Just about anyone who plays pickleball will tell you it’s an easy sport to start, but a hard one to quit. So it’s no wonder it’s been called the fastest-growing sport in the nation.
“It’s addictive for sure, and not just a little,” says Tom Fortier of Sterling. “But it’s a good addiction. Pickleball changed my life. I play every day.” The 65-year-old discovered the sport four years ago — around the same time he retired from his sales career at Tektronix — while playing tennis on vacation in Florida.
“I heard this pop, pop, pop, and shouts of, ‘Good shot!’ coming from a court where some pros were teaching classes,” he says. “I love any sport with a racket, so I decided to try it.”
Fast-forward three years, and Fortier is now a certified Professional Pickleball Registry instructor and a local volunteer ambassador with USA Pickleball, the national governing body that promotes the sport.
“I tell pickleball newcomers to take an intro class. It’s a good way to meet people at your own level,” he advises. “Once you learn the basics, there’s no magic wand. You have to just jump in and play. Someone with zero racket experience can be playing a game after 20 minutes of instruction and can become a good player pretty fast.”
But pickleball has become more than just a hobby for Fortier. It’s also a big part of his social life — in person and online. He manages the 2,800-member NOVA Pickleball Facebook page. “This game bridges generations and brings people of all ages together,” says Fortier, adding that many players rely on social media and apps to find local games. “I play with 20-, 30-, and 40-year-olds who I never would have known otherwise.”
Then there are the health benefits: “Hey, at 65, I’m 150 pounds and have a resting heart rate of 49,” he says. (Fortier also adds daily strength-training exercises to avoid injury.) “It’s the fountain of youth, I promise. It keeps me going.”
The Fastest-Growing Sport
So, what is pickleball, exactly? The sport combines elements of badminton, pingpong, and tennis. Indoors or outdoors, it’s played on a badminton-sized court with the net set to a height of 34 inches in the center. The paddles, which are about twice the size of those used in pingpong, are teamed with rigid, perforated plastic balls.
It has a decades-long history: Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum invented pickleball in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, to entertain their bored children. Clearly, it worked, because that homespun neighborhood activity evolved into what is now the fastest-growing sport in the nation, according to USA Pickleball. The Sports and Fitness Industry Association reports there are at least 4.8 million known players in the U.S., with the average age getting younger every year.
Here in Northern Virginia, there are tens of thousands of players, estimates Helen White, the USA Pickleball district ambassador for Northeast Virginia and DC. And they’re all scrambling to better their skills and hit the courts.
Where to Learn
Pat Ward of Herndon had been working at a wealth management firm for about 20 years when she read an article about pickleball. “I told myself that when I retire, I’m going to do that,” she says. In 2018, she followed through. “I signed up at Wakefield Park in Fairfax County and met some of the greatest ladies.”
The 66-year-old has some sage advice for newbies: “Find a class and learn the basics with players at your own level. Beginners are often nervous, so intro classes build confidence for drop-in play.” Ward improved her own game by signing up for group classes with White, who also serves as a sought-after PPR-certified pickleball coach.
“Everyone knows about Helen,” says Ward. “Getting lessons with her is like scoring Springsteen tickets. I had three devices going first thing in the morning on registration day at Spring Hill Recreation Center because so many people play pickleball.”
White, a 68-year-old Arlington resident, calls pickleball her “encore career.” She has coached about 15 classes a week since retiring from AARP. “Pickleball is fun and easy to learn, but hard to master,” she says. “I introduce pickleball to people everywhere I go.” She recently returned from Iceland, where she taught the sport to more than 60 participants in the country’s only indoor tennis club. The players ranged in age from 9 to 87.
Back home in Northern Virginia, there are many public options for pickleball instruction via county recreation programs, community facilities, and senior centers. Private classes are offered at retirement communities, sports and country clubs, and neighborhood associations. Pickleballerz, the only indoor facility in the region dedicated entirely to pickleball, offers classes year-round, day and night, at its six-court, climate-controlled venue in Chantilly. It also has a pro shop to get players started with equipment.
Where to Play
Once you have a handle on the basics, you’ll want to find somewhere to play. But as pickleball’s popularity increases, it gets harder to find an empty court. Efforts to fill the void have yielded mixed results in Northern Virginia communities. Solutions vary: Outdoor tennis courts have been temporarily taped or permanently marked with pickleball dimensions; lowered or portable nets are incorporated; and indoor wood-floored multipurpose courts are likewise taped or marked.
County parks, community centers, and school systems are trying to meet demand. For example, Loudoun County Public Schools is gradually marking two tennis courts at each high school with permanent pickleball lines. The tennis lines will also remain, making them suitable for dual use. Four high schools have been marked already, and others will be updated in the future as part of routine maintenance. (Loudoun County Parks, Recreation, and Community Services is providing mobile nets.) These courts are available for free, public day-use during non-school hours and when the courts are not reserved for team practices, competitions, or other activities.
But dual-use courts are problematic, notes White. “Unless there is written guidance at each venue, dual-use courts cause conflict between tennis and pickleball players because the playing guidelines of each sport are different,” she says. The obvious preference of most pickleball players is to have courts dedicated entirely to their sport.
Luckily, the number of indoor and outdoor dedicated courts is increasing, thanks to the pleas of pickleball advocates. Phil Baldwin, a 75-year-old Purcellville resident and retired U.S. Postal Service executive, is among them. As the USA Pickleball ambassador for western Loudoun County, Baldwin, together with his associates, is aggressively lobbying the town council for an indoor facility dedicated to pickleball in the area.
“We have an obligation to provide for the general health and well-being of our citizens, particularly our seniors, and indoor pickleball provides a way to meet that obligation,” he says. “Pickleball gets seniors off the couch and into an active lifestyle like no other sport. It also creates lasting friendships, which improves mental health. My goal is to create an indoor facility that is set up to include discounted fees for seniors.”
As founder and president of the nonprofit WLC Pickleball Inc., Baldwin also recently worked with Loudoun Tree of Life Still Waters Ministry to introduce pickleball to residents with special needs, including those with Down syndrome and neurological differences. “We tried it experimentally, and the participants absolutely loved it,” he says. “Pickleball provides critical social connections for this sometimes lonely community, but we need a place where they can play indoors.”
True Health and Wellness Benefits
In Purcellville, Baldwin participates in a 30-person pickleball club called Scramblers. The group held a surprise birthday party in November for their “senior of seniors” player, 92-year-old Bud Klein. He’s credited with bringing pickleball to the town. “I was surprised and overwhelmed to be celebrated by these folks,” says Klein. “Pickleball is a chance to be engaged as an athlete with friendly challenges, and I enjoy all the good will.”
Community engagement proves to be a key component, much like Fortier mentioned previously. “With so few courts, we might have 20 people showing up to play,” says Baldwin. “So you have a lot of people sitting and waiting. That’s where the social aspect enters, because there’s lots of chitchat happening. You might get only three games in during a three-hour period, but many are more interested in just getting together than becoming 5.0 players.” (5.0 is a high skill level in the game.)
So pickleball is a little like chicken soup for the active soul — with plenty of built-in health benefits. For one, it can lower the risk of heart disease: A study in the International Journal of Research in Exercise Physiology reports that adults who play one hour of pickleball three days per week for six weeks show improved blood pressure, cholesterol, and cardiorespiratory fitness levels. The smaller courts provide opportunity for aerobic workouts that are similar to tennis without as much strain on bones and joints.
These health and social benefits are what attracted 60-year-old retired Loudoun County kindergarten teacher and Potomac Falls resident Susan Loftus Arthur to pickleball last summer. Her advice to newcomers echoes what folks like Fortier and Ward have shared: “It’s important to be prepared because this is a real sport that requires taking time to stretch and warm up.”
Arthur suffered a spinal-compression fracture in July while playing casual outdoor pickleball on a sloped court. “I had never played before, but on the first day I learned the rules and got the hang of it pretty fast. It was so much fun,” she says. It was on the second day she’d ever played — and her fourth match — when she got hurt. “I got overly confident and competitive too soon and fell on my back while scrambling away from the net.”
While she’s recovering, Arthur feels the draw of the pop, pop, pop: “The doctor says I need to wait a year, which is a long time to not play sports,” she admits.
“I’m not deterred, though. I definitely look forward to playing pickleball again. But now, I plan to play more carefully.”
This story originally ran in our February issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
