Tommy LaBat is the lead pickleball pro at Lifetime Fitness in Bloomington.
For the first eight years of his life, LaBat lived in Champlin, Minnesota, but then, the West Coast beckoned.
“I actually consider myself a California kid,” says LaBat, who ever since I’ve known him has sported a gnarly beard that perfectly complements his red hair.
When it came time to choose a college, LaBat didn’t stay in SoCal, and he didn’t return to the Midwest either, instead landing at the University of Kentucky, of all places.
“I wanted to get away from home and try being on my own,” he says.
Going all the way to Lexington might seem further than necessary to find independence, but LaBat, a basketball fan, saw Anthony Davis spearhead UK to a national title in 2012, and thus, his future was set.
“I liked watching future NBA players play,” LaBat says, his alma mater, under John Calipari, the perfect place to see tomorrow’s NBA phenoms take center stage.
In the classroom, LaBat earned a degree in education.
“My intention was to be a high school history teacher and coach the tennis team,” he mentions, but after a year of student teaching, LaBat was less keen on the idea of a pedagogical career, but he still liked tennis, so he delved full-time into coaching.
In fact, LaBat was so far removed from the sport of pickleball that when he was first introduced, he actually taught the game before wielding a wand himself.
But then 2018 came, LaBat had witnessed the fun of pickleball, and he thought he might give it the old college try, until a significant calf injury derailed those plans.
Throw in a move to New York City, a global pandemic, and lack of space in urban Manhattan, and well, LaBat never did reconnect with pickleball.
Still, like any good romance story, the game eventually crossed paths with LaBat again, in 2022.
Casually but also competitively, LaBat kept playing better players and succeeding, so much so that eighteen months ago he decided to become a bona fide pickleball pro.
Not that attaching the term professional to his title was a painless endeavor.
“It’s very hard,” LaBat answers when asked just how arduous it is to become a legitimate pickleballer.
“If you want to be successful at the 4.0 level [DUPR rating], it’s not really that hard. If you play two or three times a week competitively, you will be just fine.”
That being said, no one has ever landed a brand deal with a 4.0 rating, at least not to the best of my knowledge.
Once a player enters the 5.0 category, things change, if only slightly, and that’s where LaBat currently resides, too talented to compete against mere mortals who pick up a paddle a couple times per week.
“To become a 5.0, you probably have to play four or five days a week, and a couple hours per session,” LaBat posits.
With pickleball rapidly endearing itself to scores of people around the world, the game is in an interesting place.
When you turn on a match, attendance figures labor in the 200-300 range, at best, and so greatness still feels tangible.
It’s easy for a talented athlete to look at the competitors they see on YouTube and imagine themselves battling for pickleball supremacy, but the reality is that the top of the sport is still wildly untouchable for even your local stud.
If LaBat or any other 5.0 was across from you, even the slightest mistake could leave a bruise on your shin, a mark on your face, or, more likely, a hole in your disappointed heart.
“As I continue working towards the pro level, I’m on the court six days a week, and the sessions are around four hours total,” LaBat points out, meaning if you’re trying to be a pickleball pro, you’re exerting massive effort and dedication, otherwise you simply won’t make it because one cannot simply roll out of bed and give Ben Johns problems.
“A lot of people can hit shots like a 4.0 player,” LaBat reveals.
“But the difference is over the course of a game or a tournament, what separates players is their ability to consistently hit those shots, and not make mistakes.”
Adds LaBat:
“What I learned from winning a lot of 5.0 tournaments is I don’t have to always hit great shots. Instead, I just have to get the ball in.”
If you have ever turned on a professional pickleball match, you have likely seen points filled with dinks, where the ball is deftly but strategically lofted over the net back and forth as players jockey for angles and hope their opponents’ will breaks.
In that sense, pickleball is as much a mental rodeo as it is a war of world-class athletes with elite reflexes.
“I just make the right shot over and over,” LaBat says.
“Sometimes it’s kind of boring, but eventually my opponent is likely to mess up and we will get an easy one.”
To win even one point in a professional pickleball match can feel like ascending Mount Everest, but again, perhaps surprisingly, the layman still is convinced they can pick up their paddle and whack their way to gold at a local tournament.
“People remember their highlights. They don’t remember what they didn’t do well,” LaBat notes, touching on the cognitive dissonance that has afflicted so many wannabe pickleball artists.
“For example, they will think about the one great shot that they had in a match, but they won’t remember the six easy balls that they misplayed.”
Therefore, self-awareness is key.
LaBat goes on to say that he will watch 3.5-rated players match up with 4.0s and routinely get decimated, but should that 3.5 happen to have an outstanding day and experience a modicum of success, the blinders conveniently go on and suddenly the past body of work is rendered meaningless, at least from the vantage point of the 3.5.
For the record, LaBat, and yours truly, are not taking aim at the oblivious 3.0 pickleballer.
Rather, these well-intentioned observations are to suggest that DUPR, the system that ranks players, is a valid form of assessing players.
“DUPR is way more accurate than people give it credit for,” LaBat says.
“98 out of 100 people are within 0.3 points of what they actually are.”
Okay, maybe there are exceptions to this, but as one climbs the tiers of pickleball, DUPR only becomes more accurate.
“Pickleball is a sport where there is more variability with the DUPR, but as you get to the higher levels, there is less of that variability,” LaBat mentions, meaning if you are a 6.0 pickleball player, you didn’t accidentally become a 6.0.
Actually, if you’re a 6.0, brands are likely inquiring within to see if they can sponsor you.
Which begs the question:
Will we see Labat, the man patrolling the court with a quiet confidence, soon pop up on our YouTube feed, waging war against the game’s brightest stars?
“That’s the overall goal, but it is also prohibitively expensive to be a traveling pro,” Labat informs.
Between tournament entry fees, Best Westerns, rental cars, and enough replenishment to avoid crippling dehydration, expenses are aplenty.
Like the rest of us, LaBat has bills, and they don’t pause when he hits the road in search of glory.
“For a full-time pro, having a qualifying match on a Monday is not a big deal, but with how my life is set up, I am not exactly trying to deplete the bank account in pursuit of this dream,” says LaBat, who loves his position with Lifetime Fitness.
“In many ways, I am one foot in and one foot out, which I know is not great because there’s no way I’m really going to succeed with only one foot in, but I also care about this [family and work].”
For now, LaBat will continue to terrorize opponents within his zip code, and whatever success the game of pickleball bestows upon him, know that his personal life will not have suffered as a result.
“In 20 years, people are not going to remember that I won a professional match or two,” he concedes.
“I need to be honest with myself. I’m not going to be breaking any records or ascending to the utmost echelon.”
But that’s okay, because unlike some pickleball hopefuls, LaBat knows himself, and he fully grasps what is important in this life.
Says the sagacious LaBat:
“My mental health and financial security are more important than trying to become a top-20 pickleball player in the world.” QS
**
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