The unstoppable rise of pickleball

A distinctive thud echoes around the pickleball courts in Kennebunk, in the northeastern state of Maine.

About a dozen people are in the enclosed public space practicing America's fastest-growing sport, which is aiming for global expansion and even the Olympics.

“I thought it would be fun to do something now that I'm older and can't play tennis anymore,” says Bob Simmons, a lean, athletic-looking 76-year-old. The national one.

“It's a great group of people. It's a fun social activity. It was a lot of fun.”

Courts have sprung up in the US and abroad. In April, Pickleball Kingdom, the largest provider of indoor pickleball courts, signed an agreement with Franchise India Group to bring its brand to India and the UAE.

Courts will initially open in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, with the rest of the UAE to follow.

Rob Street, Chief Operating Officer of Pickleball Kingdom, is optimistic about the sport's progress in the region.

“We have been very methodical and purposeful with our growth. This is just phase one of our expansion plan,” he said in a statement.

Fans of the sport, which has been around for 60 years, now want it included in the Olympic Games.

But to succeed it must overcome a series of hurdles. For starters, it must be played in 75 countries on four continents. At last count there are 40, including the UAE.

Then there must be an international federation and it must implement the World Anti-Doping Code.

The smart money is on pickleball being included in the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane.

Born out of necessity

Pickleball's spread is impressive for a game that started in 1965 in the backyard of Joel Pritchard, a Republican congressman from Washington state.

He and his friends planned to play badminton on the court at his home. But to Mr. Pritchard's chagrin, they didn't have enough rackets for a game.

So they improvised and grabbed a pair of table tennis bats and a perforated plastic ball.

Initially the net was about 1.5 meters high, but that was soon lowered to about 0.9 meters.

Mr Pritchard, businessman Bill Bell and a third friend, Barney McCallum, came up with a set of rules based largely on badminton – and the rest is history.

Simply put, the game is a bit like tennis, albeit with oversized paddles instead of rackets, and is normally played with two players on each side.

However, only the server can score points if the server switches sides when he or she commits a foul.

Normally, the team that scores 11 points first wins, provided it has a two-point lead.

The growth of the sport is astounding, with an estimated 36.5 million players in the US, representing a growth of 223.5 percent over the past three years, according to Pickleball Kingdom.

The sport is often stereotyped as a game mainly played by older people, but in reality 18-34 year olds make up the largest group, with 28.8 percent of the total. Those over 55 account for just under 20 percent.

This cohort was strongly represented in Kennebunk at the time The national one went to observe a few matches.

John DeRoche, 68, has been practicing the sport for five years.

“It's cheap and easy. It costs three dollars an hour here. The game is fast and socially good. It's competitive. When I play a game I've walked over 4,000 steps, that's over two miles,” Mr. DeRoche said.

'It's available everywhere. It's not just a game for old white people. We have a guy named Teddy who is in college. He's very good.'

Chris Baker, 62, finds the sport an ideal way to keep fit.

“I've been playing for a year. It's exercise and it's social. Is it competitive? It depends, it's more competitive at night than during the day.

“For some people it's 80 percent competitive, 20 percent social; for some it's the other way around and for some people it's 50-50.”

So many pickleball courts are popping up around the country that they are taking over empty stores and malls, and the U.S. media has run a wave of stories from residents of some communities complaining about the nonstop, clack-clack sound of players hitting plastic. pickle balls.

Updated: June 21, 2024, 6:00 PM