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 Pickleball has exploded in popularity The popularity of pickleball exploded in 2022. Now more than 36 million people are pickleballers and it continues to grow. In fact, pickleball has attracted sports legends like Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, LeBron James, and others investing millions of dollars in the sport, and across America, tennis courts are being replaced with pickleball courts.

Differences in indoor and outdoor pickleballs: Indoor pickleballs have larger holes, about 26 compared to 40 for outdoor balls.  Indoor pickleballs are softer and lighter and designed for indoor court, if used outside, they will not hold up to windy conditions. Outdoor pickleballs are made heavier with thicker plastic, they have smaller holes (40), which are more effective in windy conditions.

Pickleball has been around since the 1960s, is a paddle/racket game played outdoors and indoors where typically four players, two on each team hit a hollow perforated plastic ball (40-holes outdoor ball – 26-holes indoor ball) using solid-faced graphite or fiberglass paddles over a 36-inch-high net. Teams on each side of the court hit the ball back and forth until one commits an infraction. Two can also play the game, one player on each side of the net. Pickleball was invented in the summer of 1965 by three dads, Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum in Bainbridge, a town outside of Seattle, WA. The three dads got together to discuss possible games for their kids to play during the summer, and Voilà, pickleball was born.

What is the pickleball experience? The pickleball experience may differ from community to community, for example, we have visited other HOA communities, and in some, the experience we noticed is basically uniform, players lined up their paddles and wait for their turn to play, the games are serious, but we didn’t see the social comradery we were expecting, although a less-close comradery did exist, I would not call it a social gathering,  the age range in these communities was the 60s to 80s, they all played well. In other communities we saw a different type of comradery, here, music was playing, and you can see how the players reacted, they expressed joy on the court, and they were much friendlier to one another, some doing their dance moves to the music.  Basically, same age group, but it was clear that the social atmosphere here was stronger, and some even commented that they looked forward to these games for the social closeness and their therapeutic effect. So the pickleball exper

Pickleballo.com Staff Writer Pickleball is not just for seniors anymore! Originally the game was ideal for seniors, a low-impact game that almost anyone from their 50s to their 80s could play easily and have fun. But now you see teens through 30 year olds competing at a very high level, and many becoming professional players in their teens and 20’s. And there are young pickleball Youtubers teaching techniques on how to play better and be more competitive. These players are fit and compete as hard as any professional athlete, and with investors buying pickleball teams for millions of dollars, pickleball has joined the big leagues of sports. So what’s happening with seniors and pickleball? It’s booming! The seniors continue to play pickleball in their communities with their friends and neighbors, making each game a social experience combining friendly competitiveness with community closeness, because of pickleball, people are actually making friends in their HOA communities faster than e

First, the serve must bounce before being returned by the opponent, the same is when the serve is returned by the opponent, it must also first bounce. Then we have the third shot drop.  Mastering a good return/third shot will give you a significant advantage over your opponent. The objective of the serve return is to make the third shot to your opponent a difficult one, a way to accomplish this is to hit the ball right over the net into the opponent’s kitchen, or hit the return serve court deep, going after your opponent’s weak side, but be prepared for an aggressive opponent's return just in case. What a great game!

Keeping the ball low on your serves and returns is a technique that requires a lot of practice, and even after you think you've nailed it, in many instances the ball falls short of the net by a hair, yes, very frustrating! Learning and mastering this technique will give you a significant advantage over your opponent, the key, in addition to the low serves and return is the speed of the ball, hard and in play, which makes learning the shot more difficult, but with practice, you got this, and a significant advantage.