<b>At Haerlems Bodem we like to introduce new or fairly unknown sports (remember the article about underwater hockey ?). We have now found something new and it seems to be an addiction. Once you've played it, you want to keep playing it. Haerlems Grond spoke with Bernadette Snijders-Blok, one of the founders of 'Pickleball Holland', who is very active in getting people acquainted with the sport and we also played a game of course.</b> Pickleball: in the literal translation you do not have to search because you will not get far. Pickleball is, how surprising, a ball sport. It is about coming from America, where Bernadette played a game for the first time four years ago. After years of playing tennis she was immediately addicted to this combination of badminton, table tennis and tennis and she introduced the sport with two other companions in the Netherlands. Together they founded the Dutch Pickleball Association and they started a club in Amsterdam, which quickly expanded to Haarlem. <h2>How does it work?</h2> Pickleball is, as said before, a combination of badminton, table tennis and tennis. You play on a field the size of a badminton court. You use a paddle that looks like a table tennis bat. And the game is similar to that of tennis, although there are a number of rules that are different. Furthermore, for the game you use a hard, hollow ball with holes, which actually pulls out the speed of the game so that the sport can also be played more calmly. Pickleball is therefore also suitable for older people who are not so fast anymore, but believe us when we say that it can also be played very quickly! So for every level. http://oliverburtontennisclub.mee.nu/what_are_the_types_of_pickleball_paddle The material is all on loan if you come to pickleball, so you do not have to buy anything. All you need is your sports shoes! Pickleball is a social sport where you can get to know the whole club well. You can play the game single or double, but that does not always work with the same people. If someone is on the couch and you have won three games, the person on the bench just turns on. You can also change teams after a game. Bernadette: " Since this summer we have five outdoor fields in Haarlem, which makes it the largest pickleball track in the Netherlands. The sport is still so small. " <h2>Development of the sport</h2> Bernadette discovered the sport when she lived in America. " In Europe, the sport was hardly played at that time, but pickleball has been on the rise for four years. The number of people who register continues to rise. We also advise people who want to start a club themselves, which steps they can take to apply for a subsidy, for example, and lend them material to start the first year. You do not have to invest the first year and that makes the sport very accessible. In the beginning it was really a start-up phase: you buy material yourself, you invite your friends, you give some clinics and gradually you feel it grow. " http://pop74d6e43d.iwopop.com/