February 2026
Every pickleball player has been there. You show up to open play, put your paddle in the stack, and wait — not knowing if the next game will be a great match or a total mismatch. Or you’re traveling, paddle in tow, and spending more time hunting for a game than actually playing one. Or your regular foursome loses a player at the last minute and you’re scrambling to fill the court.
Finding the right people to play with — at your level, in your city, on your schedule — has been one of the sport’s most persistent and unsolved problems. Until now.
In the newest episode of The Sweet Spot, the official podcast of the IAPPF, Chief Marketing Officer Josh Kerns sits down with Will Parton, founder of Hitch Player Finder, to talk about how this innovative app is changing the way pickleball, padel, and tennis players connect. The IAPPF is proud to welcome Hitch as an official partner, and this conversation is a must-listen for players and facility operators alike.
[WATCH/LISTEN: THE SWEET SPOT PODCAST – GET HITCHED WITH HITCH PLAYER FINDER]
A Problem Worth Solving
Will Parton didn’t build Hitch from a whiteboard. He built it from frustration.
Having moved frequently throughout his life, Parton experienced firsthand how difficult it is to rebuild a playing network in a new city — and how expensive and time-consuming traditional routes like club memberships and league registration can be.
“There is no good way right now in the app world to connect with other players in an affordable, efficient way. It’s not just about finding anybody — it’s about finding the right player and then building your crew.”
Josh knows the feeling well. As someone who travels extensively for both work and family, and who is deeply embedded in the Seattle pickleball community as an advisor to Side Out Pickleball Centers, he’s lived the open-play lottery firsthand.
“My DUPR goes down, it’s no fun, and it’s not fair to anybody involved. I’d love to find people to play with that are in that window — without having to round up the same four people every Wednesday night.”
Think Tinder for Racquet Sports
The Hitch experience is built around a swipe-style player card interface that will feel immediately familiar to anyone who’s used a dating app. Users browse profiles of nearby players filtered by sport, location, and skill level — and when the connection feels right, they hit “Let’s Play” to send a match request. That connection becomes a hitch.
From there, it works much like LinkedIn for your playing network. Your hitches live in your profile, you can message them directly, and over time you build a curated crew of go-to players.
But Parton and his team have gone further than just proximity and ratings. Hitch is designed to reflect the social dimension that makes pickleball unique among sports.
“You can upload videos and images, list your favorite shot, and really let people get to know your personality before they connect. We’re trying to curate the connection so you’re finding the right people — not just any people.”
The app’s Best Fit feature takes this a step further, matching players with complementary playing styles — pairing an aggressive baseliner with a more conservative counter-puncher, for example — to create better chemistry on the court.
Josh put it plainly: “The number is just one part of it. I talk a lot when I play, I like to have fun, and some people just want to be serious. I’d love to reduce the chances of being paired with someone I’m not simpatico with — even for just two hours.”
Built for the Way Players Actually Live
One of Hitch’s most compelling features is the Nomad Search — the ability to search for and connect with players in other cities before you arrive. For traveling players who’ve exhausted Facebook groups, WhatsApp threads, and Meetup pages in search of a game, this is a genuine game-changer.
“You shouldn’t have to hope that open play isn’t booked. Now you can reach out ahead of time — ‘Hey, we’re playing at Gotham Pickleball Thursday evening, come join us’ — and actually make it work on your schedule.”
There’s also a practical feature for everyday play: when someone in your regular group drops out last minute, Hitch becomes a fast way to find a substitute from your existing network or nearby connections. Anyone who’s scrambled to fill a fourth spot knows exactly how valuable that is.
What This Means for Facility Operators
For IAPPF member facilities, the Hitch partnership opens up a range of possibilities that go well beyond individual player experience.
Hitch is actively exploring club and facility integrations, with options ranging from co-branded outreach campaigns — offering incentives like discounts for players who book courts through a new hitch connection — all the way to full player-finder integrations built into a club’s own app or platform.
“We think we can help clubs increase engagement with their current members and bring in new members. The more connected your players are, the more they play. And bringing in rec players who might be open to joining a club if they already know someone there? That’s a real pipeline.”
Josh sees direct value for facilities navigating the common challenge of court availability and member retention: “Even if your courts are fully booked, you can now put out into the world the fact that you have opportunities to come play — and players connected through Hitch will find out about it. You don’t have to rely on social media alone.”
The potential extends to youth development as well. Josh floated the idea of using Hitch to connect junior players with age-appropriate partners — a gap that currently forces many young players to compete only with adults, which isn’t ideal for anyone.
An International Vision
Hitch isn’t just a local solution. The app supports pickleball, padel, and tennis — reflecting a belief that these three sports are different flavors of the same community — and is already seeing traction in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the UK.
Parton, currently based in Ottawa, offered an interesting window into the Canadian market: slightly behind the U.S. in terms of development, but very much in its explosive growth phase, with high demand and limited court supply. Toronto has been one of Hitch’s strongest growth markets.
Looking further ahead, Asia represents a compelling frontier — with pickleball expanding rapidly in Vietnam, Malaysia, Australia, and India — and Parton acknowledged that global expansion is very much part of the vision.
“Our differentiators are being international, supporting multiple racket sports, and being obsessed with the player. A lot of apps focus on courts first. We flipped it — and I think that’s what makes our solution unique.”
Download and Get Hitched
Hitch Player Finder is available now on both iOS and Android. Individual players can download the app directly from their app store and start building their network immediately.
Clubs and facilities interested in exploring partnership opportunities — whether co-branded campaigns, court integrations, or deeper platform collaboration — can reach out to Will and the Hitch team directly at hitchplayerfinder.com.
As pickleball and padel continue to grow into mature, global industries, the facilities and platforms that will win are those that recognize a fundamental truth: the sport lives and dies on the quality of the playing experience. Courts matter. Programming matters. But at the end of the day, it’s about finding your people. Hitch is building the infrastructure to make that happen — and the IAPPF couldn’t be more excited to have them in the family.
The Sweet Spot is the official podcast of the International Association of Pickleball and Padel Facilities (IAPPF). Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and visit iappf.org to learn more about membership, upcoming events, and the IAPPF’s growing community of facility operators and industry partners.