Asheville – Pickleball has come to Asheville, and the sport may only keep growing in popularity, according to Brandon Mackie, the co-founder of Pickleheads, an internet database for the sport.
The sport started to catch on in 2020 with the beginning of the pandemic—that was when Mackie heard about it. “36.5 million Americans have played the game at least once in the past year,” he said. “It’s a social sport.” It’s a big open space, and you’re meeting a lot of people. It will continue to grow and grow.”
The game involves rallying balls back and forth across a netted court and trying to score points. There are one-on-one matches, but many times the game involves pairing up, sometimes with strangers. Mackie said this adds to its social, friendly nature.
Asheville has seen a number of pickleball courts sprout up, which Mackie credits to an “active population” that keeps connected via many apps and various events throughout the week—at least in the warmer months.
A search of Pickleheads shows 18 public and private courts for the game in the Asheville area, including the downtown Asheville YMCA, John Lake Park in Montreat, Montford Park, Hendersonville Racquet Club, Jackson Park, and Asheville Racquet Club, among others.
Michael Kinnear, the director of pickleball at the Asheville Racquet Club, explains that “if you are between the ages of 5 and 95, can hold a paddle, and can move at least 3 miles per hour, you can play pickleball with some success.” It is an intellectual game as much as or more than an athletic sport, and so it appeals to a wide audience. It is also an unresolved sport; nobody really knows the best way to play it yet, partially because technology also keeps changing, which significantly impacts how it is played.
We have multiple opportunities every week for brand new players to learn from an experienced professional instructor, including myself, at Asheville Racquet Club South. If anyone is interested in learning, you can email mkinnear@ashevilleracquetclub.com to learn about Pickleball 101, Try a series of private individual and group lessons. We teach all our sessions at our indoor, dedicated pickleball courts at ARC South. We also offer many beginner and social drop-ins to welcome new players. And we offer a Pickleball Juniors program led by Cenyu Yang, Pickleball Coordinator. To learn more, parents can email her at cyang@ashevilleracquetclub.com.
Mackie, a native of Savannah, Georgia, who says he’s spent time in Asheville, too, did play tennis for much of his life. He found pickleball to be something of a refreshing game.
“It’s kind of a blend of ping pong, badminton, and tennis,” he said. “It’s much easier on the body than basketball or other sports.”
The game was nature made for a pacifying force during the early stages of the pandemic.
“During the pandemic, it was a social outlet,” Mackie said. “It was a way to be responsible. You’re outdoors, and you can meet people. It wasn’t going to the gym; it was healthier to do pickleball during that time. “You could get some sun, you could see people—it was a help through a difficult time.”
But Mackie doesn’t think the sport was just a “pandemic fad”; he said the sport has only grown in recent years, with more people playing all the time.The Pickleheads website is a resource for interested parties to find pickleball courts. He said the site was intended to be a way to expand the sport. The site’s all about helping people use it to play more pickleball,” he said.
He added that the site is free so far, though eventually, as it develops, they want to add more paid features so people can more extensively use it to offer paid memberships for pickleball-related endeavors and clubs, among other things.
And Mackie thinks things will keep on growing. In fact, the problem that has recently arisen is that there are so many players that there haven’t been enough courts for them all to play.
“There’s a supply and demand problem,” he said. “There are people working on fixing that now; there are courts being built where you can have dinner and drinks and then play pickleball.”
Asked about that, Mackie described the new facilities as “Top Golf for Pickleball.”
“I’m already seeing them,” he said. “Chicken and Pickle in Texas is one. There are places where you can have birthdays, events, drinks, and play pickleball. “You’ll see a lot of that coming.”