For active seniors, nothing can be more frustrating than realizing your age. Reaching that moment when you have to stop doing something you love can be heartbreaking.
Pickleball, a combination of tennis, badminton and pingpong, is a new game that has attracted a following of people across the Capital District. The game gives seniors the opportunity to stay active without putting too much stress on their bodies.
Bill Purdy, 73, has been playing the game for five years. He has won numerous titles at the Empire State Senior Games and is a member of the Capital District Pickleballers. In his youth, Purdy was an avid tennis player, but had to give up the sport because of a pulmonary problem.
It takes eight steps to cross a tennis court, it only takes one or two steps to cross a pickleball court and I can handle that, Purdy said.
Pickleball is played on a court the size of a badminton court, 20 feet by 44 feet. The net is hung 36 inches at each side of the court and 34 inches in the middle.
The game is played using a paddle that is longer than a ping-pong paddle and a modified wiffle-ball.
Pickleball is not a game of strength or endurance, but of patience and strategy, and it’s not just for seniors.
Tim Macfarlane, 28, and Brandon Alois, 28, both of Schenectady, play pickleball every Tuesday evening at the Jewish Community Center in Niskayuna. They started playing two months ago and haven’t missed a week. Macfarlane said they regularly get beat by guys twice their age.
`Age means nothing in this game. Athletic ability doesn’t matter, that’s what makes it so fun,` Macfarlane said.
Reaction time and putting the ball in the right spot at the right time is what is really important in the game.
Macfarlane also said the game is easy to learn. He said many of the people who play have only just started and are competitive.
`Anyone can pick it up fast and be good,` he said.
Director of the Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital Darin Rafferty said pickleball is excellent for seniors because of the small court and different rules.
`The small court allows people with varying degrees of ability to play and allows for less impact on the joints because players aren’t covering such a large area,` he said. `Also, the game adds some fun to their life with an athletic feel to it.`
Director of the Capital District Pickleballers Jim Plotnik said, `It’s a game where you can’t really get hurt badly. You could get hit with the ball, but it’s a wiffle-ball, and it doesn’t hurt that much.`
In pickleball, the server must serve the ball underhand diagonally across the court, and it must clear the non-volley zone. Only one serve attempt is allowed at a time. Teams only score points when they are serving.
The receiving team must let the served ball bounce before returning it and the serving team must let the ball bounce once before returning it. This rule eliminates the serve and volley advantage and prolongs the rallies. After both teams have returned the ball on a bounce, the ball can be played either off a bounce or volleyed. Volleying cannot occur within the non-volley zone.
`From what I gather, the rules are designed to keep everyone on a level playing field,` Rafferty said. `The game is not for brute force or power, but for the senior population who enjoys hitting the ball back and forth.`
Pickleball was invented in 1965 in Seattle, Wash., by then-Congressman Joel Pritchard. He wanted to invent a game that his whole family could play.
Pickles was the name of his family dog, who would steal the ball and hide it under the bushes.
According to the U.S. Pickleball Association, there are pickleball organizations in 26 states and four provinces in Canada and Mexico. Plotnik is listed as one of the ambassadors for the association.
Plotnik said his friend Dave Tatro, who lives part of the year in Florida, brought the game to the Capital District.
`In the Northeast, the game is pretty unknown, but in the senior communities down in Florida, it’s like pickleball nirvana,` Plotnik said.
Pickleball can be played anywhere there is a hard surface, from a basketball court to a cafeteria. At the Schenectady JCC, Plotnik uses caution tape to construct three courts in the gym.
Anyone who comes to play takes turns rotating into games. Each game is only played until 11 points, so play is quick.
The Capital District Pickleballers has been rapidly growing. Plotnik said there were 30 members in November; today there are more than 70, and new
people come to play each week.
Pickleball has been played at the Empire State Senior Games for the past three years. Last year, the Capital District Pickleballers won nearly every award.
Health care group CDPHP sponsors the Capital District Pickleballers. Craig Hayden, director of Medicare sales at CDPHP, said, `As an organization committed to the health and wellness of its members, CDPHP sees Pickleball as another opportunity for its Medicare Choice population to continue to live vibrant and healthy lives. We’re pleased to be able to support our members in activities that provide both a physical and mental outlet for them to achieve this.`
Many high schools are also offering pickleball in their physical education programs. Physical education teacher at Niskayuna High School Sarah Neely said the school has been teaching a pickleball unit for the past three years.
`At first the kids thought we were making up the game, but we reassured them it was real. It took them a while to catch on, but now they love it,` Neely said.
Niskayuna teaches pickleball as part of their lifetime sports course along with tennis, golf and badminton.
`It’s a sport you can play for a lifetime. It doesn’t matter what age you are, and we try to get that across to the kids,` Neely said.
SIDEBAR: Using it so they don’t lose it
Physical therapists are treating growing population of active elderly people
By WILLIAM R. DEVOE, Spotlight Staff
As more elderly Americans remain active well into what were once called their `twilight years,` physical therapists are charged with helping a growing number of older patients who want to return to their active, independent lifestyles.
The patient population has become so large that the American Physical Therapy Association, a national professional organization representing more than 66,000 members, has begun to split physical therapy into specialized fields.
`One of the fastest-growing specialties in the growing physical therapy ranks is geriatric physical therapy,` said physical therapist Nick Valenze, of Bethlehem Physical Therapy. Valenze, who has been at Bethlehem Physical Therapy for 12 of his 20 years in the field, said that growing specialty is changing the way patients seek care and the way it is given.
Keith Swinson has been a physical therapist since graduating from Columbia University in 1975. He currently practices with Community Care Physical Therapy, with offices in Latham and Delmar. He says he sees a growing number of elderly patients, and that has changed his approach to his practice.
`Certainly we’re seeing more and more elderly patients that want to maintain an active lifestyle and maintain their independence,` he said. `And you certainly have to get them better faster, and teach them how to do the physical exercises themselves ` which is the point of physical therapy, anyway.`
Swinson said that advances in geriatric surgery have influenced physical therapists’ approach to geriatric therapy. Total knee and total hip replacement surgeries are becoming more commonplace, he said, and although the rehabilitation associated with knee surgery is still a long and arduous process, it has gotten better as patients remain active into their later years.
The rehabilitation for total hip replacement, he said, has gone down considerably. `Now, they’re practically walking right out the door,` he said.
Swinson said he is performing more geriatric physical therapy due to activity-related injuries because seniors are remaining so energetic into their later years. `Overall, yes, there has been an increase in activity and even sports-related injuries,` he said. `A lot of older people now don’t think anything of going to the gym.`
Swinson said only a few years ago the conventional wisdom was that weight training after the age of 60 or 65 had no impact, and was actually considered detrimental.
Valenze encourages strength training if possible.
`I hope, by this point, the pervasive thought that seniors shouldn’t be strength training because they won’t get stronger has been thrown out the window,` he said. `Most studies that have been done for years now have shown that people in their 90s can get stronger and be more functional and have less pain as a result of strength training.`
Swinson said that the usual ailments associated with aging are still prevalent in the field.
`We’re still seeing a lot of injuries from strokes and fractures from osteoporosis,` he said.
But remaining active even in light of these diagnoses, said Valenze, can aid in the rehabilitation process.
`Controlled exercise has a great benefit to seniors to help hold that off as well as to maintain their health even after a diagnosis of osteoporosis,` he said.
`I wouldn’t say that we’ve seen trends in the care of late, but we always try to make the therapy fun,` said physical therapist J.C. Bender, of the Bender Rehabilitation Center in Ballston Lake. `We’ve been doing a lot of balance work. That’s something we’ve seen that a lot of our patients need.`
That is what Katherine, 80, needs. The retiree has been visiting Swinson for the past three weeks for knee and balance problems. She does a lot of balance work by sitting on an exercise ball, as well as some light calisthenics. Katherine, who is scheduled for approximately two months of physical therapy, said she’s surprised at some of the exercises she has performed in the course of her rehabilitation. `I’ve never done that thing with the ball,` she said. `That’s interesting.`
Katherine considered herself an active person before she began physical therapy.
`I have a dog that keeps me busy,` she said. Still, she said she has begun exercising more at home. `Dr. Swinson has made it enjoyable,` she said.
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