Photo by Rachelle Wilkinson

Smiling at the camera with paddles in hand, my siblings and I pose for a picture at the end of the school’s pickleball club. Pickleball is a wonderful sport simply because it is just fun. It is so satisfying to hit a ball right where you intended it to go, to work with your teammate to win against your opponent and to master a skill you’ve worked so hard to perfect. I know that if you give pickleball a shot, you can experience these things too, and you’ll soon find yourself obsessed.

When you hear the word “pickleball,” these questions may come to mind: “What in the world is pickleball? Isn’t that only for old people?” or “Isn’t pickleball just a lame version of tennis?” You may be a little skeptical after just a first impression, but if you take the time to try it out, I know you’ll be hooked in no time.
To answer the first question, the easiest way to explain pickleball is as a mix between ping pong and tennis. You generally play in doubles or singles (unless you want to get adventurous with three-on-three) and the court is about a third of the size of a tennis court. Pickleball is played with paddles (not rackets) and wiffle balls. The goal of the game is to get the most points—the first to 11 points wins—and some common ways people miss the point is by hitting the ball out of bounds, stepping in the kitchen (the box closest to the net) at the wrong time or hitting the ball out of the air when they need to let it bounce.
Now, to answer the second commonly-asked question, pickleball isn’t “just for old people,” but there are several reasons why it is a good sport for seniors that apply to everyone. First, it is an inexpensive sport. With hobbies such as golf, courses are expensive to build, cart fees and green fees can get expensive and that’s not to mention the clubs, balls and bags that would need to be purchased to play. You can end up spending $100 per visit. With pickleball, however, paddles can be as cheap as $20, balls are fairly inexpensive and places such as Vetean’s Memorial Park allow people to play there for free.
Another reason seniors or others might choose to play pickleball is because it can be played by people at all fitness levels. It is beneficial to be able to sprint around the court but is equally as important to be able to hit with precision and power. I’ve known many people who might not be as young and agile as their opponents, but they easily surpass their opponents simply because they can put the ball right where they want it to go.
Pickleball is easy to learn and become competent and confident in. The rules are fairly simple and after only a few hours of playing, one can pick up the sport and play a full game. This makes it an ideal sport for beginners and allows people who have only been playing for a few weeks to play with people who have been playing for years. After hearing this, you may think that pickleball is one of those games with 100 levels, and once you reach the end, that’s the end. This may even lead you to believe that being easy to learn is what makes it a “lame version of tennis.” But although it may be easy to become proficient at playing pickleball, it is very difficult to master. There are always ways to improve and becoming really good requires hours and hours of practice and experience, improving one failure or success at a time. That is one of the reasons pickleball is so fun. No matter how good you are, you can always become better, and every level past 100 is better than the first.
Furthermore, I’d like to think that pickleball is better than tennis in that it is a social sport. Compared to tennis where you are far away from your opponent and even your partner at times, in pickleball you are close enough to have a conversation and speak with one another. Pickleball is a very social game. When playing free-play pickleball, you can easily find yourself going from complete strangers with someone to best friends in a matter of a few points. Pickleball allows you to meet a lot of people, and it creates a community and bond between people wherever you go. So, pickleball is not just a “lame version of tennis.” It might even be said that pickleball is a better version of tennis, but I’ll save that argument for another time.
Lastly, pickleball is a wonderful sport simply because it is just fun. It is so satisfying to hit a ball right where you intended it to go, to work with your teammate to win against your opponent and to master a skill you’ve worked so hard to perfect. I know that if you give pickleball a shot, you can experience these things too, and you’ll soon find yourself obsessed. If you start buying T-shirts that say “Pickleball’s a big dill” or oven towels that tell you to “stay out of the kitchen,” just know, you’ve been warned. And someday, my hope is that when you hear someone say “Pickleball is lame” you’ll march right up to them and say, “I don’t dink so.”