Pickleball Magazine 3-4 Courtesy of Pickleball Guru | Page 27

AROUND THE POST
Rewriting the Rules
BY JENNIFER LUCORE & ALEX HAMNER
I
n 1965, Barney McCallum, one of the three founders of
the game, was in charge of creating the rules. Here are
some excerpts from the book, “History of Pickleball—
More Than 50 Years of Fun!”
Barney was still running the envelope factory, but
recalls that everyone was on him to get the rules written.
It took him some time to complete, as he had to consult
with others. But in his words, the rules were “very simply
written” and always on one page.
“Sometimes the simplest things are the best things,” said
Barney. “If you take a badminton rules book, it’s this thick
[finger gesture of about a half-inch]; tennis is like that, too.
We tried to take the arguments out. Just have fun.”
JENNIFER & ALEX’S RULES
Fully buying into Barney’s “just have fun” attitude, we’ve
adopted some of our own rules:
1. If we’re driving to a tournament, we must pack the
car with everything we could possibly need or want.
Why? Because we have the room—so just bring it!
2. Pack lots of snacks. And, yes, bring the 5-pound bag of
Peanut M&Ms because our friends and competitors will

3.

4.

5.

6.

find the snack stash and help themselves—and we’re
OK with that!
Have our music playlist organized and ready to go at a
moment’s notice. (Don’t worry, you only need two or three
songs. Just blast them as needed for motivation and
energy, and keep replaying them!)
Pack a quick change of clothes for after play because it
will probably be 7 p.m., and we’ll be smelly and hungry—
with no time to shower prior to eating out with fellow
players.
When we arrive back at the room, it’s late, but just enough
time to (hopefully!) hang your medal on the chandelier, do
a little dance and take a shower.
Try to get some sleep—because it will all repeat early the
next day. So fun! •
Jennifer Lucore and Alex Hamner started
playing pickleball in 2010, and have
competed in tournaments across the USA
(and internationally). Between them, they
have 25 National Titles, including winning
gold in the Women’s Open Doubles at
Nationals for four consecutive years
(2011 – 2014). For more pickleball fun see
Jennifer’s blog at www.allpickleball.com.
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