It’s more than just a sport
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April 5, 2010 • Janine Lehmann, Guest Contributor
Filed under Nation & World, Opinion
Pickle ball is a sport, which will grow more popular with time. Most people have never heard anything about it. P.E. teachers use it most often in their P.E. classes, but active senior adults, students, and community centers play it a lot too.
Pickle ball is very similar to badminton and tennis. There are also a few things that it has in common with table tennis. It uses the same type of court as badminton does, 20 feet wide by 44 feet long. The net is 36 inches high at the outside edges and 34 inches high in the center. To play pickle ball, you have to use a hard paddle and a wiffle ball.
In 1965, U.S. congressmen Joel Pritchard, William Bell, Jordan Steranka and Barney McCalluous invented pickle ball near Seattle, Wasghinton. The main idea was to create a new sport with a lot of fun. The name pickle came from a dog named Pickles, because the dog always chased after the balls and would then hide them in the nearby bushes.
In the 1970’s, pickle ball started to become popular and received its “official sport” recognition with rules and everything.
Pickle ball is not very complicated to play. Here are some rules:
The lines: The baseline is the back of the court. Everything that goes beyond this line is considered “out.” When you serve, you have to stand behind this line and the ball has to get into the other side of the court as well. When the center of the ball falls exactly on the line, it is still considered “in.”
The non-volley zone: This is the zone, which is within seven feet of the net. You shouldn’t serve the ball into this zone.
The serve: The player who is standing on the right side always serves first. The server has to hit the ball without bouncing the ball first. Each player in the team will serve and then it will change to the other team. To make sure that the first serve is fair, only the first player can serve in the first service of the game.
Keeping track of scoring: This is very simple. The server always calls the score, including his or her own score, the score of the other team and lastly if it is the first or the second serve for his or her team.
The return: The team who gets the ball must let the ball bounce first before they can hit the ball back. Then, the serving team has to bounce the ball once more before they can hit it back. (There has to be two bounces during the first two hits; that is known as the double-bounce rule.) If your score is even you have to serve from the right side, and if your score is odd than you must serve from the left side.
Scoring and winning: A team can earn a point if they win a rally when they are serving. When a point is earned, the players who won the point have to switch sides of the court, and the next serve will come from the other court. If your team has 11 points, you will win the game if the difference is at least two points.
You can now play pickle ball with your family, friends or really anybody. It makes life much more fun. In the end, it is much more than just a sport.
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