{"id":37371,"date":"2023-02-09T17:40:29","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T17:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/?p=37371"},"modified":"2023-02-09T22:48:43","modified_gmt":"2023-02-09T22:48:43","slug":"play-pickleball-around-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/2023\/02\/09\/play-pickleball-around-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Have Travel, Will Paddle. Play Pickleball Around the World"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you joined the wave of people playing pickleball? I admit I held off for a few years while family members kept telling me how much fun it is. I tried it this summer and I am converted. Now I will take my pickleball paddle with me on trips as it is so easy to pack and find games in other cities. Just find a pickleball court.<\/p>\n<p>Recent news that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/erikmatuszewski\/2022\/09\/29\/lebron-james-and-draymond-green-part-of-professional-pickleballs-newest-ownership-group\/?sh=2700b8d327fa\">Lebron James and other NBA players and professional athletes are buying into professional pickleball teams<\/a>\u00a0is only a sign that this sport is growing beyond being just a sport for recreational players. It is already the fastest-growing sport in the USA, and it is growing internationally as well.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldpickleballfederation.org\/\">The global organization for pickleball, World Pickleball Federation (WPF)<\/a>\u00a0plans to hold a World Pickleball Games Summit in 2023. Their organization has 34 member countries with 6 global regional federations formed.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ifpickleball.org\/\">The International Federation of Pickleball (IFP)<\/a> is another leading organization for the sport with 63 member countries that have been around since 2010. In 2020, during peak Covid no less, it opened multiple offices in China.<\/p>\n<p>What is great about pickleball for a traveler is that the sport requires limited equipment. The main need is a paddle which is about 8 x 16 inches with a handle of about 4 inches and under a pound in weight. Paddle and handle sizes vary, but all are close to these measurements. Think of a ping pong paddle that is perhaps twice the size, which is easy to throw into a suitcase. The ball is plastic with holes, and while it looks like a slightly larger-sized wiffle ball, that is where the similarities end. The pickleball ball is designed for bounce, heavier than a wiffle ball, with more surface area, with evenly distributed, circular holes.<\/p>\n<p>I often see people on Reddit lining up games and asking advice on where to play, as they plan to visit my local city. Pickleball is a very welcoming sport in which pickleball courts often have open play times for anyone to play their way into the next game. No need for a team or foursome. Just show up and play.<\/p>\n<p>Going forward I will be packing my paddle and look forward to playing domestically and internationally in the coming year. I encourage you to give it a try.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-37372 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/pickleball_blog.jpg\" alt=\"Play Pickleball Around the World\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/pickleball_blog.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/pickleball_blog-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reference:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/news\/soaring-popularity-pickleball-europe-asia-133300529.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall&amp;guccounter=1\">Soaring Popularity of Pickleball in Europe and Asia Pacific Boosts Pickleball Equipment Market: Fact .MR<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you joined the wave of people playing pickleball? I admit I held off for a few years while family members kept telling me how much fun it is. I tried it this summer and I am converted. Now I will take my pickleball paddle with me on trips as it is so easy to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":37372,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1368,1861,1637,224,1713,1714],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37371"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37371"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37382,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37371\/revisions\/37382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}