We first heard about pickleball from one of our line dancing friends who is a tennis player. This was a few years ago. There was something new, she said, sort of like tennis mixed with ping-pong, played on a half-tennis court with a hard bat and a sort of wiffle ball.

Huh, we said to each other.

It was more recently that we began to hear that pickleball, perhaps like The Macarena dance of decades ago, had become a craze (as well as a recreational sport) not just for seniors but for players of all ages. Save with SPP took a look around to see what’s causing all the excitement.

“There is a sport that has taken off in Canada,” writes Shireen Ahmed for CBC Sports. “Neighbourhood parks are full of enthusiastic athletes, but the sport’s popularity has become polarizing on many courts: the centre of said drama is pickleball.”

The game has become so popular that it is crowding out other activities, she explains.

“There are noise complaints, annoyances to local residents and also a movement to reduce it because it is pushing children away from playgrounds. Is pickleball really threatening the suburban happiness of Canadians? Is it a sport or a leisure activity? Why are people so mad about it,” she asks.

It’s not an all-new sport, she writes – it was first played in this country in the 1970s and the first pickleball courts in Canada were built in Vancouver in 1984. But the sport has taken off, Ahmed reports, and there are now 1.37 million players – known as “picklers” – in Canada. There is even a pro league that has attracted Canadian tennis star Eugenie Bouchard, she writes.

While it is a bit noisy (the plastic ball hitting the ground and bats) Ahmed concludes that it was easy to pick up, and fun.

Down in the U.S.A., reports Inc., pickleball is now more popular than tennis.

The article expands on the idea that pickleball is easy to pick up.

“Pickleball’s triumph stems from its careful blend of novelty and familiarity. Despite introducing a new and exciting activity, the sport cleverly utilizes the existing infrastructure of tennis courts and incorporates rules reminiscent of its well-established counterpart. This lesson for brands underscores the idea that innovation need not be revolutionary. Offering a fresh twist on a familiar experience can captivate consumers without alienating them, creating a perfect balance. Draw people in with something new, but don’t scare them away,” the article tells us.

“The low barrier to entry–affordable equipment, ordinary athleticism, existing courts, and the simplicity of the game–make it easy for individuals of varying ages and skill levels to embrace the sport,” the article adds.

Reminds us of when soccer began to really take off decades ago – equipment costs, compared to sports like football or hockey, were much lower.

The game’s popularity is taking off so fast that the sports industry is struggling to keep pace, reports Yahoo! Sports.

“The industry is still struggling to keep pace with pickleball’s surging participation numbers. But small businesses and large corporations alike are catching up, while municipalities and private clubs race to build courts across the country,” the article reports. A November pickleball championship was expected to draw 50,000 fans, 4,000 amateur players and 200 pros, the article continues.

“You’re going to see pickleball everywhere next year,” Adam Franklin, president of Franklin Sports, the 77-year-old sporting goods company, tells Yahoo! Sports. “I still think we’re really in the early days of how this is going to look in the U.S. landscape.”

Maybe we’ll have to give this a try!

Perhaps some of the money saved on sporting equipment by the relatively low-priced activity/sport of pickleball can be directed towards your retirement savings program. If you don’t have a program through work, and are saving on your own, a great partner is waiting to help you – the Saskatchewan Pension Plan. All the dollars you contribute to your SPP account will be professionally invested in a low-cost, pooled fund. At retirement, you can choose such options as a lifetime annuity, or SPP’s Variable Benefit, now available to all members.

Check out SPP today!

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I am proud to say that my Canada includes Saskatchewan. Not that I’ve actually spent a lot of time there. I’ve been to a couple of pension conferences in Saskatoon and Regina and in June 2011 I spent a memorable couple of days in Kindersley getting to know the folks at Saskatchewan Pension Plan.

But over the past six years since I started writing for SPP, the province has rarely been out of my thoughts for more than a day or two because I’m always planning my next blog. So when I was watching a recording of the Governor General’s Arts Awards on a rainy July 1^st afternoon it occurred to me that Tommy Douglas couldn’t be the only Saskatchewanian who has made a major contribution to our country in the arts, sports, business or politics.  With a little research, I found the online magazine Virtual Saskatchewan and a series of by freelance writer David Yanko:

Saskatchewan’s Own 1
Saskatchewan’s Own 2
Saskatchewan’s Own 3

Each of these pieces lists 25 individuals who have made their mark on both the national and international stage. I have picked only five to profile, but take a look all three of these articles to learn more about the accomplishments of many of the best and brightest who at one time or another have called Saskatchewan home. 

Brent Butt (born August 3, 1966) is a Canadian actor, comedian, and writer. He is best known for his role as Brent Leroy on the CTV sitcom Corner Gas, which he developed. It was set in the fictional town of Dog River, Saskatchewan. The show averaged a million viewers per episode. Corner Gas received six Gemini Awards, and was nominated almost 70 times for various other awards. In addition, Butt created the hit TV show Hiccups and the 2013 film No Clue. At our place we never missed an episode of Corner Gas, so I’m happy to report that an animated version is in the works.

Brian Dickson was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada on March 26, 1973, and subsequently appointed the 15th Chief Justice of Canada on April 18, 1984. He retired on June 30, 1990. Dickson’s tenure as Chief Justice coincided with the first wave of cases under the new Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which reached the Supreme Court from 1984 onwards. He wrote several very influential judgments dealing with the Charter, and laid the groundwork for the approach the courts have since used to interpret the Charter. Through law school and when I practiced law, I read and cited a number of his important decisions.

Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, responsible for hits such as Both Sides Now and Big Yellow Taxi, was born on November 7, 1943, in Fort MacLeod, Alberta and grew up in Saskatoon. In 1968, she recorded her first, self-titled album. Other highly successful albums followed. Mitchell won her first Grammy Award (best folk performance) for her 1969 album, Clouds. She has won seven more Grammy Awards since then, in several different categories, including traditional pop, pop music and lifetime achievement. To this day, folk music is my favourite genre and songs like Chelsea Morning and Circle Game have become the soundtrack of my life.

Sandra Schmirler was a Saskatchewan curler who captured three Canadian Curling Championships and three World Curling Championships.  Schmirler also skipped her Canadian team to a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics, the first year women’s curling was a medal sport. Schmirler sometimes worked as a commentator for CBC Sports, which popularized her nickname “Schmirler the Curler” and claimed she was the only person who had a name that rhymed with the sport she played. Schmirler’s accomplishments caught my imagination and that of the whole country. Sadly, she died in 2000 at 36 of cancer, leaving a legacy that extended far beyond her sport.

It may seem arbitrary to mention two folk singers in an ad hoc selection of notable sons and daughters of Saskatchewan. But Buffy Sainte-Marie is so much more. This Canadian legend is 76 and still going strong. She is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, social activist, philanthropist and visual artist, born February 20, 1941 on Piapot Reserve, SK.

She was an important figure in the Greenwich Village and Toronto folk music revivals in the 1960s, and is perhaps best known for her 1964 anti-war anthem Universal Soldier, which was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005. On the eve of Canada Day I had the privilege to hear this diminutive giant sing Universal Soldier plus many of her newer releases in person, at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto. She and her music never seem to grow old.

 

Written by Sheryl Smolkin
	Sheryl Smolkin LLB., LLM is a retired pension lawyer and President of Sheryl Smolkin & Associates Ltd. For over a decade, she has enjoyed a successful encore career as a freelance writer specializing in retirement, employee benefits and workplace issues. Sheryl and her husband Joel are empty-nesters, residing in Toronto with their cockapoo Rufus.