By Killian Maree<\/p>\n

For the North Star Reporter<\/p>\n

Pickleball has quickly become a favorite pastime for people of all ages in North Attleborough, its surrounding towns and throughout the country.<\/p>\n

The sport is mostly played in doubles and on a court with a net that is 36 inches tall from the sideline and 34 inches from the center. The player that is serving hits the ball to the player diagonal from them, and from there they are free to volley, as long as the ball does not hit in the non-volley area, or the \u201ckitchen.\u201d There is a two-bounce rule and games are usually played to 11 points.<\/p>\n

The sport of pickleball was first played in Washington state in 1965, but has slowly made its way all over the country, and is even taught to high schoolers in gym class. Justin Maloof, the chief competition officer of USA Pickleball, attributed the sport\u2019s popularity to its familiarity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s super-easy to learn because the skill set is so familiar,\u201d said Maloof. \u201cIf you\u2019ve ever played racquetball, tennis \u2013 really, any paddle or racquet sport \u2013 pickleball is going to be very familiar to anyone who’s played.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maloof also said that pickleball is multi-generational, something not always seen with other sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat pickleball is experiencing now is a move into mainstream culture. We\u2019re seeing the sport trending much younger,\u201d Maloof said. \u201cWhen I came in 12 years ago, we had a perception issue of pickleball being a senior-only activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rohan Kohli is a North Attleborough resident and has been a member of the pickleball club team at the University of Virginia for a year now. Kohli learned how to play pickleball while attending North Attleborough High School, and even has a net that can be set up in the driveway that he uses with family and friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like [pickleball] because it\u2019s easy to get started with, but there\u2019s a lot of room to improve your game,\u201d said Kohli. \u201cOnce you start to get better, games can get pretty intense and that is very fun. I think it\u2019s also been a great way for me to make friends at school.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Attleboro Norton YMCA holds pickleball almost every single day, twice a day on weekdays. All ages play on the courts, and there’s even another court that is set up in case more people want to play than their usual courts can hold. The Hockomock YMCA in North Attleborough also offers pickleball on three courts.<\/p>\n

According to Eric Stringfellow, Sports Director at the Attleboro Norton YMCA, many of the people who play pickleball are regulars. Stringfellow said that they are very accepting and love to show new people the ropes of the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cPickleball, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, now has 14 million players in the U.S., which makes it the fastest growing sport the last four years in a row,\u201d said Maloof.<\/p>\n

With pickleball programs like the ones at Attleboro Norton YMCA that bring so much joy to competitive people who love to be active, Maloof guesses that society is only on the cusp of pickleball\u2019s popularity as more people discover the sport.<\/p>\n

The story behind the sport<\/strong><\/p>\n

The invention of the sport of pickleball dates back to 1965, when two men, Joel Pritchard and Bill Bell, returned to Pritchard\u2019s home near Seattle and noticed that their families were sitting around, bored, with nothing to do.<\/p>\n

The property that they were on had a badminton court, however Bell and Pritchard could not find any badminton equipment around the property. They improvised and used ping-pong paddles and an old plastic ball.<\/p>\n

The next weekend, a man named Barney McCallum was introduced to the sport. Soon after this introduction, McCallum, Bell and Pritchard created rules that relied heavily on those of badminton and made sure that the whole family could play. In 1967, the first permanent pickleball net was constructed in the backyard of Joel Pritchard\u2019s neighbor\u2019s backyard, Bob O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

In 1972 a corporation was formed to protect the creation of the sport. By 1990, pickleball had officially been played in all 50 states of America. In 2005, the USA Pickleball Association was formed, and from there the sport has continued to gain popularity, with USA Pickleball membership reaching 70,000 in February of 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Killian Maree For the North Star Reporter Pickleball has quickly become a favorite pastime for people of all ages in North Attleborough, its surrounding towns and throughout the country. The sport is mostly played in doubles and on a court with a net that is 36 inches tall from the sideline and 34 inches […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9606,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,34],"tags":[49,83,1360,352,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-9605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"category-local-sports","9":"tag-north-attleboro","10":"tag-north-attleborough","11":"tag-pickleball","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n