PickleballENGLAND
By Karen Mitchell
DIRECTOR , PICKLEBALLENGLAND
U . S . HALO EFFECT IS HELPING GROWTH IN ENGLAND
We ended 2021 with 2,136 active PickleballEngland ( pbE ) members . A fantastic milestone for our nonprofit organisation , still in the application process to be recognised as the national governing body for the sport in England . PbE was launched in January 2019 and as I prepare for our third annual general meeting , I am in a reflective mood .
What are the big things that are driving this growth in England ?
• Passionate players are growing the game at grass roots . Players are willing to put themselves out for others by starting a club and building participation numbers . It ’ s no coincidence there is a parallel in growth between the number of clubs and our membership . We now
Members of London Pickleball including Louise Stephens ( sitting on the right ).
have 200 clubs listed on our Club Locator . Some enthusiastic club leaders are putting on more sessions to cope with demand . Recently , Louise Stephens of London Pickleball had three sessions in one day !
• Adding County Representatives ( CR ) to the pbE structure . These 24 volunteers are helping to create growth by supporting clubs , creating awareness of the sport within their counties and by supporting their Regional Directors in the twoway communication process .
• Regional Directors are doing whatever it takes to support and drive growth . We now have six Regional Directors and I ’ m excited to see what impact our two newest directors will have on our team . Sue Harris ( South East ) has the largest number of clubs and players in her region . Sue is piloting a new inter-club competition this quarter . She has also taken the lead in developing several new pbE policies . South West ’ s newly appointed Richard Thoms was previously the CR for Hampshire and has been running his own club and coaching pickleball at three David Lloyd locations . East Midlands ’ Jeff van der Hulst is also helping to grow pickleball in Indonesia again while he ’ s there through April . West Midlands ’ Sam Basford , Tournament Director for pbE ’ s English OPEN and Nationals , and a recently certified IPTPA Master Teaching Professional , will facilitate IPTPA Level 1 courses and certify Level 2 IPTPA coaches . North East ’ s Val Vladea works for Wilson in the sports industry . North West ’ s legendary Elaine Shallcross is an exemplary leader who is developing her region and identifying talent for CR roles and leaders who can demonstrate the game and support new clubs .
• Technical infrastructure established by Frank Arico . First , our website provides individual registration and club registration forms . Those forms are effectively our database of members , enabling us to communicate and track our growth . Second , our event registration system , designed and built by Frank , enables us to set up events and manage registrations for the events . We processed 1,340 registrations across 34 events in 2021 ! Third , our PickleballEngland