Adult Rec Sports 2012 Season Almost Underway!

Mystery!

Approaching the gym (1125 Jackson) on a recent Friday evening, we hear a distinctively unfamiliar, semi-rhythmic repetitive "thwocking" sound from inside. It combines the sharp report of an axe chopping wood with a hint of a pleasingly round-sounding reverb. Mysterious. Inside we find two nets slung from wall to wall, separating the gym in two halves crosswise, and several players on either side of the nets, each with a paddle about the size of a hand-held mirror knocking hard, bright green balls back and forth across the net. The balls are too big to be tennis balls, but too light to be softballs. If anything, we are more puzzled having seen what they're doing than when we were simply wondering what was making that sound.

Mysterious, indeed. The sport: Pickleball. The setting: Albany Recreation & Community Services Adult Sports Friday night event: The Mystery League! This league, the brainchild of Albany Adult Sports Coordinator Heather Robinson, features a different lesser-known sport every week. "The reason I like this league," Heather says, "is that people don't have a ton of experience," creating a level playing field with a new activity every time out. "I felt like we were in a rut with the regular sports - this league provides the fun of sport without things getting really competitive, and it's a chance to try something new and different."

"Keeping Recreational Sports Recreational"

For this week's Pickleball extravaganza, Heather brought in Bill and Addie, who host regular games based out of Walnut Creek's Rossmoor community. According to Bill, Pickleball is the fastest-growing senior sport in the country, with over 200,000 active players and counting. He says the game is popular among former tennis players and is widely popular among retirement communities across the South. We can see the reason for the growing interest in the sport, as the rules are easy to learn and the game goes quickly, with a beginner-friendly mix of coordination and technique required to score points. Setup requires only a net, something approximating a badminton court, 2 or 4 players, specialized wooden or graphite paddles, and perforated wiffle balls.

According to legend, the game was invented in the early 1990s by a creative thinker looking for a way to pass the time on a lazy afternoon and came across a net, some badminton racquets and wiffle balls. The biggest challenge in getting the idea off the ground, the story goes, was that the family dog didn't want to give up ownership of the balls and would run off with them after every point. The dog's name? Pickles. Thus, a sport is born.

Other sports played by Mystery Leaguers this winter have included dodgeball and goalball - a sport designed for visually impaired athletes that Heather says she learned about in a course on Adaptive Recreation. Mary, a regular Wednesday-night soccer player who also signed up for the Mystery League, tells us that goalball, though totally foreign to her at first, was a blast.

Heather says that introducing unfamiliar sports "allows people to interact in a friendly social space. It's a way to keep recreational sports more recreational."

Harriet, whose first exposure to Adult Sports has come via the Mystery League, says the players and organizers have been "very welcoming." She had the idea to join a sports league browsing through the Recreation & Community Services Activity Guide after having completed a ballroom dancing class. "We're not super athletes," she told us, so having something fun and sporty but less competitively intense to do on a Friday night seemed like the perfect middle ground.

Regular Seasons for Team Sports Begin in March

With the fun and excitement of the inaugural drawing to a close, registration is well underway for the regular slate of 2012 team sports. The department sponsors three leagues of Adult Softball (Men's competitive, Monday nights; Co-Ed recreational, Tuesday nights; and Co-Ed intermediate/advanced, Friday nights) for which registration filled up within a week of opening. Heather says she has no plans as yet to either restrict access or expand the leagues, though interest has soared over the last few years.

The Adult Sports program also offers Wednesday night Co-Ed five-a-side soccer leagues in two flights and a Thursday night Co-Ed kickball league for which limited slots may still be available. Regular season schedules for all team sports leagues begin the first two weeks of March. There is also a womens' drop-in soccer game played on Thursday nights. All games are played starting at 7pm at at 900 Buchanan. Check out the department's website for more info, contact HRobinson@albanyca.org with questions, or call 510-524-9283 for registration and to check availability.

If you've missed your shot for now, Spring leagues run through the end of June, so new seasons will begin in July. Set your calendars now!

_____________________________________________________________
Check back here on a weekly basis for updates and features on Albany's Adult Sports program written by local sports blogger Alex S. Molochko