Having a ball in Radcliff

Radcliff residents Barb and Jim Hawkins came back from a vacation at The Villages, Fla., with a different kind of souvenir.

Amber Coulter

From left, Carol Underdonk, Barb Hawkins, Paul Underdonk and Jesse Ford, all of Radcliff, play pickleball last week behind the Colvin Community Center in Radcliff. The tennis courts behind the center have been outfitted for the sport.

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Amber Coulter

Jesse Ford, left, serves a Wiffle ball with a hard racket that resembles a large table tennis paddle as Paul Underdonk looks on. Both men began playing when invited by friends who learned the sport in Florida.

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Amber Coulter

Carol Underdonk, left, watches while her partner, Barb Hawkins, returns a serve. Hawkins and her husband introduced their friends and city officials to the sport of pickleball.

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They had spent time in the Florida sun dashing along an area the size of a badminton court with a net a couple inches lower than one used for tennis.

They volleyed Wiffle balls with rackets that looked like large versions of table tennis paddles, Jim Hawkins said.

“Everybody really likes it,” he said. “There are people there who have given up tennis to play it. It’s just a really good game.”

He said seniors like pickleball because they want to live active lifestyles without overextending themselves.

The activity level also enticed Hawkins to play years after he had to give up tennis because of pain in his knees.
He had to sit out of a game Aug. 15 because of an injury he had received playing the sport on another trip to The Villages.

The Hawkinses had so much fun that they brought the sport back to Radcliff this past spring.

They started calling friends, mostly tennis partners, to play against, he said.

“No one’s heard of it here,” he said. “It’s very addictive.”

Jesse Ford of Radcliff hadn’t heard of pickleball until he was asked to play during his summer break from the University of Louisville to take the place of the injured Jim Hawkins.

Ford, a tennis player, thought the sport would be a lot like tennis, but it moved faster than he expected.

The sport also made Ford sweat more than he expected.

Pickleball is similar to tennis, except for the speed of the ball and that the court is smaller. The differences make the game easier to play and make play more accessible to children, senior citizens and those who have difficulty with physical activity.

That doesn’t mean the game lacks aerobic activity.

Paul Underdonk of Radcliff said the points pile up fast during pickleball, but it’s not as strenuous as tennis. He and his wife, Carol, started playing when the Hawkinses called them and they typically play once each week now.

“It’s just a fun game and entertaining,” Carol said.

Hawkins said he and his wife have lured about 10 area residents to try the new sport, and none of them have disliked it.
He expects more friends to join them when the weather cools.

The couple approached the Radcliff recreation department to outfit existing tennis courts behind Colvin Community Center on Freedom Way to accommodate the game.

The courts now bear red lines inside of the regular tennis lines and a hook that can be used to draw the net down to pickleball height.

Recreation Director Lori Jury said pickleball equipment also is available inside the community center when the center is open, though most regular players buy their own equipment.

Jury said the cost to outfit the two courts was minimal, and it allowed the city to provide a new activity to area residents.

She hopes the sport will catch on as word about it circulates.

Amber Coulter can be reached at (270) 505-1746 or acoulter@thenewsenterprise.com.

The game pickleball got its name from Pickles, the name of a family dog that chased balls that got away and hid them in the bushes. Pickle’s ball was shortened to Pickleball.

Source: www.pickleball.com