32. Interview with Ron Ponder, Global Pickleball Federation's senior referee

In this episode Paddy talks with Ron Ponder who is the Director of Officiating at the Global Pickleball Federation and all-round great guy. They talk about how he got into pickleball and then got into refereeing while helping with DUPR and expanding the sport into the far reaches of this planet. For example, how Ron got to officiate in Madagascar's first national tournament after explaining to about a dozen enthusiastic players how to play! Ron is very knowledgable about pickleball and shares some of that knowledge with us.  He discusses issues such as refereeing and how to get into it, why pickleball is so popular around the world, it's phenomenal growth in Asia and the inevitable topic of needing ONE international body to get our sport into the Olympics. But don't think that this is a boring interview - Ron is an engaging and erudite guest, willing to share his colourful pickleball journey with us, and we are privileged to be a part of it. https://globalpickleballfederation.org For our (FREE) Senior Pickleball Academy click here: https://www.skool.com/senior-pickleball-academy-9457/about