Pickleball in a war zone: U.S. instructor traveling to Ukraine this month to teach pickleball

Alex Lantz

Director of Content

Last Edited

Jun 09 2025

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Community

Pickleball has taken Aaron Trost all over the world.

He’s taught the game in dozens of countries since he started his nonprofit – Pickleball Planter – four years ago, including Vietnam, Laos, China, Thailand, Honduras, the Philippines, Hungary, England and more.

So you could say he’s well traveled.

But this month he’ll embark on a unique experience: Teaching pickleball in Ukraine, where there is an active war going on with neighbor Russia.

We’re sure you’ve heard about it, so we’re going to skip the background on the war and the politics involved and focus on the fun part: pickleball.

Trost has made many connections over the years through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and other Christian organizations that organize sports camps overseas.

For his trip this month he teamed up with the Ukrainian Pickleball Federation and other local organizers to arrange several camps, clinics and demos from June 13-July 2 in multiple cities throughout Ukraine.

“They have a lot of programs with youth and adaptive athletes who have unfortunately been disabled due to the war,” Trost said in an interview with The Kitchen last week. “This is an opportunity to kind of bring some joy and fun to the area and to take people's mind off of some of the stuff that's happened there.”

Outside of the work he does with his pickleball nonprofit, Trost is a political consultant based in the Kansas City area. That gives him the flexibility to travel in non-election years.

It’s not the first time he’ll be teaching pickleball in Ukraine. He went there in 2023 and met many of the people he’ll be reconnecting with this time around. He said the sport has gained popularity since he was there last, but the players are limited in what they can do because of the war.

A photo from Aaron Trost's teaching trip to Ukraine in 2023.

“They have a lot more programs in place now through the federation, which is a nonprofit certified by the government,” Trost said.

But they’re still in the early stages of pickleball’s growth compared to where the U.S. and some other countries are, he said. Not only will Trost be teaching pickleball to more people in Ukraine on this trip, but he’ll also be bringing much-needed equipment into the country with him.

He said he’s had hundreds of paddles donated for this trip by companies such as JOOLA, Selkirk, Ronbus, Babolot, Friday, 11SIX24 and others. He’ll also be shipping several nets to Poland, where he has to begin his trip because there are no flights into Ukraine right now. From there, he’ll load all the equipment on a bus and make the eight-hour trip into western Ukraine (which is generally considered to be a safer area).

Aaron Trost in Ukraine in 2023.

“They’re really excited about the paddles and nets, because they don’t necessarily have the greatest equipment right now,” he said.

He’ll eventually make his way to Kyiv (the capital), and said he’s leaning on his guides to tell him what’s safe and what’s not. Ultimately he hopes to meet more local organizers who he can get equipment to and help them in their efforts to grow the sport.

“When I go overseas, I try to spend time with the people who are very interested in pickleball and to kind of raise up local leaders in the sport,” Trost said. “Those are the ones setting up open play in their communities and facilitating competitions, and those things have a huge impact.”

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