The Department of Parliamentary Services is introducing pickleball to the Health and Recreation Centre roster.
The Health and Recreation Centre (HRC) will hold 30-minute introductory sessions on Tuesday, May 21 from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm on Senate courts 7 and 8.
Pickleball is a paddle-and-ball sport played on a modified tennis court. As attitudes towards open participation in sport have changed, pickleball has become one of the fastest-growing activities in the world.
Created with the intent of providing a sport a whole family could play together competitively, pickleball is a relatively short game in which age and physical fitness don’t necessarily confer huge advantages. This means that, for the first time, MOPS won’t always have to let their bosses win.
Pickleball resembles badminton — if badminton were played with table tennis paddles and a wiffle ball. The sense that pickleball is more social than competitive is embedded into the terminology of the game. It is hard to imagine an athlete taking the instruction to “stop dinking their pickleball in the kitchen” seriously.
But this is part of what has brought people to the sport in droves. The sense you can have a reasonably competitive game without a decade of tennis coaching is part of the appeal.
Pickleball ACT runs 10 sessions a week over seven days, and is consistently booked out. They are one of three pickleball groups in Canberra at the moment.
The food-themed paddle sport may also be a new entrant into the Australian culture war, following the lead of what are definitely good-faith arguments that it’s taking away court time from poor, working-class tennis players.
At least in this case, the politicians can fight it out on the court.
Pickleball introductory sessions are free for HRC members and $8 for non-members. Bookings for the introductory sessions are essential, and close on Friday, May 17 2024.
To register, contact HRC on 02 6277 5310 or recreation@aph.gov.au.
