pickleball

[spacefem]

siglinde999 asked why pickleball is fun, so I thought I'd make an entry about it.

my family isn't devoted pickleball pros or anything but we picked it up this year because it's free to play at our employee club. I think it wins out as a family activity compared to other sports. I'll go down the list...

Tennis is an outdoor activity and it is too damn windy in Kansas, if you play tennis here you really hate yourself.

Easy for kids to play. My eight year old is NOT going to get a basketball into a basketball hoop any time soon... I know some eight year olds are an exception to this, but really, pickleball takes no strength to get the ball over the net. Same with volleyball.

Badminton bats have really long handles so if you need to be a lot more aware of your surroundings, especially your partner, if you're going to swing one of those around.

Racquetball goes way too fast.

Table tennis is equally fun but probably not as good of a cardio workout, plus the table is a little more work to move. Pickleball courts are just the right size to wear you out in 30-60 minutes and my child can get the stand out for the net.

So I think that's why pickleball is taking off. Easy to set up, easy to pack away. The ball moves slow enough that you can be a little bit relaxed about it, any age can dive into it and learn the ropes. I've seen it take up entire dead malls in other cities, there's the whole Chicken-n-pickle franchise where people can rent courts, it's just kind of in the sweet spot of recreational goodness.