Originally intended as an afternoon diversion for children, pickleball has emerged as one of the fastest-growing sports for Masters athletes.
In the summer of 1965, on Bainbridge Island, a short ferry ride from Seattle, Joel Pritchard and his friend, Bill Bell, needed an activity to amuse their bored kids. They scrounged up a wiffle ball and some makeshift paddles and sent the youngsters to the backyard asphalt badminton court to hit the ball around. The game of pickleball was about to be born.
The new game evolved quickly and was such a hit with the kids that soon grown-ups joined the fun. Over the next few weeks, with input from friends and neighbors, refinements were made and rules drawn up. Early matches were sometimes interrupted when the Pritchard's cocker spaniel would run off with the ball. The dog's name was Pickles. Pritchard would one day become a U.S. senator and pickleball would spread throughout North America attracting tens of thousands of devotees.
Pickleball is a fast-paced game incorporating elements of tennis, table tennis and badminton. It's played on a badminton-sized court (20 feet by 44 feet) divided by a net 3 feet high. Courts can be set up indoors or outdoors on nearly any hard surface. Either two or four people can play. Oversized table tennis paddles are used to hit the hollow, perforated, baseballsized ball.
The rules encourage long rallies. The game is easy to learn and the court's modest proportions favor quickness and finesse over mobility and power. Players often point out that the small court promotes social interaction, which many consider an integral part of the game.
The sport is especially popular with Masters athletes and active seniors and is attracting a growing number of younger players. Pickleball's recent surge of popularity shows no signs of letting up as retirement communities, recreation centers, RV parks and schools are creating new courts to keep up with demand.
The game is even played in war zones. The USA Pickleball Association Web site had this entry in its "Places to Play" section:
"We play on the flat roof of a bomb-proof building that was once a theater. It's a little uneven and we get an occasional bad bounce but we have sand bag protection all round. You'll find us located between Fallujah and the prison at Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad. We're a gated community with armed guards and machine gun bunkers. You're welcome anytime, please bring your own ball, we're down to just three."
THE PICKLEBALL INTERVIEW
Mark Friedenberg, USAPA President Mark Friedenberg remembers playing pickleball for the first time in 1989 after inquiring about the unusual court set up in the workout facility at the Weyerhaeuser plant where he worked at the time. "I got the snot beat out of me," he recalls. "But I learned about the game and I got better and better."
Like many new players, Friedenberg found pickleball addictive. "Once you play it, it's like eating potato chips. You can't stop."
Today, Friedenberg, who is 60 and lives in Seattle, is among the country's top-ranked players and is president of the USA Pickleball Association, the governing body that promotes the sport nationwide. He is also author of "The Official Pickleball Handbook," a how-to guide for players of all abilities that he penned because, "I wanted to give back to this game."
Friedenberg feels that much of the appeal of pickleball for Masters athletes and others is that it can be enjoyed by people of varying levels of athleticism and even those with limited mobility. "Anyone can play. I've played with people who have a prosthetic leg. People with diabetes. (People) who are deaf, who are fat, who are skinny, tall, short. It doesn't matter."
While the game is obviously gaining popularity, Friedenberg has a tangible way to monitor its growth. As owner of a pickleball paddle company, he need only look at his sales numbers to see the tremendous upsurge in interest the game has generated in recent years. "Sales doubled last year (2006). This year it's up by about 40 percent. It's growing quite a bit."
While pickleball enjoys its current wave of popularity, Friedenberg believes it's the younger players who will ultimately dictate the future of the sport. "The future of the game is the juniors. If we can get the juniors to play and if we can build more public courts, this is the key. That's one thing that I'd like to see. More public courts. More teaching in the schools. That's our future."
Friedenberg sees big things in the game's future. "My dream is to see pickleball as an Olympic sport. One of these days it will be there."
PICKLEBALL TOURNAMENTS 2008
January Phoenix All City To urnament Mesa, Ariz. January 11-13
Happy Trails Classic Surprise, Ariz. January 14 -18
Tucson Senior Olympics Festival Tucson, Ariz. January 21-25
Venture Out 8th Annual Phoenix All-City Mesa, Ariz. Jan 31-Feb 2
February Palm Desert International Sports Festival Palm Desert, Calif. February 7-9
Yuma Senior Olympics Yuma, Ariz. February 8
Arizona Senior Olympics Surprise, Ariz. February 18-22
March Palm Creek Golf and RV Resort Casa Grande, Ariz. March 7-9
April The Villages GeezerJock Pickleball Championships The Villages, Fla. April 25-27
June Wrightwood Skill Level Tournament Wrightwood, Calif. June 6-June 8
November USAPA National Tournament Surprise, Ariz. November 22-30
For more tournaments, visit usapa.org, pickleballcentral.com or masters-athlete.com.
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