Have you heard of Pickleball? We have a great community center near our apartments uptown with a couple courts. Pickleball is a racket or paddle sport. They also have courses at Ohio University. Two or also four players can play. You also play with a hollow plastic ball. The net will have been 34 inches high you hit the ball over the net. You will keep going until someone misses the ball. Also if someone commits a rule infraction you stop. People play indoors and also outdoors. It is said to have been invented in 1965 as a kids back yard game.
Apartments Uptown
You can play singles or doubles. Its great to play since you can play year round. While its similar to tennis also table tennis. It has separate rules. The paddles and ball are different also. The court is 44 feet long and 20 feet wide. The paddles are larger than table tennis ones. They are smaller than tennis paddles. The hard ball used provides less bounce. On each side of the net is a 7 foot area where the ball must bounce before its hit. The rules also specify side out scoring. The side out scoring is only the server can score a point. The minimal amount of bounce also the non volley zones make this a dynamic game.
Between 1965 and 2020 pickleball became popular in Pacific North West region of the US. The sport is the fastest growing sport several years in a row. We see that in 2023 it has grown to over 4.8 million players. There are also now thousands of pickleball tournaments. We have many here in the US and at our apartments uptown. Ohio has several indoor and also out door courts as well. The U.S National Championships, also the U.S Open Tournament. We also have two professional tours and one professional league. Its obvious the love of this sport is growing. We can see why its fun and versatile. If you want to try head down to The Athens Community center.
