Very interesting. Today is the Advisory Council General Meeting, formerly the ACBL Board of Governors. ACBL Executive Director Bronia Jenkins revealed the new Picklebridge initiative. ACBL will work with Pickleball clubs and encourage members to play a game of pickleball, followed by lunch, then a game of bridge.
Will it work? I’m up for creative solutions, but I guess the key will be finding volunteers who will teach bridge to a small group of Pickleball players. On a personal level, I am a fan of both volleyball and badminton, but I am not sure if I have ever played both in the same day. Something about doing both physical exercise and mental exercise on the same day doesn’t seem to have so much appeal to me. But to each their own, and I’m happy to experiment. What do others think?
(To be fair, there are a couple of other interesting initiatives going on, which ACBL will announce in the coming months)
The Advisory Council
Btw, District 24 has a VACANT spot on the Advisory Council. Each district gets 5 spots, and currently we have Jeff Bayone, Silvana Morici, Lee Lin, and Philip Grella using only 4 of the 5 spots. If anyone is interested, reach out to your favorite Unit board member and you likely can be nominated to become our 5th. The Advisory Council has been compared to the House of Representatives while the Board of Directors is the Senate. It is an all-volunteer position that allows you to stay informed and keep others informed. You can also give some input with a more direct line to ACBL higher ups.
As a pickleball player and a bridge player, though doing both in the same day can be done – it may be better to plan them as separate events. Or play a game of bridge first then pickleball. Both require mental acuity and both are rewarding in so many ways.