Have you wanted to learn to play pickleball, the sport that gained an enthusiastic nationwide following?
There will be a free class offered at the Ward Recreation Center on the basics of the sport on Wednesday, September 14, 2022, from 2 – 4 p.m. The center is located in Lost Mountain Park, at 4845 Dallas Highway, Powder Springs, 30127,
Pickleball’s spread across Cobb County
Pickleball has become popular in the county.
Kennesaw installed a pickleball court in it’s new recreation center that opened in Adams Park in January. Ward Park in Powder Springs holds Open Pickleball on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday of each week from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. And Shaw Park has nine pickleball courts.
Those are just a few of the venues for pickleball in the county.
What is pickleball?
Pickleball draws inspiration from tennis, badminton and ping pong.
The game was invented in 1965, and the USA Pickleball Association describes the origin of the sport as follows:
After playing golf one Saturday during the summer, Joel Pritchard, congressman from Washington State and Bill Bell, successful businessman, returned to Pritchard’s home on Bainbridge Island, WA (near Seattle) to find their families sitting around with nothing to do. The property had an old badminton court so Pritchard and Bell looked for some badminton equipment and could not find a full set of rackets. They improvised and started playing with ping-pong paddles and a perforated plastic ball. At first they placed the net at badminton height of 60 inches and volleyed the ball over the net.As the weekend progressed, the players found that the ball bounced well on the asphalt surface and soon the net was lowered to 36 inches. The following weekend, Barney McCallum was introduced to the game at Pritchard’s home. Soon, the three men created rules, relying heavily on badminton. They kept in mind the original purpose, which was to provide a game that the whole family could play together.
