Diary of an English OPEN Volunteer [Paddle Testing]

The standout week of Summer for me in the past couple of years has been the English Open at Telford. Unfortunately, this year had not gone to plan. I wouldn’t be competing and would be making do with watching livestream on You Tube.

Then, by chance, on Saturday evening, 4 days before the competition, I came across an advert on Facebook. It was looking for volunteers to take part in paddle testing for the event.

I can’t explain why, and it was a spur of moment thing after a couple of glasses of wine, but I just felt I had to do it. After a few late night, early morning messages back and forth with Karen Mitchell (does she ever sleep) I was going to the English Open as a volunteer for the duration of the tournament.

Below is my diary of the week volunteering at Europe’s premier pickleball event.

Tuesday 5^th

After a 4hr drive down to Telford from Cumbria I meet up with Karen at 2pm. She confirms I will be doing the paddle testing all week. She introduces me to Sara Aiken, an expert paddle tester on the USA APP circuit.

I’ve been nervous in the 24hrs leading up to this. I’ve been retired going on 4 years. I’ve really not had to do anything under pressure for a long time. This afternoon doesn’t ease my nerves. I am to be the only one helping Sara. It will be too complicated to keep explaining to volunteers who can only give a couple of hours. So, there will be no safety in numbers for me.

Phrases such as Gen1,2,3 and 4, thermoformed, core crush, debonded, delaminated, honeycomb, foam filled, polypropylene, kevlar, raw carbon, fibreglass, frequency, gain are bandied around.

My head is in a spin. But is it really the information overload or something else? I noticed a strange aroma in the room when I arrived. After an hour someone walks in and asks who has been smoking pot? We have all secretly been thinking the same to ourselves. The facility manager later confirms that the room has always smelled like that. They have done many tests and never found anything. We’re not convinced.

By 8pm we have made a plan for the following day.

I grab a quick takeaway and check in to my first accommodation of the week. Two nights AirBnB, renting a room in a house about a 15minute drive away. Probably not the best neighbourhood but it is a good deal at £44 per night.

I go to bed with the intention of looking up some of the phrases on You Tube. Five minutes into a discussion on frequency and gain I’m asleep.

Wednesday 6^th – Over 50s gender doubles

Since I retired, I’ve got used to very leisurely mornings. Here we start promptly at 7am. This means I’m awake 5.30am.  I am on front of desk making sure the players provide basic details. I then apply a numerical USAP sticker on the paddle and write the number against their details. Sara does the testing.

Scheduling has been kind. Ladies early start and gents later in the day. The ladies’ events always seem to have fewer participants. This means the first wave of players doesn’t overwhelm us. Most players bring at least 2 paddles for testing.

Everything goes surprisingly smoothly. The men turn up in dribs and drabs over the next few hours.

Sara’s husband, Ken, turns up mid-morning and takes over front desk.  I get to have some practical training. First thing is to check if the paddle has USAP approved on it. There is another body UPA which has different specs for approval.

If we’ve not heard of the paddle make, we check on the USAP approved paddle list. Sara is a walking encyclopaedia on paddle brands and models but there are so many now even she hasn’t heard of some. Then there is a list of paddles that were approved at one time but have now been delisted. We get a delisted Black Ace paddle almost immediately.

The next stage is to test for deterioration of the core. We use our fingers to press into the core. If there is any type of rustling noise it means there is a problem and deterioration.

PBE have also borrowed an ultrasound machine to detect deterioration. There is a computer screen with a dot in the middle of a square. You basically rub a probe over the face of the paddle. As you move the probe it produces marks in the box. A tight core would show hardly any movement from the dot. Any degradation would show lines moving towards the outside of the box.

Finally, we do a sound test. This just involves tapping a marker pen over the paddle to see if there were any sound differences perhaps indicating debonding or delamination which is where the outer layers either split away from each other or away from the core.

Various players throughout the day discuss how these defects can actually be favourable, providing a trampoline effect and more pop.

There would usually be a surface test. However, we don’t have access to a machine this week.

As the day proceeds, I also start to understand that the makeup of the core of the paddle needs to be taken into account when performing these tests, especially on the ultrasound machine. Knowledge of this is crucial.

By mid-afternoon the aromatic atmosphere and all the explaining have taken their toll on Sara. She’s lost her voice! Once the men’s matches commence, we are basically finished until the semifinals are played later. All finalists and bronze medal competitors must have their paddles retested and be given new stickers before the final.

I get a chance to watch my friends play. By 7pm the men still aren’t at semi-finals. Sara takes pity on me. She will do the final tests. She lets me shoot off for dinner to console my friends whose hopes have been shattered for another year.

Thursday 7^th  – Mixed Over 50s

I check out of my AirBnB. By 6.30am I’ve already converted my host to the joys of pickleball. He’s off to look up where he can join a club. I arrive at 7am to find us moving! No more chilling out in the drug den.

Sara stayed until very late last night and none of the finalists turned up! All American pros who should have known better.

Most of the competitors today already had their paddles checked yesterday. It is standard at many tournaments in USA to only have one check per tournament. We are working on that assumption.

Karen turns up mid-morning. She is expecting testing every day. An email is sent out to all to confirm this for Friday onwards. The day is very quiet. Sara shows me numerous videos to get a better understanding of paddles and their make-up.

Again, we have to retest later for finals. I suggest that I go to the semi-finals and remind the competitors.  This works well. We are finished by 7.30pm. I manage to check into my accommodation for the next 3 nights at the White Horse Tavern. A 10 mins drive away. I’m even in time to get a sit-down dinner.

Friday 8^th -Singles

My new accommodation includes breakfast. Unfortunately, they serve it from 7am. I’m already in place ready to test by then. We’ve already worked out numbers expected through the day and peak times. Ken turns up again to help man the front desk.

As we’re testing every day, we now provide the referees the starting number for today’s stickers. The refs check for these before each match.

I spot a fault with a paddle that had passed on a previous day. Sara is really pleased and it gives me a bit more confidence. After that I test my fair share of paddles. We confer with each other if we think there is a problem. I’m starting to have my doubts about the ultrasound. It doesn’t give the expected reading on paddles we know to have a problem. Could it be the infamous gain and frequency setting?  Who knows? It feels a bit like the Wizard of Oz situation. There’s a fancy machine fronting the operation but most of the decisions are being made by human knowledge, experience, touch and hearing.

The day flies by. I’m aware that some of the well-known over 50 players haven’t been for a test today. I watch a match in which one of them is playing. The referee checks his paddle for the number. I know it’s from 2 days ago. But it gets passed. So, still some work to do on being aware of the numbers for that day.

Again, the plan is that I watch the semi-finals and send players over for testing pre finals. I can see we are heading for a very late night. Worried as usual about food I venture out to Telford to find a back-up sandwich in case that’s all I can get. Walking back with my Asda bag I come across my friends all dressed up for an evening out.

It’s closing in on 10pm and the semi-finals are still ongoing. One of the favourites loses badly and also takes it badly, hurling his paddle into the VIP area post-match. How on earth do I tell him to get his paddle tested for a bronze medal match?

I leave it for a few minutes and offer to take the paddle and bring it back to diffuse any problem. I decide to do the same for the other competitors. This will be the procedure for the rest of the tournament. The players really seem to appreciate it.

The bar is already shut when I get back home. But the landlord takes pity on me and serves me a pint of Guinness to take to my room to have with my sandwich.

Saturday 9^th – 15+ Gender Doubles

Again, the scheduling is in our favour. Ladies first thing. Men later in the day. All younger players now. Ken is now a stalwart front of office. Another volunteer also pops in from time to time to help on the desk. Sara is even happy for me to test alone at quieter times while she catches up on the admin.

We are finished testing by around 2pm. But it’s apparent that the referees are now on top of the numbering system. We start to get people coming in who didn’t test before their first game. They are being docked a point.

It’s another extremely late finish in the semi-finals. But I’ve seen some great matches in the meantime. The night is rounded off with takeaway pizza and another beer in my room.

Sunday 10^th – 15+ Mixed Doubles

A late start! Mixed Doubles doesn’t start till early afternoon. I can have a lie in and breakfast. Of course I wake up at precisely 5.30am even without an alarm. I check out and meet up with Sara at 9am.

There is no specific surge expected today. Just a nice steady flow throughout the morning. It’s a pleasure to deal with the younger pros. Always time for a chat and a joke. And just accepting of the process.

Over the week I’ve tested a few hundred paddles and my fingers are sore. Once we’re finished mid -afternoon I check into my final hotel. The International. I’m finally walking to my hotel.

I spend the rest of the time trying to take in as many matches as possible. At about 6pm, for the first time all week, I’m tired. I’m struggling to keep my eyes open on Centre Court. But I’m determined to avoid a Hugh Grant moment. By 9pm I do my last collection of finalist paddles. The players must have put everything into those semi-finals. They were truly a sweaty set of paddles. Sara is concerned about the sound one of the paddles was making during the match. Thankfully testing shows no problem.

It is all over! We just about make it in time for a celebration dinner and drinks at the Holiday Inn next door.

My take on paddle testing

It requires more knowledge, human input and decision making than I initially thought. However, most of the pro level players tend to play with a limited amount of top brands. You eventually get used to them and know where there may be a problem from experience of testing previous paddles.

But what of the lower levels?  There was great interest in the process from lower ranked players. Many wanted their paddles tested too (usually at the worst possible times). We did test some. A greater proportion of those failed. With the explosion of copy and fake paddles it could be like the Wild West out there. Some people are totally unaware whereas others are knowingly using them. I’m already aware of someone actually boasting that their copy paddle got through testing.

As a first outing for paddle testing at such a huge event, and with minimal pre-planning, there was potential for this to have been a disaster. I’m sure we didn’t get everything right. But on the whole as a team of 3 (with 2 learning on the job) it ran very smoothly.

I’ve no idea how the testing will move forward in the future. Maybe someone will try to make it into a business going around competitions in Europe. But for this brief moment, with all 5 days experience and a few hundred tests under my belt, I may be the most experienced person in Europe!

I’ll be keeping up with all advances in paddle technology from now on, because it is actually really interesting. If called into action again I’ll be up to date!

My take on the whole experience.

Long hours. Lack of sleep. Three changes of accommodation. Unhealthy eating. Sore fingers!

But the week was such good fun. We worked well together and had so many laughs.  I was sometimes there over 15 hours a day but it never felt that long. There was plenty of downtime during the day to take in the event and enjoy watching matches.

By nature, I’m a very shy person. It has often held me back from doing this type of thing. But I actually enjoyed meeting and chatting to so many great people.

It was the sort of week you never forget. I felt that I’d been part of something special.

I don’t know if it will be paddle testing next year, but I will definitely be volunteering in some capacity.