US Open Gabrielsen & Moore

US Open Gabrielsen: "

Pickleball players descend on Portland

"The ambassadors of the racket sport called pickleball are like pied pipers. They spread the word about their fun, competitive game with the silly name, and more and more Mainers are stepping in line to pick up the tune."

 “I’ve been an ambassador for about eight months,” said Roland Gagne Jr., 75, of South Portland. “Each ambassador kind of has his own venue, keeps it running and makes sure new people are more than welcome. That’s a big part. No matter how (well) you play, you’re always welcome.
This weekend, Maine welcomes 350 pickleball enthusiasts from around the country for the Atlantic Regional Pickleball Tournament at the Portland Racket and Fitness Center. Competitors are coming from throughout the 13-state Atlantic region, as well as from Texas, Florida, Ohio, Michigan and Canada. Maine will be well represented with about 130 players, said Rocky Clark of Portland, regional director for the USA Pickleball Association, which is hosting the event.



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Pickleball players descend on Portland - The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

Open Letter to USAPA Board re paddle testing

Open Letter to USAPA Board re paddle testing (USAPA Community Forum)



Directors of USAPA                        

June 23, 2016
Open letter to Board of Directors of USAPA

Reference:  USAPA June 2016 response Pro-Lite Sports Article on the work done by Dennis Dacey to qualify paddles to the USAPA technical specifications.

My name is John Anderson, and I would like to provide some feedback on the outstanding work Dennis Dacey has been doing and add some additional technical details related to the testing of the paddles.

Last fall (2015) I was asked by Dennis Dacey if I could provide some input / review his test methods and procedures used to qualify the paddles – specifically the surface roughness measurement techniques and inspection methods.   Dennis was seeking feedback and technical confirmation that he was able to define a specification, and a repeatable test method to define/measure the relevant performance properties of a pickleball paddle.

My technical qualifications and experience as an engineer are directly related to the work Dennis is doing on behalf of the USAPA and the pickleball community at large.  I am a Registered Professional Mechanical Engineer and have over 35 years of experience in the Testing, Product Development, Design, Qualification, and Certification of aerospace products.  My experience in testing and certification of metallic and composite structures is regulated by the FAA and requires certification of the test methods, as well as the products.  I am currently the Chief Engineer for a large aerospace company and I am responsible for FAA Certification of large commercial aerospace products that we would all recognize and we all fly on.

Dennis has been doing a lot of work to define repeatable methods to characterize / measure the surface roughness of paddles that are being proposed by numerous manufacturers.  Dennis asked for my technical support as a qualified Non-Advocate to review his work.  Dennis and I have had several discussions / reviews of the test methods and equipment. I have also personally seen the test setup and test procedures, and witnessed some of the actual testing.  I consider the work that Dennis has done to be technically acceptable to differentiate the paddles with respect to surface roughness  --  considered to be a key characteristic of paddle performance.   

Dennis has also been working with the pickleball manufacturers to assure that proper procedures are in place to document and control the qualification of a paddle sample, and to assure direct linkage of this qualification to the products that are actually being produced / sold and used in USAPA sanctioned tournaments.  This is a fundamental concept of configuration management – unique part numbers or names are needed to maintain linkage of a product back to the certification.  Having multiple product configurations with distinctly different properties (surfaces) would violate the basis of certification of the original as-tested product.  This basic concept applies to any product that requires certification to technical requirements, and is critical to the aerospace, automotive, pharmaceutical, and many other industries…..Having two products with the same part number (name) would only be acceptable if BOTH configurations were compliant to requirements.

This letter is not intended to provide an in-depth review of the issues, but to assure the pickleball community that Dennis Dacey is absolutely data-driven and his technical expertise is relevant to the qualification of the paddles.  For anyone to question his integrity is absolutely ridiculous….and begins to question the motives of any allegations.


John Anderson  PE

U.S. Open Tournament - USAPA Final Comments

As the USAPA Communications Director, I felt it important to provide our members some personal observations and information as to why the U.S. Open lost it's USAPA Sanction.

I attended the Open as both an observer and player and offer the following comments. The primary reason the sanction was pulled was very simple....they violated the rules.... Here are some notes to ponder....

1. Early in the planning phase, the USAPA offered "on site" planning assistance to ensure that properly trained referees would be available. USAPA assistance was declined. 
2. The referee coordinator, appointed by the Tournament Director, neither had the training nor experience to manage a tournament of this size. 
3. Referees were not scheduled in advance which delayed the start of the Open. The organizers had no clue of who or when their volunteers were showing up to referee. 
4. Most of the volunteers who originally signed up were "snowbirds". These same volunteers left the first of April and went back North which left nobody to referee. 
5. Organizers grossly under estimated the resources needed to manage the logistics needed to provide qualified referees for 2500 matches...
6. The referee volunteers were requested to stage inside a cage area in 90 degree heat rather than reporting to a specific shift when needed. Many volunteers I spoke with became frustrated with this rule and resigned. The rule requiring referees to report to and remain in a cage area was later mofified due to the large number of complaints. 

I applaud Collier County Florida and Spirit Promotions for an otherwise fantastic tournament. My hope is that they will benefit, from lessons learned, and continue towork with the USAPA to make this tournament a "players" tournament.

Finally, Dennis Dacey resigned this week after 5 years of service on the USAPA Board. Thank you Dennis for the thousands of volunteer hours you gave to the USAPA and we will miss you.

Please send your ideas on how we can improve pickleball at all levels to geninfo@usapa.org to my attention. Bob Nibarger - USAPA Communications Chair

Jeff Shank, Pickleball Coach

I was fortunate enough to be a usapa referee certification instructor for the beta phase last fall. I personally contacted the us open lead person and volunteered to travel down to Naples with my fellow ref trainer and teach the usapa beta training to their volunteers. I only asked that they reimburse me for my gas money and put us up at host housing for one night as the training would be for two days. My offer was declined.