Tennis Must Learn From and Work With Pickleball

by USPTA Southwest Pro Bre Hall

I was fortunate to learn and compete in the tennis boom in Texas in the 1960’s and 70’s. Tennis had no compe on back then and even the fitness craze didn’t start un l the 80’s. Fast forward to today and we have a pickleball boom. It came out of nowhere and it does not look like it is a fad or will decrease in popularity anyme soon. The tennis industry was reluctant to jump on board at first thinking ini ally it wasn’t a threat to our sport.

I would have never thought even a year ago as a USPTA Elite tennis professional I would get cerfied to teach beginning pickleball. Most of my lesson income is from tennis, but it is a nice addi onal income stream. Our USPTA organiza on sees a world where both sports need to coexist and work together for tennis clubs to survive and thrive. We must give the members what they want at our facili es, and it is obvious they want both tennis and pickleball. My fellow professionals are having great success by welcoming pickleball either teaching it themselves or hiring a pickleball pro to meet the demand.

A simple idea is to have your tennis professional go meet and play pickleball with the pickleball players and invite them to a free tennis clinic.

Finally, there is always opportunity in any challenge. It is vital for our tennis facili es to hire quality tennis professionals who can fill their courts with tennis lessons and programs. The tennis professional of the present and future must be cer fied to teach pickleball. Hopefully, we can build new pickleball courts in the future instead of conver ng tennis courts to pickleball. Today it is more important than ever for all ages to improve their wellness by exercising and experiencing healthy socializa on. Both sports are great for promo ng this healthy lifestyle.

So, what can tennis learn from pickleball?

1. Shorten the tennis scoring system to allow a quicker rota on of different ability levels.

•Beginners: orange ball

•Intermediates: Green ball

•Advanced: Yellow ball

How can both sports work together to increase par cipa on in both tennis and pickleball?

1. Invite pickleball players to begin tennis clinics for free.

2. Invite tennis players for free beginning pickleball clinics.

3. Offer beginning tennis/ pickball classes (combined pickleball and tennis clinics).

4. Hold a fun tennis and pickleball/tennis social. An experienced tennis professional can get pickleball players (total tennis beginners to have fun with an elementary form of a rally in the first day.)

2. Use the pressureless tennis balls to allow longer rallies where beginning and intermediate tennis players can have more fun.

5. The teaching pro should be the catalyst in diffusing any animosity towards either sport.