Matteo coached in Italian. Raquel coached in Spanish. Valerie and Victoria Simon coached in English. The players in front of them came from all over the world.

Somehow, everyone understood each other. That was the story of the Serve For Strength pickleball clinic at PPA Europe in Barcelona. Serve For Strength is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so all money raised during each and every event is donated to fund medical research. Truly playing for a purpose. You can support the mission at serveforstrength.org. Here's how drills, match play, and one global rating turned a group of strangers into a court full of friends.

Somehow, everyone understood each other. That was the story of the Serve For Strength pickleball clinic at PPA Europe in Barcelona. Here's how drills, match play, and one global rating turned a group of strangers into a court full of friends.

A shared number before a shared language

Before anyone stepped on court, Serve for Strength asked every participant for one thing: their DUPR Rating. 

The number did work that no translator could. Coaches used it to group players by skill level, so every drill and every match stayed competitive. Nobody got run off the court, and nobody got bored.

What happened at the pickleball clinic

The clinic was during the PPA Barcelona event, and ran in two parts. First, coaches worked players through drills that targeted different parts of the game. Then everyone put those skills to the test in match play.

When words run out, pickleball has backups. A coach can demonstrate a reset instead of explaining it. A partner can point to the open gap. A paddle tap after a long rally means "nice shot" in every language.

Players asked questions, tried new shots, and competed hard. By the end, the language gaps mattered a lot less than the next point.

Meet the coaching team

The coaching lineup looked like the clinic itself: international and mixed.

• Matteo Cugliari, Italy
• Raquel Amaro Veloso, Spain
• Valerie Simon, United States
• Victoria Simon, United States

Four coaches, three countries, one game plan. 

From the clinic court to the pro court

The experience didn't end when the drills did. Participants got to soak in the PPA Europe atmosphere, then watch Valerie and Victoria, the same players who had just coached them, compete in pro women's doubles and pro mixed doubles.

The Simon sisters finished fourth in women's doubles against a strong field of European teams. It's not every day you learn from a coach and then cheer for them on a pro court a few hours later. 

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Why this matters for pickleball in Europe

Pickleball keeps growing across Europe, and PPA Europe is one sign of that. As more players pick up paddles in new countries, they need a common way to find fair matches and the right partners. A universal rating measured by multiple factors for one common goal and to know How Your DUPR Is Calculated . 

That's what DUPR gives them. Serve For Strength showed what happens next: people who had never met, and didn't share a first language, playing competitive pickleball together.

Different countries. Different languages. Different levels.

One court.

Playing for a purpose

For Serve For Strength, the clinic proved that sport reaches far beyond the scoreboard. Every player who stepped on court also helped raise funds for medical research, turning a morning of drills and match play into support for a cause that matters. Thanks to PPA Europe, Smash Pickleball Agency, the coaches, the organizers, and every player who showed up ready to learn.

Heading to a clinic or Tournaments abroad? Check your DUPR rating before you go. It's the one thing everyone on court will understand.

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