In This Issue…
❌ Central Park Pickleball Courts Closed until Summer 2024
🥒 Pickleball Programming in Bed Stuy
🎉 2023 Public Courts in Review
📹 Accelerate your improvement by recording games

Plan Ahead: For what feels like the third winter in a row, we are being blessed with (or cursed?) warm weather for the holidays. The rest of the week we’ll see a range between mid-40s and mid-50s, before dropping to low 40s for the New Year weekend. Beware of some precipitation Wednesday evening bleeding into Thursday morning.

Forward this to your favorite NYC pickleballers to keep them in the loop!

Central Park is getting a facelift!

One of the oldest and most well-established pickleball communities is getting some well-deserved renovations in 2024. After months of conversations with the Central Park Conservancy, the Conservancy has agreed to fast-track the construction plan to finish construction on the currently used courts by the Summer of 2024 instead of 2025. This unfortunately means that the current courts will be closed for the first half of the new year. Luckily for Upper West Siders, Riverside Park (Teamreach code: RiversidePark) will continue to be there, as well as the Hudson River Park courts right behind Javits Center.

The news was shared via email to Conservancy subscribers:

“We now want to share the good news that we will be fast-tracking construction and completion of the existing multi-striped courts, with brand new athletic surfacing and striping, to be reopened in summer 2024! We have listened to the community and know how important these courts are, and we are doing everything possible to accommodate users while ensuring construction remains on track.” "

“Finally, the final plan for North Meadow includes two new regulation pickleball courts at the eastern end of the playing area. These two courts will not reopen in Summer 2024. They will be available upon project completion in spring 2025. This area is required to support other aspects of the larger construction. “

We look forward to seeing the new courts next year and want to applaud the local community leaders for working hand in hand with the Conservancy!

Programming this week:

We’ve got some great programming during the holiday week hosted by Brandon Martinez if you’re looking to get some pickling going:

Wednesday 12/27

Pickleball 101 Intro Clinic 8:30-10:00 AM: If you’ve been wanting to learn how to play, this is the session for you! (BedStuy)

Low Intermediate Open Play 7:30-9:30 AM (Crown Heights)

Thursday 12/28

Morning Drill Sessions 7:30-9:30 AM: The best way to start improving your game is focused drilling. We have an advanced beginner session and an intermediate session. (BedStuy)

Evening Open Play 6:00-8:00 PM: Separated by levels, Advanced Beginner court and Intermediate court. (BedStuy)

Friday 12/29

Morning Drill Sessions 7:30-9:30 AM: The best way to start improving your game is focused drilling. We have an advanced beginner session and an intermediate session. (BedStuy)

Evening Open Play 6:00-8:00 PM: Separated by levels, Advanced Beginner court and Intermediate court. (BedStuy)

Saturday 12/30

Evening Open Play 6:00-8:00 PM: Separated by levels, Advanced Beginner court and Intermediate court. (BedStuy)

Monday 1/1/2024

To ring in the new year, we’re having 3 hours of free open play to give people a chance to play in our BedStuy location. It’ll be a chance to see some old and new faces and get the new year started right.

You can see all events on the calendar here!

New public courts overview for 2023

This year, the Parks Department kicked it into high gear and delivered on several new pickleball projects across the city. 

Manhattan:

• Hell’s Kitchen Playground (48th and 8th) - 1 Court

• Carl Schurz Park (UES) - 3 Courts

• Riverside Park (UWS) - 5 Courts

• Houston & 6th (Greenwich Village) - 5 Courts

• JJ Walker Playground (The West Village) - 2 Courts

• Gotham Park (LES) - 1 Court

• Hudson River Park (Midtown West) - 4 Courts

• Vincent Albano Playground (Murray Hill) - 2 Courts (project will start later this month)

Total: 23

Queens:

• Crocheron Park (Bayside) - 6 Courts

• Archie Spigner Park (St Albans) - 4 Courts

Total:10

Brooklyn:

• Marine Park (Marine Park) - 8 Courts

• Washington Park (Parkslope) - 1 Court

• Lefi Ericsson Park (Sunset Park) - 4 Courts

Total: 13

Bronx:

• Riverdale Playground (Riverdale) - 1 Court

Total: 1

Staten Island:

• Skyline Playground - 4 Courts

Total: 4

That brings the total number of courts developed by the parks department to 51 in 2023. While most of these projects were replacing already existing courts so the net effect on the number of courts in the city is relatively neutral, it still is an encouraging sign that the city is taking strides in creating real dedicated space for pickleball. Many of these sites were originally DIY community-created locations, so one of the best ways to help expedite the city is to find underutilized spaces and turn them into a community gathering spot. Invite local community board members to play. Eventually, the Parks Department will have to take notice.

Did we miss any? Respond to this email and let us know.

Record your games to get to the next level

We all know that in theory, recording and watching yourself play can help you understand various holes in your game. In practice though, setting up the equipment, editing the video, marking different time stamps, and analyzing the play can feel very intimidating and time-consuming.

Enter PB Vision

I’ve seen demos of what the PB Vision team has been working on on the r/pickleball subreddit since early 2023, but more recently, they’ve taken their project to a whole new level.

The first feature they developed was a “Just the rallies” feature where they’ll take a game you upload, and edit out all the dead space between points, taking a 15 minute video and condensing it into a 9 minute video. You can also edit that down further to just some highlights.

The next feature that they have added are some insights about the depth of your serves and returns and thirds, as well as general game stats like average shots per rally. Check out this demo video here.

It’s pretty incredible that these insights can be generated automatically, and we’re very excited to see what they can do in the future.

Let us know what insights you’d like to see analyzed!