FIRST PERSON: Pickleball easy to learn, great exercise

If it seems like everyone and their dog is joining the Niagara-on-the-Lake Pickleball Club, well, that’s just a myth.

Yes, membership in the club has easily smashed the 500 mark, a testament to the game’s popularity.  But I did the math. With the town’s population estimated at about 18,000 people, that equates to only 2.8 percent of NOTL taking on the quickly-growing sport. 

You can include my wife Mishka and me as two of the newest members.

People have been telling me for years that all I had to do was try pickleball and I would be hooked. They were right.

This past Sunday afternoon the two of us signed up to participate in a beginners session at the NOTL Community Centre. Armed with a set of medium-priced pickleball paddles (not racquets, I was reminded periodically through the afternoon) acquired through, yes, Amazon, we walked in and joined eleven other neophytes for an introduction. 

Current club president John Hindle greeted us near the stage, offering us the use of club-owned paddles and then showing that he was clearly impressed we had brought our own. 

You would be hard-pressed to find anyone more enthusiastic for and knowledgeable about the sport than Hindle. 

I first met John in June, 2019, when the club was getting set to open the new outdoor courts at the Virgil Sports Park. On assignment that day, I was urged to grab a paddle and join him on one side of the court to take on the team of Jim and Ann Sifton for a fun match.  

I remember being intrigued by the sport and its fast, yet also easy-going pace. I quickly picked up the rhythm of the game and eventually figured out the seemingly strange method of keeping score. My notes from that day show that John and I bet the Siftons, and if I recall correctly, it was all his doing.

Hindle was then our point man for The Local, the organizer of and our contact for the massively successful NOTL Pickleball Classic Tournament that drew close to 300 players to our local arenas from across the province and beyond for three days of pickleball play and exhibitions from professionals. 

Those experiences made me familiar with pickleball, but it was this weekend that got me hooked. 

On Sunday, the mild-mannered Hindle wisely eased all of us newcomers into things. 

He began by instructing us to hold the paddle out front horizontally. We were then urged to bounce the ball lightly in the air, working on our hand-eye coordination. Then we were to put a little more oomph into it, bouncing it higher and keeping the rhythm steady. 

Next was a review of the proper use of the v-grip to hold the paddle. 

“The ‘v’ should line up with the side of the handle,” explained Hindle. “And you don’t have to grip the paddle hard. In fact, some of the pros only use their thumb and two fingers to hold their paddles.”

We moved on to the floor bounce, then the wall bounce, again focusing on hand-eye coordination. Basic warm-up drills that anyone could complete. 

Soon we were on the courts, learning about the the drop-shot and the dink-shot, the no-volley zone (aka the kitchen) and the two-bounce rule, which states that when the ball is served, the receiving team must let it bounce before returning, and then the serving team must let it bounce before returning. After that, the ball can be volleyed, or hit back before it bounces on the floor.. 

Hindle repeatedly reminded us to keep our paddle-holding arm straight, to avoid what he referred to as the ‘chicken-wing’.

“Let the paddle do the work,” he stressed. “When you bend your arm, that makes it harder to complete a successful drop shot.”

As Hindle moved from court to court to court at the Community Centre he heard people, me included, apologizing for muffed shots or an errant ball encroaching on a neighbouring player. This prompted a reminder that, like in that movie A League of Their Own when Tom Hanks proclaimed “there’s no crying in baseball”, there is no need for “sorry” in pickleball. 

He stressed the friendly, social aspect of the game, and how there should never be a dispute over a ball that landed outside of the court, as the player nearest the ball is expected to make the call. Certainly that must be one of the most broadly enduring aspects of pickleball, the thing that keeps people coming back to play. 

Next it was on to the serve routine and rotation. We leisurely practiced serving then volleyed back and forth, before he stopped us to explain the scoring system. 

For many, that can be the most confusing and difficult aspect of the game to get the hang of. But with practice we seemed to be catching on. 

With about 25 minutes left in Sunday’s 90-minute session, we were ready to play a game. We didn’t finish it, but suffice it to say that my very competitive wife and her partner were beating my partner and me handily. 

After only one lesson, I remain very much a newcomer to the sport of pickleball, but that one lesson was enough for Mishka and me to quickly book a court for some social play this coming weekend. 

And contrary to what many may lead you to believe, it was a good afternoon of physical activity. I did feel it the next day. As with any new physical activity, there were muscles and tendons I used Sunday that hadn’t been used in that way in quite some time. The legs were a bit rubbery Monday, but it felt good, and we can’t wait to get back onto the court. 

The NOTL Pickleball Club operates courts at both the NOTL Community Centre and Central Community Centre on York Road. The next beginners session to learn the game will be in January. Newcomers to the sport are entitled to three free beginners sessions without having to join the club. Club membership, including registration with Pickleball Ontario and Pickleball Canada, is $50 per year. Visit their website at sites.google.com/view/notlpickleball-ca/.

And, to the best of my knowledge, there are no canine members.