Medicare Choices Confusing? FREE: No Obligation Consultation CALL:
(480) 409-1717 CHARMAINE WAGES
Independent Licensed Insurance Agent
Do you suffer from multiple foot or leg cramps during the night each week—or, have you been diagnosed with nocturnal foot or leg cramps? Have these cramps been occurring over the last few weeks or even months? If this sounds all too familiar, and you’re a male or female 50 years old or older, you could qualify for a new clinical research study with Celerion and may be compensated for your time and travel. By participating in clinical research studies like this, you’re helping improve the quality of life for people worldwide.
Tempe, AZ • 2420 W. Baseline Road
page 34 : : Lovin’ Life After 50 : : October 2015
... from page 31 here. So we had to figure out where we could accommodate pickleball with the least impact to tennis players, and Cholla Park was one place that was not getting as much tennis play as our other neighborhood parks.” For Peters, a fitness buff primarily into swimming and running who only recently tried playing pickleball herself, it’s oddly gratifying to be hailed as a pickleball hero by local residents. “I’ve been in recreation for 26 years, and this was the first time I ever saw such a public demand for a place to play a particular sport,” she said. “So it was nice to be able to accommodate their demands and to do it quickly. It’s a very passionate group!” Social sport A funny thing happens when you shrink a tennis court down to a quarter of its size and switch from playing with racquets to giant ping-pong paddles. Suddenly the sport of kings becomes invitingly silly—enthusiasts liken it to playing ping-pong if you could stand on the table. It also becomes less intimidating: Who can be afraid of a game called pickleball? Most importantly, it becomes more social. Doubles teammates stand practically shoulder to shoulder, and the smaller court makes aggressive shots virtually impossible. You have to serve underhanded, and there’s even a 7-foot no-volley zone in front of the net (players affectionately call it “the kitchen”) where you can only hit the ball after it bounces. “It forces you to incorporate what we call a soft game,” said Thomas. “You can’t just stand back there and blast the ball and expect to win very many points.” Games are shorter, too; no one has to wait long on the sidelines for their chance to play. “I’m overwhelmed by how nice the community is,” said Rusty Howes, a Los Angeles-based video producer whose website, PickleballChannel.com, offers streaming videos on pickleball techniques, tips and personal stories from pickleball enthusiasts. “I’m sure there have to be mean pickleballers somewhere, but I haven’t met them yet.” Stillwell said they do show up sometimes at the Arizona Senior Olympics. “I gotta tell you, when they have the nationals in October in Casa
Grande, and you go out there and watch the championship players, those guys are playing for blood,” she said. “Just like any athlete who is excelling in a sport, they don’t think of this as being silly at all. They take it very seriously.” Nevertheless, there’s a built-in closeness to a pickleball match that encourages social interaction, even if it is just good-natured trash-talking. “Because the court is only 44 feet long and 20 feet wide, and most of the play is within the boundaries of the baseline, there’s a lot of back-andforth talk, especially when you’ve got four players,” said Thomas. “Because of the size of the court, there’s just a lot more conversation, and that’s one of the things that makes it so fun and attracts so many people to it.” Sometimes the fun can get a little too loud for other people in the area. In 2008, after three pickleball courts opened near the SaddleBrooke retirement community in Tucson, residents cited a local noise ordinance to block play, complaining of the harsh sound of the plastic balls on the graphite paddles along with the zealous yackety-yak of the players. In 2010 a pickleball club in the Mission Royale community in Casa Grande was also forced to relocate following noise complaints. “Every once in a while pickleball players will get in trouble for having too much fun,” explains Howes. “You’ll hear the complaint, ‘Those pickleball players laugh too much, they’re too loud!’ With so many other sports, be it soccer or basketball or football, you’re supposed to be loud. Tennis and golf are quiet sports, and because pickleball courts are often near tennis courts, people think it should be quiet like tennis. “But pickleball players laugh a lot, they cheer one another,” he added. “Most people, when they hit 65 or 70, they want to have fun. And when you meet a group of people who are smiling and laughing all the time, that’s what brings you into the game. There’s something about the name being silly and comical that’s consistent with the personality of the sport.”
www.lovinlifeafter50.com