© Jerimiah B. Brown

It's Pickleball Time!

Well suited for the over-fifty crowd

by Eve Silberman

posted 1/22/2010

With winter's arrival, Community Education and Recreation is hoping to lure people looking for indoor exercise to the drolly named sport of pickleball. A hybrid that blends elements of ping-pong, badminton, and tennis, the game has been around for a while but has just caught on locally the last couple of years. Karen Draves of Rec & Ed says that regulars help newcomers learn the knack of zinging tiny Wiffle Balls over a low tennis net with paddles. Advanced players can learn from a champion: sixty-three-year-old Ron Callison, a local player and sometimes Rec & Ed instructor, is Michigan's 2009 gold medalist in men's doubles pickleball. Callison says the sport is particularly suited for the over-fifty crowd because it involves less "huffing and puffing than tennis." Would-be picklers can call Draves at 994-2300, or just show up for the $5 drop-in games at Scarlett Middle School. Starting in January, they're from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Fridays, and 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Sundays.   

[Originally published in January, 2010.]