Jacob Thompson first heard of the sport when he was a junior in high school. Now, two years later, he plays at the SRSC Tennis Courts regularly both to stay in shape and for a taste of competition.
He’s not playing tennis. He’s playing pickleball.
Thompson is just one of many picking up the sport at IU, which has led to an expansion of pickleball spaces in the city. Switchyard Park put courts in when it opened in 2019, and now the Student Recreational Sports Center has placed lines on its tennis courts for student use.
Bloomington — along with the rest of the country — is seeing a large rise in participation in the sport. According to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, pickleball has seen a 187% increase in participation since 2017. The sport, described as a combination of tennis, badminton and ping-pong on USA Pickleball’s website, was invented in 1965.
Chris Arvin, the executive director of Recreational Sports, said they decided this year was the year to act as demand skyrocketed after five years of conversations about creating pickleball opportunities.
Chris Arvin, the executive director of Recreational Sports, answers questions about pickleball.
“We saw people playing pickleball on our tennis courts without pickleball lines,” Arvin said. “We’re always looking for any way we can get folks engaged in something that’s fun, easy, healthy, active.”
Rec Sports added pickleball equipment that students can check out at the SRSC and take to the new courts, and the response has been strong.
The demand for pickleball has even led to Rec Sports adding a new intramural pickleball tournament, which Arvin said was held for the first time a few weeks ago and was a resounding success. It was so popular, Arvin said they might add pickleball leagues. He hopes they can even use the indoor IU Tennis Center to play in evenings and in winter.
“I like to play pickleball too,” Arvin said. “For me, and for a lot of students, it’s fun, it’s social, it’s easy to laugh and enjoy and connect with other people when you’re playing. It doesn’t have to be a super serious sport. You don’t have to be good at it to have fun.”
Thompson started playing with his friends and family last year.
“It was something different to do,” Thompson said. “A lot of my friends were getting into it, so I decided to join with them and play with them.”
Students play pickleball at the SRSC tennis courts in between classwork and studying.
He’s glad there’s courts on campus now because it provides a place to play during the day.
“It’s really nice because you can go after class and play a couple quick games and go back to studying,” Thompson said. “It’s nice just having it here.”
The next step: adding dedicated pickleball courts. While adding lines to tennis courts is a start, Arvin said there are facilities on campus which need repairing like tennis and basketball courts. Moving forward, some of those may be changed into outdoor soccer spaces or pickleball spaces. Arvin said pickleball courts are slightly different, including nets which are two inches shorter.
“We know it’s a huge demand, and we’d like to meet that demand,” Arvin said.
Among that demand are two pickleball groups in Bloomington — one in town and one on campus, which, while not an official IU club, Arvin estimates has 300 members in the club’s GroupMe messaging group.
“This is our mission,” Arvin said. “We are trying to find healthy and active things for our students and faculty and staff to do on this campus. Pickleball is one of those things. … It is a low barrier thing — you don’t have to be an elite athlete to play pickleball.”
