Renderings of future Smash Point Pickleball.
Forty-four year old Vinay Joshi has only been playing pickleball since March 2020.
A little over three years later, Joshi and a business partner are about to open the greater Harrisburg area’s first indoor facility devoted entirely to the pickleball mania sweeping the nation.
Smash Point Pickleball, with eight courts, is expected to open the first week of July on Gateway Drive in Hampden Township, between Sky Zone and T.J. Maxx.
Joshi and partner Vijay Varadarajan are leasing a former retail space with 24-foot-high ceilings being redeveloped for the new use. Smash Point will have 25,000 square feet of space, including a 4,000-square-foot lounge.
Joshi isn’t the only one seeing opportunity from the growth of pickleball in the Harrisburg area. Ace Pickleball Club recently awarded 10 franchises for new indoor pickleball facilities nationwide, including one in the Harrisburg area.
Just Start
In 1965, three men on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, Wash., invented pickleball. A fast-paced combination of tennis, ping pong and badminton, pickleball is played on a badminton-sized court with a net about two inches shorter than a tennis net.
Players use a paddle slightly larger than in ping pong and a ball similar to a whiffle ball, but more durable. Pickleball can be played by two people in a singles match or two on each side in doubles play.
Pickleball used to be considered chiefly a game enjoyed by senior citizens at retirement communities in states like Arizona and Florida. But, recently, the sport has exploded in popularity, driven in part by the need for people of all ages to come up with new social and exercise outlets during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2023, pickleball was named the fastest growing sport in America for the third straight year by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, according to USA Pickleball. There are now 8.9 million pickleball players in the United States over age 6—nearly double the 4.8 million in 2022, according to the association.
Joshi played racquetball until the pandemic shut down all venues for that sport in early 2022.
“We didn’t have anything else to do,” he said. “We didn’t have an option so I thought, why not try this?”
Joshi quickly got hooked on the sport. The game is simple to learn and a lot of fun.
“From 8 to 80, everyone can play,” he said. “You don’t have to be extremely athletic. You can just start.”
Anyone can learn to play in an hour’s time, and you don’t need a large space, Joshi said. He knows many people who started playing pickleball in their garage or driveway.
Also, the sport isn’t expensive. You can get a decent paddle for $50 or less. Otherwise, you need a ball and the same kind of shoes you’d wear for tennis.
Joshi plays every day, usually early mornings between 6:30 and 8:30 a.m. He used to play at Creekview Park in Hampden Township but said the park gets too crowded with other players.
So, he often plays with a friend who built his own pickleball court at this house in Camp Hill. In winter or when it’s too cold or windy or rainy, he plays indoors at the YMCA in Carlisle, which has a basketball court lined for pickleball.
Brings Me Joy
Mitch Dameshek, a special education teacher who lives in Enola, also started playing pickleball during the pandemic. Besides giving him something to do, Dameshek said that pickleball helped him during an especially difficult time.
“I lost my daughter to cancer about six years ago,” he said. “She was 12. (Pickleball) was a great way for me in the last few years to interact socially. I have a new group of friends. It gives me something to do everyday that brings me joy. It definitely offers a relief from the stressors of life.”
Dameshek plays four to five times a week, weather permitting, usually at Creekview.
On a recent Wednesday night at Creekview, three tennis courts were empty but the four pickleball courts were all full, with people waiting their turn to play.
Like Joshi, Dameshek said that a major factor behind the growth of pickleball is how easy it is to learn and play. Pickleball also is more accessible to the average person in a way tennis is not.
“Tennis has never been the kind of sport where you just show up to a park and ask to play,” Dameshek said, whereas pickleball has more of a community feel.
Barry Reynolds lives on the east shore. When the weather is bad, he plays at Friendship YMCA in Lower Paxton Township, which has five indoor courts.
Otherwise, there’s a growing number of outdoor courts he can choose from on the east shore, including in Hershey near the Derry Township Community Center on Cocoa Avenue, off Patton Road near Linglestown, in Brightbill Park and in Koons Park in Lower Paxton Township.
Besides keeping him in shape, Reynolds, 72, enjoys the social aspects of pickleball.
“You have this huge social interaction when you are standing or waiting,” he said. “You make all these friends and have such a good time.”
Reynolds teaches pickleball classes at Friendship. He said his pickleball friends keep telling him to stop because he’s creating more pickleball players, and there aren’t enough courts now.
But Reynolds sees a number of east shore municipalities stepping up with plans to build more pickleball courts.
“It appeals to a lot of older people who are retired and are now looking for something to do,” he said. “Not everybody plays golf.”
Smash Point Pickleball will be located at 97 Gateway Dr., Mechanicsburg. For more information, visit their Facebook page.
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