I need to learn how to stay out of the kitchen!

My friend Tami introduced me to pickleball last week and it became the fifth sport in my quest to learn six new sports this year.

Until last Friday, my husband and I were pretty much the only two people we know who had never picked up a pickleball paddle.

Even my 86-year old mother, who thinks she’s not old enough to switch from tennis to pickleball and is pretty vocal about that stance, has played the game.

“Of course I have,” she said, when I asked in preparation for my first outing. “Everybody’s played pickleball.”

Well, I hadn’t, despite strong encouragement from Tami and several of my other pickleball-playing friends.

I figure this little year-long quest would be the perfect opportunity to try.

My outing might have spoiled me for other courts, though. I could not have asked for a better introduction to the game.

Tami and about a dozen of her friends formed a group. In the summer, they play on various public courts. But, they wanted to play year-round and that’s a tricky operation in Wisconsin. So, they arranged a type of time-share. They all pitched in to reserve a court that is available to them for the same two and a half hours every weekday. They use an app to organize their matches.

Thankfully, Tami had given the others a heads up about my project and the absolute noviceness of my game.

They were so nice! So good! So friendly! So…honest!

For the few people who’ve never played pickleball, I will explain. The area directly in front of the net is call the kitchen and you aren’t allowed to step into it to hit the ball unless you’re hitting it on a bounce. It seems like a good rule for safety measures, but I could not get past that old tennis reflex of sprinting to the net and smacking the ball.

So, more times than I care to admit, I would dash up to the net, smack the ball over, and turn around thinking I’d hit a pretty good shot. My opponents even congratulated me a few times. And then my partner, my very own partner, would yell, “Nope. She was in the kitchen!”

Et tu Brute?

I also need to work on a little consistency with my serve. You don’t get two in pickleball and I occasionally misfired. Pickleball serves are not difficult so it’s not unreasonable to expect perfection in that area. Perfection is not my strong suit.

I’m really grateful to the group, and especially to my friend Tami, for the pickleball introduction. As I suspected, I really enjoyed the game. I’m pricing paddles so if anyone has a favorite, please let me know.

Now, if I could just learn to stay out of that kitchen!

(As a reminder, I am celebrating my 60th birthday this year by learning six new sports. The first five have been rowing, rock climbing, hurling, hockey and pickleball. I’ll keep you posted on that last one. I have just over a month to complete my task!)

Here’s a little clip of the action.