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Ben Johns

Takeaways 

MLP Columbus 2025 – 5 Takeaways – Can Anyone Catch the Flash and the Shock?

May 6, 2025May 7, 2025 admin 1 Comment Ben Johns, major league pickleball, mlp, pickleball, ppa, pro pickleball, Pro Pickleball Assocation

It has been a fascinating start to the MLP season as the first two weekends were overshadowed by incidents involving

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News Opinion 

What Ben Johns and the Eye-Gate Debacle Tells Us About the UPA’s Investment in MLP

May 4, 2025May 4, 2025 admin 21 Comments Ben Johns, major league pickleball, pickleball, ppa, pro pickleball, Pro Pickleball Assocation

Drama is good for the sport of the pickleball. Storylines that go beyond the on-court action is what keeps a

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Random Thoughts 

MLP Columbus 2025 – Live-ish Random Thoughts

May 1, 2025May 4, 2025 admin 14 Comments Ben Johns, major league pickleball, mlp

It’s a weird feeling having an MLP event on back-to-back weeks. We did have this last year when the first

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Takeaways 

MLP Orlando 2025 – 3 Takeaways – Predictably Predictable

April 30, 2025May 1, 2025 admin 1 Comment Ben Johns, major league pickleball, mlp, pickleball, pro pickleball, Pro Pickleball Assocation

The season opening MLP event in Orlando felt like it had more going on than any MLP event we have

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Opinion Previews 

The 9 Biggest Questions Heading into MLP’s First Event of 2025

April 23, 2025 admin 1 Comment Ben Johns, major league pickleball, mlp, pickleball, pro pickleball

We are unabashedly proponents of the team format being the best format to watch in pro pickleball. That has not

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Takeaways 

PPA Tour North Carolina Open – 6 Takeaways – First Half Review

April 10, 2025 admin 3 Comments Anna Leigh Waters, Ben Johns, major league pickleball, pickleball, ppa, pro pickleball, Pro Pickleball Assocation, Tyson McGuffin

It’s only April but the new division of the schedule between PPAs and MLPs means that the first half of

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Opinion Takeaways 

PPA Tour Texas Open – 2 Takeaways (plus a Bonus MLP Trade Takeaway!) – Wind in the Heart of Texas

March 18, 2025 admin 2 Comments Anna Leigh Waters, Ben Johns, major league pickleball, mlp, pickleball, ppa, ppa tour, pro pickleball, Pro Pickleball Assocation, pro pickleball association

We are already getting to that point in the pickleball season where events are bleeding into each other. We had

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Opinion 

MLP 2025 Premier Draft Grades

March 3, 2025 admin 14 Comments Anna Leigh Waters, Ben Johns, major league pickleball, pickleball, ppa, ppa tour, pro pickleball, Pro Pickleball Assocation, Tyson McGuffin

Another year. Another draft. It was more of a reset considering the tenuous keeper situation that was created by MLP, which

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Takeaways 

PPA Tour Mesa Cup – 5 Takeaways – Is Ben Johns Washed?

February 24, 2025February 26, 2025 admin 6 Comments Anna Leigh Waters, Ben Johns, major league pickleball, pickleball, ppa, ppa tour, pro pickleball, Pro Pickleball Assocation

Recency bias be damned, this had to be one of the best PPA events in the history of the tour.

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Opinion 

MLP 2025 Offseason Premier Trade and Keeper Grades

February 19, 2025February 20, 2025 admin 13 Comments Anna Leigh Waters, Ben Johns, major league pickleball, pickleball, ppa, ppa tour, pro pickleball, Pro Pickleball Assocation, Tyson McGuffin

For the first time in MLP’s history, we finally have some continuity. Kind of. With the league’s new keeper system,

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Recent Posts

  • Is Pro Pickleball Heading for Burnout? Rethinking the Tour Style Model of UPA’s Current Structure
  • NML’s 2026 MLP Draft Grades (Part 2) – Bottom of the Class
  • NML’s 2026 MLP Draft Grades (Part 1) – Top of the Class
  • PPA Tour 2026 Newport Beach Open – 5 Takeaways – Greatness is Consistency
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Have Your Say!

  1. admin on Is Pro Pickleball Heading for Burnout? Rethinking the Tour Style Model of UPA’s Current StructureApril 13, 2026

    We are about to both play the amatuer events in Sacramento and have never both done one together so we’re…

  2. admin on Is Pro Pickleball Heading for Burnout? Rethinking the Tour Style Model of UPA’s Current StructureApril 13, 2026

    The lack of difference between events seems like a big contributor to this

  3. Dan Beeman on Is Pro Pickleball Heading for Burnout? Rethinking the Tour Style Model of UPA’s Current StructureApril 13, 2026

    I just got done playing 2 hours of really fun pickleball with friends on our local courts. While I am…

  4. Deb Waldin on Is Pro Pickleball Heading for Burnout? Rethinking the Tour Style Model of UPA’s Current StructureApril 13, 2026

    I stopped watching PB tournaments a year ago because…watching Anna Leigh win every single time got very old. Good for…

  5. Is Pro Pickleball Heading for Burnout? Rethinking the Tour Style Model of UPA’s Current Structure – NML Pickleball on Winners and Losers of 2025 in Pro PickleballApril 13, 2026

    […] our 2025 Winners and Losers column, we wrote that the new schedule for pro pickleball, with the MLP season…

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