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50 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | SEPTEMBER 2020 How did pickleball begin at Four Seasons? About nine years ago, there were two friends — Linda Snipes and Marty Key — who lived and played tennis at Four Seasons. Linda's husband Gary had been going over to Sun Lakes to play a game called pickleball. Linda joined him a few times and loved it. I tried it and I felt the same! We bought paddles and balls and began playing singles on the paddle tennis courts. From that moment on, it took off! More and more people saw us and then joined in. Soon we had about 10 people playing. The paddle tennis people were so gracious to share their courts with us. The tennis club, which played on the courts by the main lodge, would have no part of our new little game. Our group grew and grew! The court lines and net height are not the same in paddle tennis as pickleball, so we had to improvise in many ways. We clipped on nets we had ordered to the paddle tennis nets and used blue painter's tape to add the lines we needed. Again, how generous were the paddle tennis players to let us do this? Many of them now played both sports. It was rough, but it worked and we were hooked! Our little group grew quickly. We went from 12 to 30 to now over 100 active players. Four Seasons finally got built out and tennis moved up to The Courts. The two old tennis courts were converted into eight lovely new pickleball courts. A very happy ending to a difficult struggle-for years all pickleball wanted was a place of our own. Linda moved to Arizona and left before the new courts were built. I took over as head and ran things for awhile until I turned it over to Nancy Barnaby. She is our lead and has a steering committee to help in the decision making. On behalf of our wonderful pickleball group, we thank all who made our dream come true. So come on out and join us! Organized group play is at 7 am, Monday through Saturday, until people leave. Group start time is at 6 pm. There is an intro to pickleball on the second Tuesday of each month at 5:30 pm. Stay healthy and stay safe. ~ Marty Key, keeksmail@yahoo.com Pickleball As tennis enthusiasts, we've all seen professional players on TV or at court-side competing in tennis matches. One of their weapons for the game, for most professional players (unlike us weekend warriors), is their serve. Often times, the server will use their serves to set up and control how the points will be played out to their advantage. That said, do you know the speed of the fastest serve ever recorded in the history of professional tennis? In 2012, an Australian professional tennis player, named Sam Groth, who was competing at the ATP Challenger in Busan, South Korea, hit a serve clocked at 163.7 mph. As of today, that serve stands as the fastest serve ever recorded in professional tennis history. Let's put this in perspective. When I drive on the freeway and the speedometer reaches 80 mph, I feel like if I go any faster, I might start to lose control of my car. The speed of Groth's serve was traveling at more than twice the speed of my car on the freeway. That particular serve was just, for lack of a better word, insane! So, next time you get on the tennis court, try breaking Groth's record. I dare you! See you all on The Courts, hopefully very soon! Visit our website at https://sites.google.com/view/tennis- fourseasons/home. ~ Stan Lam, (714) 757-2141, slamcpa@gmail. com Tennis Club Basketball Everyone is welcome. We meet at the basketball court Fridays starting at 5 pm. Bring your energy and be prepared to have some fun. ~ Richard Hoffman Linda Snipes Marty Key No tennis? No problem. Rebecca & Bryan Flowers and granddaughter Emme have the answer! Check with your club contact to confirm meeting place, date, and time.

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