Hi, I’m National Champion Matthew Blom. Like you, I’m addicted pickleball. This site is for you, the pickleball addict striving to improve your play. Here you’ll find videos of me and other National Champion friends offering tips, techniques and strategies.
Last year, I taught pickleball for the first time at the inaugural Pickleball Summit. It was thrilling, to say the least.
I’m no stranger to teaching. In the past I’ve coached college tennis, instructed groups in nonviolent communication, taught a 5th grade elementary class, and practiced neuro-linguistic repatterning. However, getting in front of the 100+ pickleball enthusiasts to teach my craft was a whole new, engaging experience.
When you play at a professional level, a lot of what you do is second nature. Just because you play well, doesn’t mean you’ll teach effectively. I decided early on to let the results and successes of my students inform my teaching methods. I learned a lot during that first summit, my second, and my third… I continued teaching various levels and group sizes, through which I developed my core teaching principles by watching closely how my students learn best. To this day, I maintain an open mind and I am willing to scrap what wasn’t getting results on the court.
Then something else happened.
I started to build real connections with my students. Their success truly became my success. It’s so gratifying to watch breakthroughs on the court and to receive reports like:
“I’ve been struggling with this for years, and no one else has taught it this way. This has made all the difference for me”
“I changed both the grip and the stance on my serve, and added hip rotation. Now my serves are going deeper and without pain and wear and tear.”
“I could never hit this shot until you showed me what I was doing with my paddle, now it’s easy!”
“Your ‘zen’ approach has opened up my eyes to a whole new aspect to this sport.”
In private lessons, I found myself getting choked up along with my students when they experienced technical and emotional breakthroughs. It was at this point that I started to fall in love with teaching and you, my friends.
After teaching hundreds of people from levels 3.0 to 4.5, I’ve learned a lot about what players find challenging. I’ve learned what they are blind to and how to fix problem areas. Each time we step out on the court together, my goal is to set you on the right path to advance to the next level and, let’s be honest, to help you beat your nemesis. At the highest level, it is my intention to help you improve and keep you enjoying the game each time you play.
Check out this live fireside chat from January 26 in the Pickleball Forum on Facebook.
Interested in retreats, clinics, or video coaching? Contact me!
