The Fastest Growing Sport in America
No Really, Why Is Pickleball So Popular?
Two Reasons For Its Explosive Growth
Perhaps you’ve heard the news: pickleball is popular. Like fastest-growing-sport-in-America popular, with a 21% increase in players between 2019 and 2020. Or, once-in-the-morning-and-once-at-night popular. And, planning-my-vacations-around-it popular. Suddenly this quirky, fun sport is being played by just about everybody, everywhere.
Its addictive nature is often chalked up as the reason for its popularity. It has a way of burrowing under your skin and making itself comfortable there. You move quickly from playing the very first time to routinely picking up your paddle as you walk through the house and practicing your groundstrokes.
While the addiction is real though, that’s just the underlying context. So is the fact that it’s amazingly fun. I think there are two powerful but slightly less obvious reasons for the sport’s seemingly unprecedented popularity.
It’s made for learners.
We are born learners. We come into the world and immediately start soaking up intelligence about how the world works. We have an innate drive to learn new things, and ultimately to perfect them. There’s a reason why most of us walk a bit differently than we did when we took our first steps.
Well, Pickleball is all about learning. You have to learn the scoring system, which even the most savvy players will admit was more than a bit befuddling when they first stepped onto the court. Zero zero what?
You have to learn how not to pop the ball up in the air, because when you do you will routinely eat it when your opponent takes that simple mistake out on you. Fortunately it’s “just” a whiffle ball, said the guy with ball marks indented into his forehead.
You have to learn how to use that mystical seven foot wide area on either side of the net to your distinct advantage. Wait, when can I go in there again? And why is it called “the kitchen”??
And, you have to learn to bounce back from failure, again and again. Pickleball gives you an immediate feedback loop: Hit a poor shot, lose the point. Improve that shot the next time, lose the point. Really improve that shot, win the point. Learn, rinse, and repeat.
As Big Bird, LeVar Burton, and Mrs. McFeely all taught us, learning is fun.
It’s by and large a utopian society.
Speaking of common ground, pickleball has a unique way of blinding you to the even more “stark” differences between you and your fellow players: gender, race, age, sexual orientation, or just about anything else. It is routine to play with the opposite sex and folks 30 years your senior all in the same game.
The sport, particularly in its bedrock principle of “open play” requires us to work together, often with people we have never met, or whose political perspectives we couldn’t possibly care less about in the midst of a game. In open play you show up at the courts and play with whoever else shows up at the courts.
Once on the court, we lose all sense for whether someone is left, right, red, or blue. What we care about is not who they voted for, but whether they can hit a buttery third-shot drop that falls dangerously in the deep corner of the kitchen, forcing the opponent to bend themselves in half just to keep the ball in play.
While we are complicit in the polarization of America, deep down we abhor it. It’s exhausting to be angry at your fellow human all the time. It’s not that much of a stretch to believe that we could apply pickleball’s inherent focus on collaboration to our myriad off-court challenges…
It’s liberating to shed our biases, alter our sometimes painful reality, and work together in an illusory oasis. The sport may not solve all of the world’s problems, but it sure puts them on pause until one of the teams makes it to 11, win by two.
In other words, pickleball breaks down barriers and places us squarely on the common ground that we wish we were on in “everyday” life.
So…Funny Name, Major Benefits
Pickleball’s gentle learning curve means that everybody can play it. And that’s who you see on the court, everybody. But it’s not just about seeing them, it’s about playing with them side by side.
In addition to the inherently fun, addictive nature of the game, it’s these two things that will both hook you and keep the sport growing for a very long time. The benefits of that growth include healthier, more socially connected people, more vibrant communities, and maybe, just maybe a society that’s slightly more utopian.
