You’re Such a Good Sport!

You’re Such a Good Sport!

A love letter to a game with a silly, silly name

by Sharon Blair

I’m lucky to know intimately about good things with awkward — or at least unusual — names. I had the chance once to write about Heifer International (then Heifer Project) for The Wall Street Journal. Heifer’s name is merely unusual, and I could play with the name as a way to get into the story about the organization’s giving milk to the world, both literally and figuratively.

Now, the “things with odd names” in my life includes “pickleball.”  Sweet, sweet pickleball. And, its silly name gives me a way into a story about a really serious sport.

I don’t mean to offend the Washington State family who invented the sport, combining aspects of tennis, badminton, and ping pong on their lawn. I’m really grateful to them for creating something that’s brought me so much pleasure. I can only wish, though, that their dog “Pickle” hadn’t loved to chase the whiffle ball that was central to the family’s game, and in the process, got a great sport forever smeared with a silly, silly name.

Call me shallow, but I had been asked to play pickleball for over a year before I even checked it out because it sounded so silly. But hear me out, people, this is a serious sport.

————–

No apology offered for pickleball being played mostly in retirement communities in the south and west. Yes, it’s a little easier on older ankles and knees than its forebears. But, it’s very fast — played mostly at the net — and requires a considerable amount of skill. My tennis playing friends are amazed — although they won’t admit to each other that they’ve even held a pickleball racquet in their hands — they’re amazed at the speed of the volleys, of the difficulty of returning a spinning ball, and at the fact that the plastic ball full of holes dies shortly after bouncing, unlike a tennis ball, which keeps moving for a while.

All the serving and jumping and slamming and finessing a drop shot by us seniors is paying off: pickleball is growing in leaps and bounds. This year, for the first time, it’s a sport in the Senior Games.

The Massachusetts Senior Games for pickleball will be played this weekend in Wayland, and at last report, close to 50 seniors from around the state are registered in singles, men and women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. At least six of the registrants, including me, play together at the Chatham Recreation Department on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I’m grateful, as are the players from Brewster, Orleans, and Harwich, that the Chatham folks welcomed us to their courts as nonresidents.

Pickleball is becoming so popular that I’m certain of two things. One, we’re going to have to find more places to play, and two, there’s now no way to change the silly name.

Pickleball forever!

Amen.