Pickleball Etiquette

This was forwarded to me by Tim Feehan who stumbled upon it. It made me smile, I hope it does the same for you.

The following written by Aspen Kern, Pickleball Pro:

Whenever the discussion about playing with other level players arises on the forum it usually heats up pretty fast, so I would like to mention something that happened to me years ago. I was drilling overheads with my coach (Dad) when 2 boys, probably 6 or 7 years old, came on the court and asked if they could join in. I knew my dad would say yes, he always does. One boy had glasses that kept falling off and if I remember right the other one had one shoe that was built up so he could walk better. They stayed for about 45 minutes and as usual my dad had us lose a game to them. When they walked over to their bikes one of them stopped and gave me a high five. On the drive home I mention to my dad that I thought I didn’t get a good practice in and I felt cheated. He told me, today you practiced compassion, other days you practice hitting a yellow plastic ball, you tell me which is more important? He said he was more proud of me for giving that boy a high five than if I had hit 100 overhead winners. Now when I think I only have time to play with my “level” I remember the boy with the loose glasses and the boy with the thick shoe sole, and I find comfort in not taking the sport so serious that I lose touch with what is really important. Have some fun out there guys !