Increasingly, longtime tennis and racquetball players have started transitioning to pickleball. This is because they’re getting older and slower, and their younger, faster former tennis / racquetball partners have hinted to them, “Hey, buddy, have you ever considered switching to pickleball?”
Pickleball blends aspects of ping pong, tennis, and racquetball to create a game that moves quickly and gives players a false sense that they are actually getting a lot of vigorous exercise. They are not.
Pickleball can be played as a singles game between two players or doubles with four. In rare instances, there have been groups of up to 20 players on the court at once, but that’s mostly just when Ms. Warner’s kindergarten class at Beaverton Elementary School storms the pickleball court in in an attempt to create chaos. Kindergarteners are notoriously bad at following the rules of pickleball – or for that matter any other rule Ms. Warner asks them to obey. She’s a bit of a pushover, to be honest.
To play the game, all you need are a net (no, not a fishing net, more like a tennis court net) a paddle (no, not a kayak paddle), a wiffle ball (no, you don’t need a baseball bat, just the wiffle ball), and the ability to count to 11. If you suck at math, don’t worry. So do I. Skill is not a pre-requisite to play this sport, as evidenced by the fact that several people familiar with my lack of athletic ability have invited me to play pickleball with them – but usually only once.
The sport is easy to learn, which would explain why you can pretty much figure out all the rules by watching a 90-second YouTube instructional video. But with practice, some players have become incredibly skilled at the sport. I try to avoid those people, as they are not good for my fragile self-esteem.
– Tim Jones [Check out more of Tim’s View from the Bleachers humor column in the Crab Cracker, at www.ViewFromTheBleachers.net and his YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/viewfromthebleachers]
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