Pickleball. The fast-growing sport with the silly name. If you’re not already playing, then you’re probably thinking about it, or maybe you have friends telling you how great it is and that you should try it.
You’ve probably heard it described as a combination of tennis, ping-pong and badminton. Maybe you’ve caught a match being played on television. They say the sport was invented 50 years ago, but for most of us, it showed up with the pandemic or slightly before. That’s certainly when I first discovered it.
Here’s how it happened for me…
I moved to North Carolina on March 1, 2020. Eleven days later, most everything shut down.
The whole idea seemed surreal to me at the time. How could we shut down most of the U.S. economy? How could we tell people that they couldn’t go to work… couldn’t earn a living? It just didn’t seem possible to me… and yet, it was happening. I had very little idea of where I was and now I wasn’t supposed to leave the house.
At first, if you recall, it was only going to be for a short time… a few weeks maybe. There was talk of reopening by Easter Sunday. Then it was Memorial Day. And then… no one knew what would happen next. (For more on how Covid happened, click COVID-19: How We Got Here…)
It would be over a year later, on May 13, 2021, that the CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told us that, if fully vaccinated, we could finally remove our masks and return to some sort of normal life.
She was wrong, however, and by early September we learned of the Delta variant and how it was infecting everyone, even the fully vaccinated.
Moving across the country during a pandemic is hard to describe. I literally knew nobody. I had no friends and no idea where to go to meet others. I felt like a 13-year-old with thick glasses that just transferred schools. No one wanted to play with me.
I played tennis most of my life, so I started driving around looking for courts, hoping to find others to play with, but to no avail. No one wanted to meet a new person during Covid. People were “staying safe,” only socializing with others in their “pods.” I stood at fences watching, but no invitations were forthcoming.
Then one day, I came across a group of older folks all playing some sort of racquet sport, but I had no idea what it was. All I knew was that they were all in my age group and they looked like they were having a great time.
I watched for maybe 30 minutes, learned that it was called pickleball… and immediately drove to Dick’s Sporting Goods to buy my first paddle… a Selkirk Invikta, by the way, but the truth was that I bought it mostly because it was blue.
I returned to the pickleball courts and asked if I could get in a game. “Sure,” I was told, “just put your paddle in the rack and you’ll be up next.” And, since pickleball is mostly doubles, a few minutes later I found myself on a court with three other players, all in my age group… and we were having a blast!
One of the players, Joel, explained pickleball’s rules to me… and there aren’t many, so it only took a few minutes for me to be playing in an actual match. (If you want to read the actual rules, click HERE.)
The Basics
Pickleball is played on what looks like a small tennis court. It’s the same size as a regulation badminton court, which means you can fit four pickleball courts into one tennis court. That means a lot less running, especially when playing doubles, which is what most players do. It also means that you don’t have to be able to hit the ball hard, in fact, softer is often better.
The ball used in pickleball is something close to a Wiffle Ball if you remember those from childhood. It’s plastic and has holes in it. It bounces, but not like a tennis ball does, so you move towards the ball to hit it as opposed to waiting for it to come to you. And you don’t have to worry… if you get hit with a pickleball, it won’t hurt. (Unless it hits your finger when it’s cold out… and you might consider some sort of eye protection.)
Unlike tennis, you serve underhand, and you can choose to let the ball bounce before you serve it, so it’s something anyone can learn to do in a matter of minutes. You serve cross-court, just like in tennis and you play until someone reaches 11, win by two… but you only score when you serve. If you win the point when the other team is serving, then you just win the serve.
The Two Bounce Rule
One of pickleball’s most important rules is called the “two bounce rule.” It means that the ball must bounce once ON EACH SIDE OF THE COURT, before you’re allowed to hit the ball in the air, without a bounce.
That means that after the server serves the ball and it bounces on the other side and is returned by the other side, the side that served MUST let it bounce before hitting it back. After that, both sides can choose to hit it without letting it bounce.
What this rule does is prevent one team from serving and then rushing the net to smash the returned serve, like they do in tennis, and that makes the game more equal when playing with stronger players. It’s a great rule that leads to long rallies and lots of fun, even when playing with players of different skill levels.
The Kitchen
Another rule unique to pickleball is called “the kitchen,” or the “no volley zone,” if you’re talking like an insider.
The kitchen is designated by a line across the court, seven feet back from the net and you’re not allowed to step into that area unless the ball bounces in that area. If you were hitting the ball in the air, without it bouncing first, and you step into the kitchen, the other side wins the point. That means that you can’t rush the net, as is the goal in tennis. This rule makes for more competitive games with players of different levels on the same court.
Best of All…
The single best thing about pickleball is that ANYONE can play the sport the first time they try it… and I do mean virtually anyone. You’ll see plenty of players in their eighties and increasingly quite a few around the age of eight. My wife, who has never been a sports person, was hitting back and forth with me five minutes after getting on the court for the very first time.
I play every racquet sport well, and I can promise you that there’s no way that could happen with any other racquet sport. I could try to teach someone to play tennis, and maybe they’d learn the game, but it would take a long, long time before they’d be able to hit with me.
Pickleball… that’s not the case at all. You’ll be playing almost immediately on your very first day on the pickleball court. That’s not true for any other of the racquet sports.
The Paddles
Pickleball paddles don’t have strings, like a tennis racquet. Rather it’s a hard surface that makes a POP sound when you hit the plastic balls. That makes it easy to hit a pickleball, like I said, on day one.
It’s worth mentioning that pickleball paddles come in a variety of styles and at various price points, from cheap to $300+. Some paddles offer a softer feel, which means less power but more control. Others are the opposite, more power and less control.
For those just starting out and unsure as to whether they will like the sport, you can buy a set of two paddles for $100 – $150. Mid-range paddles start around $90 and go up to $150… and pro paddles start around $150 and go all the way to $335 for Selkirk’s latest carbon fiber offering. (You can even find inexpensive wooden paddles, but I’d advise you not to go there.)
My personal advice on paddles, assuming you know you want to play the sport, is not to buy the cheapest or the most expensive. The company, Head, makes the Extreme Elite Composite, which can be had right now online for $59.95. Another solid option is the Engage Trident Composite, which is now online for $89.95.
Once you get to the $150 price point, there are countless options from which you can choose, but the Engage Encore EX 6.0 is a very popular choice because it has tremendous touch, which helps you to place the ball where you want to place it. And Onix makes a paddle that goes by the name Z5 that’s very popular with beginners because it has a lot of POP, which is another word for power. You can find the Z5 online right now for $89.
(In case you’re interested in knowing my particular favorite paddles, I currently play with the CRBN-1, ($179), which I think is the best paddle for control… and I’m about to try the CRBN 1X, which the company says is the power version of the original CRBN-1. I’m also playing with the brand new Selkirk Labs Project 003 Invikta, which is not yet available to the general public, and is ridiculously priced at $333. I happen to love it, but you don’t need to spend that kind of money on a pickleball paddle… period.)
You can buy pickleball paddles and balls at Dick’s and other sporting goods stores, but the selection won’t be nearly what’s available online at sites like pickleballcentral.com or totalpickleball.com.
You can even buy your own net and set up a pickleball court anywhere there’s room. I know some people who live in a cul-de-sac that have painted lines in the circle and put up a net on weekends for the whole street to use.
Getting Some Balls…
There are too many versions of pickleballs on the market today, in my opinion, and there’s a wide range in how they bounce and play. To keep things simple, the Onix Dura Fast 40 is the ball used in tournament play today. It’s a great ball that lends itself to a faster game, but it also tends to crack easily in colder climates. With balls selling for $3 – $4 each, that can get expensive.
When the temperature falls below 55-60 degrees, therefore, most people are playing with the Franklin X-40 ball. It’s not as fast as the Onix Dura Fast 40, but it’s not too slow either. And it won’t crack even when playing in 35-degree weather, which is not something I do often, but I have done it.
Yes, there are other ball manufacturers out there including Core, GAMMA, Engage, Wilson and Penn, to name a few, and it doesn’t really matter which ball you use, but that being said… if you stay with the Franklin X-40, or for better players in warmer climates, the Dura Fast 40… you’ll be good to go.
Just make sure you’re buying an outdoor ball, assuming you’re planning to play outdoors. They do play indoor pickleball at various gyms and community centers, which almost always means playing on a wood floor that’s also used for basketball and the like. The ball for indoor play is different than the outdoor variety. It’s a lot softer and more bouncy.
Franklin and many others make indoor pickleballs, but if you’re playing indoors at a community center, they seem to always have balls laying around, so you may not need to buy any of the indoor type.
The truth is that I don’t like indoor pickleball played on a gym floor. The glare makes it harder to see, the balls are spongier… and all the different lines on the floor, put there for basketball games, makes it confusing… at least for me. Yes, the weather is better indoors, but the game itself is not.
There are indoor pickleball facilities popping up around the country that offer courts with the same surface as would be found outdoors. It sounds great to me, but we don’t have such a facility yet in North Carolina. (If you happen to have Lifetime Fitness where you live, they have started converting some of their gyms to indoor pickleball courts and they’re very close to playing on the outdoor surface.)
There’s even a chain called Chicken N Pickle, which is a unique indoor/outdoor venue that serves up pickleball along with food and other family-oriented games. So far, there are locations in Texas, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Wichita and Overland Park, Kansas, and new facilities are slated to open this year in Henderson, Nevada and Glendale, Arizona.
There’s no question about it, pickleball is taking off and here to stay. Last year, the industry was reporting that 4.5 million people were playing the sport. Today, those same reports show an incredible 36.5 million players across the United States! Will we see Serena Williams or John McEnroe playing on the Pickleball Senior Tour? I’m betting that we will.
Back to My Story…
That first day of my pickleball life, back in 2020, there were about 12-14 other players there. I learned they were meeting on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays… and they invited me to join them! I had only been on the courts with them for an hour or two and I was already feeling like part of the group.
It was only a few days later that I had “friends” in North Carolina, and I was meeting new ones almost every day, all because of pickleball. I looked forward to the days the group would meet and on the off days, I often drive around looking for other places where I could put my paddle up and join a new group.
And it worked… I found people playing all over the place. I didn’t need plans or someone to play with. I could just leave my house, drive 15 minutes in any direction, and I’d find a game and new friends, almost every time. I can’t think of another sport that I could say that about.
Not only did I get my non-sports playing wife playing the game, but I also got my stepson into it. He became addicted, got quite good and is now teaching the sport to beginner players. Today, I’d say that most of my “friends” in North Carolina are pickleball friends.
I really believe that in a few years and maybe less, there will only be two types of people: those playing pickleball and those planning to play pickleball. It’s already being aired on ESPN and CBS just signed some sort of contract to broadcast some pro tournaments.
And Major League Pickleball is already here, with a variety of sports stars investing in their own MLP teams. The 2023 season includes 24 teams consisting of 96 pro players who will compete for $5 million in prize money at events held in Arizona, Florida, California and Georgia. That’s nowhere near the kind of money in professional tennis, to be sure, but it’s not chopped liver either.
Last year, LeBron James bought a team and so did Tom Brady, so you have to think the dollars involved in pickleball have nowhere to go but up.
Changing for the Better
The demographics of those playing pickleball are changing fast. While a few years ago, most of the people were older, that’s not true today. High schools and especially colleges now have pickleball teams and clubs and with more coming to the sport every day, the level of play is getting better and better.
It’s not just former tennis players that are finding pickleball. Professional ping-pong, badminton and racquetballers are coming over as well. Joola, a big name in professional table tennis, started making pickleball paddles last year and they’ve become the paddle of choice for many of today’s better players.
But it doesn’t matter whether you’ve played racquet sports all your life or have never picked up a racquet or paddle of any kind. Pickleball is ready and waiting for you. If you start today, you’ll be playing and meeting others who love the game… today.
In May of 2021, right after we were all told by the CDC that we could finally remove our masks, my wife and I flew to Arizona. We checked into a hotel and the next morning we went out to find the local pickleball scene. Sure enough, it was easy to find and 30 minutes after leaving our hotel, we were on the court with a new group of pickleball friends. We played with them throughout that week and are still in touch with a few of them today.
Pickleball literally saved me after moving across the country during the pandemic. I honestly don’t know what I would have done without it. Yes, it’s a silly name. They say it was named for someone’s dog, Pickle. But it’s a great game for all sorts of reasons.
One thing is certain: My life today wouldn’t be as rich without pickleball in it, and I plan to play… forever.
So, don’t let anything stop you. You can start DINKING today… and you’ll learn what that means on your first day on the courts! And the sport is addictive, so sooner than you think, you could have a “DINKING PROBLEM.”
Mandelman out.
P.S. If you do start playing pickleball after reading this, I’d r4eally love to hear from you. Or, tell me your pandemic pickleball story. Email me at mandelman@mac.com.
