| 2177 | May 5, 2025 | Michele | Appreciate the concern of the author of this rule change submission. With the exponential growth of pickleball, we do see more and more players trying to gain advantage wherever they can. Some social media sites seem to even promote way to circumvent rules, use of loopholes in rules to gain such advantage. With the personality of the sport changing, now power being promoted heavily, there does seem to be risk in current rules for a player to switch to a more powerful paddle, unbeknownst to the referee or opponents and this should be treated as unsportsmanlike conduct. It also makes sense that the player should be responsible for presenting a switched paddle to the referee than making it a referee responsibility to catch this behavior, when the referee already has many other responsibilities that could prevent them from catching this switch.
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| 2177 | May 14, 2025 | Sheila | I concur with the author’s concern. The responsibility for playing with legal, approved paddles should move entirely to the players.
I realize that it’s a huge issue with many complications.
It’s not easy and often can cause delays in starting a match when the referee is verifying paddles.
Perhaps one possible solution is moving this step to when players arrive at a tournament to check in. One suggestion would be for a player to conduct a search on the approved paddle list, for any paddles in their possession, in front of an official when they check to prevent/eliminate players from forging the proof they show to referees on court at the beginning of the match. Once the paddles is verified a sticker is attached just as it is when pro paddles are tested. Referees already rely on these stickers now.
This would reduce the time referees spend verifying paddles on court and keep tournaments operating with time efficiency. It would add time to check in but better there than prolonging matches. This also demonstrates to players the seriousness of playing with illegal paddles. So much time and energy is invested in keeping the approved paddle list current. Let’s make better use of this tool.
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| 2177 | May 17, 2025 | Rick | I do not support this change in its current form, as a referee is currently responsible both for the pre-match check, and a re-check if a paddle does leave the court. I would support a rule change that prohibits a paddle from leaving the court without the permission of the referee. This would hopefully ensure that a new paddle is subsequently inspected.
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