COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – Due to the high demand, local fitness centers are now adding more pickleball courts during April’s National Pickleball Month.

11 News spoke with Life Time in Briargate, who in just a few days, will be doubling their pickleball courts from 4 to 8. According to Sports & Fitness Industry Association, for the third year in a row, pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in America, growing over 223% in three years.

“A couple years back when we had COVID, people were looking for something to do, kill some time, you’re at least 7 feet away from one kitchen to the other, and you can play indoors. This rapid expansion, we’ve needed more courts,” said Life Time Pickleball Pro Mike McGregor. “If laughing and having fun counts for being healthy, then this is a great sport to play.”

Pickleball is a combination of a variety of different racket sports, including racket ball, ping pong, tennis and badminton, but is played on a smaller scale with quicker rallies. Last year, the Association of Pickleball Professionals found that nearly 50 million adult Americans – nearly 19% of the total adult population – had played pickleball in the past year.

“We always recommend a dynamic warmup. It’s an athletic sport, it’s legs dominant, so to avoid any injuries, we want to warm up the legs, get going, good footwear, eye protection, hydration,” said McGregor. “Because it is a lot of moving and kind of stepping and changing directions and things, you need to be a bit of an athlete so at each level of development, your coordination, your balance, eye-hand reflexes, all those things come into play.”

While pickleball reportedly started as 55+ sport, Life Time in Colorado Springs is seeing kids as young as 5, and adults up to 95-years-old playing, calling it an intergenerational sport, where grandparents can play their grandkids.

“Whether or not you know the rules, somebody is there kind of helping you, guiding you through your initial experiences and then fun thing is it’s easy to learn, but hard to master. So, you can get going right away, have a lot of fun and just keep challenging yourself and growing the sport,” said McGregor.

Copyright 2024 KKTV. All rights reserved.