Happy National Pickleball Day!
National Pickleball Day is on August 8, and we are celebrating more than seventy participants who have played pickleball with Poolesville Seniors since the beginning of our program in 2016.
While our program has been going strong for 6 years, pickleball has been around for 57 years. It is a fun, social and simple game that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and ping-pong into one. It can be played at any age, from beginner to pro level. Pickleball began in 1965 as a way for the entire family to play a game together. The sport is played by using paddles and a plastic ball on solid surface courts the same size as badminton and can be played either indoors or outdoors.
In 1965, Joel Pritchard of Washington state invented the pickleball game along with two of his friends.
Two families decided to play badminton during their summertime. When they couldn’t find the shuttlecock, they came across a wiffle ball and gave it a try. The badminton racquets just didn’t do the job, so they picked up ping-ping paddles, lowered the net and pickleball was born.
There are two versions of how the game received such a strange name – one that it was named after the family dog, and the other that refers to the “pickle” boat – the last one to finish in a race.
If this game sounds like your “cup of tea” come join us and let’s play!
National Pickleball Day was created by pickleball instructor Deirdre Morris in 2021 to encourage people to learn to play pickleball, The National Pickleball Federation has also created WORLD Pickleball Day on October 10 so the pickleballers can once again celebrate their sport.