Breaking Pickleball is a documentary that I’ve heard about a few times and I missed watching when it first came out for free. It then went behind a paywall for a while but now it’s on Prime Video. So this is a little write along as I watch the episodes live. I won’t spoil the scores or who gets through as best I can but if you want to watch it, click here.
The Arizona Pickleball League, unsurprisingly, starts fundamentally in Arizona. If you want to see what pickleball is like in America, you should watch this. You can start a free trial on Prime to watch it and cancel it in 30 days. It’s only 6 episodes long.
Episode 1 – The introductions
This episode of Breaking Pickleball spends a lot of time introducing. It introduces the main organisers as well as how the league works. It’s in Phoenix Arizona at ‘The Orchard‘. They introduce the teams, which consist of the best players in the Phoenix area. The fundamental premise so far is getting people to come by and watch the league.
They also introduce the scoring and team system. Each team has two women and two men. The team match is an hour long, split into 4 different 15 minute games. Both the first and second games are 15-minute mixed doubles games. The third game is a 15 minute women’s doubles game and the fourth game is a 15 minute men’s doubles game. The scores roll over from each game to create a final score at the end.
After walking around inviting people, it finally shows a great game in the end between the Scottsdale Scorchers and Tempe Tornados. It is an exciting watch and fun to see how some of these (I think) professionals actually play.
Episode 2 – Team building
Immediately, it goes straight into league results so far showing how the favourites, the Scottsdale Scorchers aren’t doing as well as everyone expected. This episode of Breaking Pickleball is definitely building into a discussion of teamwork.
Interestingly, it expands into fan interactions about the league and how certain teams get fans. As well as discussions between the managers about the teams. They talk about how they’re going to trade out one of the players for a different one. There’s an interesting point made that some players, despite being friends, do not necessarily get on well on court. The games throughout this match are great to watch, the atmosphere in this place is absolutely unreal, this felt like a bit of a heroes journey episode.
Episode 3 – The Pythons
Right away, they introduce another team called the Peoria Pythons and a man named Michael Loyd. They show his intense style of play and his training with Tyson McGuffin, a fantastic professional player ranked number 3 in the world.
It shows the other side of the draw, instead of the bottom of the table, its going to be the top of the table. The number 1s vs the number 2s, which is a fascinating draw to the episode.
There’s a bit of wholesome discussion in this episode of Breaking Pickleball between two of the players which is never really for me but it doesn’t last long.
However, they get straight into team training which is interesting to see where the teams talk tactics. They clearly know each other well and discuss how they intend on playing against each other, with a discussion on Michael Loyd. Once again, we’re then watching the match in action and I won’t spoil it once more. Even in the match, they’re talking about how to counter one another, team tactics whispered behind paddles and so on.
Episode 4 – New players in Breaking Pickleball
Each of the episodes so far has introduced us to a new player and a new team. This time, they introduce Chris Heddings, whom many players see as a coach and mentor. He’s definitely a big mind games player but also seems to be quite a humble and content person. Its fascinating to see the community aspect of Pickleball as he has a variety of players around his dinner table. The Gladiators team say they’re the most raw team in terms of talent in the women’s side. We also have our first injury of the season.
The episodes at this point seem to have a pattern. Episodes 2, 3 and 4 we’ve followed a different team for each episode. They’ve had a problem and tried to overcome it. Interestingly though different problems in each episode. In this episode, an injury occurs, and a new player joins the team mid-season when they face the threat of relegation. In the theme of new players, the Scorchers also get some new players due to some of their players being away.
I have noticed that the theme of selling tickets has fallen to the wayside in the episodes of Breaking Pickleball, which now focus more on the players and the games. In this case, a game between the Scorchers and Gladiators. I won’t spoil the game.
Episode 5 – Breaking Pickleball play offs
After last episode, we’re now down to find out who is the last in the play offs. We’re back onto the league supporters with funny stories of the supporters flirting with people on the court. I thought in this episode we’d meeting the final team, but we never do. We actually go back to Chris and his family once more. Being the second to last episode, I’m guessing this will be the semi-final episode?
We’ve also actually got back to the whole marketing and behind the scenes. They discuss how they were going to be pay-per-view to start but instead went for ‘Pickleball Channel‘ which expanded their fan base and has gotten them sponsors. There’s another hilarious moment around a dinner table.
It turns out that a Python and Gladiator player are in laws and they’re family is put on the spot on who will win.
They then explain the semi-final playouts. The more you watch, the more you realise that teamwork and team morale is so vital in pickleball. I mentioned that previously in one of my other posts.
Semi Finals
This episode already is really making the most of the fact now that after the last few episodes, we know the people, we know the players and the teams. So I’ll be honest I’m actually very invested in the first semi final. Throughout the whole thing, the teamwork theme is so vital because you can tell the team that isn’t working together well is losing.
We go a couple of days before the next semi final of Breaking Pickleball and we’re getting people reviewing their opponents and discussing team tactics which is interesting. They’re discussing problems in where the teams are standing and decide to pick on one of the opponents who in a previous game struggled. Again though, we find the player is actually traded out.
We move on to the next semi final and the games are quite intense with one team running away with it but the others starting to catch up by the end of the second game. By the end of the women’s game in round 3 the scores still stay roughly even but the men could still claw it back. I guess you’ll find out if you watch it! There’s even a nasty nelson attempt!
Episode 6 – Breaking Pickleball Finale
Into the final episode we go. Immediately we go behind the scenes again and specifically behind the cameras. You can see where the money is going, into a truly beautiful production. The staff members care, they work hard and the quality is astounding.
There’s some team talks throughout the episode of the two teams in the final. I’m amazed to see in America that people have courts in their back garden. Also interestingly team bonding bowling? Amazing to see that actually in amongst all of the teams changing members, one of the teams in the final has stayed the same throughout and you can tell that they’re good friends.
In team trainings once again, they even attempt to mimic the play they’re likely to get from one another. They discuss team tactics and do training to make sure that they’re focusing on the parts of the game they need to use to beat each other. However, who wins out of both of these teams I think deserve it. The middle of the episode is about the actual final match so I can’t say a lot more. We see some substitutions which has happened before but I don’t entirely know the rules of, but it breaks the rhythm of the other team. There’s a few near come backs but one team does end up winning and I think it is decided on that women’s doubles game as they’ve said before.
In the final section, we get a review of the success of the league as a whole. We get to see the players in their usual jobs, some actually working in the pickleball industry. They discuss the possibility of Season 2 and turns out, there already has been another run. The second season sold out tickets in 11 minutes! The next Season of the league starting any time now! When it comes up, I’m sure I’ll update the article.
Is Breaking Pickleball worth a watch?
It absolutely is! It’s well made, 6 episodes, each about 30 minutes long. It’s free on Amazon Prime to watch. If you want to see the atmosphere of Pickleball in America. Its a very American style documentary, but in terms of seeing the behind the scenes of teams and players playing like professionals, its a very interesting watch and something you don’t see much of in the UK. You don’t see a lot of how the league was actually created in a business sense, but you see a lot of training and highlights of the matches.
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