Two games of doubles fill a multipurpose room at United Senior Services in Springfield three times a day on weekdays, and two times on Saturdays.
Nets are rolled out to fit within taped lines, forming pickleball courts. Seniors queue their paddles on a nearby table, then take a seat to watch and wait for their chance to play.
The sport is similar to tennis, though, they use wiffle balls, and paddles instead of rackets. And the scoring is a bit different. Before each serve, they call out three numbers: each team's score and a server number.
“O, three, two” one player says, calling the score – then serves. What follows is called a rally. After a few hits back and forth, the losing team scores their first point. Sounds of both disappointment and cheer fill the room.
“Got rid of that pickle juice,” a team member proclaims.
Don Whitmore, waiting for his turn nearby, is a frequent flyer of those energy-filled open pickleball sessions at the senior center.
“If you don't score any points, they call it getting pickled,” Whitmore shared. “It happens sometimes where somebody's played a lot better than you did and you end up 11 to nothing.”
Staff at the senior center said demand for pickleball has almost tripled since 2023. The group waiting to play next often overflows into the hallway.
And, this winter’s bitter cold didn’t keep them from hitting the courts.
“We've come down here and it stormed out and we had to shovel our way out. Got in here, dry your shoes off real good, and there'll be 12 people ready to play,” Whitmore said.
The boom
Pickleball was invented in the summer of 1965 in Washington state. It grew pretty steadily until its popularity spiked around 2020. It’s been named the fastest growing sport every year since 2021 by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association.
That demand has led many cities to convert tennis courts or build dedicated outdoor pickleball courts. Like projects in Dayton, Hamilton and Springfield.
And, several businesses are opening indoor facilities.
Mike Bettencourt has played pickleball in the Miami Valley for over eight years.
“The issue is there's so many people that you may play one game and then have to sit out for 20 or 30 minutes and wait for your second game."
He’s the co-founder of Black Barn Pickleball. It’ll add 26 dedicated pickleball courts and a bar, off of U.S. 35 in southeast Dayton. Construction is underway on the 75,000 square-foot indoor facility.
“There’s maybe taped lines and temporary nets,” Bettencourt said. “Once you play on a dedicated court with a real pickleball net, it's tough to go back.”
The Pickle Lodge in West Chester boasts 17 indoor courts, a restaurant and bar.
Pickleball Kingdom, a franchise with over 300 indoor facilities across the U.S., is set to add one in Centerville this spring. It'll offer professional coaching, youth programs and tournaments.
Learning to play
Five Seasons Sports Club in Dayton has added pickleball lessons to its offerings. It painted lines on its indoor tennis courts during the COVID-19 shutdowns.
“It's intergenerational and a very accessible sport. You can pretty much learn how to play the first time you ever play,” said Rob Lehner, head of racquet sports at Five Seasons.
He hosts solo and group sessions. With beginners, he starts by familiarizing them with the court size. It's about half the size of a tennis court.
“Then you work your way from really close to the net all the way back and kind of learn how the ball bounces,” Lehner said. “You learn the bounce of the ball is pretty important just to be able to have a sustainable rally.”
He says a more advanced skill is “dinking.” That’s pickleball lingo for when players softly hit the ball just beyond the net, making their opponent’s next move more difficult.
“The rules can be a little bit tricky. I think that's probably one of the biggest things that make pickleball a little bit difficult in the beginning,” Lehner said.
USA Pickleball governs those rules, and updates them each year. Some of those nuances are a bit hard to pick up:
- Players can only score if their team is serving. The server changes if the opposing team wins a rally, or a fault is made
- Serves are made underhand.
- The ball must bounce once on each side before players can “volley,” or hit a ball out of the air.
- Players can’t volley in the kitchen, or seven foot area closest to the net.
Kelsey Shuering is marketing manager at Five Seasons.
“Every month it's like, can we get another time? Can we get more pickleball? Can we come earlier? So it's growing like crazy,” Shuering said. “If you look around, there's people of every age here playing at all times of the day.”
They’ve added events, like tournaments, group rentals and socials, called “Pickle and Pints.” She said pickleball’s increasing presence has caused some tension with their tennis playing members, but many of them have started playing pickleball too.
Shuering created the Dayton Pickleball Association in 2023, hoping to offer an online hub for all things pickleball in the area.
“I probably get a question daily on, is there a league? Can my kid play? Can I play it? Where can I play? How can I play? I mean, just constant questions of people trying to get involved,” Shuering said.
Some good shoes, and a paddle
Lori Zackel is the administrator of Springfield’s pickleball Facebook group.
“You don’t have to collect a foursome, and that’s I think what hurts tennis these days,” Zackel said. “With Pickleball, almost any time you can go and drop in,”
She usually plays five times a week, and has done so for more than 12 years.
WYSO's Ryann Beaschler caught up with her at a busy open session at the Springfield YMCA. It holds open sessions six days a week.
“We know just about everybody who plays, so when someone new comes in, most people introduce themselves, ask them how long they played. So it becomes a very friendly way to get some exercise,” Zackel said.
Zackel attributes the sport’s explosive growth to the pandemic when people were looking for something to do outside. She’s even added a court to her driveway and got her family hooked too.
“It's hard to keep up with which ones are more popular. Everybody's jumping on and making some kind of paddle."
It doesn’t take a lot to get started, though Zackel recommends investing in the right kind of shoes.
“It absolutely helps if you are wearing the right kind of shoes, because those running shoes help propel you forward,” Zackel said. “In pickleball, you really need lateral motion as well. So you need a court shoe, a volleyball shoe or a tennis shoe.”
But, she said the paddle is the most expensive thing. Hers cost around $200.
Matt Crutchfield is the manager at Matchset in Dayton. Their paddle inventory ranges from $90 to $300.
“You can start off with as cheap of one as you want, But you'll probably want to upgrade pretty quick because everybody's going, ‘What is that?’ You know, ‘you need a better paddle,” Crutchfield said.
The sports’ growth has brought a boom in the market for its equipment. USA Pickleball, its governing body, approved over 1,200 new paddles in 2024 and registered around 470 new brands.
Paddles vary in material, shape, surface texture and handle length. Some offer more control, others more power or spin.
He says brands are starting to develop paddles that are a bit quieter.
But, that unmistakable sound is what drew Don Whitmore to the sport at the Springfield senior center. He originally became a member, to use its cardio gym equipment in the lower level.
“I heard all this racket up here and decided I need to buy a paddle and try this,” Whitmore said. “And it gets in your bloodstream and you can't get it out.”
In the over two years since then, he’s injured both knees from playing pickle ball, one each summer. He got back on the court within three months both times.
“We've had some pretty serious broken wrists and fractured shoulders and things like that from falls,” Whitmore said. “Old folks are more prone to injuries, but it beats sitting on the couch.
And, a few years ago he didn’t know any of his fellow pickleball players. Now, they’re friends both on and off the court.