3 ms·

https://www.ppatour.com/ https://www.ppatour.com/ Looks like there is pro pickle ball. Other pro athletes have been buying teams even

• notacoward 3y ago
  As I said on Mastodon recently: if it's good enough for Venus Williams and Carlos Alcaraz, no lesser player has much excuse for dismissing it.
  • deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  • deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  • echelon 3y ago
    If I had a choice between watching tennis and watching pickleball, I'd choose tennis. Not only is tennis far more athletic - almost like fencing with a ball - it sounds and looks so much better. In tennis, the audible whack at the point of contact with the ball is so satisfying. Pickleball sounds, by contrast, are squeaky and annoying. Pickleball is more accessible to new and older players, though. And that counts for something.
  • pclmulqdq 3y ago
    Venus Williams is in her 40's, after a long career as a tennis pro. I assure you that if she could still play high-level tennis, she would, but she is well past retirement age (and the associated physical condition) in that sport. Pickleball is the sport she can still play.
    • xpe 3y ago
      I suggest the following edits: 1. change: "high-level" -> "the highest professional levels". I'd wager Venus could play well easily until her 60s if not longer. There are many levels in tennis. There is are a range of competitive club levels. How often and how intensely she plays is another question. 2. Change: "the" -> "one" (w.r.t. "Pickleball is the sport she can still play.) Stepping back, in my view, some of the most interesting questions are psychological and personal. If you were to talk to a hundred former tennis pros about aging, what would they say? How much do they play? How does it feel? How do they shift their mindset as their bodies age? To what degree is tennis still fun for them?
    • rectang 3y ago
      Venus Williams just crashed out of the first round of the U.S. Open, but she was ranked 407 in the world prior to that. She’s plagued by injuries, beset by problems from the autoimmune disorder Sjögrens Syndrome and a shadow of what she once was, but she’s still playing “high-level tennis”.
• boomskats 3y ago
  It has had a ton of money thrown into it to make it a thing, due to the sheer size of the addressable market in the US and the disposable income that's up for grabs (due to being primarily played by older / less mobile people). Jack Sock is a good example of this.
  • pclmulqdq 3y ago
    I'm not sure if it's due to the size of the TAM, but there are a lot of pickleball players with a lot of money, and some of them are investing that money into making their hobby into a bigger sport. This sort of dynamic is keeping competitive bridge alive right now.