Pickleball
Since my parents retired to Pennsylvania, my father has taken up pickleball. Despite having had almost no prior racket sports experience outside of an occasional game of tennis before I was born, he has taken to it with enthusiasm. My mother reports that if he says he'll be playing pickleball for two hours he usually means three hours, and that he spends a significant amount of time watching videos to improve his game.
As it happens, M was a very occasional casual tennis player, and the idea of a racket sport that involves less running was appealing. When my father was here in August the two of them played together at the new pickleball courts in Lakewood Park and she enjoyed it, so she asked for and received a pickleball paddle as a slightly belated anniversary gift and has been playing 2-3 times a week since then, mostly at the local YMCA.
She invited one of her friends to play and that friend said first "no, my dad plays pickleball" and then "call me in 24 years when I'm old," which isn't unfair because M is regularly playing against people in their seventies, eighties and even nineties (the 90 year old guy beat her recently, he has a killer serve). As you'd expect, there are some people who take it very, very seriously (asshole sports guys apparently never age out of that behavior), but most people seem to be there to have a good time and get some exercise. And if M takes the opportunity to relax in the hot tub or the sauna afterwards, who can blame her?
As it happens, M was a very occasional casual tennis player, and the idea of a racket sport that involves less running was appealing. When my father was here in August the two of them played together at the new pickleball courts in Lakewood Park and she enjoyed it, so she asked for and received a pickleball paddle as a slightly belated anniversary gift and has been playing 2-3 times a week since then, mostly at the local YMCA.
She invited one of her friends to play and that friend said first "no, my dad plays pickleball" and then "call me in 24 years when I'm old," which isn't unfair because M is regularly playing against people in their seventies, eighties and even nineties (the 90 year old guy beat her recently, he has a killer serve). As you'd expect, there are some people who take it very, very seriously (asshole sports guys apparently never age out of that behavior), but most people seem to be there to have a good time and get some exercise. And if M takes the opportunity to relax in the hot tub or the sauna afterwards, who can blame her?