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Braun Edwards returns a hit as he plays pickleball with Dan Goodwin and against Ken and Cynthia Shumway, all of Orem, at Bonneville Park in Orem on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020.

Isaac Hale, Daily Herald file photo

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A rendering of the new Regional Sports Park in Provo, with added pickleball courts in the southeast area of the complex.

Illustration Courtesy Provo City

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Jennifer Burke returns the ball as she plays pickleball with her nephew, Andrew Sturman, 7, and other family members at Harvey Park in Cedar Hills on Wednesday, July 22, 2020.

Isaac Hale, Daily Herald file photo

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Phase 2 of Hillcrest Park is still under construction but is expected to be complete in the spring of 2024. Phase 2 will include a community center, splash pad and 12 pickleball courts. Phase 1 officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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Orem is officially a city of pickleball fanatics, according to a study done by TeachMe.To that analyzed pickleball culture around the country.

Orem ranked second out of the top 50 cities for pickleball, and Provo was close behind in seventh place, with New York named the No. 1 city where pickleball is thriving.

The ranking considered several factors in each city: the overall number of coaches, lesson activity, the number of courts in the area and the percentage of players out of the city’s overall population.

TeachMe.To is a platform that connects students with local coaches and helps beginners get started with learning something new, said Nick O’Brien, CEO of TeachMe.To. He explained that the company did this study because pickleball is one of their most popular sports, so they have unique data on coaches and lesson activity.

They wanted to share this information with everyone, O’Brien said, because “There’s not really anyone else in a position to pull all this together and share it. So we felt that it was important for the industry to put it out there. It’s been rewarding to see a lot of the connections we’ve been able to make as a result of that and been able to help get the word out about some important shifts we’ve seen in the market.”

He expects their research to affect the pickleball community and others by giving new players confidence to try something new; giving entrepreneurs confidence to build courts, equipment or another type of technology; and giving people confidence to follow their dream of becoming a coach.

In regard to Orem being at the top of the list, O’Brien said, “I think it speaks to, there’s a lot of opportunity for local businesses to get involved and support the pickleball community in one way or another.” One way people can offer support is through providing indoor pickleball courts, he said. While Orem and Provo both have a good amount of outdoor pickleball courts, there is a shortage of indoor facilities in the area. Many coaches would appreciate indoor access for lessons during the cold winter months, he added.

However, according to TeachMe.To’s Pickleball 2023 Annual Report, which was part of the study, Utah is one of the most adaptable states for pickleball when it comes to avoiding weather-related issues. The two Utah coaches who responded said their lessons have not been impacted by the weather.

Orem has one indoor pickleball court location and six outdoor locations with two to six courts each. In addition, the new Hillcrest Park in Orem is scheduled to open with 12 outdoor and three indoor pickleball courts by this spring.

Provo currently has 16 outdoor pickleball courts: eight at Rotary Park and eight at the Provo Recreation Center. Provo’s Regional Sports Park will have 45 pickleball courts, costing $5 million. The regional sports park will open in the fall, but the pickleball courts are not expected to open until after the facility is complete. Pickleball court locations around Utah County can be found at www.utahvalley.com/blog/post/pickleball. Several church houses belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also have pickleball courts.

The study states, “Pickleball coaches faced problems of court overcrowding across the United States, according to TeachMe.To proprietary survey responses, with 51% of all Pickleball coaches in the Southeast region of the United States reporting at least one lesson impacted due to overcrowding. Other sports like tennis and golf did not report this as an issue.”

Another area of the study said, “Experts predict we’ll need 25,000 extra courts around the country to meet demand.”

The overall study included a survey from 10% of TeachMe.To’s network of about 2,500 pickleball coaches, O’Brien said. They were asked about job satisfaction, motivation, years of coaching experience and more — giving insight into what it is like to be a pickleball coach.

According to the study, nearly half of coaches surveyed have two to four years of coaching experience; nearly 70% of coaches are motivated to coach because of the enjoyment they feel; and more than half of the coaches enjoy coaching more than their day job.

While San Diego has the most coaches with 18 and New York is close behind with 17, O’Brien said he was surprised at the number of coaches in Orem compared to the population size. Whereas New York has 17 coaches for 8,468,000 residents, Orem has 12 coaches for 97,000 residents. Provo has nine coaches for 114,000 residents.

O’Brien said the reason the study focused so heavily on coaches rather than the number of players was because if they focused only on pickleball players, all of the big cities would be at the top of the list. “We really wanted to look at what cities are truly the most pickleball obsessed in terms of per capita and weighting it by population affinity,” he said.

Overall findings in the pickleball community across the nation included growth, demographic changes, a rise in lessons and a change in the perception of pickleball. O’Brien said, “There are some really interesting themes that apply to all cities from the report that we found. Number one is pickleball is not a kind of bubble or fad. It really is continuing and sustaining growth and becoming a part of American life, and I think that’s really interesting. We’ve seen continued participation.”

Over the last three years, participation in pickleball increased by 158.6%, according to the study. O’Brien explained that pickleball has become more of a serious sport rather than a backyard game. Many people are taking up pickleball as a hobby — something they take seriously and want to improve their skill at, he added.

Another finding was that the demographic playing pickleball continues to shift younger and younger. While pickleball used to have the stigma of being an “old person sport,” O’Brien said, the change can be seen in the participation data in the study. “The average age of avid Pickleball players who play at least once per month is 34.8” and “More than 70% of avid Pickleball players are between the ages of 18 and 44,” the study states.