Pickleball Comes of Age

As Sport Matures, Competition Grows at MAC and Beyond

By Jake Ten Pas

Photos by Brandon Davis

A cucumber might be seen as a pre-teen pickle, but if so, what’s the next step in its coming-of-age story? The pickle has a ball, discovers its potential, and gets served in a sandwich of aged awareness, fresh respect, and a spicy spread of sanctioned play. Suddenly, pickleball isn’t your grandpa’s kosher dill anymore. It’s a game for all ages and ability levels, and the crunch just keeps getting louder.

“It’s changed dramatically just in the three years I’ve been playing,” says Julian Illingworth, MAC Squash and Pickleball Pro, who picked up the latter just before COVID set in and enjoyed finding a sport where his already renowned racquet skills transferred immediately. “Pickleball has become much younger on average, and the level of play has increased across the board, from expert to intermediate and club players.”

At first, for Illingworth, it was a new game to “figure out,” more social and less physical than squash. But he’s also realized that it has its own nuances and challenges that keep it compelling. “Pickleball is intense and full of tension in a different way than squash is. The margins are very fine between a good shot and a poor one, and you never know when a slow, dinking rally is going to speed up and become a fire fight. You always have to be mentally locked in.”

Members might be tired of hearing that pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in America, but the proliferation of interest at MAC has led to the creation of a new set of courts on the fifth-floor outdoor tennis space. Plus, opportunities to compete in tournaments abound, and the club community is making its presence felt around the country. Pickleball is here to stay, and the jar keeps opening wider.

Illingworth won the US Open Pickleball Championships in the 35+ category last year in Naples, Florida, and emerged victorious at the pro level of the Willamette Valley Open. Doubles partners Ben Eder and Amy Sweet just took home gold in the 3.5 group of the 2023 High Rocks Classic tournament, put on by Pickleball Is Great (PIG), after losing almost every game when they participated in the same event last year. Then there’s up-and-comer Aidan Schenk who, at age 17, has already paddled his way to silver in mixed doubles at the San Clemente stop on the Professional Pickleball Association tour in the highest category, 5.0. He’s also co-claimed doubles gold at the Pickleball Zone Challenge in Bend, Oregon, as well as singles and doubles gold in 4.5 and 5.0 at the USA Pickleball Mountain Diamond Regional in Las Vegas.

Pickleball Pro Julian Illingworth and Aidan Schenk

“It was something I’d been doing for a while, and I’m super competitive, so I was like, ‘I’m putting time into this sport at this point. I might as well start taking it seriously!’” Schenk recalls. “Once I played a couple of tournaments, I realized that playing competitively is actually pretty fun. Since then, I’ve gotten better a lot faster than I was before, which is satisfying to see. I think one of the tournaments, we won $150 each. Nothing too crazy, but for a local tournament, that’s solid. Can’t complain there.”

Higher Ground

Schenk also isn’t complaining about MAC’s new pickleball courts, which strike him as a game-changer. “Playing on a gym floor isn’t ideal, but now I probably will be here a lot more. The outdoor court over by the parking garage is really nice, but it’s booked out for one or two weeks. It can be tough to find a court anywhere these days because of how fast the sport’s growing.”

A recurring pickle in which MAC finds itself is that, despite having more than 600,000 square feet of space, there’s somehow never enough for all the activities members adore. This can leave sports and programs competing with each other for real estate, but not when they work together like the Tennis and Pickleball Committees.

Last fall, the two groups began discussing the concept of sharing the outdoor tennis space. Chairs Martin Bleek and Mark Jansa agreed it was worth a shot and submitted the required forms to the Athletic Committee and Board; upon attaining necessary approvals, they began their exploration of opportunities and challenges in earnest.

“The Pickleball Committee was acutely aware of the magnitude of requesting that any sport share some of the space that they had been using for a long time. In addition, pickleball lines would need to be added to the courts, making them less user-friendly to everyone,” Jansa explains. After weighing such potential roadblocks, Bleek and the Tennis Committee created a specific plan to which they were amenable, and the resulting framework was unanimously approved by the Pickleball Committee.

“We are thrilled with the opportunity to play pickleball on more courts at MAC,” says current Pickleball Committee Chair Dana Bach Johnson, who took over from Jansa in April. “The four new shared courts allow for dedicated pickleball play every day of the week. Our community is growing daily, and the new courts accommodate the increased demand. It’s been awesome to see so many players enjoying the sport.”

Sunny Day Real Estate

On a recent Thursday afternoon, the courts are hopping. Blue sky overhead, sunlight gently warming the rooftop, a quick glance through the clear air reveals current and former committee chairs for Exercise & Decathlon, Racquetball, and more all thoroughly enjoying games of pickleball.

Eder and Sweet saunter onto the court, ready to play both for pleasure and practice ahead of their PIG tournament. Sweet and Eder’s wife, Kaori, are best friends from their college tennis days, which is how they connected, and now their complementary strengths have sealed the deal. “I have a great partner, which is the only reason I’m on a successful team,” Eder says playfully. “Amy has amazing control with her paddle, built through years of top-level tennis. I bring quick hands and feet, and Amy needs a guy to play co-ed doubles, right? We both want to win but are always positive when we play together.”

Amy Sweet and Ben Eder

Eder came to the game casually while vacationing in Sun River, but quickly became invested. When his family bought a new house, they made sure it had a yard big enough to accommodate a sport court, on which the Eders now host friends and neighbors for tournaments of their own. The winners take home a giant pickle jar with a ball glued to the top as a trophy.

Still, Eder appreciates MAC prioritizing the sport, which makes it easier to connect with people outside of his immediate social network. “It’s been a great opportunity to meet other business professionals and pickleball players,” he says, adding that it all translates to more people to play with or against, even if they’re at different stages in their pickleball progressions.

“It’s such a fun sport because people can have a fantastic time smashing the ball even when they barely know the rules, but it can take a lot of time to become consistent in implementing strategy and complex shots. At first, I was trying to use my lacrosse and soccer background to move around the court. Now, I’m working on developing a wicked serve and well-placed third shot drop, which are things I can improve on.”

Parallel Lines

Despite the decades of life experience separating Eder and Schenk, their pickleball journeys somewhat mirror each other. Both learned to play on vacation, quickly secured their own home courts, and after brining themselves in the basic fun of it all, decided to get serious about competing.

In Schenk’s case, it was a trip to his dad Jim’s favorite leisure destination, Maui, that introduced him to the game when they discovered that the condo they were staying in had a pickleball court. A couple of years later, early in 2020, the father-son duo realized that a neighbor’s unused sport court — not Eder’s, obviously! — would be the perfect place for them to play without bursting their COVID quarantine bubble. From March through May, Schenk estimates they played roughly 60 out of 90 days.

Aidan Schenk

Climbing, the first sport Schenk fell in love with at MAC, wasn’t really an option with all of the gyms closed around that time, and he recalls getting so desperate for action that he even tried pole vaulting, injuring his back in the process. “Pickleball is very low-contact, and it was something I could do when I couldn’t participate in other sports for a variety of reasons. I could go out with my dad and have some fun, which only made me like it more,” he says.

“They are pretty much opposite,” Schenk says when asked if there are any similarities between climbing and pickleball, which he says is a lot more laid back. “Mentally, though, they’re individual sports unless you’re playing doubles with somebody. Even then, racquet sports aren’t team sports, and you have to be able to feel comfortable being isolated from your parents and coach when you’re on the court.”

The mental fortitude he first developed in climbing has helped him succeed in pickleball, but like Eder, he still has goals. “I don’t have very much power with my backhand. Since I don’t come from a tennis background, that’s not something that comes naturally to me, so I’ve been working on using a two-hand backhand approach like they do in tennis.” He adds that watching others competing is a great way to get new ideas for strategy and technique, as well as watch for potential pitfalls in playing style.

Schenk points out that universal traits of athleticism — like speed, agility, and stamina — also figure heavily into higher-level pickleball competition, which might be why it’s taking off with young people and finding new legitimacy among older sport purists. “You have to be quick, but people of all ages can play it. Some guys just hit everything hard and fast, and others will play super slow and force you to move around while they hit their spots. There’s different styles of how you can play the game, and you can adjust your own game to suit them, which keeps it really interesting.”

Julian Illingworth

Illingworth, who spent his first year or so as Pickleball Pro mainly giving private lessons due to court space constraints, expects the game to continue capturing new imaginations.

“My hope is that the club creates permanent indoor courts on a reasonable time frame, and also that the program keeps growing organically, and begins to integrate and create some interclub play with other local pickleball clubs and organizations,” he says.

“The participation numbers are already significant, and the difference maker versus tennis or squash or racquetball is that it attracts and converts people who aren’t already into racquet sports.”