Pickleball is changing lives in village near Lancaster

Lancaster Guardian

Residents in the village of Burton-in-Kendal are crediting the up-and-coming sport of Pickleball with changing lives and improving their physical and mental health.

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00:00I'd been in America to visit friends and I'd played it once had no idea what we

00:10were doing but I'd realized I could do it and I'm not a good sports person at

00:15all I played badminton years ago but kept getting tennis elbow and it just

00:19didn't work for me and so when I heard that there was a lady coming to

00:22represent pickleball here and show us how to play I jumped at the chance I

00:27think I was probably the first reply and I was very happy to take it on board

00:30because I knew it was a good game it is easier than a lot of other games that

00:37you play but I think the social side of it as well is really important to people

00:41they come along when they're not playing they're chatting with other people but

00:44it's really taken off in England in the last three years and it just seems to be

00:48doing here so we're really pleased if you're not careful you get stuck in

00:54ruts it's exercise it's fun we laugh more than anything else and it it's

01:00played mainly just for fun it's not a heavy sport other people do play that

01:06way they are competitions leagues and things like that but that doesn't

01:10interest me I just like the fun of it I play tennis a lot and I think I heard

01:16about it from people who play tennis and pickleball it's on in the morning and

01:20our tennis is always in the afternoon so that's part of it and then sometimes

01:25I come here in the evenings and then it's inside so if it's raining and your

01:29tennis is off then it's handy to come here so all those sorts of reasons we

01:34got a grant from the council for 700 pounds which was wonderful and we wanted

01:39to spend that on getting nets so we needed pickleball nets we needed

01:44pickleball paddles which are the bats that we play with and pickleball balls

01:48but it's been great because we've actually loaned out our equipment to

01:52other groups who were starting up until they get their money in and so we've

01:57really felt the benefit of that that although it was a small grant in lots of

02:00ways it's gone far as you can see most of us are retired and that's a beauty

02:05in that sense that people that are retired can be active so many people

02:11retire sit down and do nothing this is totally different it's short and quick

02:18you're on off it's good fun I like it we have about 10 hourly sessions a week at

02:26the moment because really eight to ten people is plenty so we're offering more

02:31sessions so that more people have got the opportunity to have a go

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