Collin Johns leads Asia pickleball growth tour as coach, director

Collin Johns is no longer just collecting trophies. Fresh off winning the men’s doubles title at the Kuala Lumpur Open, he has stepped into a different kind of pressure role as Global Technical Director and Head Coach of RacketPro Asia-Pacific, with the brief to help build pickleball in Asia from the ground up.

That matters because this is not being sold as a one-off clinic with a famous name attached. RacketPro APAC formally launched its 2026 tour in Kuala Lumpur as a long-term mission to drive sustainable growth across the region, and the Malaysia leg is already done. The tour now moves to Vietnam, Japan and Singapore, which is the clearest sign yet that the project is trying to create a repeatable coaching circuit, not just a photo opportunity.

Connor Nguyen, RPO APAC’s managing director, said Malaysia already gives the sport a strong base. “Malaysia has a strong following for pickleball and some of its facilities are first-class,” he said. That line lands because the numbers back it up. Malaysia had more than 400 pickleball courts nationwide by August 2025, while Kuala Lumpur jumped from just six venues in June 2024 to 70 by December 2024.

The next big stop is Asia Pickleball Summit 2.0, set for June 6 and 7 at Hextar World Exhibition Hall in Empire City, Kuala Lumpur. ReSkills is organizing the summit with AFA and APTV, and the event is being built as more than a stage full of speeches. It will feature more than 20 international speakers, a Minister of Youth and Sports, conference panels, exhibition booths, exhibition gameplay and outdoor open play.

That mix is the real test for Johns and the APAC tour. If the summit and the traveling coaching program can produce real pathways for coaches, clubs, referees and players, then Asia is moving past the exhibition phase and into infrastructure. If not, it stays what too many growth tours become: a polished loop of demos with little staying power.

There are signs the ecosystem is ready for more than that. PPA Tour Asia has already mapped a 10-stop 2026 calendar across seven Asian markets, ending with the Hong Kong Slam and up to US$1.1 million in prize money. UPA Asia also partnered with RPO on a coaching-development push, naming Johns head coach of the UPA Asia Trailblazers pre-selection camp. Season 2 of that program was built to hand out eight two-year pro contracts and eight one-year development contracts.

That is the gap Johns is trying to fill. He is not just teaching forehands and resets. He is trying to turn Asian pickleball into a system with coaching standards, competitive rungs and real professional exits, and Kuala Lumpur is becoming the place where that experiment is being stress-tested.