About PickleTip: Real Coaching, Real Courts, Real Results

On a humid spring evening in New Orleans, we watched a nervous beginner step onto the pickleball court for the first time. Feet glued to the baseline, white-knuckled grip, eyes darting between the Kitchen line and the back fence, they whispered the same thing we hear every week: “I’ve read so much, but none of it makes sense once the point starts.” That moment, more than any ranking or medal, explains why PickleTip exists.

PickleTip is a pickleball education project built on a simple promise: every concept we publish has been tested with real players, in real sessions, on real courts. We are not here to chase trends or traffic; we are here to help you think better on the court, one decision and one rally at a time.

PickleTip distills live coaching sessions, tournament experience, and hundreds of paddle tests into clear, actionable ideas that any player can put to work in their next game.

Picture this: you walk onto the court with a game plan instead of a collection of random tips, you know why your paddle works for your style, and you can explain your strategy to a new partner in one sentence. That is the type of clarity we want every PickleTip reader to feel.

• PickleTip: A pickleball education and review site focused on strategy, paddle testing, and real-world coaching insight.
• AJ Parfait: An IPTPA Level 2 instructor and 4.8+ rated competitor who coaches players across New Orleans, Metairie, and the Gulf South.
• Sid Parfait: The co-founder of PickleTip and director of the New Orleans Pickleball Club, focused on DUPR sessions, clinics, and community building.
• New Orleans Pickleball Club: A local community hub that connects players to ratings, clinics, and events across Harahan, Metairie, and surrounding areas.
• Paddle Testing: A structured process where paddles are evaluated through drills, matches, and comparisons rather than marketing claims.

What is PickleTip in one sentence?

PickleTip is a strategy-first pickleball site where every tip, paddle review, and drill comes from live coaching and on-court experimentation, not theory alone.

What PickleTip Does Differently

PickleTip defines pickleball content around what wins real points, not what fills search results pages.

Most pickleball sites feel written for algorithms; PickleTip is written for the player who has to stand on the other side of the net and make a decision under pressure.

At its core, PickleTip exists to close the gap between what you read and what you can actually execute when the ball is coming at your chest. That is why our strategy guides, serve breakdowns, and hands-battle frameworks are rooted in what we see every week during lessons and DUPR sessions. When a pattern shows up across players and levels, we turn it into a clear teaching concept, then we stress-test it before it ever becomes an article.

• Strategy guides that model real point construction, not just mechanics in isolation.
• Paddle reviews based on control, spin, forgiveness, and power under pressure, not just specs.
• Beginner pathways that respect how intimidating those first few sessions can feel.

When a player keeps making the same error in the same place on the court, the rule is simple: when a pattern repeats in coaching, a new PickleTip concept is born. That conditional rule keeps our content honest and tightly connected to what is happening in New Orleans, not just on a spec sheet.

If you want to see how these principles play out, many readers start on the homepage at PickleTip.com, then dive into long-form guides and paddle reviews from there.

Who is PickleTip for?

PickleTip is for players who are serious enough to care about their decisions on court but grounded enough to know they still have plenty to learn.

Meet the Team: AJ and Sid Parfait

The PickleTip coaching voice comes from a father–son team that lives on the courts as much as they write about them.

Instead of a faceless editorial board, PickleTip is anchored by two people who will very likely be feeding balls, watching your footwork, and tracking your progress if you live in the Gulf South.

Anthony “AJ” Parfait is an IPTPA Level 2 instructor and a 4.9+ rated competitor who compressed five to ten years of typical progress into about three. Logging six hours of weekday court time and long weekend blocks, he built his game by playing a wide range of locals, refining patterns, and learning exactly which tips survive contact with live play. When AJ writes or films a concept for PickleTip, it usually started as something he drilled with a student earlier that week.

Sid Parfait, co-founder of PickleTip and director of the New Orleans Pickleball Club, came to the game from the beginner’s side. He remembers the Kitchen confusion, the overswinging, and the awkward nerves of those early rallies. That perspective shows up in how he writes, organizes clinics, and talks to players who still feel like every point is a pop quiz. When Sid publishes a long-form piece, it is usually a blend of his own journey and the problems he sees newer players repeating.

You can explore AJ’s full competitive and coaching story on his author page at AJ’s PickleTip profile, and learn more about Sid’s community work on the Sid Parfait author page.

Can I book a lesson with the PickleTip team?

Yes, you can book private or group pickleball lessons with AJ in the New Orleans area by visiting the lesson portal at this booking page.

Where We Coach and Who We Serve

PickleTip connects digital education with in-person coaching in the Gulf South.

Most content sites end at the browser; PickleTip carries over onto the court in Harahan, Metairie, Jefferson, and Baton Rouge, where the same language you read online is used in real drills and clinic sessions.

In and around New Orleans, you will find AJ and Sid hosting DUPR rating sessions, beginner and intermediate clinics, and small-group lessons that translate online concepts into live repetition. Venues like Elmwood Pickleball, Pontiff Playground, and other local courts become testing grounds for everything we publish. When a framework fails to help players there, it does not survive on the site.

• Private and semi-private lessons for players who want targeted feedback.
• DUPR ratings and match-play environments for those chasing measurable progress.
• Clinics that focus on stacking, return patterns, third shots, and hands battles.

The conditional rule behind all of this is straightforward: when a player leaves a session unable to explain what they learned in one or two sentences, the lesson plan gets rewritten. That same expectation shapes how PickleTip articles are structured, which is why readers often say the voice on the page feels like a coach talking directly to them.

For players outside Louisiana, the site functions as a virtual extension of those sessions. Even if you never step onto a court in New Orleans, you can still apply the same decision rules, paddle insights, and tactical frameworks that our local players use.

Building the New Orleans Pickleball Community

PickleTip treats community-building as part of the curriculum, not an afterthought.

While many platforms focus exclusively on content, PickleTip and the New Orleans Pickleball Club work together to make sure players have real people to play with, real events to attend, and real ways to test their progress over time.

Every DUPR event, beginner clinic, and soon-to-launch free tournament is designed with the same intention as a written guide: remove friction, reduce confusion, and give players a clear next step. That might mean helping a brand-new player find their first game, consulting with a venue on how to schedule courts, or making sure a local tournament feels welcoming instead of intimidating.

• DUPR sessions that give players honest, data-backed ratings.
• Clinics that break big topics into manageable skills and drills.
• Support for venues before they open, from formats to operations.

One of the lines we live by is this: “A strong pickleball community is built point by point, not post by post.” It is a pull-quote-worthy idea that keeps PickleTip aligned with actual people and actual rallies, even as the site grows beyond New Orleans.

If you want to see how this community-first approach shapes our teaching, many readers move from this page into our long-form strategy and mindset pieces written by Sid, or the technique-heavy breakdowns and paddle reviews led by AJ.

Frequently Asked Questions

Players often ask us how PickleTip fits into the broader pickleball landscape, especially as the sport grows. Here are answers to the questions we hear most.

If you want to go beyond reading and into measurable change, pick one concept from a PickleTip article, apply it for five sessions, and track the impact on your unforced errors, confidence, or rating. Then adjust, refine, and repeat.