Pickleball Schools: A Call to Play
Pickleball may be the fastest-growing sport in North America, but its greatest promise lies not in crowded country clubs or retirement communities, but in classrooms and playgrounds. Through initiatives such as Pickleball Schools (www.pickleballschools.org), the game could become a powerful tool for health, inclusion and social cohesion. Done well, it could be one of the few sports to expand globally from the bottom up, rather than the top down.
Sports rarely spread organically. They require infrastructure, training and curriculum. Tennis grew on the backs of elite clubs; football on sprawling networks of schools and street games. Pickleball is still young enough to avoid tennis’s fate—fragmented tours and competing fiefdoms—and build instead on grassroots unity.
Two years ago, the Pickleball Federation of the Americas (www.pickleballamericas.org), in partnership with the Pickleball Cup, launched Pickleball Schools. The initiative was built on a simple idea: put paddles in the hands of teachers and children, and the sport will take root. Already, it has begun supplying curricula and teaching tools that schools in Africa, Latin America and Asia can adopt with minimal cost. The attraction is its simplicity. No stadiums or star coaches are required—just a net, a few paddles and a lesson plan flexible enough to adapt to any classroom or playground.
British Columbia has lead the charge. Pickleball BC (www.pickleballbc.ca) has run a one year pilot to develop an open, shareable curriculum for teachers. The emphasis is not on proprietary training or gated content but on a resource that can be replicated and adapted. If sport is to scale globally, such openness is not a luxury but a necessity.
Inclusion at home, as well as abroad
In the United States and Canada, the sport has already achieved mass appeal—though mostly among older adults. Schools have been slower to adopt it. That is a missed opportunity. Pickleball’s simplicity and flexibility make it ideally suited to children who might otherwise be sidelined from sport, whether through physical disabilities, cognitive challenges or simple lack of confidence.
Embedding pickleball into school curricula would do more than fill gym schedules. As a “unified sport,” where children with and without disabilities play together, it can encourage social inclusion. The low net, gentle ball and manageable pace mean that almost anyone can take part. It is a rare sport that rewards patience and placement as much as brute athleticism.
The case for pickleball in schools is not merely recreational. It speaks to wider social needs. Childhood obesity is rising. Screen time is ballooning. Traditional school sports often reward only the athletically gifted. A game that is accessible, inexpensive and fun could help address all three.
Globally, pickleball can bridge divides in much the same way. In lower-income countries, where facilities are scarce and competitive sports often limited to elites, pickleball could offer a low-cost, scalable entry point into organised physical activity. With an open curriculum, children in Bogotá or Nairobi could learn the same game as their peers in Vancouver or Miami.
Obstacles to overcome
Scaling will not be easy. Teachers need training; equipment costs, though modest, are real; and schools already face crowded timetables. There is also a danger of fragmentation—of every federation producing its own siloed resources. The answer is shared standards, open curricula and clear pathways from schoolyard to club to competition.
Pickleball’s popularity in North America has been a happy accident of timing, demographics and social media buzz. Its future, however, will depend less on fashion than on structure. If federations, schools and clubs embrace initiatives such as Pickleball Schools, the game could become not just the fastest-growing sport, but the most inclusive.
Get this right, and pickleball will not simply entertain—it will embed itself as a lasting force for health, inclusion and community. This is a call-to-play.