Coachella Valley Pickleball Tournament @ PGA West

0:01 probably the most addicting sport I've 0:03 ever played in my life pickleball it's a 0:06 very social sport you can play with any 0:08 ages go out and hit a ball and you never 0:11 want to go home 0:12 [Music] 0:17 I'm Kim Schultz and I'm the co-director 0:19 of the Coachella Valley Grand Prix 0:21 pickleball tournament which we're 0:22 hosting here at PGA West and we've been 0:25 doing pickleball tournaments for about 0:27 six years tennis tournaments and so on 0:30 for 20 some years we have 200 plus 0:32 entered in this tournament here 0:38 the growth of tennis has kind of 0:40 stagnated whereas pickleball has taken 0:42 off in meteoric fashion the game is 0:45 exploding the enthusiasm is there and 0:47 it's very social I mean there's a 0:49 definite camaraderie that you know if 0:51 you say pickleball anywhere people 0:52 connect with you and you're out there 0:55 having fun 0:56 when we moved out to the desert about 0:58 seven and a half years ago one of the 1:01 selling features where we bought was we 1:05 got these brand new pickleball courts I 1:07 played Sports my whole life and I was 1:08 very curious about pickleball and I got 1:11 the bug 1:13 it is a national thing although 1:15 Coachella was one of the first places to 1:18 embrace the game and it had great 1:20 success with a lot of crossover with 1:23 tennis players and therefore their 1:24 enthusiasm kind of trickled down into 1:26 their Club memberships and uh just taken 1:29 off from there 1:34 it's been the fastest growing sport 1:35 internationally for the last 15 20 years 1:37 even though the sport was invented by 1:40 those three guys on Bainbridge Island in 1:43 Washington state for their kids to keep 1:45 their kids busy it really took off among 1:47 the older people 1:49 well there you go the non-athlete can 1:51 come out basically with a semi-degree of 1:54 hand-eye coordination decent balance can 1:57 able to engage in the game at a very 1:59 interesting level and they can actually 2:01 see Improvement on a daily basis as your 2:04 hand eye gets better your control gets 2:06 better and the best part too is it's a 2:08 very social thing a person can just show 2:10 up at a public court by themselves not 2:13 knowing anybody put their paddle right 2:16 with the other paddles and you play into 2:18 a group of people you want to know how 2:20 long we've been playing together one 2:23 factor we're all in our 60s I'll be 61 2:26 on Monday okay 2:28 we've been playing for about a year but 2:31 we've only been playing together for 2:33 like a couple months these two we just 2:36 met and asked if we could play a game 2:38 and we just hooked up and we just loved 2:41 we had the game you grow pretty quick in 2:43 the sport I think I think we've all gone 2:45 a long way because I was just telling 2:47 her 2:48 um like 10 minutes ago I like playing 2:49 with people that are better than you 2:51 because it makes you play better and 2:53 she's much better than me and I already 2:55 improved my game she's just really kind 2:57 but 2:58 [Laughter] 3:05 okay well first of all you need the room 3:07 it's 44 feet long by 20 feet wide and 3:11 you need some area in the back because 3:12 you have to serve behind the Baseline uh 3:15 you can't step on the Baseline when you 3:17 serve so once your Net's set up then 3:19 we're going to measure a few things off 3:21 so we're gonna measure the center part 3:24 and just make a line on the outside 3:27 at 22 feet and that's where the Net's 3:30 going to sit from the middle we're going 3:32 to come out seven feet on either side as 3:34 you see this area here this is called 3:36 the non-volizole who serve Cross Court 3:39 that's why we need those lines there 3:41 this line here you can't go into this 3:44 area or step on the line unless the ball 3:47 is bounced in here and that prevents 3:50 people coming all the way up on a volley 3:53 walking in here and slamming it at their 3:55 opponent so it just makes the whole game 3:57 a little bit more fair for everybody 4:00 think it's obviously wonderful and we 4:03 also see there's a great opportunity 4:05 I've been playing pickleball for about 4:06 two and a half three years we like to 4:09 focus on bright fun colors 4:12 and of course our best selling design is 4:16 our man or woman with the martini which 4:19 is sort of embodies what we believe in 4:22 the pickleball high life which is really 4:24 you know to just have fun on the court 4:26 and at the end of the day to just have a 4:28 martini with them and have fun and live 4:30 the pickleball High Life 4:32 my name is Aaron Christopher I'm the 4:34 executive chef here at PGA West private 4:36 Clubhouse and we're celebrating a 4:38 pickleball tournament today we've 4:40 decided to go kind of a regional Mexican 4:42 menu today pickleball is huge here and 4:45 so is Wellness in general I've played 4:48 all kinds of sports growing up but then 4:50 once I started playing ping pong and 4:52 noticed the similarities you know run 4:53 them left kill him right run them right 4:55 kill them left just stuff like that I I 4:57 got hooked on it I just kind of fell 4:59 into it and I I really enjoy it and 5:02 myself honestly I'm so nervous before I 5:04 start playing I don't even can't even 5:05 think about it even 5:09 PJ West actually is known for golf in 5:12 addition to our golf we have 16 5:14 pickleball courts we cater to about 600 5:17 members a week being a pickleball Pro is 5:19 extremely fun 5:20 um you know a dream job my 5:22 responsibilities are you know running 5:24 round Robins for the members you know 5:27 holding Club championships I have four 5:29 weekly clinics I do I try to get more 5:32 members involved you know try to pull 5:34 some over from Tevis but yeah it's fun 5:36 I'm always out there on the court you 5:38 know just playing with the members or 5:40 giving private lessons it includes all 5:42 of that it includes a lot of court time 5:48 we just had the 16 pickleball courts 5:51 renovated two summers ago we did eight 5:53 courts over on the east side and then 5:55 the last summer we finished up the 5:57 renovation with the last eight you know 5:59 members are loving them and it's really 6:01 getting more members out to play so 6:04 what's next for pickleball I would say 6:06 Nationwide definitely more pickleball 6:08 courts all over the place I know it's 6:10 happening here in the Coachella Valley 6:12 but you know if you go two hours out to 6:14 LA it's sort of harder to find a 6:16 pickleball court so turning more of 6:18 those tennis courts into pickleball 6:20 courts you know that's not something the 6:22 tennis player would like to hear but you 6:24 know that's where the demand is how many 6:26 people are going to be using it at what 6:29 time and right now if it's a user-based 6:31 thing it's gonna fall in the way of 6:33 pickleball I mean the courts public 6:35 courts are just saturated people are 6:38 waiting you have 10 eight pickleball 6:40 courts you got 60 people waiting to go 6:42 you look over at gym equipment 6:44 not gonna see that number there when the 6:47 courts are going crazy they're they're 6:48 just being built a few years ago it was 6:51 65 courts nationally per month we're 6:54 popping up and out here in the Coachella 6:57 Valley we have I think four public 6:59 courts maybe five there's more to be 7:02 built uh these private communities these 7:05 gated communities a lot of them have 7:06 some up to 16 courts oh yeah yeah it's 7:10 happening right now you're going to see 7:12 school programs are going to be starting 7:13 there is an emphasis to make it an 7:16 Olympic sport if that goes into an 7:18 Olympic sport it's International and of 7:20 course it'll trickle down into all the 7:22 other you know levels of play into high 7:25 school sports too so 7:32 whether you like it or not