The pickleball of North America

As a "retirement" movement that was once exclusive to the elderly in the United States, in its short history of development, it has flown from the nursing home of Bainbridge Island to China, becoming one of the most potential new movements this year. So, if Pickleball wants to brush the circle of friends like Frisbee, is it also necessary to repeat the old road of the latter, social, punch, trend and other "controversial" elements are indispensable?

The Pickleball is on fire.

Turn to social media, and you can see public figures of all kinds joining the "pit" movement -- Bill Gates took his family to plant grass after learning himself; The Kardashians built their own Pickleball court in their mansion; Even Leo, who almost never appears in any sports events, picked up a racket and played on the beach in Los Angeles. Celebrity effect coupled with the coverage of major mainstream media such as Vogue, Times, Vanity Fair and so on, the influence and commercial value of Pickleball has been infinitely amplified, but behind the stars, the birth of Pickleball is just an ordinary story.

In the 1960s, several neighbors living on an island near Seattle wanted to play sports together, so they pulled a net in the abandoned badminton court in the backyard, replaced it with an unused ping-pong racket when they couldn't find a badminton racket, and grabbed the pet dog "Peak"'s beloved plastic toy ball, and started playing for a decade.

As more and more people became curious about this game and began to participate in it, the organizer of the event, Pritchard, found that this is a sport suitable for all ages, and maybe there is really a chance to catch on, and customized exclusive equipment and venues according to its characteristics, registered a patent and began to promote to the country.

The common peak racket is 398mm long, 194mm wide, and the weight is between 200 and 250 grams, equivalent to the weight of half a bottle of mineral water. The original Peak racket is mostly smooth wood, and after innovation, it is gradually replaced by new materials such as glass fiber and carbon fiber with better sports performance.

The low threshold made it possible for the sport to gain popularity at first. But looking back over the past two years, there are more complex reasons behind Pickleball's rise from popularity to popularity.
Ten times growth in three years, the road to Pickleball fire
Because of its low intensity and easy handling, pickleball was once called the "senior tennis" in the United States.
According to a survey by the American Pickleball Association, before 2020, the average age of pickleball players in the United States was nearly 44 years old, much higher than that of tennis (36.3 years old), and more than 60% of all deep participants (eight or more times per year) were 55 years and older.
Invented more than 60 years ago, "elderly friendly" and "nursing home sports" seem to have been the most familiar characteristics of Pickleball. But these labels have been stripped away in the past two years.
With the outbreak of the epidemic in the United States in 2021, people's outdoor sports life has been greatly reduced, and pickleball has won the favor of the public because of its low threshold and convenient venues - from January 2021 to January 2023, pickleball players in the United States have soared from 4.82 million to more than 36 million. In 2022, the single-year increase reached a terrifying 85.7%.
In addition, in today's 10-fold increase in pickleball population, young people aged 18-34 accounted for nearly 30%, becoming the most important age group to promote the development of the sport, which also reduced the average age of the sport from 43.8 years old to 33.6 years old.