Pickleball will be a varsity HS sport

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clarification for the people who couldn’t read the whole half page article:

Pickleball is a corollary sport, with bocce, handball, add slow pitch softball. It’s part of the inclusive program, for students with disabilities or average fitness. It’s the athletic version of non-AP/DE classes.

No one’s stealing your precious D1 scholarship or Ivy League admit by playing pickleball. Sorry if you’re so bitter that not everyone else broke their child’s body for a sport because they don’t share your insecurity about your child’s academic readiness for your sense of entitlement to attend an elite college.

Any sport that has limited number of kids on the court and rewards better coordination and fitness will not end up being inclusive. The kids who actually get to play will all be in good shape with good hand eye coordination

+1
Kids that play racquet sports such as tennis will become good PB and take spots on the roster. It is like warming up for tennis season in the spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PB is another rich white & Asian sport, just like tennis or golf.

you literally need a plastic ball and two inexpensive paddles to play with on a free, public court. no lessons required, no stringing. it's as affordable as basketball.

Then please explain why I am not seeing a lot of POC playing PB. I play PB at Lewinsville park in McLean and East Potomac Center in DC and I rarely see black or Hispanic PB players. I only see either white or Asian PB players, young and old.

You are playing in McLean dear

That made me LOL!

Not many POC play PB. There are 76 PB courts in Fairfax County, and if you go to any of them at any given time, you rarely see POC and PB. That is unless you count Asians as POC. Go to any lifetime, Onelife, Village Pickle in Leesburg, PB in Tysons, and you hardly see any POC there play PB.

One thing about PB as a varsity sport in Montgomery, you can bet that 100% of team will be made up of tennis players that will also play varsity tennis in the spring. Anyone else will not stand a chance against them

Wait, when you go to areas that lack POC, you aren't seeing POC? That's really shocking

Are you saying POC don't live in wealthy neighborhoods of Fairfax County? Such a stupid comment.

PP defined POC as non-asian and non-white. Do you understand demographics or do you pretend that McLean is actually diverse

Are you saying that POC can't afford McLean?

Not all 76 PB courts in Fairfax are in McLean. Still not many POC, if any, play PB. Go to any PB courts at any given time and you can see for yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PB is another rich white & Asian sport, just like tennis or golf.

you literally need a plastic ball and two inexpensive paddles to play with on a free, public court. no lessons required, no stringing. it's as affordable as basketball.

Then please explain why I am not seeing a lot of POC playing PB. I play PB at Lewinsville park in McLean and East Potomac Center in DC and I rarely see black or Hispanic PB players. I only see either white or Asian PB players, young and old.

You are playing in McLean dear

That made me LOL!

Not many POC play PB. There are 76 PB courts in Fairfax County, and if you go to any of them at any given time, you rarely see POC and PB. That is unless you count Asians as POC. Go to any lifetime, Onelife, Village Pickle in Leesburg, PB in Tysons, and you hardly see any POC there play PB.

One thing about PB as a varsity sport in Montgomery, you can bet that 100% of team will be made up of tennis players that will also play varsity tennis in the spring. Anyone else will not stand a chance against them

Wait, when you go to areas that lack POC, you aren't seeing POC? That's really shocking

Are you saying POC don't live in wealthy neighborhoods of Fairfax County? Such a stupid comment.

PP defined POC as non-asian and non-white. Do you understand demographics or do you pretend that McLean is actually diverse

Are you saying that POC can't afford McLean?

Not all 76 PB courts in Fairfax are in McLean. Still not many POC, if any, play PB. Go to any PB courts at any given time and you can see for yourself.

https://datausa.io/profile/geo/mclean-va/

87.5% White or Asian, 2.25% black, 3% hispanic.

[Anonymous]

I have nothing against it, per se, but how will the court space work in terms of competing with tennis team needs for the space?


Tennis is a Spring sport, and because of that, the tennis courts sit idle in Fall and Winter season.

My child's team has one day per week optional fall practices (most kids go), so they are not idle, but since it is just one day, I am sure it can be coordinated.

[Anonymous]

Girls flag football is a varsity sport as well-about time they branch out from the traditional sports.

[Anonymous]

+1
Kids that play racquet sports such as tennis will become good PB and take spots on the roster. It is like warming up for tennis season in the spring

No, it really isn't. I have nothing against pickleball, and play it myself, but it does not correlate well to tennis skills. It's a fun thing to do in and of itself, and I have no opposition to PB teams. But serious tennis players will not be doing it to "warm up" for a tennis season (only if they feel like doing it for fun).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PB is another rich white & Asian sport, just like tennis or golf.

you literally need a plastic ball and two inexpensive paddles to play with on a free, public court. no lessons required, no stringing. it's as affordable as basketball.

Then please explain why I am not seeing a lot of POC playing PB. I play PB at Lewinsville park in McLean and East Potomac Center in DC and I rarely see black or Hispanic PB players. I only see either white or Asian PB players, young and old.

because they don't want to play/are not interested?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Girls flag football is a varsity sport as well-about time they branch out from the traditional sports.

In MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clarification for the people who couldn’t read the whole half page article:

Pickleball is a corollary sport, with bocce, handball, add slow pitch softball. It’s part of the inclusive program, for students with disabilities or average fitness. It’s the athletic version of non-AP/DE classes.

No one’s stealing your precious D1 scholarship or Ivy League admit by playing pickleball. Sorry if you’re so bitter that not everyone else broke their child’s body for a sport because they don’t share your insecurity about your child’s academic readiness for your sense of entitlement to attend an elite college.

Any sport that has limited number of kids on the court and rewards better coordination and fitness will not end up being inclusive. The kids who actually get to play will all be in good shape with good hand eye coordination

+1
Kids that play racquet sports such as tennis will become good PB and take spots on the roster. It is like warming up for tennis season in the spring.

Why would they play varsity PB and practice bad tennis habits, instead of... practicing tennis?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clarification for the people who couldn’t read the whole half page article:

Pickleball is a corollary sport, with bocce, handball, add slow pitch softball. It’s part of the inclusive program, for students with disabilities or average fitness. It’s the athletic version of non-AP/DE classes.

No one’s stealing your precious D1 scholarship or Ivy League admit by playing pickleball. Sorry if you’re so bitter that not everyone else broke their child’s body for a sport because they don’t share your insecurity about your child’s academic readiness for your sense of entitlement to attend an elite college.

Any sport that has limited number of kids on the court and rewards better coordination and fitness will not end up being inclusive. The kids who actually get to play will all be in good shape with good hand eye coordination

So you're saying that the schools need to run more sports or meet demand, which is... what they are doing. This is not a new thing. MCPS has had corollary sports for many years. People are just freaking out because pickleball has a funny name.

[Anonymous]

I play both pickleball and tennis.

Any tennis player starts pickleball way ahead of the learning curve (which is not that long) from non-tennis players. It's an advantage to know the footwork and how to set yourself up for things like volleys and overheads.

So far, the only way pickleball has interfered in my tennis game is that it takes some time for me to re-orient my distance from the ball. After playing a lot of PB, I find that I get way to close to the ball when I switch to tennis.

I'm a life long 4.0 tennis player and I actually think pickleball is a real sport and does take some skill. Glad to see it's now a MCPS sport. I will encourage my DS, who is on the tennis team, to play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Girls flag football is a varsity sport as well-about time they branch out from the traditional sports.

In MCPS?

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/news/bulletin/2024-04/april-24-2024/mcps-to-pilot-girls-flag-football-program-in-partnership-with-the-baltimore-ravens-and-under-armour/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not many POC play PB. There are 76 PB courts in Fairfax County, and if you go to any of them at any given time, you rarely see POC and PB. That is unless you count Asians as POC. Go to any lifetime, Onelife, Village Pickle in Leesburg, PB in Tysons, and you hardly see any POC there play PB.

One thing about PB as a varsity sport in Montgomery, you can bet that 100% of team will be made up of tennis players that will also play varsity tennis in the spring. Anyone else will not stand a chance against them

That’s a silly comment. Pickleball is basically doubles game…plenty of people can become great at pickleball that would suck at tennis (or don’t play tennis) because you have to move so much less.

Again…it’s the equivalent of saying tennis players can easily become the best ping pong players because there is a racquet and a net.

PB is also a single game, and it is also very physically demanding, not as much as single in tennis but there are so much court to cover, unlike double PB where non-athletic people just "dink" the ball into the kitchen area.

If you're a competitive tennis player, you get really good at PB in less then one month, and I can say this from personal experience. I had a 11 UTR tennis rating when I started playing PB and it took me three weeks to get good with PB. I can hit topspin and serve at 60MPH and easily beat up 5.0 PB player. That's why you see former tennis players like Jack Sock and Chris Haworth started PB in less than a year and they already beat Ben Johns .

Well yes a good D1 tennis player could be top 20 in the world if they dedicated a little time

If that's true, then they would dedicate a little time to it because there actually is some money to be made in pickleball right now. Nobody cares about dime-a-dozen D1 tennis players...nor honestly do they care much about pro tennis players ranked #20 or less. Basically, only the top .1% of pro tennis players suck up all the $$$s...so again, one would think a pro player would turn their attention to pickleball.

BTW, pickleball will be a D1 sport within 5 years. It's already in the works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not many POC play PB. There are 76 PB courts in Fairfax County, and if you go to any of them at any given time, you rarely see POC and PB. That is unless you count Asians as POC. Go to any lifetime, Onelife, Village Pickle in Leesburg, PB in Tysons, and you hardly see any POC there play PB.

One thing about PB as a varsity sport in Montgomery, you can bet that 100% of team will be made up of tennis players that will also play varsity tennis in the spring. Anyone else will not stand a chance against them

That’s a silly comment. Pickleball is basically doubles game…plenty of people can become great at pickleball that would suck at tennis (or don’t play tennis) because you have to move so much less.

Again…it’s the equivalent of saying tennis players can easily become the best ping pong players because there is a racquet and a net.

PB is also a single game, and it is also very physically demanding, not as much as single in tennis but there are so much court to cover, unlike double PB where non-athletic people just "dink" the ball into the kitchen area.

If you're a competitive tennis player, you get really good at PB in less then one month, and I can say this from personal experience. I had a 11 UTR tennis rating when I started playing PB and it took me three weeks to get good with PB. I can hit topspin and serve at 60MPH and easily beat up 5.0 PB player. That's why you see former tennis players like Jack Sock and Chris Haworth started PB in less than a year and they already beat Ben Johns .

Well yes a good D1 tennis player could be top 20 in the world if they dedicated a little time

If that's true, then they would dedicate a little time to it because there actually is some money to be made in pickleball right now. Nobody cares about dime-a-dozen D1 tennis players...nor honestly do they care much about pro tennis players ranked #20 or less. Basically, only the top .1% of pro tennis players suck up all the $$$s...so again, one would think a pro player would turn their attention to pickleball.

BTW, pickleball will be a D1 sport within 5 years. It's already in the works.

Not sure what you are attempting to say here but one example is Collin Shick who played Ben Johns in the final of his first pickleball event

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not many POC play PB. There are 76 PB courts in Fairfax County, and if you go to any of them at any given time, you rarely see POC and PB. That is unless you count Asians as POC. Go to any lifetime, Onelife, Village Pickle in Leesburg, PB in Tysons, and you hardly see any POC there play PB.

One thing about PB as a varsity sport in Montgomery, you can bet that 100% of team will be made up of tennis players that will also play varsity tennis in the spring. Anyone else will not stand a chance against them

That’s a silly comment. Pickleball is basically doubles game…plenty of people can become great at pickleball that would suck at tennis (or don’t play tennis) because you have to move so much less.

Again…it’s the equivalent of saying tennis players can easily become the best ping pong players because there is a racquet and a net.

PB is also a single game, and it is also very physically demanding, not as much as single in tennis but there are so much court to cover, unlike double PB where non-athletic people just "dink" the ball into the kitchen area.

If you're a competitive tennis player, you get really good at PB in less then one month, and I can say this from personal experience. I had a 11 UTR tennis rating when I started playing PB and it took me three weeks to get good with PB. I can hit topspin and serve at 60MPH and easily beat up 5.0 PB player. That's why you see former tennis players like Jack Sock and Chris Haworth started PB in less than a year and they already beat Ben Johns .

Well yes a good D1 tennis player could be top 20 in the world if they dedicated a little time

If that's true, then they would dedicate a little time to it because there actually is some money to be made in pickleball right now. Nobody cares about dime-a-dozen D1 tennis players...nor honestly do they care much about pro tennis players ranked #20 or less. Basically, only the top .1% of pro tennis players suck up all the $$$s...so again, one would think a pro player would turn their attention to pickleball.

BTW, pickleball will be a D1 sport within 5 years. It's already in the works.

Not sure what you are attempting to say here but one example is Collin Shick who played Ben Johns in the final of his first pickleball event

Oh he’s also in med school taking on the top pickleball players