Pickleball

Always inspired by stories of how a new sport gets invented, I found this recounting of the history of Pickleball both informative and inspiring.

It turns out that Pickles was a dog. Here's some snippets:

"The game started on an asphalt badminton court.. But, alas, no one could find the shuttlecock. The dads quickly improvised with a Wiffle-type ball. The kids found it difficult to hit the 3-inch ball with the lightweight rackets. Once again, necessity was the mother of invention. The dads made wooden rackets that resembled ping-pong paddles. As the game evolved through the afternoon it was determined that players could hit the ball on the bounce as well as out of the air.

...“Pickles, the Pritchard’s cocker spaniel took an interest in the new game, particularly the ball. When he could get away with it, Pickles would fetch the ball and hide in the bushes. He wasn’t the most popular dog at the party, but he did get the game named after him."

The authors go on to explain that "Pickleball has three unique attributes that you won’t find in any other racquet sport: the serve position, the double-bounce rule and the no-volley zone.

"Serve position - You put one foot in, you keep one foot out, you keep one foot in an…you serve the ball. An inconvenient tree in the Pritchard’s yard made it necessary for one side to serve with one foot inside the court...

"Double-bounce rule - In the early days (literally like the first two days pickleball was played) the server had a huge advantage. The player receiving the serve would have to wait for the ball to bounce. The server, meanwhile, could be in position for a quick return off the volley. The three founding fathers added the double bounce rule to take this advantage away. Now, the receiving team and the server must both hit their first shots off the bounce. After that, the ball can be volleyed.

"No-volley Zone - To make pickleball a game of finesse and strategy rather than just raw power the first dads instituted a no-volley zone in the seven feet on either side of the net. Within this zone, the ball must bounce before it is hit."

This is a great depiction of the process of developing a new sport. The only part of it that saddens me is that despite all the fun people had inventing the game, they inevitably come to the conculsion that the process had to stop, the rules written and formalized, and made "official."