
Friday I opted out of barre class to try beginning pickleball. Since it was Good Friday, I realized my husband didn’t have to work so I took him along.
I was nervous when we walked into the gym and asked if this was beginning pickleball lessons.
“There are no lessons,” a woman answered.
“But I was told that beginning lessons were on Fridays” I said.
“This is beginning pickleball. We just play.”
Yikes.
Then two more couples walked in and said they had never played before either. We were all relieved to not be the only newbies.
A woman and man suggested each first-time couple go to one of the three courts and experienced players would play with us. My husband and I got Bill, who turned out to be an amazing coach. He said he’d been a coach for 30 years of different sports.
Bill had us practice serving over and over. He went through the rules and told us where to stand. He helped me with technique and after one hour, he said we were ready to play. He was patient and encouraging. Without Bill I don’t know if I would ever play again.
We played games or matches for the next hour. Yes! Two full hours of pickleball.
The next day I couldn’t move. Even after four weeks of swimming and barre classes my body was in shock after pickleball.
Easter Sunday my husband and I practiced at our neighborhood tennis court. We had ordered removable lines and markers to turn the tennis court into a pickleball court. A pickleball court is much smaller than a tennis court. After measuring and placing the markers down, we were ready.
A few serves later, I reached down for a ball and pulled a muscle. I’m currently sitting on an ice pack.
My kids told me I shouldn’t have gone from zero workouts to four in one week, but should have built up slowly. They said they knew I would get hurt. A good friend told me that, too. My question is this. Why didn’t they tell me before? Or did they and I didn’t listen?
What activity have you started and stopped and started again? Have you ever done too much too soon and gotten injured? What happened? Is this just the side effect of old age?