National Pickleball Day
National Pickleball Day is on August 8 each year and celebrates the game of pickleball. In 2024 pickleball had 36.5+ million players in the United States with a growth rate of 223.5% over the last three years. It is the fastest growing sport in the country (1).
Pickleball is a sport that combines the elements of tennis, badminton and table tennis. It is played with a paddle and a plastic ball on a badminton-sized court and a slightly modified tennis net. The game is typically played in doubles, but single matches are also played. Pickleball can be enjoyed by all ages and skill levels. In 2022, 52% of pickleball players were 55 years old or older, 32.7% of players were 65 and older (2).
Pickleball Facts
Pickleball was invented in 1965 by Joel Pritchard and Bill Bell. The pair wanted to play a game of badminton but didn’t have any rackets. They improvised and started playing with ping pong paddles and a perforated plastic ball (3).
There are two competing stories for how pickleball got its fun name. The first is that the game was named after Joel Pritchard’s family dog, Pickles. The second is that Prichard’s wife came up with the name from the term “pickle boat,” which is the last boat to finish a race in rowing. The pickle boat is usually made up of leftover oarsmen from other teams. Much like how pickleball is made up of leftovers of other sports (4).
The longest pickleball game recorded took place in 2011 in New Port Richey, Florida and was played for 24 hours straight (5).
In 1976, the first known pickleball tournament was held in Tukwila, Washington. In 1984 the International Federation of Pickleball (IFP) was founded (3).
Pickleball is played across the world, with 75 countries being members of the International Pickleball Federation (6).
Sources:
Mackie, Brandon. “Pickleball statistics - the numbers behind America’s fasting growing sport in 2024”, Pickleheads, 13 Mar. 2024, https://www.pickleheads.com/blog/pickleball-statistics
Howarth, Adam. "Pickleball For Seniors: Why It’s So Popular Among Older Adults", Pickleball Union, 19 Jan. 2023, https://pickleballunion.com/pickleball-for-seniors/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%202022%20Sports%20%26%20Fitness%20Industry,or%20older.%20Nearly%20a%20third%20%2832.7%25%29%20are%2065-plus.
"History of the Game", USA Pickleball, Feb. 2021, https://usapickleball.org/what-is-pickleball/history-of-the-game/.
Brinkerhoff, Nick., "Why is it called pickleball? The origin & history of how America's fastest growing sport got its name", Sporting News, 2 Apr. 2023, https://www.sportingnews.com/us/tennis/news/what-is-pickleball-name-history/x0iedchexoyl5e7kh8zmi8zu.
"3 of the Craziest Pickleball World Records", Pickleball University, 21 Apr. 2023, https://www.pickleballuniversity.com/home/3-of-the-craziest-pickleball-world-records.
"Member Countries", International Pickleball Federation, https://theipf.org/countries.html.