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PICKLEBALL EXPANSION
Pickleball Entertainment Startups, PB as "Investor and Customer Bait" Africa & Board Games
FIT PICKLER
February 22, 2024
Health, Fitness, News & Fun for Picklers of All Ages
What's Cooking in the Kitchen This Week:
Fitness Expert Glen Dawson: Frogs & Glutes to Fix Your Quads
Deep Dive into Indoor Pickleball Entertainment Startups
How Two Business Women Used Pickleball to Close a $15M Deal
Commercial Real Estate Builders Use Pickleball to Attract Customers
Check Out the First Ever Pickleball Board Game
Africa Gets In on the Pickleball Craze!
National Pickleball League Expands to 12 Teams in 2024
Rally Rundown: Local Highlights
Coach Mary: The 1-2 Punch of Pickleball Success
šļø STAYING FIT with GLEN
FROGS & GLUTES TO FIX YOUR SQUATS
š¼ BUSINESS NEWS
STRATEGIES & CHALLENGES OF
NEW PICKLEBALL ENTERTAINMENT STARTUPS
Abandoned Malls are but one option for Investors looking for space for their pickleball entertainment startups
Indoor Pickleball entertainment facilities are popping up all over the country. While finding the space for these mega centers became easier with the closures of malls and big box retailers, finding the right configuration within these buildings can be challenging. After all, you donāt want to be running into a support beam while diving for a ball!
Todd Boss, of Forbes magazine, writes a fascinating article about these startups, highlighting the strategies these builders employ as well as the decisions and challenges they face in this popular new business model.
Beyond the closed malls, other structures have appeal for their wide-open layout, like skating rinks, office parks and warehouses. And while indoor courts reduce noise complaints from neighbors, inside, the noise can be deafening.
Take a peek into the creative ways these business owners are navigating this new marketplace and see how these facilities are adding surprising add-on features to stand out from the crowd! Read More hereā¦
How Pickleball Helped Two Women Secure $15M in Financing for Their Own PB Startup
Barrett Worthington and Meg Charity, co-founders of Rally Pickleball Social Club, experienced over a year of rejections before successfully attracting their first investor. When they decided to forego the traditional pitch decks and Power Points, things turned around.
They decided their āicebreakerā needed to show potential investors the appeal (and the addiction) of pickleball first hand. Goodbye office meeting, Hello Pickleball Court. Once investors were able to see for themselves the lure of the game and the community it fosters, their venture was funded even during a time period when venture capital funding had declined 38%.
Worthington noted their motivation behind the startup was the realization that, "As you get older and you graduate from college and enter the workforce, it becomes a lot harder to make friends and also to find those types of communities." Their creativity and perseverance paid off as their facility welcomed 40,000 pickleball enthusiasts within their first six months.
š¼ BUSINESS NEWS
Commercial Real Estate Builders Use Pickleball to Attract Customers
Image Generated using MidJourney AI
In Canada, companies have been āin a pickleā trying to attract people back into offices and retail malls and mixed-use housing developments. Offering pickleball courts as an amenity seems to be the new trend.
Boma Canada represents building managers and owners. The President and Chief Executive Office, Benjamin Shinewald, notes, āOne of the biggest trends in recent years has been āamenitizationā ā a response to tenant demand for amenities in the buildings where they work, live and play. These could be gyms, co-working spaces, coffee bars, conference facilities, food and dry-cleaning delivery servicesā¦All these things are designed to improve the tenant experience. Why not pickleball?ā
š JUST FOR FUN
The First Pickleball Board Game Debuts
The company Moose Games has launched the first ever Pickleball Board game. It will sell at Target and is suitable for ages 8+.
š GLOBAL NEWS
Africa Gets In on the Pickleball Craze!
Photo Credit: Ghana News Agency (GNA)
Pickleball is becoming quite the sensation in Africa. Dr. Kwabena Akufo, the President of he Confederation of African Pickleball (CAP), has helped spread the sport through schools, sports venues and local communities.
Rwanda recently built their first sports facility dedicated to Pickleball. The confederation is active in 18 countries and Pickleball will be included in the African Games which will also feature participation from professionals across the world.
šļøPRO NEWS
National Pickleball LeagueĀ® Expands To Twelve Teams For 2024
The National Pickleball League, a 50+ Pro league announced a doubling of the number of teams to compete in 2024.
New Teams Joining the National Pickleball League in 2024:
1. Coachella Valley Scorpions (CA)
2. Seattle United Pickleball Club (WA)
3. Princeton Bruisers (NJ)
4. Kansas City Stingers (MO)
5. Houston Hammers (TX)
6. Columbus Hotshots (OH)
For more details, click hereā¦
š§ COMMUNITY NEWS
RALLY RUNDOWN:
LOCAL HIGHLIGHTS
WAYNE, NJ: Largest Pickleball Center in NJ Coming to Wayne
NATICK, MA: Boston Chef Chris Coombs to Open 4 Restaurants at Giant Pickleball Venue
Houston TX: Travis Kelce Owned Pickleball Restaurnt Chain Coming to Houston Area
LOUISVILLE, KY: The Pete Foundation to Hold Pickleball Challenge to Benefit Mental Health Awareness
CLARKESVILLE, GA: Habersham County PB Club hosts a āDink Your Heart Outā Event to Fund AED Donations to Emergency Services
CORPUS CHRISTI TX: 8 Pickleball Courts Part of $6M Facility Opening on Padre Island
KANSAS CITY, MO: Fresh Off Their Football Team Winning the Superbowl, Kansas Gets Its First Pro Pickleball Team
DO YOU HAVE LOCAL NEWS TO SHARE? REACH OUT TO US AT
[email protected] and send us a link to your story!
HOLDING COURT with
COACH MARY
šŖ FOOTWORK AND BALANCE
THE 1-2 PUNCH OF PICKLEBALL SUCCESS
Zane Navratil has an excellent video on footwork and balance.
Zane asks the question, who has the best footwork in professional Pickleball? He mentions several players but chooses Ben Johns and J.W. Johnson as having the best footwork. Why?
He highlights the footwork of several players in this video and its worth studyling. His most important lesson? Tennis footwork does not necessarily transfer to outstanding Pickleball footwork. The constant bouncing and split stepping of tennis is different from Pickleball which requires quick reaction and great balance.
Balance, Zane emphasizes, is critical to Pickleball success. The game is so quick, and so fast . . . when the ball is coming right at you, you must be ready to react immediately.
He demonstrates a great drill, where he holds a full water bottle in one hand, without a lid, while dinking with the other hand. The goal is to not spill a drop!!! I am going to make my students do this next week!
Other ways to drill for balance and control:
Place a wristband on your head and have someone dink or volley with you. Attempt to keep your head still, and your body balanced, so the wristband does not fall off your head as you execute the skills.
Dink with a tennis ball under your paddle arm. Keep the ball in place as you dink or dink volley. If you have too much backswing or arm motion, rather than hips and shoulders and lifting with a shadow the ball technique, the ball will fall out!
Volley close to a wall: Get right up on a wall, and volley/volley to yourself. You will have to be balanced and have a soft paddle in front to keep the ball going.
