Greenwood twins take on world of professional pickleball
Jade Kawamoto holds bragging rights over her sister. For now.
Kawamoto and her sister Jackie grew up playing tennis in Greenwood, Indiana. The twins were doubles partners in college at Dayton, graduating in 2018, but that part of their lives is over. They’re now professional pickleball players, sometimes as teammates, sometimes as opponents. Jade won the last time they crossed paths in a tournament.
“It could go either way every time we play, so I’ll hold onto it for as long as I can,” Jade said.
“We’re very competitive with each other,” Jackie said. “We’ve always been like that. We obviously like playing together, but the chance to play against each other is even more fun, figure out who the parents are rooting for.”
The two got into pickleball in the spring of 2019. Their dad started playing, and they were looking for something to do, having ended their competitive tennis careers the year before. They started playing and quickly took to it, finding the fundamentals to be similar to tennis, but enough subtle differences in strategy to be different. Around a year and a half later, they entered their first professional tournament and have been playing for money part-time since.
That the forehand and backhand strokes were the same gave them a leg up over an average person playing for the first time, but learning the intricacies took more time. Both preferred playing doubles over singles, the opposite of their attitudes toward tennis. A pickleball court is smaller, and two people taking up space on a side meant less real estate to place the ball, and consequently more strategy and drop shots, compared to singles, which has more of an emphasis on power.
There’s a more human element to doubles, too, even in professional play.
“Playing doubles is a little more popular in pickleball when it’s a little more of a social game,” said Jade, who is older than Jackie by 49 seconds. “Whether you’re playing competitively or just playing rec play, you’re just having fun with your friends or whoever you’re playing with and doubles just seems a lot more fun.”
Neither has a particularly complex training regimen. Sometimes they work out together and practice different shots, but mostly they scrimmage with and against each other and other players in the Indianapolis area.
This weekend, they’ll help host a tournament in Greenwood to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Association Greater Indiana chapter. Dr. David Mandelbaum, the organizer, said in a release he hopes to have around 200 players participate in the amateur event. The twins, meanwhile, will play in an exhibition and be around throughout the weekend.
“We just kind of jumped in right away and it’s really taken off,” Jackie said.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Jade and Jackie Kawamoto host pickleball tournament for Alzheimer's
