Introducing pickleball to the next generation

She was either getting curious about this sport, or wanted some bonding time with her Mama C, I'm not sure.

But regardless of the reason, my daughter joined me today for a rousing session of pickleball with the seniors.

I did warn her that often this malicious group of old fogies play rough and the unspoken rule is that if the ball hits the person's body then it can never be called out of bounds. 

Well, actually....that might just be my rule. And since she's only in her early forties, she will most likely become a target.  But she's played tennis in her youth, has two daughters and runs her own counseling business...she's tough and can take it.  She'll probably diagnose a couple players with passive aggressive anger issues.

One of my favorite strategies is hitting it right between the two opposing players.  Since we are often playing with strangers there's a predictable pausing of return as neither wants to get in the others way....up here I call it Minnesota Nice.  This does not work well with married people who are often looking for an excuse to smack each other.

The other odd rule is the double bounce.  When the ball is served it has to bounce once in the opposing court and again in the serving court, therefore the partner of the server should stay back and wait for this.  However, those with tennis backgrounds often rush the net and I find if I return the ball nice and high they just can't resist smacking it in mid-air...thus violating the double bounce rule.  This never gets old.

The other strange rule in pickleball is staying out of the kitchen, something I try to do in real life as well.  When the ball comes over the net and bounces in the kitchen (the first three feet of court which is marked off) you can step in to return the ball, but you can never hit the ball in the air (without a bounce) while standing in the kitchen.

Those old tennis players who were accustomed to standing at the net and smashing it get called on this all the time.  The other fun part of this is when they are near the kitchen and their forward momentum carries them inside the kitchen on the downswing...yep...busted again.  I find it a good rule to just never go into the kitchen....on the court or in the RV.

What can I say...old people can be mean.

Long Live the Queen of Sports Violence