PICKLEBALL
Pickleball and the Power of the Third Place
The sport as America’s new town square?
Many pickleball fanatics, including me, have written about the sport’s addictive nature and tried to get to a deeper understanding of why it’s so hugely popular. My perspective up until this point focused on the fact that the sport is made for learners and is by and large a Utopian society.
While I stand by both, a recent post by Nathan Allebach convinced me that there’s an even more interesting reason: it’s the power of the Third Place.
The Third Place is a term coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg to describe the places we spend time between home (‘first’ place) and work (‘second’ place). To name a few, our historical Third Places were churches, clubs we belonged to, plazas, parks, and public squares in which we we had casual, unexpected conversations.
The Anchors of Community
Prior to the “mallification” of America that began in the late ‘50’s and picked up steam throughout the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, Third Places abounded as what author Robert Putnam described as the “anchors of community.” They were places where we made new connections, new friends, and strengthened the fabric of the communities in which we lived.
In Putnam’s seminal work “Bowling Alone,” he uses the steady decline in bowling league registrations to highlight that Americans aren’t joining the groups and clubs that historically have promoted trust, cooperation, and collaborative discourse.
The last few decades have fundamentally changed the Third Place, and not for the better. Today, the Third Place is likely to be more transactional than transformative. Think Starbucks and “lifestyle centers” where the focus is almost entirely on get in/get out commerce.
Pickleball to the Rescue
But then, in the midst of the decline of the Third Place, pickleball arrived and gave us a Third Place that most of us didn’t previously have. It’s a Third Place where we meet new people, collaborate with them, and leave wanting to do it all over again as soon as possible.
Pickleball is not only giving us a new Third Place, it’s doing so in essentially every community in America. It might be argued that it’s the new bowling league, but based on its meteoric growth I’d go as far as to say that it’s the new town square, with more laughter and a bit more sweat.
How amazing it is that this simple backyard game, created to alleviate the boredom of kids on summer break, has the potential to play such a key role in reconnecting us. It obviously remains to be seen whether the sport has more staying power than bowling leagues, but for now at least it’s giving millions of us a Third Place that we cannot fathom letting go.
We are wired for the power of the Third Place, and we’re sorely missing them. As a Third Place, pickleball reminds us of our common bonds and puts us on an equal playing field. No wonder it’s taking America by storm.
