Pickleball’s #1 Family - Jorja, Julie, and JW Johnson | Interview

 

0:00 - Intro 0:55 - The Johnson family’s relationship with pickleball 4:15 - JW on his emotions 5:10 - JW on his wrist usage 6:30 - JW on his ready position 8:03 - What JW does for fun 8:42 - JW on his new paddle 10:40 - JW on how he uses lead tape 12:10 - Biggest impact Jorja wants to have on the pickleball world 13:40 - Jorja on pickleball in 5 years 15:50 - JW and Jorja on how their tennis background effected their pickleball 18:50 - Will JW and Jorja play together in 2023? 19:35 - JW and Jorja on their evolution as pickleball players 21:50 - JW and Jorja on how their age factors into their success 23:23 - Julie on why all of their names start with J 26:50 - What Julie is most proud of about JW and Jorja 31:15 - Julie on the future of senior pro pickleball

2022 World Pickleball Open

Doubles 

Commentary: Julie Johnson 12:55 JW Johnson/Andrei Daescu vs Pablo Tellez/Federico Staksrud

4:02:21 JW Johnson/Andrei Daescu vs Pablo Tellez/Federico Staksrud

49:56 Jorja Johnson/Milan Rane vs Heather Nobler/Meredith Laughlin 1:46:32 Jorja Johnson/Milan Rane vs Amanda Hendry/Shelby Bates 5:39:48 Jorja Johnson/Milan Rane vs Amanda Hendry/Shelby Bates

Mixed Doubles

1:19:53 Amanda Hendry/Jack Foster vs Jorja Johnson/Gabriel Tardio 4:23:13 Jorja Johnson/Gabriel Tardio vs Megan Fudge DeHeart/Riley DeHeart

5:12:19 Julie Johnson/Mircea Morariu vs Welsher/Wilder

Singles: Rained Out

2022 USA Pickleball Nationals

 

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Singles 

1:00:58 JW Johnson vs Federico Staksrud 0:01 JW Johnson vs Federico Staksrud 3:32:27 JW Johnson vs Ryan Sherry

Doubles

2:24:04 Ben Johns/Catherine Parenteau vs Parris Todd/JW Johnson (Highlights)

48:23 JW Johnson/Parris Todd vs Jessie Irvine/Jay Devilliers

3:23:30 Jorja Johnson/Dylan Frazier vs Jade Kawamoto/Dekel Bar

2:48:36 Jorja Johnson/Dylan Frazier vs Lucy Kovalova/Matt Wright

2022 APP Hilton Head Open

 

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Doubles

1:55:42 Jorja Johnson/Andrea Koop vs Anna Bright/Simone Jardim (Gold) 3:49:43 After Rain Delay Game 2 4:28:21 JW Johnson/Dylan Frazier vs Dekel Bar/DJ Young (Gold)

42:00 Jorja Johnson/Andrea Koop vs Isabelle Carvajal/Ewa Radzikowska 1:51:45 Jorja Johnson/Andrea Koop vs Olivia McMillan/Lee Whitwell

1:12:08 JW Johnson/Dylan Frazier vs Gabriel Tardio/Jean Baptiste,The Unicorn 4:28:53 JW Johnson/Dylan Frazier vs Andrei Daescu/Kyle Yates

Mixed Doubles

27:26 Jorja Johnson/Dylan Frazier vs Lee Whitwell/Julian Arnold 2:00:16 Jorja Johnson/Dylan Frazier vs Zane Navratil /Andrea Koop 4:20:16 Jorja Johnson/Dylan Frazier vs Vivienne David/Thomas Wilson

5:51:32 Jorja Johnson/Dylan Frazier vs Zane Navratil /Andrea Koop

3:54:48 Anna Bright/James Ignatowich vs JW Johnson/Simone Jardim 5:21:29 JW Johnson/Simone Jardim vs Zane Navratil /Andrea Koop

Singles

47:06 JW Johnson vs Christian Alshon 7:50:31 JW Johnson vs Hunter Johnson

Jorja's Streak 

It appears that Jorja Johnson may be taking her double’s game to another level. This weekend was Jorja’s third straight gold medal performance in women’s doubles. She took gold in Alabama a few weeks ago with Bobbi Oshiro, taking down Lauren Stratman and Maggie Remynse in the gold medal match. Then last week, she and Vivienne David took first in a field that featured the teams of Anna Bright and Parris Todd and Simone Jardim and Andrea Koop (Watch Gold Medal Match). Finally, this week, Jorja partnered with Andrea Koop to take down Simone Jardim and Anna Bright in the gold medal match. It’s interesting because, heading into each of the weekends, you could have argued that Jorja was not favored to win gold in any of these tournaments yet she and her partner won each of the tournaments in pretty dominant fashion – noting the gold match at Hilton Head was very close.

It is very apparent that Jorja is becoming a dominant left side force in the women’s doubles game. She has as much power, if not more, than any other woman in the world, and has the hand speed to pair with that power, which makes her extremely dangerous in hand battles. Also, not coming from a big tennis background, some of her shots and style are not what you would call conventional, in particular her wristy two hand backhand. However, the somewhat unconventional nautre of her game seems to add deception to her shots, as players struggle to get a good read on them. When you pair her with a strong, consistent right side player, she is clearly a favorite to win pretty much any APP tournament at this point. Which is also an impressive statement, as that was the not the case earlier this year, so it also speaks to her continued development.

She still has some inconsistency issues, and probably misses a few more shots than you would want an elite player to, which is why at this point, her having a consistent partner to offset that, is so important. If she can clean up the consistency side though, and continue to work on the mental game, it would seem that at this point that the sky is pretty much the limit for Jorja Johnson. - NML Blog - 5 Takeaways – Jorja’s Streak