Play up.Coach up.
Earn while you learn. Train under a Lead Coach, run real events, keep 100% of every lesson and clinic you teach.
A paid coaching program for the DMV's next pickleball coaches. No upfront tuition. No DIY client hunt. Just real reps under a coach who's been doing this for a decade.
Powered by JOOLA · DMV — launching in MoCo · 3 spots per cohort
It's mentorship, not certification.
Sam runs Coach Up. Master's in coaching. 4.83 DUPR. More coaching reps in pickleball than 99% of the people teaching it. He's spent the last decade making other players better, and he likes doing it.
You bring the energy and the willingness to learn the craft. He handles court booking and logistics. You run the session. After every event, you sit with Sam — what worked, what to try next week, where your players are stuck.
Three kinds of work, one program.
Run events
Pickup sessions, Popup Pickleball events, ladders, socials. Sam books the court. You bring the energy and run the room.
Coach lessons
1:1 and small-group private instruction. Set your own rate. We send you players. You keep 100% of what you charge.
Run clinics
Skills-focused group sessions — drilling, strategy, bracket-specific. Sam helps you design the curriculum.
100% of your coaching, always.
You keep 100% of every lesson and clinic you teach — L&D is never in that transaction. On events, the only time we share the entry is when we're covering the court. Never a cut of your own coaching.
1:1 and small-group private instruction. L&D takes zero.
Drilling, strategy, bracket-specific group sessions. L&D takes zero.
On events, L&D shares the entry only when we're covering the court cost — never on your lessons or clinics.
Event rev share, in plain terms
The split slides with what L&D contributes — court cost, premium-venue access, marketing reach. Free public court? You keep all of it.
Small on purpose.
Real bandwidth, not manufactured scarcity. Three is what makes the 1:1 honest.
12-week structured roadmap. No "here's a basket of balls, good luck." Onboarding has a sequence, and you'll know what week 5 looks like before you start.
Weekly 1:1 with Sam. Post-event debriefs, lesson-plan reviews, dealing with the awkward player, business questions.
Peer cohort. Two other coaches in your same season. Group thread, shared wins, accountability.
Real reps from week 1. You'll be running events the second week. Mentorship without reps is a workshop, not real training.
Recommended. Not subsidized.
Once you're running real events, we strongly recommend PPR or IPTPA certification — not because it makes you a better coach (Sam's mentorship does that), but because it gets you insured.
- Picking the right cert pathway (PPR vs. IPTPA, level, format)
- Study tips and what to expect on the assessment
- Connecting you with other certified coaches in the DMV
Who Coach Up is for.
✓ Right for you if
- •You're a 3.5+ player who already gets stopped by friends asking for tips at open play
- •You want to teach for real, not as a side thing that fizzles in three months
- •You'd rather earn while learning than pay tuition and DIY your client list
- •You can commit ~5–10 hours a week for 12 weeks
- •You live in the DMV (launching in MoCo)
✕ Not for you if
- •You want a fast PPR cert and a job board — go straight to PPR
- •You're not comfortable being coached in front of your cohort
- •You expect L&D to find every player and book every lesson
- •You're already running a coaching business and want a referral program
- •You're outside the DMV and not planning to relocate
Sam — Master's in coaching, 4.83 DUPR.
A decade of coaching reps. Loves growing the game. Positive, specific, no-nonsense at the net. The kind of coach who notices that you're closing your face on the third shot before you do, and tells you so without making it weird.
If you're going to learn under someone, they should be good at the thing AND good at teaching it. Sam is both.
The questions we hear most.
No. We recommend cert once you're running real events for the insurance, but you don't need it on day one. You'll get reps with Sam before you ever run a session alone.
It depends on how much you teach. Realistically, a Coach Up coach running 2 events + 4 lessons + 1 clinic a week is looking at meaningful side-income inside 60 days. We track your earnings ledger in the dashboard so you can see it growing.
Plan for 5–10 hours/week for the 12-week cohort: 2–4 hours running events, 1–3 hours on lessons or clinics you publish, 1 hour 1:1 with Sam, plus prep. You can scale up after.
First cohort, yes — that's our launch wedge. Future cohorts expand to broader DMV (DC, NoVa, Baltimore).
No penalty, no clawback. Coach Up is a mentorship program, not a contract. We'd rather you tell us early than ghost.
Weekly 1:1 (in person when possible, video when not). Post-event debriefs. Lesson-plan reviews. Sometimes he just shows up to your event and watches. Always honest, always specific.
Cohort #1 is forming now. Apply and we'll let you know within 5 days where you stand. If you're a fit and the cohort is full, we'll hold a spot for #2.
Reply with your situation. We're not trying to steal anyone's day job. Coach Up is compatible with most existing club/coach setups, but we want the conversation up front.
Play up.Coach up.
Earn while you learn. Three spots. Hand-picked by Sam.
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