sports Live to dink another day the growing passion for pickleball BY CHERYL HARBOUR I knew I was going to like pickleball immediately when I walked by a game in progress and heard one of the players shout, "Stay out of the kitchen." My sentiments exactly. The "kitchen" (which means an area of the court where you can't hit a ball in the air before it bounces) isn't the only term in the pickleball lingo that doesn't mean what you think it does. There's a "dink" shot which, in tennis, may mean, a weak, possibly pathetic return - but in pickleball, it's a valuable skill, a short shot your opponent might not reach. And there's the term "bangers" - which can mean a lot of different things in a lot of different situations, but in pickleball means someone who tends to hit the ball hard. The best way to explain pickleball is to say what it isn't. It isn't badminton or tennis or ping pong or handball or racquetball or platform tennis - but it's a little like all of them. And it's now one of the fastest-growing sports in America. Pickleball has had a 650 percent increase in numbers over the last six years Although it started on Bainbridge Island near Seattle in the 1960s, it worked its way gradually across the country and is even catching on outside the U.S. I spotted it at my health club in Chicago several years ago. A court with four players would pop up in the gym every now and then. Now there are three to six active pickleball courts for several hours six days a week. Why is it so popular? Here's what some pickleball players say. 22 GRAND Nov-Dec 2019 Continued on next pagehttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0994809700/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=grandmagazi0d-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0994809700&linkId=c0cf2342749a51234e00421ef2df453e https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003B6QYSW/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=grandmagazi0d-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B003B6QYSW&linkId=74a78ba0a510c9871c2e38f745d59213