For those of you who may think “I’m too old for badminton” take a look at this reprint from the Mohave Daily News about a lady who didn’t even start playing until in her 60s.

Gold-medal grandma

Sunday, August 23, 2009 11:03 PM CDT

Fort Mohave woman badminton standout at the Senior Olympics

By BILL McMILLEN/The Daily News

FORT MOHAVE – Judy Gray is glad she won three medals at the recent Senior Olympics. It worked out well that way.

“My medals … go to my grandchildren,” said the 68-year-old Fort Mohave resident, who harvested a gold and two silvers at the recent Games in Palo Alto, Calif. “It’s a good thing I won three because I’ve got three grandchildren. They’ll each get one.

“Every time I see them, they ask what (medals) I’ve got for them. They hang them in their rooms. It doesn’t matter what place, they just want the medals.”

Gray earned them earlier this month by winning the championship in the ladies singles division and finishing as runner-up in both ladies doubles and mixed doubles in the 65-69 age group. She defeated Julie Bradley of Florida in the singles finals. Her teammates in doubles were Karen Warnock of Dana Point, Calif., in the ladies division and Robin Lyon of Stockton, Calif., in the mixed.

For Gray, it was the latest success in her return to the sport of badminton a few years ago.

“I started playing in the ’60s,” Gray said. “I ended up being third in the nation at one time. I was in the top 10 for a long time.”

She and a friend entered a tournament in high school, a decision that piqued her interest.

“We saw this sign on the bulletin board advertising a tournament,” she recalled. “I told Val ‘Let’s play in it to break up the monotony.’ We wound up winning. That was my first tournament and we won.”

She became active in the sport, climbing the national and regional rankings and collecting plenty of hardware along the way.

“I just kept playing. I kept getting better and better. When I was in my prime, I was probably No. 1 in California.”

But marriage and other pursuits curtailed her competitive days and she’d pretty much given up badminton as she reached middle age.

“I hadn’t played for a long time – eight years,” she said. “I started back when I was 65, after my husband died.”

She hadn’t lost her competitive desire and found that a return to the sport fulfilled a need for camaraderie.

“It’s a great sport. It gets you out and lets you travel,” she said, citing a recent visit to Canada and an October World Masters date in Sydney, Australia.

Badminton – competitive badminton – requires skill and endurance. Gray played eight matches in a single day at the Senior Olympics – she said she’d never done that before – and won because she was the most consistent player in the 20-woman field.

“A good serve and a good clear… drop shots. Being consistent with all your different shots,” she said of her keys to success. “That’s why I beat the gal from Florida – I was more consistent with my shots.”

Being a badminton player in the Tri-state isn’t easy, Gray admitted. There are no indoor facilities and no existing programs.

“I would love to start a group of badminton players here in Fort Mohave,” she said. “But there’s no place to play here.”

Competitive badminton is only a distant relative to the backyard game.

“Everyone thinks it’s a backyard game but it’s not,” Gray said. “It’s an indoor game with high ceilings and dark walls.”

She travels to either Las Vegas or to San Diego’s Balboa Park – she’s originally from the San Diego area – to practice in preparation for tournaments.

Gray said she was also a swimmer and racquetball player in her younger days. She still is active in swimming, teaching lessons in the Los Lagos neighborhood in Fort Mohave.

“Yes, I’m very competitive,” she said with a laugh. “It doesn’t matter what it is. I’ve always loved sports.”

She’s also realistic.

“If I really wanted to travel all over the United States, I could play in more (tournaments), but the budget will only stretch so far,” she said, figuring that “five good tournaments a year” was a satisfactory goal.

She said she has no intention of slowing down any time soon.

“You have no idea what’s going to happen in 10 years,” she said. “That’s why I’m doing this now, while I’ve got my health.”

She scoffs at the notion that she needs to slow down.

“Some people say they’re too old to do this or that,” she said. “That’s hogwash. If you feel you can do something and are willing to try, why shouldn’t you? I think it’s a mind game more than anything else. If you put your mind to it, you can do it.”

For badminon equipment (racquets,net, shuttlecocks etc) go to: tinyurl.com/lr7usx

I realize that the purpose of this blog is to give you ideas for activities for your back yard wherever that might be. For a few of you, however, the Ranches in this reprint may be very close to your backyard.
KIDS DALLAS | August 17, 2009

Horsing Around
Dude Ranch Getaways
the flying l guest ranch!

The kids think a ranch comes on salad. Sounds like it’s time to take your city slickers out on the range.

Discover the (not so) wild west at The Flying L Guest Ranch (Wharton’s Dock Road, Bandera; 800-292-5134), two hours southwest of Austin. No spurs required for horseback trail rides, and urban cowboys will get a kick out of putt-putt golf and a water park with slides and shoots. Send buckaroos ages 3-12 to the kids’ club for activities (leatherworking, archery, pony rides) while you sneak off to the spa.

Prefer the plains of Oklahoma? Head north to the Tatanka Ranch (8235 North 48 Road, Stroud; 918-368-2251) outside of Tulsa. Explore trails on foot or horseback, then skim the lake in a kayak or canoe. Amateur fishermen catch on quickly in fully stocked ponds, and gamers go old school in the arcade with foosball and ping-pong. Map It

For a selection of oudoor games for backyard play go to: http;www.cysbackyardsports,com

Ever wonder how pickleball came into being and how it got it’s name.  This newspaper article tells all.

Valley seniors bounce to new type of mini-tennis

Published online on Tuesday, Aug. 04, 2009

By Jeff Davis / The Fresno Bee

It looks like a mad scientist zapped a tennis court with a shrink ray.

No wonder people do double takes when they first see what John Browning built in the backyard of his Fowler home. A 36-inch-high net bisects a pristine, green playing surface only 20 feet by 44 feet - the same size as a badminton court.

On this day, two doubles teams are in action, swinging what appear to be oversized, rectangular ping pong paddles and volleying what looks like a perforated, orange Wiffle ball.

Meet the growing sport of pickleball, a hybrid of ping pong, badminton and tennis that is becoming a sensation among seniors in the United States. “Some people say it is like playing on top of a ping pong table”, chuckled Browning, who converted his basketball court into one for pickleball.

Browning, 72, is typical of a generation that is fast gravitating to the sport. A former triathlete, his body no longer can stand the pounding. So he turned to pickleball, which still fuels his competitive drive, is easy to learn and gets the heart pumping.

“There is a lot of action, it’s good exercise and a lot easier on the knees”, said 69-year-old Don Beringson, a retired Fresno State professor who built a pickleball court in his Clovis backyard 15 years ago and plays in national tournaments.

The sport is fast-paced with interesting rules: Games continue until a side scores 11 points and is leading by at least two; serves are hit underhand; the ball must bounce once on each side before it can be volleyed; and, to eliminate any advantage of power or brute strength, no volleying is allowed within seven feet of the net.

Wood or fiberglass paddles offer more surface area than in ping pong. The baseball-size balls are hard plastic.With the smaller court, there is less running than in tennis and a premium is put on quick reactions, strategy and ball placement. Volleys sometimes last for minutes.

“Patience is a virtue in pickleball”, Browning said. “Keep it deep on the serve, then get to the net. You want the other team to make the mistakes”.

Anybody at any level

Bill Booth, president of the USA Pickleball Association, estimates more than 40,000 people (mostly age 50 and older) play the sport in 45 states and Canada. In 2002, Booth introduced pickleball to fellow residents of Sun City Grand, a retirement community in Surprise, Ariz. Today, about 800 members make use of 12 courts.

“Our sport has grown 120% over the past year”, Booth said. “Anybody at any level can play this game”.

Pickleball was created as a family sport by the late U.S. Rep. Joel Pritchard and his buddies on Bainbridge Island near Seattle in the summer of 1965. They played with damaged badminton rackets and a Wiffle ball.

The sport was named for the Pritchard family cocker spaniel, Pickles, who chased down errant balls and hid with them in the bushes.

Today, Arizona and California offer the most pickleball courts: in trailer parks, retirement villages, tennis clubs, schools and recreation centers.

Players such as the 72-year-old Browning and Beringson went a step further, setting up backyard courts to play anytime without waiting in line.Former real-estate salesman Ken Engle, 65, built a court behind his house at Bass Lake.

“I have a house in Arizona, and within one hour of it 5,000 players play pickleball”, said Engle, a former Michigan state ping pong champion.

Browning is a USAPA ambassador for the central San Joaquin Valley. The former Fowler High basketball coach and school administrator advertises the sport in local papers and hosts a group of about eight almost every Tuesday. “This is the perfect game for me. Not a lot of running, but fast play and fun”, he said.

On Browning’s court this day are Jim Wainscott, 76, a former Equitable Life insurance administrator;  Marilyn Shulz, 74, a novice whose husband, Bill is on hand but sidelined by injury;  Browning’s daughter Sjammpm Weatherly, 42, a Fresno Unified instructional aide whose husband, Mark, coaches the Bullard High boys tennis team; and recently retired Bee sports writer Ken Robinson, 61, a tennis fanatic who got hooked on pickleball.

Tennis experience helps

Weatherly is a tennis player who adapted quickly to the nuances of pickleball. “If you have tennis strokes down and know strategy, you’ll pick it up fast, she said.

This is only Shulz’s second time playing, but she’s holding her own despite shaky knees. “It takes getting used to at first”, she said. “The rules are confusing and the paddle is shorter than a tennis racket. I missed a lot of balls” .

Wainscott, the oldest in the group, looks tall and frail, but shows grace under fire. He’s court-savvy, accurate and quick to put away shots. He and Bill Shulz are doubles partners who will compete in tennis and pickleball at the Huntsman Senior Games in St. George, Utah, in October.

“Pickleball is new to me, but I like to volley and this fits me good”, Wainscott said. “There’s certainly not as much running as tennis. I had a heart attack last year and it hasn’t slowed me down”.

In the covered patio next to Browning’s pickleball court, his wife, Sandra, has set out a pitcher of pink lemonade and tall glasses full of ice. Ceiling fans keep it cool on a 100-degree day.

After two hours of pickleball, the group shuts it down and each grabs a cool one in the shade, sweaty shoulders glistening, recounting games and smiles all around.

What’s not to like about this sport?

“I always have to be doing something, and it’s a sport I’ll be able to play until I drop”, Browning said. “And I won’t have to leave my home to do it.”

Want to Play? Cy’s Enterprise has all the equipment:

http://www.cysbackyardsports.com/content-categories/cat-399/pickle_ball.html

For you CRAFT people or WOODWORKERS you might like to see what one lady has done with her love of Scrabblle.  Perhaps you can adapt/adopt some of her ideas.:

The big game

Scrabble lovers bring passion outdoors

by Liz Reyna

Had a comment on  my post of 7/21 concerning an Outdoor Game Festival alerting me to the fun of ladder golf.  They even provided the Rules  of Play which I am passing along to you.

Playing Ladder Golf

To set up your game of Ladder Golf a line is drawn 5 paces from the ladder. This is known as the “toss line”. Officially the toss line should be fifteen feet way from the ladder. The five pace rule is to accommodate all members of the family (including children and young teens).

Ladder Golf is played in rounds. Each player or team (if playing as teams) is given three bolas to toss for scoring. The bolas can be thrown in any manner, including bouncing them off the ground. To win, a player or a member of a team needs to score exactly 21 points. When a player goes over 21 points, the points for the round are taken away and the player goes back to the score he or she had before the round began.

Ladder Golf Scoring

In order to earn points while playing Ladder Golf a player needs to throw and successfully wrap their bolas around the rungs of the ladder. Points are earned as follows:

• Top Rung – 3 points
• Middle Rung – 2 points
• Bottom Rung – 1 point

A player can also try and knock the competitors’ bolas off the ladder because when the round is over a player only gets points for the bolas that are still wrapped around the rungs of the ladder.

If there is a tie play will continue until one player or team has two points more than the other player or team.

Team Play in Ladder Golf

Team play is defined by having two teams of two players for a game of Ladder Golf. The teammates will alternate rounds of play.

Ladder Golf Etiquette

The only rule is that no touching is allowed when someone is throwing their bolas. Comments, snickering, snide remarks, and anything else that can be done to distract your competitor is encouraged.

All I can ad is a Website address to get the game:

http://www.cysbackyardsports.com/content-categories/cat-391/lasso_golf.html

Bean bag toss

Make an easy bean bag toss using a double layer of poster board glued together and a large box. Before attaching the poster board to the bottom layer of the box, paint a design on it, allowing for one or more holes. If you are opting to purchase the bean bag toss game, you can expect to spend anywhere from $25 on the low end and up to $99 for the more elaborate manufactured sets, all of which are available at your local sporting goods retailer.

You can also find a choice on the internet at: http://tinyurl.com/l9u7ex