Ken Quarfoot
The Robson Ranch Pickleball Club happily hosted a group of physical education teachers from the Argyle Independent School District one afternoon in February. The teachers, who were working on a plan to introduce pickleball into their curriculum, contacted the club for help with the basics of the game. Naturally, we were delighted to help, because pickleball is such a great sport for all ages. Bringing the sport to youth in the area can only help pickleball continue its popularity and future growth.
In all, six teachers participated in the training session, several of whom were already familiar with pickleball, while the others had never played and had no knowledge of pickleball. Therefore, the training session had to start at the beginning and cover the rules, scoring, technique, and strategy of the game. Fortunately, due to the teachers’ overall athletic experience, they quickly picked up the basics, and by the end of the session, were playing well and demonstrating a level of knowledge that will serve them well in teaching their students. In pickleball, as in many sports, you can learn the game in one afternoon and then spend the rest of your life improving your skills.
Beyond assisting the teachers with their knowledge of pickleball, an interesting part of the session was working with the teachers to discuss the development of teaching methods for their classes, which, depending upon the school and the individual classes, students can range in age from 7 to 18. While there wasn’t much concern about the ability of older students to pick up the game, there was concern for the younger students. The consensus was to simplify the rules to just foot faults and kitchen faults. Scoring was thought to be a major issue for the youngest students to be resolved later by the teachers.
Our club wants to continue its support of this Argyle school program, so we are initiating a program to collect no longer used pickleball paddles for use by the students at Argyle ISD. At present, the schools only have wood paddles for the students to use, which are far from the paddle technology available today. If we want the students to be successful in trying to improve their skills, we can do our part by donating the paddles we are not using. The club will place a labeled box by the lost and found box on the patio. If you are ready to part with a paddle, please consider donating it for the students. It will be greatly appreciated by the club, the teachers, and the students. This is what pickleball is all about.
A special thanks goes out to Monica Daake and June Sewell who contributed their time and effort to make the teaching session a great success. The teachers really appreciated having experienced players working closely with them while learning the basics of the game. This is just another example of the Pickleball Club supporting our community whenever we can.
To learn more about our club, please visit our website tinyurl.com/rrpbdenton and contact any board member listed.