Is Pickleball a Game or a Sport?
As the school year comes to a close and summer approaches, one sport continues its dominance for old and young people alike. All across the nation, basketball and tennis courts are being converted as the fairly recent sport of pickleball continues its skyward trend, being the fastest-growing sport for the third year in a row, predicted to climb 7.7% annually. As pickleball enthusiasts donn their hats and grab their paddles, fans of other sports look on reproachfully. My friends on the Varsity tennis team never fail to criticize Pickleball when they see it. “Look at them” they sneer, “imagine moving less than a foot in either direction and thinking you're actually playing a sport”. And while their hatred for all things pickleball may be rooted in their passion for tennis, it does bring up an interesting point - is pickleball truly a sport for athletes, or is it a game meant for old people? I’ve heard many people deny pickleball’s place among sports. What these people fail to see is that pickleball is a sport, a very popular one, that people of all ages can play.
To differentiate between a “sport”, and a “game”, it’s important to consider what constitutes each. According to the Oxford Dictionary, a sport is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment”, and pickleball definitely fits that category (the average person burns around 540 - 620 calories an hour playing pickleball). Unfortunately, for those looking for a legal reason to deny pickleball’s place among sports, you all gotta look elsewhere. But I know a simple dictionary definition isn’t going to stop anyone, so let’s take a closer look at what people constitute as a sport.
Drawing the line between game and sport can be tricky, but according to the Oxford Dictionary, a game is a form of play or sport, especially a competitive one played according to rules and decided by skill, strength, or luck. So in other words, not all games can be sports. Many people cited the nature of competition as the deciding factor separating sports from games, but this would be false, because competition is included in the definition of a game, like while hide and seek may involve competition between people, I would hardly classify it as a sport.
Others cited intense physical activity as the difference between sports and games. Pickleball critics won’t hesitate to comment on pickleball’s lack of exertion compared to similar sports like tennis and badminton. However, in order for those critics to keep their rigid opinion, activities like archery, bowling, table tennis, equestrian, surfing, volleyball, and golf are less physically strenuous than pickleball, and so by their own standards, are less of a sport than pickleball is. Yes, according to a study done by Harvard Health, golf burns around 445 calories, and indoor volleyball around 350 calories an hour, both less than the 540 - 620 calories an hour burned by playing pickleball. For those who still think pickleball is a “simple game for the weak”, using physical activity as the deciding feature between sports and games has its flaws too. A simple push-up competition that leaves me and my friend completely drained by the end still wouldn't classify as a sport even though it has elements of competition and intense activity.
Organization and standardization is what I think sets sports apart from games. Sports should have fixed rules and procedures of play, and should be organized, with leagues at different performance levels. Unless my friend and I can find some way to organize a professional push-up competition league and set fixed rules, our method of settling debates is never gonna become a sport. That’s not to say I don’t think competition or physical activity have nothing to do with sports; I think sports are required to show elements of all four ingredients: Competition, physical activity, organization, and standardization, and while games may display combinations of those elements, I would be surprised if a widely-agreed-upon game fit all four. Pickleball had many professional leagues. The Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) and the Association of Pickleball Players (APP) both allow players to go pro, playing in a wide range of international tournaments, where players can earn up to 1 million dollars in prize money.
If I haven’t convinced you by now that Pickleball is an organized, competitive, and strenuous sport, then I encourage you to go out and play a little. You’ll find that Pickleball is more challenging than you originally thought and that it’s not just a game for dilapidated old seniors. 18 - 34-year-olds are actually the most common age group that plays pickleball, making up around 34% of casual players. “Anyone can learn and start playing pickleball within 10 minutes,” says Ajay Pant, senior director of racquet sports at LifeTime. Whether one thinks pickleball is a game or a sport, no one can deny it’s here to stay.
Works Cited:
https://www.pickleheads.com/blog/calories-burned-playing-pickleball
https://pickleballrookie.com/how-long-does-it-take-to-get-good-at-pickleball#google_vignette
https://www.coursera.org/learn/sports-society/lecture/c5vvD/the-origins-of-modern-sports-part-1
https://www.pickleheads.com/blog/calories-burned-playing-pickleball
https://www.pickleheads.com/blog/pickleball-statistics
https://www.espn.com/espn/page2/sportSkills
https://www.pickleheads.com/blog/calories-burned-playing-pickleball
https://www.livestrong.com/article/305467-how-many-calories-are-burned-paying-nine-holes-of-golf/
