Around the World
INTERNATIONAL PICKLEBALL MEETS VIA ZOOM !
By Karen Mitchell
NATIONAL DIRECTOR FOR PICKLEBALL ENGLAND
When the English
OPEN & Bainbridge Cup had to be cancelled due to COVID-19 , a lot of players were devastated that they wouldn ’ t be meeting up with the friends they had made over the past Bainbridge Cup tournaments . Two of the players , Karen Butera and Roberto Rospo , decided they wanted to invite some of those players to a Zoom meeting so that they could hang out and catch up .
After the first meeting , there was a suggestion from Sara Aiken that maybe the next call should have a focal point and she invited Ben Johns and Collin Johns to our next call . That was the start of International Pickleball Meets .
Every Saturday from April 11 to August 22 we had invited guests join us — players from as far as the USA , India and Europe ( including Finland , Spain , Switzerland , England , Wales , Ireland , France , and the list goes on ). The guest list was amazing .
In addition to Ben and Collin , Roberto and other attendees managed to secure Simone Jardim and Chad Edwards , Lucy Kovalova , Scott Golden , Dave Weinbach , Irina Tereschenko , Randy Coleman , Jennifer Lucore , Sarah Ansboury , Morgan Evans , Kyle Yates , Tyson
McGuffin , Marcin Rozpedski and for the grand finale , the whole Moore family !
In addition to the pros , we had a meeting with Melody Woodsum and Ron Ponder who talked about refereeing major tournaments , and Karen Parrish and Melissa McCurley who talked about managing a large tournament . We even had a call with the up and coming English stars , Sam , Will and Jamie Basford .
International Pickleball Meets all started because of lockdown . No one could go anywhere , so the pros were as happy as the players to join our calls . As the U . S . opened up again and Europe was still largely in lockdown , we were surprised that the pros still agreed to join the calls !
Every guest was so generous with their time , provided insightful
Ben Johns , Sara Aiken and Collin Johns . answers to questions , and shared top training tips . We even got some gossip and scoops . It was obvious that they all like to keep things light — there was a lot of laughter on the calls . We are very grateful they all agreed to join .
While we might have had a few pros at the English OPEN and Bainbridge Cup , we wouldn ’ t have had the opportunity to meet as many as we did via the calls or have the chance to ask questions and really see the different personalities . We really feel like we got to know them all !
My only regret is that we didn ’ t record all of the calls . When someone asked if they could watch one of the calls because they couldn ’ t join , we realized we had missed a trick since we hadn ’ t recorded them . So , starting with the Dave Weinbach call , we recorded and posted the calls on YouTube for others to watch . To do so , visit the Pickleball England channel on YouTube . •