The Dawson Family - Callan, Tyler, Jennifer & Steve
Even for existing members of the club, interest took off and now an estimated
10 percent of the tennis players play both sports. The club now has a dedicated
pickleball membership level and members can reserve their own private court at
no charge. There’s a pickleball ball machine available and a free monthly clinic.
Dawson now coaches and runs pickleball camps and is open to future court
conversions.
“We’re fine with how it is now and we can host the big tournaments without
any problem using temporary courts, but we’ll be following the curve as well,” he
explains.
Personally, Dawson recalls that he started playing because of all the “noise”
from the fun everyone was having. “In tennis, you don’t have gut-busting
laughter between every point. I said, ‘I want to give this thing a shot’ and I was
100 percent hooked. It was a blast. Being a tennis pro and a scholarship athlete,
I thought I could wax these guys and I got killed. I had instant respect for the
sport.”
The challenging parts of the transition for him were the soft shots, dinks,
slices and kitchen play that tennis players don’t do. “The forehands, backhands
and overheads were easy—they were all the same as tennis. They were easy to
transition,” he says.
CONTINUED >>
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER2017 |
MAGAZINE
49