Senior Living - Commonwealth Journal 2021 | Page 27

very good friends .
“ We definitely have a lot of fun playing together ,” stated Taylor . “ Pickleball is a cross between ping-pong , tennis , and badminton . The court is just over half the size of a tennis court , and that ’ s important . Take senior citizens for example -- they do not have the agility or the mobility to get up the court very fast as far as running . The size of the Pickleball court is much smaller than a tennis court , and most of the time we ’ re playing doubles , so there ’ s not as much ground to cover .”
Taylor says the sport -- in its infancy -- was mainly for senior citizen that were living out and enjoying their retirement years . But , that has now changed in the 21st Century . Taylor says that Pickleball today is being enjoyed by just about every segment age-wise in our society .
“ Pickleball is a sport that basically started out being played with retired people in the beginning ,” stated Taylor . “ It has changed so much , that earlier this year in the state of Florida there was a tournament held , and over 2,100 people showed up to play . The age bracket for that tournament went from nine to 90 years old , so that just shows it ’ s a sport that can be played by anyone , and it ’ s a sport gaining in popularity at a very rapid pace .”
So , what in the world is Pickleball and when and where did it start ?
The sport got its origin back in the summer 1965 , and was the brain child of Congressman Joel Pritchard , along with his friends , Barney McCallum and Bill Bell .
The three men went golfing one day , and came back to Pritchard ’ s house on a wet and rainy day in Bainbridge , Washington .
Pritchard decided he wanted to get the kids out of the house and doing something , so they went to the back yard to the tennis court .
Pritchard picked up a couple of ping-pong paddles , and got a wiffle ball , and told the kids to hit the ball back and forth on the tennis court as if they were playing tennis . It ’ s that simple . Pickleball is just like tennis , except it ’ s played on a much smaller court , with a different kind of ball , and uses a wooden paddle to hit the ball instead of a racquet .
And to garner a victory , a player has to reach the score of 21 -- easy as that .
And , that ’ s the amazing story of how this sport got its very humble beginning .
Since that rainy day , one might say the rest is history .
Here are some important dates for the sport of Pickleball , which shows just how far it has come since those humble beginnings in the back yard of a Congressman ’ s house in Washington State .
1976 -- The very first Pickleball Tournament was held in Tushiba , Washington .
1984 -- The United States of America Pickleball Association ( USA-PA ) was founded .
Winners from a recent Pickeball competition . Arlene Dishman and Brenda Parsons from Campbellsville , Lisa Kallevig from Oneida , Tn , and Palma Girdler , Somerset . All tied for first place with 33 points each .
Photo submitted 2021 SENIOR LIVING • 27