![]() ![]() ![]() Smith says pickleball is an ideal sport for older people because it’s not as strenuous and hard on the joints, compared to tennis, and is 'just more fun.' DARRYL DYCK Over the past five years, baby boomer snowbirds led a massive surge in the sport but it’s not just retirees anymore, Mr. for quite a while and it was brought up to Canada by snowbirds.” “They were vacationing and the kids were bored, so they invented a game and it grew from there,” says Jim Parrott, a Pickleball Canada board member and past president of the association. Not bad for a sport invented in Washington state in the 1960s by two families on holiday. The Pickleball Canada National Championship is scheduled in Red Deer, Alta., in August and the association hopes to hold a tournament open to international players this fall if the borders reopen. Kelly moore calibre systems contact pro#There is now a professional league in the United States and Pickleball Canada says a few organizations are trying to get a pro tour in Canada. “Power is not part of the game, so mixed doubles is huge and women and men are very similar in calibre.” “It’s more a finesse game, where placing the ball is more important than hitting the ball hard,” he says. Smith has also seen 80-year-old couples playing doubles and says it’s not uncommon to see men and women playing one another. In pickleball, players use paddles to lob a small perforated ball back and forth. “He goes up every day and he puts up his paddle and people are very friendly and they say come on in, play next,” he says. Smith, who brings his 25-year-old autistic son to play, too. It’s also a game that is as easygoing or as intense as players want it to be, says Mr. ![]() Players use paddles to lob a small perforated ball back and forth and, because the ball is lighter and plastic, it doesn’t bounce as hard or as high as a tennis ball. The pickleball play area is the size of a badminton court – four of them will fit inside a tennis court. “It’s a great sport and so much better for older people because it’s not as strenuous and hard on the joints, compared to tennis, and it’s more social. He’s noticed huge growth even just over the past year, with snowbirds grounded in Canada and many others also looking for ways to get outside and get some exercise. Smith, who discovered the game along with his wife while vacationing six years ago in Arizona and then again in Mexico.Īn avid racquetball player most of his life, Mr. “If you try it, you just love it,” says Mr. Those numbers don’t include the hundreds of Canadians who have since picked up the sport as a way to keep fit outdoors during the pandemic while abiding by small-group guidelines. Pickleball Canada estimates there are 350,000 pickleball players in Canada, based on an Ipsos survey the organization commissioned in late 2019. ![]()
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