After Successful Bangi Pickleball Retreat, Organisers Promise ‘Out of the Ordinary’ Encore for Picklers of All Levels

Love plus vision plus opportunity equals magic.

This was exactly the equation that turned the Bangi Pickleball Retreat into a smashing success, bringing together picklers of all levels—from absolute beginners to veterans—for a weekend full of fun and memorable moments. The retreat, held at the Bangi Resort Hotel over Malaysia’s Merdeka Day weekend, was organised by MyBurgerLab CEO Chin Renyi and fellow business luminaries Jane Teh and Janice Chan, who wanted to give picklers a breather from work while playing the sport they love.

It was mission accomplished—and then some.

“At the very beginning, the aim was just to make sure everyone got a weekend off from work to play their favourite sport at this point, which is pickleball—and it was as simple as that,” Chin told Pickleball News Asia (PNA) in an exclusive interview. “But as we started building the program for the retreat, we decided to add more elements to it, whether it was coaching sessions, fun game activities . . . and it just kind of grew from there.”

And grow it did.

All the fun and all the games were a given—and everyone had a blast. Chin particularly enjoyed the unorthodox pickleball versions, like the Hell’s Kitchen Battle, where players used kitchen pans instead of paddles to play pickleball, and the games where the players dressed up in dinosaur and alien costumes.

But while the Bangi Pickleball Retreat was mostly about having fun, it stayed true to the spirit of the game thanks to the coaching sessions conducted in between all the fun and games. And, mind you, these weren’t your ordinary, everyday coaching sessions. These sessions were top-level as they were conducted by four of the best and most popular coaches in the pickleball community on this side of the world: Richard Siew, Edward Chan, Danny Tan, and Colin Wong.

“Each coach was allocated two hours of actual coaching,” Chin noted about the sessions, which he described as among the retreat’s highlights. “In terms of what was covered, [they taught] about the fundamentals, how to grip the paddle, how to think, how to strategically position yourself. From basic tips to advanced tips, we covered them all in the two-hour session for each coach.”

But coaches Richard, Edward, Danny, and Colin—much like Chin, Jane, and Janice—went above and beyond for the world’s fastest-growing sport. Of course, they did. While other coaches would’ve clocked out after their allotted two-hour sessions, all four actually dropped by where the action was and continued giving coaching tips to players regardless of skill level. And there was plenty of action at the Bangi Resort Hotel, which proved to be the perfect host for the Bangi Pickleball Retreat because Chin had a restaurant there, and the hotel itself had eight badminton courts that could be easily repurposed into pickleball playing areas. It certainly didn’t hurt that the Bangi management was “very supportive of the sport,” so much so that they gave special rates for room bookings to help ensure the successful staging of this retreat.  

With the Bangi Pickleball Retreat now in the rear-view mirror, the most obvious question has got to be: What’s next? 

It appears what’s next will surely get picklers in the region—Malaysia in particular—very excited. But no, Chin and his friends aren’t planning on holding tournaments. At least not yet. For now, they are thinking outside the box.

First on tap, potentially at the end of September, is an attempt to set a Malaysian record for non-stop pickleball action—26 hours to be exact.

“I think tournaments are definitely on the horizon, but there are [already] a lot of people organising tournaments. We want to see ourselves organising things that are out of the ordinary,” Chin said. “One event that is definitely coming up will be our 26-hour non-stop pickleball marathon, where we hope to break the Malaysian book [of records].”

Also being planned is a road trip—passing through Ipoh and ending in Penang—that will pair pickleball with one thing we know is universally loved: Great food. Ipoh and Penang, according to Chin, already have dedicated pickleball arenas that are actively being used, so it makes sense to include them in this road trip “where we combine the love of food and the love of pickleball into one event.”

Himself an avid pickler, Chin couldn’t help but gush about the sport’s meteoric rise, noting how the Bangi Pickleball Retreat attracted all sorts of players—from first-time players to players who have been playing for over three years—from Penang, Johor, and even Singapore.

“You can see that the diversity and multitude of experiences that people have with the game are very, very broad. I think this is just the beginning, so we shall see a lot more people diving headfirst into this game and enjoying it and have people like myself, Jane, and Janice, who are my co-hosts, to organise more fun events like this, rather than just regular old tournaments, which is quite common,” he told PNA.

Of course, pickleball’s stature as the world’s fastest-growing sport owes a lot to picklers like Chin, Jane, and Janice, who are doing their own little part in bringing pickleball closer to people. Only for these three, the pickle is anything but ordinary.

It’s magical, as we dare say.