Pickleball
I've been a racquet sports enthusiast since childhood. I started with playing badminton and my grandfather taught my cousin and I tennis in the summer vacations.
When I was in boarding school, a friend took it upon himself to teach me table tennis. I later had some of coaching for table tennis, and I attained a decent level.
One constant annoyance is that I have not been able to play table tennis as much as I would have liked. It's mostly to do with not having a club nearby.
Fast forward to present day (2025). Some friends started playing Pickleball and I joined them.
All those years of racquet sports turned out to be a solid foundation for Pickleball. The footwork and gameplay motion come from tennis; the finesse and control from table tennis; and the reflexes required for close-to-the-net play from badminton.
It's been great fun playing with friends. The rallies are long, and the games evenly contested for the most part.
However, Pickleball has some downsides as well. As it is played with a hollow ball with holes in it, the ball travels rapidly loses speed in the air, which makes returning it easy. The Pickleball paddles are made of smooth plastic so there's not much spin that can be imparted by them, and also the smooth surface nullifies any spin while returning. Table tennis players are familiar of how not compensating for the spin causes your shot to be wildly out of control.
Many times I catch myself thinking "What if we added a grippier rubber surface on the paddle?" which leads to "Congratulations, you've reinvented a table tennis racquet" or "What if we could do overhead serves?" which leads to "Congratulations, you've reinvented tennis".
There are a lot of deliberate design decisions in Pickleball which makes the game easy to play, and have fun doing so. I feel that it's a sport that dampens advanced skill/technique and amplifies basic levels of skill.
Of course, I do not mean to say that Pickleball cannot be played at a high level or that it is easy for anyone can become a Pickleball champion. Seeing some video highlights can clearly show how competitive and difficult top flight Pickleball can be.
But I do feel that there are more rewarding and challenging sports like any of the traditional racquet sports. I feel a sport can be difficult to learn, but soon becomes rewarding when some level of skill is attained.
In the meantime, I'll be playing Pickleball. 😁