02/11/2026
THE DARK SIDE OF PICKLEBALL IS ARRIVING… AND NZ & AUSTRALIA ARE NOT IMMUNE.
We talk about growing the game, building communities, making pickleball accessible to everyone.
But take a closer look at what's developing; the court hierarchy, the DUPR obsession, the cliques, the selective invitations, the players who suddenly don't want to play with you because your rating isn't high enough.
The same people claiming the top courts as though they've got their names engraved on them, & increasingly, the message to developing players seems to be:
YOU'RE WELCOME HERE… AS LONG AS YOU'RE GOOD ENOUGH.
We've watched pickleball grow from a fun, social, inclusive sport into something where, in some circles, your rating seems to determine your social standing.
And now we're seeing those attitudes creep into New Zealand and Australia.
Since when did a DUPR rating become a passport to belonging?
Since when did being a 4.0 or 4.5 give someone the right to look down on a 3.0?
Competition is extremely healthy, wanting challenging games is perfectly reasonable; but deliberately excluding people, creating unofficial social hierarchies and treating lower-rated players as though they're beneath you?
That's not growing the sport, that’s creating a culture problem. And here's something worth remembering:
Today's beginner could be tomorrow's top player. But they'll never get there if the people already at the top won't give them a game.
We need to ask ourselves what kind of pickleball culture we're building in NZ and Australia; one where people are welcomed, encouraged and developed, or one where everyone is measuring themselves against everyone else, protecting their court status and deciding who's worthy of playing with them?
Because if pickleball becomes just another sport full of ego, exclusivity and entitlement, we've missed something pretty important along the way.
Are we witnessing the evolution of pickleball, or are we watching the very thing that made this sport special slowly disappear?
