Let's Play Pickleball

{ON THE SCENE}

Let's Play Pickleball

New court sport craze gets a fresh review

Story by Dalondo Moultrie | Photos by Felicia Frazar

I was once a fairly active individual.Don’t get me wrong. I have never fancied myself an athlete or to be in any semblance of great shape, but I had been known to move around and increase my heart rate from time to time.

Things changed as I aged and then changed a bit in the other direction when my son, now 10 years old, was born. Then COVID happened and I basically ceased all activity.

So, when the powers that be at Seguin Magazine suggested I write a first-hand account of my attempts at learning my way around a pickleball court, I was skeptical to say the least.

However, I decided to give it the old college try and must say, I didn’t hate it. More importantly, I didn’t hurt myself in my crash course into the sport provided by avid pickleballers Brianna and Tom Teboe of Seguin. They assured me I could handle the sport and took it easy on me in their demonstrations.

“There’s kids that play all the way up to 90-year-olds,” Brianna said, assuaging my hesitation to take a crack at it. “Then there are people from all athletic abilities.”

Pickleball is a sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton and ping-pong played indoors or outdoors on a badminton-sized court with a modified tennis net. Players use paddles and plastic balls with holes in them and compete in singles or doubles matches.

The game has been around since 1965, when a pair of men in Washington State made it up to give the bored, teenage son of one of the game’s creators something to do on a lazy summer day, according to USA Pickleball, the national governing body for the sport in this country.

Though it’s been around longer than half a century, pickleball has begun to pick up steam in recent years. It has become increasingly popular, the USA Pickleball website read.

“Pickleball has evolved from original handmade equipment and simple rules into a popular sport throughout the U.S. and Canada,” the site reads. “The game is growing internationally as well, with many European and Asian countries adding courts.”

The game’s expansion even led city leaders in Seguin to construct a complex dedicated to pickleball. Unveiled late last year, the Seguin-Saegert Pickleball Complex at 418 W. Mountain St. provides hours upon hours of entertainment for locals and visitors to Seguin, said Eddy Wilson, a Seguinite who’s played pickleball about three years and helped convince city leaders to build the new courts.

“We have people come from San Antonio, we have people come from New Braunfels, San Marcos,” he said. “I played with some people from Ohio. They were just in the area. It’s a great draw the city has been able to produce and build. It’s a great facility, one of the nicest in the area.”

The courts open at 8 a.m. and have lighting to allow play until 10 p.m. There are wind guards and plans for restrooms, a pavilion and more at the courts.

It all comes together to provide what seems to be a very enjoyable experience. As for my attempts at learning the game, they were, shall we say, uneventful. Practicing some volleys and ground strokes with Tom, I never quite identified the perfect amount of force or top spin needed to successfully return the ball.

He very kindly reassured me that I was doing fine, but I know better.

The impromptu and brief pickleball lesson the Teboes provided me was fun enough and I see where one could derive some excitement for the game, but it just didn’t seem like the sport for me, though they assured me I am wrong.

“Once you get started, you’re hooked,” Tom asserted.

Maybe I didn’t actually start and can’t form a proper opinion. But until, and if, I ever start in earnest and get hooked, I think I’ll stick to my COVID-learned ways of sitting on the sofa staring at a TV screen, sometimes with my son playing his video games.

That is, unless the lad decides pickleball is for him and then it will be for me, as well. Maybe then I’ll be hooked.