The Sun Lakes Pickleball Club learns Pickleball Rodeo!
David Zapatka
Recently back from a Pickleball tour of the Dominican Republic, Pat and Sue O’Connell returned with an event they were privileged to participate in called Pickleball Rodeo. Wanting to share this fun with the members of Sun Lakes Pickleball Club at IronOaks, they hosted 40 participants as 10 teams of four with monitors on each of the six courts.
Six different skill drills were practiced – volley, drop shot, serve, dink, return of serve and paddle switch. Participants learned there is so much more to Pickleball than just hitting the ball back. There is plenty of strategy that can be employed once you have the knowledge and skills. Stop watches were used as drills were timed. Consecutive shots were counted and recorded and scores were posted as this became a competition between the 10 teams. Everyone followed a set rotation planned by the court monitors practicing each skill. Once the competition was completed, winners were announced and the celebration began.
Pickleball Rodeo turned out to be a hoot! Best of all the participants loved this format for learning and improving their games.
1st place – Karen Macksam, Bob Harper, Eric Tiepel and Sandra Little, 2nd place – Jack Hill, Jim Mendenhall, Mercedes Dellacruce and Sharon Visor, 3rd place – Dave Bissell, Foster Goldman, Barb Kemstine and Tom Chase.