Pickleball England gets 1000 new members in 70 days!

Pickleball England announced recently that they are now at 7000 registered members and this milestone was reached just 70 days after the 6000th member.

No doubt the announcement of the 2024 English Open has helped with registrations but this is a magnificent achievement and a giant step forward in Pickleball England’s aspirations to have 25,000 members in 2025.

More registered members at Pickleball England will add weight to the argument that Pickleball should be a recognised sport in England which will come with lots of benefits for the future growth of the game.

Pickleball made an appearance in the House of Commons on Thursday when Andrew Selous, MP for SW Bedfordshire invited the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Sport, Stuart Andrew, to the ‘Dunstable Hunters’ pickleball club, to which he duly accepted the invitation.

To watch the video on the Pickleball England Facebook Page, go here.

If you’ve not already registered, you can do this for FREE on the Pickleball England website and it’s a really simple way to support the sport we all love.

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Pickleball England will offer a coaching curriculum starting in April

Until now, if you wanted to get qualified to coach pickleball in the UK then you’d need to follow the International Teaching Professionals Association (IPTPA) Certification Curriculum.

Pickleball England recognises the IPTPA certification and has historically worked with the IPTPA to schedule Level I and Level II certifications.

That all changes in April as Pickleball England will be introducing its own coaching curriculum.

IPTPA Level I will be directly transferable to an equivalent Pickleball England qualification so you will not need to take the new qualification to be recognised as an accredited coach in the UK. This also means that you will be able to take the equivalent Pickleball England IPTPA Level II qualification when it’s available if you have completed IPTPA Level I.

It’s my understanding that the equivalent Level II qualification will be entirely different from the IPTPA Level II but this is still work in progress.

More details regarding registration for these certifications to follow soon. There are still a couple of IPTPA Level I workshops scheduled before April:

March 9th - St Albans
March 29th - Cromer

To sign up for these, go here.

Discount at the Pickleball Addiciton Store

For a wide range of paddles, nets, and accessories at great prices, visit the Pickleball Addiction store.

Readers of the Pickleball Addiction newsletter can get also claim a 10% discount. Visit now to pick up your new paddle.

Use code NEWS10 for a 10% discount.

Upcoming Tournaments & Festivals

Interested in participating in or promoting a pickleball event?

Lots of new events have been added to the pickleball calendar. Check them out at Pickled Events. The number 1 source for all pickleball events in the UK.

• Get notifications when new events are added

• Search Events by location

• Search Events by date

• Filter Events by Tournament or Festival

• Get directions and distances to events

• See which events are coming up next

• And promote your own events for free!

Visit the Pickled Events website here.

MLP Australia starts this weekend in Sydney

Back in September, we reported that Major League Pickleball (MLP) announced its first international expansion through a partnership with the Pacific Pickleball League (PPL).

Following the draft lottery in December, Major League Pickleball Australia is ready to go this weekend starting in Sydney.

UK-based Pei Chuan Kao will be competing, playing for the South East Asia Surge at one of Sydney’s elite tennis facilities, the Blacktown Tennis Centre Stanhope.

Playing the MLP team format and the Pacific Pickleball League tour format, this event is the first planned of six this year.

12 teams across Australia, New Zealand, and Asia will battle it out of prize money of $700,000 in 2024.

Under the Pacific Pickleball banner last year, the Sydney Smash will be looking to retain their crown on home turf.

The Pacific Pro Sydney starts proceedings with the PPL Open, Masters and Future Singles alongside the first round of the MLP Australia teams competition on Friday 23 February.

The next MLP Australia event is planned for Auckland, New Zealand on March 29th-31st. Season One wraps up in Brisbane, Australia on May 17-19th.

Season One will run from Feb to May 2024, and Season Two from late August to Mid-November.

Speedcubing to world-leading pickleball paddle reviewer with Chris Olson

In this episode, I speak with Chris Olson from Pickleball Studio. This was a super fun episode with lots of laughs.

Chris is the internet's leading pickleball paddle reviewer and has grown his channel significantly in the few years that he's been running his podcast with Pickleball Will (see last episode).

In this episode, we chat about:

• His background in speedcubing and filmmaking

• How he got into pickleball

• Pickleball documentaries he's worked on

• What he enjoys about creating pickleball content

• His aspirations for playing pickleball

• His process for paddle testing

• The growth of Pickleball in Minnesota

• The future of Pickleball

Watch on YouTube here or listen on your favourite podcast app.

Paddle Spotlight

Six Zero Sapphire

Six Zero is best known for their Black Diamond and Double Black Diamond paddles, which has led the more affordable Sapphire to be overlooked.

A thinner-cored 13mm thermoform model, the Sapphire’s power is definitely one of it’s assets. You can hit drives, overheads, and putaways hard with minimal effort. It’s still a great all round paddle, but it certainly leans towards power.

The Sapphire also has a very low swing weight for an elongated paddle. At 108, this is very low for a paddle of the sapphires length. An elongated paddle is usually around 118-124 which makes it more challenging to swing.

The overall performance of the Sapphire feels well-balanced as an all-court paddle. It has great power, good spin, and good control.

If you want a paddle with a long 5’6″ handle (good for two-handed backhands!) that’s easy to swing, the Sapphire should be one place you take a close look.

The Six Zero Sapphire is a premium paddle at an entry-level price.

Use coupon NEWS10 for a 10% discount on everything Pickleball Addiction Shop.

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