Howdy. This is The Erne. We’re like the first drink on a weekend trip with your boys (or girls) - there’s nothing better than us.

Here’s what we've got today:

• Pickleball health benefits

• Minto 2023 US Open Championships

• Paddlegate drama continues

PICKLEBALL HEALTH BENEFITS

A study was recently published by researchers at the University of Manitoba in Canada, and the results are in: pickleball has some serious health benefits.

The experiment tracked 53 pickleball players using smart watches and other devices while the players played singles and doubles. The study found that participants spent over 70% of time in the “moderate to vigorous” heart rate zones.

Interestingly, the average heart rate for players playing singles and doubles were virtually identical at 111.6 and 111.5, respectively.

Overall this is great news for pickleballers of all ages, as our favorite sport clearly has tremendous health benefits 💪.

MINTO 2023 US OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS

The US Open Championships, the largest pickleball tournament in the world, concluded this past week in Naples, FL. This tournaments attracts thousands of both amateur and pro players.

The biggest winner of the tournament was Parris Todd. She won not 1, not 2, but 3 separate events, completing the 5th ever “Triple Crown” in pickleball history. She was able to dominate the women’s singles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles tournaments.

Aside from Parris, the biggest winner was Hunter Johnson, who won the men’s singles event gold medal over his brother…awkward.

Something to note with this tournament is that PPA contracted players were unable to compete, limiting the field to non-PPA only.

PADDLEGATE DRAMA CONTINUES

2023 is officially the year of paddle drama.

Recently, pro Lea Jansen accused pro Salome Devidze of using a delaminated paddle in one of their matches. She went so far as to request that Salome’s paddle be tested, which required it to be sent to a lab for testing.

Well, the results are in annnnnd, the paddle was not delaminated. Devidze posted the following to her instagram:

The jury is out on whether or not Jansen will apologize.

In other paddle news, we had our first ever live paddle disqualification. Jill Braverman and Sarah Ansboury were disqualified from the recent PPA event after their opponents requested a paddle review. This review deemed their paddles illegal, resulting in a disqualification.

As much as we love the drama of paddlegate, the pickleball world needs to figure out how to address this issue. It is frankly ridiculous the number of paddle reviews and confusion out there surrounding what even separates a legal from illegal paddle.

WHAT’S COOKING IN THE KITCHEN

• Dude Perfect announces MLP acquisition

• Pickleball courts vandalized in Massachusetts town

• 48 courts being added across Albuquerque

• Pensacola approves lease for ‘Project Pickle’

THE PICKLE JAR

Check out this court in Joshua Tree 🤤

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