A recent workshop helped local players improve their skills on the pickleball court, a budding game in 100 Mile House.
Fifteen players participated at Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School on April 16, with instructors Chuck Lefaive, a founding member of Pickleball BC who resides in Surrey, and Aki Takeda from Vancouver.
The local club set up six pickleball courts inside the gym and players learned strategies around body positioning, shot selection, playing as a team with your partner, putting spin on the ball, and other techniques sure to improve the calibre of play in 100 Mile House, explains local player Lorne Landry.
“We had a lot of fun. The two guys had us working pretty hard and playing together.”
The local pickleball club meets every Tuesday from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the 100 Mile Elementary School gym. The club is sponsored by Canlan Ice Sports, which has supplied a lot of equipment and paddles for anybody wishing to use them.
There are more local players who would choose to play if additional courts were available, Landry says. The club hopes there will soon be some outdoor pickleball available as courts can easily be laid out within tennis courts.
Pickleball was first played in 1965 in the state of Washington. It is played on a court similar to a badminton court. The net is lowered similar to a tennis net. Rather than a birdie, a whiffle ball about the size of a baseball is used. The badminton racquet is replaced by a paddle similar to an enlarged ping pong bat. Like ping pong, spin on the ball is an important factor in the game. It is most frequently played as doubles and points are scored only by the team which is serving.
Pickleball has been popular in 100 Mile House for a few years, Landry says.
“It was originally brought here by local snowbirds who often play the game daily while down south. It is a rapidly growing sport all over the the province, with many communities having hundreds of players and many indoor and outdoor facilities.”
For more information on the local club, contact Landry at 250-791-5300.