
Yesterday I was formally introduced to pickleball.
If you haven’t heard about the game, you’ve probably been hiding under a rock somewhere, because it seems to be sweeping the country–at least in the older age groups. I can’t remember any other new sport that has become so popular among my friends so quickly. What is happening these days must be like what happened when the Scots first invented golf, and suddenly everyone started tromping around the highlands carrying a bunch of oddly shaped clubs.
JV and I went to watch a few of the championship matches at his club, and he give me a quick primer on the rules of the game, which seem to borrow from tennis, table tennis, and volleyball, with a few quirky rules thrown in for good measure. It’s played by doubles teams on a court about half the size of a tennis court, with a squarish paddle rather than a racket and a heavy plastic whiffle ball that makes a kind of clonking sound when it hits the paddle. The rules restrict what you can do in that bright blue area, called “the kitchen,” and sometimes you have to let the ball bounce before you can hit it, so it’s one of those sports that you probably need to play multiple times before you fully assimilate the rules.
Pickleball is a quick game that looks like it is fun to play. There’s some strategery involved, as you try to position your shots and decide whether to hit the ball hard or to play a dink, and it clearly provides a competitive outlet. One of the matches we watched yesterday got a little chippy, for example. But it’s also a game that can be approached seriously or enjoyed recreationally. In either case, if it causes people to get off their couches and get some exercise, that’s a good thing.