With a 53% increase in participants since 2022, pickleball has been recognized by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association as the fastest growing sport in America. Today, the USA Pickleball Association (USAPA) estimates the game having 8.9 million players across the nation and the Bronx is joining in the ranks as new courts open across the borough.
Out of the 61 outdoor public courts and 16 indoor courts in NYC, only eight are in the Bronx — but it is not destined to remain that way.
“We will continue to look for opportunities to add more Bronx courts where possible,” said Jessenia Aponte, Bronx borough commissioner of NYC Parks.
A pickleball court was opened in Riverdale Playground last month and one in Crotona Park near 173rd Street in April. On a recent Friday, Ed Graybow, tournament player and coach, and Lydell Capers, dean of students at LION Charter School, led a demonstration at the Crotona Park court where he was giving away paddles to attendees donated by Killa Dinks — a paddle company.
“It’s an opportunity for youngsters to learn the most up and coming sport in America,” said Graybow.
Capers who was helping lead the pickleball demonstration was introduced to the sport by Graybow. Capers immediately took to it, holding a pickleball demo at his school in Hunts Point earlier this year.
“What I love about it is, you can connect people of all ages through it. It’s not too overly competitive. There’s people in their nineties playing,” Capers told the Bronx Times.
The sport is much more difficult to explain than it is to play, but essentially, it’s like tennis with badminton rules. It requires a court, a net, lightweight paddles and a wiffle ball which one dinks, yes dinks, across the net.
It’s low-impact, easy to learn and commonly played amongst athletes who are recovering from injuries due to more physically taxing sports like tennis and basketball.
With high-profile celebrities like Drake, Kevin Durant and Michael B. Jordan investing in professional pickleball sports teams — like the Brooklyn Aces — it isn’t difficult to understand the game’s growing appeal.
The COVID-19 pandemic also played a significant role in the game’s prominence. “It was the ideal outdoor activity and form of exercise because it was still social, physically active, and fun, while respecting those social distancing guidelines,” said Melissa Zhang of the USAPA. “We haven’t seen it taper since.”
But the game is far from new.
Pickleball was invented in 1965 by Joel Pritchard and Bill Bell when they returned to Pritchard’s home after a day of golf and found his family “sitting around with nothing to do.” After improvising the game, Pritchard and Bell introduced it to their friend Barney McCallum and the three are credited with inventing the sport.
The USAPA would not be established until 1984 and despite having West Coast roots, the leading designated market area for players is New York City. As for the name, there are several origin stories, but the most popular is that Pritchard had a dog that chased the ball around the court – its name was Pickles.
In 2014, the NYC Parks Department began reforming old tennis courts and handball courts for pickleball, but the first official courts weren’t unveiled across the five boroughs until 2022.
With its increased popularity, opening courts in the Bronx gives those in an often overlooked borough the opportunity to participate in America’s fastest growing sport.
Rosalinda Ventura who walks her dogs in Van Cortlandt Park, where a pickleball court sits, said that she sees kids “playing there all the time.” However, a walk to the Van Cortlandt court on a Monday afternoon showed no signs of life and neither did the court at Riverdale Playground around 6 p.m. on a Sunday. As for the pickleball demonstration at Crotona Park, the turn out was little to no one, but the excessive heat warning may have been to blame.
As it stands, pickleball does not seem to be overly appealing to Bronxites, but the courts are new to the borough and only time will tell.
Reach ET Rodriguez at etrodriguez317@gmail.com. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
