Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the world and Thursday, October 10 was World Pickleball Day. SussexWorld's head of sport Mark Dunford went along to a session at K2 Crawley to see what it was all about.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Hi I'm Mark Dunford and I'm here at K2 Crawley and I'm about to try out pickleball.
00:04Now pickleball is a sport that is a mix between tennis, badminton and ping-pong
00:09from what I believe. I've never played it myself before but it's a very popular
00:13sport and I'm about to try out a session at K2 Crawley with Francisco Guerra.
00:19He is the pickleball coach leader at K2 and also a personal trainer here so
00:24let's go and find out what it's all about.
00:30My name is Francisco, I'm 49, I've been playing tennis when I was a young age
00:46and then 15 years ago I started to play paddle in Spain. It was a good
00:55transition because I felt like this small court was helping me and three
01:02months ago I found pickleball here and I started, I followed tennis and Agassi and
01:10Sharapov and then started to play and I heard the name pickleball because in America it's very
01:15popular but when I saw the opportunity to try I was addicted on the first time
01:22because I played and I enjoyed the game, I enjoyed how it's played, the
01:28racket and everything so I got addicted. I started to play, now I play like four
01:34times a week, five times a week sometimes and I saw the opportunity to get the
01:41certification for leader at K2 Crawley because they were looking for someone to
01:48take the sessions here so I went to the Pickleball England certification and I've done the course which is really good, opened my mind about how to play, how to teach, how to coach
02:06pickleball and yeah so since then it's my passion. I'm going to start to warm up right now, do some drills like some movements that we're going to use in the game later on.
02:24Pickleball is a mix of tennis and badminton using like a table tennis style racket
02:32because we play with badminton courts like size courts and using a paddle that's
02:41similar to a table tennis paddle, it's a bit bigger yeah but similar like in a way how
02:49it's constructed the paddle so if someone never played I would say like it's a mix
02:55of those three badminton tennis and table tennis okay so okay one in each side of the court, stay there and try to ding, remember try to make the ball landing in no open zone.
03:13Very beginners friendly, we play with a plastic ball with the holes, we've got indoor balls which is 26 holes
03:23it's different than outdoor balls because outdoor we've got the wind in the mix so this ball is 22 grams
03:32the indoor like it's a bit lighter the heavier ball 26 grams is for outdoor.
03:39We've got like in a sessions coming like a 90 year old and I've got 85 year old playing and it's recently we've got a new study
04:00saying the people who played racket sports can live 10 years longer because it activates the back part of your of the brain that's coordination and reflects.
04:18And now volley, volley is going to work with this person in front of you, right just like that, try to volley.
04:30Hi I'm Dave Downey, I'm the activity and well-being manager for everyone active at K2 Crawley here.
04:42It's the fastest growing sport in the world although it has been going a fair while now in the US but yeah everyone's kind of getting into it and a really popular crossover amongst racket players.
04:56So yeah we've just been launching it here in recent months and the numbers are really building well.
05:02We had our taster sessions here last Thursday as part of world people all day.
05:10Everyone active put on 50 free tasters across the country so we had 30 that came to that so yeah really really popular.
05:19Lucy go there and Mark play with Ali.
05:27Okay now we're gonna play the game, the thing more important here I'm gonna try to explain how we score which is the most difficult part of the game.
05:41Knowing how to score the game.
05:43Alright so simply whoever is on the right always starts serving.
05:51Okay so you start from here and before you do your shot always call the score.
05:58Like if you start you are 0-0-2, why 0-0?
06:03You always say you score first whatever is your point.
06:07Like if I'm 2 they have 4 I would say 2-4 and then who's serving?
06:13We've got two servers 1 and 2 so you call the score.
06:17Your score 2-4 and then your number 1.
06:23It's a really great game to get into.
06:25It's a lot harder than you think.
06:27The rallies go on a long time and because you can only win points when you are serving it takes quite a long time to get to the 11 you need.
06:36But yeah it's a great game.
06:39Remember the two bounce through okay?
06:42First bounce you cannot hold it before the ball bounces through.
06:58Yes!
07:01Any age can do it, any ability can do it.
07:04It's a great example of how different age groups can come together and play sport.
07:10Sport is the biggest thing that can get people coming together so yeah it's definitely open to everyone.
07:16We have an evening session and a daytime session so that people that are working can come in an evening after work
07:23and those that are retired or doing shift work can come to an afternoon session.
07:27It was my turn to give it a go and I really enjoyed it.
07:30The hardest thing to get used to was the weight of the ball and the bounce of the ball.
07:35I was always expecting a tennis ball type bounce.
07:40Excellent and you saw me play how did you think I got on?
07:43Very impressed Mark.
07:45You coped with the spin from our pickleball leader Francisco.
07:49You dealt with that really well.
07:51It's just getting used to the lower bounce with the ball compared to a tennis ball.
07:55And also needing to hit the ball harder because you haven't got the strings like you would with a tennis racket.
08:01So you have to hit it a lot harder but you did really well.
08:14Jeff Stein and I've been playing here for roughly two months.
08:20And what is it about pickleball that you're enjoying at the moment?
08:23I think it's all inclusive.
08:25So I play with the U3A group and I play at East Grinstead and I play here.
08:30So the variety of people who play it from very beginners right the way through 80 even 90 year olds can play it.
08:41And no one's excluded from it.
08:44And I was talking to a lady last night and she works at a special needs school.
08:49And she said I think this would be brilliant to introduce to the children.
08:53Because they'd be capable of playing it.
08:56So anyone can play it.
08:58You played yourself today haven't you?
09:01You've never played it before.
09:03Really enjoyed it yeah absolutely.
09:11It's for everyone isn't it?
09:14Yeah no it is for everyone isn't it.
09:17And the good thing was I played here in a competition on Sunday.
09:21First competition I've done there were 80 people in this hall playing pickleball.
09:26And Pickleball England are using this venue every two months for the competition.
09:34And that's just the south east of England.
09:36So it's growing.
09:39Come along have a go definitely.
09:43Just try it. It's good fun.
09:51Lucy Barnes.
09:52And how old are you?
09:53Twelve.
09:54And how long have you been playing pickleball?
09:56Not that long for about five weeks now.
09:58And what are you enjoying about it?
10:01I honestly love the people like the socialising with everyone.
10:05And I feel like it's just a game for everyone where you can come along and just enjoy it.
10:09And are you very good at it?
10:11I'm not too sure about that.
10:13But I have no idea to be honest.
10:24It's not always about being good.
10:26It's about having fun and enjoying yourself.
10:29Much better. Very good.
10:31Keep going. Keep going.
10:33Back of the keel.
10:34What first attracted you to it? Was it your grandparents?
10:36Honestly yeah. It was like family have been saying you know what come along it's really fun.
10:41So then I came along and I found it really enjoyable.
10:44So here I am playing with Geraldine.
10:46And we did really well.
10:48We played against Francisco who is a bit of a spin king master.
10:52And he tested us a few times and his team won.
10:56But I thought we played very well.
10:58And I was quite pleased with a couple of shots.
11:00And there was one shot where I played it down the line.
11:02Beat Francisco and got a little bit of an applause.
11:05So that was a great moment for me.
11:22I think that needs to be the final shot.
11:24I think it does.