On a Friday afternoon, players, friends & families gather – both young and old – ready to dominate the pickleball court. Before long, paddles are raised and competitors start to rally the ball back and forth on both sides. Just as soon, the rise of pickleball highlights the headlines of most newspapers- is it following badminton’s path?
The sport gained attraction mainly during the Covid-19 pandemic due to its accessibility for people of all ages and fitness levels. Over the years, as many as 68,000 pickleball courts were added to the U.S., with player rates rising to 19.8 million Americans. Due to its low-impact alternative to high-intensity sports, many developers have turned to repurposing abandoned retail spaces, such as empty big-box stores and malls, into indoor pickleball courts. Moreover, over 8,000 tennis courts have been reconstructed in recent years (1 tennis court=4 pickleball courts) while 14 to 50 pickleball courts are added daily across the country.
Being known as America’s fastest growing sport, pickleball was first invented by three fathers – Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum – who were looking to create a new game in terms of entertaining their bored children. Even so, what most may not acknowledge is that this new invention was first improvised with a badminton court, a plastic ball and ping-pong paddles. In this way, these three men, along with their families, succeeded in inventing a new sport while experimenting with the rules of tennis, badminton and table tennis. As for the name, many suggest that it was named by Joel Pritchard’s wife, Joan, who believed that the mixed-up nature of this new game fairly reminded her of a “pickle boat”, a crew boat with leftover oarsmen from other boats. What they may never have believed could have been the soar of pickleball – from a trend to a national movement taking place across the United States.
Apart from regular day-to-day players on the court, celebrities like Taylor Swift have been known for playing pickleball in a promotional video in April 2024, a reference to her song “Fortnight”, which was to be released in her upcoming album, The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD). Additionally, the late American-Canadian actor and comedian Matthew Perry called it his favorite sport, playing it almost every day. In a Yahoo article on March 13, 2022, he had jokingly added, “I just wish it was called anything else”.
Shreya Mangipudi (‘29), a student at Green Hope, stated, “Pickleball is generally less physically demanding than badminton is. Badminton is a high intensity sport and can provide a full body workout. She added, “I like badminton better because I’ve been playing it for so long but pickleball can be easier for beginners to learn.” Similarly, a student from the latest freshman batch at Green Hope, Eleanor Donovan (‘29), offered her opinion to the GH Falcon. Despite the rising rates of pickleball, she stated that her preferred sport was neither badminton nor pickleball, but it remained as swimming, a sport in which she excelled and competitively swam for. For her, it seemed that the rising popularity of pickleball hadn’t seemed to impact her dedication towards her sport, a lengthy procedure that had been developed over the years.
Over the last three years, pickleball has seen a rapid 311% increase according to SFIA, the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. As pickleball continues to break many records across America, many hope that it can follow in the footsteps of badminton and become a global sport.
