North Bethesda, Md. – September 18, 2026 -- RacketPro (RPO) has been named the strategic coaching education provider for Life Time Pickleball (NYSE: LTH), giving coaches across the company's national club network access to RPO's Level 1–3 certification pathway.
Life Time operates more than 900 pickleball courts across 152 clubs nationwide
Over the past two years, Life Time has built one of the largest pickleball court networks in the United States, with over 900 permanent indoor and outdoor courts at 152 locations. The RPO partnership extends that infrastructure investment to coaching quality, standardizing training across all Life Time facilities offering pickleball.
RPO curriculum built by former world No. 1 doubles player targets diagnostic coaching over scripted drills
The certification framework, designed by Collin Johns, former world No. 1 in men's doubles, centers on an assessment hierarchy that trains coaches to identify the root cause of a player's technical breakdown before applying corrective drills. "Assessment is the whole thing," Johns said. "If you can find the real breakdown and fix it in the right order, you can move any player forward."
Certified coaches gain liability insurance, SafeSport training and JOOLA professional equipment
The RPO certification pathway bundles an online curriculum with in-person workshops, liability insurance and annual continuing education. Through RPO's partnership with JOOLA, the official paddle sponsor of the PPA Tour, every certified coach also receives professional-grade equipment as part of membership.
RacketPro positions the deal as a scale opportunity across the sport's most visible facility operator
"Life Time has done something no one else in this sport has done at scale," said West Shaw, CEO of RacketPro. "They've built the court infrastructure and matched it with an experience members genuinely love. Our job is to make sure the coaches delivering that experience are teaching the right fundamentals." RPO frames the agreement as an extension of its broader push to establish a shared coaching credential standard in a sport it describes as lacking consistent qualification benchmarks.