Raising a Racquet

Cliff Drysdale Management Vice President of Operations, Scott McCulloch, caught up with pickleball trailblazer Sarah Ansboury to chat pickleball, the evolution of racquet sports and why we can’t seem to get enough of this growing game.

In recent years, there has been a notable shift in the sports industry with the emergence and growth of racquet sports. With a mission to bring maximum value to our customers, Cliff Drysdale Management has followed this evolution by introducing Padel and Pickleball at many of our facilities worldwide, as well as forging new partnerships with racquet sports leaders. Most recently, we partnered with Sarah Ansboury to help bring pickleball resources and playing opportunities to our customers and employees across the country. As a racquet sports master with a passion for educating and inspiring the growth of pickleball, Sarah was a natural fit.

Sarah Ansboury Pickleball 2
SCOTT MCCULLOCH

So, tell me how you made the transition from tennis to pickleball.

SARAH ANSBOURY

I grew up playing tennis my whole life. My mom was a teaching pro and I was holding a racquet by the time I was four years old. While I was teaching at a club in the Northwest, I noticed a lot of our members had started using the club’s basketball courts to teach pickleball. A few had tried to get me to join them but I was teaching tennis full-time, playing competitively, and I really had no interest in the sport. Finally, one of the members convinced me to play in a tournament they were having next month. I didn’t know any of the rules or how to keep score, but I actually went on to win the tournament. Before long I was competing monthly and within a year I was playing more pickle-ball than tennis. After two years, I decided to go full-time pickleball. We hit the road and traveled across the US teaching pickleball until we settled in Hilton Head in 2018.

SCOTT MCCULLOCH

Ironically, it was around that time that pickleball just started exploding across the US. It’s been on the radar for a while, but it wasn’t until the last two to three years that it hit a boiling point. What do you contribute to the explosion of pickleball across the US, and even the world?

SARAH ANSBOURY

I like to say it’s an easy game to learn but a difficult sport to master. Because of that ridiculously quick learning curve, players can pick it up very fast. We’ll have people that come out knowing nothing about pickleball and within ten minutes they’re playing. Unlike tennis that has many different motions with very specific contact points, pickleball is much more compact swings on a smaller court with a lighter ball, so we can have someone playing a game within an hour of learning, which is very unique for any sport. Pickleball is also very social. With a smaller court, everyone is much closer together and games go by quickly so you’re constantly rotating and meeting new players within the same amount of time that it takes to play a set in tennis.

SCOTT MCCULLOCH

So when we look at playing tennis and pickleball, do you see them as complementing one another? Do you think people can mix between both?

SARAH ANSBOURY

Absolutely. The skills of both sports complement each other. For example, playing pickleball will often help your volley skills on a tennis court and sometimes we’ll even use pickleball to teach younger kids how to play tennis since they’re working with a slower ball and a smaller racquet. In both sports, you need dynamic footwork, compact swings and hand-eye coordination so the skillsets translate very well. At our club, our tennis and pickleball staff work collaboratively because we have a lot of members that will go to tennis drills one day and play pickleball the next, and this mix has proven beneficial to both their tennis and pickleball games.

SCOTT MCCULLOCH

As we know, tennis has been programmed, taught and played for so many years, but these norms are still developing for pickleball. What would you say are some key differences in the current tennis and pickleball experiences?

SARAH ANSBOURY

For so long, pickleball courts were not accessible so people would go to parks and tape down lines and drop-in play became the norm. Drop-in play is still very prevalent in a lot of areas, but now that pickle-ball is growing so immensely, racquet facilities have started offering lessons or clinics similar to tennis. At our facility, the pickleball programming is modeled the same way as tennis; we have daily clinics, introductory classes and Round Robin offerings every week. Most players now have to travel somewhere or go online for information about pickleball if the sport is not immediately accessible at their home club. So over the next few years, I see pickleball programming looking very close to tennis programming to keep up with the growth.

SCOTT MCCULLOCH

That reminds me of a street basketball game. Pickleball’s learning curve is so straightforward, that even people who have never taken a lesson can pick it up immediately. I think this often leads to the perception that pickleball is not necessarily a “programming” sport and pros will expect members to participate in play options over lessons or clinics. What would you say that coaches need to understand when they look at designing pickleball programming at their facility?

SARAH ANSBOURY

We have to remember that pickleball is a sport of its own, especially when it comes to tennis. There is definitely overlap from the tennis industry in our programming because they can correlate to pickleball, but a big mistake I see is treating pickleball too much like tennis; we use tennis terms, tennis strategies and don’t recognize it as a separate entity. Instructors need to truly immerse themselves in the sport so they can understand pickleball for what it is. Especially when building a program from scratch, you have to show the community that you care about the sport. If you really put in the effort, every club has great potential with pickleball because people are eager to learn and don’t currently have a lot of options to do so.

SCOTT MCCULLOCH

What do you see for the evolution of pickleball in the coming years?

SARAH ANSBOURY

We need more facilities playing pickleball – plain and simple. Facilities play a huge role in the growth of any sport, and as more people have access to the sport, it will continue to grow. Access also means youth development. Kids today aren’t going to random parks and taping lines like adults, so once we start offering pickleball lessons, clinics and even summer camps, we’re going to see kids getting involved which will lead to university-level pickleball, more professional opportunities and even the Olympics in the long run.

SCOTT MCCULLOCH

Lastly, an added benefit of our partnership will be adding more pickleball camps and experiences across the country. For those who have never attended a tennis or pickleball camp, can you share a few words about what they can expect?

SARAH ANSBOURY

I think the biggest selling point is getting to meet and play with new people and learn alongside one another. Camps are really about immersing yourself in the sport and learning a lot in a relatively short time frame. I always tell my campers to write down the things they want to learn or get the most out of their upcoming camp, and make sure to leave with those questions answered.