Santa Barbara tennis pro Dayne Gingrich fell in love with Pickleball at first sight.
It literally bewitched him to his knees.
“My stepdad introduced me to the sport maybe 3½ years ago, and I played for four hours nonstop,” Gingrich said. “No water breaks.
“And then I couldn’t walk for two weeks … Couldn’t walk up or down stairs for two weeks. I took a year off before getting back into it.
“The rest is history.”
That history includes winning a triple crown at last month’s Minto U.S. Open Pickleball Championships in Naples, Florida. Gingrich captured titles in the Senior Pro Men’s Doubles, the Senior Pro Mixed Doubles, and the Open Split-Age Division.
It was a transformative experience for the 50-year-old Santa Barbaran.
“I shed a few tears, quite honestly,” he said.
Gingrich, who starred on the tennis courts of Dos Pueblos High and Santa Barbara City College more than three decades ago, has ridden the nation’s recent Pickleball wave to six major titles in the last 17 months. He won both the men’s pro and mixed pro doubles at November’s Senior Nationals.
“I love the competitiveness,” he said. “When you get serious, when you play competitively and professionally, the energy is so palpable.
“The court is so small that everybody is in each other’s faces. In doubles, you’re right there. You feel each other’s energies — you feel your partner’s energies — and the competitiveness is so addicting.”
America’s Fastest-Growing Sport
He’s not the only one to catch Pickleball fever. It was recently ranked by USA Today as the nation’s fastest-growing sport.
Its more than 5 million players represent an increase of nearly 40% in just the last two years. Last month’s U.S. Open drew 2,800 entries and 25,000 spectators.
NBA Hall of Famer Rick Barry was among the senior competitors who flocked to Naples. The Carvana Desert Ridge Open, a PPA (Professional Pickleball Association) event held earlier this year in Arizona, featured an exhibition between Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps and former NFL star receiver Larry Fitzgerald.
Pro beach volleyball legends Kathy Gregory and Kathy Hanley left the sand several years ago to frequent the Pickleball courts at Santa Barbara’s Municipal Tennis Center.
“There’s this tremendous sense of community,” Gingrich said. “The community is so engaging and so inviting, which is so different from tennis. It’s why the sport has grown so fast.
“That, along with it being real easy for people to pick up and be good at. You can bring your grandmother, your son, your dad, your mom … It doesn’t matter how old or what kind of athletic background they have. And you can literally pick up this game and within 10 minutes have long, fun rallies.”
Many tennis clubs, he pointed out, are converting courts to Pickleball.
“It’s a financial home run for them,” he said. “You can fit four Pickleball courts onto one tennis court … Sixteen people can play Pickleball at the same time on one tennis court.
“I’m super-blessed that some incredibly generous homeowners let me play regularly on their private court, but I also play at the Muni courts. They’ve got 12 full-time Pickleball courts, and hopefully we’ll get some more soon.”
Glory Days of Tennis
Gingrich came of age during the South Coast’s golden era of tennis. He was a star player for Dos Pueblos High’s Class of 1988 at a time when Santa Barbara High was winning 10 CIF-Southern Section 4A championships during a historic, 11-year run.
He combined with several of those Dons at Santa Barbara City College to win the Community College State Team Championship in 1989.
Gingrich, Billy Miller and Lance Kronberg were all named to the Volvo JC All-America team, while fellow Vaqueros Sean Angel, Fred Lageman and Raphael Wolfe were All-Western State Conference selections.
Coach Jack Sanford, who had turned the team over to local pro Larry Mousouris when he was on sabbatical the previous season, returned to guide the team to a 24-2 record in 1989.
“Mousouris had been there the year before, and he taught us for half a season before Jack came in and rocked the ship for the rest of the year,” Gingrich recalled. “We were so stacked, it was ridiculous. We rolled everybody.
“We had such a good team that the UCSB coach didn’t want to play us. We asked if they’d play us in a scrimmage and he said, ‘No, no, no.’ We would’ve whupped them for sure. Everybody in our lineup was a D1 player, from No. 1 to 6. It was crazy.”
Gingrich admitted to getting “a little arrogant” from the success of that season and skipping the next level of collegiate tennis to hit the pro circuit.
“I really didn’t love it, but I went out and played some satellites, mostly doubles,” he said. “I did that for a few years and kept teaching, and finally just got injured enough times that I started teaching full-time.”
He served for a dozen years on Hugh Stratman’s staff at the Cathedral Oaks Club. He and Stratman even teamed up to win the open men’s doubles at the 1998 Ojai Invitational.
“Hugh’s daughter, Lauren, is now playing Pickleball professionally and doing really well,” Gingrich said. “She’s ranked among the top 10 women (third in pro mixed doubles, fifth in women’s pro singles and ninth in women’s pro doubles).”
Doubling His Pleasure
Pickleball, which is played both indoors and outdoors, is a combination of tennis, badminton and ping-pong. Matches can be played by either single players or doubles teams. A Pickleball is plastic and perforated. The paddles are about twice the size of those used for ping-pong.
The game’s inventor named the sport after his dog, Pickles, who liked to dash onto the court and steal the ball whenever he played.
Gingrich discovered during his initial, four-hour Pickleball debut that his tennis game translated well to the new sport.
“Later with my tennis, I was primarily doubles,” he said. “I was very quick and athletic, and I liked the net. For me, pickleball was about the quick-hands battles. It was very fast.
“The movement and court coverage was very similar to tennis, and I picked it up very quickly just because I felt like I had been playing it for a long time.”
He threw himself into a full tournament schedule last year, and figures that he’ll play in 22 events during the 2022 season. He plans to play for three consecutive weeks next month.
“It’s become a full-time gig, Gingrich said.
A Net Result of Riches
Increased prize money and sponsorships have attracted many top athletes to the sport. Gingrich figures the No. 1 pro in the world is cobbling together an annual income “of seven figures.”
“In five to 10 years, I think there will be really big money in the sport,” he said. “You’ll start pulling in tennis professionals who are just tired of grinding on the Futures and Challengers (pro tours), because they’re going to start coming over and making big money immediately. That’s where it’s headed, for sure.”
He’s paired his play with his performance coaching business, 1%Mindset. He does a lot of corporate speaking for businesses that “understand the alignment of the athletic mindset and the entrepreneurs’, sales-staff kind of mindset.”
“I think 99% of my success comes from the mental part,” Gingrich continued. “Seven days a week, I’m doing some mental type of training, and not always even physical because I’m trying to recover quite a bit.”
He said he follows some of the “neuro-cognitive training” used by both Formula 1 racers and fighter pilots.
“There’s a ton of visualization and all of that,” Gingrich said. “I just feel so mentally tough.
“It doesn’t mean I always win. You can’t always win. I have had some fortunate results this last year, but I always feel more prepared than anybody I play.”
Being unprepared once gave him two weeks of achy legs. It’s a muscle memory he plans to never forget.