Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - A game you can enjoy indoors, outdoors, with a friend or with three. Pickleball has quickly risen in popularity all across the nation, among all ages and skill levels and is available to learn and play at your local YMCA.
What is pickleball? It's similar to tennis and ping pong. You play on a court, much smaller than a tennis court and you use a large paddle to hit a wiffle-like ball over the net to score. You can play doubles or singles and you typically play to 11, winners must win by two.
John Dobos, a pickleball instructor at the YMCA in Amherst says it's important to know that pickleball is its own unique sport, contrasting with tennis, "I think the important thing to understand with pickleball is that a lot of people look at it as an exit sport from tennis or other sports, it's not. Pickleball has its own set of skills, it's got its own values that other sports don't have."
Watching people play, you can tell there is a large competitive component to the game and a strong sense of community.
"I find that most people that adapt to pickleball very quickly are people like me, [people] that played competitive sports," says Richard Miles, a three-year pickleballer and former hockey player. "I find the people that adapt to it the quickest are people that either played racquetball, handball, ping pong or badminton and they adapt a lot quicker than people that haven't played any of the racquet sports."
"I'm kind of addicted to it. I played at Paradise Park for two and a half hours this morning," Miles added. "There's a great social aspect to the game as well."
Patty Gaffney and Liane Browning, beginners to the game, found the game when they were playing tennis, "I've been pretty good about coming in twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we play from 1 to 3:30 p.m. We have great instructors and it's just fun. It's very fast. It's great exercise. [It's a] great group of people," Browning says.
According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in America. It has attracted some of the biggest names in sports, including NFL quarterback Tom Brady, who recently has joined an ownership group which has bought an expansion team for the 2023 Major League Pickleball (MLP) season. Even NBA legend Lebron James is part of a consortium who is buying a team to expand the MLP from 12 teams to 16.
According to YMCA Wellness Director Pam Vetrano, local YMCAs have started introducing pickleball courses approximately 8 years ago and interest quickly picked up during the pandemic, "We purchased nets or got some nets donated and started to really see a community come together. The YMCA stayed open mostly through the pandemic, especially for child care. As we built in more programming, pickleball became a huge staple on the schedule as a lot of people picked it up over the pandemic as they picked up other outdoor sports."
Another reason that increases the appeal of the game is that you can play at any skill level and any age, "It's not just a older person sport. A lot of younger people are playing it," says Dobos. "If you if you watch it on ESPN, you see how fast how quick how skillful the game is. When you look at pickleball, it's a sport, there is no age restriction, there's no skill restriction, anybody can start, anybody can play and you'll find your skill level and that'll really determine where and who you play with"
The YMCA in Amherst has started to introduce tournaments to their schedule as well. The tournament in November has already filled up, but the instructors hope to make tournaments a bi-monthly occurrence. The YMCA offers pickleball every day, Vetrano says they get as many as 50 people showing up to play on particular days. Visit your local YMCA to see what times the game is available to play.
"If you haven't really played before, maybe look for those beginner pickleball times because we are so lucky to have somebody like John, employees, volunteers or just members who are so willing to help teach other members because that's the biggest thing you have to remember is that everyone was a beginner at some point, especially with a newer sport. So it's nice that YMCA, being such an inclusive facility, is always trying to welcome in all ages and abilities. Somebody's going to be there to help teach you how to play," says Vetrano.