I'm David Ferrier, a New Zealander accidentally marooned in America, and I want to figure

out what makes this country tick.

Now, one of the most fascinating things about being in a new country is observing what

the people around you are doing with balls.

They say that dogs like balls, but in my experience, people like balls way more.

Go to India and they're hitting hard round balls with a bat.

In New Zealand we do that as well, but we're way more obsessed with tackling players to

the ground so we can steal their oval balls.

In England, they're running around in the grass doing fancy footwork with their spherical

balls, and in America they bounce their balls and try and get them through a small hoop.

But I'd heard of a new thing they're doing with balls in America, involving a sport

that's been named the fastest growing sport in the United States.

Fall Saturdays may be for college football, Sunday's the NFL, but you better make way for

pickleball.

To me, pickleball looks like a cross between tennis, badminton, and ping pong, and the ball

involved as hollow, made a plastic, and has holes all over it.

During the pandemic, around 5 million Americans turned to pickle balls to stop themselves from

going insane with boredom.

George Clooney was one of them.

Tom Brady and the Bron James have both bought franchises and various pickleball leagues.

In short, America has gone batshit crazy for pickleball.

So grab that ball and paddle, and prepare to play the sport with the silliest name of

...