Just when I thought I’d at least tried every sport involving hand-eye coordination, a ball and a plate-like object (i.e. a paddle or a racquet), along comes pickle-ball. This strange new permutation of tennis resembles paddle tennis but without the platform or the tightly fenced enclosure. And here’s another distinction: it involves a perforated plastic sphere more like a whiffle ball than a tennis ball.
Maybe I’m late to the pickle party, but I only found out about this game last week via a short video on the front page of my iPad Wall Street Journal subscription. The title of that piece was “Move Over, Tennis, Pickleball Is Here!”
The challenge to my favorite participatory sport having been laid down, I executed a web search that landed me on the pickle-ball homepage (the compound word pickle-ball adorned with a gaudy registered trademark symbol, which should tell you something not good), where I learned:
- That pickle-ball was invented on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle.
- That it began in the summer of 1965, the same year Ralph Nader wrote Unsafe at Any Speed.
- That one of its co-inventors was U.S. Congressman Joel Pritchard.
- That it’s played on a surface with the dimensions of a badminton doubles court (less than a third the size of a doubles tennis court) and a net 34-36 inches high.
- That the game takes its name not from the strange ball or the condition of its players but from Pritchard’s family dog, Pickles, who used to fetch errant balls from the bushes.
According to the Journal, this 35-year-old game has recently captured the imagination of retirement community residents looking for a sport with less impact on the body than tennis. In other words, they get to exercise their reflexes a lot and their feet a little, with most of the activity coming from exchanges at the net using wooden paddles.
Well, of course, if your choice is between sitting in a chair and playing pickle-ball, this is a step in the right direction. But am I the only one who finds all of this a little suspect?
A sport involves the combination of skill and physical exertion. No doubt the definition of “physical exertion” lends itself to a wide range of interpretations and nearly any activity requiring repeated use of hand-eye coordination offers the opportunity to bring skill to bear. But is there not something inelegant going on here — at least a dumbing down of our notion of racquet sports and more so an exploitation of one of our worst instincts: our desire to play with minimal exertion?
That registered trademark speaks loudly. You trademark Kadima, not paddleball. You trademark particular games, not entire sports.
Yes, I know, there’s a long history of commercially exploiting the great sports, but James Naismith didn’t stick a trademark on basketball. Walter camp didn’t stick a trademark on football.
More than that, this disquisition has me wondering what makes some sports resonate more than others. Why is racquetball — which certainly provides a great deal of exercise and does require some skill — persistently considered a low-rent cousin to squash? Why can’t paddle tennis shake an element of ridiculousness — despite its country club popularity?
The greatest sports, I think, are those that tax the best athletes to their very limits, yet remain accessible to mere mortals. They offer competitors the opportunity to express both power and finesse, speed and control. And in these sports while — like any human endeavor — the occasional point may be subject to the whims of chance, the outcomes of entire games and sets rarely are.
By these standards, it's hard to imagine that the great sport of tennis will be cast aside for a game that involves hitting a whiffle ball over a net with a wooden paddle on a rump court. Doing so may prove to be fun for some, but don't count on it ever rising to greatness. And, notwithstanding the nice plug for this game from the Journal, therein lies the pickle for whomever holds the trademark to pickle-ball.
I just started to play pickleball on my winter visit in Florida 2012 I love it. I use a very light graphite paddle which is less stressful on my wrists. We play with 4 people on a shorter and narrower tennis court. I get plenty of exercise and get at least good workout. Recommend it hightly
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