scene on the court
Occasional Observations from a Pickleball Curmudgeon
By Craig Laughlin
Old Men Behaving Badly
After years of seeking a “ snowbird ” destination with an abundance of pickleball courts , my wife Barbie and I decided to check out — a master-planned agerestricted community in north-central Florida . With its lush green surroundings and facilities , and a population of over 130,000 , we soon came to share the locals ’ love for their “ lifestyle community .”
While the overwhelming majority of the pickleball players are friendly and welcoming , I ’ ve been dismayed by a small number of men I see behaving badly . With an average age of 71.7 , I would have expected testosterone levels to have dropped enough to eliminate the chest puffing and confrontational behavior one might expect to see in younger men still actively seeking to disseminate their genes into the gene pool . While that ’ s true of most , the following scenes exemplify notable exceptions .
The club makes safety a priority , and stresses ( beginning with the introductory pickleball classes ) that to avoid player / gate collisions , entry gates should always be opened outward . When an advanced player recently opened a gate inward , he was reminded by one of the introductory instructors ( who happened to be playing on an adjacent court ) to open it outward . According to one observer , the chest puffing confrontation that followed narrowly avoided escalation .
Rather than being resolved with a simple , “ Sorry , I forgot ,” the incident carried over to the club ’ s Facebook page , where the perpetrator complained about having been “ embarrassed ” by being challenged to follow the guidelines and attempted to justify his behavior by disparaging the playing ability of “ the so-called instructor ” ( his words ) who had asked him to open the gate outward . Seriously , dude ?
On another occasion , Barbie and I were sitting on a bench adjacent to the “ ESPN court ” ( the one closest to the fence where everyone lines up to play next ). It was a cold morning , so Barbie left to stand in the sun for a few minutes . In the meantime , another player jumped the line and sat down by me . When Barbie returned and stood next to us , he said , “ Social distancing , please .” When I pointed out that he had taken Barbie ’ s spot and asked that he make room for her , he refused . We were up next , so we let it go . When we finished our game , Mr . Social Distance was next in line . As he was entering the court , one of our opponents told him he was tired of his behavior ( the guy was known for being a jerk and our opponent had apparently had a bellyful of him ), to which Mr . Social Distance responded with threats to “ beat the [ expletive ]” out of our opponent or run him over in the parking lot .
While scenes such as these are infrequent , they are , unfortunately , not unusual — nor are they restricted to a particular club . As I ’ ve never witnessed a woman threatening to beat the bejeebers out of someone on the pickleball court , might I suggest we men try to be a little more in touch with our feminine sides ? Let ’ s remember that the game we love was created with the expectation of fostering good sportsmanship , courtesy , cooperation , and most important of all , fun . •