Come spring, Peter Grimmer expects the Fergus Pickleball Club to boast 30 members.
It’s an impressive number, considering the club began just four months ago.
“We took off really fast and it’s becoming really popular,” said Grimmer, ambassador and spokesman for the Fergus club, which was recently recognized as part of the Pickleball Association of Ontario.
Pickleball, which is played with hard paddles and a wiffle ball, combines elements of badminton, tennis and table tennis. It is played on a court similar to a doubles badminton court with a net two inches lower than tennis nets.
“It’s such a combination [of the Sports],” said Grimmer, explaining what draws people to pickleball.
“It’s a safe game, and yet it can be a really fast game too … and it’s great exercise.”
The Fergus club, which currently includes about 24 people, plays Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 to 11am in the hall at the Fergus Sportsplex (the group played on the arena floors in the summer).
Dorothy Smith, program manager at the Fergus Sportsplex, said she was told pickleball is one of the fastest growing Sports in the province.
Recent visitors from London told her tennis courts there are being changed so they can also accommodate pickleball.
“They’re loving it,” Smith said of the Fergus club, comprised mostly of seniors.
“They’re such an eager group. It’s really great to see … You can’t help but love their enthusiasm for the sport.”
Despite its similarities to tennis, pickleball is more accessible to a wider range of players, particularly children and seniors, due to the speed of the ball (about one-third the average speed of a tennis ball) and a smaller court (just under one-third of the total area of a tennis court).
The game, which was invented during the summer of 1965 by a group of friends headed by Washington politician Joel Pritchard, has achieved a worldwide following, with national and international governing bodies, particularly in the U.S. and Canada.
Locally, the Senior Summer Games in Fergus in May helped spike interest in the sport.
Plus, Grimmer noted, a lot of the club’s current members spend parts of the winter in the southern U.S., where he said the sport has really taken off.
Grimmer, who also played pickleball in Kitchener and Guelph, thanked Smith and the Victoria Park Seniors Centre for helping to get the sport up and running regularly in Fergus.
He is hoping growth in the Centre Wellington area continues, as the Fergus club would like to expand from two courts to four and to offer the sport on evenings to a younger crowd and to those working during the day.
“It’s not just for seniors,” he stressed. He said the cost is minimal – about $10 per year to be a part of the provincial association – and participation requires no real experience.
Grimmer invites anyone interested in joining to come out and watch and, if they have any questions, to ask for him.
