Selkirk Academy has closed out its first run in Asia at the heart of Kuala Lumpur. Held from 3rd to 24th June 2026 at PLAYA Racquet Club, the three week program introduced Malaysian players to a structured, performance driven coaching system that has become one of the most recognised training formats in the sport.
PLAYA Racquet Club @ PARC Subang
Jalan SS12/1 Taman Subang Ria Subang PARC, Taman Subang Ria, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
The program was led by Mark Renneson, founder of Pickleball Coaching International (PCI), alongside the Selkirk Academy coaching team. Beyond the player camps, Selkirk also used the three weeks to run the PCI Level 1 certification, sending the region home with a fresh batch of professionally trained coaches.
Renneson watched the sport's regional growth up close over the three weeks, and he made no secret of how he saw the moment.
According to Renneson:
"Pickleball is exploding here. There's so much growth, enthusiasm, and energy around the sport in Malaysia and across Asia, and the opportunities right now are virtually unlimited."
Three Camps Built Around Real Skill Gaps
Rather than a single generic clinic, the Academy split its curriculum into three specialised tracks:
- Power
- Precision
- Competition
Each camp targeted a distinct part of a player's game, from adding pace and depth off the drive, to tightening dinks and resets, to sharpening decision making under match pressure. Players could pick the track that matched where they actually needed the work, instead of sitting through a broad overview built for no one in particular.
The format clearly resonated. A total of 63 players signed up across the three camps, filling 98 percent of available slots for the inaugural run.
One Power Pickleball Camp participant pointed to the live coaching as the standout piece of the experience:
"Sparring sessions with live coaching and real-time feedback. The coaches were friendly, approachable and supportive, and the video analysis was a genuinely new and valuable learning experience."
A Competition Pickleball Camp participant found the sessions just as useful in a different way, calling the experience "quite insightful and practical, with a lot of takeaways that we can use in our competitive games."
Raising the Coaching Standard
Player development was only half the story. Selkirk also used the three weeks to run the PCI Level 1 certification, a coach education pathway recognised internationally as a benchmark for structured teaching. 21 coaches completed the certification, adding a meaningful cohort of trained instructors to Malaysia's pickleball ecosystem at a moment when the sport is growing faster than its coaching pipeline can keep up with.
Every participant across the camps also received a Selkirk Sport Pro Line Tour Bag, with 61 bags gifted throughout the program.
A Regional Pull, Not Just a Local One
What stood out about the debut was how far players travelled to be part of it. Participants and coaches came in from Singapore, the Philippines, Australia, Cambodia, and Brunei, all converging on Kuala Lumpur for a first-of-its-kind program in the region. For a brand new Academy in a brand new market, that kind of cross-border draw said a lot about where Malaysia now sits in the broader Southeast Asian pickleball conversation. Renneson had high praise for the hosts, too, describing the Malaysian players as "incredibly warm, generous, enthusiastic and willing to learn."
Scaling Beyond Kuala Lumpur
Selkirk isn't treating this as a one-off showcase. The brand has confirmed plans to move to a regular cadence of at least three Academy sessions a month going forward, including further PCI certification runs. After September, the program expands beyond Kuala Lumpur to Penang and Johor, two of Malaysia's most active pickleball hubs, giving more players outside the Klang Valley access to the same structured coaching.
Between the player numbers, the newly certified coaches, and the confirmed expansion plan, Selkirk Academy's first stop in Asia wrapped up looking less like a trial run and more like the opening chapter of a longer regional commitment.
Looking for a place to put these new skills to work? Browse verified venues near you at courts.thepicklebase.com, and follow @thepicklebase on Instagram for more on Selkirk Academy's next stops across the region.