Sports Equipment

Pickleball was created in 1965 by co-inventors U.S. Congressman Joel Pritchard, William Bill Bell and Barney McCallum as a sport for the entire family.The name “Pickleball®” may have come from a family dog named “Pickles” who chased after balls and hid them. Pickle’s ball eventually became the name of the game “Pickleball®”. People played the game in their backyards on a hard surface, driveways and even on dead-end streets. Since the mid-1970s Pickleball® expanded to a court sport with rules and is now played in thousands of school physical education programs, parks, communities, YMCAs, etc. It has become very popular with senior citizens and PE teachers use this game as a lead up game for teaching racquet skills. It is played indoors or outdoors on a hard surfaced 20′ x 44′ area (size of a badminton court).

Standard pickleball equipment consists of a tennis-height net (34″ in the center), a plastic perforated baseball [whiffleball] and wood or composite paddles.