A small group of pickleball players get a unique opportunity this weekend when they head to Cardiff for a workshop with the Team Wales squad.
Hosted at Cardiff Metropolitan University, the players who will be representing Wales at next month’s European Pickleball Championships are offering 32 people the chance for skills, drills and top-tier coaching.
It was first-come first-served for sign-ups – with the limited places snapped up straightaway.
And it’ll all help Team Wales head to Rome.
“There’s not a huge amount of funding for pickleball in Wales,” explains Wales’s Sophie Burton, who came up with the idea. “The players do have to fund a lot of the travel and the accommodation and even the kit for the European Championships.
“So just to offset a small amount of costs, I thought maybe we could offer some kind of workshop where the the players from Team Wales could offer coaching services.
“Now what’s really useful in terms of timing is that, at Cardiff Metropolitan University, they’re hosting the Welsh Open in a couple of weeks. So it was fun to be able to offer a warm-up event for that tournament at Cardiff Met using the surface, using the tournament balls.
“Our goal is to offset some of the cost, but also help spread the word about pickleball and Team Wales, and show that it’s growing and we want more people involved.”
It all happens on Sunday 31st August, kicking off at 9.30am.
