Residents in the village of Burton-in-Kendal are crediting the up-and-coming sport of Pickleball with changing lives and improving their physical and mental health.
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00:00I'd been in America to visit friends and I'd played it once had no idea what we
00:10were doing but I'd realized I could do it and I'm not a good sports person at
00:15all I played badminton years ago but kept getting tennis elbow and it just
00:19didn't work for me and so when I heard that there was a lady coming to
00:22represent pickleball here and show us how to play I jumped at the chance I
00:27think I was probably the first reply and I was very happy to take it on board
00:30because I knew it was a good game it is easier than a lot of other games that
00:37you play but I think the social side of it as well is really important to people
00:41they come along when they're not playing they're chatting with other people but
00:44it's really taken off in England in the last three years and it just seems to be
00:48doing here so we're really pleased if you're not careful you get stuck in
00:54ruts it's exercise it's fun we laugh more than anything else and it it's
01:00played mainly just for fun it's not a heavy sport other people do play that
01:06way they are competitions leagues and things like that but that doesn't
01:10interest me I just like the fun of it I play tennis a lot and I think I heard
01:16about it from people who play tennis and pickleball it's on in the morning and
01:20our tennis is always in the afternoon so that's part of it and then sometimes
01:25I come here in the evenings and then it's inside so if it's raining and your
01:29tennis is off then it's handy to come here so all those sorts of reasons we
01:34got a grant from the council for 700 pounds which was wonderful and we wanted
01:39to spend that on getting nets so we needed pickleball nets we needed
01:44pickleball paddles which are the bats that we play with and pickleball balls
01:48but it's been great because we've actually loaned out our equipment to
01:52other groups who were starting up until they get their money in and so we've
01:57really felt the benefit of that that although it was a small grant in lots of
02:00ways it's gone far as you can see most of us are retired and that's a beauty
02:05in that sense that people that are retired can be active so many people
02:11retire sit down and do nothing this is totally different it's short and quick
02:18you're on off it's good fun I like it we have about 10 hourly sessions a week at
02:26the moment because really eight to ten people is plenty so we're offering more
02:31sessions so that more people have got the opportunity to have a go