Golden Ears Pickleball Club's Adele Cloete: Her Pickleball Journey

​Adele Cloete’s pickleball story is waiting to be told for its uniqueness and emotional appeal that touches on various aspects of human-interest elements: her personal journey from South Africa to BC; success on the sport’s international stage; seeing the game from her accomplished insights; and positively impacting the lives of her students for over a decade.

Adele’s Journey
Adele, her husband, and children immigrated to BC from South Africa in February 1987. She explains: “In Durban, prior to our immigration to Canada, I ran my own health and beauty clinic as a certified Beauty Therapist specializing in aromatherapy skin-care treatments.” In Canada, Adele continued that profession.

Coming from a tennis background in her youth, one day Adele was taken aback by a rather unusual small paddle. Intrigued, she approached the woman playing the sport and struck up a conversation to get more insights. This quickly evolved into Adele stepping onto the pickleball courts at the Maple Ridge Leisure Center.

Not even a year later, in 2015, Adele got an interview with the City of Coquitlam, where she talked about the health benefits of the sport and offered to teach seniors in order for them to stay active and healthy. So, they hired her as a pickleball instructor.

Adele adds: “Then, to entice people to attend pickleball classes at the Centennial School gymnasium, we provided light snacks and refreshments. Myself, and another instructor, would talk to the students after the lessons. As they munched away on the treats, we would ask them for their feedback and get them to invite their friends to attend our classes.”

She quickly became an ambassador of the sport, volunteering and recruiting people, from not only Maple Ridge, but Coquitlam and Pitt Meadows as well. This led Adele to organize and lead a group of volunteers for the 2016 BC Games.

Adele, holding her Canadian flag, was a bronze medal winner at the Indian Wells US Nationals in November 2018 for the women’s full-court singles, 3.50 bracket, age 70+ … she was proud to be on pickleball’s big stage.

International Stage
Then in 2017-18, Adele’s pickleball involvement peaked her desire to train and compete on an international level. Aside from competing in local tournaments, she got wind of tournaments in the US, such as the Nationals in Indian Wells, California and the USA Open in Naples, Florida. So, Adele upped her level of training to include more elements of the soft game, transition zone tactics, as well as strengthening core fundamentals such as baseline and blocking. Her strategy and training paid off as Adele was victorious with a bronze medal at Indian Wells in the 3.50 bracket, full-court woman’s singles, 70+ age group.

Adele as a Golden Ears Pickleball Club volunteer host welcoming players at the Garibaldi outdoor courts in Maple Ridge, BC, Summer 2022, post pandemic.

​Pickleball Perspectives
Over the years, Adele’s exposure to pickleball allowed her to see added techniques that has altered the sport’s landscape. Adele explains: “ATP (Around The Post) and Ernie shots were rare before the pandemic. But today it's common to see them in social and tournament play.

• Rules are always changing every year. For instance, the change two years ago was the introduction of the serve where the ball is allowed to drop on the playing surface.
• The other noticeable change that has been exciting to see is that younger players are now playing.
  
  

Teaching Students and Their Attraction To Pickleball
According to Adele: “On the subject of safety … with today’s advanced paddle technology that speeds up the velocity of the ball like a trampoline effect, players’ reaction time is less. Also the introduction of the speed-up technique where the offensive player attacks from the NVZ (kitchen) in a dinking situation puts the defensive player at a disadvantage from 14 feet away (the depth of two kitchens). These are reasons why hard body shots targeting from the shoulders and up should be banned. Every player should be wearing protective eyewear—this is becoming mandatory at some tournaments now and Pickleball BC (“PBCA”) is leading the charge in this respect.”

Other pickleball techniques she likes to teach include, for example, the kitchen soft game that involves dinking, learning to be patience with their shot selection, placement shots instead of power shots, and the base-line game in order to advance to the kitchen line as safely as possible.

The are numerous complex elements that draw people to pickleball, where Adele provides her perspectives:

• “Someone walking past the outside courts is intrigued watching players playing and having fun.
• Recommendations by family and friends to come and join to play.
• Staying healthy.
• Joining a community and socially enjoying it.
• Trying a new sport, or transitioning from tennis.”

Her Pickleball Future
Today Adele is taking pickleball one day at a time, where she’s happily caring for her family, including grandchildren, and coaching her students in the Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, and Pitt Meadows municipalities.

Currently she’s an Executive Director on the board of the Golden Ears Pickleball Club responsible for Player Development & Training and Sponsorship.

According to David Snell, PBCA President: “Adele’s pickleball story, in essence, is integral to the reputation of PBCA. For over a decade, she’s brought the sport inclusively into the lives of many many people. Also Adele pioneered pickleball coaching across her assigned municipalities. Plus her community volunteering aligns with PBCA’s  “give-back” initiatives. Kudos to her passionate work.”

Lastly, Adele adds: “As long as my legs keep moving, I will still be competing in singles—which is my absolute favourite, win or lose until I’m 110 years old … my visual wishful thinking!”

Respectfully Submitted (with some Editor’s Edits) By Adele Cloete
Executive Director, Golden Ears Pickleball Club