Pickleball perfection
Looking for the world’s top-rated athlete in American’s fastest growing sport? Look no further than Coeur d’Alene.
Tyson McGuffin, a 29-year-old master of the pickleball court, travels the world teaching pickleball clinics and going paddle-to-paddle with the very best in the sport.
A three-time national grand slam gold medalist, McGuffin is no stranger to sports. He began wrestling at the young age of 5 and was swatting tennis balls at age 14, winning two state titles in high school and becoming a certified tennis instructor.
But after first picking up a pickleball paddle in 2016, McGuffin was hooked.
“People say pickleball is like ping-pong on steroids,” he says.
Indeed, the game is best described as combining the elements of badminton, tennis and table tennis. It’s those elements that attract a wide range of players, from 8- to 80-years old, with varying degrees of athleticism.
The broad appeal, McGuffin says, is that anybody can excel at the sport at their own level.
“Anybody who wants to get better can,” he says. “Pickleball is inexpensive, it’s fun and it’s social.”
Smaller than a tennis court, which measures 78-by-27 feet, pickleball is played on a 44-by-20-foot court, with paddles and plastic balls. The game flows much like tennis, but with an emphasis on net play since the court is much smaller.
McGuffin said, unlike most sports, as skill levels rise, the game seems to slow down instead of speed up. It’s more about placement and spin rather than power and speed.
“One of the things about pickleball is that the learning curve is very quick,” he said. “I can take a beginner and in a couple of weeks I can have them playing, hitting a 20-ball volley. Trying to do that in tennis would take a year.”
A former tennis pro at Peak Health and Wellness Center in Hayden and later director of tennis and pickleball at North Park Racquet Club in Spokane, McGuffin recently signed on with Pickleball Magazine, which touts itself as the world’s only publication for the sport of pickleball.
When he’s not involved in elite world-class competitions, McGuffin earns his living teaching pickleball enthusiasts of all ages. His rigorous three-day, 15-hour LevelUp Pickleball Camps attract people from around the world to learn from the best in the sport. The LevelUp camps are sponsored by his employer, Pickleball Magazine.
“It’s an intensive three days of drilling, instruction and video analysis,” McGuffin says.
And there’s plenty of people to teach. Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the U.S., with more than 2.8 million players in 2018, an increase of 12 percent in the past year, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association.
McGuffin said he expects the trend to continue.
“They’re saying by 2020 there will be 5 to 7 million people playing,” he says. “That’s bigger than golf or tennis.”
Currently teaching a LevelUp clinic in Florida, McGuffin is preparing for the 2019 U.S. Open Pickleball Championships set for April 27 through May 4 in Naples, Florida. “I won it last year and I’m hoping to reclaim the title,” McGuffin says.
The sport is every bit as popular in North Idaho as it is elsewhere. Coeur d’Alene Parks and Recreation Director Bill Greenwood said the city has 10 courts designated for pickleball (six at Northshire Park and four at the new Memorial Park) with several tennis courts across the city able to convert to the paddle sport.
“It’s really taken off quicker than anyone would have expected,” Greenwood said.
Coeur d’Alene is also home to the Inland Northwest Pickleball Club, formed to bring together pickleball players and fans throughout North Idaho and Eastern Washington.
Thrilled to be part of popular sport with such broad appeal and a competitive spirit, McGuffin doesn’t plan to hang up his paddle anytime soon.
“I plan to ride this dream as long as I can—juggling my professional matches with the day camp responsibilities,” he says.
For more information on local pickleball tournaments and special events, contact INPC at (208) 771-4274 or visit the club’s website at inwpc.com.