Loudoun County will welcome its first indoor pickleball parlor next month, and perhaps counterintuitively, the U.S. Tennis Association is behind the effort.
Village Pickle will open at the Village at Leesburg, at 1606 Village Market Blvd. SE, with four courts in January and another four later in the year, the USTA Mid-Atlantic Foundation said in a statement.
The facility offers memberships, which entitle members to free drop-in play and the opportunity to reserve a court up to six days in advance.
The courts will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week, Village Pickle said in a statement. The Dell Food & Brew Hall will offer food and drinks for members and guests.
Pickleball combines elements of tennis, table tennis, and badminton on a court roughly half the size of a tennis court. There isn’t as much running, and medical experts have said the game is a great, safe way to get exercise and to socialize. It’s particularly taken off in recent years among older adults, since it’s much easier on the body than tennis while still providing a workout.
While most reports about the pickleball phenomenon play up the conflict with tennis, particularly over court space, Tara Fitzpatrick-Navarro, the CEO of the USTA Mid-Atlantic Foundation, says there were more similarities than differences.
“Pickleball is very similar to tennis,” she says. “A lot of players are crossover tennis players, or pickleball players who haven’t tried tennis, but then learn to love racquet sports and do try tennis. So we really felt like we had some expertise that we could lend in the pickleball space, while at the same time creating spaces for pickleball players that is exclusive to them leaves tennis courts available for tennis players.”
She adds that the USTA will offer short-court tennis at Village Pickle, Fitzpatrick Navarro says.
The location was an important factor, she adds. “We wanted to be in a retail center. We wanted there to be hustle and bustle,” adding that the location would provide “just a different experience in the pickleball space regionally than maybe what some others are doing.”
The pickleball parlor will also have drop-in play, open play, tournaments, leagues, beginner clinics, boot camps, cardio classes — “You name it,” Fitzpatrick Navarro says.
The first four courts are set to open in mid-January, she says; the second group of four courts, in July.
Find out more at the Village Pickle website.
Featured image, courtesy Village Pickle
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