The Report
Lee Whitwell’s Warning About The Future
World Pickleball Report
The Next Pickleball Battle Is Off The CourtThe sport has proved people want to play it.
Now the harder question is whether the systems around it are ready.
Lead Feature: Lee Whitwell’s Bigger Question For Pickleball
In our latest World Pickleball Podcast, Lee Whitwell looks beyond the matches and asks a more fundamental question: what does the sport need to build if it wants to support the next generation?
The conversation covers facilities, coaching, pathways and the infrastructure that allows players to develop rather than simply participate.
What matters: The next stage of pickleball will depend as much on the people building the environment around the game as the players competing inside it.
Listen to the Lee Whitwell conversation
Beyond The Score: St. Louis Found The MLP Problem
St. Louis Shock did more than win the MLP Mid-Season Tournament. They exposed a tactical question every team in the league now has to answer: how do you limit Anna Leigh Waters’ influence?
Their strategy against New Jersey was not about overpowering the best player in the game. It was about controlling when she could affect the match.
What matters: Elite pickleball is becoming a game of tactical decisions, not just elite talent.
The Wider View: When The Image Is Not The Whole Story
A Coruña created one of the most unusual images in pickleball with its floating court. But the bigger story was the decision to move the finals when conditions threatened the competition.
The event showed the balance every modern sport faces: creating memorable moments while protecting what makes results meaningful.
What matters: Spectacle attracts attention. Sporting standards build trust.
From The Magazine
This month’s magazine looks at the forces shaping pickleball beyond the court, from the companies building the sport’s technology layer to the regions creating the next competitive centres.
Who Controls the Future? examines the battle for influence between the platforms, data companies and organisations trying to shape the next phase of the game.
The Asian Pickleball Earthquake explores how one of the world’s fastest-changing regions is creating new opportunities, new challenges and new questions for the global sport.
Know A Player Who'd Want This?
If today's edition was useful, send it to someone on your team, your club, or your group chat. Takes ten seconds, and it's the easiest way to help us keep covering the sport properly.
First time seeing this? Subscribe free here.