The City of Pella Community Services department is hoping residents will catch “pickleball fever.”

A free pickleball clinic will be held at Kiwanis Park in Pella on Wednesday, June 22nd from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Glenn Steimling with the Pella Community Services Board is helping lead the course, and tells KNIA/KRLS News pickleball is a paddle-based sport with elements of different games such as tennis or racquetball.

“It’s played with kind of an over-sized ping pong paddle–it’s a firm surface, there’s no string, a large wiffleball, and on a scaled down tennis court–actually, a converted volleyball court is about the size of the court that you play on,” he says.

Steimling says more than 20 residents of all ages participated in the first clinic, and he hopes the sport continues to grow in the city.

“It’s not just for beginners, it’s for anybody,” he says. “One of the things we’re trying to gain through holding these clinics is a phone contact list, that anybody who wants to play can go to the list and email or call people and say ‘hey, we want to play tomorrow morning.'”

The free pickleball course is open to any area resident, and features demonstrations and lessons on how to compete.

“We’re going to teach the basics,” Steimling says. “Which is how to hit a ball in forehand and backhand…teach basic rules, how to serve and play a game, and within the hour and half we will be there, people will be on the court playing the game before the end of the night–it’s that simple to learn and to get started.”