Pickleball picks up in popularity in C.O.

Less than four years ago. only about 20 people were playing pickleball in Bend.

That number has increased to nearly 600 in Central Oregon, with the sport’s popularity still on the rise.

“We’ll have you playing inside of ten minutes. It’s not a problem,” Bend Pickleball Club President A.J. Fraties said. “It’s a sport that sort of resembles an onion. You can get the sense of it right away, but peeling it back and getting into the core of it takes a little while.”

Those who have played other racquet sports like tennis, badminton and racquetball before will see a similarity to pickleball, but it places a greater emphasis on strategy over power.

“You move them what direction you want to move them to get them off-balance,” Lee More said. “The game is, if you can get somebody off-balance, you can normally take them out. Besides the physical exercise, I actually can think out here, and that really helps me.”

“You have to be working with your partner the whole time,” Irene Fraties said. “You can’t have your own strategy and not have your partner aware of what’s going on.”

If you head to any court, it’s unlikely you’ll see husbands and wives playing together: — and for good reason.

“You can get into some things that lead to what we call ‘pickleball divorce,’ where husbands and wives don’t play together any more,” Irene Fraties said.

In a sport that has grown so quickly, don’t expect it’s popularity to die down any time soon.

“You get so addicted to it. If my wife were to allow me to play eight hours a day, I’d play eight hours a day,” Moore said.

The Bend Pickleball Club is close to its goal of $100,000 to add eight new courts at Pine Nursery in Bend.

For more information: http://www.bendpickleballclub.com/