The Most Addictive Sport in the World

Written by Craig Kaminer

Almost anywhere you travel in the United States, you can see people playing pickleball, waiting to play, taking lessons, competing in tournaments, or talking about the game over a beverage to anyone who will listen. In fact, the demand is so great, the majority of tennis courts in public parks, tennis clubs, country clubs, and community centers are being converted to pickleball courts as fast as you can reserve them.

It’s no surprise then that pickleball is now the fastest-growing sport in America. Pickleball grew in 2021 to 4.8 million players, an incredible growth rate of 15% since 2020 and 39% from 2019, per the Sports & Fitness Industry Association’s (SFIA) 2022 Topline Participation Report, released in February 2022. Players, ranging from the occasional to the regular to tournament level, packed courts in more than 8,500 locations nationwide. St. Louis alone has more than 50 locations with dedicated pickleball courts.

As background, pickleball started in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington (a short ferry ride from Seattle), when two politicians and a businessman created a game to keep their children busy on a rainy day. They grabbed whatever equipment they had: a badminton net, some ping pong paddles, and a Wiffle ball. The kids and the parents took to it so eventually, they put some rules in place. Things moved quickly after that. By 1990, pickleball was being played in all 50 states. In 2008, the game received its first mass media exposure when it was featured on ABC’s Good Morning America. In 2010, the International Federation of Pickleball was established and by 2015, there were approximately two million players. In 2016, the first U.S. Open was held in Naples, Florida, (which now promotes itself as The Pickleball Capital of the World) and included the first nationally televised broadcast of pickleball on CBS Sports Network. The national championships were moved to the world-renowned Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California, in 2018 and the Pro Pickleball Association was formed to provide professional and amateur pickleball tournaments for all ages. In 2019, there were 40,000 members of the USA Pickleball Association, a 1,000% growth rate since its formation in 2013.

Photo by Joe Martinez

What started as a means to entertain bored children has evolved into a multi-generational craze which older adults, their adult children, grandkids, and younger kids can easily learn and play quickly and with proficiency just about anywhere - on portable courts on their driveways, neighborhood basketball courts, community centers, tennis facilities, and country clubs. Pickleball is a cross between tennis, ping pong, and badminton. The paddles are solid - made from composite materials. The ball has holes like a Wiffle ball and the court is approximately half the size of a tennis court at 20 x 44 ft. The net is hung at 36 in. at the ends and droops to 34 in. Unlike tennis, the court has a non-volley zone that extends seven feet back from the net on each side and is referred to as the “kitchen.” The kitchen adds a strategic element to the game, preventing players from rushing the net and smashing the ball out of the air, ultimately slowing down play. But don’t for a second think this a slow game for old folks because it can speed up very quickly. More on that later.

Played as singles or doubles, the game can be picked up in one or two outings. With the help of an occasional lesson, players can acquire skills quickly. Pickleball favors the better strategists and not the better athletes. Case in point…as my wife and I were progressing and winning more games, we lost our swagger when two 70-plus-year-old women proved our relative youth, speed, and hard-hitting were no match for their slower pace, placement of shots in the kitchen (called dinks and drops), and patience.

So where is pickleball being played in St. Louis? Everywhere. Seems like every geography and demographic in the metro area are represented. There are courts in public parks, community centers, private tennis clubs, golf clubs, warehouses, gyms, as well as at-home and portable variations. To accommodate the demand for courts, many public parks and tennis facilities quickly re-lined some of their tennis courts for pickleball. Community centers lined courts on their basketball gym floors for pickleball during non-prime time hours. According to Dan Apted, who owns Creve Coeur Racquet Club and formerly managed the Dwight Davis Tennis (and pickleball) Center in Forest Park, in many cases, the re-lined courts can support both sports. Apted embraced pickleball very early. He even replaced the center stadium court at Dwight Davis with four pickleball courts.

We first took two lessons in Longboat Key, Florida, while on a quick getaway to visit my mother-in-law. Shortly after returning home, I bought two rackets and some balls from Racketman in Des Peres, whose 50-year-old business has been admittedly transformed by the pickleball craze. Jim Diekroeger, owner and president of Racketman, explained, “We dabbled with some pickleball gear four years ago. But we really weren’t sold on it. While we were closed for the 60-day mandatory shutdown in the spring of 2020, Des Peres Park put in three pickleball courts. We decided to get serious about it after that based on demand. Pickleball is an easier game to pick up than tennis and is more social. The games are quicker. Men and women can play it together. I think that’s why the masses have grown the game.”

After buying rackets, we called some friends who had been playing for a while, set up a date for our first outing, reserved court time at Dwight Davis, and showed up ready to play. After the first few times playing, we quickly figured out our strengths and weaknesses as a team and how to compensate for each other. We won a couple of 11-point games and lost many more. And we were hooked.

Each weekend thereafter we had reservations at Dwight Davis or at the courts in Tower Grove Park. We got invited to play at Creve Coeur Racquet Club, Westwood Country Club, a private court in Creve Coeur, and a homemade court in Leasburg, Missouri. Now, we play weekly with a group of friends who are as hooked as we are and have met many new people who, like us, look forward to playing with new opponents of varying skill levels any night of the week. That includes my experience being roped into playing pickleball in the 2021 St. Louis Senior Olympics, where my partner and I got our clocks cleaned by every team we played. Humbling.

Photo by Joe Martinez

I have discovered that there are many reasons pickleball is so appealing. It’s easy to learn, inexpensive to play, forgiving enough for all athletic abilities, fun, social, and a great way to get some additional exercise. Pickleball is not an excuse for a rigorous workout, but playing a couple of days a week for an hour or two is better than doing nothing. There are all shapes and sizes of people playing, so fear not. You do not have to be an ex-high school tennis player to win a match. Yet, it can be tricky to master. It’s easy to get involved - just show up at a local community center, park, or Y by yourself and join in a game. That’s the concept of open play - grab a paddle, walk on the court, hit a few balls, and then start playing.

During the first month playing at Dwight Davis, I ran into an old business colleague, John Callahan, who, as luck would have, wrote the No. 1 selling racket sports book about pickleball, Pickleball: Tips, Strategies, Lessons & Myths. Who knew that since leaving the tech world Callahan has become a USAPA/PPR “Certified Pickleball Professional” and an IPTPA “Level II Certified Pickleball Teaching Professional,” and owns Callahan Pickleball Academy which focuses on pickleball instruction, corporate events, and pickleball parties. The academy has multiple locations in St. Louis (including Creve Coeur Racquet Club and Dwight Davis) and Callahan seems to appear wherever pickleball is being played. He, it turns out, is no slouch on the court himself, having won silver and gold medals at the 2019 U.S. Open Pickleball Championships.

A skilled tennis player and coach, Callahan is also a great instructor, an affable spokesman for the game, and a relentless promoter of his book. Anytime I ask him a question, he’ll answer and then tell me what chapter and/or page in the book I can find out more. He always walks around with copies of the book, sells them all around town and via Amazon, and if you take enough lessons at $75 per hour, he’ll likely give you a copy.

Callahan started playing in early 2017 at Kirkwood Park. “I saw these people playing this funky game. Somebody asked me if I wanted to hit. It looked a little bit like tennis so I said, sure. I hit for about two minutes and fell in love with it immediately. I drove to a sports store and immediately bought three paddles and some balls and turned my boys on to it.”

From there, he quickly recognized the potential of the sport. “It reminded me of the early days of the internet business - it was rapidly growing, fragmented, and underserved. I started meeting people in the sport and was able to land my first full-time paying job in the pickleball business, which was the pickleball pro and tennis pro at Tower Grove Park. From there, I went all in: coaching, writing my book, and opening the academy.” Per Callahan, the best way to get started is with a few lessons from a certified pickleball professional as opposed to a friend or someone you meet while playing because you can end up with the wrong strategy, the wrong shot selection, and increase your probability of injury. Callahan elaborates, “My concern is that when people learn the wrong way, they may not love the game. And their rate of improvement is slower because they haven’t learned correctly. Thus, they don’t have a platform for how to improve. I recommend taking lessons in any form. They could be one-on-one, four-on-one, or a group lesson of ranging from 12 to 30 people. I like to stay in a ratio of eightto-one: eight students per instructor. Other helpful resources are YouTube, Facebook groups, and of course my book.” No surprise there.

From left, Morrow Morrow, Doug Chandler, Jim Diekroeger, John Callahan, and Charlie Cai. Photo by Joe Martinez

“The correct approach would be to learn the game with some lessons, then drills, then group open play, and then a group of friends at the same level with the same objectives, then going to open play wherever it’s found at any of the 50 different local facilities, then playing a local tournament, and then playing regional or national tournaments. And, I would condense the lessons or the learning into a shorter period of time rather than stretching them out. I’d much rather see students start correctly than spread it out over several months and waste a lot of time. We’ve seen many people playing wrong for two years!”

Photos this page by Joe Martinez

I found that I made the most progress when I asked Callahan to play with us and rotate in with two couples. “Sometimes, I’ll be the fourth player, or they’ll have four people, and I’ll be the coach and alternate in at a higher level,” he says. “At an intermediate level, you want to play more with the pro once the strokes are in place. And once the strokes are in place and there’s consistency and accuracy, then we bump up into game strategy. One of our most popular drills is the ‘drop’ game where if the third shot lands in the kitchen, the point is automatically over. The two-serve drill is where you get two serves (pickleball rules allow for only one serve per point). You try to hit the first one as deep as you can. If it’s out, you get a second one. Playing is what reinforces the strategy.”

John Callahan, author of Pickleball: Tips, Strategies, Lessons & Myths.

I asked Callahan, “Don’t 20-somethings look at the 70-yearolds and say, ‘how is this guy gonna play with me?’” He laughed and said, ”Yes they do, and then they walk off the court and say, ‘how did that 70-year-old beat me?’” That, my friends, is the reason that placement and strategy are more important than power and speed. Callahan continues, “There are two additional factors affecting the pace of the game that allow players of all ages and abilities to compete more evenly against each other. First, the serve is underhand so the power of the overhead serve (in tennis) is removed. The second is the non-volley zone, or kitchen area, which prevents 20-somethings from charging the net and crushing an overhead. In order to hit the ball out of the air, players need to be seven feet back from the net.”

When asked if tennis players have an advantage in pickleball, he answered, “Tennis players won’t understand pickleball until they get beat. They can go out and win against nearly anybody by just playing tennis on a pickleball court. It’s not until they play someone of equal skill who knows pickleball strategy that they realize there’s a lot more to this game than just playing tennis on a smaller court.” Continues Callahan, “Although pickleball strokes are more compact, tennis players already have the strokes and the hand-eye coordination. They’re already accustomed to watching the ball. In pickleball, the ball moves more than it does in tennis because of the wind. And, the footwork we develop as tennis players is leveraged for pickleball. Because the dimensions of the pickleball court are smaller, the same angles as in tennis don’t exist but that can be relearned.” So although tennis players have a definite advantage, sooner or later, everyone has a pickleball “epiphany” which means that they are able to leverage their tennis, ping pong, or badminton skills for pickleball.

Now that I have been playing for a year, I am learning about some common, avoidable injuries such as shin splints and tennis elbow (which my wife has suffered with for the past four months), as well as injuries to the Achilles tendon and the shoulders. According to Callahan, “From a safety standpoint, we don’t back up. If your opponent hits a lob over your head, we turn completely and go back before turning to the front and moving toward the ball. We don’t back up because that’s when we trip over our own feet or we collide with our partner. Tennis elbow is typically a function of a bad groundstroke. You are hitting the ball behind you instead of in front of you. It also can be due to gripping the paddle too tightly or having a lighter paddle than you should. Lastly, eye protection is important. It’s not so much the ball coming from our opponents, it’s the ball coming off our partner’s paddle or your own, right into the eye.” Needless to say, I’ve started wearing eye protection during my lessons.

St. Louis pickleball players are competitive - playing in local events and traveling to other cities to play. From April 24 -30, 2022, a group from St. Louis will travel to the 6th U.S. Open in Naples, which is expecting 2,500 participants. Dwight Davis will host a tournament May 26-29, 2022. It’s one of the 10 largest tournaments in the country, with approximately 800 players expected.

Callahan stresses that because of several local tennis professionals who were initially on board with pickleball and others who promoted the sport, “We were able to create a critical mass of players and instruction in St. Louis, fueling the growth of the sport. I’ve been told that we teach more lessons than anyone else in the United States.” Callahan’s academy, and other facilities, also host regular events to attract even more players. “We have a Rockin’ Round Robin pickleball event with 200 plus people, music, a Clydesdale, and plenty to drink. It’s not competitive, it’s a big social open play. This is a perfect event for those who want to play and meet some people but don’t want the burden of a tournament or they’re intimidated by a tournament, or they just don’t want to be that competitive.”

Photography courtesy of Chicken N Pickle

In addition to the locations already mentioned, there are some state-of-the-art facilities which have opened recently or have plans to come here. Missouri Pickleball Club (MPC) in Fenton is a 50,000 sq. ft. converted warehouse with 18 indoor pickleball courts, a pro shop, plus a restaurant and bar that is coming soon. Chicken N Pickle, opening in St. Charles in late 2022, is a cross between Top Golf and Dave & Busters, with pickleball courts, an ice rink, shuffleboard, corn hole, and corporate event space for 250 people. There also will be a huge restaurant with great chicken and a full bar. The original location is in Kansas City and the Kansas City-based owners are opening locations all over the lower Midwest.

The industry is advancing as well. Recently, Tom Dundon, whose Dallas-based Dundon Capital Partners own the Carolina Hurricanes of the NHL and is the majority owner of TopGolf, is buying the Pro Pickleball Association (PPA) and Pickleball Central. The deal for Pickleball Central includes the company’s retail business and its professional event-tracking site with a commitment to enhance and extend the site’s technology platform. The uniting of the PPA, Pickleball Central, and its affiliate pickleball tournament.com under one roof gives the Dundon group a controlling stake of what professional pickleball will look like moving forward - including the possibility of offsite betting.

I can’t wait. See you on the court.

Thank you to our pickleball players: Amanda & Logan Shaw, Wendy Conroy, John Callahan, Charlie Cai, Terrie Rolwes, Lexie & Steve Goldsmith, Barb & Jeff Diamond, Rachel Sokolich, Morrow Morrow, Merle Fox, Jeff Bikshorn, Richelle Bieneman, Doug Chandler, Judi & Greg Mattingly, Barb Combs, Linda & Phil Horwitz, Julie & Michael Pepper, Linda & Phi Dembo, and Jim Diekroeger.