thedrifter
02-05-07, 08:16 AM
An enjoyable kind of pickle to be in
Game is cross between tennis and badminton
By Aaron Kinney, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area
Article Last Updated:02/05/2007 02:45:41 AM PST
Pickleball: It's a catchy name for a sport, but it isn't terribly descriptive.
Despite what you may think, it does not involve throwing pickles, kicking pickles or striking them with a wooden bat. Rather, it is a racquet sport that combines elements of badminton and tennis.
Pickleball is most popular in retirement communities in Florida and Arizona. It also is played by schoolchildren, particularly in the state of Washington, where the game was born in 1965.
But there are pockets of devoted pickleball players all across the country. San Carlos resident Greg Komisarek is one. As an ambassador for the USA Pickleball Association, he is working to spread the gospel of pickleball throughout the Peninsula.
Last week Komisarek took his
14-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter to San Mateo's Central Park, where they used half a tennis court for a spirited pickleball match.
Komisarek, 53, pitches the game to local athletic and social clubs as a pastime that is easy to learn, fun to play and perfect for people who have been forced by age or injury to give up tennis.
"It's an instant-gratificationgame, because it's so simple to play, and you get a great physical workout," said Komisarek.
Pickleball is played with wood or composite racquets that look like oversized ping-pong paddles. The ball is similar to a Wiffleball, but harder and pocked with holes that are evenly distributed around its surface.
A pickleball court is 20 feet wide and
44 feet long, the same dimensions as a badminton court. The game is generally played in a doubles format, with two-person teams, and marked by ground strokes, lobs, drop shots and wild exchanges of volleys at the net, which stands 3 feet high.
"I describe it like playing pingpong, but you're standing on the table," said George Brewer, 70, a resident of The Villages retirement community in Lady Lake, Fla., and a pickleball guru.
The Villages may be the Mecca of pickleball. Most recreation centers modify tennis, basketball or badminton courts for the purposes of pickleball. The Villages has 86 dedicated pickleball courts, according to Brewer, and plays host to an annual tournament sponsored by GeezerJock magazine.
Brewer said most of the 6,000 to 8,000 residents who play every week at The Villages do it for the camaraderie and the banter, which is facilitated by the fact that players spend much of their time close to the net.
"Pickleball is certainly a very social game and something (couples) can do together," said Brewer,
Recently, Brewer sent some equipment to a unit of Marines in Iraq, who have taken to playing in one of Saddam Hussein's old palaces.
Pickleball is the brainchild of Joel Pritchard, former lieutenant governor of Washington, and his friends Bill Bell and Barney McCallum. The game was named for Pritchard's dog, Pickles, who, during games at Pritchard's home on Bainbridge Island, made a habit of chasing loose balls.
Pritchard and his friends played the first installments of pickleball with broken-off badminton racquets. Today, there are several companies that manufacture and sell pickleball equipment.
Doug Smith, a nephew of McCallum, is president of Pickleball Inc., a Seattle-based company that sells about 18,000 paddles and 110,000 balls a year. The balls are made in Seattle and Singapore.
The perforations in the ball are essential to how pickleball is played. Air catches the ball as it sails from one side of the net to the other, slowing it down and producing long rallies.
"Your playing strategies are either deep offensive lobs, just like in tennis, or driving shots from the baseline," said Smith. "And then you have what we call the 'dink game,' which is volley exchanges at the net, right behind the no-volley zone."
The 7-foot nonvolley zones on both sides of the court prevent players from crowding the net, allowing for creative drop shots. Hit several of these in a row, and you've got a "dinking session," in the words of Mark Friedenberg, one of the world's top players and author of "The Official Pickleball Handbook."
Friedenberg is also the owner of Pro-Lite Sports, maker of the Pro-Lite series, the "Cadillac" of pickleball paddles. Friedenberg said the demand for his pickleball equipment grew substantially last year, and he expects it to double this year.
Komisarek hopes to provide some of that demand on the Peninsula. Though the sport is not as popular among children in San Mateo County as it is in Seattle, a handful of local schools have the game during gym class.
Patti Blumen, a physical education teacher at Central Middle School in San Carlos, learned the game at a teachers' workshop in San Luis Obispo and "got hooked." Now pickleball is in the gym-class rotation at Central, where it is played on the school's outdoor basketball courts.
The city of San Mateo started a pickleball league in the 1970s, but it never took off. Burlingame City Manager Jim Nantell, who worked for San Mateo at the time, remembers dressing as "Mr. Pickle" as part of a promotional event in 1975 at the Hillsdale mall.
Nantell still plays with friends and family.
"Any neighborhood I move to, I find some surface that I can turn into a pickleball court," said Nantell.
"It's a very minimal cost to get in," said Komisarek, who plays on local tennis courts with his wife and two children. "Paddles are 50 bucks, balls are 10 bucks a dozen, and you're ready to go."
Staff writer Aaron Kinney can be reached at (650) 348-4302 or by e-mail at akinney@sanmateocountytimes.com.
Ellie
Game is cross between tennis and badminton
By Aaron Kinney, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area
Article Last Updated:02/05/2007 02:45:41 AM PST
Pickleball: It's a catchy name for a sport, but it isn't terribly descriptive.
Despite what you may think, it does not involve throwing pickles, kicking pickles or striking them with a wooden bat. Rather, it is a racquet sport that combines elements of badminton and tennis.
Pickleball is most popular in retirement communities in Florida and Arizona. It also is played by schoolchildren, particularly in the state of Washington, where the game was born in 1965.
But there are pockets of devoted pickleball players all across the country. San Carlos resident Greg Komisarek is one. As an ambassador for the USA Pickleball Association, he is working to spread the gospel of pickleball throughout the Peninsula.
Last week Komisarek took his
14-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter to San Mateo's Central Park, where they used half a tennis court for a spirited pickleball match.
Komisarek, 53, pitches the game to local athletic and social clubs as a pastime that is easy to learn, fun to play and perfect for people who have been forced by age or injury to give up tennis.
"It's an instant-gratificationgame, because it's so simple to play, and you get a great physical workout," said Komisarek.
Pickleball is played with wood or composite racquets that look like oversized ping-pong paddles. The ball is similar to a Wiffleball, but harder and pocked with holes that are evenly distributed around its surface.
A pickleball court is 20 feet wide and
44 feet long, the same dimensions as a badminton court. The game is generally played in a doubles format, with two-person teams, and marked by ground strokes, lobs, drop shots and wild exchanges of volleys at the net, which stands 3 feet high.
"I describe it like playing pingpong, but you're standing on the table," said George Brewer, 70, a resident of The Villages retirement community in Lady Lake, Fla., and a pickleball guru.
The Villages may be the Mecca of pickleball. Most recreation centers modify tennis, basketball or badminton courts for the purposes of pickleball. The Villages has 86 dedicated pickleball courts, according to Brewer, and plays host to an annual tournament sponsored by GeezerJock magazine.
Brewer said most of the 6,000 to 8,000 residents who play every week at The Villages do it for the camaraderie and the banter, which is facilitated by the fact that players spend much of their time close to the net.
"Pickleball is certainly a very social game and something (couples) can do together," said Brewer,
Recently, Brewer sent some equipment to a unit of Marines in Iraq, who have taken to playing in one of Saddam Hussein's old palaces.
Pickleball is the brainchild of Joel Pritchard, former lieutenant governor of Washington, and his friends Bill Bell and Barney McCallum. The game was named for Pritchard's dog, Pickles, who, during games at Pritchard's home on Bainbridge Island, made a habit of chasing loose balls.
Pritchard and his friends played the first installments of pickleball with broken-off badminton racquets. Today, there are several companies that manufacture and sell pickleball equipment.
Doug Smith, a nephew of McCallum, is president of Pickleball Inc., a Seattle-based company that sells about 18,000 paddles and 110,000 balls a year. The balls are made in Seattle and Singapore.
The perforations in the ball are essential to how pickleball is played. Air catches the ball as it sails from one side of the net to the other, slowing it down and producing long rallies.
"Your playing strategies are either deep offensive lobs, just like in tennis, or driving shots from the baseline," said Smith. "And then you have what we call the 'dink game,' which is volley exchanges at the net, right behind the no-volley zone."
The 7-foot nonvolley zones on both sides of the court prevent players from crowding the net, allowing for creative drop shots. Hit several of these in a row, and you've got a "dinking session," in the words of Mark Friedenberg, one of the world's top players and author of "The Official Pickleball Handbook."
Friedenberg is also the owner of Pro-Lite Sports, maker of the Pro-Lite series, the "Cadillac" of pickleball paddles. Friedenberg said the demand for his pickleball equipment grew substantially last year, and he expects it to double this year.
Komisarek hopes to provide some of that demand on the Peninsula. Though the sport is not as popular among children in San Mateo County as it is in Seattle, a handful of local schools have the game during gym class.
Patti Blumen, a physical education teacher at Central Middle School in San Carlos, learned the game at a teachers' workshop in San Luis Obispo and "got hooked." Now pickleball is in the gym-class rotation at Central, where it is played on the school's outdoor basketball courts.
The city of San Mateo started a pickleball league in the 1970s, but it never took off. Burlingame City Manager Jim Nantell, who worked for San Mateo at the time, remembers dressing as "Mr. Pickle" as part of a promotional event in 1975 at the Hillsdale mall.
Nantell still plays with friends and family.
"Any neighborhood I move to, I find some surface that I can turn into a pickleball court," said Nantell.
"It's a very minimal cost to get in," said Komisarek, who plays on local tennis courts with his wife and two children. "Paddles are 50 bucks, balls are 10 bucks a dozen, and you're ready to go."
Staff writer Aaron Kinney can be reached at (650) 348-4302 or by e-mail at akinney@sanmateocountytimes.com.
Ellie