I was talking with a friend last night at the pub and he was telling me he loves playing pickleball - which I had never heard of. He said the local city parks are converting large numbers of tennis courts into pickleball courts. So I did a little research today......Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in America but it has kept a low profile.

Three fathers in Washington state faced a dilemma familiar to beleaguered parents in 2021: how to keep their restless children entertained. They threw together wooden paddles, a badminton net, and a perforated plastic ball. The sport “pickleball” was born, deriving its name—according to one legend—from a dog named Pickle, which kept running away with the ball.

Today pickleball, which is a hybrid of tennis, badminton and ping-pong, is the fastest-growing sport in America.

Anyone here play it?

 

I've watched the old guys at our rec center. They seem to enjoy it and it appears some of them are real cut throat player. I equate it to racquetball of past. A quick rise in popularity and then a slow death.

As for the birth in 2021, I've watched the guys play back in 2018/19. It was way before the covid crud hit.

 

^We played a couple games on our Panama Canal cruise back in 2019 on a sea-day. Are you sure about the 2021 date you mentioned above?
It is a good game for us "senior" folks.

 

I have never played pickleball but I think it was very popular at our parks and rec department.

I think they just started back up again after Covid-19.

I think our rec department has both indoor and outdoor pickleball courts.

 

I only heard of it recently. It seems something that is popular among the travel community on resorts and ships, I guess it is spreading throughout many communities from the responses above.

When I was young I created a sport using a soccer ball on a tennis court, I thought it was great fun but it never grew beyond me and my group of friends

 

It's big! The first time I heard of it was when I was at a meeting in Lake Forest, CA when the city was asking for input of what residents wanted in the new park that was to be built. A few people wanted Pickleball courts. That was maybe ten years ago and the park did get it. When I ride my ElliptiGO in Loveland, CO there are always lots of people playing it on the courts at Mehaffey Park. Another park I ride by next to the Big Thompson River path has people playing in the mornings.

I haven't played it. It looks like my back would hurt from the stop and go and twisting to get the ball.

 

That sentence is a little misleading..... "Three fathers in Washington state faced a dilemma familiar to beleaguered parents in 2021. It actually started back in 1965!!

 

It was very popular here before 2020, last year all the courts were closed, have not heard much of it recently.
Levi

 

but that would involve physical activity.....i'm old. but i start cardio rehab Monday.

 

Have you ever heard of Spikeball? I saw it on a segment of Shark Tank. It too is supposed to be a very fast growing sport.