Newspaper Page Text
HEALTH & FITNESS
IT’S EXERCISE, IT’S SOCIAL, IT’S FUN—IT’S PICKLEBALL!
By Joe Earle
It looks a bit like a game
cobbled together during a slow
weekend at a vacation house
after the host couldn’t track
down all the pieces required for
any single sport.
Players swing paddles that
look like they came from an
oversized Ping-Pong game. They
hit a hollow plastic ball that’s
full of holes. The ball bounces
back and forth over a net
similar to one on a tennis court.
The game moves quickly.
Some regular players of the
sport called “pickleball” say it
can feel like playing table tennis
while standing on the table.
Still, it’s catching on. Just
ask Ed Feldstein, a 77-year-old
Sandy Springs retiree who says
he helped bring the game to
the Marcus Jewish Community
Center of Atlanta in Dunwoody
PHOTO BY JOE EARLE
Pickleball players gather at the Marcus
Jewish Community Center of Atlanta
a half-dozen or so years ago and
now plays about four days a
week.
“It’s fun to watch. It’s fun to
play. It’s fun to learn,” Feldstein
said one recent morning before
he joined the crew getting a
morning workout with a series
of fast-paced pickleball games
at the MJCCA, which calls
pickleball its “hottest sport.”
Feldstein remembers days
when he’d get laughed at when
he went into a sporting goods
store and ask to buy a pickleball
paddle. No more, he says,
because pickleball courts are
springing up across north metro
Atlanta.
The city of Dunwoody has a
court in its newest city park, the
Park at Pernoshal Court. That
court joins more than 70 others
set up across Georgia and more
than 13,000 in the country,
according to the USA Pickleball
Association (USAPA), which is
GEORGIA DERMATOLOGY
New patients, patient referrals &
most insurance plans accepted!
Katharine Simmon, PA-C John Fountain, md
Darryl Hodson, MD Allen Filstein, MD
770-785-SKIN
( 7 5 4 6 )
1349 Milstead Rd
CONYERS
Skin Cancer Removal - Mohs Surgery
Routine Skin Exams - Mole Removal
General & Surgical Dermatology
GaDerrn.com
located in Surprise, Ariz.
Allan Bleich, a retired doctor,
said he took up the sport after
he stopped playing tennis
because of knee trouble. “It’s
just a fun way to exercise,” he
said.
Nora Floersheim, a 67-year-
old retired school teacher and
former tennis player, picked
up pickleball a couple of years
ago at the Marcus Center and
now teaches it to newcomers.
Like other pickleball fans, she
said an important aspect of the
game is camaraderie among the
players, who sit together and
chat while awaiting a turn on
the court. “It’s very, very, very
social,” she said.
And the name? How did it
get to be “pickleball,” anyway?
It goes back to the origin of
the game itself. Pickleball was
invented near Seattle in 1965
by vacationing families who
wanted to play badminton, but
couldn’t find the shuttlecock.
So they combined paddles, a
Wiffle ball and a badminton net
to make a game that kids and
adults alike could play.
The pickleball association
says one story is that the
original players named their
game cobbled from many parts
after the “pickle boat” in rowing
competitions, which uses a
crew made up of rowers from
different boats. Another version
is that they named it for the
family dog, Pickles. ■
WHERE TO PLAY
About 30 area courts are listed
on the USAPA website, though
there are considerably more in
local parks and neighborhoods.
As the sport’s popularity rises,
changes and additions are likely.
Visit usapa.org and click on
‘Places to Play’ for details, and be
sure to call and verify times, cost
and availability beforehand.
Acworth: Kennworth Tennis
Center
3900 South Main St., 30101
Call William Fawcett, 770-265-
3599.
8 OCTOBER 2016 I ATLANTASENIORLIFE.COM
|3 FACEBOOK.COM/ATLANTASENIORLIFE
