For most of us, walking the path of our individual Bitcoin journey has changed us in profound ways. We look more toward the future by improving our health, creating closer connections with those we care about (or reconnecting with them), and engaging in activities that represent our Bitcoin values. If you are looking for an activity that embodies these values in a single weird and wonderful place look no further than pickleball, the Bitcoin of sports.

If you just said, “What the heck is pickleball?” you are in the right place. Allow me to help you take your first steps down the pickleball rabbit hole and take you from no-pickler to new-pickler. If you already play, then this article might help you better understand why the sport feels like such a natural extension of who we are as Bitcoiners.

Origin Story

Like Bitcoin, pickleball combines existing equipment (technologies) from other sports and puts them together in a completely new way to create something entirely different. Pickleball was created in 1965 by Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum in Bainbridge Island, Washington. The three dads were trying to find something fun for their families to do during a summer vacation. They didn’t have a complete set of sports equipment available, so instead they took the best parts of what they had and collaborated with the kids to develop the rules for the game so that everyone would want to play (consensus mechanism).

Pickleball combines solid paddles like in paddle ball or ping pong, but in a size and shape more like racquetball racquets. It uses a net from badminton lowered to hip level like in tennis. The ball is plastic, much like the ones you might have used to play backyard baseball as a kid. The court is adapted from badminton, and the rules pull from multiple racquet sports and volleyball.

Even the name of the sport is shrouded in a bit of mystery, with Joan Pritchard saying they named it pickleball after the pickle boat in crew (the last boat to finish a race) because the oarsmen for the pickle boat are often chosen from the leftovers of other boats. Others believe the sport was named after the family dog, Pickles, who would dutifully retrieve the ball when it rolled off the court, although the Pritchards claim the dog came after and they named the dog after the sport (USA Pickleball).

Low Time Preference

One of the most valuable lessons Bitcoin teaches us is to prioritize the future over the present as we distance ourselves from the fiat world. Our time preference lowers, we stop seeking immediate gratification, and we learn the value of patience. Patience also happens to be the fundamental skill in pickleball. Success in pickleball is not about how many winners you can hit, but rather about how many points you don’t lose by making mistakes. Instead of constantly taking aggressive shots (trading), pickleball encourages patience (HODLing) and consistently executing basic shots (DCA) until the right moment arrives when the odds of winning the point are heavily in your favor. And when it does … Smash (BTFD)!

Even though the vernacular is different, you will find a lot of overlap in the languages of Bitcoin and pickleball. Below is a short sample of phrases that translate between the two. I welcome those of you who are Bitcoiners and picklers to add to the list!

Hard To Grok

Pickleball is easy to dismiss at first because, like Bitcoin, it is a little different. The rules are a little different, the equipment is a little different, and the people involved are a little different. But, like Bitcoin, once you experience the sport firsthand you realize it isn’t just different … it’s better. More importantly, it is better because it is different, and it is those differences that take new players on that familiar journey from confusion to curiosity to commitment. Players learn that playing good pickleball is counterintuitive to other sports, much like learning the fundamentals of Bitcoin is different from what we are taught about money and economics. At first, you think you should be aggressive, but then you learn to be patient. You think you should attack, but then you learn defending is more powerful. You think it will be easy, but then you learn that mastery can take a lifetime.

I was introduced to pickleball in late 2015 by Dave Leach (coincidentally, the same year I first heard about Bitcoin). Our sons were in the same Boy Scout troop and had become good friends. Dave tried explaining the game to me one night at a troop meeting. I didn’t really get it. To me, it just sounded like a weird form of mini-tennis. I listened politely and thought it was interesting, but never went out to play and forgot about it. Luckily, he kept encouraging me to give it a try and in early 2016 I went to the courts for the first time. I was instantly hooked. Like experiencing the rush of completing that first peer-to-peer transaction or holding your own keys for the first time, pickleball reels you in by perfectly balancing simplicity and challenge. This turned out to be about two months before I bought my first Bitcoin. Since then, I’ve been able to return Dave’s favor by introducing him to Bitcoin.

Accessible And Challenging

It doesn’t take much to get started in pickleball; all you need is a paddle, a ball, a court, and another player. With a couple of sessions of basic information and practice, you can go from “I’ve never played pickleball,” to enjoying fun games and holding your own on the court. However, taking the steps to learn the necessary skills to go from capable player to champion can take a lifetime. This is much like when you download a wallet and receive your first bitcoin while holding your own keys. From that moment you are a sovereign Bitcoiner, but taking the next steps to fully understand proper custody, privacy, and succession planning (not to mention economics, philosophy, etc.) can keep you engaged and intellectually challenged forever.

On your pickleball journey you will find that the biggest strides forward in your game often happen during the passive work you do off the court. After a game, you’ll have an a-ha moment like “I'm popping the ball up because I'm gripping the paddle too tightly near the net,” or, “With each step toward the kitchen, I should lessen my grip pressure by 10%.” The same thing happens to us as Bitcoiners. We make huge strides in our thinking when reading a non-Bitcoin article or having a non-Bitcoin conversation. We hear a news story about the Canadian truckers or about the failing Japanese yen and realize "This is the use case for Bitcoin."

Proof-Of-Work

Pickleball attracts players from other sports like tennis, ping pong and racquetball. They often arrive with an "I'm new to pickleball and I'm here to fix it," disposition. They assume their years of experience and skill building in other sports will immediately translate into dominance in this apparently easy pickleball thing. They quickly find out, usually by repeatedly losing games to more experienced players, that they must put in the necessary time and work to develop the specific skills and strategies that translate into success in pickleball. To paraphrase Max Keiser, "You don't change pickleball … pickleball changes you." Think it’s easy to be world class in pickleball? Check out this point and think again.

Dare To Be Different

Picklers are used to being snickered at by people that play more established racquet sports like tennis, racquetball, and squash (TradFi). They dismiss us and think “Aww, look at those pickleball players … aren’t they cute? It’s too bad they can’t play a real sport.” Then their courts get repurposed to become pickleball courts and they think “Maybe I should try it.” This is much like when normies think “Aww, look at those Bitcoiners … aren’t they cute? It’s too bad they don’t understand real money.” Then Bitcoin becomes the best performing asset in history, and they think “Maybe I should get some.”

Much like Bitcoiners proudly wear shirts that say “Rules not rulers'' and “∞/21M”, picklers proudly and unapologetically declare themselves as such by wearing merch with pickleball insider jargon like "Stay out of the kitchen!" and "I might have a dinking problem."

Pickleball players come from every type of political, religious, and cultural background. Like Bitcoiners, those differences sometimes come out in spirited discussions on and off the court. In the end, these differences are usually overshadowed by the common interest they share and their passion for the sport they love. What they share is more important than where they disagree, and it might even help them appreciate their differences a bit more.

 

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.