Looking for a way to increase your activity as well as find an activity the entire family will enjoy? Check out Pickleball!
Pickleball is the fastest growing recreational sport in the country, and here in the Frankfort, Mokena, New Lenox area we have an abundance of pickle ball courts.
If you’re unfamiliar with pickle ball, think of it as tennis played on a smaller court with plastic paddles and a ball that resembles a wiffleball. (Pickleball purists will hate that I just said it was basically Tennis).
Let’s face it, tennis is frustrating to learn and requires hours of dedicated practice time to become decent. Pickleball is still challenging, but has a much shorter learning curve and is an excellent way to get some exercise in.
Rules of the game are simple, but I won’t go into a long diatribe about how to play. Rather I’ll encourage you to check out the USA Pickleball website at ,this link.
What we love about pickle ball is that it provides us an opportunity to practice skills we otherwise wouldn’t focus on too often. Dr. Anna and myself spend a great deal of time training for running races and triathlons which means we spend a lot of time going forward on our feet, on a bike, or in the water. Pickleball allows us to accelerate forwards, backwards, laterally, practice agility, and hand-eye coordination. As we get older, these are skills we take for granted. Like I teach in the Be Well Chiropractic Lifestyle classes, if you don’t use these skills you lose them. Practicing these skills is great for improving leg strength, balance, and other physical multitasking skills.
If you’re looking for a fun outing with friends and family play a game of doubles, but if you want to ratchet up the workout and intensity play singles. You’ll be surprised how much running around and moving you’ll do.
We look forward to seeing you out at the local pickle ball courts!
