ISEE Practice Test 9

The Sport Nobody Planned

¹  In the summer of 1965, three fathers on Bainbridge Island, near

²Seattle, Washington, faced a familiar problem: their children were

³bored. Looking for something to do, the men found an old badminton court

⁴but no full set of rackets. They improvised with table-tennis paddles

⁵and a perforated plastic ball, and before long they had lowered the net

⁶and begun writing rules. The game they invented, pickleball, was meant

⁷to entertain a few families for one summer.

⁸  It did far more than that. For decades pickleball spread quietly,

⁹mostly among retirees in community centers. Then, beginning around 2020,

¹⁰it exploded. A national sports industry group named it the

¹¹fastest-growing sport in the United States for several years in a row,

¹²and cities across the country began painting pickleball lines on old

¹³tennis courts or building new courts altogether.

¹⁴  Part of the appeal is that the game is easy to start. The court is

¹⁵small, the paddle is light, and the ball moves slowly enough that a

¹⁶beginner can enjoy a rally within minutes. Yet the sport has a high

¹⁷ceiling: skilled players rely on soft shots, quick volleys, and careful

¹⁸positioning near a no-volley zone by the net that keeps powerful players

¹⁹from simply smashing every ball. Grandparents and grandchildren can play

²⁰on the same court, and both can feel challenged.

²¹  Not everyone is cheering. Each hit of a hard paddle against a plastic

²²ball produces a sharp pop that carries a surprising distance, and

²³residents who live near busy courts have complained about hearing that

²⁴sound from morning until night. Some towns have limited playing hours,

²⁵and some manufacturers have begun selling quieter paddles and balls.

²⁶Tennis players, meanwhile, have sometimes resented losing their courts

²⁷to the newcomers.

²⁸  The arguments are, in a way, a sign of success. A game invented to

²⁹fill a few empty afternoons now raises the kinds of questions that only

³⁰a truly popular pastime can: who gets to use public space, and how a

³¹community should share it.