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You can play it with your kids. You can play it with your grandparents. Or you can play it with your mates.
It’s a sport that has seemingly sprung up out of nowhere, so I can hear you asking yourself: what is Pickleball, and why should I care?
Well, chances are you’ve found your way here because you’ve heard that tennis stars Nick Kyrgios or Naomi Osaka have jumped onboard – both becoming investors. Or perhaps it was the influence of actress Eva Longoria, or supermodel Heidi Klum that caught your attention?
Maybe you saw the viral video of a lanky Kevin Durant, who like the other celebrities mentioned has put his money behind a Major League Pickleball team, picking up a paddle and showing off his hand-eye coordination.
Either way. You’re interested. And that’s a good thing.
So what is pickleball?
In short, it’s a mix of tennis, badminton and table tennis – maybe even with a little bit of squash mixed in for good measure – and is allegedly the fastest growing sport in America.
That’s what I was told four years ago when I was first introduced to the sport, and nothing about its rapid growth since then has changed that perception.
Where did pickleball come from?
It is the brainchild of two dads - Joel Pritchard and Bill Bell – who were mucking around nearly 60 years ago and created a game for their kids.
Using a wiffle ball (think baseball, but using an oversized, hollowed-out golf ball with holes in it to create wicked swing through the air), table-tennis paddles and a lowered badminton net, they created a game.
How’d they come up with the name? Well, the story goes, it was named after Pritchard’s dog, Pickles.
The dynamics of the game are similar to tennis – you serve diagonally cross-court, win points when your opponent fails to return the ball, hits it into the net or hits it out of bounds. But the point-scoring, these days at least, is more in line with squash or badminton (one point, rather than 15, for rally won).
Why has it become so popular?
Quite simply, because it’s so damn simple to pick up and play, and is perfectly accessible to people of all ages – and trust me when I say that as someone in their 30s who has been schooled by grandparents on the regular, this is a sport that can truly humble you when you think you have the athletic advantage.
Because Pickleball is played on a smaller court – you can fit four Pickleball courts in the space of a tennis court – movement around the court is more about being quick between the ears as much as it is having fast feet.
And soft hands are a player’s best asset. Booming groundstrokes might be your friend in tennis, but they’re not the most effective way to succeed in Pickleball, where rallies typically end up at the net in battles of patience where players do shallow drop-shots into ‘the kitchen’.
Err, What is the kitchen?
You know the saying: If you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen.
It applies in Pickleball as well – because this is the most crucial part of a Pickleball court.
The kitchen is a seven-foot area either side of the net, where players cannot enter during play to hit a volley (striking the ball on the full).
Do that, and the point is lost. Errors at the net – when you pop the ball up too high – are punished quickly, which is why soft hands and patience are crucial when the rally moves up to the net.
Is pickleball easier than tennis?
It’s certainly easier on the body – the smaller court makes for less running and sharp changes in direction, which in itself is better on the knees and ankles. Although don’t be fooled into thinking you’ll walk away without a sweat.
And that’s not to say it is an easy sport by any stretch.
Sam Querrey was a professional tennis player who in 2018 was ranked 11th in the world – before switching his attention to Pickleball in 2022, declaring he’ll be a top 10 player within four months.
In January 2023, he played his first pro tournament – and proved that it sure isn’t as easy as it sounds, getting blitzed by 17th seed Alex Neumann
Why should I play it?
Because it’s a sport that is maybe the easiest on the planet to get started with, but also brutally difficult to master.
You can play it with your kids. You can play it with your grandparents. Or you can play it with your mates.
It is a hell of a lot of fun, but can quickly become brutally competitive. So pick up a paddle and have a crack. What have you got to lose?