You Will Love Playing Pickelball In Lansing

What the heck is going on with pickleball? Pickleball is a sport that I used to hear about the "elderly" playing. Pickelball is really popular and it's popularity is growing fast around the United States and right here in mid Michigan and Lansing.

2 years ago while my family and I were on a trip to Missouri we discovered that my wife's best friend plays a lot of pickleball, I asked her "what, are you 80?". Although she laughed at my sarcasm and apparent ignorance she informed me that it's a really popular sport and you might be surprised by how many people play that are under the age of 80.

After that experience I was inundated with people coming out of the woodwork claiming that they love pickleball and play it a too. I must have missed something over the past decade. I even have a pickelball set at home that I have never used. Sounds like I should try something that is obvious I've been missing out on.

What is pickleball? Here's a crash course from Wikipedia:

Pickleball is an indoor or outdoor racket/paddle sport where two players (singles), or four players (doubles), hit a perforated hollow plastic ball over a 36-inch-high (0.91 m) net using solid-faced paddles. Opponents on either side of the net hit the ball back and forth until one side commits a rule infraction. Pickleball was invented in 1965 as a children's backyard game on Bainbridge Island, Washington, United States. In 2022, pickleball was adopted as the official state sport of Washington.
The appearance of a pickleball court, and the manner of play, resembles tennis or ping pong but the court is the size of a doubles badminton court, less than a third the size of a tennis court. And a paddle larger than table tennis paddles. Court lines and rules are specific to pickleball and include two 7-foot areas (2.1 m) on either side of the net known as the non-volley zones, where the ball cannot be hit with the paddle unless the ball bounces first. The official rules specify side-out scoring, where only the serving team can score a point. All serves are made with an underhand stroke. The hard plastic ball used in pickleball produces significantly less bounce than softer flexible balls, such as a tennis ball. The minimal bounce combined with the non-volley zone and underhand serve give the game dynamic pace and strategy ranging from soft dink shots that stay within the two non-volley zones to powerful drive shots and overhead smash shots. To minimize any advantage the serving or receiving side might have at the beginning of the game, the ball must bounce once on each side of the net before either team may volley the ball, which is to hit the ball in the air before it bounces

Ok, that's a quick "101" on the game and the rules. It's time to head out and crush it at the Lansing area pickleball facilities. I am up for a competitive game of a sport I've never played. Maybe I'll see you out on the court playing at one of the following locations in the Lansing area. Let's play for money.