A digression from
When i was young, people played tennis. Or some racquet ball fans liked squash or table tennis. But now pickleball is all the rage.
What is it? How is it different from tennis? Why did it suddenly get so popular?
From what I observe at my gym it appears to be a slowed version of tennis for people with limited reflexs and somewhat less agility. But I still don’t get it either or how score is kept.
But it does appear to get some cardio going and also some movement into what may otherwise be a static lifestyle. That and it does appear to help people socialize more, which is generally a good thing for older folks.
I’ll never play it, buy I dont think it’s a bad thing.
Fwiw, i know it’s taught at some colleges. So it’s not just an old-person’s game. But i didn’t know much else about it.
We played it in high school in the late 80s and I honestly thought it was some shit the school made up keep us busy on rain days. I was shocked when it became a big hit some years ago.
It’s played with oversized ping-pong paddles and a wiffle ball but is otherwise similar to tennis. I think the attraction for older people is that the ball and paddle are both light and it doesn’t take much strength to bop the ball around or impact when you hit it. Tennis favors strength more for powerful serves but you can only get so much speed out of a wiffle ball anyway.
I play pickleball almost every morning and get a hell of a workout if I am playing against people of a similar skill level. It’s a great entry sport for people who want to start exercising after years behind a desk. The novice game is slow enough not to exhaust or hurt yourself. As you play against people skillfully aiming the ball where you are not, it becomes more of a workout.
Oh, wow. I had no idea it was that old. I just remember first learning of it from my in-laws’ retirement community some 8 years ago or so where there was some sort of town-hall style hearing about the courts and the noise and all that kind of small-community bickering. (From what I can tell, pickleball won.)
Oh yeah. Imagine: It’s c.1987 and you’re in high school. You’re supposed to be playing field hockey today but it’s raining outside. You walk into the gym and they have nets strung up in rows. They hand you some ping-pong paddles (we played with actual wooden paddles) and wiffle balls and tell you that you’re going to play something called “Pickleball”
Tell me that you wouldn’t assume they just grabbed random stuff out of the equipment closet and made something up to kill forty minutes. Finding out that it was a real game was like finding out that your uncle was correct about elves being real and not just messing with you.
My first encounter with it was also high school, in the early 90s. I was surprisingly good at it. I could somehow beat every kid in my class, even the jocks, and I was about the most unathletic teen around.
There are now pro leagues. Check YouTube. A geezer-compatible sport that’s now played for serious in colleges too.
My daughter (teenage tennis player) has endless complaints about pickleballers sharing the courts. Apparently she finds them extremely loud and chatty and distracting. She can be a bit over-sensitive to inconsiderate behavior, but I find that she has a point, as it’s a social activity that involves a lot of chatting (close distance volleying is conducive to this).
There’s an older guy in my gym who does pickleball workouts lots of days. He’s in there with his paddle practicing movements, rotating his trunk with the cable weights. Very serious, always complaining about pain in his wrist or forearm. I’m not sure what stakes are involved in pickleball, but apparently people can get quite competitive about it.
I know the place my family vacations for a week in the summer, which does not cater to old people, redid the tennis court over the off-season. And it’s now being called a multipurpose court. The tennis court was asphalt, and very bumpy and cracked, so I’m sure whatever they did is an upgrade for the tennis players. But from the new name, i assume it will also be fitted out for pickleball.
I encourage any activity for seniors that gets them moving, but I would never live in a facility where they had one of those courts. The noise would turn me homicidal in no time.
Not sure if you are responding to me, but the place we vacation is an island in lake Winnipesaukee where people sleep in little cabins spread out around the shore. The tennis court is inland, and closer to the main dock than to any cabins. If the people playing are really noisy, they can barely be heard by the three closest cabins.
The place doesn't cater to old people because
you need to walk a quarter mile or more from the cabins to the main house where food is served, and the dirt paths are uneven, with roots and stones and sometimes mud. Because i am old, I’ll be bringing walking sticks to help me navigate down the steep part of a path i will need to take every day. Also, because we go there, my nephew has decided that my husband and i will be able to deal with unheated housing that doesn’t have its own plumbing for his wedding this fall. (Also on a camp at lake Winnipesaukee, but on the mainland. I expect it to get below freezing at night, and I’m not sure it’s wise to put only two people in a large cabin designed for 8 kids in the summer. We won’t warm it significantly with our body heat. I’ll be bringing a lot of down.)
So i have no concerns about being disturbed by pickleball players. And also, I’m sure they are adding that feature to appeal to young people, not to old people.
Interesting info from the Pedia of Wiki:
The game was created in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington, at the summer home of Joel Pritchard, who later served in the United States Congress and as Washington’s lieutenant governor. Pritchard and two of his friends, Barney McCallum and Bill Bell, are credited with devising the game and establishing the rules. According to Joan Pritchard, Joel Pritchard’s wife, “The name of the game became Pickle Ball after I said it reminded me of the pickle boat in crew where oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats.” Similarly, the game of pickleball was created from leftover equipment from several sports; a badminton court, paddleball paddles, a wiffle ball and a net height like that of tennis.
I learned that on my recent trip to Seattle! (I have a friend who lives on B.I.) I didn’t see anyone playing, though…
The biggest problem for tennis players is that municipalities have discovered that a chunk of public real estate that once entertained, at most, 4 players can now accommodate as many as 16. It’s a no-brainer for Parks officials how to accommodate more people. Tennis players have no good argument against a public accommodation that serves more people so they have to paint pickleball players as bad (loud, chatty, etc.) people. Like golf, tennis will become more and more of an elitist country club sport.
Nope, just commenting. And pickleball has gained a lot of traction for older folks who aren’t physically impaired. Many senior facilities have courts (but not ours, thankfully).
Ah. I’m pretty sure the plan at the place i stay is to have places to mount different nets, and make the space available for both pickleball and tennis. I’m sure it won’t be ideal for either, but it’s not as if it was ever a good tennis court. And there are few enough total people that i expect anyone who wants to play will be able to find a time to do so.
We also played in gym class around 79’-80’. I remember the gym teacher saying it was the next big thing. I guess 40 years later was better than never.
It’s just a miniaturized version of tennis played with paddles and a wiffle ball. Smaller court. Scoring is similar to tennis/volleyball. You have to be serving to score. You have to serve underhand and each side has to let the ball bounce once before volleying.
It’s fun. A lot less running and chasing the ball around than tennis. The wiffle ball slows down the action also so you don’t need split second reaction time like tennis.
Our hotel in San Diego (Island Palms) had pickleball courts so we decided to try it out. We had the courts all to ourselves so it was nice way to get a low key workout and not have to worry about the miss-hit balls going all over the place. My friend enjoyed it enough to buy a cheapo set of paddles and balls for the next time we get together.
There’s a pickleball-related movie “The Dink” on Apple now. It’s not that great but has a few laughs here and there.