It’s bright and early on a sunny Saturday spring day at the Mitchell Park Palo Alto pickleball courts. The birds are chirping as balls hit paddles and the ground alike with a rhythmic pitter patter. Some players are chatting off to the side, waiting for a game to finish, as others are serving balls and calling off scores. Rules are posted on signage and a banner reads, “Arrive as a stranger and leave as a friend!”
Pickleball is just one of many community sports people can take part in to stay active, meet new people, combat loneliness and find a local community. Arne Lim is a retired teacher who plays in a softball league for seniors at Red Morton Park in Redwood City.
“When I retired, I actually was a little depressed,” Lim said. “It was just kind of a downward spiral of thinking, because I had surrendered my identity of being a teacher for 36 years.”
Lim said that he got a medical diagnosis of type two diabetes around the same time, and one of the ways he managed that is through exercise.
“I literally just stumbled upon being at Red Morton Park at the right time, and so I joined them,” Lim said. “I’m also working out now on Monday, Wednesday [and] Fridays. Honestly, [it] has made a big difference to be able to have a routine again.”
Psychotherapist Jenny Vo works at Woodside, but in her free time, she plays pickleball and competes in pickleball tournaments, sometimes as far away as Las Vegas.
“The one thing I love about pickleball is the social aspect of it,” Vo said. “People are friendly, [and] you don’t have to know someone to play with them. Everyone [is] really helpful teaching you the game if you’re new…Being a psychotherapist, I really encourage people [to] go out to the pickleball court and learn to be social, because people are just so welcoming.”
In a survey by Harvard Graduate School of Education, 21% of adults reported that they had serious feelings of loneliness. It has been shown that physical activity is beneficial to mental health and that a sense of community is linked to lower rates of depression, anxiety and stress. Ron Sanders said that playing pickleball was an important part of his mental health during the pandemic.
“I think that almost everybody would say something like that,” Sanders said. “The friendships that people make, the exercise, the community, the camaraderie, [learning pickleball] and playing together, for the most part, contribute to feeling good about yourself and feeling good about the community.”
Diana Peterson has been attending a fitness program called Team Fitness for over 20 years. Peterson said she usually attends the 7:30 a.m. class.
“I liked that the same people kept coming back,” Peterson said. “So it’s like each Team Fitness class is its own community.”
Peterson said Team Fitness encourages people to come back by celebrating milestones and providing shirts after participants hit a benchmark, like a 30-day shirt. Peterson said they even have a Signal group chat to coordinate activities together outside of class. Sanders said that the pickleball courts were very welcoming and beginner-friendly, and that there is a wide range of people who come and play, coming from various backgrounds.
“It’s a very good mix of people and nobody [cares about] who you are, what you do [and] what your political views [are],” pickleball player Simona Habib said. “We [are] all together and we play.”
Mitchell Park, home of the Palo Alto pickleball club, is a public park where anyone can play for free. Amy Lauterbach, who’s on the board of the Palo Alto pickleball club, said that they have 15 courts that serve about 4,000 different people who play there. Lauterbach said that volunteerism is an important aspect of the club.
“There are about 100 people who are volunteering in different ways to make this happen,” Lauterbach said. “The club really encourages people to find ways to help out.”
