Ajay Thomas’ first encounter with pickleball, a paddle sport played with a perforated plastic ball, happened a little over a year ago in Chennai, during a corporate team outing. Within a few minutes of playing the game, Ajay, an athlete during his early days, could rally with ease. Later, when he moved to Bengaluru, he became further acquainted with the sport while witnessing the growth of communities surrounding the sport. Soon, Ajay started Spinz Pickleball (Instagram handle: @spinz_pickleball), a space exclusively for the sport, with his schoolmates Sharath Varghese, Yadu Manoj and Lawrence Moraira, at Pongumoodu in Thiruvananthapuram, where the sport has been gaining momentum during recent months.
Much like Ajay, entrepreneurs are setting up courts exclusively for pickleball across the Kerala capital after being exposed to the sport in Tier 1 cities such as Bengaluru and Chennai, among others. Ventures such as The Happy Court, Sportonix Pickleball, and Zero Fitness Performance Studio have helped forge a following for the sport in the city, initially played on badminton courts due to the similarity in dimensions of the court.
A pickleball player smashing
| Photo Credit:
Gautham AG
Slow start
The game has its origins in the US, in the ‘60s, and is played on a court which is 44 ft long and 20 ft wide. The serves are either underarm serves or drop serves, in which the player drops the ball to the ground and hits it on the bounce to the player diagonally opposite them. “There are different balls, varying in number of holes, thickness and aerodynamic qualities. The choice of balls is influenced by whether the game is played indoors or outdoors. We use a ball with 40 holes,” says Kishore K, co-founder of The Happy Court (Instagram handle: @thehappycourt), located at Kulathoor.
Players at The Happy Court
| Photo Credit:
Nainu Oommen
“When we began the space in January, very few people knew about the sport. Initially, it was just a few players from Trivandrum Tennis Club and a few of my friends. We had to teach them the game without taking any payment for it,” he says. Kishore currently works remotely for a US-based company and is an All India Pickleball Association level 1 certified coach.
“By March-April, we began getting regular customers,” adds Kishore, who founded The Happy Court with his friend Bharath K, a pottery artist currently based out of Goa.
Bharath K and Kishore K, owners of The Happy Court
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Spinz Pickleball, founded in May, hosts daily open plays for people who want to try the sport for the first time, says Ajay. “If players do not have enough people to book a whole court, they can join these sessions and play together. Players are grouped based on their skill levels,” adds Ajay, who is a corporate employee in Bengaluru.
The courts are available on reservation basis or via apps such as PlaySpots, with rates starting from ₹360 and ₹480 per hour for singles and doubles, respectively. “The paddles are made of wood, carbon fibre, honeycomb material and so on, and cost between ₹1,000 and ₹25,000,” says Ajay. However, most courts provide the paddle for players.
The paddles start from ₹1000 depending on the materials used
| Photo Credit:
PERIASAMY M
Easy transition?
“The transition is much easier for tennis or badminton players, because it is a racquet sport,” says Joseph Charles, owner of Zero Fitness Performance Studio (Instagram handle: @zerofitofficial), located at Kesavadasapuram. A pickleball court was built at the venue seven months ago. Zero Fitness Performance Studio also provides training programmes in yoga, animal flow, MMA boxing, powerlifting, kalaripayattu and so on.
Joseph Charles, owner of Zero Fitness Performance Studio
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
“Pickleball paddles are similar to table tennis paddles, and lawn tennis shots such as top spin, drive and so on are used in the game. However, if you have a tennis background, you tend to hit with a lot of power, which can force the ball out of play considering the smaller court,” says Kishore.
“It has a slightly better court structure than tennis, too. It is not an injury-prone sport like tennis and badminton, and for that, a court is important,” says Ajay, who points out that pickleball courts have seven layers of floor coating while a tennis court has five.
Fitness and leisure
Joseph, also secretary of Thiruvananthapuram Pickleball Association, points out that pickleball is something you can play as a leisure sport, unlike tennis, paddle tennis and badminton. “We have people who are into other training programmes at Zero Fitness Performance Studio, play pickleball at our court on the terrace to cool down after a session,” he says.
Pickleball court at Zero Fitness Performance Studio
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Sunish S Pillai, an employee at Technopark, who has been playing pickleball for the past three months, says, “It is a good option for a team-building exercise. Currently, everyone playing with me sees it as an opportunity to explore something new and as a stressbuster.”
Ajay says, “Many people see it as an alternate fitness plan. At the same time, it is also a place to bring family members or colleagues together.”
Community building
The owners emphasise building a city-based community through pickleball. “We want to create a group of people who are very excited to play the sport,” says Ajay, who prides himself on creating a WhatsApp community of over 200 members for the sport. “We want to make sure there is a coaching facility possible too,” he adds.
Kishore expresses his desire to introduce the Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating for players at the facility. “There are official levels to this game, which we want to introduce to the players. It would be necessary if someone is travelling to a city like Bengaluru and plans to compete in a tournament.”
Players after a session at The Happy Court
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The sport boasts a large demographic in the city, from six-year-olds to 60-year-olds. It is targeted at those who lead a sedentary lifestyle, says Ajay. Sunish, his wife and their six-year-old son book the court on an hourly basis at The Happy Court and are members of their WhatsApp community. “My son has limitations holding the paddle, yet he shows great interest. Even my seniors at work, who came to play with us once, started playing pickleball regularly,” adds Sunish, who plays the sport twice a week.
Owners of Spinz Pickleball, Lawrence Moraira, Sharath Mathew, Yadu Manoj, Ajay Thomas, with Jancy Sebastian, and Linu Merin, partners of Lawrence and Sharath, respectively.
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Ajay says, “We are planning women’s exclusive matchups too. Since the court is in a residential area, we have a lot of women coming to the facility. Initially, it was just men, then families and now women alone have started coming in.”
“Everyone might not like cycling or running. But pickleball is not something you do alone; it needs group effort. For a sport like this, you must continue playing and fall in love with it,” says Ajay.
