Twin Lakes residents pick up pickleball

By: 
Erin Sommers Graphic-Advocate Editor

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A group of Twin Lakes residents are learning the rules of a relatively new sport that combines elements of tennis, ping pong and badminton.
Created in 1965, pickleball can be played indoors or outside, on a court smaller than a tennis court, with a plastic ball similar in construction to a whiffle ball – small holes to keep the ball from moving too quickly, struck with solid, square racquets larger than ping pong paddles.
“It’s a game kids can play, all the way up through seniors,” Harvey Helgeland said before game time last week at the Twin Lakes Bible Camp’s Harvest Hall. “It’s not as intense as tennis, where you play with a much faster ball.”
Helgeland picked up the game in Arizona, where he spends part of the year. There, outdoor centers have up to 32 courts dedicated to the game. At the camp, enthusiasts taped out two courts, and on a recent night, four teams of two players set up and began hitting balls back and forth across the nets. 
Read more in the Feb. 22 edition. 

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