PICKLEBALL

Last Saturday, there was a patio sale at our resort from 8 a.m. to noon and it was a fun, social event.  A patio sale is the same as a garage sale but no one here has a garage so they had to come up with another name.  We rode our bikes around all the sections of the resort and looked at the different items for sale—golf clubs, cups, glasses, handmade jewelery and crafty things, used kitchen small appliances, etc.  We were specifically looking for pickleball paddles as we were interested in trying out the game, which is similar to tennis, but didn't want to invest in new paddles that started at about $65 each.  We found one fairly early on and then had to search quite a while to find a second paddle—no point in buying just one.  We were able to make good deals on both paddles—one for $15 and the other for $20.

So that afternoon, we headed over to the pickleball courts and played our first games.  We had researched how to play online and had watched people playing a couple of times over the past few weeks and had a good idea of what to do. Pickleball is sort of like table tennis on steroids.  The game is played on a court that is one quarter the size of a tennis court with a net that is about the same height.  The court is divided into 2 service areas and a non-volley zone which prevents a player from moving close to the net and slamming the ball down into the opponent’s court.

The equipment is similar to ping pong but the paddles and balls are much larger.

                            

The serve is always underhanded and below your waist height and must land inside the diagonal service area (like tennis).  It must bounce once before it is returned and the hit after the return must also be after the bounce.  After that, you can hit the ball before a bounce (called a volley) or after one bounce.  This makes for quick thinking and quick moves to keep the ball in play.  The scoring is similar to tennis in that you can only win a point when you are serving and the game goes to 11 points.

Pickleball Info:  http://www.usapa.org/whatis_pball/index.php
(Be sure to watch the video)

We played 3 times now.  We quite like it and it is definitely a good workout.  We also had 2 rounds of golf this week. One at Robson Ranch and one at the Dave White Municipal course on the west side of Casa Grande.  Dave White is a nice course with a few water holes that are home to ducks and other birds.

The weather has been great, sunny with high temperatures of 24 or 25 C and it is supposed to stay warm for at least another week.  Even with all the Christmas decorations and music in the stores, it’s hard to believe that Christmas is only 2 weeks away.