Pickleball? Heard of it? Done it? Do it? Ceri Barnes Thompson goes for a dink… 

About 18 months ago the American podcaster, author, social worker and researcher Brene Brown posted a photo of herself on Instagram (right) that really caught my eye. She was wearing aviator shades, a headband and was holding a little racket and holey ball the like of which I’d never seen. She was also, importantly, wearing the most enormous smile. 

She wrote underneath this sunshine of a photo “For me, joy + play = pickleball. The court might be the only place in the world where I’m fully in the now. Not thinking ahead, worrying, wondering—just keeping my eye on the ball and my head in the game.”

What is this “pickleball”? Surely she meant “paddleball” or “raquet ball”? I asked myself, keen to achieve anything close to the level of happiness in that photo. I swiftly googled ‘Brighton and Hove Pickleball clubs’ and sent out an email to Richard Ellis hoping to join any kind of waiting list going. 

I got a swift and warm reply inviting me to come for a beginners ‘dink’. A week later I was on a court in Mouslecomb with around 16 people I’d never met before, welcomed and guided through the rules as a newcomer then straight into the deep end of playing pickleball. They take no prisoners those pickleballers, let me tell you. 

Liz is a whiz and keeps you on your toes. Paul is steady and stealth. “Stay out of the kitchen!” they yell! Before I knew it everyone was gathering up the gear and saying goodnight. 

Two hours had passed and Brown’s words couldn’t have been more true. I was elated. Maybe from running around – it’s a great work out. Maybe from feeling so welcome amongst strangers – it’s hugely comforting. Maybe from laughing out loud at myself. 

It’s really quite embarrassing when something that looks so easy is actually kind of hard. Maybe from the challenge of learning a new game – it’s very rewarding – but mostly I just felt like my over-stretched and stressed-out brain had had a break. Just like Brene, I’d experienced two hours just fully immersed in the game thinking of nothing else but that crazily lightweight ball and how to keep up with the rotation of each game. I came out feeling refreshed on a level I’ve not felt for years.

I asked Richard when he’d started playing the game. He’d been in Thailand looking for a doubles tennis game and they only played pickleball so he’d given it a go. 

Pickleball is often described as a mixture of tennis, badminton and ping pong – invented by three dads in the 60’s in the States for their bored kids during the summer holidays it’s massive in the USA now. The court is smaller than badminton and the net is low, like a tennis net. 

Richard and his wife loved it and the fact it’s easier on the joints than tennis so on returning to the UK they searched – a bit like me – once they came home to Brighton for picklers here. Finding one other couple – aces Joe and Liz – they persuaded the Stanley Deason people to let them mark up a badminton court for pickleball and started to play. 

Putting it out on Facebook they soon got a regular cohort of players with new people joining weekly. I asked him what it was about pickleball he loves. “I usually feel elated, glad to have played feeling we have had some good exercise with a great bunch of people, hoping to improve with time”. Jacqueline, another club regular who started playing the game in Florida in 2014, lives in rural Sussex and rides horses. She loves pickleball as it uses very different groups of muscles and is a good aerobic workout. She loves the people she meets as she has to travel widely to play – Bexhill, Eastbourne, Burgess Hill, Brighton, and she stressed “It’s not an old people’s game – it’s for everyone. It’s very social”. She’s right. 

On the day I played there were players from 18 to 80 – and the 80-year-old woman was one of the most sprightly and skillful on the court. I found it can be as gentle or as hardcore as you like – some of the games were seriously impressively skillful dinkathons with extremely competitive members sparring. 

Richard and Trish devote a lot of time to running something which, as with all community efforts like this, really delivers a huge scoop of joy to those who play. Sessions are broadly Thursday nights and Tuesday mornings give and take a few logistical bits and bobs. It’s harder for them than it should be due to the lack of facilities – they’ve recently moved to Moulescombe Leisure Centre, always searching for somewhere reliable to play. You can find them on Facebook – Brighton and Hove Pickleball Club – or if you google them, you can contact lovely Richard Ellis directly. You won’t regret it. And maybe we can persuade Brighton and Hove council to install some courts dedicated to the Mighty Pickleball. 

Sam Wollaston of The Guardian recently wrote about the game – coming to it with a hefty dollop of cynicism not least because he finds the name silly – ending up just like me, completely energised and turned around. “The thing about pickleball”, he said, “is that you can play at any level. As my level increases, I will play with greater intensity. And it will, and I will. Because it turns out I’m brilliant at pickleball! A total natural, nimble of foot and thought… the deftest of dinkers!”. 

That’s honestly how it makes you feel, very swiftly and without all the weight of tennis’ ladders, rankings and years of play. As George Bernard Shaw said “We don’t stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing”. 

Come on, have a dink! 

l Check out the Facebook page for Brighton and Hove Pickleball Club