I’ve been playing PB for around 44 years now. I quit playing tournaments 4 years ago due to severe injuries. I’m still having health issues these days but still play here and there with my family and friends. I started playing Sid Williams tournaments right at the very beginning in 1982. I wound up playing at least one tournament a year for forty straight years! I got to see and play against a lot of the old time tournament players and also got to see the game evolve all the way up to now.
Some of the things I did for Pickleball are:
- I brought up the idea that some tournaments could be double elimination.
- Made time outs to be consistently 2 minutes long and not sometimes 2 minutes and another time could be 10 minutes.
- Changed the scoring format so could be one game to 21 or in consolation up to 15 as two out of three to 11 on two or three indoor courts plus being double elimination was taking way to long to finish.
Some achievements I’ve done in Pickleball are:
- I went 13 years in singles never finishing worse than second that is around 60 or so tournaments.
- Played ¼ of my career 100% left-handed and won both singles, doubles and mixed and then the same playing 100% right-handed.
- Won 17 straight tournaments in singles.
- Won men’s open doubles with at least 9 different partners.
- Played at least one tournament a year for 40 years straight.
- Won in singles and doubles at the US Open, same for the Canadian National Championships, won the doubles at Tournament of Champions.
- Have won both singles and doubles on outdoor cement, indoor wooden floors, indoor carpet and indoor cement. 4 different surfaces.
- In those days there were only 4 to 6 tournaments a year so it was hard to make any real impressive winning records.
- Did all these things with type 1 diabetes, which made life a whole lot tougher let alone playing any sport.
To be the first competitor to be inducted into the PHOF is an incredible honor and can never be taken away from me. I Feel very grateful that I got a chance to play this sport. Some of my very closest friends are PB players, I’ve met some of the best people on earth all over the country whom are PB players, many of my very best lifetime memories are meeting PB people and playing in the tournaments.
Advice to those just starting the game:
If I were a new player starting the sport and wanted to become competitive as quickly as possible, I would of course play as much as I can at least 2 hours a day if not more each week but would take days off to prevent burn out. The most important part would be to find people to play against regularly that can improve your game. I would try to play against people who are just a little bit better than me. Once I improved, I would then try to find the next group of players to practice against that are just a little bit better and continue doing this till I get to the highest level I can get to.
It’s also important to find players that share the ball almost equally. I would avoid the players that have to win at all costs as they will just spend their entire time playing the weaker player, and that is not me, I get nothing out of it. I would also avoid players that just blast every ball with no control. They slam balls into the net, back of the fence and try to ram the ball down your throat. No rallies, not much of anything. It’s all a waste of time. Lastly, I would avoid mean-spirited trash talkers that are just there to belittle you and gloat about themselves. Not a very high vibe environment.
If needed, I would take lessons on certain strokes so that I know my technique is good. I’m a big believer in shadow stroking. If I’m having trouble hitting high back hand volleys, I would imitate hitting the perfect high back hand volley starting off in slow motion and paying attention on my form. Once it feels good, I would stroke a little faster and keep adding speed until I’m at game speed level. I do the whole stroke at game speed with proper footwork, and I visualize myself hitting the ball. I would play a bunch of game speed points hitting high backhand volleys mixed in with all the other volleys including forehand volleys. This can all be done within a few minutes. You can also drill, but for me I prefer shadow stroking. Can hit hundreds of perfect strokes in a matter of minutes and can do everyday.
If I’m a singles player, I would play singles as much as I can playing games against players just a little bit better than me and keep trying to move up to the next level. If I can’t find any singles players, I can then play a lot of half court games starting from the back and moving on up to the net. Singles is mainly having good footwork, being aware and quick on the court.
Finally, when playing doubles if the players aren’t equally good, I would play my hardest against the better player and work on ball control with the weaker player. I have many times played against 3.0 players or lower and I would spend my whole time trying to play so they can hit a lot of balls. I try to play so they don’t miss much. Super good for concentration and moving the ball all around with great control. This way everyone has a good time and it’s helping my game to pinpoint the ball anywhere I want on the court however I want to do so.
You asked if having fun and being competitive are equally important. In my opinion, I definitely think so. The having to win at all costs during practice does nothing to help your game as you are spending your whole time playing the weaker player. It just leaves a bad vibe on the court. When you are playing in a doubles tournament, that is when you go after a weaker player. Doubles is just a game of 2 on 1 against whom you think is the weaker player at the moment. The greatest doubles player of all time won’t win hardly any matches in a tournament if his/her partner is weak. You are only as good as your partner. In practice, you are there to work on things, and you adjust to how you want to play according to the abilities of the players you are playing against. You can play against really good players or bad players, or a mix and the main thing is to have a great time so that you feel good about yourself and make the other players feel good as well. Playing against ultra-competitive jerks is not very enjoyable. You save that for tournaments. Having a jokey lighthearted banter is fun, but when the trash talking gets mean avoid those kinds of players. Unfortunately or fortunately I have never trash talked and since I’m deaf I never got to hear it either!
Pickleball should be a journey of always trying to improve and to really enjoy yourself along the way. After all you could be playing the sport for the rest of your life.