We played on a real outdoor court for the first time, then we ate food!
One of our motivations for creating Plymouth Pickleball is our mission to bring pickleball courts to Plymouth, Michigan. There are zero outdoor courts in Plymouth and indoor courts require travel to a neighboring city. Outdoor courts are also available twenty minutes away in Canton, but that’s limiting.
While we are growing our user base, building our brand, and developing plans for better pickleball courts in Plymouth, Michigan, we need to research other facilities. That meant we needed to take our pickleball on the road.
We visited the pickleball courts at Leslie Park in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Twenty-five minutes away by car are the Leslie Park pickleball courts in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The image at the top of this post shows the cour setup. There are six pickleball courts and one tennis court, and everything is new. The cherry on top happened when we arrived, and it was raining but that’s not the cherry, it’s when we discovered that Leslie Park supplies a squeegee to help clear the water from the court. How amazing was that? We definitely took note of that small detail for our future courts.
Six of us arrived with two of our friends learning for the first time. We spent some time teaching them the game, and then we began rotating doubles while the couple outplayed singles on an open court. I honestly believe the courts would have been packed if it were not for the rain because there was another group playing when we arrived, and the rain didn’t slow them down at all. Thank goodness for the rain.
Anyways, we had another special surprise this night. My wife, Katie, and her sister were there playing when we showed up, and it was a total coincidence. Katie’s sister and her husband were invited to play with their friends that night and just happened to be there the same night and at the same park as us. Neither of us lives in Ann Arbor making this even weirder, but it was fun to see them there. This just shows us how much pickleball is taking off.
What were our takeaways?
- Well, I learned that I need to dial it down a bit. I am a tad competitive and if one of my goals is to get people hooked on playing pickleball and join Plymouth Pickleball, I can’t let my competitiveness scare them away. Maybe smashing on a new player isn’t a good idea when they are starting to learn.
- We learned that playing on a real court feels really good. This motivates us even further to find a way to bring real courts to Plymouth, Michigan because it makes playing that much more fun.
- We learned that there are some really good players out there. The group that was there (not us nor my wife’s sister’s group) was really good. They played our friends who were learning, and they beat them eleven to nothing, twice. A new goal for us is to play a group like this to see where we stack up.
- Water is dangerous. The rain made things really slippery. This didn’t slow us down at all but we did need to be really careful. Those squeegees will be useful at our future court.
- We will do it again.
A quick recap
We had a lot of fun. We learned a lot about the overall experience of pickleball by playing on a real court, and we got to see good players play. We can’t wait to play again soon. In fact, we have the gym reserved at PARC and can’t wait to share how that goes.
Thanks for reading!
That you for supporting Plymouth Pickleball. We’re sharing our story as we build this pickleball community, and we appreciate your support. If you live in the Northville, Canton, Livonia, and surrounding Plymouth area, you are always welcomed to join us in the fun! Please share with your friends if you think they will like following, reading, and being a part of our journey. We also have a Facebook group.