Pickleball

 I don't think I've talked about pickleball and yet it has become a big part of our lives.

Theres a pickleball court at a park very close to our house. I don't remember how we found out about it or exactly why Frank became interested but one day he decided we should play.

I have NO training in any sort of racket sport: terrible at tennis and have only played a few times, always chasing the ball in ping pong, never played racquetball etc.  So I assumed I would be terrible.  And, well, I am not good.  But, even with my lack of skills, pickleball is pretty fun!

We've been playing for about a year now!

We play once or twice a week on average and almost always have lots of fun.

Theres a big family group that comes to the same courts we do. They bring food and music and chairs and just have a grand ol' time. They laugh so much!  It really seems like they are having the time of their lives.  They are also very good at pickleball and super fun to watch.  Frank can be pretty competitive so he sometimes gets worked up about how bad we are or how we lose too much or whatever and I have to point out the family and say "we need to be more like them!  Remember we are here to have fun!"  haha

I have definitely improved over the last year but I'm still sort of the "weak link" in the team.  We play with a couple of neighbors and sometimes we switch up the teams so Frank can win. ha!  Lately I have been feeling more frustrated at all the mistakes I make. So we decided, for fun, to take a pickleball lesson when we went to St. George to celebrate our anniversary. 

The first day our lesson was at 5 pm and it was 102 degrees. It was not fun.  Turns out, that's too hot.  So we signed up for a second lesson a couple of days later and the weather was lovely, thank heaven.

Ever since then, I have played worse than ever!  Gah!  I assume I'm thinking too much now.

Oh well!  I will still play pickleball (until I jack up my knee too bad) and have a fun time doing it.

I really love that we have something that is both active and that Frank and I both enjoy doing!

Fun facts and stories related to pickleball:

After our discovery of the nearby courts, Frank went to buy some paddles. He had played pickleball back in the day in Portland when he worked at the bread plant. It's a wooden paddle and a wiffle ball.  Well, pickleball has evolved and he discovered all these high tech paddles that were like $50 a piece.  He didn't know which one was best, so in typical Frank style, he bought 4.  He figured we'd need extra so we could invite others to play. 

I hate singles and love doubles.  WAY too much running around with singles especially when playing someone who can aim the ball at the opposite side of the court you are on (i.e. everyone but me).  When I hit the ball, it's a surprise to even me where it may land. LOL

We bought balls and rackets at a local sporting goods store, knowing nothing about the game. One day, pretty early on, we asked this random couple of guys if they wanted to play doubles with us.  They were way better than us.  They scoffed at our balls and called them beginner balls (yellow) and showed us the balls that are used in tournaments (green).  They creamed us in one game and then declined to play again (we were that bad).  Frank, not to be deterred, sat on the bench right there and ordered the green pickleball balls from Amazon. He wanted to learn with the right equipment!  He can't be convinced to play with the yellow balls now. ha!

We usually play in the evenings after work. So we'll start at like 7 and we often play til 9:30 or later. We have played in the wind and rain and played until the court lights go out at 10:30 PM! On a work night! We played all winter long on the milder days. We played in coats and gloves.  We once went to play on the pretty nice winter day only to discover that we weren't the only ones with that idea.  Only two of the 6 courts were usable due to snow/ice on the surface. Someone brought a couple of snow shovels and when it was our turn to be waiting, we would work on the 3rd court, shoveling and chipping away at the ice.  Everyone helped. I was so proud of us for working together like that though we were strangers to each other. We did eventually get the 3rd court to be usable. It was awesome.