

When to use it:
• Short or shallow returns
• When you're reaching forward and low
• As a 5th-shot drop after a drive

Keys:
• Wrist locked
• Lead with your hand
• Stable feet

More pressure, more margin, more nasty.

When to use it:
• Higher-bouncing returns
• After a drive
• Anytime you want the ball dipping at their feet

Keys:
• Eastern-ish grip
• Paddle head below the ball
• Brush up

Floaty, spinny, crosscourt magic.

When to use it:
• Lower balls
• Extension reaches
• 3rd or 5th shot
• Best crosscourt

Keys:
• Closed stance
• Big knee bend
• Laid-back wrist at ~45 degrees

Aggressive cousin — dipping and attacking.

When to use it:
• Returner sprinting to NVZ
• Shake-and-bake setups
• Line or crosscourt

Keys:
• Early prep
• 60–70% swing
• Brush up through the ball

Your “buy time, survive, get to the kitchen” essential.

When to use it:
• After your drive gets blocked back
• Deep, penetrating returns
• When stretched wide or back

Keys:
• Hinge/cup the wrist
• Small backswing
• Shoulder-driven motion
• Hands ready — the ball will sit up

Which of these drops do you already trust in real matches?

Reply and tell me what you’ve mastered — or which one you’re adding to your drilling list.

I fell into this reel earlier this week and immediately thought: yep… adding this to the drilling list.

They call it the Vietnamese Pancake, but it’s basically a super-compact forehand counter that sends the ball straight down at your opponent’s feet. Think punch-volley meets scorpion… but cleaner, smaller, and way easier to repeat under pressure.

And if you’ve ever watched Riley Newman do his signature forehand counter?
Yeah. Same family of violence.

This coach breaks it down beautifully, and the mechanics are exactly what I need right now:
• firm wrist
• tiny elbow extension
• paddle out front
• dart-throw / beer-pong position
• and a trajectory that dips instead of floats

This is the stuff I want on my counters. No giant swing. No guessing. Just compact, controlled heat.

I’m telling you, if you want more deadly, downward counters — drill this. The tutorial is excellent.

Watch it a couple times, then go ruin someone’s day with it.

One-dollar pickleball courts? That’s hero behavior.

Elon’s Boring Company opened a plaza in Bastrop County, TX, and tucked inside the coffee shop–pub–bodega mashup, he added pickleball courts that rent for $1/hour.

Whether you love the guy, hate the guy, or just tolerate the chaos he creates on the internet, you have to respect this move.

The man is out here building rockets, AI, tunnels under cities… and apparently subsidized pickleball.

You know what this means. . . one day there will be pickleball on Mars!

💥 That’s it for this week’s Five Dink Friday!

If you laughed or learned something new you can actually use on the court, forward this to a partner who loves adding fresh shots to their game.

If this was forwarded to you, hit subscribe so you don’t miss next week’s drop — especially if you’re ready to level up those drops, counters, and short shots with me.

Until next week — here’s a sign off from pickleball baby Elon

—Janelle

P.S. If you have no idea who or what baby Elon is (or Baby Trump, Baby Obama, Baby Hilary, etc.), you’ll thank me later for introducing you to these hilarious AI videos (ENJOY):