USAPA and AAU Partnership

Athletes pursuing greatness...

The USAPA had an announcement on Thursday that could bring big dividends to the sport of pickleball.

Strategic Alliance Between USA Pickleball Association & AAU Aims to Grow the Sport of Pickleball

Partnership Joining USAPA and AAU Will Provide Competitive and Recreational Opportunities for Adult and Youth Athletes

The rapidly-growing sport of pickleball is coming to the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), as the USA Pickleball Association (USAPA) and AAU announced a strategic alliance that will provide both youth and adult programming for athletes across the country.

Pickleball is a court sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton and table tennis. The game is played both indoor and outdoor on a surface one-third the size of a regulation tennis court and a net lowered to 34 inches. Players use a paddle and polymer ball, similar to a Wiffle ball. The game has grown exponentially across North America in recent years.

USAPA has done an exceptional job building their adult membership base across the country and making pickleball one of the fastest growing sports in America, said Dr. Roger J. Goudy, President and CEO of the AAU. This strategic alliance allows us to utilize our combined expertise and resources to provide athletes of all ages with first-class competition experiences in the sport of pickleball.

The New Rating System

It was about one year ago when the USAPA announced it had selected a vendor to develop a new player rating system. The announcement stated:

The USAPA evaluation committee has completed the review and evaluation of the vendor proposals for a new match-based tournament ratings system. Athlete Ratings (AR) has tentatively been selected as the primary vendor. The final vendor selection will be contingent upon AR and USAPA agreeing to terms and signing a Services Agreement.

Players have waited...and waited...and waited for the final system to be announced. Finally, earlier this week, a message was sent to USAPA members.

More on USAPA Membership

Why join the Navy if you can be a pirate...

Yesterday's post was mostly about the personal benefits of a USAPA membership, which is a requirement for playing in a sanctioned tournament like the Land of the Sky Pickleball Tournament. There was a brief mention of the activities of the USAPA but I would like to go a little deeper into these in the hopes that those doubting the value of a membership can better appreciate what the USAPA does for them. Yesterday's mention is shown first below.

The primary reason to join the USAPA is to be a part of something bigger than your usual gym. The USAPA is the body that maintains the standards for equipment and rules as well develops outreach programs to grow the game.  

Rosemary Reese, Assistant Regional Director of the Southwest Region wrote an article that very eloquently explains why pickleball players should become members. A portion of the article is shown below.

Why Join the USAPA for the Land of the Sky

Why join the Navy if you can be a pirate...

When we were kicking around the idea of the Land of the Sky Pickleball Tournament, one of the topics was the sanctioning question. There are lots of good reasons to sanction a tournament but there are also some downsides. One of the downsides is that players must be members of the USAPA in order to register to play. That's not a downside in itself. But because there have been so few sanctioned tournaments in the eastern US there are lots of non-members. Playing in one tournament is hardly reason enough to join for some. Luckily, there are plenty of other reasons. Some of those are shown in this post. The slides shown below are from a presentation given at the Ambassador Retreat. The comments are mine.

The primary reason to join the USAPA is to be a part of something bigger than your usual gym. The USAPA is the body that maintains the standards for equipment and rules as well develops outreach programs to grow the game.  

Ambassador Retreat Photos

Living the good life at Club Med...

I have posted a couple of articles from the USAPA Ambassador Retreat. Today is all about photos. It wasn't all about pickleball either.

Photos are shamelessly stolen from others' Facebook pages.

Pickleball Growth, Volunteerism, and USAPA Ambassadors

Those who can, do.  Those who do more, volunteer...

I want to use yesterday’s post about the Waynesville pickleball party to discuss the positive impact of volunteers on the sport. I attended the party with a mission – to recruit a new USAPA ambassador for an area with a vacant spot. As I launched into my recruiting speech, I quickly realized that I needed to develop a new set of talking points. That is the genesis of this post.

We all know that pickleball has experienced tremendous growth in recent years. That is because 1) the sport is a fantastic game with lots of social benefits and 2) lots of folks have volunteered to find, organize, and develop players and places to play. 

Much of pickleball’s growth is organic, meaning that it occurs by word of mouth as new players fall in love with the game and tell their friends. In the Mountain District of NC, we have many retirees who are part-year residents in Florida or are “half-backs” that have moved out of Florida. Their time in the pickleball hotbed of Florida exposed them to the game and they brought their enthusiasm to NC. We are now a hotbed for pickleball growth as both locals and transplants are finding the game.

Referee Certification

The last 3 posts have been about pickleball refereeing and why you should do it. This post will be last about refereeing for awhile. I promise. This post will discuss and highlight the USAPA program to train and certify referees. Anyone who wants to give refereeing a try would greatly benefit from getting certified or, at a minimum, reviewing the materials.

Rather than go through the certification process here, I will refer you to the USAPA website for information. Be forewarned that some of the materials require USAPA membership - yet another reason to join. The information can be found at USAPA.org by hovering over "Rules and Referees", then "Referee Materials" and selecting the appropriate topic. This post discusses "Referee Handbook", which opens with the following paragraph:

Introduction and Purpose 

Refereeing can be easy and fun! The more thoroughly you know the rules and the more matches you referee using the standardized, tried-and-tested techniques contained in this handbook, the easier it becomes. The USAPA/IFP Referee Handbook is intended as a guide for referees at all levels of officiated pickleball events, and encompasses both singles and doubles play. The procedures, techniques and tips in this Referee Handbook are based on the IFP Rules, as well as the experiences of seasoned referees who regularly officiate USAPA sanctioned tournaments. Accordingly, this handbook documents the USAPA officiating standards and procedures, and serves as the official resource for referee training and reference.

Special USAPA Newsletter Promotion

From North Carolina Pickleball:

I hear from time to time “why do I need to join the USAPA?” – It would take quite some time to enumerate all the reasons so I will just list a few. If there were no USAPA then the following would be gone – 1. USAPA Web page 2. Places to Play 3. Ambassador Program 4. Tournaments 4. Referee training 5. Liability insurance for tournament directors 6. Rules development 7. Newsletter 8. Grant programs 

Below are some features from the USAPA August Newsletter….Join the USAPA at http://www.usapa.org https://www.instagram.com/juniorpickleballusapa

Free Pickleball Magazine

I received this email on Thursday:

Hello Pickleball Friends,

In a continued effort to build our subscription base at Pickleball Magazine, I would like to send a FREE link to view our second issue of the magazine to as many "picklers" as possible. 

If you have any friends that you would like me to periodically send the magazine link to, please send me their email addresses and I will add them to my list. Send 1 or send 1,000 – I'm trying to build a database!

Thanks.

Wayne

Wayne Dollard / Publisher

Pickleball Magazine - Free First Edition

Last year, I posted that a new Pickleball Magazine would be available in January 2016. That first edition is now out and Pickleball Rocks is providing a complimentary copy! Just click on the photo below and the magazine will be linked as an Adobe file where you change pages by finding the arrows in the right and left centers of the page. It may take a few minutes to load since it is a large file. Enjoy!

Remember, electronic copies are free for all USAPA members. Go to my post Pickleball Magazine to find out the membership or subscription information.

Offbeat Sunday?: Pickleball Mania

...on a Thursday.

A humorous look at pickleball from the USAPA:

PICKLEBALL

Pickleball is a highly contagious, progressive and incurable disease. The USA Pickleball Association estimates there are approximately 200,000 infected people worldwide. Unlike other epidemics of this scale, pickleball occurs primarily in developed countries. While rarely fatal, the disease has enormous impact on the lives of infected individuals and on society as a whole.

CAUSES

Early theories assumed that pickleball is an addictive drug; however recent studies isolated Pickleball fever as the bacteria which causes pickleball mania. This discovery explains why earlier treatment programs such as Pickleball Players Anonymous, were unsuccessful.

ORIGINS OF THE EPIDEMIC

The early epidemic started around 1965 in Washington State. It appears the relatively benign sport of pickleball mutated into pickleballmania. While the reasons for this mutation are not generally known, a likely hypothesis suggests that it resulted from exposure of the tennis, racquetball & badminton bacteria to high doses of boredom in Washington State.

What is the USAPA?

From the USAPA Website:

Mission

The USA Pickleball Association (USAPA) was organized to promote the growth and development of pickleball, not only on a national but an international level. This organization provides players with official rules, tournaments, rankings, and promotional materials.

The USAPA is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation. It is governed by a talented Board of Directors, most of who chair one of the important committees of this organization.

Pickleball Magazine

In this month's USAPA newsletter, Pickleball Magazine, a new publication focused only on pickleball was announced.

Pickleball Magazine launches January 2016
Pickleball Magazine is the official publication for USAPA

The USAPA is excited to announce the launch of Pickleball Magazine, the only magazine 
featuring one of the fastest growing sports in America. Each issue ofPickleball Magazine offers readers the opportunity to learn more about the sport and the people involved with it. Beginning January 2016, all USAPA members will receive FREE electronic editions of Pickleball Magazine delivered to their email inboxes! Members will be able to read these on any computer, phone or tablet. For those who are interested, you can also subscribe to the magazine and have it delivered directly to your home. 

Visit USAPA.org to learn more about Pickleball Magazine and how to subscribe.

Welcome to Pickleball Magazine!