Patrick Netter
Patrick Netter, known as The Gear Guru, a sports, health and fitness expert. Based in Los Angeles, he founded the fitness equipment store High-Tech Fitness and created a guide to fitness equipment of the same name.
If you haven’t played paddle tennis, you might want to give it a try. It’s great for people of all ages and skill levels. Most find it easy to learn, and it is less physically demanding than other racquet sports, such as squash and regular tennis — with fewer chances of sustaining an injury, particularly to the rotator cuff (shoulder).
Paddle tennis is similar to traditional tennis but varies in some significant ways…
There is a variation of paddle tennis, called platform tennis, which is played on a court that is about one-quarter the size of a tennis court and enclosed by a tensioned fence that looks like chicken wire. The ball remains in play even when it is hit off the fence on a bounce.
Platform tennis offers the benefit of yearlong play. The court is on a raised foundation — which makes it easier to have a heated floor to melt snow and ice in the winter. Platform tennis is particularly popular in the Northeast for tennis players who want to play outside during winter months.
There are a growing number of public and private paddle and platform tennis courts in the US. For information on paddle tennis, go to www.TheUSPTA.com. For information on platform tennis, go to www.PlatformTennis.org.