Snowbirds help spread new sport -- pickleball
By GAIL WESSON, The Press-Enterprise, 9:14 PM PST on Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The playing field is the size of a badminton court, the ball looks like a Whiffle ball with smaller holes, and players use a paddle larger than a pingpong paddle instead of a racket.
Ask RV snowbirds in Menifee what the heck this is and you'll probably get invited to take a lesson in how to play it. Pickleball, a sport with roots dating back four decades in Washington state, has recently gained a following in the Inland area.
Some retirement developments have courts, as does the Valley-Wide Recreation and Park District's new Diamond Valley Community Park in Hemet. Next month, it's a featured sport in the Palm Desert International Sports Festival, a city-sponsored athletic event billed for "mature adults." There are brackets for players 35 and older, according to the event's Web site.
By far the most interest in casual pickleball games and competitive tournaments is from the snowbirds who flit from one membership RV park to another during the winter season.
"It's really growing in the senior communities," said Phyllis Hershey, a Menifee resident and local ambassador for the USA Pickleball Association, the sport's promotional organization.
Hershey, 72, a senior softball player, started playing pickleball about two years ago.
"A lot of the girls who play softball were starting to play it," she said by phone.
She has played at public courts in Bonsall, and meets friends to play at the private Tuscany Hills development in Lake Elsinore. She also plays with people who stay at membership RV resorts, such as Wilderness Lakes, a Thousand Trails park in Menifee.
Jesse Dawson, another pickleball ambassador, is a snowbird who spends fall and winter at membership parks such as Wilderness Lakes and several in the Coachella Valley.
Dawson approached the city of Palm Desert about adding pickleball to the senior sports festival in 2006, and she has coordinated the event for the past three years. It drew 153 players in 2008, she said.
What's in a Name?
People often ask how the game got its name.
One of the game's founders had a dog named Pickle who chased the balls, Dawson and other players recounted.
"Everybody says, 'Why don't you change the name?' We like it," she said.
At Wilderness Lakes, about a dozen people showed up on a recent overcast Monday to play doubles, and teach any newcomers.
Although Russ Draper, 73, lived in Seattle before retiring from his job as a delivery truck driver, he had never heard of pickleball until he and his wife joined the snowbird set.
He has only played for a few months but says, "I love the people and I love the exercise and I like to learn."
Charlene Whisler, 68, has been a player-teacher for seven years on the road here and back home in Washington state.
She has taught all ages, and says the chance to hit a ball hard appeals to younger players.
Other players say the sport has a following among aging tennis players.
While it's definitely aerobic exercise, "For older people, it's not as much ground to cover," Whisler said, because of the smaller court dimensions.
In fact, players often use tennis courts, marking the boundaries of the smaller pickleball court with removable blue painter's tape.
Growing Sport
Back in Hemet, the two public courts at Diamond Valley were installed adjacent to Valley-Wide's regional aquatic facility in 2006.
Valley-Wide board member and pickleball player Jan Bissell said the sport is growing, but, except for competitions such as the Valley-Wide OLDlympics senior games, is mostly a recreational sport.
"You don't have to be a great athlete to play it. It's really easy to learn," Bissell said.
Mostly on weekends or spring and summer evenings, Bissell said, he calls up friends for round-robin games. Some players are racquetball enthusiasts, but he said pickleball is "a lot easier on your ankles and your knees."
For information about the Palm Desert games, go to the Desert Recreation District Web site, www.cvrpd.org. The Web site of the USA Pickleball Association, www.usapa.org, offers more information about the sport.
Reach Gail Wesson at 951 763-3455 or gwesson@PE.com
Pickleball
The game is played by two or four players on a badminton-size court with a slightly lower net, with a small Whiffle-type ball with smaller holes, and rectangular wood or composition paddles slightly larger than pingpong paddles.
The serve: The paddle must be held below the waistline and the serve is hit underhand.
The volley: After each serve, the ball must bounce once on each side before players may start volleying the ball (hitting it in the air, rather than after a bounce).
No-volley zone: A 7-foot-deep area closest to the net where players cannot hit balls that haven't bounced.
Scoring: Teams play to 11 points, and a team must win by two points.
Sources: USA PickLeball Association, Valley-Wide Recreation and Park District