Bill Gates Says He's Been Playing This Amusing Sport That's 'All The Rage Now' For 50 Years

Microsoft Corporation MSFT co-founder Bill Gates says he’s been playing “Pickleball” for the last 50 years.

What Happened: Gates shared a video on Twitter in which he said he has been playing the paddle sport for five decades — from almost the time since it was invented in Bainbridge Island, Washington, in 1965, according to USA Pickleball.

Gates said the sport is a little bit like Tennis as it has forehand, backhand, and the “serve is a really simple underhand serve.”

Fifty years ago, I started playing this little-known sport with a funny name. Now it’s all the rage. pic.twitter.com/arQqmcZsly

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) July 26, 2022

Gates said Pickleball is easy to learn even though people “say that about lots of sports.”

“It was completely localized to Seattle so it's kind of stunning that 50 years after it’s invented it starts to take off and now has incredible momentum.”

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Why It Matters: Pickleball, invented by Joel Pritchard, a Congressman from Washington, drew heavily on badminton for its rules, according to USA Pickleball. 

By 2019, the sport had over 3.3 million participants, with USA Pickleball membership growing 43% annually to over 50,000 members.

Gates reminisced that it was due to his father that he got interested in the sport. He turned to professional Pickleball athlete Ben Johns for advice in the Twitter thread. 

Nice classic tennis volley form, but don’t want any T-Rex arms on those groundies. We can work on that though :) @BillGates

— Ben Johns (@BenJohns_pb) July 26, 2022

Groundies, unlike a volley, refer to a stroke played after the ball has bounced.

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