Celebrities like George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx and Kim Kardashian have long jumped on the trend. (Collage: Sarah Parsons)
mass phenomenon
The celebrities have been playing it for a long time. Pickleball is now becoming a mass phenomenon. In Europe, too, the first with the square racket have already been sighted.
Perhaps it’s because celebs like Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney and even busy statesmen like Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have fallen for the game; maybe it’s the other way around, and the celebrities are so into it, precisely because it’s the trend par excellence. The fact is, on the North American continent nobody can avoid the ball game Pickleball. “Pickleball courts are springing up like mushrooms there,” says Fabio Müller.
The 38-year-old has been working in the USA for the past four years and there himself fell in love with pickleball. So much so that now – back in Switzerland – he travels from Aargau to Hettlingen near Winterthur every week just to play. Because at the moment there are only two clubs in Switzerland that practice the sport. But Fabio Müller is convinced that this will soon change and that there will also be places everywhere in this country.
In the USA, pickleball has definitely become a mass phenomenon in the last two years: According to the British “Economist”, it is even the fastest growing sport in America, and Hollywood stars appear on US talk shows with tennis elbow tied because of too much pickle ball And the game has long since arrived in TV advertising, and since even the Kardashians have been playing pickleball, the status of the sport has been secured and thrilled by players with Rolex on their wrists, those with hippie wristbands, those with acrylic nails or those with heart rate monitors and sweatbands alike .
Dreams of the Olympics
And slowly but surely, the trend sport is now spilling over to Europe and the whole world: The “International Federation of Pickleball”, the international association of a game that nobody knew two years ago, now has clubs in 68 member countries. And some pickleball enthusiasts are already dreaming of their sport being represented at the 2028 Olympics.
The game has actually been around since the 1960s. But it took a few years for it to catch on. For a long time it was ridiculed as a sport for pensioners because the rules are very simple and you master the game quickly, even if you’re not a real sports fanatic. But it first took a few persistent players who turned pickleball into a real sport and can now almost make a living from their existence as a player, and a pandemic that put all the rest of social life fallow to make the game palatable to the masses.
The field comes from dadminton, the net from tennis and the racket is reminiscent of ping-pong. (Image: Getty Images)
It was invented by three fathers on Bainbridge Island on the west coast of the USA to combat their sons’ boredom. It’s not entirely clear where the name of the game came from. It is said to have been named after the family dog, Pickels, who loved to catch balls. The court is badminton, the net is tennis, the racquet (called a paddle) is an enlarged ping-pong racquet, and the ball looks like floorball – with so many sports combined in one, it’s no wonder this turns out to be a trend sport.
The game is played with two or four players: The ball must first touch the ground during the first two acceptance shots, after which it can also be returned directly. In the “kitchen”, the zone directly at the net, the balls must not be taken directly from the air in order to avoid smashes. Only the team that has the serve can score points – until they make a mistake and the serve changes. There aren’t many more rules.
No marketing machine yet
Fabio Müller himself cannot explain exactly what makes the pickleball so fascinating. But: “I played four hours a day in the USA for a whole year and I’m by no means tired of it – on the contrary, I’ve become really addicted to it.” Maybe it’s because you quickly reach a level where a good game can be made. Perhaps also because even pensioners or children can be challenging opponents.
Maybe it’s actually due to the famous (and self-appointed) ambassadors like George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio. Or that you can play the game not only in multifunctional clothing, but also in trendy cycling shorts and a crop top like Kim Kardashian or in a shirt and tie like Justin Trudeau. Although sports-oriented labels such as Fila from Denmark have long since had their own pickleball lines and the trend sport has also helped tennis skirts become more popular again.
But maybe it’s also because pickleball is really all about having fun. You can buy a starter set with balls, wooden bats and a net for around CHF 100. You can play it anywhere the ground is flat and hard. There is still no big marketing machinery behind it, no greedy associations and exclusive clubs. On the contrary, it is the exclusive golf and tennis clubs like the Riviera Country Club in LA that now have to open their doors to Pickleball in order to remain interesting for the members.
