Around the World Continued
preparation for the Rio Olympics . In 2022 , the first World Pickleball Games for country teams will take place and Pickleball England wants to send a strong team . We need to secure funding to create a kit for the team and to cover the expense to take the team to the Games . We would also like to secure funding to create a performance coaching environment for the team in preparation for the Games .
So how are we doing recruiting badminton players ? In December , we sent a survey to our members to find out more about them . One of the questions asked was about previous racquet sports played , and we found that 46 percent had played badminton . If that statistic were representative of the whole membership base , that would mean we have just under 600 badminton players already — another 129,400 to go !
The survey hasn ’ t closed yet , but other early results are interesting . We wanted to understand whether pickleball helped people become more active . The responses to date indicate that once players find pickleball , they are likely to be more active . The “ Very active ” response before and after rose from 28 to 50
percent , and “ Moderately active ” and “ Occasionally active ” players became very or moderately active . This reinforces the notion that we all know : that pickleball is good for your health .
One of the votes at January ’ s AGM was to introduce County Representatives . These are volunteers who will focus on promoting and growing the game in their counties in conjunction with the Regional Directors . If we saw a nice membership lift from the introduction of six Regional Directors , imagine the lift that 22 County Representatives can achieve !
Meanwhile , we are still in the grip of another wave of COVID-19 , with most areas of England in Tier 4 , which means stay at home . Leisure centers and courts are closed . We haven ’ t had any tournaments in England or Europe since last March . Our biggest challenge is trying to forecast when we can plan events to engage players , and we need events to create revenue for us to be able to invest in growing pickleball . With vaccines being rolled out , we are optimistic . Long term , we are very excited about the growth of the game . •