Pickleball Ref John Ng Makes Ultimate Sacrifice to Grow the Sport in Asia, Appeals for Empathy, Tolerance From Picklers

Being a referee is a thankless job. The pay isn’t top tier; there is little to no fanfare, and you often get a few choice words from players and fans alike. In fact, the only time you’re talked about is if you mess up a call—and that rings true even in the growing sport of pickleball.

So, although refereeing often goes unappreciated, it’s an important role that someone must take on. That someone must be an intrepid soul, a person so in love with the game they’d be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to take on the incredibly challenging task of being an arbiter of rules.

John Ng is one of those intrepid souls.

A Tournament Rules Advisor for the Asia Federation of Pickleball (AFP), John is a well-known and well-respected referee in pickleball circles, widely regarded as Asia’s best and most experienced referee. It was quite the journey for John, who was introduced to the sport in October 2017 only because the regular tennis sessions he frequented got washed out by rain that fateful day. Unable to play tennis, John’s friend, Ricky Tan, convinced him to try pickleball and the former obliged. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.

But while John has carved out quite a nice career as a pickleball referee, he admits that, initially, he still preferred being on the other side of the fence—the players’ side.

“Honestly speaking, most of us would prefer to play rather than be a referee. It is more enjoyable being a player than a referee,” John admitted to Pickleball News Asia (PNA) in an exclusive interview.

In the end, though, his love for the sport took him down the path of refereeing—a challenge he took head-on because, after all, someone had to step up. But even John himself was surprised that what he thought was a one-off gig would turn out to be a long-term calling.

“In tournaments within Asia, it is challenging for organisers to gather enough volunteer referees to help out in officiating. I first volunteered as a referee in 2018 at the Singapore National Games, Pesta Sukan. A number of us attended a one-day referee training workshop conducted by the organisers. I thought this was a one-off occasion in helping out the organisers as a gesture of friendship,” John recounted to PNA. “After the initial venture into officiating, more requests for referees came forward as we had more and more tournaments in Singapore due to the rapid growth of the sport. I subsequently joined the Singapore Pickleball Association as one of their volunteer referees.”

So, why did John continue along this path?

He loved the game so much that he just had to give back.

“The thought of giving something back to the game would be the driving force for me to continue to be a referee. I can think of no other reason than that,” John admitted.  It is definitely not the match fees. The token amount of a few dollars an hour for weekends, public holidays, as well as after work hours is not even a consideration in helping out as a referee. This is probably also one of the reasons why being a referee does not attract people, as opposed to being a coach where there is considerably more remuneration.”

Indeed, John has turned being a pickleball referee into a calling, doing it because he believes the sport needs it and the players deserve it.

“Players who register in tournaments pay registration fees, and they deserve high, professional officiating standards that a tournament organiser should provide,” he added. “I felt that this was lacking in the sport in Singapore. This is when I decided to further my referee knowledge by getting a trained referee certification from the USAP (USA Pickleball). USAP is the founder of pickleball and owner of the pickleball rulebook.”

It might be a bittersweet twist that John is refereeing instead of playing, but it doesn’t seem to bother John, who credits Gigi Maceda, his referee certification trainer, and Mark Peifer, the former MD of the USAP Rules and Officiating committee, for helping him accrue what is now an encyclopaedic knowledge of pickleball rules and regulations. And he is only learning more and more.

“As for mastering the art of being a competent referee, knowledge of the USAP rule book, the officiating handbook, and the casebook is a good start. This knowledge would, however, only account for about 30% of being a decent referee…,” John pointed out. “There is no shortcut to the remaining 70%, which cannot be learnt from the rulebook alone. You need to stand in the middle of the court with thick skin, make a goose out of yourself by making mistakes and learn from your mistakes. Over time, after many matches, self-confidence will develop, and this will help you improve as you put each match behind you.”

That mastery of the rules has helped John handle contentious situations with unparalleled grace—like that time when, as the Tournament Rules Advisor, he had a player ejected from the game and expelled from the venue for suffocating a referee after what the former deemed a bad call.

“The bottom line is, our sport has no room for violent conduct in any form and under any situation,” the veteran referee noted.

John’s dispute resolution skills are no doubt nonpareil and his calm under pressure is peerless. Even so, he has one request to pickleball players in the way they interact with officials like him: “Players should exercise empathy and tolerance.”

Picklers would be wise to heed this piece of advice as it comes from someone who is all about giving back to pickleball and growing it more and more in Asia—a trend that John credits in part to the international tournaments being organised by the different Asian countries, which he says, “demonstrate the growth and organisation of pickleball in Asia.”

That growth has been meteoric, and that’s largely a credit to the game’s fast-paced, dynamic, and exciting nature and the many talented picklers making a name in the sport. But credit also goes to men like John Ng, whose unrelenting passion for pickleball is driving them to move the sport forward in their own way—even if it means making big sacrifices.