Singapore launches beginner-friendly OCBC-Great Eastern pickleball series

The clearest sign that Singapore is treating pickleball as a pipeline, not a fad, is the price: youth clinics cost S$10, adult sessions S$15 and multi-generation entries S$28. That puts the new OCBC-Great Eastern Pickleball series within reach of beginners who would never start with private coaching.

The Kallang Group and OCBC built the series around 24 learn-to-play workshops across April, May, August and September, with each two-hour session capped at 36 participants. Certified coaches will split the clinics into introduction, practice and social games, a structure that matters more than it sounds like it does. Pickleball in Singapore is not short on curiosity. It is short on repeatable first steps, and a program that mixes instruction with live play gives newcomers a reason to come back.

The rollout also makes court access part of the story. The workshops are being held at the OCBC Group-sponsored pickleball courts along the Great Eastern Promenade at the National Stadium, which opened in January 2026. That venue sits inside the same Kallang precinct that will host Singapore’s bigger tournament calendar later this year, turning the area into a visible entry point for the sport rather than a one-off event space.

The series is tied directly to the OCBC-Great Eastern Pickleball Open, set for October 23 to 25 at OCBC Arena in Kallang Sports Hub. Nearly 1,600 players are expected, and the move indoors says plenty about how organizers are reading the local conditions. OCBC and The Kallang Group shifted the event from the larger National Stadium to OCBC Arena because the air-conditioned venue offers cooler, better playing conditions in Singapore’s tropical heat.

That tournament will include Novice and Open public categories, plus two corporate divisions hosted by Bank of Singapore. The Novice field is reserved for players with less than 24 months of experience and no medals in local or overseas pickleball tournaments, a clear attempt to keep first-timers in the lane instead of throwing them straight into the deep end. Registration for the Open begins on July 27.

This is the other part of Singapore’s pickleball bet: infrastructure. In October 2025, OCBC Group and Singapore Sports Hub announced eight new outdoor courts, dual-use conversions of two junior tennis courts and three basketball courts, and more than 20,000 hours of annual play. Public bookings started from S$5 in non-peak hours, and the broader plan said more than 500 players could take part in a lead-up series. Gillian Lee said the workshops were more affordable than private coaching and more fun to learn with friends. That is the real test here. If Singapore can keep turning first sessions into regular play, the open in October will be the finish line for some players and the starting line for many more.