But the rules of pickleball and the size of the court equalize the game, he says. Even Xaykaothao, who is 5 feet 7, felt he couldn't dominate tennis as the play got more competitive. To be sure, the sport's smooth learning curve has helped fuel its growth among the estimated 4 million players in the United States today, according to USA Pickleball Association. This court is just our size!' his kids observed.

His heart broke a little when his young children showed no interest in tennis.īut pickleball was a different story, they discovered. He's a former college tennis player, coach and evangelist who as a kid dreamed of going pro. The younger was our ball boy, cruising on his scooter with a sand pail rigged up to his handlebars, happy to rescue our errant balls before they rolled into the storm drain.Īs we scrambled and volleyed, I remember reclaiming something that felt lost to me in those early, uncertain months of the coronavirus: joy.ĭo you remember playing baseball on the street growing up, pausing the game every time a kid yelled, 'Car!' That's exactly what I was doing, only this time as a fortysomething with a mortgage and a fanny pack.įuyei Xaykaothao and his family fashioned their own COVID-era pickleball court on their suburban cul de sac, much like we did.īut unlike me, Xaykaothao is actually good at pickleball. We set up a couple of folding chairs and strung straps between them to serve as our net. In the spring of 2020, with nothing to do and nowhere to go, my husband and I grabbed some sidewalk chalk and drew up court lines on the street in front of our house. Yep, I'm one of those people who joined the great pandemic pickleball boom and can't stop talking about it.

Tennis games free