PICKLEBALL
Pickleball and the Power of Oxytocin
Going home to Clear Creek Park
I first played pickleball on a backyard court in northern Michigan. It’s the kind of place that pickle fanatics dream about, where you can step out your back door, play pickle, and then jump in the lake whenever you get overheated.
As great as that court is though, it’s just where I first experienced the sport. I really learned how to play at Clear Creek Park in Cincinnati. Clear Creek is a six court facility with a host of problems. The courts face east/west, making them essentially unplayable twice a day. They’re also directly under a major power line, lending an air of industrial danger to the whole place.
But it’s the people that make Clear Creek great. They’re diehards in the best ways possible. The courts overflow with the same cast of characters seven days a week when the weather cooperates, which in Cincinnati is more infrequent than anybody would like.
Clear Creek attracts the young, the old, and everybody in between. The only prerequisite is that you can play the game and are willing to welcome anyone who saunters onto the court.
That’s exactly what happened to me when I first walked onto the courts in 2019: I was welcomed. At the time my game was absolutely horrendous. I held the paddle wrong, popped everything straight in the air as a result, and didn’t know a third shot drop from a hole in the ground.
But I was embraced nonetheless by Gerry, a former City champion golfer and national champion racquetball player. And by Tom, a gentle giant of a player who never once showed an ounce of disdain with my ugly game. And by Bob, a wily commercial real estate pro who calmly said to me in the middle of a game we were losing badly, “Mitch you’re gonna have to learn how to dink a little.” And by Velissarios, the sly Greek M.D. who was my first doubles partner.
Like a lot of us, my work life tends to get in the way of my fun. So I have trouble getting to Clear Creek as much as I would like. But I played there recently and got the same feeling you get anytime you come home after a long absence. It’s the feeling of your body awash in oxytocin, the happy neurochemical that brings with it a host of health-related benefits.
Coming back to Clear Creek has little to do with winning and losing, and that’s why I love it. Rather, it’s about connecting with the people who welcomed me in the earliest stages of my pickleball journey. My hope is that you have those people in your life. If not, just head down to Clear Creek.
