Pickleball Offers Cardio and Camaraderie on the Key

Pickleball players hit the courts for a game of doubles at the Key Biscayne Community Center (Asia Sherman/Key News)

Stop in the Key Biscayne Community Center any day of the week, and you’ll find the gym hopping with active seniors paddling bright orange plastic balls over modified tennis nets.

This is pickleball, the fastest growing sport in the United States.

The once obscure paddle sport is popping up all over the place with the USA Pickleball Association (USAPA) registering a 650 percent increase in membership over the last six years. Popular in school educational programs, camps and prisons, the biggest growth has been seen in senior adult programs like Key Biscayne’s Active Seniors on the Key (ASK) Club.

“Our numbers are definitely growing. Each year we get a few more,” says Susan Sawyer, ASK board member and coordinator of the pickleball program. “We have had up to 20 players when the snowbirds are down for the winter.”

This season’s roster of players range in age from 63 to 89 years old, many of whom are former tennis players who find pickleball easier on the joints.  Sawyer says it provides a whole new social group that offers “cardio and camaraderie.”

““It’s social, it’s fun and it’s healthy,” says Dr. Norman H. Schulman, who picked up the sport four years ago and plays four days a week when wintering on the Key from Long Island. He brings his own paddle, but the club also has some on hand.

So, what is pickleball and where did it come from?

According to pickleball lore, the game was born in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, a 35-minute ferry ride from Seattle, and was the brainchild of three men looking to give their restless children something to do. As the story goes, they started with Ping-Pong paddles and a plastic ball on a badminton court and made up the easy play and simple rules as they went. 

Today, there are a few main rules. Games are usually played to 11 and are won by two points. The serve is underhand with paddle contact made below the server’s navel, and the return is governed by a double-bounce rule. Most important: No volleying in the pickleball kitchen, a seven-foot zone on both sides of the net, or you’ll be faulted, and your opponents will yell “Kitchen!” at you.

At the Community Center, pickleball started in 2014 and is played in the air-conditioned gym on up to four badminton-sized courts, depending on the season and turnout. The Calusa tennis courts are also lined for pickleball with outdoor balls available in the tennis pro’s office. 

Created for all ages and skill levels, the game is easy for beginners but is fairly fast-paced on the advanced court.  Like its paddle and racquet sport cousins, it can be played as doubles or singles.

Sawyer debunks the story that the game is named after a dog named Pickles. Instead, she says – because it is a crossbreed of different sports – the name alludes to the pickle boat in crew where oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats. 

Hours: 

Monday to Friday & Sunday, 10 am to noon

Hours change to 2 to 4 pm, Monday to Friday, during school breaks

Free. Register at front desk. For ages 50+