FROM THE USAPA
FROM THE PRESIDENT
As Nancy and I prepare for our
summer travels, it brings back
memories of past trips over the
last 12 years and how much we’ve
seen pickleball grow during that
time. In the early years, the clubs
were all excited about a new
game, the new friends they were
making and the enthusiasm of
promoting a great new sport. We
were so thrilled to be able to work
with these people and help them
learn and understand this sport.
They always made us feel so
welcome and it was exciting to be
around so many positive people.
As the years passed and more
and more people picked up the
sport, we began seeing changes in the idea of teamwork and the social
climate in the sport. To us the idea of “power struggles” within the clubs
was not something we liked to see in the game we had grown to love and
enjoy so much. Not only were we seeing struggles for power but also lack
of promotion of the sport with comments such as, “We like the group we
have and don’t need additional players,” or “This is the way we do it here
and if you don’t like it, go somewhere else.”
DAVID JORDAN
With the rise in the number of players also came an increase in the
number of tournaments. Territorial conflicts over tournaments were the
next big issue that we encountered. Don’t get me wr