The popularity of pickleball is catching fire and will be making its third appearance at the Seniors Games in Trail this August.
B.C. chair and Zone-6 pickleball coordinator Ian Glover is Senior Games organizer of the event as well as responsible for slotting teams from the West Kootenays into the Games.
“In that capacity I am in charge of organizing the facilities and then organizing and running the event,” said Glover.
Pickleball is a cross between badminton, tennis, and ping-pong, using wooden racquets and a plastic ball that is volleyed over a 3-foot high net. It possesses all the action and strategy and can be played indoors or out.
“The sport is hugely growing, it’s being introduced at schools now,” said Glover. “From a Senior’s perspective it’s the perfect game for people who played racquet sports throughout their life and now they’re at the age where running across a tennis court or the kind of lunging you do in badminton, doesn’t work for the knees anymore.”
Despite the popularity, sometimes it is difficult finding a facility. The game uses a badminton court boundary in the Cominco Gym that is not quite ideal for pickleball. Glover would like to see courts made specifically for the burgeoning sport.
For the Senior Games, the pickleball venue will be the Willie Krause Fieldhouse as games can be played on every second court to afford the players more room.
With the event in its relative infancy in the Kootenays it provides an in for many who would like to participate in the games.
“Someone who has never played the game can learn to play it . . . it’s an addicting game.”