Pickleball’s name for most people seems to be very foreign, especially for those who live around Asia. Many still have never heard of or know what Pickleball sport is.
Pickleball is an American sport found on Bainbridge Island, Washington, and its inventors are Barney McCallum and Joel Prichard. The sport is now thriving in European countries, while in Asia it is still not developing and well-known. Even though it has the same benefits like health benefits of playing football, it’s a totally different sport.
It is a sport that is played with a kind of bat and uses a special ball played on a 20-foot-wide, 44-foot-long court separated by a type of tennis net. The field itself is divided into several parts, namely the right side/even side and the left side/odd side and non-volley zone.
Service is performed diagonally to the opponent’s area with a low strike. The ball is hit back over the net until one of the players is unable to return the ball to the opponent’s field or fails to follow certain conditions.
Points are counted only for the side that performs the service. If the server wins the rally, the server will earn points. The server will continue to service unless the server makes a mistake and loses the rally. For those who first get 11 points and lead with a minimum of 2 scores above the opponent considered winning.
Aside from bringing happiness and enjoyable fun, playing pickleball can also give seniors several useful benefits, such as:
1. Improves Body Stability
When you’re imagining what pickleball looks like, you’ll be surprised that it’s actually an active sport. It doesn’t only include some hand movements in it, but also some running and switching positions quickly. It sounds exciting and tiring at the same time.
Similar to the benefits of exercise for kids, what it does by these active movements is to improve the body’s muscle strength, and even help some people to lose weight. Seniors won’t find it difficult to do. On the contrary, the game is actually pretty simple and straightforward.
This game is highly concentrated on eyes and hands movements. Seniors need to always focus on the ball and their hand to swing. The result of this is quite beneficial for the lives of seniors. With healthy eyes, they can certainly see everything better.
With stronger hands, they could easily grab something strongly on their own. But, though it carries a lot of benefits, they still need to be prepared for the game since it’s always connecting reaction times, fitness, and agility at all times.
2. Exercises Brain Functions
Exercise doesn’t only work for outer body strength. Surely, when imagining what are the benefits of exercise, many would prefer outer parts of the body, like arms, legs, chests, and others. But you need to remember that the brain is also a part of the body. It is a muscle, and muscles always need exercises.
Doing pickleball means that you can exercise your brain functionality that will give benefits to memory and cognitive functions. It helps to create better concentration, better focus, and mental agility. Memory is always important, especially for seniors. With more preserved mental agility, they won’t forget things so easily.
Facing a challenge, the brain works in its unique way to overcome any coming problems, and always looking for an answer or opportunity. Similar to the benefits of playing chess, playing some games of pickleball can definitely help them by exercising their brain muscles regularly.
3. Makes Stronger Bones
Sure, there are ways to make bones stronger. Consuming some healthy milks and having some benefits of almond milk to strengthen them from the inside, and doing some workouts to treat from the outside.
Playing pickleball could be a little bit challenging to do for seniors, but it’s not totally impossible. Some games require a bit stronger moves like squatting, which can also increase the bones density.
People who have Osteoporosis may be reluctant to do this activity. It’s understandable since they may fear that doing it could make their condition worsened.
But, the fact tells us otherwise. By doing some light activities like Pickleball, the seniors can maintain their bones condition in a more fun and less-stressful way.
Together with improved coordination, this pickleball activity can eventually make them stronger and more focused.
4. Reducing The Risk of Heart Attack
We all know that heart diseases are highly related to cholesterol. Cholesterol is also related to blood pressure. Combining all of them together can create a ticking bomb that can blow even in the unescaped times. Pickleball is an active sport, which means it can make the body more fit.
Aside from improving body fitness, this activity can highly boost cardiovascular health, thus further reducing the risk of heart disease. But you need to remember, in order to achieve any of these benefits, you need to be consistent in doing it. Playing pickleball one time per month or per year doesn’t help you in anything.
Do this activity at least some hours during weekends in order to retain fitness. A game of pickleball usually runs about 20 minutes.
5. Provides Better Mental State
Pickleball is a team-game, as we mentioned above. Team game means while playing you can interact and talk to somebody else. You can feel that you’re not alone. This kind of emotional support is highly needed for seniors who often feel lonely.
Loneliness shouldn’t be taken lightly. It could lead to depression or an unhealthy mental state if not treated well. If you’re bored of doing some active sports, you can try the calming ones instead like the health benefits of gardening.