Pickleball History

Pickleball is a racket sport, which traces its origin to the Bainbridge Island, Washington, in 1965. One of the newest entrant in the family of racket sports, pickleball is played with a hard paddle and a wiffle ball. One can find traces of other sports, such as lawn tennis, badminton and table tennis, in pickleball. It is played on a court which shares the dimensions of a doubles badminton court. The net used in this sport resembles the lawn tennis net to a significant extent. And lastly, the hard paddle seems to be inspired from the table tennis racket. Other than the fact that pickleball has a lot to share with other similar sports, its history - which are quite amusing in themselves, has also contributed to its soaring popularity.

Origins of Pickleball
Pickleball came into existence as a result of the combined efforts of Joel Pritchard (a US Congressman), William Bell, and Barney McCallum. In the summer of 1965, these co-inventors of pickleball developed the game to entertain their families, who were getting bored with nothing much to do. The basic idea of playing badminton on Pritchard's badminton court had to be shelved owing to the lack of a shuttlecock. This prompted the trio to use a ball, and thus began the crude version of pickleball. The fact that it was difficult to hit the ball with a badminton racket led to the replacement of this racket with a stronger paddle made of wood. Eventually, the badminton net was lowered with the intention of making the game a bit faster, and came into existence a totally new game, which was named pickleball. The name was derived from the name of Pritchard's family dog - Pickle, who had a tendency of chasing the errant balls and hiding in the bushes.

Further Development and the First Pickleball Tournament
The first proper pickleball court was developed at Pritchard's home in 1967. With time, the popularity of the sport just increased. In 1972, an organization was formed to protect the interests of this new sport. Its popularity received a major boost when an article about it was published in the 'National Observer' in 1975. The following year, yet another article which referred to pickleball as the "America's newest racquet sport" was published in the 'Tennis Magazine'. In 1976, the first pickleball tournament took place at the South Center Athletic Club, in Washington. An individual named David Lester emerged as the winner, thus achieving the distinct feat of becoming the first pickleball champion in the world.

Pickleball Rules History
The next decade marked the efforts to promote this sport at the national level. As a part of this, the USA Pickleball Association (USAPA) was formed in 1984. Sid Williams served as the first executive director of the USAPA, from 1984 to 1998. The organization came up with the first set of pickleball rules in March, 1984, with several technical terms listed in it. The sport picked up very fast, and by the beginning of the 90s, it was played in virtually all the 50 states of America. In 2008, the USA Pickleball Association Official Tournament Rulebook was published by the Rules committee of the USAPA.

Yet another glorious moment of the pickleball history came in November 2008, when the first USAPA National Tournament for all age groups was held in Arizona. The sport is surely high on the fun quotient with rules like the player has to serve from the right side if the score is even and vice versa to its credit. Going by the current trends, it is not difficult to predict a bright future for one of the youngest racket sport of the world.