Wondering what’s with the pickleball craze?

Published September 20, 2023

Ready to join the pickleball revolution in Mexico, the fastest growing sports phenomenon in the world? Whether you’re a resident or vacationer, Paul Carlino, a Washington DC transplant living in San Miguel de Allende and founder of Pickleball Mexico, helps inform us what’s in a game, why it’s a game for all ages, why you’ll be addicted and where to play in Mexico.

Pickleball is fun, healthy, easier than tennis and super sociable.

If you’ve walked past your local tennis court lately, you might have noticed someone’s made the court smaller and heard the soft thwack of a wiffle ball as the doubles partners with paddles hit it back and forth over a short net and the whoops of laughter from people having a really good time. Paul Carlino, a 53-year-old expat living in San Miguel de Allende, tells MND that he’s “crazy for pickleball” and that “anyone can play.”

A combination of tennis, badminton, and ping-pong, it was invented by three Dads from Seattle in 1965 for their kids, and as one of many myths has it, was named after the dog Pickles, who kept running away with the ball. This year, it was the fastest-growing sport in America for the third year in a row, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, and as reported by Vanity Fair, celebrities like George Clooney, certain Kardashians, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bill and Melinda Gates, and the rest of us with little to do in the pandemic, have taken it up, playing 3 or 4 times a week at least.  The rules are simple, and matches — played to 11 points — can be as quick as 15 minutes, as well as being low impact with movements that favor speedy reflexes but that don’t require super strength or endurance.

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