Pickleball: A game that combines both tennis and badminton 

Do you enjoy pickles? Are you someone who also loves playing tennis or badminton? Now imagine an outdoor sport that is identical to both these games and carries the name of your favourite snack. Surprised? We were, too. There is a sport by the name of pickleball. Okay, so what is it and how it is played? When and how did it start? Well, let’s try and answer all your questions, one by one. 

So firstly, what is pickleball? 
Pickleball is perhaps the fastest growing modern-day outdoor sports in the USA. It is a unique combination of three sports: Tennis, badminton and ping pong. It is played on a court with a net, while the players hold paddles and hit a plastic ball with holes in it.  

Next up: Rules of pickleball 
If you love spending quality time with your parents, siblings and grandparents, then pickleball is the game for you. By 1967, the inventors of this sport realised that the game had immense promise, which is when they established specific rules for it, borrowing from both tennis and badminton. Here are some of the prominent ones: 

• The game can be played in both singles (between two people) and doubles (among two pairs).  
• The players have to stay inside the court’s boundary.  
• Only the serving side can score and the game is based on the two-bounce rule. Okay, so what does this mean? When a ball is served, each team has to let the ball bounce on their side before hitting it across the court. Thereafter, the ball may or may not bounce at all, on both sides. When the opponent fails to return the ball or commits a foul, the serving side wins a point, while the other side loses their chance to serve.  
• If a side scores 11, and leads by at least 2 points, the game is culminated.  

How did pickleball originate? 
The story of the invention of pickleball goes back to the summer of 1965 when three dads, Joe Pritchard, a congressman from Washington State, Bill Bell, a businessman and their friend Barney McCullum came to realise that their kid had nothing as such to engage in during the summer break.  

Incidentally, these three fathers were at the ancestral home of Pritchard at Bainbridge Island a city and island in Washington when they arrived at this epiphany. In order to help the kids do away with their boredom, the fathers decided to make good use of the badminton court that stood unused in the middle of the house. However, they were unable to find a full set of badminton equipment. In such a scenario, they had to improvise and guess what they did!  They decided to use the ping pong paddles and a perforated plastic ball that they were carrying. Needless to say, this game became an instant hit with their families, especially among the youngsters. 

The inventor dads soon realised that the ball bounced off better on an asphalt surface, that was common in tennis. In addition, they also figured out that the if the height of the net is lowered from the original 60 inches to 36 inches, the game would be easier for their children. The rule was simple, to use the wooden paddles (twice the size of ping pong paddles) and bounce the plastic ball back and forth over the net. This is how the pickleball was conceived!  
Reports suggest that the first permanent pickleball court was built in 1967. In fact, there is an official USA Pickleball Association (USAPA) too, that was founded in 2005 to promote the game globally. In fact, you may be surprised to hear that there’s also an All India Pickleball Association. It operates across 16 states and has approximately 3000 registered players. Now, that is amazing!   

Pickleball: The naming story 
There are two versions of stories behind the nomenclature of this family game. According to the first one, the game derived its one-of-a-kind name from Pritchard’s family dog Pickles. The Pritchards, however, don’t agree with them. Their version suggests that this game got its unique name from the local pickle boat crew races, which were quite a spectacle in Bainbridge Island.