Describing the fast-growing sport of pickleball is easy. The game is played over a net with a whiffle ball and wood paddles. You can make comparisons to almost any racket sport – badminton, tennis or even pingpong.
But many who play pickleball in the Twin Cities have a different kind of description: It’s a drug.
To them, it’s not an activity, hobby or sport. They use words like, “lifestyle,” “obsession” and “addiction” to describe their affinity for pickleball.
“Pickleball: It’s not a sport, it’s a phenomenon,” said Rachael Kroog, a Bloomington resident and national pickleball champion. “You won’t find a person who plays this sport who isn’t addicted to it.”
Pickleball, which has been called the fastest-growing sport in the country, is like “Lay’s potato chips,” Kroog said.
No one can play just once.
Pickleball is especially easy to pick up. And once you start, you don’t want to quit, she said.
Kroog is a member of the Southwest Metro Pickleball Club, which has grown from six members in 2011 to about 300 members today, said Dennis “The Menace” Gallaher, the club’s vice president.
The sport – not in its 60th year – was invented in 1965 by Washington state congressman Joel Pritchard during a weekend with his family.
Without any badminton equipment, the family improvised by playing with pingpong paddles and a plastic ball. The badminton net was lowered to allow players to bounce the ball over the net, rather than just volleying it to each other.
A silver sport
While younger generations are now learning pickleball in P.E. class and community fitness centers, active seniors have long carried the torch for pickleball.
Kroog played tennis with her father until he couldn’t play any more. She was surprised when, at 79, he told her he’d found a new sport for them to play together.
After a few games, she became a fan of the sport and has now been playing for six years.
“It doesn’t take long to hook people.” she said.
As fans of the sport age into retirement, communities across the metro have been adding indoor and outdoor courts for pickleball play.
There are more than 85 venues in Minnesota – including multiple YMCAs, senior centers and parks – that offer pickleball court time, according to the USA Pickleball Association.
Courts can be constructed specifically for pickleball or they can be created by modifying existing tennis, badminton or even basketball courts.
Another sign of growth? The Southwest Metro Pickleball Club’s annual Miracle-Ear tournament is held every August.
Participation this year was about 22 percent higher than the year prior with more than 200 players. Top players from 10 other states also participated, said Gallaher, who lives in Eden Prairie, a hot spot for pickleball.
Cassie Rood, vice president of healthy living at the YMCA of the Greater Twin Cities, said she noticed the sport picking up in the past few years among Y members – especially those over 50.
At the YMCA, the focus is typically on recreational, drop-in matches. There are occasional events or in-house tournaments, but mostly the sport has grown organically through the interest of members.
According to the USA Pickleball Association, there are more than 400,000 players actively playing pickleball in the U.S.
‘Moving quickly’
When it comes to physical fitness, pickleball offers many benefits but without the drawbacks of other racket sports, Rood said.
The court – about the size of a badminton court at 20 feet by 44 feet – is smaller than a tennis court, so there’s less ground to cover. And the ball is lighter and moves more slowly.
Those differences make it easier on the knees and joints, she said.
But the quick-and-nimble sport is still a workout that promotes coordination and balance – both key areas for older adults who want to stay fit.
“You’re not moving as aggressively as tennis, but you’re moving quickly,” Rood said.
With such similarities, the sport attracts many lifelong tennis and racquetball players looking for a change of pace.
Like many others, Gallaher was a tennis player before picking up pickleball.
There’s less lateral running and more short-range, strategic lunging. But, he insists, it’s still very much a workout.
While his tennis skills made the sport a natural fit, the strategy of the game is quite different, Gallaher said.
On the pickleball court, there’s a no-volley-zone – commonly called the kitchen – where players can’t smash the ball down for points. That rule leads to strategic shorter shots.
Playing tournaments
Gallaher started playing pickleball a few months after he retired in 2013.
Within a year, he was playing in tournaments and competing. At 68, he qualified and played in this year’s National Senior Games held for the first time ever in the Twin Cities in July. Though he was playing with a back injury from a prior tournament, he managed to win a couple rounds at the national level.
Gallaher’s relatively speedy, two-year ascent within the sport isn’t uncommon – many who seek to play competitively can improve quickly, he said.
The Twin Cities region is home to a number of top-rated local players, local events and USA Pickleball Association-sanctioned tournaments.
“You can always find a challenging game,” Gallaher said.
Like Gallaher, Kroog was able to start playing competitively within a year of learning the sport. On average, she plays about four hours a week to stay in shape.
A new network
Pickleball, whether you play social or competitively, is just as much about game play as it is about socializing.
With double teams, four people are on the court and it’s easy to have a conversation over the net – which isn’t necessarily so on an expansive tennis court.
Gallaher – who retired from advertising – once tried to play tennis with a client, but they had to scream across the net and couldn’t understand each other well.
Once you start playing, your entire social circle expands, Kroog said. There are lunches after matches, weekend tournaments, trips to national events and even retirement communities that bill themselves as pickleball hot spots.
Many of the popular national tournaments are held in common snowbird destinations such as Arizona and Florida.
And, as a growing number of youth are drawn to the sport, it’s also becoming more of a multigenerational activity for families, Rood said.
The pickleball phenomenon, Rood said, is part of a larger movement promoting total well-being within the senior set.
Active older adults are less focused on a prescriptive 30-minute workout routine and are looking at health more broadly, she said. Besides exercise, they’re interested in mind-body practices like yoga and meditation as well as other activities – like gardening or playing with grandkids – that contribute to overall health.
“They’re thinking, “How can I live to improve my well-being,” Rood said.
Gallaher likes to joke that pickleball helps “keep nursing homes empty.”
Kroog said it’s not a stretch to say that pickleball saves lives – and enriches them.
She said, “This is adding years – not only quantity, but quality.”
Cali Ownings is a Minneapolis-based freelance writer. This article first appeared in our November 2015 issue of Minnesota Good Age.