Hangin' out with all our new senior buddies, this was bound to happen.
My Fella and I have fallen hard for Pickleball.
Pickleball is the fastest growing sport you've never heard of - a cross between tennis and ping pong. It's played on a surface the size of a badminton court, over a net 34" at the center and 36" high at each end - a few inches lower than a regulation tennis net.
And apparently Pickleball was named after the founders' dog Pickles who chased around the balls, which to me is reason enough to love it :)
Tennis has been my sport of choice since my teens and My Fella and I have been playing regularly, five times a week...
Until I recently got tennis elbow - from ten pin bowling, of all things. My tennis game has really gone downhill, and my lack of strength when trying to grip a tennis racket is just frustrating.
Several of our neighbours here at Dodge City RV (including Uncle Jerry and Auntie Iko next door) all rave about pickleball, so we fell victim to peer pressure and gave it a try. Turns out we love it.
We're still learning the rules, but it's more exciting and a much better work-out playing our own style: No Rules Extreme Pickleball. Yup, we made that up, but it works for us.
The pickleball addiction has hit so hard that we're springing for our own pickleball paddles and balls. And we have to buy everything online since we can't find them in any local sports stores. The rackets cost $30 to $60 bucks each and a bag of a dozen balls is $20.
It's an easy sport to learn and extremely fun to play. And if you go all out with Extreme Pickleball, you'll get an excellent cardio workout.
My Fella and I will definitely be bringing our new balls and paddles home to play Extreme Pickleball at our local outdoor tennis court in the BC backwoods. After reading how little exercise most Canadians get I'm hoping the sport eventually catches on in Canada as well.
*Another quick entertainment note: We recently caught The Social Network at a matinee at the cheap theatre in Tucson - $1.50 each. Haven't paid that price for a movie ticket since junior high. The Social Network is loosely based on the creation of Facebook, by Mark Zuckerberg and pals. The flick is excellent, especially since Facebook just raised $1.5 billion in investor cash from Goldman Sachs. Two paws up for The Social Network.
Pickleball?? Me thinks you have been hanging out in Arizona tooooo long lol.
Just kidding, sounds like fun. I heard some of the people in San Carlos talking about it one year; but I don't think many had heard of it at that time. So maybe the next time you come down you can find some people here to play with if you ask around.
When are you coming back down? I assume you will be.
Hi to Shelbert.
Posted by: Brenda | January 22, 2011 at 11:21 AM
Hola Brenda - I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be many people interested in playing our version of the game - we call it PBE (Pickle Ball Extreme).
I'm just glad we both have medical travel insurance :)
Posted by: kelsi | January 22, 2011 at 03:02 PM
Oh, you made me google. Pickleball sounds like loads of fun!
If the pickleball net is supposed to be lower than a tennis net and the court is smaller, do you just move the net and pretend the tennis court is smaller? I'm not sure if I can play any kind of ball sports though, the dog goes kind of ape when he sees balls bouncing around. It's pure torture for him to walk past our local tennis court.
Posted by: Jacq @ Single Mom Rich Mom | January 22, 2011 at 03:13 PM
jjolie - when My Fella and I get back to BC and play PBE on our local (usually empty) tennis court we won't move the net but we probably will bring duct tape to mark our own lines, at least the corners.
That's cute about your dog. But that's his job - chasing balls. And speaking of dogs, any bites on your house? :)
Posted by: kelsi | January 22, 2011 at 04:30 PM
Yah, I think the Extreme part of your game might be a bit much for the people here, considering the average age lol.
Enjoy.
Posted by: Brenda | January 22, 2011 at 06:30 PM
Pickleball? Sounds fun! Hope you can post the rules of the game here. I was also an avid tennis player and having heard it from you, I was getting excited with he idea of playing it.:)
Posted by: Brad Fallon | January 23, 2011 at 06:28 PM
Hey Brad - I might do a future post about the rules, but since we play our own style of game, our rules are a little more loose.
It's a great game for a former tennis junkie: You don't need as much power in your swing as tennis and you don't use your knees as much, but you can still get an excellent workout.
Posted by: kelsi | January 24, 2011 at 06:26 AM