It’s becoming popular amongst yuppies, and it’s the fastest growing sport in America, but what I’m talking about is the extent as to how it catches the general public
It’s becoming popular amongst yuppies, and it’s the fastest growing sport in America, but what I’m talking about is the extent as to how it catches the general public
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In my experience it’s popular with a bunch of corporate people that I work with.
It may still be growing but looks like it’s peaked in yuppyville.
Seems like I can’t throw a rock hard enough to get people to stop talking about it, so pretty popular. Seriously though I’ve had 2 middle aged guys like myself that have blown out their ACL playing so I’ll give it a pass but it looks like fun.
It is popular with retired people, it is a sport they can play without moving much.
I think it’s mostly popular with retirees and lesbians. I’ve been thinking about giving it a try to meet women lol.
Seems to be popular with the “too old to play tennis like I used to at the country club” crowd
Based on the replies so far I don’t seem to be in the demographic this is popular with. Never heard anyone talk about it.
I was about to say not popular at all and what a random question/what even is pickleball.
The gym I pass by every day has recently ripped out their tennis courts and put in pickle ball courts.
For most people I know who play, it’s older people, professionals with not enough time to exercise but want to play something well, and anyone inbetween who is not in the best shape but wants to competitively play a sport.
Two gastro-pubs have opened in our city with pickleball courts added as part of their draw. It’s still quite popular.
I know no one who plays it.
Unreasonably popular among my older clients (retirement age) less so among the younger people
It’s trendy right now. Lots of people talk about it. Mostly played by yuppies. Seems to me like a fad that will fade. I’m already hearing about less than I did 6 months ago.
I’m aware of its popularity, and most tennis courts around me have a portable pickleball net, but I’ve never actually seen anyone playing it.
My dad and stepmother (retired) seem to spend about 50% of their waking hours playing pickleball (OK maybe not during ski season). The “beginning pickleball” sessions run by the city rec department in my inner-ring suburb sell out within hours. One of my coworkers quit to become a professional pickleball player. Oh and my sister, who has a tennis court on her property (I KNOW) is having it relined for pickleball. This is all in the Northeast US.
It seems really popular with seniors. I saw signs for it all over the place in Florida. Most of my younger coworkers still do softball, volleyball and basketball for casual intramural sports though. Personally I think tennis is way more fun because you can whack the ball so much harder and faster and whacking the shit out of a ball is satisfying. I hate whiffle balls in general. No matter how hard you whack them they’re not going far.
We all have a friend that won’t fucking stop talking about pickleball.
I know no one who plays it, but it’s popular with the well off and the old people.
When I lived in Daytona Beach, it was big, Pickleball courts, people playing, talking about it, etc… now I live in Memphis, and it’s nowhere near as popular. I haven’t heard a single person mention it.
I think it ALL depends on where you live. I am guessing it’s more popular in the suburbs than it is in rural or urban areas.
they just opened up a new pickleball place near me. my mom likes it and if my mom is going to a trend that means it’s actually popular to me
Surprisingly strong for a fad
It’s pretty popular, I’ve got a big indoor facility right nearby that’s always busy .
It took the place of raquet ball popularity of the 90’s with the same crowd.
It is certainly gaining popularity, my ex-tennis pro nephew who is about 45 recently took it up.
They took down a bunch of tennis courts in our area and replaced them with pickleball courts. And people still fight over who gets to use the pickleball courts.
Drove by a Catholic church on a Tuesday afternoon. Parking lot was almost full. I’m thinking “Wedding on a Tuesday at 1:00? Funeral?” Nope. Pickleball tourney at the public courts next door. It’s pretty popular in Suburbia.
I played it once when the pickleball club had a free session. It was a lot of work but I enjoyed it. Most of the people there were either older like 50+ or people with kids. I don’t know anyone personally who plays.
Pretty popular, but we’ve also reached the point at which I’m seeing dedicated stores for it popping up all over which means it’s just about to decline 🙂
Popular enough to actually be notorious for entering active spaces for other sports and converting that space to pickleball courts and being mega rude got the folks who originally used the space. If you google pickleball plus any other sport it’s an actual thing. It’s popular with tech bros as well as regular folks but it’s got money behind it. Most of us active in other community sports hate them.
I’m more of a wiffle ball fan.
Don’t play it. Don’t know anyone who does. If not for the Internet I’d have never heard of it.
“How popular?” is so subjective.
Everyone I know who plays it is retired/near retirement. It’s not something young people or middle aged people have adopted from my experience.
Just an activity to keep older folks moving, but it’s quite popular with that crowd.
My sister-in-law and her husband play it. But, I don’t think it’s quite as popular in my area as it was where we lived in Florida
It does seem to be displacing some of the handball/ raquetball/ tennis crowd in some urban and suburban areas.
Even yuppies are ‘part’ of the ‘general public’.
It also seems to be more popular as people age, I guess it’s a bit easier on the joints from what I’ve read?
Old people with low to minimal activity are loving it
It’s really popular for the few people that do it. Other than that nobody cares.
I have no basis for this but I’m fairly convinced it’s a psyop.
Very! It’s not just yuppies where I live. I see across generations from gen z to retirees. We have pickle board courts and all summer they are booked. I live urban, not suburban.
It is very popular with the 20-somethings around here, the courts near my house are always full.
Pretty popular where I live. Ages that play range from young to old.
Here in Florida it’s popular but it seems to have kind of peaked. In my area it’s mostly older people or wealthier millennials. Have never seen anybody under 30 play it
May have multiple large facilities where I live (suburbs) that have a lot of pickleball courts. But it is also set up as a social event. The facilities have a restaurant, bar, etc too. Multiple local breweries also have 4-6 courts.
I live in the same city that hosts the Cincinnati Open Masters 1000 pro tennis tournament (venue not actually in Cincy). The venue is undergoing a massive expansion as the tournament is expanding from 1 week to 2 weeks. They are adding a bunch of pickleball courts for residents to use as general use.
The only reason I’m aware of it is because of Matthew Perry. But I’m disabled so sports isn’t really my thing so I’m probably out of the loop in that regard.
I personally resent it only because they took up a lot of basketball courts still in use to build pickleball courts that barely get touched
It’s in for the old people.
Very popular. Pickleball courts are frequently busy. Much busier than I ever saw tennis courts. Also, growing number of indoor pickleball courts.
I’ve heard of it but I don’t know what it is. I don’t know anyone who plays it.
Under 35 not very popular
Over 35 getting very popular
It seems pretty popular. People are aware of it and I see a lot of people playing at my gym and on tennis courts during the summer.
They outlawed it at one of our local parks.. Too many old people fracturing hips..
Don’t know anybody who plays it
Check any community tennis court before 10 am on a Saturday… it’s still massive.
I’m retired and know multiple people who play. The parking lot in my gym is full when there is a tournament. So I’d say popular.
Very
I have not played it and as far as I can tell, nobody I spend time with has either. So it’s not really catching on in my community I guess. I live in a small town near Dallas, for reference. Far enough away to be considered “country” but close enough to go shopping and to the movies in the city.
It is very popular with my Asian friends over 50.
I’ve seen people play it, but only old and/or out of shape people
It’s another fad that will disappear.
To me it feels like fad diets. Mostly done by people what have eliminated all other stresses in life.
What the fuck is pickleball?
All of the unused tennis courts are being used by pickleball courts by people of all ages and economic backgrounds around here.
Pretty popular here, though the fervor seems to have died down somewhat. The template of boomers and slightly younger folks taking up the sport is accurate around here. I have two friends with ruptured Achilles tendons. One joined a Facebook group where the sport is referred to as “cripple ball.”
It is rather popular, it even has its own channel, which is available over-the-air in some markets too.
Played it in HS P.E. class in the late 70’s.
It seems pretty popular, the “new” thing.
I live in the seattle metro and people are obsessed with it 🥴🥴🥴
I think its fun playing singles. Doubles just no way, there is no enough movement, exercise, fun for me.
It should have been an LA Olympics sport, along with cheerleading.
I know a guy who literally has an addiction to pickleball. Goes out to play multiple times a day, prioritizes it over family. For example if they’re leaving Friday for a family vacation he’ll leave Saturday so he can play Friday night and Saturday morning. We had to fight with him to leave pickleball early and meet his daughter in the ER. If someone annoys him he leaves to go play pickleball the way an alcoholic would storm off to the bar.
You’re probably thinking he’s actually having an affair. His family has his phone location and he’s responsive to texts and calls while he’s gone, and everyone at the pickleball club knows him by name. We’ve followed him. He literally plays pickleball more than he sees his family and will not hear a word about it, because he’s “doing it for his health and we should really be doing it too because it’s good for you.” I remember saying that about alcohol when I was at my worst, almost those exact words.
It has gained a lot of popularity in the last few years with the yuppy 20-30 somethings. My local tennis/country club actually began converting about a third of their tennis courts to pickleball courts. To say the older crowd was unhappy is putting it mildly. They were pissed.
Its big in my area, and growing.
Lots of old people are into it.
Michael Phelps, Serena Williams, Kevin Durant, and Lebron James are all pickleball enthusiasts.
It seems like a fad.
Over the last couple of years, it looked like it was everywhere for a while. I’d hear about it every day and see pickleball-themed merchandise in stores (not just playing equipment, but things like printed drinkware and clothing and things like that), and there would often be controversies in the news from quiet towns that installed courts about the ceaseless pop-pop-pop noises.
I don’t hear about it that often anymore.
Very popular among high-income young people and old retirees
They replaced a large department store near me with a pickleball court. https://bosse.net/view-courts/
We recently visited some friends in Florida who just moved to a community of all ages where seemingly the only topic of conversation is pickleball. Our friend plays for three hours every day.
It was exhausting.
It’s extremely popular in my area (Bay Area) and amongst my friend group (early thirties). A bunch of our friends play weekly and some even participate in tournaments. There are pickleball courts popping up everywhere and you have to pay to reserve some of them because of our in demand they are.
Very popular where I live, but I think it depends on the locale. Having year round warm weather and free public courts makes a huge difference. There is a public park near me with 15 courts and it is packed every weekday after working hours and all day on the weekends. Players range from children to retirees, but with a significant portion being older gen Z and younger Millenials. You always have to wait to play.
I like playing with my wife and kids because everyone can play. I see about as many people playing pickleball on the tennis courts as tennis.
Popular enough that they’re removing the basketball courts at my local park and putting in pickle ball when they do renovations this summer. Not popular enough for that decision to make a shred of goddamn fucking sense.
Depends on your tax bracket lol. Very popular among the gated community crowd
Our health club has a couple of courts but Tennis and Padel have both more courts and more of the membership playing across all ages
It’s a sport that I hear about way too much, but have never actually seen or known anyone who plays it.
It’s popular with my mom and her boyfriend and all of their friends and they are all 70+…which is pretty much what I also see when I go down to the rec center near my home and they have the pickleball set up on the outdoor basketball courts.
Those courts look great right now just wait in a few years. Nobody is going out there to eat pizza and play pickleball.
I love pickleball, I play any time I can. The “only yuppies play” attitude is keeping yall from having a good time!
Older people love it because it is similar to tennis but slower. Plus they can yell at people who are newer to the game and don’t know all the rules yet.
We’ve got 14 public pickleball courts in our park. When the weather is nice, they are almost always full and you have to wait your turn to get a court. They are a pretty solid mix of people…I’d say it’s pretty popular to the general public.
I have a relative that’s an orthopedic surgeon and they say the majority of their surgeries now days are pickleball related injuries, so I’d say it’s pretty popular.
I can’t drive more than a couple miles where I live without seeing pickleball. It’s damn near everywhere.
It’s not that popular where I live, but is definitely a fad in certain places.
Man I am old as Lazurus but I have the distinction of playing pickleball for more that 40 years. In fact it was part of my 10th grade PE Class in 1983-84.
I grew up in Seattle and a state senator named Joel Pritchert (I think) invented it with some friends and started to develop it I think in the late 1970s and early 80s. It was definitely a regional thing at the time and I think my PE teacher put it in the curriculum because it could be easily set up with multiple courts on our gym.
I actually bought some of the first official pickleball racquets for my girlfriend and I to play around 1987 and I probably still have them.
I find the half-century in the making surge of popularity in pickleball amusing because every body I talk about it with seems to think it was invented like 10 years again and not during the Carter administration.
Apparently pretty popular, because my local middle school converted half their tennis courts that have been in place for over 20 years.
Where I live, a small metro area, there are 5 dedicated indoor facilities that I know of, a few more in the process of being built, each that also have outdoor courts, and all the big tennis clubs have added pickleball courts. The city has built courts at public parks (and still maintains several tennis court areas). Players seem to be all ages. At my home court, the owner’s high school son is training to turn pro.
Pickleball has it’s own TV channel and two pro tours and tons of regional amateur tournaments – I could play in at least one or two a month if I wanted to without having to travel too far from home. Pro tennis players are playing on the pro tour and have found that the transition is not 1:1 and their pro tennis success doesn’t automatically make them the best pickle players (e.g., Jack Sock). Other former pro tennis players play exhibition matches (e.g., Andy Roddick), and Andre Agassi is an investor in DUPR (the rating system) and he and his wife Steffi Graf have teamed up with Joola to release special edition paddles. (That pickle extends the life of a pro tennis player and allows them to play a competitive sport once they no longer can hang on the pro tennis tour I guess does say something about pickle being “easier” than tennis.)
Everything tells me the sport is growing for rec play. There are franchise brands for indoor court development, tons of start up brands making bank selling paddles. Efforts to figure out how to make sustainable wiffle balls rather than the current hard non-biodegrable balls. The pro side is showing that there areas to change/improve for the sport to make it more fun to watch whereas atm its super fun to play but not necessarily to watch.
I’m a tennis player too so found the transition to pickle easy, but they are different sports. Pickle is definitely more social which I think is part of the attraction. Plus the emphasis is on doubles play over singles, which makes it even more social. The criticisms about how you don’t need to be as athletic to be good at pickle are valid, but at some point everyone graduates high school and has to face the fact that most of us aren’t pro athletes so there’s nothing wrong with having fun sports to play that are feasible even if you no longer have the energy level of a kid.
I do think there are hot spots for pickle atm (California, Utah, North Carolina, and Florida) and then places where it hasn’t caught on in the same way yet – but I think it will which is why I’m bullish on its continued growth. I’m told padel (yet another paddle based racquet sport) is more popular in Miami than pickle or tennis, but idk if that’s true.
tl:dr, imho pickleball is super popular in the US, it’s a growing sport that attracts all ages, and if the pro side manages its growth well (e.g. models itself after tennis), the sport will only become bigger.
Yuppies? You mean retirees?
DoorDash signed some partnership with their league.
like tennis you need access to a court, the equipment, and friends/family willing to play.
So, I’d say it will only catch on with the people that can afford gym memberships that have a court on them. Or Clubs (rich people).
I played tennis as a youth, but it looks like a silly version of the game to me. I have no interest in trying it.
Big with the yuppies. Nobody else cares about it.
Am in my mid-50s, in a university town, first it caught all of the older people and then everyone my age, and now my daughters’ friends are all playing pickleball. Seems to have completely replaced tennis and somewhat replaced golf as the lower upper income range sport.
I’m a pretty blue-collar dude… so are all the people I interact and hang out with on a regular basis. I’m also a huge sports fan that closely follows all my teams (Charlotte Hornets, Charlotte FC, Carolina Panthers, Cincinnati Reds)…
And I have never interacted with someone who has played pickleball and have no idea what pickleball even is other than something that rich white people like lol.
It was part of our PE cirriculum in the 1990’s. A bit funny to see it becoming so popular in the 2020s.
I’m sure someone plays it somewhere, but I have yet to meet them.
Popular enough they tried to destroy some of our state parks for more pickleball, but not popular enough that I’ve ever met anyone who actually plays it
It’s popular with the 50+ age group. Which is kind of cool seeing them out on the courts. They seem happy.
Towns are paying to convert tennis courts over to pickle ball courts.
I don’t think it’s peeked, because they keep on building.
It’s taken over Tennis for young people and old people and the tennis fans aren’t too happy since they take away their courts
I played it a bunch in high school. There was even a pickleball tournament at my high school. This was 20 years ago.
Unfortunately it’s still very popular where I live. They are building facilities for it that have bars, remote “work” areas, etc….
Heard about it constantly a couple years ago and haven’t thought of it since
IRL, I haven’t seen anyone playing it or have heard anyone talking about playing it. My guess is that it is more popular in some communities or regions than in others. A pastime like pickleball may get a lot of publicity because it is popular in one heavily populated part of the USA, even though the game’s appeal has not spread out to other major regions in the US.
It’s EVERYWHERE in Arizona. My town has courts and clubs everywhere.
It was a normal PE activity back when I was in elementary school in the early 90’s in Seattle. It’s wild to see it so hyped up now.
Seniors love it
I live in the metro area where it was invented, and it remains incredibly popular here, so it was interesting to read about its popularity in other places.
In Seattle, there have been heated battles about adding pickleball courts to parks that don’t have that type of activity yet (so, no tennis courts to replace). We care a lot about our parks here and it feels like it’s a battle between people who love trees and quiet space in parks vs. people with a lot of money to fight these battles and get things approved.
Fun fact: The US, specifically the state of Washington, is regarded at the birthplace of Pickleball.
Ah yes, pickleball. The sport for ppl too poor to play golf and too uncoordinated to play tennis.
I don’t know of anyone that plays it. Hell I don’t even know what it is.
TIL: Reddit Hive Mind hates pickleball.
Likely because it involves exercise, interacting with people, cannot be easily played in mom’s basement, and playing it carries the terrible risk of making contact with *grass*.
(Where I live pickleball is massively popular, and still gaining. Because it’s fun, and people enjoy playing it.)
I have no idea what that is.
I think it’s peaked.
perspective, the people who are playing this are all retired such as my stepmother who plays this almost every day with a big group of other retired people. I think it’s good for them.
They put in pickleball courts at our local park when they redid the tennis/basketball court area.
(The same number of tennis courts are still there, and the basketball area is nicer. So it’s not a loss to other park users.)
So I assume it has hit its peak.
The old bed bath and beyond is nowca pickleball gym
Its pretty big in LA.
My school has a required pickleball unit in gym class. To be fair I live near its invention spot.
It’s way more popular than it should be
Some old people play it.