The Importance of Finding Your Opponents Weakness with Pickleball Pro Laura Fenton Kovanda

Former professional racquetball player Laura Fenton Kovanda was in Ohio for summer break with her husband when invited to participate in the state senior games. They were interested in a variety of games, and so they decided to sign up for pickleball as well – even though they were completely unfamiliar with it. Laura ended up doing a Google search about pickleball to find out what the game was about.

They had no paddles and didn’t even know how to keep score in pickleball, so they hit up a friend to ask her. That friend invited them over to Springfield, Illinois, and taught them the rules. Ironically, they ended up beating the same friend at pickleball the very next day. They beat them in the semis but couldn’t find their way around the court in the finals due to their inexperience. There were no referees, and Laura and her husband found themselves stuck at the baseline throughout the game. The opponents were in the kitchen the entire time.

It is no wonder Laura picked up pickleball so quickly as she was a former professional racquetball player. But many sacrifices went into making that career – some of which she shared on the Pickleball Fire podcast.

She always wanted to be a professional tennis player or basketball player, but women didn’t have the chance to step into professional sports back in the 1980s. When Laura and her brother got full scholarships to Nebraska University, they weren’t allowed to go. Laura was married to a pastor at 21 and had a daughter at 27.

She loved racquetball from the start, but she accumulated a lot of anger by the age of 30 due to religious restrictions. She had to start seeing a counselor to manage it. At that point, she had already been participating in some national racquetball tournaments, but she always had to forfeit Friday and Saturday night matches.

That was a very frustrating hurdle for her in her sports career as the top four would get chosen for the US team at that time. She decided to play her last racquetball tournament and say goodbye to the game forever when her career took an eventful turn in Phoenix, Arizona. While she had not trained for the tournament, Laura and her partner upset the number one player in the world in racquetball who had not lost a match in the past five years. After the victory, Laura was frustrated knowing that she could compete professionally because she certainly had the talent. So she journeyed to the top of a mountain and did some soul searching regarding her faith.

The result was Laura went on to pursue a great career in racquetball even though she was forced to give up her marriage and relationship with her parents. Unfortunately, her career ended when a furious 17-year-old boy took out her right knee. Her leg underwent excessive surgical repair and therapy, after which she is now playing pickleball.