What I Learned Building Pickleball Courts After 5 Years on the PPA Tour

Written by Alex Neumann, former CRBN-sponsored pro and world #14 in singles and owner of Backyard Pickleball Builders.

How a Cold Message to CRBN Turned Into a Career and a Business

My pickleball journey started during COVID. I had just wrapped up college tennis and was looking for something to keep the competitive edge alive. My mom brought me out to play with her friends at the park. Like everyone, I was hooked immediately and started hunting for tournaments.

I ran into one problem right away. I could not find a paddle that let me play the way a tennis player wants to play. Real spin. Shaped shots. Aggressive, dictating points, especially in singles. The paddles on the market then were built for a different style of game.

That is how my relationship with CRBN started. I sent a cold message to their founder, Garrett, in 2021. He got back to me right away and offered to send samples of one of the first paddles they ever launched, the CRBN1. I loved it instantly. I could rip forehands and pass at the net, and I could actually play my style of point.

The results came fast. At my first PPA Tour event in 2022, I broke through as a qualifier nobody and made the semifinals before losing a tight three games to Tyson McGuffin. That run put me on the radar of the pro scene, and I have played with CRBN ever since.

A few years into the tour, I kept hearing the same thing from fans and people I met on the road. They wanted to build a pickleball court and could not find anyone who understood the sport, not just the construction side. There was a real gap between builders and people who understood how a court needs to play.

So I started Backyard Pickleball Builders. After years of competing on hundreds of courts, I learned what makes a court play right and what does not. Small decisions, from the foundation you choose to the exact dimensions you lay out, change how the court plays and how long it lasts. That knowledge is the foundation of the business. We help homeowners and commercial facilities nationwide build courts with real pro-level input, paired with vetted local builders in every region.

CRBN has been with me every step of this, on tour and now in the business. Every client who builds a court with us gets a CRBN Paddle to break in their new court, and it is what I recommend to anyone looking to upgrade their game. We also offer a CRBN Court Sponsorship, where clients can put the CRBN logo on their court and get outfitted with CRBN gear to match.