The H-F Racquet & Fitness Club is helping residents learn to enjoy the fastest-growing sport in the country – pickleball.
Pickleball was designed by dads who wanted to entertain their kids while on vacation. The game was first played in 1965 in Washington state. Since then, this fast-moving game is especially popular among senior populations in California, Arizona and Florida, but the sport has gained a following with players of all ages.
Monica Zachary of Flossmoor took up the game in 2022. She called pickleball “fun and contagious.” Christine Klimczak of Chicago Heights finally followed through on her sister-in-law’s suggestion to try the game. Now she’s hooked on pickleball.
“It’s a fabulous game,” she said.
And a family pickleball showcase in December got rave reviews, said Taylor LaRocca, tennis and aquatics programs supervisor at the club. It’s being repeated from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays, Jan. 21 and Feb. 18. Kids 6 to 10 years old can come with an adult to learn pickleball.
Pickleball is played on a court that’s smaller than tennis. At the racquet club, two tennis courts are striped for pickleball dimensions and portable nets, lower than a tennis net, are in place. The reconfiguration gives the club four pickleball courts. Team members play with paddles rather than racquets, and the ball is a version of a kid’s wiffle ball, although the texture is harder.
Jonathan River took up pickleball about four years ago to get in shape to play tennis with his son who was going out for the varsity tennis team at Homewood-Flossmoor High School.
“I never did play tennis with my son because we had so much fun playing pickleball that we played pickleball,” he recalls.
Today River is a pickleball instructor at the club. He says part of the game is reflexes and rules that make it easy for anyone to play.
“I’ve been beaten by 12-year-olds and 85-year-olds because it doesn’t come down to power, it comes down to finesse. You serve underhanded, so you can’t get an advantage there. It’s a wiffle ball, so you can’t accelerate like a tennis ball, so it’s not as scary as tennis with a ball flying at you at 100 miles an hour,” River said.
The space at the front of the net is called the kitchen. It’s a no-volley zone “so that slows down the game a little more,” he said. “And ultimately the points are won or lost in that kitchen zone.” The hit just over the net is called a dink. The ball falls over the net into the kitchen and is hard to return, River explained. The game is won with 11 points.
“It’s really satisfying to hit that pickleball hard but that’s coming over from tennis where people just want to make it from baseline to baseline,” he said. “That doesn’t win any points, and everybody learns that in the first year.”
River, who played tennis for years, said pickleball is a “gentler, softer game which is kind of frustrating (for tennis players) until you get the touch for that. Tennis can be cutthroat.” By comparison, pickleball is “gentile. With a whiffle ball how seriously can you take it, even at the higher level?”
“The social aspect is: you play a game with 4 people. Win or lose you always break up the partners, so they’ll go switch sides. You play with a new partner. That’s the beauty of pickleball,” he said. “You can’t get that competitive because you know that that’s probably who you’ll be playing with next time. That, along with all the rules that kind of level the playing field so nobody gets the advantage.”
River said players are developing friendships through play, especially those who come for open play on Monday and Tuesday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m. and Fridays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Players of all skill levels pair up during open play.
In summer, outdoor play is available at Lions Club Park and Orchard Park where tennis courts have been converted for pickleball play. River said Olympia Fields Country Club and Idlewild Country Club have each converted tennis courts for pickleball.
Groups can reserve pickleball courts outside of open play hours. River’s taken on the responsibility of organizing play time for a group of friends he started playing with four years.
“We all coalesced around the drop-in (time) and classes” and within six months they were reserving their own court time, he said.
To learn more about pickleball lessons and programs, visit hfparks.com or call the racquet club at 708-799-1323.