Pickleball mania sweeps America (and the neighbors aren’t happy)

Casual sport is easy to learn and play, but neighbors complain of noise

Today's expression: Backed by
May 8, 2023:

Pickleball is a family-oriented paddle sport played on a hard surface with low net. Fans like it because it's easy to learn and easy to play. But this very social sport makes a lot of noise, angering neighbors. And don't get the tennis players started. Plus, learn the English expression "backed by."

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If you believe the torrent of media reports, the fastest-growing sport in America is called “pickleball.” But if you pay close enough attention, you’ll see that there’s another fast-growing pastime in America: hating pickleball. On today’s lesson, I will attempt to present a balanced view of this activity that’s sweeping the country.

Lesson summary

Hi there everyone, I’m Jeff and this is Plain English, where we help you upgrade your English with current events and trending topics. This is lesson 570, which means you can find the full lesson at PlainEnglish.com/570. JR is the producer, and he is the one who makes sure all our learning resources are available to you on time, every Monday and Thursday, 52 weeks a year.

Coming up today: Pickleball. It’s a sport, I think? It’s a game, at least, and it’s the latest craze in towns and neighborhoods around America. But not everyone is happy about it. You’ll hear why people love it, and love to hate it, in today’s lesson. You’ll also learn how to use the English expression “backed by.” And we have a quote of the week.

Ready? Let’s get going.

Love it or hate it, Pickleball is the new hot game in American towns

The best way to describe pickleball is this: it’s like a combination of tennis, table tennis, and badminton. Like all three of those, it’s a paddle sport where you hit a ball across a net, and your job is to prevent your opponent from returning the ball.

Pickleball is played on a hard surface with a low net, like tennis. You use a hard paddle, not a racket with strings. In that way, it’s like ping-pong. The ball is hard plastic, with holes in it, so, like a shuttlecock in badminton, it doesn’t travel far even if you hit it hard. The court is the size of a badminton court. Most people play doubles.

Pickleball advocates call it a sport; its detractors sneer that it’s merely an “activity.” Whatever you call it—and we’ll just call it a game—you can’t deny that it’s popular in the United States. It’s so popular, in fact, that pickleballers complain of a nationwide shortage of courts; they play from dawn to dusk on converted tennis courts, basketball courts, or, if they’re lucky, on dedicated pickleball courts in their town or neighborhood.

It’s mostly popular in small towns and it’s extremely popular with retirees and older adults. Fans say the game is easy to learn, competitive but friendly, and you don’t need a lot of expensive equipment to get started.

The game was invented in the 1960s by a handful of families in Washington State. They wanted an outdoor activity that multiple generations in the family could play together—from kids to grandparents. They certainly accomplished that. For kids, the game is competitive and easy to understand. For grandparents, it’s a way to get moving without having to run too far or put too much pressure on the joints.

Fans say that the game’s popularity exploded during the pandemic, when people were looking for outdoor ways to socialize and keep moving. As more and more people played in their neighborhoods, a whole industry cropped up to serve them. Sporting goods stores and specialty stores can sell you the equipment. Pickleball books can teach you the rules. Pickleball blogs keep you up to date on the latest trends. There are even pickleball podcasts to listen to as you drive to your next game.

City dwellers play pickleball, too. New indoor courts in central locations cater to professionals, birthday parties, and corporate events. Life Time Fitness, a nationwide chain of gyms, is building hundreds of courts.

Celebrities have joined the fun. George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith, and Ellen DeGeneres have all said they play. Bill Gates has played since he was a kid. There are now competing professional leagues, complete with sponsorships and long-term contracts. One is backed by a venture capital firm and tied up some of the game’s most popular professionals in exclusive contracts.

The game is regularly featured on morning news segments and in all the biggest newspapers, magazines, and web sites in America—thanks, no doubt , to an aggressive public-relations push from the businesses with a financial interest in the game. Sports television networks—even the Tennis Channel—are starting to broadcast pickleball tournaments.

It’s hard to believe, but there are some people who don’t love pickleball. Scratch that: there are some people who hate pickleball.

The complaints come in a few forms. First, it’s noisy. Four people play on a pickleball court. You can fit three pickleball courts on a typical tennis court—and in a lot of places, that’s the exact arrangement. So you can have twelve people playing the game on the size of one tennis court. And pickleballers are social. They talk the whole time; it’s easy since the courts are small and the players are close together.

What’s more , the game play is noisy. When the solid paddle hits the plastic ball, it makes a high-pitched noise. The high pitch makes the sound carry farther. It’s more disruptive and distracting to humans than the lower pitch of a tennis ball. And again, since the courts are smaller, the ball is hit more often than it would be in a tennis match.

All this has caused conflict between pickleballers and neighbors. People complain that they can’t leave their windows open or enjoy their porches due to the annoying sound of pickleball from dawn to dusk.

There are now pickleball noise consultants, who (for a fee!) help towns and neighborhood associations install noise barriers around pickleball courts. Non-pickleballers don’t appreciate having to pay the cost of new courts and noise absorption with their taxes or neighborhood association fees. Lawsuits are flying back and forth ; friendships have been ruined; families are divided.

Then there are the tennis players. Their problem is this: there’s a limited number of tennis courts in a town or neighborhood. And now a lot of them are being used for pickleball, so it’s harder to play a game of tennis. When you can find a court, tennis players often have to contend with pickleball on the adjacent court, with a lot of talking and laughing and drinking. There might even be absent-minded senior citizens running onto the tennis court without warning, chasing down their errant pickle balls.

It’s an understatement to say there’s a culture clash between staid tennis and casual pickleball. Pickleballers use the word “tennis” like it’s a swear word, meaning “too serious” or “too competitive.” Tennis star Martina Navritalova tweeted that pickleballers should build their own courts instead of using tennis courts. Ouch!

Like fidget spinners for adults

You will never catch me playing pickleball. If you ever do—if you ever see me playing pickleball—take a picture and tag me on Instagram @plainenglishpod . If that ever happens, I will eat a pickleball live on YouTube.

If you ask people—this is where I’m going to drop all pretense of presenting both sides—if you ask people why they like pickleball, they say “it’s easy.”

I don’t know. Fine. But if you’re trying to convince me to do something, saying “it’s easy” is not the way to do it. I saw a hilarious article in GQ that compared pickleball to fidget spinners . Do you know what those are? Those are the cheap plastic things that children put on their fingers and they spin them around and they make noise.

I died laughing! That is perfect. Pickleball is a fidget-spinner for adults. It’s easy, it’s cheap, it’s noisy, and it drives everyone around you crazy.

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Expression: Backed by