| Michael Fralich |
Pickleball
I can’t remember when I first heard the term pickleball. It has been a number of years. Most people living in the US would probably admit that they are aware of pickleball even if they have never played. My wife and I bought paddles and balls over a year ago. They sat untouched in our mudroom closet during that time.
That changed a month ago. Previously our winter activities consisted of snowshoeing, cross country skiing and the occasional sledding with our grandchildren. These activities were scattered throughout the winter season with no regular schedule. Our friends Stuart and Lee Gaw asked us if we wanted to join them for pickleball lessons back in January. We agreed and in February we picked up our paddles and balls and headed to the gym at the Pineland Outdoor Center to begin this new addition to our lives.
The reviews are in. We love pickleball! I can’t imagine not playing this easy to learn activity that has already been a boon to our mental and physical health.
For those of you who may be aware of pickleball but whose knowledge stops there, I will do my best to briefly explain what pickleball is and where it came from. Pickleball is a racket sport played with rigid paddle and a hard plastic ball with holes, similar to a wiffleball. Pickleball draws from elements of tennis, badminton and ping pong. It is played on a 44-by-20 foot court with a net that is 34 inches high. It can be played as singles or doubles.
The game was invented in 1968 by three dads whose kids were bored with their usual summer activities. Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barnes McCullum lived on Bainbridge Island in Washington state near Seattle. They had an old badminton court and made new hard paddles and began playing with a hard plastic ball. They soon dropped the net from badminton height to the lower 34 inches that is the standard today.
The name pickleball came from rowing crew races. A ‘pickleboat’ was made up of crew members who were non-starters in races. In 1984 the USA Pickleball Association was founded. By 1990 pickleball had reached all fifty states. In 2020 USAPA was re-branded as USAPickleball. There are somewhere around 8,500 places to play in the U.S. according to the USAPickleball website. USAPickleball now has 52,000 members and hosts twelve regional championships and four major championships a year.
We play at the Pineland Outdoor Center gym. They currently are open for pickleball on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6 to 8 p.m. as well as Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9 to 11:30 a.m. They can be reached at 688-4539. Newbegin Community Center in Gray also has pickleball times. Their hours are Sunday 9 to 11 a.m., Monday and Wednesday 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., and Tuesday and Thursday 5 to 7 pm. They can be reached at 657-2323. There are also outdoor courts at New Gloucester Parks and Rec’s Rowe Station Road complex.
So why do we love pickleball so much? We are meeting many new friends when we play, all of whom are better than us, all also so patient as we learn this new sport. In just a short while, we have become skilled enough to not embarrass ourselves when we play. It challenges us not only physically but also mentally as we learn the rules and the scoring. We already have a wonderful pickleball community who we not only learn from but look forward to seeing each week.
Whoever said, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” was wrong. At the ripe old age of seventy-one, I am living proof of the inaccuracy of this old adage.
