Star Valleys First Pickelball Tournament

Pickleball here has gone crazy, so crazy in fact that the local pickleball association decided to sponsor a sanctioned tournament.  In it three different contests were held, women's doubles, mixed couples, and men's doubles. Players were all ranked into different skill levels and each subgroup played a round robin with the winners decided by total points scored.
As new players Renita and I decided not to enter but instead planned to watch and learn strategies and see what the different skill levels of competition meant. Our new friends Chuck and Bo had entered at the 3.0, the lowest ranking, and so we thought it would also be fun to watch their matches.

The first days competition was women's doubles and we watched them as they served with different styles and strategies. There's a lot we don't yet understand about the game, one of which is to when to come up to the kitchen line, and it was obvious that we had been charging it too soon.
The second day was the mixed doubles competition and besides enjoying lots of great volleys we saw one team use an unusual position start stance. It apparently was meant to confuse their opposition and to allow them to concentrate on hitting  with their strong forehands,(at least that's what we thought was the reasoning).
It seemed to work as they won the gold in their division.

On day three, men's doubles, we saw more of the same strategies. In all three days it was pretty obvious that height and reach are real advantages, and that the saying hit it high you die was only too true. Our friends Bo and Chuck had tough matches but played well and we both admired them for entering the tournament.
It was pretty obvious that we have a lot to learn before we enter any tournament ourselves. Perhaps next year we will be ready to have some fun in the lowest level of competition. Of course the reason for all of it is to have fun and learn, after all you only get better by playing better players. That should be no problem with our skill sets. Clear skies