Pickle Ball Tournament. Why?

This past weekend I played in two pickle ball tournaments. The first one was intermediate men’s doubles on Saturday and intermediate mixed doubles on Sunday.

On Friday I was wondering to myself why I was doing this. A long time ago in a far away place I played competitive sports in high school. I was a small but slow running back in football. Wrestling, baseball and T&F were other sports in which I was somewhat above average.

A few years later I played in some local tennis tournaments, racquetball tournaments and though I have ridden thousands of miles on bike tours, I only did one bike race which I won. This assumes the definition of winning a bike race is the person who spends the most amount of time on the bike.

So a goal in 2025 was to play in a few pickle ball tournaments. Though I have been playing pickle ball for over two years at the intermediate level I had not played in any tournaments. I found out very quickly there is a world of difference between intermediate open play and intermediate play in a tournament. One reason for this is some players drop down a level to have a better chance of winning and some players who are really good but are just starting to play tournaments so they start at the intermediate level.

Many tournaments have events that are based on both age and on a PB rating scale. So essentially players competing with others at their own ability level and age. However, in this tournament, events were offered by level play with no age restriction. For this reason I knew I would be on of the oldest players. So, I was playing in tournaments which would have a few players close to my age, a whole lot I was old enough to be their dad and many I could have been their grandfather. Wow, that’s really weird.

There is a perception that pickle ball is a retirement sport. That may have been true at one time, but no longer is the case. The largest and fastest growing age group is 18-34 with an estimated 15 million players. The 35-44 age group is also growing almost doubling size in the past three years. Any active living community that is not developing and enhancing its pickle ball facilities will likely fall behind market share on a long-term basis. It’s simply math.

In this tournament there was over 400 players and most were in the above age groups.

I am used to playing with younger players as the club at which I play in Portland, OR, I play in the advanced intermediate group and am usually the oldest player by anywhere from 10 to 30+ years. I am as quick as most of the players at my level, the difference with younger players is they can sprint on every point. I can sprint 1-2 times a game so I try to use them wisely. Occasionally an opponent will hit a great shot and my mind will think “you can get that“. My body will respond with “well, no that’s not going to happen“.

I had recruited [begged] both of my partners to play with me in these events. Both are really good pickle ball players. More important to me, both are thoughtful intelligent successful people and really fun to hang with. I used to be really smart, but consistent with the current US trend, I may be dumbing down so spending time with really bright people is a treat.

I am thankful and appreciative both were willing to be my partners though C did tell me playing with me was part of an Eagle Scout project.

So how did we do. In both events we won enough games in the round robin to make it to the tournament bracket for that event.

In the mens event, in the first game of the pool play, I played poorly and C & I lost to a team that if we played 10 more times, we would have beaten at least 6 or 7 times. In another game, we had one of the best teams on the ropes but ending up losing 11-9. In the tournament bracket, we lost to the eventual overall winners.

In the mixed event, J and I could play with any team there. We lost because we played poorly at times missing shots we both normally make. Since J is also a grandparent, a young grandparent for the record. It was really fun being two grandparents competing and beating teams much younger than us. The teams that beat us ended up first, second and fourth and we gave the winners one of their toughest test.

In both cases, I don’t think age was a factor, we lost because the other team made more shots and we had too many unforced errors. That’s pickle ball. I also think if we spent more time playing together, we would compliment each other’s games better and have even better results.

In reality it does not matter if my partners and I won or loss, but it was important. Important in that anything in which one puts time and effort is important. It was also important to me because I did not want to let my partners down.

Though I wish we could have done better, [everyone who does not win the event says this, it was really fun to be in a competitive environment once again. All of us, regardless of age, should occasionally challenge ourselves one way or another. I have often heard other players tell me they do not want to play tournaments because they are too intense. But that’s exactly why one should. For the record, all the teams we played were nice people. For me personally, losing is being afraid to challenge myself because I am scared of the results.

Best thing that happened. I was visiting a friend from my pickle ball club who was playing women’s doubles. I told her I was one of the oldest players there. She asked how old I was and I asked her how old do you think I am? She said I think we are the same age, 63 or maybe you’re a year older, 64. Ahh, some moments are better than others.