PICKLEBALL GAME CHANGER

Glen Petersen, renown pro pickleball champ, and coach posted an interesting piece on the Pickleball Central Blog 3/23/17, entitled, "The Future of Power Pickleball, Will The Bangers Win?

I have summarized Petersen's predictions, using an abbreviated bullet point format. 

• No player today has been able to achieve a 5.0 rating without some mastery of the soft game.
• Many uniformed spectators find this soft style of play confusing and boring.
• At the highest level of play, doubles rallies will get shorter rather than longer in the coming years.
• Serves and Returns of Serves will become more aggressive shots vital to the outcome of the point.
• Similar to Volley Ball, one pickle ball partner will be the setter, while the other partner executes the spiking role at the net.
• Future tactics may involve the forward player acting as a decoy or blocking the opponents’ visibility of the ball, and purposely tagging an opponent.
• Most points will involve the ball only hitting the floor on the serve and the return of serve, and then all following shots will be volleys.
• Even Now there is a trend where attackers, not defenders, are more likely to win the point.

Petersen hopes he is wrong with these predictions, but he sees that the sport of pickle ball is going somewhere, and the younger athletes will define the path . . . Or the USAPA will dictate a NERF Ball to replace the current wiffle style ball.

Post Script:

I agree with some of Petersen’s predictions that Pickleball has changed in the last two years, and it will continue to evolve more and more each coming year.  The younger athletes who now rule the pro level competition, are setting a new change of pace, hard hitting ~ soft dinking ~ to smashing put-aways style of play.  Expect powerful shots strong enough to punch a hole through the net.   

As pickle ball continues to evolve, old strategies that setup the point at the net, will make way for a fast pace highly mobile game of cross-court dinks, abruptly interrupted by precisely placed low fast attack shots,  aimed to disadvantage the opponent in any way.  

“Forced errors,” will well outnumber unforced errors, as players achieve “pin point shot accuracy and execute near perfect shot selections during each match. Unforced errors will be rare, and the game will be won by the team that can execute the most forced errors on their opponents, as opposed to the team with the fewer number of mistakes.

So where will this leave the recreational competitive player?   Assuredly recreational players will not put in the hours of practicing and perfecting stroke development, shot placement, and shot selection.  Nor will they willingly undertake a rigid off-court fitness program, that will allow them to play endless games, without exhaustion.

Pickleball may well evolve into a highly aerobic, fast moving, competitive game, complete with dance-like movements and footwork. 

The name itself, “Pickleball,” will become too pedestrian for the new high octane players, and their competitive style of play.  And the event managers and court-side fanatics who cheer on their favorite warriors, may choose to call this new gladiator style of play . . .”Tennasty Ball.” 

IN RESPONSE TO BARB ELGIN'S COMMENT "PICKLEBALL GAME CHANGER"  I decided to answer the comment as a POST.

Barb; the die has already been cast. Just as the dinosaurs became extent, so will the current style of play, that has ruled the game for so many years.

I would expect that futuristic sanctioned tournaments bracketing may be  limited to "competitive" and "competitive aggressive." Skill levels may need to be up graded to 10.0 just to keep pace with the new breed of pickleball supermen and superwomen.  Pickleball is already entering the "world stage." 

Athletes from other Countries are taking up the sport in droves, with intent to compete and win fame and fortune.  Athletes from Third World Countries will be training hard just to compete in pickleball.  Unfortunately "recreation and exercise" is not part of their motivation or agenda. 

As soon as pickleball is approved by the Olympic Committee as a Olympic Sport, and the announcement is made world-wide, the race to be the World's best player will begin.  Socialist and communist countries will fund their best players and provide coaching and fitness training, far and above what USA sponsored pickleball players can match. 

But before these dynamo  ballers can stand before the Olympic Torch, they will first have to prove themselves on the US courts.  This is where I see that he real game changer will occur.

These International Players will bring with them a much harder hitting, highly aggressive, tack driving, unorthodox and unpredictable attack style of play that may go unchallenged by America's best.

The rules will remain the same but "tagging" will become one of the key shots in the game.  I also envision that there will be a World Pickleball Federation that will control the game, in order to confirm to the Olympic Committees standards.  America's Pickleball Game will become the "World Pickleball Games."

All the fan fair and hoopla that accompanies the US Pickleball Nationals, will be subordinated by the European Pickleball Nationals, Asian Pickleball Nationals, Mediterranean Pickleball Nations, South American Pickleball Nationals and the Canadian Pickleball Nations.  I and thousands more will be heart broken and devastated if this does evolve. Assuredly we will need a International Pickleball Federation to control and manage pickleball on the world stage. 

We are now promoting pickleball all over the world. Maybe we should have kept this wonderful, fun and exciting game to ourselves. Why do we keep on inducting new players.  Court Space is becoming scares, between game wait times are increasing and fewer players are seeking to improve their play, content to keep it "fun and exercise."

And besides, who or what is going to stop this evolution from occurring ?