Selangor To Empower Development Of Pickleball At Grassroots Level

SHAH ALAM, May 15 (Bernama) -- The Selangor State Government has launched the Selangor State Pickleball Sports Development Programme or Picklespark 2026/2027 which targets the involvement of school students as an effort to empower the sport.

State Youth, Sports and Entrepreneurship Committee chairman Mohd Najwan Halimi said the strategic initiative would be implemented in five zones across the state within 12 months to introduce the sport as a more structured community development activity.

“We see that pickleball has developed very aggressively involving every level of society, but at the school level it still does not have a planned approach for students and teachers.

“Therefore, collaboration with the State Education Department is very important for us to go to schools to introduce this sport, thus ensuring that students receive the appropriate early exposure,” he said.

Mohd Najwan said this after launching the programme which also received cooperation from the Faculty of Sports Science, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), the Selangor State Sports Council (MSN) and PKNS Real Estate Sdn. Bhd. (PREC) at the Pickleball Playground, Jalan Padang Jawa, here today.

He said the state government had allocated RM500,000 for the purpose since Selangor was the first state to take steps to develop the talent systematically starting from the school level.

“For this phase, we are targeting the participation of 100 teachers throughout the state to be given basic coaching training as well as technical elements related to competitions so that they can form teams in their respective schools.

“The exposure provided includes game techniques and the introduction of sports equipment so that the reach of this development can be expanded through district and state-level tournaments within a year,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mohd Najwan said the programme also targets the participation of 500 students aged between 10 and 15 years from zones that have been equipped with court facilities and potential participants will be identified to be polished as state athletes.

He said the initiative also aims to promote pickleball as an inclusive and accessible competitive sport, thus supporting a sustainable ecosystem in line with the aspiration of creating a healthy and active society.

Elaborating further, he said the development model that he wants to apply to pickleball is similar to the success of e-sports in Selangor which started since 2015 and has now reached a mature stage and is able to stand on its own.

He said the state government is optimistic that through the zone tour and the organisation of the planned competitions, the sport will be able to produce new quality talents from educational institutions in Selangor within the next five to 10 years.

-- BERNAMA