Bob Lutz: Wiffle ball, ping pong, tennis – pickleball

Alvin Gregg is 81, has Alzheimer’s, and doesn’t really want to do much.

Except play pickleball.

“That’s the highlight of his week,” said Gregg’s wife, Joyce. “Anytime I ask him if he wants to go play, he says he says, ‘Yes, I want to play.’”

Pickleball, a combination of almost any racquet sport you can imagine, probably appeals to Gregg because he’s a former champion table-tennis competitor. Pickleball, which has been around since 1965 and is becoming more and more popular in Wichita, is played on a 20x44 foot court. The racquets are smaller than those used for tennis, but larger than a ping-pong paddle. The ball has holes through it, like a wiffle ball, and travels at roughly one-third the speed of a tennis ball. Games are played to 11 points; the winner must win by at least two.

Gregg, whose likes to use topspin on his shots – no doubt muscle memory from his table-tennis days – looked to be having a great time the day I stopped by Edgemoor Park to take in some pickleball.

“I kept thinking it might be time for him to quit,” Joyce Gregg said. “That he wasn’t ready for something like this. But today he’s doing really good out there.”

Gregg was joined by 30 or so other players, mostly seniors, on what was a cold day. But pickleball can be played outdoors, too, on downsized tennis courts.

Leo Estopare, a former tennis professional at Wichita Country Club and Genesis Health Clubs, said he’s a recent convert to pickleball and is one of the driving forces to expand the game to Edgemoor, where it’s played for a couple of hours every Tuesday and Friday afternoon.

“It’s really different from any other sport because everyone is involved,” Estopare said. “All four players in a doubles game are involved in playing the point. In tennis, you cannot hit a ball for many points, whereas pickleball is active and constant.”

Becky Middleton, another former tennis player, pointed out the sweat pouring from her body after just one pickleball doubles game as an indicator of the game’s cardio benefits.

Middleton suffered injuries to her knees that made playing covering a tennis court difficult. Covering a smaller pickleball court, though, is possible.

“I heard about pickleball a couple of years ago,” Middleton said. “A tennis friend of mine’s mother plays the game in Arizona. My friend said she went there for a visit and all her mother did while she was there was play pickleball. It was like she was addicted to the game.”

Now Middleton understands why. She and her old friend, Estopare, are trying to expand the game in Wichita. They are working with city parks and recreation folks to get pickleball into other rec centers around town.

“In October, I went to the Andover rec center to check this pickleball thing,” Middleton said. “My first time on a court was Oct. 20 and I’ve been playing three or four times a week ever since.”

Pickleball was invented by three dads – Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum – near Seattle 50 years ago. The story goes that they had grown tired of their usual summer activities and were looking for something new and fresh.

“I’ve heard they had a badminton court in somebody’s back yard and they lowered the net to three feet, made some paddles, had some wiffle balls and started playing pickleball,” Estopare said. “One of them had a dog named “Pickles,” is the story I’ve been told. And when they missed hitting the ball, that dog would run after it.”

It’s a good story whether it’s true or not.

Regardless, pickleball is making quite a name for itself.

Don Roe, 85, is a former music leader at Immanuel Baptist Church. He said he started playing pickleball at the downtown Wichita Senior Center in 1993 and is glad to see it being offered at Edgemoor Park’s rec center.

“I think it’s about the fastest growing sport in the nation,” Roe said. “It’s being played in junior highs, high schools and colleges. I’ve been fortunate enough to win a few gold medals, but when you’re 82 or 83 there aren’t that many people alive still. I played against this guy who looked like an old farmer, but man he could still hit the ball.”

Roe said he’ll play as long as his legs can support him.

“Once I tried pickleball,” Roe said, “I was bitten hard.”

Games were going non-stop on a recent afternoon at Edgemoor. As soon as one finished, another started.

“Many of people have not even heard of pickleball, yet it’s older than the Super Bowl,” Estopare said. “It’s a sport mainly for adults, but we want to get all ages involved.”

Once you play pickleball, Estopare believes, you’ll play again.

This story was originally published March 9, 2015 at 4:47 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: Wiffle ball, ping pong, tennis – pickleball."