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Why is the receiver’s partner should stand up at the net just behind the kitchen line?

It is a strategic position, not a rule, the receiver’s partner should stand behind the kitchen line (or non-volley line) to keep an eye on the serve and help call the ball if it's out of play.  You can also defend the line.  In doubles, there’s no rule on the position of any player with the exception of the server, which must serve from behind the line.  Players can position themselves anywhere as long as they are on their respective side of the court.

Happy Veteran's Day!

WHAT IS A VETERAN? You can't tell a veteran just by looking. He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating 2 gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel. He is the barroom loud-mouth whose frat-boy behavior is outweighed in the cosmic scales by four hours of unparalleled bravery near the 38th Parallel in Korea. She is the nurse who fought against futility in Da Nang and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years. He is the POW who went away one person and came back another. He is the white-haired old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket, aggravatingly slow, who helped liberate a Nazi death camp. A Veteran is an ordinary and extraordinary human being who offered his life's most vital years in the service of his country. He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known. We will never

Popularity of pickleball

 Pickleball has exploded in popularity The popularity of pickleball exploded in 2022. Now more than 36 million people are pickleballers and it continues to grow. In fact, pickleball has attracted sports legends like Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, LeBron James, and others investing millions of dollars in the sport, and across America, tennis courts are being replaced with pickleball courts.

Indoor vs. Outdoor Pickleballs

Differences in indoor and outdoor pickleballs: Indoor pickleballs have larger holes, about 26 compared to 40 for outdoor balls.  Indoor pickleballs are softer and lighter and designed for indoor court, if used outside, they will not hold up to windy conditions. Outdoor pickleballs are made heavier with thicker plastic, they have smaller holes (40), which are more effective in windy conditions.

What is pickleball?

Pickleball has been around since the 1960s, is a paddle/racket game played outdoors and indoors where typically four players, two on each team hit a hollow perforated plastic ball (40-holes outdoor ball – 26-holes indoor ball) using solid-faced graphite or fiberglass paddles over a 36-inch-high net. Teams on each side of the court hit the ball back and forth until one commits an infraction. Two can also play the game, one player on each side of the net. Pickleball was invented in the summer of 1965 by three dads, Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum in Bainbridge, a town outside of Seattle, WA. The three dads got together to discuss possible games for their kids to play during the summer, and Voilà, pickleball was born.

The Pickleball Experience

What is the pickleball experience? The pickleball experience may differ from community to community, for example, we have visited other HOA communities, and in some, the experience we noticed is basically uniform, players lined up their paddles and wait for their turn to play, the games are serious, but we didn’t see the social comradery we were expecting, although a less-close comradery did exist, I would not call it a social gathering,  the age range in these communities was the 60s to 80s, they all played well. In other communities we saw a different type of comradery, here, music was playing, and you can see how the players reacted, they expressed joy on the court, and they were much friendlier to one another, some doing their dance moves to the music.  Basically, same age group, but it was clear that the social atmosphere here was stronger, and some even commented that they looked forward to these games for the social closeness and their therapeutic effect. So the pickleball exper