Quote:
Originally Posted by Magician16
I have played tennis since I was 16, so that's over 50 years. I still play competitively, but I'm probably down to a 3.5 level now. I picked up pickleball about 4 years ago and am advancing to where I'm at a higher level in pickleball than tennis. I personally believe there's room for both and both games are getting more players.
The problems arise because pickleball players simply want tennis to go away. I am a snowbird and live in an HOA in the winter. The leaders of the pickleball club are toxic people and will do anything possible to piss tennis players off. One of them is now on the HOA board and another is now Chairman of the Rules Compliance. I have tried to be nice to these two, but I've had it.
It's like Pickleball clubs have developed a strategic plan to displace tennis wherever. In several HOA's around here, they have basically run the tennis players out by being nasty. I played in a pickleball tournament this weekend, and this one pair was bragging about how they had just about run tennis out of their HOA. My partner and I kicked their asses.
How does a person deal with these toxic assholes. I just want to play both sports and have fun. I didn't move in here to be at war.
|
I play most other racquet sports, just not much Pickleball. I help conduct tournaments (half a day to 3-day ones with about 300+ players), flex leagues, ladders lasting 3-4 months tc.,. Because of surging demand for Pickleball, I find myself organizing those more and more throughout the year. The next 4 months are busy, with over 8 tournies across the 6 Southeastern states. I love to travel and visit more remote places up North/West/SouthWest etc, so let me know how the scene is at your place and I'd love to come over
Back on topic - whenever I meet people like you mentioned, I tell them my story. This is just one activity among many other worthy ones, and being too fanatic about one sport is not going to help them much. Most are jolly people, but if they seem too anal about only-Pickleball and act like Tennis has to go, I ask them to visualize them and their family stumbling across that venue/park/courts, and the kids wanting to try out Tennis and find Pickleball not to their fancy; then I ask them would they still like to be selfish and force/go with Pickleball-only??
Also, one year to the week, I was in Colombia, SC trying helping a friend transport back a KTM 890R. Seller was an avid biker, did TAT, TOD, SCAR a few times and a famous Youtuber - an awesome guy!! His elderly mother-in-law was visiting from up North and i had on our own Pickleball jersey and we got to talk about the sport and how the scene is up there etc., She was so happy about getting a chance to go out and discover other players, meet people and make friends. I agree it may be more practical for some people, but it should be an inclusive sport (all juniors under-19 play free in our tournies
) but should not be filled with aggressive older players who want to drive other athletes to extinction. That does not bode well.