As the video points out, many players do not set up properly to get the most power from their backhand. They have their body facing the net squarely which leaves primarily an arm motion to generate the power.
Watch Mark Renneson, founder of Third Shot Pickleball, explain a much better way to create power using a backhand stroke.
Video via Third Shot Sports, Canada
“We have this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand… and melting like a snowflake. Let us use it while it offers its best.[ed]” — Marie Beyon Ray
“Nobody got anywhere in the world by simply being content.” — Louis L’Amour
“I have learned [more] from my dogs than from all the great books I have read. The wisdom of my dog is the product of his inability to conceal his wants. There are no games. No professor told me that I might live a more successful life if I simply ask for love…when I needed it.” — Gerry Spence, trial lawyer
“If it’s sent by ship then it’s a cargo, if it’s sent by road then it’s a shipment.” — Dave Allen
This spring/summer has been an unusual one for our desert garden especially our front landscape. We have a good number of agaves in our front yard. Agaves are sharp-leaved plants that need little water so they do very well in arid places and the Sonoran desert is no exception.
Once in their lifetime agaves send out a flower stalk which we refer to as a spike. The spike flowers and then produces bulbils (plantlets) or seeds. Once the process is complete, the mother plant dies. Before the plant dies, however, it generally produces other plants which are called pups.
We moved into our home and several agaves were already in place and then we added additional species. Each agave species or type flowers according to their own timetable and if you were planting a bunch of agaves from the same species, you would want to purchase them at different stages of growth so they don’t all spike at once and end up dying at the same time.
Here is what our landscape looks like now…
Can you see all the spikes? Just in case you can’t see them all, here they are numbered…
Yes we have seven spikes all at the same time. As I indicated above, these are not all the same type of agave and it just worked out that they spiked together.
We have one additional twist to the story. Among the agaves is a sotol (Dasylirion wheeleri) , or desert spoon (#4). They also send out a spike. One of the main differences is that the sotols don’t die after producing their spike. They continue with their life cycle. You can see that it looks quite different from the others. While we have at least three sotols, only one has sent out a spike this season.
Here is a close up of the one section and the sotol is a bit more noticeable (right of center).
We found this random occurrence unusual and it makes our landscape look a bit otherworldly with all those spikes in the air. What are your thoughts?
Read More:
Agaves
Arizona Municipal Water Users Association/a> – Click on a variety to see more detail
Here is a picture of a variegated agave ( Agave weberi ‘Arizona Star’) which adds an additional interest to the landscape
Sotol (desert spoon)
“The start is what stops most people.” — Don Shula
“Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” — Rumi
“Some are destined to succeed, some are determined to succeed.” — H. H. Swami Tejomayananda
“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.” — Maya Angelou
I wanted to follow up on a previous post about using Lightroom (LR) with JPG (JPEG) photos.
A friend was somewhat interested in learning about LR and she was wondering what effect LR would have on cell phone photographs. Quite frankly, that was a pretty good question since I had never used LR with photos taken on a cell phone.
Contemporary cell phones can produce images that are quite good and they do have some large files, but do they allow the kind of manipulation that our previous JPGs enabled?
My friend had a recent photo of her standard poodle that she wanted to improve. The original file is below. It is only 189 KB; not much data with which to work.
The other requirement was to spend no more than five minutes working on the file. If you read my previous post (Lightroom for JPEG (JPG) Images), you understand that I am not a LR expert and perhaps just a bit more than a novice, but I thought I would give it a try.
I am not saying the result was excellent, but I was able to recover some detail and darken the background to allow the dog to become the focal point. I could have used a vignette, but I did not think it would render as well.
While it may not be superb, I do think even a reduced size cell phone picture shows the benefits of being corrected in Lightroom. What do you think? Leave a comment below!
“Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.” — Meister Eckhart
“There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in something, you do it only when it’s convenient. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses; only results.” — Kenneth H. Blanchard
“What is possible is not defined by what is probable.” — Mark Sanborn
“Establishing goals is all right if you don’t let them deprive you of interesting detours.” — Doug Larson
We continue our series of personalized (vanity) license plates in Arizona. To maintain individual privacy, we try to show as little information about particular cars as possible as long as we can reveal the license plate.
NOTE – License plate photos may have been archived for quite some time. The years indicated on the registration stickers DO NOT necessarily reflect the current status of any given plate!
We hope you enjoy these PL8ATUDES!
“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” — Albert Einstein
“It isn’t enough to love, we must prove it.” — St. Therese of Lisieux
“What cannot be said is sometimes wept.” — Unknown
“A rooster crows only when it sees the light. Put him in the dark and he’ll never crow. I have seen the light and I’m crowing.” — Muhammad Ali
Do you know how many spaces on the Monopoly board are not for sale? C’mon…take a guess!
How many can you name?
Do you want to take a timed quiz to find out?
If so, visit this web page to test your knowledge!
Name the Spaces You Can’t Buy in Monopoly via Mental Floss – You will only have two minutes so be quick!
“You don’t need to attend every argument you’re invited to.” — Jeanne Rausch
“Trust because you are willing to accept the risk, not because it’s safe or certain.” — Anonymous
The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.” — Ashley Montagu
“The best way to find something you have lost is to buy a replacement.” — Ann Landers