Ange Brady: NZ Pickleball Association Chair on this weekend's NZ Pickleball Open

Pickleball is taking the world by storm. 

Originating in the United States, it’s now one of the fastest growing sports globally – the biggest growth being among 18-35 year olds. 

The NZ Pickleball Open is taking place this weekend, with 443 players registered for the event.  

NZ Pickleball Association Chair Ange Brady told Mike Hosking the growth is super exciting. 

Gone are the days where it was perceived to be the sport tennis players went when they could no longer play tennis, she said, with more young people attracted to the fast and athletic sport. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The sport of the age in terms of growth. Pickleball
hosting the New Zealand New Zealand Open this weekend. Four
hundred and forty three players registered now. Andrew Brady is
the New Zealand Pickleball Association chair and is with us
a morning.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Good morning mate.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
How does the New Zealand Open work these days? Can
you do you have a system or a structure system
where you win your way through? Or can just anyone
enter at the New Zealand Open given you've got born
in forty three.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
No, anyone can open And in fact we've got twenty
nine divisions, so we're trying to make each division. Yeah,
the tournament relevant to lots of players across the landscape.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Wow, where's the growth coming from? Is it clubs or
is it schools or what?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Oh? I want to say, it's across the board. More
and more schools are playing it now and definitely clubs
have grown and the playing groups pop ups. It's playing
all over the country. We've gone from about thirty playing
groups a couple of years ago, so now we've got
eighty listed on our website and those are the ones
we know about. Yeah, there'll be lots and lots more.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
It's amazing, isn't it. Is it indoors or outdoors? My
wife is finding at trouble with the wind. Outdoors you
can play both.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
A lot of pickaball in New Zealand has played outdoors,
but where you see the stuff in the States and Australia,
it's all outdoors and the wind just becomes another fact
that to deal with On the court you're either playing
into it or against it. So so yeah, it's the
New Zealand Open. It's played on an outdoor court surface
with a roof, so we don't have to try and

(01:29):
contend with any of the four seasons in the day
Auckland weather, which is fantastic.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Where are we at with a pickle v paddle thing?

Speaker 2 (01:39):
The pickle v paddle.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yer see globally paddles a thing and in some countries
pickles a thing, you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Oh, look from our perspective, if people are out there playing,
they're moving around, having fun, building community, making friends, love it.
You know. I work collaboratively with the Paddle Federation as
well and their chair plays biockaball and battle, so it's fantastic.
You know, there's enough people in New Zealand for all

(02:08):
the sports.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
That's good and the younger growth interests me. What is
it about the sport that's attracting so many young people.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
It's fast, it's athletic. Gone of the days where pickleball
has the perception that was where tennis players went when
they couldn't play tennis anymore. It's just super exciting. And
the more young people that come into the sport, the
more they go down there and they play a session
and they meet some friends and it just grows from there.

(02:38):
It's the biggest growth area in the out of the state.
That age groups of eighteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Five super exciting.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
It is super exciting. And I hear that you quite
enjoy the game.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
I don't play the game myself, I mean, but my
wife is obsessed about it and she's set up her
own league and she's got international sponsorship coming in. The
whole thing's I'm embarrassing, but you know so. But she's
but she's one of the many. And listen, go well
with the New Zealand Open. I'll get her to end
to next year when she stands a chance. She says
she's quite good, but I've seen no evidence. That's all

(03:11):
I mean, she's a naturally athletic person. I'm digging myself
a massive hole here. She's an inter judge, she's an
athletic person, but she's thoroughly enjoying it. But it's raining today,
so she's not playing. So she's frustrated. But that's enough
of pickleball for now. For more from The Mic Asking Breakfast,
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