Pickleball offers fitness, fun; appeals to wide range of ages

Published August 2, 2015 - www.northwestgeorgianews.com

The No. 1 rule for playing pickleball is to have fun.

Also, do not question the legend of how the 50-year-old sport got its unusual name.

“The rumor, the cutest rumor, anyway, is that it is named after a cocker spaniel,” laughed Bob Hood, president of the Coosa Valley Pickleball Club.

The favorite tale is that when the game was started, a cocker spaniel named Pickles owned by one of the men chased the ball constantly.

“That isn’t actually true,” admitted Hood. “But we’re going with that version.”

The sport is a combination of tennis, badminton and ping pong. It is played with paddles, a short, modified tennis net and a plastic ball. It can be played indoors and outdoors and by a wide range of ages.

“We have players ranging in age from 8 to 82,” Hood said.

Pickleball got started in Rome in January, he added.

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Pickleball

Published July 31, 2015 - www.palmettodunes.com

The Palmetto Dunes Tennis Center has recently added Pickleball to the line-up of fun things to do at Palmetto Dunes Resort (SC). Pickleball is a sport that combines the elements of tennis, badminton and ping pong. It is played with oversized ping pong paddles and a softball-sized plastic perforated ball that travels at about one-third the speed of a tennis ball. "It's a fun, easy sport that is great exercise, but doesn't require a lot of skill to be an enjoyable experience" says John Kerr, Director of Tennis at the Palmetto Dunes Tennis Center.

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Pickleball growing sport at YMCAs out west

Published July 29, 2015 - www.journalnow.com

Pickleball is an ever-growing sport that has become popular for people of all ages, and it is gaining momentum at the YMCAs in Mocksville and Clemmons (NC).

Scott Spillman, who is the Associate Executive Director at Jerry Long, said it has 25-40 people play on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
 “We’ve been doing for a little over a year,” he said by phone. “We had a couple members approach us about interest in it and wanted to get it started out at Jerry Long. It started out with just a couple days a week. It started out with two courts. Now we have three courts with people waiting to play.”

Kim McClure, who is the Executive Director of Davie YMCA, said there are 15-20 people who play on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 10-noon. There is also a group 4-8 of Livestrong cancer survivors who play on Tuesday and Thursday from 7-9 p.m.
 

According to her, people range in age from 12 to 80. Jordan McCallister, who is 12, and her brother Alec, who is 14, regularly play on the two courts that are set up on the basketball court at the Davie Y.

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Zero, Zero, Start: Pick up a paddle and play pickleball

Published July 27, 2015 - www.naplesherald.com

One cannot start the game of pickleball without saying zero, zero, start, and if you’re around Jim Ludwig, you better utter those words with the accent of a born Bostonian, just like him.

Pickleball For All was organized and founded by Executive Director Ludwig, 61, with the goal of bringing the sport to Collier County schools.


The necessary funds were unavailable to schools wanting to purchase equipment for students to use and participate in the booming sport.

“As a nonprofit in Collier County we aim to equip all schools with the equipment and facilities/courts to play this sport,” Ludwig said in an email.

Ludwig wants this sport to last, and he feels it is necessary to make it relevant to the youth of today.

“Pickleball is something that brings them together as a team, gets them playing with each other, interacting with one another, encouraging each other, giving each other supportive comments and laughing when everybody makes the same mistake,” said Paige Mitschele, 47, Leadership Gifts Officer of PFA.

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Pickleball becoming more popular along the Gulf Coast

Published July 23, 2015 - www.fox10tv.com

MOBILE, AL (WALA) - It’s a sport that has become more and more popular…pickleball.

It might have a funny name, but it is very much a serious sport.

“I would describe it as a mix between ping pong and tennis. It's like full court ping pong and the scoring is a lot like volleyball,” said Lindsey Stiegler, a pickleball player.

It really is that simple.

“The way I started playing was my next-door neighbor who is 76 years old had been asking me for about three years to come and play pickleball,” said Bubba Bullington.

Bubba has been playing pickleball for just over a year now.

“I kept saying ‘No, I'm busy. I can't do that.’ Then I’d walk away and say ‘I'm not gonna play a sport called pickleball’,” he said.

But one Wednesday he came to the Via Center on Dauphin Street in Mobile. Then back on that Friday. Little did he think is that he would be back every chance he could since.

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Pickleball craze spreads to new court

Published July 20, 2015 - www.hpenews.com


HIGH POINT — High Point resident Billy Warren may be 79 years old, but that doesn’t stop him from being the fastest player on the new outdoor pickleball court at Armstrong Park.
“I’m the oldest one here and the fastest one here, and I play with two hands!” Warren said.
Warren was one of the first people in the Triad to begin playing pickleball when a small group took up the sport at the Roy B. Culler Jr. Senior Center five and-a-half years ago.
Now, residents in High Point and the surrounding area can play pickleball under the sun to their hearts’ content.

 Earlier this month, the High Point Parks and Recreation Department opened a refurbished tennis court dedicated solely to pickleball, only the second of its kind in the whole state. The first opened in Raleigh just a short time before the High Point court.

“There are hundreds of people playing pickleball in the Triad area,” said Calvin Vaughn, senior center director. “They play at Oakview, at the YMCA, at the sports complex at the Palladium, at the Archdale Recreation Center.”

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Pickleball invasion is on its way to Union County

Published July 15, 2015 - www.nganews.com

There is a sport with a funny name that’s gaining popularity in North Georgia and Western North Carolina, and it’s called pickleball.

You can’t really call it a ‘new’ sport anymore since it dates back to 1965 with 4 million players worldwide, but since its taken 50 years to reach this area, you could definitely call it ‘new’ to Union County.

After acquiring quite a following in Fannin and Towns Counties, Clay County, NC, and Murphy, NC, pick-leball, which is a combination of tennis, badminton, ping-pong, and played with a ball similar to a wiffle ball, is set to invade Union County in the near future, and long-time pickleball player and coach, David Block will be offering classes for beginners at Meeks Park on Tuesdays for those who want a leg-up on the competition before it takes over, and everybody is doing it.

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Pickle-ball – The Most Popular Sport You Never Heard Of

Published July 15, 2015 - www.southeastdiscovery.com

Pickle-ball, you say…Although, not an Olympic sport yet – it may just be a matter of time.

Born in 1965 on a rainy day on Bainbridge Island, Washington, the inventors, a trio of friends, just wanted to quiet a house full of bored kids by giving them something entertaining to do, preferably outside! Thanks to some adult ingenuity, a badminton net in the yard, some old ping pong paddles and a wiffle ball, Pickle-ball today is enjoyed by a million people of all ages around the world. As of this writing, there are 25 Pickle-ball organizations in the southeast (FL, GA, NC, SC, TN and VA) with 15 located in Florida, and six in South Carolina.

In fact, today, there is The World Pickle-ball Federation which promotes this easy to play, but incredibly fun game across the world by encouraging physical education teachers to teach the game to their students. The vision would be to, then, encourage leagues, make Pickle-ball a team sport in schools, and, eventually have inter-school competition at the collegiate level. After that, a world championship and on to Olympic status! The promoters in Pakistan and India, for example, have initiated these types of programs hoping to get their respective countries ahead of the curve by starting players at a young age and continually training and improving their techniques as they grow.

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