Radio 94.7 The Pulse in Geelong - Sue Shannon and Patrick Dockhorn on Pickleball

Pickleball is a rapidly growing sport that originated in the USA in 1965. It is played on a badminton-sized court with a paddle and a plastic ball with holes. The game is social, competitive, and fun, and can be played by people of all ages. It is played at the kitchen line or non-volley zone, and the scoring is based on serving. The Geelong Pickleball Club in Australia has indoor and outdoor courts and welcomes new members. The sport offers both physical exertion and a social atmosphere, making it a popular choice for many. And now, as I promised at the start of the show, we're going to have a look at the fastest growing sport in the world, and it's certainly taking off here in Australia, and indeed here in Geelong. Pickleball has swept the USA, then Europe, and here it is now. I've got two people from the Geelong Pickleball Club here in the studio with me this morning. I've got Sue Shannon, who is vice president of the club, and Patrick Dockhorn, who is the secretary. Welcome to the program. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. Sue, perhaps if I can start with you, for those of us who don't really know much about, or some of us might know anything about, pickleball, how would you describe it? Well, pickleball is a game that was invented in 1965 in the USA in Seattle. It is on the size of a badminton court, and it's social, it's competitive, and it's fun. And it's played indoors or outdoors with a paddle and a ball that's got holes in it, a whipple ball. I'll give you a sound of how a pickleball sounds on a paddle now. Okay. And here in the studio, the ball that they're referring to is a hard plastic ball with lots of holes cut into it. I imagine the pickleball might be a soft rubbery type ball, but no, it's quite hard. Yes, it is hard, but it's designed not to bounce higher than a pickleball net, which is 34 inches high, because all the measurements are in metric. So the idea is that it doesn't bounce like a tennis ball. The game is played at the kitchen line or the non-volley zone, and it's a great game for people of all ages to play, from young people up to 80 plus. Patrick, you were the one bouncing the ball. Is it called a bat, or what's the name? It's called a pedal, and so it's different to a tennis racket in that it doesn't have strings. It's actually a solid pedal. It used to be just made of wood in the early days. Nowadays, it's made of composite materials. There's typically carbon fiber in there, but it's a solid pedal. It's smaller than a tennis racket, but it's a slightly larger than a table tennis bat, and the solid nature of it works very well with that plastic ball. One of the key aspects of pickleball is that it's designed to be a bit more of a strategic game, so there were a lot of elements in there that slow the game down. One of them is, for example, that you always do an underhand serve. I guess for me personally, one of the barriers of entry to playing tennis is that I could never get that overhand serve right. It's quite challenging technically to do that and to do it repeatedly well. The underhand serve is a lot easier to learn, and that's one of the things that make pickleball just a lot quicker to pick up for everyone, and it also slows the game down, so it's not necessarily so much about hitting it very hard. There's a lot more strategy in softballs and soft play involved than in other games. So I've been told that the court is marked in a similar way to a traditional tennis court. Is that how you would describe it? Yes. It's probably there are two boxes on each end that are the serving boxes that you serve diagonally into, and then there is a line which is called colloquially the kitchen line or the non-volley zone, so you can't hit the ball on the floor there. So it looks similar. It's the same size as a badminton court, but it doesn't have the single and double lines around the outside that badminton might be. So yes, it's similar in size, and it fits on a tennis court. For example, you can fit two pickleball courts well, so it doesn't take up a whole lot of space. Okay. Patrick, is there a net like a tennis net, or is it something different? There is, yes. The pickleball net is similar to a tennis net, but it's a bit lower, and there's also some different rules, like there's no let like in tennis, so you can serve, and even if your serve touches the net and then drops into the right area, then that's perfectly fine. But other than that, the net is, I guess, similar to a tennis net, it just has a slightly different height. How does the scoring work? Oh, we need more time for that. You need to have a degree, actually. That's probably the thing that does people's head in most when they start playing, because you have to be serving to win a point. Okay. It's that, and then it's also the fact that most of the times, and again, that is one aspect that makes the game very social. Most pickleball games are doubles games, so you always play with a partner, and often with a different partner, so it's really a great way to meet new people as well. But as a result of that, as far as the scoring goes, yeah, each partner gets one goal when they serve, and calling out the score is the responsibility of the person that serves. When we run our induction sessions and teach people sort of the basic rules, I'd say half the time is spent trying to explain how to say that score correctly. And is it a physically exerting sport? It actually is, surprisingly, given the fact that it's a much smaller court than tennis, and I would never have expected it. I lost five kilos in my first three months of playing pickleball, so even though you don't think you can actually move much, there is quite a bit of cardio happening when you play pickleball. You don't have to, obviously. Some people are more mobile than others, and it's definitely a sport that you can play if you're not as fast as a 20-year-old. But you will find that you move around, and it does get your juices going, definitely. And your club is based in Geelong. Whereabouts are your courts? So we were able to partner with the YMCA in Newtown. They have a facility there that has now eight pickleball courts indoors, so it's the largest indoor facility in the region. So we were very lucky to be able to secure that, and we're playing basically out there. There's a lot of other facilities in the area as well. Some clubs have indoor and outdoor, so that's another aspect of pickleball that's, I guess, very useful down here where it can get a bit cold in winter. So we can play it both outdoors and indoors, and like if you go up to Queensland, there's a lot more outdoor play there, just because the weather allows for it more during the majority of the year. And if people listening were interested in becoming pickleball players, or at least having a look at how it all works, what should they do? So each club runs their memberships differently. So with us, people can, we have a Facebook page, and we have a website that's called gpci.au for Geelong Pickleball Club Inc., or they can just Google Geelong Pickleball Club, find our website, and there's lots of information on there on how they can become a member and how they can book into a session. But essentially, we currently run sessions for beginners on a Thursday morning from 9.30 to 11.30 at the Y, and also on Sundays from 1.00 p.m. to 3.00 p.m. So anyone that just wants to come along, they don't need to bring anything other than suitable sports shoes, and we provide everything, and then we'll coach them and provide them with an induction, and their first session is free as well. And a sense of fun. That's the thing about pickleball. Pickleball is a game that is a great social connector of people, people that you would never normally run across in life become pickleball friends. So it's really a social game wherever you go in the world. It's a great thing. And in this region alone, there's more than 600 people playing pickleball multiple days a week. And what about aging, or age groups? Is it something for young people, older people? Well, at the moment, the clubs in the Geelong region don't really cater for juniors because we don't have enough court space. That's the problem. It's played, pickleball is played in a number of schools in the region. We have members in our club that are 80, and the youngest person might be 20, and all the clubs in the region have the same demographic. It appeals to people of all ages and skill levels. And even after Patrick and I have been playing two years, that you can see people that you started playing with that couldn't hit a ball can hit a ball well, and we've even improved ourselves. So it's really one of those things that you want to get better at, but you want to have that social connection with people. And that's really the message about pickleball and why it's doing so well in Geelong region, and particularly at the Geelong Pickleball Club. Yes, it's interesting, like last Sunday, for example, I played a game with a 20-year-old boy, and our opposition, there was a 77-year-old lady, and you couldn't really tell the age difference. It really didn't matter at all. We all had a great time, and it was a very competitive game. Well, it sounds like it's a good socializing activity as well as keeping fit. So more power to you, and good luck for growing the membership of the Geelong Pickleball Club. Thank you very much, Shannon and Patrick Dockhorn from the Geelong Pickleball Club. I appreciate your time this morning. Thanks for having us. Thank you.