Enric Casanovas is, with his son Daniel, the introducer to Girona of pickleball, a racket sport that is not padel, it is not badminton, it is not tennis, nor table tennis, but it has a bit of all. They are already on Instagram, and the “matchpoint pickleball girona” application will be active from next Friday
Padel, tennis, ping-pong…and now pickleball. We were few and did the grandmother give birth?
And don’t forget badminton. But see how badminton has not yet taken root, that ping-pong is almost no longer played in the parks, as it used to be. Instead, pickleball has taken root. It boomed two years ago, even though it was born in 1965.
Why did it boom?
Two American billionaires put money into creating leagues, with TV and YouTube channels.
Are you a billionaire?
I would like to Europe has a different rhythm, the Americans do everything wholesale. But they’ve brought back those 60-plus people who have time to go play in the morning, and right now there are 30 million people playing pickleball in the United States
I will soon be 60, I celebrate discovering that there is a sporting life beyond pétanque.
I’m 65, and I just got my pickleball instructor title. It is common to find instructors of this age, who come from tennis or some other paddle sport. For strange reasons, padel in the United States has not worked. Building a pickleball court is very simple, the net is portable and you just have to mark the lines, you can turn a tennis court into four pickleball courts in an instant. At the time, there were tennis clubs in the United States with more than twenty courts: they sacrificed two and built eight pickleball courts. Which are 32 people playing.
How did you come into contact with this sport?
It was my son. He and I played tennis, paddle, even beach paddles. Jokingly, he told me that at my age I was already going to die. One day, jokingly, looking for paddle sports, he poked around the Internet, and pickleball came up. He shouted to me: “I found your sport!”
Did he stop pique?
I had played a lot of tennis. Now I have recovered the illusion of competing. The sport is simple, the shovel and the ball, too. Suddenly, a sport where the grandfather can play with the grandson. Or the father with the son, because now that he doesn’t hear us, let me tell him that my son doesn’t beat me (laughs).
I’ve seen videos of seventy year olds playing like angels.
There are retired tennis players who are now playing pickleball professionally. Because now it starts to pay well. In Spain there are starting to be championships with money in the middle.
Do you know who thought of creating this new sport?
To an American congressman, to play with his children. They were too young to play tennis, so he put a badminton net on the ground, made some paddles, and used the ball they use to train the ice hockey teams when there is no ice.
I notice that at the moment they have set up the tracks in the facilities of a primary school, I don’t know if to catch future players.
Heh, heh, we didn’t have room, and we came to an agreement. Of course, the outdoor tracks can only be placed when the children have already left.
Maybe they like it.
It’s a family sport because the game is slow. It even manages to make little difference between men and women, when they play it.