‘Pickleball’ boom

• By GEORGE MORRIS
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Nov 17, 2008 - Page: 1D - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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When Babe English invites people to play one of her favorite sports, she pretty much knows what reaction to expect.

“People say, ‘Pickleball? I don’t want to do that,’” English said. “But when they try it, they get hooked.”

Pickleball — an interesting game with a silly name — remains unknown to many, but it has a devoted and increasing following, especially among 50-and-older athletes. Pickleball was added to the U.S. Senior Olympics this year, said Phil Godfrey, executive director of the National Senior Olympic Games Association, headquartered in Baton Rouge.

“I don’t have the hard numbers to back it up, but we understand it is the fastest growing seniors sport in the U.S. right now,” Godfrey said. “It’s growing by leaps and bounds. I know of a facility in the Southwest, an active adult community, with 21 outdoor pickleball courts. It’s just hugely popular.”

The game was created in 1965 by Joel Pritchard, then a congressman from Washington State, and a friend who wanted to play badminton with their families but didn’t have a full set of rackets. So, they improvised. They created wooden paddles, lowered the net to tennis height, used a perforated plastic ball and played it on a badminton court. Because Pritchard’s cocker spaniel, named Pickles, kept running off with balls that came his way — it was Pickles’ ball — they named the game accordingly.

The rest is history.

In 1984, the USA Pickleball Association was formed. By 1990, the USAPA says, the sport was being played in all 50 states.

English credits Bob Keller with learning the game in Lafayette and getting Baton Rouge adults interested more than a decade ago.
Tom Burkhart said he discovered the game when he became a teacher and coach at Baker Middle School in 1980 and asked faculty members what games they used in physical education classes.

“Someone said, ‘We’ve got this game in a box we haven’t opened up,’” Burkhart said. “This was at the beginning of the school year before the kids had gotten there. I said, ‘Let’s see what it is.’ That’s what it was. The next day the P.E. teachers got out and started playing, and we put it in the curriculum. I taught it for 16 years.”

Three years ago, Burkhart saw a newspaper notice seeking senior adults to play pickleball. He got reinvolved in the sport and now is the local USAPA ambassador.

“I’ve always loved the game,” he said.

The game most nearly resembles tennis, but on a court roughly half the size and substituting paddles for rackets and a plastic ball for the fuzzy, bouncy tennis equivalent. The ball is put into play by an underhand serve diagonally across the court, and the ball must bounce once on each side of the net before players may volley (hit it without a bounce).

Although the game allows for singles play, it is mostly played by two-person teams, and they try to move to mid-court and volley. However, inside a line seven feet from the net, players must let the ball bounce. Only the serving team can score a point, and the first team to 11 points (by a two-point margin) wins.