The first blink of an eye, with which the yes or no is established – I like it, I don’t like it, I want it, I don’t want it, I’m going or I’m staying – is tough. From the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Florida, the broadcaster Espn brought the Pickleball Slam to the world some time ago. First shot: Agassi, the Las Vegas Kid, the punk in jeans who anticipated the answers with his feet on the baseline and bludgeoned his balls with the ardor of someone who had suffered something very serious and needed revenge. Agassi holding a paddle.
Generous waist, converging feet that tread on a court that can be defined as similar to tennis after having been shrunk by washing at the wrong temperature – in reality it is a court with badminton measurements, a third of those of tennis. Next to him, corpulent and bandaged up, another unmistakable silhouette: the man with the peaked cap who dripped sweat even when rested. Another former world number one and another former US Open champion. The Nebraska Kid: Andy Roddick. But what stuff is it? A camera lens with the curvature off? It’s Pickleball, gentlemen.
The latest variant of rackets
While the two VIP partners, Andre and Andy, slice and direct at narrow angles a ball that looks like those fluorescent balls to throw at the golden retriever, made of plastic and with holes, educational graphics scroll by. Pickleball is the latest variant of racket sports which, by way of a list of virus subspecies, has already invaded the USA and is about to land in Italy – indeed, it has already arrived and cases have already been isolated, sorry, fields that pop up here and there, in the nooks and crannies of clubs, in parks and in sports areas.
It’s not tennis, it’s not padel, it’s not table tennis or squash or badminton. Of the first three, she stole DNA sequences to create one of her own. Some of these genetic mutations didn’t go down well with the elderly brat Joh McEnroe, the third superstar hired to consecrate pickleball as a sport for everyone, from the strong competitor to the retired: after two exchanges, a couple of quick skirmishes and he has already ranted. He cannot digest the concept of kitchen, that light colored space that delimits an area close to the net. In the kitchen, in pickleball, you can enter but not hit the ball on the fly: you have to make it bounce. Otherwise it would be too easy: nose on the net and a barrage of winning volleys.
When flying, however, you can indulge in all the other areas of the field and Big Mac still does it, at sixty-four years old, almost like in the happy days of 1984, managing to obtain amazing trajectories even with that tool (allowed materials: wood , graphite or metal, as long as it is smooth and without cracks) which, upon impact, produces a heavy “tack” which immediately makes the Romagna Riviera, shoreline and beach rackets stand out. Fourth guest of the luxury evening is Michael Chang and no, you can’t play the backhand with two hands with such a short grip. But serving from underneath yes, indeed: it is the only legitimate way to start the point and the cynophenomenon of Roland Garros 1989 is the most likely of all to use that trick, which drove Ivan Lendl’s logical and military electrical circuits crazy in an unforgettable Slam round of 16 final.
In the States, pickleball has taken root for some time: unless someone shows up, ex post, to claim its invention, the common tale tells of a member of the Washington congress, the late Joel Pritchard, and an old entrepreneur friend of his, Bill Bell.
One day in 1965, in the large garden of the politician’s estate on Bainbridge Island, they attempted to restore a disused badminton court, but without finding the equipment in the cellar. To involve their wives and friends in a hybrid and accessible pastime, they thought of using the field armed with ping pong rackets and a hard, perforated plastic ball made from who knows where. Maybe right from the dog’s kennel, go and see. By placing the net on the ground and not in the air, a kind of mini-tennis emerged. Easier, however, because the speed of the rallies was slower (one third compared to tennis, as was the size of the perimeter). At the end of the day, they realized that everyone had had fun, even those who couldn’t hold a tennis racket or handle a table tennis rally.
The first national association (USAPa) was born in 2005; In 2010, the IFP, the international federation, was founded. Based in Arizona, it gathered consensus and support throughout the world until – it is a story that is recycled, tennis and, recently, golf have also experienced it – a branch created a competing body, the Wpf, World Pickleball Federation, which last year took over the course with the registration of the USA and Canada and a series of other departures. Like Italy, which has its own association (Aip) and, since last year, Fipick, the first step towards obtaining recognition as an associated discipline after five years of controlled activity under the aegis of Coni. Fitp, the Italian tennis (and padel, since January 1st this year) federation has set its sights on this new spin-off of the racket and, in recent days, federal technical meetings and those of Professional Tennis partners have been held Italian registry, historically managed by the talented Luciano Botti, to include pickleball teaching in the training of Italian tennis teachers.
In the Fitp and Ptr environments they are sure: this racket Frankenstein will make a splash like padel, because it is even easier to play, it is social, familiar and overcomes the objection, whether ethical or substantial, of the refusal to play a sport closed inside a box with walls as part of the game.
The statistics arriving from overseas tell of a game that appeals to the over fiftys (52% of members have already passed the mark), with more than five million members.
Even if the soul of the newly formed Italian federation, the president Zelindo Di Giulio, notes that in Italy the average age will be lower and that pickleball will appeal to many thirty- and forty-year-olds with a sporting lifestyle. People who probably arrive or stay in the beloved tennis, from which pickleball inherits the surface: it is played on resins such as GreenSet, the same ones used in the professional tennis circuit and in many clubs. You can play the singles, which is quite tiring, or more easily the doubles.
The Italian phenomenon is in its first stages, in numbers: around forty fields, a few more dozen multi-sport rectangles also adaptable to this discipline. But with the interest of Fitp it is almost certain that new courts will appear almost everywhere: also because since the lob essentially does not exist, it will not be necessary to host courts in structures with high ceilings in regions with a more rigid climate – Milan is already a candidate to become an economic homeland, as in padel – and this will encourage those who want to invest in indoor practice.
The federal parties believe in it to the point that, during the next ATP Finals in Turin, alongside Alcaraz, Djokovic, Sinner and company, the PalaAlpitour will host the 2023 edition of the Italian pickleball championships, also considered an ideal preparatory school for tennis also to be presented in schools because it is not very traumatic and has multidisciplinary motor characteristics.
While the game is budding here, the Americans are ahead: having celebrated the first non-American tournament with more than a thousand participants, this summer’s English Open, the project in progress is the start of the Games. Pickleball at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. And to those who turn up their noses: why, curling?
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2023-09-16 18:30:54
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