Have You Played Pickleball?

This past weekend in Kansas City, my girlfriend’s mother invited us to play a game of pickleball with her. I had some vague recollections about the game from high school gym class (which we played on tennis courts), but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the local park had nice, real pickleball courts. 8 of them fit into a court that would otherwise only fit 2 tennis courts.

Pickleball is kind of a hybrid between tennis and ping pong. You play with small wooden or graphite paddles and a wiffle ball. There’s a zone near the net that you can’t be touching if you hit the ball out of the air instead of letting it bounce.

Aside from the scorching sun, I was surprised by how much fun the game was. The small size of the court makes the action almost constant, and the nature of the wiffle ball kind of levels the playing field for different skill levels. It was really easy to pick up, and all of us improved rapidly over the hour or so that we played.

Just like disc golf, which I mentioned yesterday, I would be more than happy to play pickleball in the future. Have you tried it?

3 thoughts on “Have You Played Pickleball?”

  1. The last time I played Pickleball was in high school gym class, it was the 80’s!!!!. We played inside on the basketball courts in one of the gyms. It is fast-paced. We described it as ping pong, but your standing on the table to emphasize the smaller court size.

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  2. I love that game. Was playing all the time with some of my buddies before COVID closed the gym. Our town has an outdoor court at one of the parks though and I’ve been eager to get back into it. Such a great game for the reasons you noted.

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  3. I’ve never tried it! However, I have a coworker who played a few years ago and spoke of it frequently. I’d be interested in playing if you and Megan need someone to play against in STL.

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