Pickleball is described as a cross between tennis, ping pong and badminton. The jolly game was invented in 1965 by three middle-aged fathers in Washington state and was named not for pickles, but for Pickles, a jolly dog and friend at home.
You play the game with a palette slightly larger than a ping pong palette and a perforated plastic ball. The field is only a fraction of the size of a tennis court and the net hangs quite low. In other words, it is doomed to be accused of the same accusation as padel, namely that it is tennis for people who cannot play tennis. But the power of pickleball is that the sport is so easy to learn and less exhausting than a game of tennis. It also ensures that the sport is currently very popular with the over-sixties.
Also in Belgium?
But it probably won’t stay that way if we look at the numbers right now in the US. NPR indicated that there are currently 4.8 million players in the States, almost double the number of players five years ago. New players sometimes have to wait weeks before they can get a field. In addition, there are now two professional pickleball tournaments a year and the sport is getting more and more sponsorship, first to break into other countries, then to become an Olympic sport. The greatest growth of American players is therefore also among players younger than 55, as a result of which pickleball is going through a real rejuvenation cure.
‘Pickleball Belgium’ provides on its website an overview of places where the game can be played in Belgium. For example, you can already go to Tournai, Brussels, Namur, Koekelberg and Hoepertingen for a round of pickleball.
