SARATOGA SPRINGS — Mike Silver, 55, met his girlfriend while playing pickleball. Ann Garbiras, 71, met some of her best friends on the pitch. Frank McGarity, 54, is ready to meet anyone up for a game.
That’s pickleball for you – a social racket sport that’s growing in popularity. In fact, there are 4.8 million gamers in the United States, representing a 2-year growth rate of 39.3%, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association’s (SFIA) Topline Participation Report 2022, released in February.
In addition, Pickleball seems to be gradually shedding its reputation as a senior game. The median age of all players is 41, according to the report, down 2.5 years from 2019. Meanwhile, the median age for casual gamers is 34, and the growth from 2019-2020 was fastest among gamers aged 6-17 (50%) and 35-44 (31%), according to the report.
That data was confirmed recently on a sunny weekday afternoon at the East Side Recreation Courts in Saratoga Springs, where players’ ages ranged from elementary school and college students to professionals and mid-career retirees.
Saratoga Springs’ Jonathan Albert, 43, still sweating after a fast-paced singles game with his pal, said he loves pickleball because it’s more universal than tennis.
“I bought it because my kids, who are 8 and 10, play it, as does my father, who is 75,” Albert said. “It’s a wonderful sport for all ages, all sizes – and it’s a lot of fun.”
A hybrid of tennis and table tennis, pickleball is played on a badminton-sized court with the net set at a height of 34 inches in the center. Players use a perforated plastic ball – think wiffle ball, but with more holes – and composite or wooden bats, which are about twice the size of table tennis bats. These paddles typically cost anywhere from $75 to a few hundred dollars. The sport can be played indoors or outdoors and is known for being relatively easy to learn for beginners – but it can also develop into a fast-paced competitive game for experienced players.
Watching the Arciero family play was a lesson in the potential intensity of the sport. When 60-year-old Paul Arciero took on two of his 20-something sons at once, he was bending low and hopping fast and shooting backhands with the finesse of a tennis pro — in fact, Arciero is a retired tennis pro.
“It’s a game that has a slightly lower barrier to entry, so it neutralizes variation and skill,” Arciero said. “There’s also a lot of adaptability. As if you saw how we played two against one. This is possible in tennis, but Pickleball is an easier option because the court is smaller. So it’s just a fun game to be able to come out with the family.”
Arciero said doubles tend to be more touch and dink, with a lot of play happening at net, while singles require more athleticism, with lots of running, staying and shooting.
Serious players can participate in 153 USA Pickleball sanctioned tournaments. The USA Pickleball National Championships are held in Indian Wells, California in November. The USA Pickleball Diamond Amateur Championship will be held in Holly Hill, Florida in December.
Arciero’s son, Noah, is a 26-year-old former college basketball player who incorporates the game into his training routine.
“Pickleball is a complete workout. You come out here for 2 hours, get a good sweat,” he said.
Still, Noah Arciero said he didn’t see many of his peers recording the game.
“I think the problem is that they still think it’s an older demo,” said the 26-year-old. “I think the transition hasn’t happened yet.”
Silver, a US Pickleball Ambassador for Ballston, is working to help the sport grow. Silver’s main selling point is the social aspect of Pickleball. As it is played on smaller courts, players can easily converse throughout the game. And Silver, one of 2,025 U.S. Pickleball Ambassadors, said players usually meet up for a drink or a bite to eat after games — he actually met his girlfriend playing pickleball, and they started dating after she met and off the pitch.
“It’s very social. You meet some great people,” Silver said.
April is National Pickleball Month and this year marks the 57th anniversary of the sport’s invention on Bainbridge Island, Washington state. Using handcrafted equipment, three fathers started the sport because their kids were bored with typical summer activities. The unusual name has a few different explanations. It is said that the name of the sport – which combines several activities – comes from Pickle Boats in Crew, where rowers are chosen from the remnants of other boats. Another account states that Pickleball was named after a creator’s dog who liked to run away with the ball.
McGarity, who works in law enforcement, said he plays pickleball to meet new people and stay in shape, even when he travels — whether it’s to South Carolina or Florida.
“I just got on the courts and jumped right in,” McGarity said of his “away games.” “Unlike other organized sports, it’s really welcoming. If a beginner came in now, we would adjust the game.”
Garbiras took up the game in retirement after moving to Saratoga County from New Jersey in 2009. The Malta resident said much of her social life now revolves around Pickleball.
“It’s harder to find four people to play tennis than four people to play pickleball. Because tennis is a game, you needed some kind of guide to play it,” Garbiras said. “Pickleball, you don’t have to be a super athlete, and you don’t need a lot of guidance. If you can play table tennis, you can play pickleball.”
Pickleball’s popularity in Saratoga County is evidenced by the relatively new pickleball-specific courts at East Side Recreation in Saratoga Springs. As part of the Saratoga Springs City School District’s Great Outdoors Project, the idea of adding new pickleball courts came from pickleball enthusiasts, said John Hirliman, the city’s executive director of recreation.
The city had already painted pickleball court dimensions on existing tennis courts, but Hirliman said its growing popularity made it prudent to give pickleball players their own court. The city eventually decided to convert three of the six tennis courts in East Side Rec into 10 pickleball courts, which Hirliman said opened in October 2020.
“It’s just a fun sport. It’s a social sport where your skill doesn’t matter. There’s really, really high-end players and there’s beginners,” Hirliman said. “You can go out on the pitch together and you can find people of equal ability and you rotate through and it’s like a community. It’s a social event.”
Silver said dozens of people will play pickleball on East Side courts on Saturdays throughout the summer. He pointed to the tennis courts on the other side of the fence and said, “We’re going to fill those courts, and those courts are going to be empty.”
Andrew Waite can be reached at [email protected] and at 518-417-9338. Follow him on Twitter @UpstateWaite.
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