Tim Swindle and Scott Brown say that their innovative backyard PaddleSmash game melds the finest attributes of pickleball and spikeball “into the ultimate outdoor game.”
In their recent appearance on Shark Tank, Swindle and Brown showcased PaddleSmash, which piqued the interest of Mark Cuban. The Dallas Mavericks owner has a net worth of approximately $5 billion.
Cuban thoroughly enjoyed testing out the game.
“The Ultimate Outdoor Game!”
As the Deseret News reported, during their pitch to the Sharks, Swindle and Brown emphasized that pickleball is “the fastest growing sport in North America,” urging those not yet engaged to partake.
They also lauded spikeball as “a wildly popular outdoor game” and contended that they have “combined the best elements of both into the ultimate outdoor game.”
Pickleball is having quite a bit of exposure on prime time TV recently with its appearance on The Golden Bachelor as well.
Joe Bingham, a Pleasant View, Utah resident and structural engineer with seven children, became aware of the congestion on our pickleball courts. He decided to embark on a quest to devise an in-home version to avoid the crowds.
His children were also big fans of spikeball so he hit on the idea of amalgamating the two into a new game.
A Few Failed Prototypes
“After making a few failed prototypes from sheets of plastic and some netting, he finally made a version that his kids loved playing,” details the description on the PaddleSmash website. “The word soon spread around the neighborhood and PaddleSmash was born.”
Swindle and Brown “immediately fell in love with the game and knew it was going to be a hit,” according to the website.
Not satisfied with the first iteration, the duo made a second, more portable, version, allowing for easier transport.
A Concise Guide
A video of four people playing PaddleSmash has generated more than 330,000 likes on TikTok and 18,000 views on YouTube.
It can be hard to figure out what’s going on at first, though, so here’s a quick breakdown of how to play.
Here’s a concise guide on how to engage in PaddleSmash:
– The game can be played in various formats, but the most popular involves two teams of two players each.
– Teammates stand across from each other.
– To serve, strike the ball with sufficient force to clear the net and land in the court.
– Following the serve, a team has up to three additional hits to keep the ball in play, with consecutive hits allowed in a sequence.
– Once the first team successfully returns the ball to the court, it must bounce over the net to count as a hit. The opposing team then has up to three shots to do the same.
– If a team fails to keep the ball in play or it touches the ground, the opposing team scores a point.
– The game is played to 11 points, with a requirement to win by two.
PaddleSmash is available for purchase online and in select retail stores such as Scheels and Dick’s.
