I have a new love. Her name is pickleball and it was love on first try!
When we were at the beach this summer, I spied an 8:00 a.m. intro to pickleball class on the club’s calendar. Now usually, I am strictly a family fun all-together on vacation kind of girl, but this time, knowing there’s a solid possibility that my family won’t even be awake by 8:00 a.m., I signed up immediately! I even turned into an eager beaver and started my online pickleball class at YouTube University! I scrolled through lots of videos and they were all very overwhelming. So if you’re new to pickleball, I would recommend you just stay away from those videos!
Within the first 15 minutes of the class, I was actually playing pickleball! The instructor said that the rules are much easier to learn if you’re playing while learning and he was absolutely correct. After my hour was up, I felt ready for an actual game! I’m not the worst athlete out there but I’m certainly not one of those that are good at everything they try. For a frame of reference, when my daughters started playing tennis, I desperately wanted to learn so we could play together. I took an 8-week course and still cannot play a full game of tennis (from lack of stamina AND skills). So when I say I could play pickleball after just a 1-hour class, it means it’s really that easy to learn!
When I got home from the beach, I went to dinner with a few friends and told them all about my pickleball experience. Some had played before, some had never tried it, and some had never even heard of it. We decided we needed to form a group for regular pickleball play. The only requirement? You can NOT be good at it!
We picked a date and pooled our paddles for the first of many pickle parties! Y’all, we don’t even have an actual court! We just play on a tennis court and make do with the lines that are already there, as well as the slightly too high net. All that to say, it’s still so much fun!
On the day of our very first pickle party, I went to lunch at Henri’s in Buckhead. I was halfway into my sandwich when inspiration hit me…I need to make a pickle platter to serve at the pickle party! Well, it just so happens that Lucy’s Market is right above Henri’s and I just knew they’d have a plethora of pickled products! I scurried up the stairs with high hopes and they did not disappoint. I found pickled peppers, pickled okra, pickled artichokes, pickled green tomatoes, pickled black-eyed peas, pickled peaches, pickled eggs, and an assortment of just regular cucumber pickles! The sweet ladies there helped me pick the pickled products that would go best together and even helped me find some other items that would go well with the pickles. It was a huge hit at my party and the perfect way to kick off this new pickleball “league!”
Have you discovered pickleball yet? I learned it’s the fastest-growing sport in the US. If you haven’t given it a try yet, put it on your must-do list stat!
