When a pickleball moment goes viral, one expects to see invention and creativity.
And Matt Lee’s unusual effort for The Pickleball Store in the second Premier Pickleball League weekend was certainly that.
When coming towards the net in the men’s doubles against R3, he put his head towards the ball – rather than his paddle.
“I honestly just didn’t think Ewan [Skillicorn] was going to get it back, and so my paddle was down, and I just ran into it, to be honest!” he tells Pickleball 52.
Fortunately, no damage was done – at least not to his face.
“I think it was more the embarrassment of it, really! You watch it back, and it looks like you have time to react in the moment – I just felt like had no time to react
because I was quite close to the net. It looked like I was fully charging in, and I hit it hard, and I just really didn’t think it would come back – and then it came back with quite a lot of pace on it. I thought it hit me, but it looks like I’ve headed it!”
And The Pickleball Store secured good wins across the weekend too, beating R3 as well as Skechers to move into second place in the table.
The Pickleball Store’s squad includes Ellie Tomkinson, Freddie Stone, Ruby Syer, and Rhodri Oliver, as well as Anna Linton, back from helping England to silver in the European Championships.
Matt is captain in his debut PPL season, but says that the team has great spirit.
“I’m probably the least experienced in the team, but we lean on each other quite well because we have really good team atmosphere.”
He adds: “It’s my name down as captain, but I feel like everybody contributes massively.”
And although his day job is as a tennis coach, he has slowly been transitioning into pickleball.
“They complement each other quite well. I don’t think pickle hinders tennis in any way. I think it really can help, especially in a doubles and tactics sense.”
