Getting together and getting better: Series of pickleball socials develop community around the growing sport

LENOX — It was late in the afternoon last Wednesday and it looked like there wouldn’t be any rain as Leia Miller and her team set up outside the six pickleball courts at Wyndhurst Golf & Club. It would be a great evening for pickleball — though to talk to any player almost any day is a great day for pickleball.

“The biggest thing is just getting bodies on the court, and meeting people,” she said as she laid out the name-tags and double-checked her sign-ins on a clipboard.

This was the most recent of the “Sunset Socials” run by Leia Miller Pickleball, an independent coaching business that offers private lessons, clinics, retreats and events around the region. This past summer, on the third Wednesday of the month, she began a series of light-hearted social events that include a clinic, game play, and an after-session meetup at a local restaurant. It’s a way to organize the passion that pickleball players have for the game, and build a community that can find each other.

“There are so many people who just go play and leave and don’t remember anyone’s name,” she said. “But then there are people who met each other and now they’re going to lunch and forming their own little groups. This is putting people outside their comfort zone to meet some new players.”

Once everyone had checked in and were standing on the court, Miller laid out the program. There were 22 players altogether. After a quick selfie, they were divided up by broad skill level to different stations.

Over on one of the far courts, LMP coach Michelle Johnson and LMP’s intern Hunter Shepardson were leading drills to improve resets, the skill of absorbing an opponents shots and maneuvering to get from the baseline to the kitchen line, up in the no-go zone near the net.

Johnson said drills like this are appealing because players quickly realize that the kinds of shots they want to make are just within reach. “That next little carrot is always dangling right in front of you,” she said. “That’s what’s addicting about it. You can continuously improve.”

Amid the rhythm of coaches offering guidance and the chit-chat of players waiting their turn, occasional eruptions of noise came from the other side, where Miller was running the “challenge court.” Here is where players got three tries to win a point against Miller, a Level 2 Certified pro by the International Pickleball Teaching Professional Association, who got the better of most. But whenever a player succeeded everyone raised a cheer.

Tim Smith of Hancock was one of the serious players who gave her a run for the money. Standing off to the side as the group took their turns, he said he loved how pickleball “gets the competitiveness out of you,” and how easy it is to meet players and find the right level.

He enjoys working with Leia on correcting different parts of his game, all those adjustments to technique and strategy from footwork to shot selection that add up to the chess match the game can be.

“You can step onto a court and start hitting the ball over and play,” Smith said. “And every time you play you get better quickly. But then it kind of plateaus, and you have to work really hard to get to that next level.”

On a nearby court, LMP coach Rob Coco was working on overhand lobs, the distance shots to move your opponent back from the net. During a break, Coco said he had been a racquetball player for 25 years, but around the pandemic followed along as most of the people he played with moved to the new sport because it was “easier on the shoulders and knees” and welcomed beginners. It’s a different vibe than tennis, where you have to match skill levels, or golf where you can’t easily just show up and join a foursome.

“There’s something inherently social about pickleball,” he said in between rotations. “If you go to another state and find a pickleball court you’ll generally find people to be very welcoming. It’s a game where you routinely play with new people.”

The clinic portion of the event wrapped up, and the players gathered the scattered balls and put them in the bins. Then they broke into groups for a round-robin style tournament of steady play, the pock-pock-pock filling the air, interjected with celebratory whoops, frustrated cries at misplayed shots, and plenty of good-natured joking about missed chances and surprising winners.

For Leia, this is the process of building the sport, and its good business. She got into the game five years ago after seeing how much fun and confidence players came off the court with, and worked for her coaching certificates even though she had no prior experience in racquet sports. She is now the head pro at both Wyndhurst and Miraval Berkshires, and a certified instructor at Berkshire Mountain Pickleball.

The sport is growing rapidly, but a lot of clubs and coaches don’t thrive because they treat the game in isolation, and are only taking money and expecting the courts to stay full on their own.

“There are reasons why people come to these types of events,” she said. “It’s fun, and players like meeting people and moving around, and don’t just feel nickel and dimed.”

As the session wrapped up, Miller drew the last raffle tickets and the winners claimed their prizes, sweatshirts with LMP logo, pickleball-themed T-shirts, and a private clinic with her and another with Michelle. Then the players packed up and chatted in small groups as they broke off to head up to the parking lot.

Among them was Anne Wehry, who said she plays four or five times a week since picking up the sport also around 2020. “I’ve made hundreds of friends,” she said. “All these people in my phone whose last name is just ‘pickleball.’”

She had competed in triathlons before, and noted that something changed. “I just changed the way I want to exercise,” she said. “In triathlons you are all by yourself, but in pickleball you have a partner, you switch around. It’s a lot more social.”

“I’ve met the best people,” she said. “It’s just amazing, you can’t make it up.”

In the parking lot the little group were still chatting away, a bunch of the players headed over to Antimony Brewing to keep the community around the game going.