Noisy, silly, friendly pickleball – America’s fastest growing sport

Not long after 8 a.m. on an overcast Saturday, the Darby Park tennis courts under the flight path of Los Angeles International Airport come alive with a remarkable mix of people in workout clothes. Young and old; Black, Latino, Asian, and white; and singles, couples, and siblings crowd around courts, converted to a smaller size, to play the nation’s fastest growing sport: pickleball.

The steady roar of traffic and jets overhead doesn’t dampen the sport’s trademark welcoming spirit.

For the next three hours, the thwack of whiffle balls on paddles – in a game described as a cross between pingpong and tennis – punctuates the laughter on each of eight courts taped off to 44-by-20-foot pickleball court dimensions. There are powerful backhand volleys; soft, short “dinks”; and long rallies that finish with a clean drive down the middle and shouts of “Good shot!” Games end with paddle taps at the net.

The crowd rotating onto the courts here is an example of the nationwide enthusiasm for the sport, which is showing up at school playgrounds, country clubs, community rec centers, college campuses, and parks with underused tennis and basketball courts. Some California prisons have started offering it as an alternative to basketball. The global online community platform Meetup lists 92 pickleball groups with nearly 27,000 members. Developers are opening entertainment complexes, like Chicken N Pickle in Kansas City, Missouri, that offer pickleball and other activities in a sports bar-type atmosphere. And in March, it became the official sport of Washington state, where pickleball was invented with badminton and pingpong equipment in 1965 by three dads trying to amuse their children. 

“It is the fastest growing sport in the U.S. And we definitely see that trend continuing,” says Laura Futterman, spokesperson for the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA). Pickleball surged by nearly 40% between 2019 and 2021 to 4.8 million players, she says.

Not just “older folks”

No one is more aware of pickleball’s charm than Kelvin Hodrick, the Inglewood resident who brought it to Darby Park four years ago and has seen crowds grow hoping for a rotation onto a court. Mr. Hodrick lobbied the city four years ago for courts to use for pickleball after he grew tired of driving to Santa Monica 10 miles away to play. 

Back then, recalls Sabrina Barnes, Inglewood’s director of parks and recreation, “no one knew what pickleball was,” but it wasn’t long before it became “standing-room only.” 

The city provides paddles and portable nets, and Mr. Hodrick teaches anyone who wants to learn.

Pickleball is easy enough that new players can immediately participate, and free open-play sessions for players of all skill levels here lure otherwise inactive residents. 

Dolores Vasquez, a 30-something office worker who never cared for sports as a kid, now rarely misses a Saturday. 

Johnathan Lee, a retired state worker, says he spent his days “drinking coffee and watching ‘SportsCenter’ reruns” before discovering pickleball. He now plays five or six times a week. And when the pandemic closed courts, he used spray chalk to create a backyard court. 

“We went underground in the name of pickleball,” he chuckles.

Part of the sport’s appeal is that it’s easy to learn and accessible (a paddle costs as little as $18). Pickleball courts are about a quarter the size of tennis courts. Rules are straightforward: Serves, at the baseline, are underhanded, and the ball must bounce once on each side before volleying can begin. Serves can’t land in the no-volley zone known as “the kitchen.” And the game typically ends at 11 points.

“Anyone can pick up a paddle,” says Hope Tolley of the USA Pickleball Association, the governing body of the sport. Plus, she adds, “it’s a welcoming culture that sets itself apart from other sports.” 

Yet despite the sport’s exponential growth, players remain predominantly white and high-income – 73% of pickleball participants are white and 45% report incomes of $100,000 or higher, according to a 2021 SFIA report.

The diverse pickleball scene in Inglewood – where 90% of residents are Black or Latino – is unique, observers say, though that is starting to change.

Joe Johnson, a program analyst for United States Space Command and president of the Pikes Peak Pickleball Association in Colorado Springs, Colorado, says he and his wife, Zina, were the only Black members when they joined in 2013; he estimates there now are 10 people of color, out of 1,500 members. He says it’s been a “challenge” that has motivated him to help launch pickleball at an after-school program in a majority Latino neighborhood. 

USA Pickleball launched a grant program in 2019 to make pickleball more accessible to schools, rural communities, and other areas. One recipient was the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis, which introduced the sport in several after-school programs this year. It was so successful that they’ve added the game to summer camp programs, says spokesperson Shuntae Shields Ryan.

“There tends to be a myth that it’s just older folks playing pickleball,” says SFIA’s Ms. Futterman. In fact, SFIA’s data show that in 2021, only 30% of participants were over 55 years old, 50% were between 18 and 54, and 20% were 6 to 17 years old.

Pickleball’s ability to move beyond niche sport might lie in its ability to capture the youth market, says Tim Delaney, director of sports studies at State University of New York-Oswego. “There are some high schools that offer pickleball as a sport and pickleball has been recognized as an official sport at many colleges,” he says.

Silly but healthy

Pickleball offers an encouraging range of possibilities from a public health perspective, notes Jonathan Casper, a professor of sport management at North Carolina State University who has studied the fitness and social benefits of pickleball. 

“While it seems low-impact, you get quite a bit of physical activity from it,” he explains.

Plus, while it’s easy to learn, it’s not easy to master. “That’s why there’s such a strong commitment to the sport,” he says.

Of course, it’s also fun, fans say.

“It’s wonderfully silly,” gushes Kerry Baker, a writer from Richmond, Virginia, who lives part time in Mazatlán, Mexico, and took up pickleball as a social outlet. 

In contrast to the hushed seriousness of tennis, the perforated balls pop and clatter, and the courts are small enough that banter among players is easy, even encouraged. 

Open play allows players to lay down rackets at the court they want. So an experienced player can be paired with a novice, or active 30-year-olds can partner with slower seniors – yet all bets are off as to who wins. 

The name, itself, loosens things up. The sport takes its name, not from a family dog as often reported, but from the rowing sport of crew, explains Pickleball Magazine. In a crew race, the random leftover rowers are put in a just-for-fun “pickle boat” race.

With growth comes challenges

Despite its carefree origin and skyrocketing growth, pickleball has its challenges. Turf wars with tennis players and noise complaints from neighbors are common. There’s an entire Facebook group devoted to pickleball sound mitigation (a pickleball paddle on a hard plastic ball can be up to 25 decibels higher than a tennis ball on strings). More venues are requiring fees and resident-only reservations for use of the courts, raising exclusivity concerns. There are pro-tours with big prize payouts, branding rights and sponsorships, and even a plan in the works to make it an Olympic sport. 

All that stirs up concerns that pickleball’s success will cause it to lose sight of its humble backyard roots.

“I hope they don’t forget what made [the sport] unique in the first place,” notes Professor Casper, “and that’s the welcoming nature of it.”