Pickleball on Wheels
September 3, 2024
Michael White was nearly killed in 2014 when a man who was texting while driving 65 miles per hour slammed his truck into his minivan, causing it to flip four times.
White sustained severe damage to his L4 and L5 vertebrae and numerous internal injuries. The 63-year-old Greenville, South Carolina, resident is wheelchair-bound due to limited use of his left leg.
Chip Parmelly broke his back when his motorcycle crashed over sand dunes in Glamis, California, in 1982. Doctors told him he’d never walk again. By sheer determination and physical therapy, Parmelly proved them wrong. The 67-year-old Cape Coral, Florida, resident can walk, albeit with a slight to moderate limp in what he describes as his “extremely weak left leg.” He cannot walk long distances in places such as airports and shopping malls.
Chip and Michael are among the hundreds of wheelchair pickleball players in the US. Chip is the founder and president of the United States Wheelchair Pickleball Association. “We had 108 Veteran wheelchair players at the Wheelchair Vet Games in New Orleans last month,” Chip said. “Wheelchair pickleball is massively popular and growing by the month.”
There are a couple of rules differences in wheelchair pickleball. The main one is players can hit the ball after two bounces. “We love to compete with able bodied players,” Chip said. “Once they understand the two bounce rule, most if not all enjoy playing with wheelchair players.”
There is also a rule that allows the wheelchair’s front wheels in the kitchen but when the back wheels touch the kitchen line it’s a fault if the ball is hit without bouncing.
Sabrina Walker
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Sandy Halkett runs an Adaptive Pickleball group in Greenville. Sandy is a golf pro and teacher who also loves pickleball and devotes an incredible amount of time overseeing the group. Although the players are in sports chairs, not all are wheelchair-bound. Sandy says “Adaptive pickleball teaches people with physical, cognitive, and developmental challenges how to play pickleball. It’s pickleball therapy!”
Sandy says Adaptive Pickleball has grown tremendously over the past two years. In 2022, her group consisted of 88 adaptive players. So far this year there have been 426 players. They play eight times on average every month.
One of the adaptive players is Sabrina Walker. The 69-year-old Greenville resident has a a neuromuscular disease that causes balance problems in her arms and legs. She also has leukemia that is in remission. Sabrina was an immunologist at the famed St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis until her condition forced her to retire at 55. She’s found a new hobby in pickleball. She plays in a $3800 sports chair provided by Sandy’s group, a 501 (c) (3) which raised enough money to purchase 11 such chairs and hopes to get the funds for many more.
“A sports chair to me means joy,” Sabrina told me. “A wheelchair is just a way of transporting me from one place to another. Technically, however, a sports chair is stronger, has cambered wheels [wheels angled inward] to prevent the player from tipping over, and several other requirements to make it easier to maneuver.
“I love pickleball for many reasons,” Sabrina said. “Good exercise [for the] body and brain, relatively easy rules, fresh air, adaptable to a sports chair user, diverse players, competitive if you want it to be, and allows me to make new friends.”
Sabrina credits Sandy Halkett and other volunteers for the group’s success and wants able-bodied players to know “We can be just as competitive as they are, if given the time and opportunity to practice and play. Don’t discount our ability at first glance.”
If you’d like more information on wheelchair or adaptive pickleball, check out the USA Pickleball website or the United States Wheelchair Pickleball Association website.
Michael White, car crash survivor, began playing adaptive pickleball almost four years ago. “Now I have an addiction to pickleball,” said. “We can’t move as fast as able body players but we try just as hard to win as they do.”
It’s another example of pickleball being a joyous, and, inclusive game.
Name dropping anecdote of the week
Although I interviewed the serial killer David Berkowitz, aka the “Son of Sam,” in an upstate New York prison over 20 years ago, viewers who remember the interview still occasionally ask me what he was like. He was short, pudgy and spoke in a nasal, whiny voice. He slightly resembled the actor Richard Dreyfuss.
Book recommendation of the week
The Baseball 100 by Joe Posnanski has been called “an instant classic” and “a true masterwork.” Posnanski is perhaps the country’s best baseball writer and in this 880-page epic he tells the sport’s story through the eyes of its greatest players. Number one on Posnanski’s list, and mine, is Willie Mays. I understand the argument to put Babe Ruth at the top, but Posnanski cites Mays’ defense, speed and stolen bases, making him a more well-rounded player than Ruth.
Overheard at the courts
“I’d rather not play with him, he’s joyless.”
My thoughts of the week, not all pickleball
I was at a minor league baseball game Thursday night when a frightening moment occurred a few rows in front of me. A screaming line drive narrowly missed hitting a baby who was in her mother’s arms. They were sitting down the first base line about 10 rows from the field, beyond the protective netting. Please, people with infants, sit behind the netting if your seats are on field level.
Speaking of attending a game, any sport, so-called fans who spend more time looking at their cell phones than the action begs the question: Why are you even there?
College football is underway and that means you’ll see many sideline reporters ask inane, leading questions, such as, “Coach, how important was it for you to get off to a good start?” I’d love a coach to answer, “Not important at all. I’d prefer to lose our first game so our boosters and fan base could get all over me.” Network sports executives must not instruct sideline reporters on interview techniques that they should’ve learned long before landing a network job.
Every opening weekend of the college football season includes a bunch of mismatches designed to give an inferior program a nice payday. That means a bunch of boring blowouts. This past weekend included these thrillers:
Missippippi 76 Furman 0
Tennessee 69 Chattanooga 3
Alabama 63 Western Kentucky 0
Texas 52 Colorado St. 0
Missouri 51 Murray St. 0
When I see those scores I always hope that no kids playing for the smaller schools were seriously injured. Their university’s athletic director agreed to the game to make money, which college football has become increasingly about. I’ll still watch it every Saturday, however. Just not the mismatches.
Do you care if one of your favorite singers is lip-synching during live concerts? There has been considerable talk that one of my all-time favorites, 90-year-old Frankie Valli, is doing so. I’ve watched several of his recent concerts on YouTube and he barely moves his mouth. A friend saw Valli perform in person recently and is certain he lip-synched the entire show. I can’t tell for sure whether he’s lip-synching (which isn’t that uncommon in the industry), but don’t care much because I love the music of The Four Seasons, and the backup band and singers are fantastic. I have seen Valli perform in person a half-dozen times dating back to 1976 and would pay to see him again even if that famous falsetto voice is on a recording.
For all you pickleball players with back problems, along with daily stretching I highly recommend regularly using a massage chair. I bought one five years ago from a furniture chain store at half the price of the same one at a fancy massage chair store. The chair has needed no maintenance and despite upper back knots and morning soreness I’ve been able to play something like 30 of the past 33 days. It rained on two of the days I didn’t play and my 70-year-old legs were tired the other day.
Hudef is giving away a new paddle to the first person who emails the correct answer to one question at the end of my first blog of every month. This month’s winner will receive the new Kevlar/carbon fiber Hudef Viva Pro Gen3 paddle, valued at $169.99. The question: In my August 20th blog, the legendary pickleball coach Richard Movsessian cited the three biggest mistakes a 3.5 player makes. What is the #1 mistake he listed?
Email your answer to sales2@hudefsport.com. The winner will be contacted by email.