In which I join the Pickleball movement

Pickleball has become a thing. Or at least a fad -- that the media has decided to write about. And I will have to applaud them for coming up with some very good quotes.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/21/style/pickleball-tennis-courts.html

He likened pickleball players to “the lantern flies of the sports world — an invasive species that takes over a natural ecosystem and destroys it.”

https://gothamist.com/news/utter-takeover-pickleball-invasion-prompts-turf-war-in-west-village 

In New York, the battle is currently raging through the West Village. Parents have compared the pickleball players to invaders – “the human version of Blank Street Coffee,” decried one local – accusing them of forcibly evicting their children from playgrounds.

Recently I had the opportunity to try out Pickleball at a CityPickle temporary court set up in the middle of Hudson Yards.

I purposefully haven't read much about Pickleball, only watching a YouTube video on the rules just before playing. The paddle is basically a bigger Ping Pong paddle and the ball is a more hardened whiffle ball. 

The learning curve of pickleball was much easier to pick up than tennis, which understandably is why folks seem to have flocked towards it. It was quite enjoyable to play and fun. I’d play again but it’s difficult to find court space (as with anything in New York). Maybe if we just got rid of space for cars and made more space for people.