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Showing posts from July, 2006

Padel (Paddle) Should Be the Next Big Sport

I have played a lot of paddle and racquet sports in my life. I was a passable racquetball player and a horrible tennis player. I could always get a really good workout playing racquetball, but could never keep the ball alive long enough in tennis. Then you end up chasing the ball or having to go get it in the street. I did not have the patience for the learning curve. Just fuhgeddaboudit. But tennis is nice, because it is outside. In 1990 I moved to Argentina with my job. The country was in the grips of a craze for a sport called paddle (pronounced like pah del). I fell in love with the game. It is a lot like tennis, scoring is the same, court kind of looks the same. It is normally played outside. The big difference is the walls. The court is surrounded by walls and fences--the walls are the boundary lines and they are live. Passing shots aren't--you get a second chance. You don't have to chase those passed balls. If the ball hits off the end of your racquet it doesn't end