hey everyone is rusty from pickleball channel with a pickleball news update
the question for today is pickleball back now where I live I'm coming to you
from my home office because there's still stay-at-home orders but we are
seeing many many places across the country where local authorities are
starting to lift restrictions and allow more and more pickleball players to get
back on the courts each city and state have their own unique situation so while
we're seeing some courts open back up many places are still closed to
pickleball in California the governor did not include pickleball on the
approved list of activities prompting many facilities in the Golden State to
remain closed
the villages in Florida is known as one of the country's largest
and most active pickleball communities and was recently praised by Florida's
governor and even the president for how well they've done during the Covid 19
crisis however they're still playing it safe with courts locked and nets down
however many facilities across the country are actually opening back up for
pickleball but with restrictions some of the common
guidelines we're seeing our general social distancing limiting the size of
the groups and servers will bring their own ball that only they touch in places
like Canyon Lake California they're requiring players to also wear facemasks
and only play singles and these rules and guidelines have been a little bit
challenging for some of the predominantly senior members of Canyon
Lake yeah since we can't play doubles the majority of the community in Canyon
Lake the pickleball community they are not playing pickleball the courts have
been dead and like I said this morning I was over there and there were four
people actually there were only three and they were just sitting around
talking they were social distancing that they were just sitting around so no one
playing other communities like Collier County Florida have gotten pickleball
courts up and running with fewer restrictions the pickleball facilities
at East Naples Community Park which is home to the
Minto US Open pickleball championships has opened back up allowing local
pickleball players to get back on the courts Barry illiams director at
Collier County Parks and Recreation Department tells us quote local
pickleball enthusiasts happily return to their routines but we're cognizant of
the CDC guidelines and ensuring social distancing not interacting in groups
greater than 10 and staff have implemented increased sanitizing of the
area to ensure patrons safety and East Naples is not the only place we are
seeing pickleball play begin to return all across the country from the west and
places like Las Vegas Nevada and st. George Utah to the east in Middletown
New Jersey from the Midwest in Michigan to the south and Georgia and even other
areas in Florida these locations are breaking out their paddles to get back
on the courts again even some local news stations are covering the comeback
players are ready to pick up where they left off players and Durango Hills heard
about the reopening and as you can see right there they could not wait to get
back on these courts the USAPA has continued to monitor the situation
across the country and even communicated with other national governing bodies in
order to develop their response recently they further delayed their sanctioning
of tournaments until June 2nd and they've created a guide to safe return
to play document in order to help players stay safe and stay healthy as
they head back to play on the courts so the USAPA has been you know working
diligently and have been in communication with several of the other
national governing bodies for for various sports and collectively were
we're collaborating and we are we're putting forward information that we feel
is in the best interest in the safety of our participants and you know together
we're we're very hopeful and encouraged that we'll be through this situation
here shortly and everyone will begin to return to place shortly there is a
growing excitement as more and more people come out to play pickleball
in fact many officials are cautiously optimistic and simultaneously nervous
that too many people will come out but not follow the local guidelines for safe
return to play and risk getting shut down again
in fact some locations actually have had to return to tougher restrictions
because too many people came out to the same place they did not follow those
local guidelines for social distancing and they got shut down again again we
would just encourage for those folks that are in that position and do make
the decision that they want to return to play they do so responsibly follow your
the rules of your local clubs and facilities and obviously you know all of
the information that that is being provided by the by your local state and
health officials I know that I am definitely excited to see these initial
steps as things start to return to normal but things are very different
from place to place so please let's do this smart and safe and we are so
excited to see everyone eventually back on the courts again but until then
wherever you are stay safe stay healthy and stay connected
you