My sister taught me how to play pickleball last year. Although I know she wins at tournaments in her home state, I thought she would go easy on a newbie like me.
She did not. She crushed me.
But now I understand why more than 36 million people play the game and why pickleball courts and leagues have been popping up all over Pittsburgh.
Pickleball is fun for the whole family.
According to local pickleball instructor, Laurel Heilman, who coached women’s collegiate basketball for 25 years, “one of the mail reasons that pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the United States is that it is multigenerational.”
Parents and grandparents can play with children for recreation and/or competition.
“I learned about the sport from my Dad, who started playing at the age of 88,” says Laurel.
What is pickleball?
Pickleball is like a cross between tennis, badminton and whiffle ball. Curiously, the game was invented in 1965 by three families in the state of Washington. In an effort to give their bored kids something to do one weekend, the parents improvised a game using ping pong paddles and a perforated plastic ball on a badminton court.
Today, two to four players use a small, lightweight, flexible paddle to hit what looks like a whiffle ball over a net. A pickleball court is only about a quarter of the size of a tennis court, and the pickle “ball” moves more slowly than a tennis ball, which makes the sport easier to play than tennis.
I asked Laurel what age kids should start playing.
“As soon as they can!” she replied. “The top female in the country is 16 years old (Anna Leigh Waters). Most school districts have a pickleball unit in their physical education curriculum, so most kids at least middle school age seem to already know what the sport is.”
Scoring
If you play tennis, forget everything you know about the terms love, all, 15, 30, 40 and deuce, because keeping score in pickleball is completely different.
Basically, a match is to 11 points, only the serving team can score and a player or team has to win by 2 points. If only two people are playing a singles game, the server calls out two numbers before serving: the server’s score and the receiver’s score. But on a doubles team, each player has a number, 1 or 2, and before a player serves, they call out three numbers: the serving team’s score, the receiving team’s score, and the number of the player serving.
Equipment
There are only three things required to play pickleball: a court, a paddle, and a ball, which varies slightly for indoor and outdoor play. Although serious players might also invest in specialized shoes, any court shoe that is appropriate for outdoor or indoor courts would suffice. Pickleball equipment of varying quality and cost is widely available for purchase online or at Walmart, Target, Amazon, and sporting goods stores.
“There are now paddles for youth players,” Laurel says. “The weight, grip length and circumference are a little smaller and lighter.”
Where to play
The City of Pittsburgh has 15 outdoor pickleball courts that can be reserved, as well as a number of indoor courts at various Citiparks Recreation Centers. Many local municipalities also provide indoor and outdoor courts, some of which can be reserved for a fee.
When I pass the local park where my sister taught me to play, I have noticed that at least one of the two free outdoor courts is usually open.
In addition to contacting your local recreation center, you can also check out these two websites to find locations and schedules for playing pickleball in Pittsburgh:
sideaht.com (which features a map with pickleball court locations across southwest Pennsylvania)
Advice to parents from a pro
“At first, I would just stick to basic hand-eye fun type games to pique kids’ interest,” Laurel advises. “Unlike tennis, that takes years of practice just to be competent, pickleball can be learned in one session. Most importantly, keep it fun!”
Local writer Ann K. Howley is the author of The Memory of Cotton, published by Propertius Press.
