Do you know that it has been 57 years since Pickleball was invented?
The game combines traditional lawn tennis, ping-pong, a.k.a. table tennis, and badminton.
The game is played with ping-pong rackets on a badminton court with a tennis net.
Similar to tennis, but less challenging, it’s suitable for people of all ages.
National Pickleball Day was created by pickleball instructor Deirdre Morris in 2021 to encourage people to learn to play pickleball.
HISTORY OF NATIONAL PICKLEBALL DAY
The origins of the game of pickleball go back to Bainbridge Islands, Washington, in 1965 when ex-congressman Joel Pritchard, along with two other friends, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum, had just come home after a game of golf on a Saturday. They found that their families were bored, and they decided to play a game of badminton. However, there were challenges. Firstly, there was no shuttlecock. Secondly, they did not have proper badminton rackets — so they improvised. They found a Wiffle ball and used it in place of a shuttlecock. The net was lowered to the level it is in tennis. Instead of badminton rackets, they used plywood paddles. The rest is history — pickleball was born.
The next few years saw a rise in the popularity of the game. Barney McCallum started making paddles specifically designed for pickleball. The M2 model devised by him became the most popular one. McCallum then founded Pickleball, Inc in 1972 and began selling wooden paddles. In 1984, the United States Pickleball National Championships was held for the first time. Pickleball received international attention when Glendolyn Sanchez-Vicario played pickleball for Spain in the Special Olympics of 2002. In 2016, The U.S Open Pickleball Championships were held in Florida for the first time.
The popularity of the game increased exponentially. It is noteworthy that in just three years, from 2016 to 2019, the number of people playing pickleball reached 3.3 million. In 2021, pickleball was declared the fastest-growing sport in the United States by the Sport and Fitness Association. Deirdre Morris, a pickleball instructor, is credited with creating National Pickleball Day to encourage more people to play this sport.
Read more about Pickleball here