Caught in the pickleball frenzy

Pickleball has come a long way since 1965.

That summer, a group of fathers, including a U.S. Congressman, from Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound in Washington State was looking for ways to entertain their kids, according to USApickleball.org.

What these dads created was a game with elements stolen from tennis, badminton and table tennis. They used a smooth-faced paddle instead of tennis racket and a hollow perforated plastic ball (think Whiffleball) instead of a rubber tennis ball. The court was smaller than a tennis court and the net was lower in the center and at the posts.

And just about anybody could play pickleball.

So consider how the sport has emerged since those backyard days in 61 years ago:

Andre Agassi and the $1 million purse

If a sports fan tuned into ESPN during the primetime hours on April 15 2026 hoping to catch a heated NHL rivalry game or a pivotal NBA matchup they may have been surprised that an entirely different athletic event was taking place at that time.

Pickleball Slam 4 featuring tennis greats Andre Agassi and James Blake versus Anna Leigh Waters, the teenage pickleball superstar and former top notch tennis player and current pickleball standout Genie Bouchard in doubles and singles competition was live on the prominent network that night.

The matches, held at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla., were intense and fast paced, while also fun to watch. And the event carried a total purse of $1 million.

It was further evidence, as if any was needed, of the continued growth of pickleball across the USA.

Rallying back and forth

If you yourself don’t play the sport, there’s a good chance that someone close to you plays either leisurely or competitively.

Children ages six through 12 who played pickleball at least once doubled to 2.2 million in 2024. While teenagers (ages 13 to 17) playing the sport rose 157 percent over a two year span, according to projectplay.org

“Pickleball is a sport that’s unlike other racquet sports like tennis or squash,’’ said Laura Gabella, the Pickleball Director at MatchPoint Goshen in New York. “A new player will be able to have some sort of rally over the net on the very first day of playing. The rallying back and forth is what makes the sport fun and exciting and gets everyone hooked and wanting for more.”

Very often a pickleball game at the recreational level is played with groups of players, not just a set minimum to play.

“Whether it be an open play - where large groups rotate playing on several courts - or five or six players in a private group on one court, each game tends to have a different dynamic of players. This happens in pickleball because the games usually do not last more than 15 minutes which allows players to rotate. If you took a tennis set and tried to rotate, a player could be waiting anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour to get a chance to play.’’

‘Accessibility and ease of learning’

The quickness in which a person can catch on to the sport indeed makes pickleball appealing, according to Zach Hyman, coach at Pocono Pickleball in Pennsylvania.

“It’s the accessibility and ease of learning,’’ Hyman said. “In about 90 minutes a player can go from never playing before to understanding how to play the game and get a concept of how to play. With the understanding of a few basic shots and the rules of the game they can start mixing it up with other newer players and go from there.

“Once they get a paddle in their hand and start reading how the ball plays,” Hyman added, “they will immediately start seeing some basic success.’’

Tennis requires movement; pickleball is fun

Though some may compare the two sports, be assured that pickleball and the great and historic sport of tennis are vastly different on many levels. (People first played tennis with only their hands in France in the 12th century; rackets were adopted four centuries later.)

With American stars such as Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Amanda Anisimova, Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz as well as international standouts Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka, tennis is and will remain to be a mainstay among big time professional athletics.

“Pickleball cannot help a competitive tennis player; it can hurt the players mechanics and create bad habits,’’ West Milford High School boys tennis head coach David Gerold said. “They are two very different sports. Paddle versus racquet, whiffle ball versus tennis ball, courts are small, nets are low and short. Tennis requires a lot more running and movement to cover a larger court and a faster ball.

“Pickleball is fun and it has its fans, which is great, but I wish they had their own courts. The lines they put on the courts make it confusing for tennis players and causes lack of court time for both tennis and pickleball players.’’

Jesse Strehl, the head coach for the High Point, N.J., High School girls and boys tennis programs feels that tennis players could make excellent pickleball players.

“I don’t really feel like pickleball can help competitive tennis players.’’ Strel said. “On the other hand, I do feel that if you are good at tennis, you can more easily make the adjustment to playing pickleball. There are similar hand-eye coordination skills in both sports, but I think there are many more differences between the two than similarities. I have seen that Andre Agassi is becoming quite the pickleball player as well as some former women’s professional tennis players.

“Some of them (the student athletes on his tennis teams) play in gym class as it is an option that they can choose during the winter months. In that way it can be a good way to find some players to try and recruit for the tennis team.’’

Yes, it is its own stand-alone sport, but people from different athletic pasts can find an almost natural transition to pickleball.

“The thing that makes pickleball unique from other sports may actually be the similarity to many other sports no matter what background you have,’’ Hyman said. “It takes a combination of concepts to find success long term and even things like sports that require good balance or defensive skills translate even if they never held a paddle or racquet in their hand.’’

Pickleball will not replace tennis

Gabella still sees plenty of areas where pickleball can become even more popular to all age levels of the population.

“I think on the recreational level, having more organized leagues, similar to tennis USTA teams in more areas, will bring the more competitive player to the game in a different avenue,’’ Gabella said. “On the pro level, having more younger players in the game make the points more exciting and will draw more fans to watch the games.’’