In some countries, pickleball is thriving precisely because tennis never took hold. With no legacy courts, no entrenched hierarchies, and no “this is how it’s always been done,” pickleball is finding space in badminton halls, school gyms, and community centers, growing from the ground up.
In others, though, pickleball is taking the opposite path. In Germany for instance, it’s being carefully absorbed into an existing sports system built on clubs, governance, and structure, trading explosive growth for legitimacy and staying power.
This week’s issue looks at both models side by side, and what they reveal about how pickleball spreads when it doesn’t follow the same rules everywhere.
→ This Week: Pickleball without tennis | Watch those arcs | Pickleball, the German way
Love–15: Tennis. Pickleball.
WHERE PICKLEBALL GROWS WITHOUT TENNIS
One of the assumptions baked into pickleball’s global narrative is that it grows by inheriting tennis courts, tennis players, and tennis culture (actually, some fear that tennis is quietly consuming pickleball, but that’s a story for another issue).
Outside the U.S. and Western Europe, this assumption doesn’t hold up, though.
In several emerging pickleball markets, tennis never built a broad recreational base, but pickleball arrived, anyway.
Take India. Tennis is visible at the elite level, but participation has long been narrow. Pickleball’s growth there isn’t coming from former tennis clubs; it’s emerging through badminton halls, schools, and multi-sport facilities, where court dimensions, doubles play, and fast learning curves feel familiar.
In Malaysia, the pattern is similar. Badminton has shaped recreational racquet culture for decades. Pickleball fits neatly into existing indoor infrastructure.
Then there are places like Sierra Leone and Nepal, where tennis never meaningfully scaled at all.
Image: Jeremiah Pratt, Sierra Leone Pickleball Association
In those countries, pickleball’s early momentum is grassroots and improvisational: community courts, NGO-led programs, school demonstrations. In some cases, national pickleball organizations are forming before any comparable investment in tennis infrastructure.
Pickleball is proving it doesn’t require a preexisting tennis ecosystem to take root. It needs space, basic equipment, and a sport culture open to shared courts and doubles play.
Globally, that may be pickleball’s most important advantage: it can grow not just where tennis is crowded, but where tennis never arrived.
She did everything right until…
The player on the right (in black) really tried to keep her opponents back in this point from Costa Rica.
Deep return. Deep, arching volleys. Keep them close to the baseline.
But in that attempt to add power and length to her shots, she also made the mistake of arching her volley too high after her opponent made it closer to the net, allowing them an easy put-away.
Imagine You Had Your Own Facility…
If you’re planning or even just thinking about building a serious pickleball facility, you need more than just paint and a net. Court Kings is a true one-stop shop for commercial builds, handling everything from site prep and concrete work to surfacing, nets, fencing, and consultation.
They obsess over proper concrete prep so your courts stay true over time, no dead spots, no surprises, and they work with major franchises nationwide.
Court Kings are the preferred court builder for the sports governing body USA Pickleball and partner with all the leading manufacturers for surfacing and cushioned courts.
Court Kings designs courts that feel right from day one and still play great after thousands of games. Don’t hesitate to reach out to the Court Kings team for a free consultation to find out more.
If you’re looking to open your state’s next great facility (or just a couple courts for your community), email them at [email protected].
Number You Should Know
4×
In some Asian countries, badminton participation outnumbers tennis participation by as much as four-to-one or more, creating a natural runway for pickleball adoption.
Source: Badminton World Federation & International Tennis Federation data.
PICKLEBALL, THE GERMAN WAY
Pickleball’s rise in Germany looks nothing like a boom—and that’s the point.
Rather than exploding through pop-up courts, the sport is being methodically absorbed into Germany’s club-based sports culture. Pickleball is spreading through established tennis clubs and multi-sport “Vereine” (venues) where schedules, coaching, and competition already exist.
Governance arrived early: the Deutscher Pickleball Bund oversees sanctioned tournaments and formal club integration, lending the sport legitimacy from the start. Players tend to be active adults, often former tennis players.
Germany shows what pickleball looks like when growth is deliberate, documented, and built to last.
The Bulletin Board
Interesting tidbits from within the pickleball community:
NEXT WEEK…
Can you guess where we’re headed? Respond to this email with your guess. First one to get it right will receive something nice!
Here’s a hint:
Letter from the Editor
THE MANY PLAYBOOKS OF PICKLEBALL GROWTH
In parts of Asia, Africa, and smaller emerging markets, pickleball is taking hold where tennis never built a broad recreational base. Then, there’s Germany, where pickleball is doing almost the opposite. Growth there is slower, more deliberate, and deeply structured, and filtered through clubs.
Neither model is better. Both are instructive.
Together, they tell a bigger story: pickleball isn’t spreading because it replaces tennis, or borrows from it, or competes with it. It’s spreading because it adapts, sometimes informally, sometimes institutionally, to whatever sporting culture already exists.
As pickleball continues its global expansion, understanding how and why it grows in different places may matter more than how fast it grows anywhere at all.
Do not hesitate to email Adam or connect with him on LinkedIn with questions, concerns, or story ideas!
Join The Conversation In Our Online Community! ⬇️
