phot credit: Sophia Robinson
I’m living my best life on a hot, summer day. It’s around 80 degrees, and all I want to do is sit by the pool. Then, a close friend asks me to be her partner for this ‘fun’ new sport she’s picked up: pickleball. At first, it seemed like an enjoyable time, hanging out with friends, dressing up in cute outfits, maybe even getting a fun drink. That is exactly what I thought pickleball would be, but I was wrong.
Initially, it was fun. I was on a team with my friend, and the game seemed easy. But then, I found out we were taught through the “Rules for Dummies” way. They went easy on us, and we almost won, so then we played against other friends. We barely made one point, and the real rules were much more difficult to understand.
None of the rules make sense. For example, when serving, the ball must go diagonally, and the only way to make points is during a team’s turn. Plus, the opposing team doesn’t get to serve until the serving player makes a fault, which is any rule or violation that stops a play according to UnderArmour.com. Then, once the first fault occurs for the team’s turn, the other partner gets one, last chance to serve, creating fewer chances for the opposing team to make points. That makes no sense. It would be easier and more fair to have each team have a set amount of serves, kind of like ping pong.
Once I finally started understanding the rules and playing with more people, the game just got boring. Each round is the same; someone serves, the ball goes back and forth for a little, and then someone messes up. The game goes up to 11 points, and according to Michigan State University, most people play best out of two, and the final game goes up to five points. Therefore, that is hours of the repetitive game, not to mention how hot it gets. Most pickleball courts are outside directly under the sun.
Doing anything outside in the middle of summer with the sun blazing down on me, with no air conditioning is not fun to begin with, but then adding a boring game of pickleball makes it worse. Playing in the heat gets miserable fast, so then taking a break for water gets people watching others play, which might be worse than actually playing.
I know a lot of people enjoy pickleball because whenever I do play, we can never find a court available. We normally end up going to a court that has no lights making the game harder. I am not saying that people should stop playing completely, if a person enjoys it then that’s great, but to me this game is too difficult to understand and simply not enjoyable.
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