Michael de Groot, pickleball coach and Worcestershire county representative for Pickleball England, offers a personal perspective on the impact the sport has had on his life (and hundreds of other Boomers’!)
Was it chance or was pickleball always coming my way? I will never know, but it was a guest on my ‘Share Your Story’ podcast who I first heard refer to pickleball, calling it ‘the fastest growing sport in the USA.’
Why had I never heard of it? After a lot of searching, watching videos and making enquiries, I managed to convince my local u3a (University of the Third Age) badminton group to join me in a short pickleball taster.
The whole story of getting pickleball set up in my local region is for another day, but today 100+ people, the majority of them Baby Boomers, are playing pickleball weekly and some are playing at least three+ hours per week.
What sport were they doing before pickleball came along? Most were doing none, some were doing tennis, badminton and even table tennis. They flocked like moths to a pickleball light to come and experience this new sport.
It’s not just in my region, it has been reported that there over 80 u3a groups playing pickleball across the country and the opportunity for growth is significant as there are around 1000 u3a charities across the UK, filled with members who wish to stay active and, as per the u3a strapline, wish to ‘Learn, Laugh and Live’. Well, pickleball hits all those objectives very well.
The saying ‘easy to learn, hard to master’ is very true indeed of pickleball. The scoring system is a challenge for some, but it’s also a great gift, because it allows Boomers of every age to stay cognitively fit.
Laughing is constant whilst playing pickleball, mostly laughing at yourself making those ridiculous shots that go wrong, but also laughter when it goes right and you marvel in your progress on the court.
Living is the most important. Playing pickleball involves your cerebellum, the part of your brain that helps coordinate muscle activity. Though it only accounts for 10% of the brain’s total volume, the cerebellum contains about 50% of the brain’s neurons, and is involved with both physical and thought coordination. It is activated by focusing on trying to hit something that is floating in space, usually a ball, coupled with making split decisions on where to hit the ball.
A 2016 study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that followed more than 80,000 adults found that those who played tennis, table tennis, squash, and other racquet sports had the lowest risk of dying during the nearly decade-long research. Pickleball didn’t exist in the UK during that research, of course!
Other reasons why pickleball supports ‘living’, is the benefit of social interaction. Baby Boomers might be widowed and single and the social interaction on and off court play a major role in reducing loneliness in older adults and giving them a sense of belonging and new friendships too.
This is not to be underestimated. You can see the evidence every week. Players arrive smiling and leave smiling.
We purposely overbook by around four places, which means four people usually have to sit out for one game before being able to get back on court. During that time, social conversation is hugely beneficial for everyone.
Millions of people will have given up their 2024 exercise resolution in the gym by
the end of January. Running on treadmills and pushing weights is unsociable and
boringly repetitive. Playing sports like pickleball is fun, never boring and you don’t even realise you’re actively exercising, burning calories and getting your heart rate up. Working out is not working out, but playing out (i.e. playing a game) most definitely is.
When we played games as kids outside, especially us Boomers, we were never bored. The same happens with pickleball. You can never be bored ever, seriously it’s true.
A Boomer revolution is happening through pickleball, spreading happiness and health. Welcome to the new world order of pickleball. Yeah, of course I’m biased, I’m a Boomer!
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Thanks Mike Dale for posting this, I hope it will inspire more Boomers to take up the sport. 🤞