The first and only time I tried playing pickleball was on May 4, 2024. In case you haven’t noticed, that’s the day when Star Wars fans post this on social media: “May the fourth be with you.” And if “May the fourth what?” is now hovering above your head—which I hope doesn’t have a minute brain like mine—then perhaps you’re not a Star Wars fan.
I guess my nephew, niece-in-law, and nieces wanted to distract me from the pain of losing my younger sister, who had died merely two weeks before, so they invited me to play pickleball at the village clubhouse tennis courts. I was so clueless, my initial reaction was, Pickle what? They then showed me the paddles and balls—oh, it’s like pingpong. But played on a tennis court. There were no pickleball courts in Cagayan de Oro then.
With Alex Eala now making waves in tennis, an exemplary feat that has some people believing she’s the Manny Pacquiao of tennis, you’d think Pinoys would now play the sport with passion. But pickleball continues to gain more fans, inspiring wise business owners to take advantage of the craze by opening more pickleball courts which are now here, there, and everywhere. Even the clubhouse has pickleball courts now.
The next best thing to do is to hire a coach to teach you the basics; otherwise the game should be renamed pick-a-ball—picking up balls instead of hitting them.
My pamangkins told me I did this particular cute and funny dance each time I missed a ball. I was absolutely unaware of that. Unfortunately, that was not caught in any of our videos, which only featured me hitting the ball. Darn. But that’s good news, actually—I was hitting the ball, not missing it. Yay.
I never tried playing pickleball again after that because of my ACL tear in the left knee. It didn’t complain on that pickleball day, which should have been a good sign to continue playing every chance I get, but I didn’t want to worsen the ACL tear, so I opted to focus on my resistance training instead.
More than two years have passed since then, and my gym friends are now hopping from one pickleball court to the next as they learn more about the sport, even hiring coaches to optimize their skills. Me? I’m their unofficial videographer. Hehe. Being a pickleball audience and cheerer is still fun—laughter is always part of the game when they miss a ball, or when they kick a ball. Kick? Ah yes—pickleball morphing into soccer.
Pickleball is just one of those things that I can’t indulge in anymore, no thanks to the ACL tear. There’s more: Pilates, Bounce, Strong Nation, jumping, running, jogging, deep squats, deep lunges.
One time I joined the Stepper class at the gym, and my personal trainer was standing right beside me, looking at me like, Whaaaaat? Why are you doing Stepper?!
The ACL tear happened in February 2016 at a circuit training class somewhere out there. I simply don’t want to add injury to injury, so I’m extra careful now.
Add that to my adjustment period with the carnivore diet and my new blood-pressure-control protocol. Simplifying my health journey is the better option.
