Tennis vs Pickleball Wars
 

I have played tennis since I was 16, so that's over 50 years. I still play competitively, but I'm probably down to a 3.5 level now. I picked up pickleball about 4 years ago and am advancing to where I'm at a higher level in pickleball than tennis. I personally believe there's room for both and both games are getting more players.


The problems arise because pickleball players simply want tennis to go away. I am a snowbird and live in an HOA in the winter. The leaders of the pickleball club are toxic people and will do anything possible to piss tennis players off. One of them is now on the HOA board and another is now Chairman of the Rules Compliance. I have tried to be nice to these two, but I've had it.



It's like Pickleball clubs have developed a strategic plan to displace tennis wherever. In several HOA's around here, they have basically run the tennis players out by being nasty. I played in a pickleball tournament this weekend, and this one pair was bragging about how they had just about run tennis out of their HOA. My partner and I kicked their asses.



How does a person deal with these toxic assholes. I just want to play both sports and have fun. I didn't move in here to be at war.

fortunately the US allows us to keep and bear arms. :)

I saw "HOA" and knew all I needed to know. A bunch of people with ego driven personalities or pure narcissists who basically believe everything must be the way they see it, or it's wrong, and they will do everything in their power to do so. They also tend to take the smallest amount of power given to them, and push it as hard and as far as they can.

How do you deal with them? That depends... how malicious are you capable of being? After beating them thoroughly I would have casually mentioned that I was actually a tennis player before picking up the much easier sport of pickleball. Nice double whammy to their fragile egos.

HOA's have a ton to offer for certain people. My 86 year old mom loves hers for all the reasons you'd expect. It's the CLUBS she's joined at the "club house" that are a challenge for the reasons you've explained. Even her Quilting Club has the same power struggles as bike clubs! It's ridiculous.... I joke to her, "Just go have fun, Ma. No fist fights, and for love of Pete, don't bring your knife!"

All you can do is do your best to get along with both groups.....and continue to kick their collective asses on the court. After all, it's all about "scoreboard" in the end.

Real men play lawn darts. Tennis and pickleball are for wimps. :p

I second what Dan said. Frustrated wannabe dictators and control freaks. Is the head of your HOA addressed as Mein Fuhrer?

When I took off my jacket to play, I was wearing a shirt from a tennis tournament last year, so they were aware right away. That was before we beat them.

Ahh, even better. Pure icing on the cake at that point.

Just like politicians. It all starts in 3rd Grade as Chalkboard Monitor, then grows from there.

My latest problem with the HOA happened Friday. I was playing tennis, and HOA maintenance sprayed me with herbicide. I quit playing, immediately, chastised the sprayer, and walked across the street to report it and complain to the HOA. I then walked home because I couldn't ride my bike. I went into anaphylactic shock and ended up in the ER.

sounds like a lawsuit to me.:)

That must have been one hell of a herbicide! What were they spraying?

Diquat

In discussion with my therapist, he basically exclaimed about 1 in 6 are on the cluster B Personality spectrum.

My Biological father being 1 of them and my grandfather on my mothers side.

If you want manage/deal with such a personality you can look into the 'grey rock' method.

There are soulless entities in this world, so knowing what your dealing with is half the battle.

Well, for what it's worth, before growing up into a fat, old guy, I was once ranked 3rd in my age bracket (11-13) in Nor Cal in tennis in my league.....so although I'm pulling for peace in the situation, I'm leaning your tennis side........

Pickle ball to me, looks like Tennis Light. Like Cornhole is to actual horseshoes. The puffier side of the sport. Can't spill the Zin, you know!

I play most other racquet sports, just not much Pickleball. I help conduct tournaments (half a day to 3-day ones with about 300+ players), flex leagues, ladders lasting 3-4 months tc.,. Because of surging demand for Pickleball, I find myself organizing those more and more throughout the year. The next 4 months are busy, with over 8 tournies across the 6 Southeastern states. I love to travel and visit more remote places up North/West/SouthWest etc, so let me know how the scene is at your place and I'd love to come over :)

Back on topic - whenever I meet people like you mentioned, I tell them my story. This is just one activity among many other worthy ones, and being too fanatic about one sport is not going to help them much. Most are jolly people, but if they seem too anal about only-Pickleball and act like Tennis has to go, I ask them to visualize them and their family stumbling across that venue/park/courts, and the kids wanting to try out Tennis and find Pickleball not to their fancy; then I ask them would they still like to be selfish and force/go with Pickleball-only?? :)

Also, one year to the week, I was in Colombia, SC trying helping a friend transport back a KTM 890R. Seller was an avid biker, did TAT, TOD, SCAR a few times and a famous Youtuber - an awesome guy!! His elderly mother-in-law was visiting from up North and i had on our own Pickleball jersey and we got to talk about the sport and how the scene is up there etc., She was so happy about getting a chance to go out and discover other players, meet people and make friends. I agree it may be more practical for some people, but it should be an inclusive sport (all juniors under-19 play free in our tournies :) ) but should not be filled with aggressive older players who want to drive other athletes to extinction. That does not bode well.