Hooked on pickleball | Long Island Business News

Move over a bit, golf. Make way for pickleball.

The pickleball court is where Long Island’s executives and others are getting fit, sharing laughs, enjoying time with family and friends and even networking with clients and colleagues.

For this growing sport, you’ll need a badminton-sized court, a perforated plastic ball and what looks liked oversized Ping-Pong paddles. You could invest in special apparel, but fabric that wicks away sweat seems to work just fine.

And available playing space is hard to find.

So Joseph Willen, president and CEO of Advantage Title, converted a basketball court at his Northport home into a pickleball court. His regular Monday evening group includes an attorney, an accounting firm partner, a financial advisor and an audio-video technology expert.

One thing was obvious about the members of this particular crew as they smashed the ball across the court: They are hooked on pickleball.

“It’s incredibly easy to learn,” Willen said. “But it’s hard to master. You could learn to play in 15 minutes. But there are nuances and strategies to the game.”

Perhaps the quest to master the sport is what is igniting pickleball across the nation, despite its moniker.

“It’s the greatest sport, but the worst name,” Willen said.

Photos by Judy Walker

Pickleball got its start in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, off the coast of Seattle, according to USA Pickleball Association, an organization that was formed in 2005 to promote the sport.  Pickleball has venues in every state across the United States and every province in Canada, according to USA Pickleball.

Pickleball is played between single opponents or doubles, which is the most common. Games are usually played to 11 points, but a team must win by 2. The play is similar to the rules of tennis.

And pickleball is considered the fastest growing sport, going by published reports.  The year 2021 saw 4.8 million players in the United States, up 14.8% from the previous year. That’s according to the 2022 Sports & Fitness Industry Association’s “Single Sport Report on Pickleball.” Of those players, 3.5 million were casual players who play between one and seven times a year. The number of casual players saw an increase of 22%.

Howard Greenberg, a Smithtown-based attorney, plays regularly in Willen’s group, and said that while the play is “fun,” it does get “ultracompetitive.”

Still, while they are on the court, they talk family, sports and, yes, business, Greenberg said. Some in the group retain each other’s services, or call for advice.

And though he’s not giving up golf, Greenberg said that access to pickleball is easier, appealing to a broader number of people, especially given the cost of golf equipment, tee times and even golf course memberships.

There’s a proximity on the pickleball court that encourages dialog among players.

“There’s teamwork and synergy,” Greenberg said, pointing out that players have to negotiate who is moving up on the court, and who is staying back.

HOWARD GREENBERG (left): ‘There’s teamwork and synergy’ on the pickleball court. Photo by Judy Walker

And there are parallels with the experience on the court and the experience at work, said Brad Goldner, president of Goldner Financial Group.

“You always need a plan,” he said. “You need to have discipline, and you need a strategy for executing the plan.”

The person who changes the pace of the game is, 90% of the time, the one who loses the point, Goldner said.  “You need to know when to go across the grain. You could say the same about investing.”

This Monday group of players is made of men, but the sport is popular with women too, and people of all ages.

Among the total number of players, 60% are men, while 40% are women, according to the SFIA report. The average age of core players is 47.9, while casual players are 34.3 year old.  And the sport is catching on with the Gen-Z and younger set, which saw that the growth of total participants from 2020 to 2021 was fastest with players who are younger than 24.

Greenberg, for instance, plays the sport with his wife Suzanne. And both teach others the game.

The couple also plays at the court built at Al Laudani’s Smithtown home. Laudani is part of Willen’s Monday group.

“The friendship is the best part of the game,” said Laudani, whose firm Preferred Media Systems provided the AV services at Willen’s home.

Laudani often invites clients over for a game of pickleball. In addition to a good workout, he finds the sport offers an opportunity to build relationships and trust with clients, a key factor when people are looking to you for expertise, he said.

Peter Breckling, a partner at E&Y in Jericho, looks forward to the Monday night game at Willen’s court. Breckling had installed a court at his home right before COVID. During the height of the pandemic the court was one space that felts safe for friends to gather while playing the sport. One New Year’s Eve, friends came over at 5 p.m. What Breckling thought might be a couple of hours of play went well past that. “We played till 2 a.m.,” he said.

Now, he said, “I play all winter.” As long as it’s above 20 degrees and not too windy, the sport is enjoyable all year long.

Monday night play: (kneeling) Peter Breckling and Howard Greenberg; (standing) Brad Goldner, Joe Willen, Al Laudani. Photo by Judy Walker

Pickleball enthusiasts have certainly kept Jack Truncale busy.

As the owner of Nesconset-based Straight Line Tennis Courts and Driveways, Truncale, who has a yard in Ronkonkoma, says that in the last four weeks he’s built four pickleball courts at private homes on the East End and Smithtown. That’s in addition to the lines he’s added to the existing tennis courts this year at condo units where residents can roll out temporary nets on and off the court as needed.

“You don’t see so many people playing tennis” at the condo developments, he said. Yet with pickleball, it’s not uncommon to spot “10, 12 people waiting in line to play pickleball.”

Meanwhile, “pickleball is huge” at public parks, including in Huntington and Centereach, Truncale said. “You’ve got to get there early to play. People put rackets on the fence – that’s your spot on line.”

The average price to build a new court runs about $30,000, though if the designated space has trees that need excavating, costs increase, Truncale said.

Now, Breckling is looking to incorporate pickleball as a team-building experience for his colleagues.

There’s just one challenge.

“It’s hard to get court time,” he said.

AGENN@LIBN.COM