Pickleball.

[gim]

I finally had the opportunity to play pickleball.  I've always been good at sports with a racquet or a paddle and I've had a hankering to try this.  Tennis, racquetball, badminton, ping pong, you name it, I played it.

 

I paid 12 bucks to participate in a 3 hour open window of pickleball at a health club that had 8 courts set up.  I didn't have my own paddle, so I used a rental.  I show up right when its start time and all I see are old timers.  I was told by a few people that pickleball targeted the "older demographic" but that wasn't going to stop me from trying it.  The problem is that everyone just wants to play doubles, and I prefer to play singles.

 

Bear in mind that I had never played this.  I started playing different people there who all seemed to have played before.  Didn't take me long to catch on.  After half an hour, I had it down and I had it down good.  Almost to the point where I was too good.  After 90 minutes of this, one of the older fellas came up to me and said "how often do you play?"  I said "Never.  This is my first time."  You should have seen the look on his face!  His mouth dropped lol.

 

As time was winding down, I challenged a couple guys who hadn't lost to a match.  I told them they could play doubles and I would play as a single.  They looked at each other like "ok whipper snapper, we're gonna cream you."  They scored one point on me.  I was like a mongoose out there.  My strategy was basically the same as it is in the other racquet sports: just hit it where the other guy(s) isn't.  Eventually the opponent wears down.

 

I liked it enough to try it again, but I think I am going to go back to racquetball for now against stiffer competition.

 

 

 

 

[Bird]

Never heard of pickleball but sounds like you're the last person I'd wanna play. Lol

Only racket sport that I was good at was ping pong...... I'm talking Forrest Gump good.

[MN Fisher]

I'm at the age/condition that picking up something new for an active sport is out of the question.

 

Heck, I haven't even hit a tennis ball in decades, and I was on the high school team way back when.

[VolFan]

It is the fastest growing sport in ‘Murica - It’s like playing ping pong while standing on the table.

[Skunkmaster-k]

This sounds like a game I could get into. 

[Deleted account]

Yeah, most folks picking (or is it pickling) up the sport are older folks who haven't played racquet or paddle sports before, or have only done so casually. In my case, I was a serious tennis player, and avid ping pong player, and my job included having to try racquets and play all other racquet and paddle sports quite a bit. For us it comes naturally, and we tend to play a more aggressive style. I just started playing, mostly because the wife wanted to get into it. It's a goof.

[Tennessee Boy]

Rackets and pickles?  Sounds very messy….and fun.

[gim]

1 hour ago, Deleted account said:

In my case, I was a serious tennis player, and avid ping pong player, and my job included having to try racquets and play all other racquet and paddle sports quite a bit. For us it comes naturally, and we tend to play a more aggressive style.

That is exactly how I felt.  My family had a ping pong table in the basement growing up so I was good at that.  I played tennis for years in college with my roommates.  I took an elective semester class of Golf & Racquet Games in HS and was dominant in every activity that included a racquet.  In recent years, I've been playing in a racquetball league.

 

So ya, I probably jumped into the shallow end of the pool on this and was expecting it to be deeper.  Oh well.  At least I got to try it.  I would like to play it again, but I need to find improved competition.

[Deleted account]

12 hours ago, gimruis said:

but I think I am going to go back to racquetball for now against stiffer competition.

 

 

LOL. I don't consider myself a racquetball player, though I'm not bad. I used to play serious players, and every so often one of my shots would hit them, and they would say it's not a do over because the ball obviously wouldn't have reached the front wall, sure enough, that's the rule, so I made sure there was no doubt about the next several shots, which I intended to go through them into the wall, no rule against that, the welts on their backs was just gravy...

[gim]

5 hours ago, Deleted account said:

LOL. I don't consider myself a racquetball player, though I'm not bad. I used to play serious players, and every so often one of my shots would hit them, and they would say it's not a do over because the ball obviously wouldn't have reached the front wall, sure enough, that's the rule, so I made sure there was no doubt about the next several shots, which I intended to go through them into the wall, no rule against that, the welts on their backs was just gravy...

 

That is correct on the rule.  If the ball wouldn't have reached the wall and hit the opponent, its not a re-do.  If it was going to reach the wall and hit the opponent, its a re-do.  If you play long enough you can tell the difference.  If you can't tell, then its a re-do.  There's also a thing called a hinder which is when the opposing player is physically in the way and inhibits you from reaching the ball.  That happens more often than the ball hitting the player once you start playing respectable players.

 

Yes I've been hit with the ball before, many times.  Usually its in the back or the back legs, etc.  But I have been hit a couple times in the front and even in the face, which is why protective eye wear is essential.

 

I once got hit REALLY hard in right in the upper chest.  I got caught at the front wall and my opponent slammed it hard and it hit me.  I crumbled to the ground in pain on that one.  It left a welt for a while.  Honestly it felt like I got hit with a paint ball if you've ever experienced that - not fun.  It was against a good friend of mine and he actually was laughing hysterically after it happened.  That SOB.

 

As far as strategy on racquetball and other racquet sports (including pickleball), I'm 6'2" and I have like a 10 foot wingspan so quite honestly my strategy is just try to get to everything.  Really the only shots that I'm not going to get are kill shots.

[Bluebasser86]

We use to play in gym class when I was high school. I always enjoyed it and was pretty good at it. Only paddle sport I've ever played other than ping-pong.

[Glenn]

Pickleball originated in Seattle, and was recently named the official sport of Washington state.  So it's been around there the longest....and competition can be fierce.

 

However really the sport isn't so much for the competition as it is for the enjoyment, comradery, and exercise - kinda like bowling is for most of us.  So you likely played with that crowd, rather than the competition crowd.

 

My sister and brother-in-law are very competitive and very good at it.  There are entire picketball leagues now.  The people that play on those leagues would humble you on a moments notice and not feel bad about it at all.  So if you want the competition, it's out there. But you have to go find it.

[gim]

45 minutes ago, Glenn said:

My sister and brother-in-law are very competitive and very good at it.  There are entire picketball leagues now.  The people that play on those leagues would humble you on a moments notice and not feel bad about it at all.  So if you want the competition, it's out there. But you have to go find it.

That's the crowd I need to get with.  No mercy.

[detroit1]

Quit picking on us older folk...beating geezers aint sport.  ?

[HaydenS]

3 hours ago, detroit1 said:

Quit picking on us older folk...beating geezers aint sport.  ?

Nope, sounds like a massacre!

I’ve played pickleball, didn’t really understand it, but it was fun.

[aarogb]

Glad to hear someone younger is playing pickleball, LOL!  My friend and I are both 28 and we are the youngest on the courts by at least 20 to 30 years...  It's a fun game and great exercise.  And yes, we prefer to play singles versus doubles.