An Old Document From 2016 - Before the Blog

Going through my saved documents on my memory stick this afternoon, I found this document. I thought I'd post to the blog since it was written before COVID started.

6 February 2016

My new exercise passion is Pickleball. It’s a combination of tennis, ping pong, and badminton with shades of racquetball thrown in. Played with a paddle resembling something between a ping pong paddle and a racquetball racquet, on a court about half the size of a tennis court, with a baseball-size whiffleball, it was invented in the Pacific Northwest back in the 1960’s by some enterprising young adults who wanted something different to do one day. Today it is played across the country, primarily by the older generation, and especially around retirement communities and other locations where such geriatric folks find themselves.

I got into it last October when I saw an ad about a “pickleball open house” in the local weekly newspaper. So a good friend, Chuck, and I decided to try it out. And we got hooked. So hooked since that time I have suffered black toe from too small shoes and a shoulder injury from swinging the paddle. The shoulder is still injured from falling on the ice after a recent snowfall. I haven’t played in three going on four weeks. I’ve tried to stay in the mindset by watching YouTube videos.

My stamina and breathing are better, it helps my knees, and helps keep the weight off. We play two mornings each week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, for about an hour and a half each time. I usually get in 4-5 games, which last from 5-15 minutes each, usually averaging about 9-10 minutes. It all depends on the competition. Usually, my games are shorter since of the about 40 members, I am decidedly the worst, or as I call it, the least skilled of all of them.

The uniform is modest. Just sweats or shorts, a T-shirt, and some tennis shoes are all one needs. I often wear a ball cap since my hair is not washed before I go in the mornings and it tends to scare the others. I also wear a baseball glove for my paddle hand since I do sweat a lot. When it is cold, I wear the pair. We play indoors at the pavilion complex at W&L where the college plays volleyball and similar sports. This is during the winter. When it gets warmer during the summer, we will play on VMI’s tennis courts.

Secretly, I hope this will eventually lead to my return to running. But that’s another story.