# Pickleball? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 22, 2017, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickleball/780497 "2017-02-22T19:36:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickleball/780497/1 "2017-02-22T19:36:37Z")
Is anyone playing this? I had to give up racquetball due to a wrist problem and thought this looked like a game for kids but apparently it can be fun /competitive? A place nearby started offering it and I’m thinking about giving it a try. Waste of time or not? ---
**Author:** ![Mikemike2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikemike2/32/305_2.png) [@Mikemike2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikemike2)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickleball/780497/2 "2017-02-22T19:58:30Z")
Pickleball is a great game with a really stupid name. I recommend it. My wife and I started playing half a year ago. For those who don’t know the game, it can be played indoors or outdoors and is played on a court similar to tennis, but with a smaller playing area. It is usually played with doubles. The ball is a wiffle ball, and the paddles are solid, not stringed. It is a bit like a combination of tennis and ping pong. At first pickleball may seem like an easy game and a beginner can keep the ball going fairly easily from the start. But one soon realizes that there is a ton of strategy, and the game can get very intense. The game seems to be exploding in popularity across North America at least. In Calgary you can pick up a game just about any day. A lot of older people seem to like the game as it is a bit easier on them than other racket sports. But I am also seeing a lot of young players getting involved. There are many youtube videos to get an idea of the game. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickleball/780497/3 "2017-02-22T20:05:43Z")
This sounds like what we used to call “paddle tennis”. It was indeed fun and much easier to master than regular tennis. When did it start being called pickleball? ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickleball/780497/4 "2017-02-22T20:14:13Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > This sounds like what we used to call “paddle tennis”. It was indeed fun and much easier to master than regular tennis. When did it start being called pickleball? We called it pickleball back in the 80’s. We had tournaments during high school gym and it was a blast. Haven’t played it much since but would definitely play again. ---
**Author:** ![MeanJoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanjoe/32/5693_2.png) [@MeanJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanJoe)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickleball/780497/5 "2017-02-22T20:31:19Z")
I freakin’ love pickle ball. My dad and his wife are retired and living at The Villages in FL. They introduced us to the game when we were visiting. They have competitive leagues for this game! Mrs. MeanJoe and myself were feeling pretty good when we came close to winning our first game. We lost every single game after that by pretty hefty margins… to an old retired couple. Dammit! We tried to get pickle ball going when we got back to Ohio but couldn’t generate any interest amongst friends and neighbors. It’s a shame because we’d love to go play regularly. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickleball/780497/6 "2017-02-22T21:36:40Z")
They’ve got pickleball going in the community I live in with my father. My father (his knees anyway) is getting too old for tennis and I keep trying to get him to do it, mostly because of the fun name. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickleball/780497/7 "2017-02-22T23:29:43Z")
The local community centre has pickleball games on Saturday evenings and my wife sometimes goes. She says it’s fun, but some of the people there are way, way too serious about it and they get tetchy if they’re forced to play with novices. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickleball/780497/8 "2017-02-22T23:37:33Z")
[Moderating] Since this is about a game, not an art, I’ll move it over to the Game Room. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickleball/780497/9 "2017-02-23T02:13:42Z")
My wife and I have both stopped playing tennis and have started pickleball and love it. Our twenty-something sons, keen tennis players, like it a lot also. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickleball/780497/10 "2017-02-23T05:11:54Z")
> [@wguy123](#): > > We called it pickleball back in the 80’s. We had tournaments during high school gym and it was a blast. Haven’t played it much since but would definitely play again. Same here. This was one of the only sports in gym class I kicked ass at in high school. Everything else was an hour-long embarrassment for me, but hot damn, when the pickleball unit rolled around, I was a pig in shit for a few weeks. I could smoke anyone in class, even the jocks. I have no idea why this was the case. Maybe I should look around for a local pickleball league. I could finally impress my wife with my awesome athleticism. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickleball/780497/11 "2017-02-23T10:36:31Z")
I gather it’s increasingly popular with the retirement community types over here, although I agree it needs a new name - I read somewhere it was named after someone’s pet dog or something odd like that. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickleball/780497/12 "2017-02-23T11:28:33Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > I gather it’s increasingly popular with the retirement community types over here, although I agree it needs a new name - I read somewhere it was named after someone’s pet dog or something odd like that. [Indeed](http://www.usapa.org/what-is-pickleball-brief-history/). ---
**Author:** ![Mikemike2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikemike2/32/305_2.png) [@Mikemike2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikemike2)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickleball/780497/13 "2017-02-23T18:17:43Z")
Pickleball is popular with an older crowd, but when people get to the 7 foot line to volley, it can be very fast. Youtube example [ELEVEN Jaw-Dropping Points from the 19+ Men’s Doubles Gold Medal Match at USAPA Nationals VIII - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y9TdKgHWI0) ---
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickleball/780497/14 "2017-02-23T20:41:16Z")
> [@Mikemike2](#): > > The ball is a wiffle ball Not if they’re using a regulation pickleball. The holes in a pickleball are larger than a normal wiffle ball and have to be circular. The ball is larger as well. > [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > This was one of the only sports in gym class I kicked ass at in high school. Everything else was an hour-long embarrassment for me, but hot damn, when the pickleball unit rolled around, I was a pig in shit for a few weeks. I could smoke anyone in class, even the jocks. I have no idea why this was the case. It was the same for me. I don’t have a clue either as to why it was. I was good at that and archery. (I was a better archer than the bowhunters.) ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickleball/780497/15 "2017-02-25T22:53:10Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > This sounds like what we used to call “paddle tennis”. It was indeed fun and much easier to master than regular tennis. When did it start being called pickleball? Paddle tennis is a slightly different game, apparently - it uses a deflated tennis ball, and you can use the entire court at all times except on the serve (if I read this right, in Paddleball, you can’t hit the ball within 7 feet of the net unless it bounces first).