| Status: | Active, not currently accepting new members |
| Contact: | |
| When: | Weekly on Friday afternoons 3:00 pm-5:00 pm In the main sports hall of the Hart Leisure Centre |
| Venue: | Hart leisure centre |
| Cost: | Between £5 & £7 per session, paid in advance. |
THIS GROUP IS CURRENTLY FULL AND CLOSED TO NEW MEMBERS. THERE ARE NO IMMINENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR NEW PLAYERS TO JOIN THE GROUP AND, FOR THIS REASON, I HAVE DECIDED TO FREEZE/CLOSE THE WAITLIST TO PROSPECTIVE NEW MEMBERS AND STOP OFFERING TASTER SESSIONS, UNTIL SPACES BECOME AVAILABLE.
The Pickleball group within the Odiham and District u3a was set up in September 2023.
We play every week at the Everyone Active Hart Leisure Centre (EA/HLC), on Friday afternoons between 3pm & 5pm.
We now have over 50 members playing regularly, either "Full Time" (100% or most of the sessions) or "Part Time" (50% of the sessions).
"So, what", I hear you say, "is pickleball"? Well, it's a hybrid sport that combines the skills and agility of table tennis, tennis, and badminton but without having to run around quite so much. It's played on a badminton court with a net slightly lower than a tennis court net and it uses "Paddles" and air-flow balls. The Paddles have a short (5 inch) tennis racquet style handle attached to a double-sided rectangular head (about 7 inches x 9 inches) and are typically made of a carbon fibre or polymer honeycomb core and carbon fibre or fibreglass hard playing surfaces. The airflow balls are hard plastic about the same size as a tennis ball.
Our group aims for inclusivity and enjoyment over out-and-out competitiveness, so we play as doubles pairs, mixing up players with different abilities and switching partners between games.
Pickleball is the among the fastest-growing sports in the UK. Although data sources vary, at the present time (October 2026) there are between 75,000 and 120,000 people playing, with the over 50s making up around 36%-40% of these numbers.
If you've played some sort of racquet/bat/ball game before the concept is quite similar, although there are a few basic rules to learn. Generally speaking, you can learn enough to play pickleball in around 60 minutes. Of course, mastering the game takes just a little longer!!
If you have any questions about the group or pickleball in general contact the group leader by email by clicking on the Group Contact Name above.