Listening to Lyle Kern tell how he discovered the sport of pickleball is a lot like reading about the sport’s invention.
Kern, a longtime tennis player, has an injured left shoulder that prevents him from serving in tennis.
“There’s no power there any more so I was looking for something to do. I ran across pickleball. Man, is it fun,” Kern said.
Pickleball is not that new. It was invented by two men in Washington trying to find something for their “bored” families to do. That was in 1965.
There was a badminton court on the property but not enough equipment — rackets, shuttlecocks. So a small plastic ball was found. They made four wood paddles.
They first played the game with the net at badminton height (60 inches). After a week of play, the net was lowered to 36 inches. Rules were created, keeping in mind the original purpose — to provide a game that the whole family could play together.
“How did they come up with the name? A family dog named Pickles would grab the ball and run off with it. The ball, similar to a whiffle ball, was Pickle’s ball,” Kern said.
The game has elements of badminton, tennis and ping pong.
“Anyone can play it. There are singles and doubles. It can go as fast as you want it to and in competitive tournaments, it can get pretty quick,” Kern said.
Kern and his daughter, Cameron, picked up the sport. They’ve played in Pickleball competitions at the Sunflower State Games the past three summers.
In the 2010 annual all Kansas state competitions in July, the father-daughter combo won the mixed doubles. Cameron won the female, 21-30-year-old division.
It’s a family sport. Lyndon Kern, Lyle’s son, combined with Eric Keagle taking first in the men’s doubles while Lyle and Scott Riebel of LaHarpe were second. Keagle was first and Lyndon was third in the single men’s (21-30) division.
“Seniors enjoy the game also, especially the doubles. Basically there’s the serve then most of the action takes place at the seven-foot line near the net,” Kern said.
“There’s the two -bounce rule where the serve has to bounce once in the opposite court then the return has to bounce once then it comes down to volleys. Even if you volley over a person there’s plenty of time to get back into position to the ball before the second bounce.”
Kern has established a pickleball club through Iola Recreation. The City of Iola provided the funds for Kern to have a true pickleball court — actually two courts — at the Meadowbrook Park tennis court.
“We had a couple from Topeka come down here and play. They really liked our courts because the only lines on it are pickleball lines. Most pickleball courts are just drawn on regular tennis courts and you have two sets of lines,” Kern said.
Serving in pickleball is underhand and the paddle can not strike the ball above the waist. Each side of the net has three areas marked — two 10-foot by 15-foot areas and the 7-foot non-volley zone near the net.
A game is played to 11 points and a team must win by at least two points. Points only can be scored when serving. Points are lost by hitting the ball out of bounds, hitting the net, stepping into the non-volley zone and volleying the ball or by volleying the ball before the ball has bounced on each side of the net following a serve.
“You get the little dink shots from table tennis (ping pong), you have the strategy of tennis shots and, of course, it is so similar to badminton because that was what it was created from,” Kern said.
“It’s a good lead-in sport to tennis in my opinion.
“Senior citizens like it because of the social aspects for the sport where most of the action takes place right near the net.”
Kern is the southeast Kansas ambassador of the USA Pickleball Association (USAPA). He said that he found that many school districts teach pickleball in their physical education classes.
“You can’t go in to sporting goods stores or Walmart and buy pickleball equipment. It’s all online ordering. I made my first paddle much like the guys did when they first created the game,” Kern said.
Kern said he is now an official distributor for Pickleball Now, which sells equipment. “That’s how much I really enjoy this sport and want to promote it.”
Kern’s pickleball club —the Pure Prairie League — meets and plays on Saturday mornings at 9 o’clock. It will move inside the Iola Community Recreation Building in Riverside Park when winter rolls around.
“When the college is in session, we were having 20 or more people down here playing,” Kern said.
The next two Saturday’s Kern is holding clinics to teach pickleball. For $5, people can come for a couple of hours of teaching in the mornings, starting at 9 then have some tournament play in the afternoons.
On Aug. 21, the clinic will be for youths 17 and under. On Aug. 28, it will for 18 and older. For more information contact Kern at 365-3252.
There’s a new sport in town — Pickleball
