Has the Market Peaked for Older Pickleball Players?

Pickleball used to be referred to as the “geriatric Sun Belt sport.” Most of its players were over 50 years old, many in their 60s and early 70s.

Three years ago, when I started Around the Post Pickleball, giving lessons and clinics here on the East End, the final wave of older players was coming to us to get instruction in droves.

We would always start a session with new players with the question, “Why do you want to play pickleball?” Some answered that they wanted to stay active, had played tennis for years, couldn’t run around the big court and this seemed like an opportunity to play a similar game without the bodily stress.

But the overwhelming response to our question was startling and it helped drive the market through the roof — along with some other factors — “our friends are playing, and we are being left out.”

The trends, technological advancement, indoor clubs sprouting up nationwide, paddle technology — still have yet to get a silent paddle — and the other major factor in pickleball’s skyrocketing growth, is the inclusion of players from the age of 18 to 40, which may leave the older players in the dust.

I also think, to a degree, that senior players may have sustained injuries on the court that have kept them on the sidelines, not only nursing their injuries but also making a return to the game for the average once- or twice-a-week player not that important.

Over a year ago I wrote an article for The Express News Group rebutting The New York Times article about a new game and a rash of new injuries. I still stand by my belief that any sport for any player, regardless of age, will have its share of injuries, but the older you are the tougher it is to come back. I know, being 70 and constantly having to ice the knees and shoulder makes playing anything a challenge.

But I’m super competitive like many players and enjoy the moments on the courts and fields as long as I can compete and have fun. I’ve made lifelong friends playing pickleball, which at one time nearly 10 years ago was what the sport was all about — social inclusion.

Those days are long gone.

You don’t hear “don’t worry, it’s only pickleball” when you make a mistake. The younger players don’t give a hoot about making new friends. They care about winning, regardless of who they play. The attitude of the game has changed in the past two years.

I can’t say I blame them. If I was 30 and just started playing pickleball I’d be a horrible person to play with or against, looking back at my ultra-competitive softball and tennis years. I was a jerk who took it too far at times. Now, as an older player, it’s a turnoff to see. I’m always hearing complaints from older players of playing here and playing there, everybody is mean, people don’t rotate in or out like they are supposed to, etc. I guess it comes with the growth.

One of the trends at local clubs all over the nation that has added fuel to the fire is to offer cash prizes to winners of club tournaments. In my brief tenure as director at Box Pickleball I was dead set against that practice. That makes you a professional. This is a recreational sport, and now one of the few ways to get some players to play in another meaningless club event is to offer prize money? Not from me, not ever!

But here’s where I think the challenge for older players lies now. Regardless of the skill level players are at — or think they are at — a younger player in the same category has faster hands, better legs, state-of-the-art equipment and just moves better on the court.

The younger player has taken over the game. Without their participation the market would never have reached where it is today. Box Pickleball would not have happened. Two new huge clubs are opening in Suffolk County. The Town of Southampton has added eight beautiful courts at Red Creek Park in Hampton Bays. (Thank you, but by the way, they need an awning for the seating area.).

Every sport has to get younger to stay relevant. I understand that. I just wish the younger player would understand it was players of age who put this game on the map. There was no Little League of pickleball when we were growing up. It just sort of happened from a core niche group of players and it grew to where we are now.

It’s still only pickleball.