The Wiffle between Young and Old. Pickleball, the craze across the ages and the nets around the world.
Upon arrival to rural Yorkshire for our family Christmas gathering, my teenage sons and I were ushered out to the local village hall. A venue more familiar to me in my own teen years as the stage for our local am-dram productions. Today however, it was all about the craze that is taking the world by storm, Pickleball.
The heart of the hilly Dales may seem like an unlikely place for this sporting revolution to be taking place, but it does have a strong history of badminton playing, highly competitively as I recall, yet here Pickleball is uniting all ages and abilities in its local halls.
Wensleydale is certainly not alone in taking up this phenomenon and paddle battle. Opponents are facing one another over the nets, paddle in hand, honing their skills and sharpening their reflexes across the UK and across the world.
The Commander and leader in today’s battle is my very own mother and Pickleball maniac. As a keen tennis player, she is a worthy challenger on any court and my
6 foot tall boys are well accustomed to a good volley with her, but this was to introduce a whole new level of competitiveness in their Abuela (grandmother). However, it did not take long before they got the hang of it and were playing in quick rotation with other locals, age ranging from 16 to the over 60s and fitness levels equally far ranging.
Bainbridge Island, Seattle, has brought to Bainbridge, Wensleydale the game which is now the fastest-growing sport in the US. More than a million Americans took it up during the pandemic, bringing the total to nearly 8.9 million players by 2022 - among them Bill Gates, various Kardashians, Friends’ Matthew Perry and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Invented by 3 dads in 1965, the distinctive dink-thwack-dink sound of the wiffle ball being batted back and forth across indoor spaces is familiar to the point of becoming a environmental issue in New York with the sound in residential areas.
Pickleball is a cross between tennis, badminton and ping pong, played indoors or out, on a court about a quarter the size of a tennis court, and with a slightly lower net. Here in the UK our school sports halls, community halls and venues are hosting over 7000 players across 270 courts and Pickleball England is aiming to have 25,000 members by 2025.
Having been raised by activity keen parents, my late father a mad windsurfer, snowboarder and mountain-biker and my mother the voluntary chair of the local sports centre, it is of no surprise to me to be thrown into another ‘leisure’ pursuit. This one though, is truly brilliant and I am keen to share its joys.
The size of the courts and the weight and speed of the ball (all less than in tennis), mean the learning curve is low. It’s easy on the body, easy to learn and is a game for all ages. Children, parents and grandparents can take to the court together and the pace of rotation between one game to the next allows for chit-chat on the sidelines for 5-10 minutes, but not testing the patience of those keen to get back on.
The serve is under-arm (easy), the pace determined by the skill of the players and it does not take long for that to develop, resulting in half-decent rallies in no time. Scoring still baffles me somewhat; points are gained when serving only, simple 1-5 or 1-7, when to swap server and how the scoring is called out is my steeper learning curve, but this will come.
Pickleball is a family thing, and a social thing, inclusive and friendly. Having casually set up a group in Wensleydale, my mother has within weeks gained so many members, that groups are being set up in various local villages both for adults and children. In towns and cities it draws people from all walks of life and sporting ability, forging new friendships, connections and even romances.
Whether weekend, evening or even a lunch-time activity, I highly recommend you give it a go. Little do the Elevate team know what I have in mind as our next team bonding session! Shhh.
