How pickleball has ‘caught on like wildfire’ — with all ages

Kay Faber gave up paddling in the water for paddling on a court.

Jim Festa finds himself spending his mornings trying to stay out of the kitchen.

Rachel Boer developed an addiction in college, soon becoming a regular at Riverdale Park.

And it’s all because of pickleball, a growing sport that rapidly has shed its reputation as a game for those who can no longer jump a tennis net in victory and has drawn in players of all ages.

“I always prided myself on being the youngest one that would come, but it’s caught on like wildfire,” Boer said. The 24-year-old teaches fourth grade at Lowell Elementary. “I’ve played a 12-year-old in a tournament, so the sport has grown a ton. A lot of my friends play.”

Sixty-four-year-old Faber had started a water-aerobics class in January 2019. A month later, a fellow swimmer asked her if she’d ever tried pickleball. Faber hadn’t, but she picked up a paddle. Now, water aerobics is part of her past. Instead, weekday mornings find her on the city pickleball courts at Riverdale Park.

“Once you start playing, you are hooked,” said Faber, who once spent much of her time shepherding her children to their sporting events and began exercising for herself later. “I don’t do water aerobics now. I just play pickleball every day, pretty much Monday through Friday unless something comes up. And twice a day sometimes.”

Even though he has a pickleball-related injury, that doesn’t keep Festa off the court. He enjoys it too much. He said he learned “from old guys in their late 70s, and they just schooled me.”

“I had a friend that always talks about playing, and it sounded interesting. I think it’s just the competitiveness of it. I’m a competitive person. Then there’s the exercise and the social aspect. There wasn’t one that was more important.”

According to USA Pickleball, pickleball combines elements of tennis, badminton and pingpong. It can be played inside or outdoors on a badminton-sized court with a slightly modified tennis net. Players use paddles and plastic balls with holes, as either singles or doubles matches.

The court is striped almost like a tennis court with right and left service courts and a 7-foot no-volley zone in front of the net. That’s referred to as the kitchen.

Three dads in Washington state — Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum — whose kids were bored with their usual summertime activities are credited for creating the game. Since its invention in 1965, pickleball has evolved from handmade equipment and simple rules into a sport that is growing in popularity in the United States, Canada and internationally.

Even a simplified set of rules can boggle the mind if you’re not watching an actual game, or viewing YouTube or playing it, but here’s a sample of how to score points:

• Points are scored only by the serving team.
• Games usually are played to 11 points, win by 2.
• Tournament games may run to 15 or 21 points, win by 2.
• When the serving team’s score is even (0, 2, 4, 6, 10), the player who was the first server in the game for that team will be in the right/even court when serving or receiving; when odd (1, 3, 5, 7, 9) that player will be in the left/odd court when serving or receiving.

Oops! Should have stopped that list at tournament games. But really, Boer said, new players catch on quickly.

“Other than the scoring, pretty much all you have to do is hit the ball over the net,” she said. The night before the interview, she had taught some friends to play. “At least once a month, someone asks me to teach them the rules and how to play the game. Random people reach out.”

After sportswriter Rick Reilly ran an opinion piece in The Washington Post criticizing the game — the headline read “Pickleball is the worst” — some readers took him to task. “Not as fun as ping-pong. Not as elegant as tennis. Not as pretty as golf,” Reilly wrote.

“If you’ve watched a pickleball game, you will see that the players are engaging balance, timing, vision and movement. … Raining on the pickleball parade is just another person who doesn’t like something new and different.”

Riley described pickleball as a static sport. Festa, food service manager at McGovern Middle School, disagrees.

“There’s a lot of movement,” the 54-year-old said. “Even if there’s two of you on the court, you’re moving side to side or forward to get closer to the kitchen. It’s very active. If you’re older or younger and don’t have the movement, find that group that fits you. It’s a good workout.”

Faber agreed.

“That’s totally wrong,” she said of Reilly’s assertion. “You’ve got to move left to right, go to go up, go to go back; if you stand there, you lose. You’ve got to move around constantly on the court. That’s why it’s such a good workout — legs, arms, shoulders, you’re always swinging your paddle.”

Playing pickleball takes finesse, Faber said. Tennis players trying pickleball tend to come on the court and hit the ball hard and often. Instead, they must learn how to move around on the court so they gain an advantage.

“There is a thing in pickleball — dinking,” she said. “You just hit it slightly over the net, and it stays in the kitchen. You dink it back and forth, that’s part of the game.”

Faber and the others belong to Sioux Falls Area Pickleball, or SFAP. The group had 200 members in 2019: now it’s close to 800 in size. A recent tournament drew 147 participants.

“Sioux Falls Area Pickleball stresses fun, friendship and fitness,” Faber said. “If you play at different courts, you get to play with different people, and it’s even more fun to play.”

The SFAP lists indoor courts at Sanford Wellness, Oxbow and Tea-Ellis; Active Generations; First Christian Reformed Church; Avera Human Performance Center; Gloria Dei Lutheran Church; GreatLIFE Woodlake Athletic Club; Huether Family Match Pointe; Sanford Pentagon; and Terry Redlin Elementary. Outdoor courts are at the Linda Erickson Pickleball Complex; Riverdale, Laurel Oak and Menlo parks, and Aspen Park in Brandon.

It’s not enough.

“One great thing from Linda Erickson, she created the Avera pickleball courts this summer,” Boer said. “Having 12 courts now, rather than eight courts at Riverdale, and opening up the courts at Laurel Oak and Menlo helped. A lot of people like to go to courts with permanent nets and permanent lines. There should never be a time when players couldn’t find a court.”

Added Faber: “Sometimes when we’re at Riverdale, we probably have 12 paddles waiting to play. Since the Avera courts opened, it has taken some of the pressure off Riverdale. Before those, we would have 30 to 35 paddles waiting to play.”

Bloomberg reported recently that pickleball injuries may cost American players $400 million a year, according to UnitedHealth Group. The health insurance company report said a higher-than-expected pace of hip replacements, knee surgeries and other elective procedures is being seen, and it’s blaming that on “Picklers.”

The most common injuries seen in emergency rooms are strains, sprains and fractures, with the wrist and lower leg the areas most likely to be injured.

Festa pulled muscles in one foot at a Friday game, developed nerve pain the next day and by Sunday had what is called drop-foot with damaged nerves.

“I can’t move the toes on the left foot up and down,” he said. “When I’m on the court, I walk on the side of my foot. It’s awkward, but I can still play at a fairly high level. I just can’t move as quickly as I once did. But I can still play. (In the tournament) I got a bronze in men at 3.5 and silver in mixed 3.5.”

The term 3.5 refers to the skill level, which ranges from 2.5 to 5.

SFAP unofficially established itself in 2011 when four players used a temporary net and chalked lines on a tennis court at Menlo Park. In 2013, as the group kept growing, the Sioux Falls Parks & Recreation Department encouraged it to become an official nonprofit organization.

“I want to give a great big shoutout to them,” Boer said. “They do everything they can to accommodate players. If we’re out of balls in one place, someone is there to fill it up.”

Boer didn’t realize how much she would enjoy pickleball’s social aspect. She now travels to out-of-state tournaments with the friends she has made through the game.

“Pickleball is the best thing you can do for your health, and you can make a ton of friends doing it,” Boer said. “It’s super easy. After one week, you can be playing with veteran pickleball players. Once you get the hardest part down, the scoring, it’s super easy to get into and a hobby you can enjoy forever.”