Pickleball: ‘It’s a great game, you get exercise and it’s fun which is essential’

“It’s my serve,” says Willie Treacy. Across the court, your opponent wiffles the ball back to you.

At the Cabra Parkside Community Sports Center, there are between 16 and 18 people playing pickleball this Wednesday night. Some of Willie’s opponents are up to 45 years younger than him. Pickleball, in his childhood in Ireland, brings together different ages, genders and abilities to compete and play against each other.

Like a mix of tennis, table tennis, and badminton, pickleball is played in doubles, on a badminton court, with each player holding a paddle and hitting the ball over a net. Unlike tennis, the net is lower, the court is smaller, and the rules differ. Unlike tennis, which takes time to master, rallies can and do begin with your first pickleball session.

The rules can be complicated for beginners, but “we came to terms with them very quickly,” says Treacy. “It’s a great game, you get exercise and it’s fun, which is essential. We play for about an hour and it goes by really fast because we’re having so much fun.”

Pickleball was introduced to Ireland in 2016 by Michael McDaid who founded Pickleball Ireland. The pandemic brought an abrupt end to pickleball’s progression but, in 2022, Pickleball Ireland was incorporated as a not-for-profit entity.

The game involves running back and forth to make sure the ball goes over the net, but it is accessible in a way that tennis and badminton are not.

“I’m 70 years old and it’s easy, you just get in the game, you get a good run, good exercise, a good workout without the gym. It’s really a win-win in every way.”

The game is hugely popular in the United States, with professional players, pickleball influencers, and even its own magazine, InPickleball.

But for Stephanie Barman, who moved from Salt Lake City, Utah to Ireland nine years ago, she only found out from her mother when she went home for Christmas in December 2021.

“My mother is crazy about it and she is 60 years old! She was like ‘Stephanie! You have to come play pickleball.’ So she tied us up, and before we left we bought some paddles on Amazon and yeah, we were like, ‘how are we going to play this?’”

When he returned to Ireland, he looked for clubs in Dublin.

“I was actively looking for pickleball clubs because I was having so much fun. It’s an easy game to learn and can be played by any age, it doesn’t really matter your fitness level, you can play with kids or adults, like I played before with my little cousin and it’s just fun.

“If you’re willing to go out and have some fun, you’ll be great. You trade partners so you can always be with different levels of competition and as you trade, if you only take one new thing each time, you will learn something.

“People who played tennis or anything else with hand-eye coordination will pick it up so easily. You see some people with certain shots and they’re just hitting them, and some of them, they’d run and say ‘there’s no way they’re going to get it’ and some of them do. Any age can do it safely.”

PIckleball is part of Dublin City Council’s Dublin City Sports and Wellness Association, says Michelle Waters, the council’s sports development officer.

When Waters started pickleball as part of his role, it was with seniors, “some people in their 80s,” which he continues on Mondays with the “senior group.”

However, sport is for everyone, and the emphasis is on getting people moving, says Waters.

“We have dabbled with primary school children in the local area, recently we had the North Dublin Muslim School [who] Came for her active school week. They walked into the room, took three classes, and got an introduction to pickleball. It is a very versatile, dynamic sport, great for fit people, but also for older adults. Come September we hope to bring a service for the disabled.

“The difficulty is getting people to venture into the room to try it, but once they’re in, they’re hooked! I’ve been noticing it for weeks, I can see the difference in skill levels, it’s brilliant.”

The jump in skill level also stands out for Barman.

“Some of those people, I brought two girls for the first time, they are so good! it’s such an easy sport for someone new to get into – everyone’s been playing it for 2-8 weeks and look how good they are.”

The Dublin City Council association has invested in pickleball at Cabra, so admission is free. Other centers charge nominal fees to play, and all centers provide paddles, balls, and nets.

“We are trying to do it in other areas, to get other sports officials involved. It’s great, you can have youth, adults, mixed genders, it’s brilliant. Hopefully, it will go from strength to strength,” says Waters.

Barman would like the game to grow along with more access.

“It’s just about facilities, one easy thing Dublin City Council could do is line up the courts in public. Public parks, if they had pickleball lines, people would start to get interested. You don’t necessarily need the net to be at the right height, it’s just about knowing if you have the line. So we set our markers and so on, but at least it’s like that’s the beginning.”

Pickleball Ireland is planning a one-day festival in October this year and is looking to host a Pickleball Open, with American and European competitors, in June 2023. For Treacy, this is all good news.

“I hope we are good enough to progress and play in some competitive games, maybe with other clubs. It’s an American game, there would be a lot of interest in games between countries, you know? Maybe international games?

“It all depends on how well we progress, that will be for the youngsters who come. They are really good and very competitive, for us and for the group we are in now it is fantastic”.