What is World team Pickleball. I'm here with Laura Fenton Kovanda. She's a
three-time US Open gold medalist but more importantly she is the founder of this
crazy great concept World Team Pickleball. Laura tell us what it's all
about. Well four years ago I originated World
Team Pickleball in Columbus Ohio. And what it was when I was introduced to this game
was a group of friends getting together being on a team and playing at that time
in leagues. And people absolutely loved it! So I knew I would eventually I want to
create this tournament. So basically it's playing with your friends at the same
skill level in your same age group having a lot of fun. It's a lot of
social camaraderie. They can actually coach each other or whether that's good
or bad they can coach each other between points at timeouts. They can yell they can
scream whatever. So becomes a lot of fun in this environment. So it sounds like a
big party with a lot of pickleball. It's a lot a lot
of fun. Yes! Okay so a team, what does a team consists of? A team is eight people
so there's four men and four women on a team. And whether you're a 3.0, 3.5
a 4.0, 4.5 or as they say 5.0 you're 5.0 it doesn't matter.
And I have those broken up in two age divisions as well. So if you're 49 and
under, 50 plus, 60 plus, 70 plus there's a place for everybody to play. So
skill levels and age group so that sounds good so far. Now do you have to
enter as an entire team? Very good question let's say sometimes maybe you
go oh gosh it can be hard to get four men and four women together and maybe
you don't have enough to create a team there are going to be people who can
register as an individual because maybe they just started playing and they don't
have the circle of friends. They don't know anybody so they are allowed to sign
up as well as an individual but they could then join a team we'll help them
find a team and we'll help teams find extra players if you are in
need of those as well. Sounds great now fun is fun but pickleball pickleball.
How much pickleball do I get to play? oh wow! So your team, every team is
guaranteed a minimum of 9, nine, matches minimum okay. Every match is
three courts so you're going to play one court of of women's doubles, a court of
men's doubles and a court of mixed doubles against another team. So let's
say CJ's team is playing my team and I'm the captain. Every team has to have a
captain they will register first. When they register for the tournament and
then the teammates will register underneath that. But the captain will
also determine who's going to be playing on what court. So CJ has no idea who I'm
putting on my court and I have no idea who she's putting on her court. So the
goal of these matches are to win at least two out of those three courts. To
win that match. However, every game every point every court every match is going
to matter. Because you could be playing a lot of pickleball over those five days.
Wow! so nine matches. Minimum. I'm going to get some time as well in
between pickleball or is this something going where I've got to be there all day and you know
like a regular tournament? Good point. So all of your matches will be scheduled. So either your
team will play all your matches like one day all in the morning back back to back
or all in the afternoon or all in the evening so you will have time to do
other things. Enjoying Arizona at that time in December, which is beautiful by
the way is beautiful. But your team will also know at least a week in advance as
to what your schedule is. Okay so right now if I know nothing else it's pickleball
in Arizona in early December sounds pretty appealing to me. So I'm going to
have some time away. What else is going to be going on
at the courts besides pickleball? We have a lot of extra little events going on.
And I'm not going to share all of them but we'll have some challenges going on. I
going to be giving some free clinics. We have what we call Grand Central Station. Where
this is being held in Sun City West and
Arizona at the Liberty Courts. And they have an area that is right in the middle
of these courts where everybody trust me is going to really enjoy hanging out
for what we have in that area. So camaraderie, pickleball, Arizona in
December food and drink. We have a very nice social event. Food and drink yes.
A social event for all the entrants. It's live entertainment. It's not a band. I'll
say that but live entertainment that you will really enjoy and that's free to
everybody who entered. As well as a beautiful World Team Pickleball jacket.
Okay so this sounds like it is the place to be. It will be fun. The first week in December.
Where do we need to go if we need more information? You want to go to
WWW.Worldteampickleball.com. All of these things that we've been talking about are
right there on the website as well as the link to register. If you have any
questions our email is on there as well. Please feel free to email us at
info@worldteampickleball.com. So any questions you have we're more than happy
to answer. Okay so I don't know about you but I know a couple of things.
This lady is first of all great pickleball player but second-to-none
she's so much fun to be around! And okay I'm kinda calm right now. That this is going to be
an event that you don't want to miss! So first week in December in Arizona. Yep
we're going to see you there six through ten all right we'll see you in Arizona
We're going to see you there. Dec 6-10!