- The Drop
- Posts
- 2024 Winter Leagues!
In This Issue…
📜 The Leif Ericson Community needs your help
🥊 Winter League Pre-registration is now open
🙌🏼 NYC MLP Finals tomorrow night
🧊 What to do if you’re iced out of a game (or targeted)
Plan Ahead: Monday showers and high winds, followed by a mostly sunny week in the low 40s, ending in the 50s Friday and Saturday. Perfect week for pickling!
Forward this to your favorite NYC pickleballers to keep them in the loop!
Help the Leif Ericson Community get more courts
If you live in Brooklyn and haven’t been to the Leif Ericson Pickleball Courts, you’re missing out. It’s a tight-knit, but welcoming community with 4 dedicated courts. They occasionally break out lights, music, and even the occasional grill to keep the pickling going on throughout the night.
Leif Ericson’s Halloween Gathering @leif_ericson_pickleball_club on IG
Their community has grown to the point where 4 courts isn’t nearly enough to sustain them, especially during the busy summers. They’ve started a petition to ask the Parks Department to create some lines on the adjacent tennis courts. There is a lot of room for debate over adding multi-use lines to tennis courts, but hopefully this petition can at least bring attention to the pent up demand for more courts.
NYC Pickleball 2024 Winter Leagues 🙌🏼
It has been a year since we first started our leagues and we’re so happy to announce that we’re back in 2024. We have 4 distinct levels currently available at Major Owens Community Center that will each run for 7 weeks:
Our advanced beginner registration is officially open now! The rest of the leagues are currently open for pre-registration so that we can check for level qualifications. Please read the description of each event carefully for details schedule, format, and pricing, and how you can qualify for any given league.
In addition to ladder leagues, we are planning some developmental leagues for players who feel like they’ve hit a plateau, as well as more short formed MLP format leagues. If you want more information, feel free to email us at [email protected]
Indoor programming this week
Open Plays:
Sunday 12/10: Queer Pickle! 3:00-5:00 PM (Crown Heights)
Monday 12/11: Low Intermediate 7:30-9:30 AM
Wednesday 12/13: Low Intermediate 7:30-9:30 AM
Thursday 12/14: Advanced 7:00-9:00 AM
Friday 12/15: High Intermediate 7:00-9:00 AM
Drill Sessions:
Monday 12/11 Intermediate drill session from 8:00-10:00 AM in Bedstuy
NYC MLP Finals tomorrow night
Tomorrow night we have the semi-finals and finals of our MLP League
We have the Top seeded Tribeca Pickle Mecca vs LGA Legends and Battery Park Ballers vs 5 Borough Bobcats. Check out the AI generated team logos that we’ve embraced (misspellings and all). Credit to Olenka O. for the amazing prompt to generate these.
The semi-finals begin at 7 PM in Crown Heights. Follow along the livestream @nyc_pickleball on IG.
 (1) Tribeca Pickle Mecca vs. |  (4) LGA Legends |
 (2) Battery Park Ballers vs. |  (3) 5 Borough Bobcats |
What to do if you’re iced out of a game?
Youtuber Pickleburner has quickly become one of our favorite content creators. His videos often focus on breaking down common situations in high level amateur rec play that can help you elevate your game to the next level.
His most recent video discusses what to do if you are playing a game, but you are being avoided like the plague. We have all been there - you drop in at an open play and after a few points, the other players identify you as the strongest player on the court. Yes, it can be very frustrating to be iced out, but if you can learn to put pressure on the other team and take up a little more court space, you can still find ways to influence the outcome of the game even without hitting the ball every point. This video is also helpful for those who may find themselves playing up in level, and are being heavily targeted. Where you hit the ball can dictate what the opponents can and cannot do, and how you set up you and your partner for success.
Note - while these strategies are easier to apply with a partner you’re used to communicating and playing with, a true sign of a skilled and mature player is if they can communicate these strategies to anyone, whether you’re the iced out or the targeted player. A little self-awareness goes a long way!
Do you watch pro pickleball?If yes, which organization is your favorite? |