Aiken Pickleball News

Aiken Outdoor League play got off to a great start this evening as eight teams played four outdoor mixed doubles matches, best of 3, played to 11, win by 2. Matches start at 630pm and are played every Thursday evening, outside at the Virginia Acres Park fourteen court facility. Bring a chair and come watch. For more information check out the League tab on the main menu above.

 

Click here to sign up for the tournament.  Draws are starting to fill.

There will also be a juniors tournament the same day.  Click here to register for the juniors.

 

The minutes for the Leadership Team Meeting held on July 10th, at Gregg Park have been posted. Items discussed were - Floors at Smith-Hazel; feedback from highly successful Summer Smash at Gregg Park: Creation of League for play - Mixed Doubles 3.0 & 3.5 - on Thursday evenings outside at Odell Weeks: Palmetto tournament: need for some additional volunteers as court monitors and much more.  Go to Forums or Click here to read the full report.  

 

 

If you are trying to make a court reservations or change an old one and you get the message "ACCESS CODE REQUIRED", it is probably sometime between 6pm  Wednesday evening and  8am Thursday morning.  That is when the Signup Genius is locked down for maintenance.  During this time the new court reservations for the following week are being added.  So be patient - you do not need a code - you just need to wait until 8am on Thursday when the SUG will be reopened.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The minutes for the Leadership Team Meeting held on June 13th, at the Aiken County Library, have been posted.  Go to Forums or Click here to read the full report.  

 

 

Want to know if anyone is playing outside this evening? Easy to find out - just download the application TeamReach. It's free! Go to Google or Apple, type in TeamReach and just follow the instructions to download the app. Once you are in the group you want to join is Outdoor Pickleball @ Odell Open Play. Code to Join: OUTSIDE7 This will give you access to a group of over sixty Aiken pickleball players who are also looking for someone to play with. Special thanks to Kiss Gunther for setting this up.

 

Aiken Pickleball Inc is hosting a free New Player Clinic indoors at the Gregg Park Civic Center on Saturday,  July 8th.  Click here to sign up.   Schedule as follows:

830 - 9am - Check-in at front desk

9 - 10am  - New Players Clinic Instruction

10 - 11am -  Practice Play

In this sixty minute clinic you will learn everything you need to get started playing the sport of pickleball.  Please wear tennis shoes and athletic attire, and bring something to drink.  Balls and paddles provided. Class limited to eight.  

Go online to AikenPickleball.com and click on the “Sign-ups/New player clinic at GPCC” tab on the main menu to reserve a slot.  The clinic is free.  Non-members are welcome to attend but must  pay a  $10 daily facility fee.

 

Our new teaching instructor, Lisa Barrett-Johnson, a.k.a. LBJ,  is offering a series of eight  Drills with LBJ every Wednesday evening from 6-730 pm, starting June 28th,  at Gregg Park.   Drills will be a different stroke each session using a ball machine to feed while LBJ instructs on proper technique.  Wait list available.    Click here to sign up.   Schedule for first four drills as follows:

June 28 -  Many Happy returns… Practice returning serve, where to return, why we hit certain returns and their effectiveness. Wait list available.

July 5 -  “LOB-ster”  A session of practicing lobs and why it’s a great shot to have. Wait list available.

July 12 -   Overheads - Why they don’t always have to be bullets! Wait list.

July 19 -   3rd shot drop.  Practicing the third shot drop and why it’s such a dang good shot. Wait list.

Cost is $15 per person per session. Each session is 90 minutes limited to a maximum of six players, minimum of three.  Payment should be made at the Gregg Park front desk.  The receipt must be presented to the instructor at the time of the drills.  Non-members are welcome to attend but they must also pay a $10 daily facility fee.   Note - Annual membership at Gregg Park is  $20 for Seniors (Age 65 & up) and $65 for Adults (Age 23-64) .

If you sign up but are a no show and do not pay - you will be prohibited from signing for any further sessions in this series. 
 

 

Aiken Pickleball lost a great friend yesterday. Nelson Swartzentruber passed away yesterday after battling a rare form of leukemia. Click here for his obituary.

Nelson you are going to be missed.

 

Lisa Barrett-Johnson, a.k.a. LBJ, is our new certified teaching instructor at Gregg Park effective June 1st, 2023.  In a couple of weeks, Lisa will be offering  Drills with LBJ on Wednesday evenings from 6-7pm at Gregg Park.  Separate news article to follow with more details and info on how to sign up.  She will also be available for lessons at Odell Weeks on Tuesday and Saturday afternoons.  For more information, to see a photo and contact details select Read more

A new transplant to the south (six years) and a former Wall Street trader from New York, Lisa came to Georgia as a longtime tennis instructor. The first day she saw a group playing pickleball she was hooked. The rest is history, as they say .

Certified to teach for over four years and an avid pickleball tournament participant,  Lisa has won over 75 medals in the past few years.  With a love of the sport and a penchant for exercise (a ten time marathon participant) she is super excited to be teaching at Odell Weeks and Gregg Park, and looks forward to bringing back some laughter to the sport!   Her focus is on strategy, how to be defensive, and turning defense to offense. She feels you don’t have to be the best person on the court, you have to be the smartest!   

 LBJ will  assist Mo with New Players Clinics at Odell Weeks and conduct her own New Players Clinics at Gregg Park.   Email address is lisabarrettjohnson002@gmail.com 

 

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