The Howard County
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F O C U S
VOL.12, NO.12
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More than 30,000 readers throughout Howard County
Pickleball craze picks up speed PHOTO COURTESY OF HOWARD COUNTY RECREATION & PARKS
By Margaret Foster Pickleball — a game that early on attracted mostly older adults at senior centers — is now the fastest-growing sport in America and the country’s newest major league sport. It’s attracting the rich and famous: George Clooney, Stephen Colbert and author Brené Brown are avid picklers, along with other celebrities like Phil Mickelson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Larry David, Melinda Gates, Jamie Foxx, the Kardashians, Owen Wilson and Jillian Michaels. And basketball superstar LeBron James and billionaire Mark Cuban bought Major League Pickleball teams this fall. Of course, you don’t have to be a member of the glitterati to play pickleball. Many average folks over 50 have picked up a paddle and found the sport to be great fun. “I walk off the courts after a couple of hours, and I can’t tell you how many games I’ve won or lost. I just know I’ve had a good time,” said Joanne Griesser, president of the Howard County Pickleball Association. “It’s a very social game, like the way golf used to be — very genteel. In pickleball, if someone else is winning you tell them, ‘Great game, good shot.’ You don’t find that in many sports these days.”
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Columbia retiree Patricia Guzman plays pickleball at Western Regional Park last August. The game, a mashup of ping pong, tennis and racquetball, has grown wildly in popularity in recent years. “After I retired in 2018,” Guzman said, “I really got into it!”
Easy to learn Pickleball was apparently invented in 1965 by three fathers on Bainbridge Island, Washington, just outside of Seattle. Their children were bored one summer, so they blended elements of ping-pong, tennis and racquetball, dubbing the mishmash “pickleball” after the randomized “pickle boat” crews in rowing. The game is easier than tennis because the court is much smaller (20 feet by 44 feet), and the net is shorter, just 36 inches high.
“It’s really not that strenuous,” said Bob Eney, 77, a USA Pickleball Association ambassador who lives in Finksburg, Maryland and plays three times a week. “I’m a little on the heavy side, but I still play.” All it takes is one lesson to learn the rules and start playing. “Pickleball is a super easy game to learn. It’s a little more difficult of a game to excel at,” said Regina Jenkins, director of the Glenwood 50+ Center, located in the
Gary J. Arthur Community Center in Cooksville, Maryland. Jenkins, who teaches beginner classes on Fridays at the center’s indoor and outdoor courts, said people can choose their own pace. “The reason it’s so popular is because you can play at so many different levels — you can play as competitively as you want.”
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