There has been some recent controversy over the attempt to rename the almost 100 year old Paddle Tennis to Poptennis. Perhaps this could have been avoided by doing a survey of players and by informing them of the reasons for the change of a 100 year old name. And by asking for suggestions of possible new names. Then narrowing that down to maybe 10 or so, and asking for a vote on which name was most appropriate or preferred. This was what OpenOffice.Org did with their logo to determine what logo was best, and it appears to have been very successful. If more players had been able to add their input, perhaps they would be behind a name change, especially when given the information on the new Poptennis website.
My personal choice would have been ExTennis or simply XTennis. My reasons for liking this name are that there are a lot of Ex Tennis players who play the sport. Also it is an Extraordinary game, and can be Extreme. And it would fit with the XTP theme. Also, the organization wouldn't get confused with the USTA. Yes, that did happen to me when I first started palying about 7 years ago.
Other names might have been mini-Tennis, miniature tennis (like miniature golf), tiny tennis, smash tennis, reflex tennis (I sort of like this one, too, as it is descriptive of the game compared to regular tennis), NY Tennis (since that's where it originated, like me) or ???? Some are not too great, just wanted to make a list to illustrate this line of thought.
Of course, whether it should be renamed at all should also be put up to a vote.
These are my thoughts...I welcome yours. Meanwhile, here are some paddle tennis photos I've shot over the years:
Who plays paddle tennis? From the famous, to the beautiful, to the intense, to the extreme, to couples, to........anyone. Whatever it is called, I hope these photos show what it is and can be.
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