New sport enthusiast
This is the latest in a series of articles written for Friends-of-Lawrence in Eutin, Germany and published in the ‘Ostholsteiner Anzeiger’ on May 14/15, 2022. The article in German
by Phyllis Farrar
Never in my life have I said, “I am an athlete” or “I love playing sports.” But the Pandemic has changed that about me.
Covid-19 has altered routines. Its influence on my health and fitness routines has been a bit surprising. Since the beginning of the pandemic we have followed all precautions and have been amazingly free of all the usual challenges – no colds, no flu, no major aches or pains. I have been lucky!
However, some of the activities that kept us active in retirement – weekly bowling league and weekly yoga class – were eliminated initially. As a result, my husband and I found more time for walking, hiking and bike outings. But social activity was lacking.
It was a happy coincidence that early in 2020 a friend talked me into joining a ‘beginners class’ for pickleball at the city recreation center where we often walked. Pickleball was relatively easy to learn and not too athletically challenging. The equipment is minimal – a paddle, a net, and a plastic ball. In Spring 2020 it did not take long before we had taught my husband and a couple other friends in our “Covid-Pod” to play. I had not expected, at my age, to become so enthused about a new sport.
Getting started was easy. The rules are relatively simple – a mix of ping-pong, badminton, and tennis. The court is about the size of a badminton court, so one does not run as much as in tennis. The paddle is similar to ping-pong, but larger; a player has a longer reach and is less likely to miss the ball. The ball (of hard plastic but with about 30 holes) seems similar to a tennis ball but is lighter and slower, allowing the player more reaction time.
This game is fairly new. It was created in 1965 by four dads in Washington state as a game their families could enjoy. It has steadily grown in popularity. In 2021 it was declared the “fastest growing sport” in the U.S., with an annual growth rate of 32% since 2019. Today there are an estimated 4,5 Million pickleball players in USA, most of them over 60 years of age. One sees pickleball events in retirement communities, but it’s also growing popular in school physical education classes.
Outside of the U.S, pickleball has been established in at least 70 countries, including Germany. The first German club was founded in Augsburg in 2010. The “Deutscher Pickleball Bund” was founded in Gelsenkirchen in 2017 to support players and clubs.
There is no formally organized pickleball club in Lawrence, but unofficially several hundred people meet for “free play”. Outdoor tennis courts in three of our city parks are marked for pickleball. Indoor courts are also provided at the East Lawrence Center and Sports Pavilion Lawrence, however both were closed for an extended period due to increasing number of Covid cases. When finding a place to play is a problem, our solution is to chalk temporary boundaries on any smooth, flat surface (parking area, driveway, or basketball court) and put up a portable net.
At first, we tried to hit the perforated plastic ball as hard as possible, but videos we watched show the tactic of gently ‘dinking’ the ball quite low back and forth over the net to minimize powerful returns from one’s opponent. It’s a great feeling to add that type of finesse to one’s game.
We play outdoors as often as possible – as long as the wind is less than 10 miles per hour and it is not snowing or raining hard. If we do not play often enough I get cranky – it might be I am addicted to the game. This winter we simply put on an extra layer of clothes and relied on activity to warm us up.
In case pickleball has not yet appeared in Eutin, here are websites and videos to learn more (provided below). I would enjoy playing this game with you the next time I visit Eutin, or when you visit Lawrence. As the woman who founded the first pickleball club in Germany, Bärbel Guland, says, “Pickleball is easy, it improves your fitness, and it is simply fun.”
Erster Pickleball Club Deutschlands, www.pickleball-germany.net
Deutscher Pickleball Bund e.V., https://deutscher-pickleball-bund.org/
USA Pickleball Association, https://usapickleball.org/
YouTube: “PickleBall Germany” (2015) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00NvD8epVsg
YouTube: “Trendsportart Pickleball” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcExHT9laj4
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Phyllis Farrar (formerly de Vries) taught German in Lawrence schools for 22 years, was the foreign language consultant at the Kansas Department of Education, Topeka, for 9 years. She lead the German School of Northeast Kansas, a private Saturday school for young and old, from 2011 to 2021. She and her husband, Gary Webber, have been active in Friends of Eutin since 1989, have hosted Eutin guests, and have visited Eutin together 3 times. Farrar has also lead exchange groups and a childrens’ choir tour for an additional 7 visits. In retirement she manages the Sister Cities Lawrence webpages at www.sistercitieslawrence.org.