It's been quite some time since I have done a team sport for exercise and even longer since I have done one that I genuinely enjoyed as well.
I have heard of pickleball for quite some time but I kind of avoided it in the past because the people that talked about it did so, incessantly. I don't mean to be cruel but when a group of people become so obsessed with something it starts to sound like a cult to me, kind of like crossfit. Well the other day I went and played it anyway with 3 other people, 2 of which were also playing it for the first time and I gotta say, this sport is seriously fun.
If you've never played this sport, and you have a friend that does play it especially, I highly recommend that you give it a try. It's honestly quite easy to just get up and play and because of the serve rules, it is really easy to start playing unlike tennis where the server is the most difficult part of the journey. Seriously, if you can't handle an underhand serve into a very large square 5 meters away from you, well you are a pretty uncoordinated dolt... haha.
That being said I have mis-served many times and missed that box because I started to get cute with my serves.
When playing doubles, which is honestly the best way to play this game, you don't really even do a serious amount of running around and because the ball is hollow the chances of you spending a great deal of time chasing the ball down because of some sort of wild mis-hit is pretty slim.
The equipment is really inexpensive also. Sure, there are some super-fancy paddles out there but as a true beginner, you are not going to know what to do with the "better" stuff anyway. I think the best gear is a racket anyway (pun intended.)
There's a reason why people of all ages are picking up on this sport methinks. This is because of the fact that the possibility for injury is very small compared to other sports and even if the ball does hit you square in the back on accident, the ball is so lightweight that while it might shock you, it isn't going to properly hurt you. I suppose if you were very unlucky you could take a shot to the eye but let's not get too worried. The ball moves very slow compared to other sports because of the ball's design, so there isn't really much reason to fear.
We played doubles for 2 hours a few days ago and the stats that were recorded by my Garmin Vivoactiv 4 kind of surprised me.
For me, burning 1300 calories is a really big deal when it comes to an exercise, especially when at the end of the exercise I didn't hate all of it. This cannot be said for the running and cycling that I do because while I don't mind doing those things, I don't truly enjoy it like I do pickleball. I had forgotten how wonderful team sports can be for fitness because I haven't so much as attempted to take part in them for several years.
This is going to become a weekly thing for me, perhaps several times a week because while I do try to get at least 1 hour of cardio in every day, some days it is more difficult for me to get motivated to actually do it and I have to force myself out the door on a lot of those days. With pickleball I am genuinely excited to play every single point and I found myself starting to get a lot better at the game even after just playing it for one day.
I have no notion that I am going to excel at this sport but I think that my friends who were there that day as well are very keen to also keep going to play.
Surely you can find 3 pals and give this sport a try. The rules are not terribly complex and while there is some strategy, mostly it just consists of keeping the ball in play.
I found it very easy to pick up and had a wonderful time. There is very little chance that I am going to go on a run or a cycle for as long as it takes to burn this many calories, so I think I have found something absolutely wonderful to add to my cardio life.
Even though the city that I live in is quite expensive for doing almost anything, this was very reasonably priced and no membership was required.