May 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 14

Front Page

Having a Ball
Pickleball and other new sports attract active adults
By Elizabeth Beard

n the Sunbelt, making a new active-adult community stand out from the
multitude can be a challenge. With shuffleboard courts shuffling off to the
wayside in the 1980s and 1990s, developers are seeking out new sports that
appeal to retiring baby boomers, whose idea of relaxation is far different from
that of earlier generations. Enter pickleball.
" We have seen pretty explosive growth in this sport, " says Ruth Rosenquist,
spokesperson for the USA Pickleball Association, based in Surprise, Arizona.
" The number of courts in America has doubled since 2010. The more people
are being exposed to the sport and finding out how fun it is, we're just seeing
huge growth in parks and rec approaching us about converting courts. "
net and inexpensive equipment mean
that the game can be quickly and easily set up on any flat surface.
" It's a smaller space - if you play
doubles, you've got four players in
a pretty intimate area, " Rosenquist
explains. " It's a very social game.
People love it because you just laugh
and it's so much fun. That plays into
it as well as the aspect of you're not
covering as much surface area. It's

Chuck Roderique, USAPA

Pickleball is usually played as doubles on a badminton-size court (onethird the size of a traditional tennis
court). Players hit a light, plastic
wiffleball-type ball with wooden or
composite paddles, bringing about
comparisons to badminton or ping
pong, as well as tennis. But unlike
tennis, the game is less about running
and more about strategy in knowing
where to hit the ball. The lightweight

A championship pickleball game draws a crowd at the USAPA 2012 National
Tournament in Buckeye, Arizona.
12

Parks & Recreation

| M AY 2 0 1 3 | W W W. N R PA . O R G

more about being strategic with your
moves and the way you react to the
ball. It's more about the strategy than
the running....I've played with a lot
of 70- and even 80-year-olds who
beat me all the time because they've
learned to be very strategic. "
" It's the fastest-trending senior
sport, " agrees Jeff Ziegler, community manager at The Highlands at Dove
Mountain, an active-adult community of 2,200 in Marana, Arizona, near
Tucson. Ziegler, who has a background in parks and recreation, has
been observing trends in active-adult
activities since the 1980s. His community is in the process of building
two permanent pickleball courts after
a temporary court in the parking lot
soon spawned a club with 50 players
and more joining each month.
" The popularity in the activity is
that it can be considered a step-down
program for some former tennis players who can't travel the large tennis
court, " Ziegler says. " They can find
pickleball with that hand-eye coordination as a paddle game very worthwhile - not only very entertaining
but social as well. I can see quite a bit
of socialization being generated out
of pickleball as an activity. "
The USA Pickleball Association estimates that there are now more than
5,600 pickleball courts (almost evenly divided between indoor and outdoor courts) at more than 1,700 locations across the country. Rosenquist
believes that up to 30 new courts are
added every month. And the number of players has jumped to nearly
100,000 from just 60,000 in 2010.

May 2013 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2013 - Parks & Recreation