Gil Lee’s Intermediate Advanced Pickleball Clinic had its first meetup of 2022 recently, educating pickleball participants on how to play the soft game.
“My pickleball clinic is a high-level instructional clinic,” Lee said. “So people who want to get better at pickleball, they should come here.”
Lee said he is frequently questioned if the workshop would turn everyone become an accomplished player.
“I say, ‘We can’t make you into anything — we’re not genies,’” he said. “We show you the road map. We show you how to get where you want to go. However, that also implies a commitment on your part that you will do the things that we teach you and you have to practice.”
Lee gives the example of a teacher who only plays for an hour each week but prepares for three hours.
“You’ve got to practice and work on the skills,” he said. “That’s how you get better. The clinic is serious, instructional and fun. People are here for a purpose. They want to get better.”
The Intermediate Advanced Pickleball Clinic meets on the first Monday of each month at 10 a.m. at Truman Recreation Center, with players arriving up to three hours ahead of time for first-come, first-served sessions. Lee comes at 9:30 a.m. to check people in, take attendance, distribute name tags and confirm that all equipment and teachers are there.
Lee supervises the teachers, arranges the clients and teaches drills to them. Six courts, one teacher, four pickleball players per court and 20 drills are available to help you learn and become a pro.
“As for the drills taught at the clinic, it depends on the student(s),” Lee said. “We do an evaluation; we let them play a little bit, we watch them and then OK, we make a judgment. We want them to have proficiency. And we work on the soft game mainly. Anybody can hit the ball hard. If you get four people who really know how to play, it’s going to be soft-soft.”
Lee stated that the club allows him to pursue his passion for teaching and assisting others.
“This is my paradigm,” Lee said. “I’ve been a teacher for more than 30 years. You first introduce whatever the skills are, explain it, take questions, practice and execute. Then reteach or teach. If they’re not good enough, if they don’t master those for parts, then we have to reteach and fill in the gaps. So it’s teach, check for understanding, reteach or teach.”
Call Truman Recreation Center at 352-751-2650 to register for Gil Lee’s Intermediate Advanced Pickleball Clinic.
