Pickle-Ball Queen — Can I love the Game as Much as I Love Tennis?
I always thought that the game of pickle-ball was comparable to wiffle-ball and baseball — you know, wiffle-ball is the poor cousin of the mighty game of baseball. As it was with wiffle-ball so was it with pickle-ball. It sure couldn’t compete with the great game of tennis, a game I’ve played since I was twelve-years-old. And anyway, wasn’t pickle-ball for ‘old’ people who no longer played tennis? I had to research this new game and see what the interest was all about.
Let’s begin with how it got started. It was invented in 1965 by a couple in Washington State to keep their kids amused and moving and is a sport that can be played indoors or outdoors. It requires a solid faced paddle and two or four players who hit a perforated hollow polymer ball over a 36- inch high net. The rules state that both sides hit the ball back and forth over the net until one side commits a rule infraction, such as hitting the ball into the net or stepping on an area close to the net called the kitchen, two seven-foot-areas. It kind of resembles tennis, but the court is less than a third the size of a tennis court.
Besides the light weight ball and ping pong size paddles, the rules for scoring are different. All serves are made with an underhand stroke and the rule is something called side-out scoring, where only the serving team can score a point. While tennis games are typically played from the back of the court, pickle-ball is played closer to the net.
While the game may have started out being popular among the double-nickel and over crowd in sunny climes like Florida, Arizona, and California, the average age of pickle-ball players in 2021 was 38. Now in 2022, 27 percent of players are in the age bracket 18–34. This is the highest among all the age groups and shows that pickle-ball is gaining traction among younger people.
So, of course I had to play the game just to compare it to my beloved tennis. I planned out my weekend and played pickle-ball on Saturday morning then played tennis on Sunday morning. I chose the same early morning times, 9:00 am, and did the same amount of prep stretching and breathing for both. Here’s my comparison of pickle-ball vs tennis.
To begin with, I found pickle-ball to be less strenuous than tennis and that was a concern of mine. I love slamming that round yellow ball as fast as I can with as much accuracy as I can. It’s an excellent stress reliever.
Pickle-ball is slower paced because the speed of the ball, which is lighter and perforated for air flow, can’t be hit it with the same power as you do with a tennis ball. However, I did find that the sport offers a good enough — note that I say ‘good enough’ — workout in terms of cardio as well as strength training for the lower body. As with any type of moving, including walking, a certain number of calories are burned so pickle-ball does help to rev up the metabolism.
The movement is what counts. You do focus on your balance and need to be conscious of both hand-eye coordination as well as foot work. However, I did get a little frustrated while playing pickle-ball as it is not as fast-paced as tennis. There were times that I felt as if I was moving in slow motion.
My tennis set was different. Tennis is a great cardiovascular workout. It increases your heart rate and your breathing. The muscles of your lower body muscles, the large ones, are engaged for quick side-to-side and front-to-back movements and your upper body muscles get a superb workout when you swing the racket. Tennis serves as a fantastic total-body workout and is a calorie-crushing workout as well.
It helps with your balance too since it requires a tremendous amount of balance, postural stability, and coordination. In other words, if you play even a short set or practice against a wall, you’re helping improve all of these areas.
Will I play pickle-ball again? The answer is a surprising, to me, yes. I’m definitely a tennis girl but there is a pickle-ball indoor court close to me. I will use the court twice a month just to make a change in my exercise routines. It’s good to have variety.
Tennis and pickle-ball can be friends it seems.
© 2022 Kristen Houghton all rights reserved
