Leveling the pickleball playing field
Guest Post: A better way of handling skill-based tournaments
Have you ever walked onto a court during a skill-based tournament and found the team on the other side 30, 40 or more years older or younger? If you have played more than a tournament or two, the answer is most likely “yes.” Other than when the younger team is just learning the game at the lower skill levels, human biology almost always determines the outcome.
Differences in reflexes, neural synapses, vision and muscle and skeletal conditioning give obvious advantages to youth. As the population of pickleball players of all ages continues to explode, it’s time to recognize these differences and level the playing field for all players.
Changing the structure of tournament brackets can eliminate the older demographic joining the “two and out” club, which tends to be a disincentive for many players to play in tournaments at all. Traditional skill tournaments will have a bigger negative impact on tournament participation going forward, as there is a large number of players nearing their upper 60’s and 70’s.
Happy Trails Resort in Surprise, Arizona, took a big step forward in addressing this by dividing their population into 50-64 and 65+. Players at each skill level play other teams in age groups 50 to 64 or 65+. This year their popular format attracted over 400 players. We know other tournaments have also started to use a similar approach. Last year USAPA recognized physical differences by separating the Nationals VI Open player population at the 50-year-old mark.
In Colorado Springs we have conducted three consecutive tournaments with five-year age divisions within skill brackets and plan to operate that way again this year for the first USAPA Great Plains Regional. This is an approved USAPA sanctioned tournament format. Players always seem to enjoy playing within their own age groups and skill levels. Try it – we’re sure you’ll love this way of leveling the pickleball playing field.
Submitted by Steve and Ramona Boone
