Collin Johns launches APAC coach training pipeline in Ho Chi Minh City

Collin Johns did more than endorse Vietnam from afar. In Ho Chi Minh City, the world No. 1 men’s doubles player helped launch RacketPro’s APAC coach training pipeline and a new RPO and PPA Asia strategic partnership, turning a public prediction into an on-the-ground development plan.

The timing made the message sharper. Three days after Johns said Malaysia and Vietnam were Asia’s two frontrunner pickleball markets at APS 2.0 in Kuala Lumpur, he was in Vietnam helping activate the very kind of infrastructure that separates a hot market from a durable one. This was not a vanity visit or a one-off clinic. It was a signal that Vietnam is being treated as a place where pickleball can build a real coaching ladder.

That matters because coaching is where growth either sticks or stalls. A training pipeline implies curriculum, standards and a repeatable way to produce instructors who can teach beyond the showcase crowd. Connor Nguyen, the managing director of RPO Asia Pacific and an IPTPA Master Teaching Professional, sits at the center of that effort. Johns brings the credibility: 35 PPA men’s doubles titles and three straight seasons from 2022 through 2024 as part of the world’s No. 1 doubles team with his brother, Ben Johns.

The numbers in Vietnam back up the investment. UPA Asia and YouGov found that about 1.9 billion people across 12 Asian territories had heard of pickleball, close to 812 million had played at least once and 282 million were playing at least once a month. Vietnam posted the strongest awareness in the survey at 88 percent and the highest share of people who had ever played, at more than 37 percent. Vietnam’s awareness also rose 152 percent year over year in 2024, outpacing Malaysia’s 132 percent jump.

The market is already showing physical depth. A late-2025 Vietnamese report put Ho Chi Minh City at more than 1,000 pickleball court clusters and Hanoi at more than 150 courts, with peak evening occupancy above 80 percent. It also said equipment revenue in Vietnam had approached 1,000 billion dong, with paddle sales near 400 billion dong. That is not the profile of a passing fad. It is the profile of a market that needs teachers.

PPA Tour Asia’s 2026 calendar reinforces that view, with the MB Hanoi Cup in April and the Ho Chi Minh City Open scheduled for August 6-9. The tour says its season spans seven Asian markets and ends at the Hong Kong Slam, with up to US$1.1 million in prize money. Add FILA as an official local platinum partner for Ho Chi Minh City and Kuala Lumpur, and the pattern is clear: Vietnam is no longer just part of the conversation. It is becoming one of the places where Asia’s pickleball future is being built.