Liu Yingyu
Standing on the badminton court, holding a large table tennis racket, playing like tennis… This is the popular pickleball right now.
What kind of ball is pickleball?
Someone summed it up – Pickleball breaks the shortcomings of the three major ball games and is a low-threshold, low-restriction national sport. The amount of exercise is smaller than tennis but larger than table tennis. It can be played in singles, doubles, or mixed doubles, both indoors and outdoors. The ball is heavier than a badminton, lighter than a tennis ball, moderate in weight, strong in wind resistance, and suitable for all ages.
Ease of entry is one of the secrets to the rapid popularity of pickleball. “Playing pickleball is low-cost and easy to get started. You can play with friends in 5 minutes at most.” said a golfer.
The game originated in the United States in the 1960s – three gentlemen combined an old table tennis racket with a perforated ball to keep children occupied at family gatherings and invented the game. It was named Pickleball because it was a little dog named Pickle who brought the ball back in his mouth.
After the advent of pickleball, it quickly became popular across the United States. The number of participants in the United States has increased from approximately 4.82 million in 2021 to more than 48.3 million in 2023, and there are also professional events.
Domestic pickleball has also developed rapidly in recent years. The “China Pickleball Investigation Report” produced by the Small Ball Sports Management Center of the State Sports General Administration shows that the development of this project in the country is showing a trend from south to north. In January 2018, the Shenzhen Pickleball Association was established. Since then, pickleball associations have been established in many provinces and cities across the country. At present, in Guangdong Province alone, the number of people participating in pickleball all year round has exceeded 200,000.
Compared with the once-popular Frisbee sport, pickleball has more universal characteristics, combining fitness, fun, age-appropriateness, economy, safety, and social attributes.
Simplicity has earned the sport of pickleball some criticism, but simplicity seems to be the code for its popularity. In modern society, people tend to pursue simple, convenient and efficient fitness methods. In simple exercises, you can release stress, relax your body and mind, and build closer relationships with others. This is probably the sense of relaxation that modern people crave.
In fact, in recent years, light exercise has become a trend of national fitness. The so-called light exercise refers to an exercise method that consumes less physical energy, has low technical requirements, and has a loose time requirement. Everything from City Walk to pickleball reflects this trend.
Experiencing relaxation during light exercise is close to the essence of sports – it is a game, a connection between people, a healthy lifestyle, and a joy of life.
Pickleball, which has returned to the origin of sports, has become an internet celebrity sport, which is a good thing for national fitness and the sports industry. But people are also worried that when a project becomes popular and favored by capital, will it be followed by another wave of consumerism that requires equipment, rapid harvesting, and excessive commercialization? After all, there are too many examples of Internet celebrity sports being short-lived. For example, Frisbee, which was once popular, fell silent in just two years.
Perhaps, when a certain sport becomes a trend and triggers fanatical pursuit and blind imitation by the public, we should be wary of the sustainability of its popularity.
Unique social attributes, novel forms of sports, and a desire to integrate into the trend are the codes of sports internet celebrity. However, if people turn sports into a means of showing off, a way to express their individuality, and a way to talk about finding group identity, has this deviated from the original intention of engaging in sports? When the public’s novelty gradually fades, it is inevitable that the “Internet celebrity movement” will quickly cool down or be replaced by a new “Internet celebrity movement”.
The rise of the “Internet celebrity movement” is usually the result of the joint action of social needs, market dynamics and the digital economy. It flourishes and dies suddenly. In fact, it is because following trends, checking in, and sharing have nothing to do with love. Only true love for sports can promote the long-term development of the project. Table tennis, running, etc. have never been considered “Internet celebrity sports” in China, but due to their lasting appeal, stable user groups and healthy project ecology, their popularity has remained high, thus becoming a veritable national sport.
Only love can withstand the long years, only love can withstand the changing trends. I hope that the new “Internet celebrity” pickleball players will return to the purity of sports with love in their hearts. If this is the case, there should be great hope for the “Internet celebrity movement” to break out of the cyclical law and achieve long-term popularity.
