Issue link: https://imageup.uberflip.com/i/850948
62 | SUN LAKES LIFESTYLES | AUGUST 2017 | Pickleball Club Our club's mid-year party was held on July 22 with great fun, grillin' and chillin' with music provided by DJ O.T. (aka Oscar Taylor) The Fall Bash promises to be great fun as well. In recent months, we have been featuring a growing trend toward converting some (or even all) tennis courts to pickleball in many senior communities and public parks. We certainly don't advocate the abolition of tennis, especially when Sun Lakes is blessed with such an outstanding facility. Nevertheless, more and more seniors may find the rigors of tennis a bit much. Some veteran players may wish to explore pickleball as an occasional break on a smaller court. It has been calculated that a tennis doubles game requires 15 steps to cover the distance from the back corner to center net. This contrasts with six steps for the longest run on the pickle court. This may be just one reason that more and more tennis players are gravitating to the smaller venue and finding out that smaller doesn't mean easy. In fact, the workout pickleball offers is intense and satisfying. The current issue of Pickleball Magazine features a column by Dave Jordan, USAPA president. One paragraph from his article is an especially illuminating commentary on our game: "As this sport has evolved and become such a popular activity, we have begun to see some evidence of what this popularity has brought. We see great new players joining the sport every day, we see the youth of America starting to discover pickleball in their schools and colleges, we see the young and old playing together and against each other, parents and grandparents teaching the younger generation and, most importantly, we see the friendships and social interaction among all folk. In pickleball the term 'generational gap' seems to disappear." Thanks Dave for a great observation on why the game is catching on with young and old alike! We are finding summer evenings to be an ideal time to get those multi-generations together at Sun Lakes. As court space permits, we are seeing some fun gatherings at 7 pm Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings. This is in addition to our club's official hours 8 to 10 am Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. We continue to take advantage of the gracious hospitality of our Highland Springs Village friends to play there on Thursday and Friday mornings. See you on the courts!