WELCOME… An Introduction to Pickleball & The Art of Living

Welcome to my first blog post. I’ve been told that all the cool kids are doing blogs these days so I wanted to jump in and add my voice to the other 25 million or so out there. 

So I wrote this little book, Pickleball and the Art of Living and the young, beautiful social media folks say I should get the word out. As you can tell by the title, this isn’t your typical pickleball instructional book or your standard self empowerment manual. It’s a little bit of both, served up with a side dish of spirituality and humor.

I think you’d agree that “the art of living” is subject to interpretation. My version values balance, meaning, connection and plain old fun. If these things are on your list, my book will likely be in your wheelhouse. I will show exactly how to build the life you want by learning to overcome the obstacles we all face and using principles that are effective and simple to apply.

My motivation for writing the book is to share the optimal mindset with you for getting the most out of life. It’s not to upsell you or build my brand. In this increasingly  polarized world, I have simply seen this little sport bring people together. I rarely have political conversations with my pickleball friends. We’re too wrapped up in trying to beat each other and have fun to find ways to typecast one another.

And that’s pretty awesome. 

Our community tends towards the health-conscious and the social. The concept of “play” is essential to who we are. It balance other aspects of our lives and gives us an outlet to express our physicality in a world that is becoming more isolated and sedentary.

Basically, we never completely grew up. We just want to go out and play with our friends.

They seem nice, but once the game starts…

We also tend to be competitive, but most of us keep competition in the proper perspective. We get after it during the games but when we’re done it’s usually all smiles with only an occasional scowl sneaking through. We practice and look to find new skills to add to our repertoire. But more often than not, we just head out to the courts, find a game and enjoy the day. 

Most of us become “situational friends”. We may socialize offsite occasionally but almost all the good times take place on or around the court. It’s “our place” to get away from the real world, give our incessant thinking a rest and reconnect with the purity of play.

WHAT’S WITH THE PICKLEBALL ANGLE?

Pickleball just happens to be one passion out of many available to us humans that can be a gateway to enjoyment, challenge and connection. It’s one of the fastest growing sports today, offering a challenge for racket sports enthusiasts of all ages and a refuge for older tennis players whose back and knees might benefit from a smaller arena and a more social vibe. 

It’s also an interesting puzzle. It tests your strategic and mental skills by giving you options to play finesse shots or use the power game to set up points. Disguising shots is a fun part of the game as you seek to keep your opponents off balance. Quick, real time analysis is required to exploit opponents’ weaknesses and manage your own.

And pickleball is just plain fun. One of the first things I noticed when I took up the game was the happy sounds coming from the courts — laughter and excited shouts, with only the occasional colorful language… And the pickleball community is very supportive. There seems to be a surplus of well adjusted, active folks out on the courts that add to the experience of competition. Having come from the more hard-nosed atmosphere of competitive basketball, I appreciate the feeling of going to play rather than going to war.

BUT I’M NOT A PICKLEBALLER…

It’s OK if you haven’t drunk the pickleball Kool-Aid yet. You might relate better to other sports or hobbies as your passions, but the same questions apply: “How do I get the most out of my passion and energize other aspects of my life with that same enthusiasm?” And conversely, “How do I engage with my passions as my best self?”

These questions may resonate with you if you have ever found yourself just trying to make it through the day until you get to do what you really want to be doing. I’m as guilty of this as anyone sometimes — doomscrolling online or hacking away at my “to-do” list resentfully as I wish away the hours until I get to play. We can find ourselves “mailing it in” at work or with family. How do we wake up and live extraordinarily?

Let’s find out together.

In future blogs and videos, I will explore everything from fitness to meditation, playing tips to practical advice on living well. I welcome any suggestions from you as to what you would like to see in these posts. I will select at least one suggestion per month and blog about it. If nobody sends any ideas, I will shamelessly concoct a fictional person, give them a quirky backstory and write about their obsession with dinking, gelato or mariachi music.

So if in a month or so, “Carmen from San Diego” (or wherever in the world she is) asks about proper dinking technique and if I think mariachi music goes with mango gelato, you’ll know what I’m up to. 

I’ll also throw in some stories that relate to the subject matter from the book. I confess that the only regret I have about the book is that I wish I had told more stories — stories that put flesh on the topics I discuss that make it more real and relatable. So I will share personal profiles of those I have met on my pickleball and life journey. And I will share reflections on my own life that illustrate the ongoing quest to figure out what the hell I'm doing here. 

Above all, I promise to do my best to inform, entertain — and even make you think and laugh occasionally. Above all, I promise never to use the phrase “life hacks”.

Play well!