PICKLEBALL Tutorial

Learn more about pickleball

The basics

Pickleball is a paddle sport invented in the United States of America with the similar skills and technics that of tennis, badminton and table tennis. It’s an enjoyable sport for all ages with all skill levels. It’s easy for beginners to learn and yet it can be developed into a fast-paced, skillful competitive game for experienced players.

The game is played on a court similar to badminton court with a paddle and plastic ball with perforated holes. It can be played as singles although mostly as doubles.

Why is it called “Pickleball”?

The origin of the name Pickleball has two different accounts, interestingly none of them has anything to do with pickles.

According to Joel Pritchard’s wife (Joan), she started calling the game pickleball because “the combination of different sports reminded me of the pickle boat in crew where oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats”.
According to Barney McCallum, the game was officially named after the Pritchard’s dog Pickles, who would chase the ball and run off with it. And after the game was invented over a year, the Pritchard's purchased a cocker spaniel and named it Pickles.

Brief history of Pickleball

Pickleball was invented in 1965 by a congressman, Joel Pritchard from Seattle, Washington State USA and a businessman, Bill Bell.

The game was first played on a badminton court with improvised table-tennis paddles and perforated balls. A game started as a family summer’s leisure was soon evolved into a popular competitive sports, with many cross-over players from tennis, badminton, as well as table-tennis. By 1990, pickleball was being played in all 50 states in over 4000 locations in United States. Today, the game continues to gain its popularity worldwide and enjoyed by people of all ages.

Pickleball in Singapore

Pickleball started in Singapore in 1980’s, advocated and supported by Singapore Sports Council and People’s Association. In 1996, it was officially launch by then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong as “Sport for Life!”

Many social and organized interest groups (IGs) play the games regularly in community centres, sports halls, or at open parks, friendly games and competitions are organized quarterly or by-annually. In 2017, the Singapore government’s initiative known as ActiveSG, aimed to promote healthy lifestyle in Singapore, for the first time included pickleball as the national sports by organizing national pickleball competition as part of the National Day celebration. And most recently, ActiveSG also collaborated with the Pickleball Club (Singapore) to organize the “Pickleball Festival”, a nation-wide friendly games and skills competitions.

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