A pickleball discovery workshop arrives in Etxebarri. With the places already full, 20 people will discover what this sport is next Sunday the 18th … January at the Etxebarri fronton at 5:30 p.m.
For those who do not know this discipline, Iñigo Lekunberri, director of Sports Management at Drop Pickleball, explains that “it is a hybrid between three racket sports, which are table tennis, tennis and badminton. It’s like a small tennis shoe. The racket weighs very little and the plastic ball has holes in it, which makes the game slower because air gets inside, which is kind of the beauty of this. Lekunberri emphasizes that it is a “very easy to learn” sport and that the good thing about it is that “it greatly attracts players from other racket sports who continue to maintain the competitive spirit, but not the physical one,” he says with a laugh.
The purpose of this workshop is to introduce the basic rules of the sport to both children and adults. In fact, the director emphasizes that “very different people are going to come on Sunday, from people over 50 to those who have just turned 18, which is the good thing about this discipline.”
First they began teaching at schools, such as Begoñazpi Ikastola or Abusu Ikastola, then at tennis clubs such as the Real Club Jolaseta or Club Kiroleta Bakio and now “it is time to reach the towns that, with the collaboration of the town councils, are making this new sporting discipline known throughout Bizkaia.” Lekunberri is also grateful for “the facilities that the Etxebarri City Council has given us and, in this case, the transfer of the fronton.”
For an hour and a half, participants will be able to internalize the basic strokes, the rules of pickleball, and “after half an hour, 35 minutes, everyone will be in a match dynamic,” clarifies Lekunberri. A very active way of learning, which “I really like”, because they are 10-minute matches and, when time runs out, the pairs on the court move. If you win, you go up to the next track and if you lose, you go down to the previous track. In this way, everyone plays with everyone and people “come away with a very good feeling,” admits the director of Sports Management.