Pickleball’s rapid emergence as one of America’s top recreational activities has seen its following grow younger, as new players pile into a sport once dominated by older adults and retirees. And as those younger people gain a foothold, they’re bringing along an increasingly popular economic trend: the side hustle.
Some users — even relatively casual ones — are using online platforms to teach pickleball in their spare time. It’s a logical extension of the entrepreneurial streak on social media where hobby often blends with business, and it’s a good way to pick up a couple extra bucks while getting a workout.
“It is pretty lucrative; it’s definitely worth it,” said Wilson Herrmann, 25, who teaches pickleball part-time and says he’s earned as much as $70 per hour. “I do really enjoy interacting with people, and seeing how happy people get when they’ve been improving.”
Herrmann started playing pickleball in high school. He recalls playing at a local park with his friends after school, between sports seasons.
Ten years later, the Brookline resident and civil engineer has made more than $3,000 since he began instructing last spring. He teaches about three to five lessons a week, either 60 to 90 minutes long, usually after work or on the weekends.
The business opportunities for pickleballers are likely to grow, according to Michael Serazio, a media professor at Boston College and author of “The Power of Sports: Media and Spectacle in American Culture.”
He said a main driver of pickleball’s growth has been its appeal across age groups, which means people can play together and stick with the sport over long periods of time.
“Once a sport becomes a texture for a relationship ... that is incredibly lucrative,” said Serazio. “And that means that the odds are good that the sport will be durable in the long term.”
Juan Carlos Morales, a Medford-based pickleball instructor with a tennis background, has noticed this wide variety in ages in his lessons. He said students are anywhere from 8 years old to 74 years old because of how easy it is to play.
“The entry bar is not as hard as tennis,” said Morales, 41, cofounder of a clothing company. “You can just go and start playing and have fun.”
Morales and Herrmann get their clients from TeachMe.To, an online platform that helps people find coaches near them. It works by charging people a certain amount for lessons and then taking a chunk of that revenue. The remainder goes to the instructor.
For example, Morales’s profile on the platform states the minimum lesson cost as $58; he brings home about $50 per lesson, he said.
But Morales says he understands that the sport is growing in part because it’s easy to pick up. So he’s trying to stay clear-eyed about the long-term potential for pickleball instruction.
“It’s something so simple to learn that you don’t have a lot of people really needing lessons,” he said. “There’s also a lot of information online, YouTube videos and all that.”
Still, learning online is no match for in-person instruction, according to Anubhav Gupta, one of Herrmann’s clients. Gupta said Herrmann has been instrumental in helping him improve.
“Sometimes, if you want to improve your game faster, you need someone to look at your game and point out those shortcomings,” said Gupta, 33, of Malden.
Esha Walia can be reached at esha.walia@globe.com.