Dennis Gordge has had a long career designing and building interiors for boats, horse trailers, motor homes and more, so when he retired in 2022 he felt a need to keep his innovative ideas moving forward.
With a new-found interest in pickleball, he decided to transform an unused boatshed on his West Gosford property – and The Pickleball Shed was born.
Gordge had first seen pickleball played at the Peninsula Leisure Centre in Woy Woy and his interest was piqued.
He soon joined the club, learned how to play and very quickly became addicted to it.
He now wants to share his love of the game by teaching those who want to learn and helping improve the skills of those who have already discovered pickleball.
Not only has Gordge built a full-sized pickleball court in his shed, he has also added multiple “stations” around the court where players can practise their skills.
A book of challenge activities (23 in all) accompanies these stations.
The aim is to help improve a player’s dinking, lobbing, volleying, forehand and backhand drives and serving, by practising the skills for a certain time – timers on the walls help in this regard.
Scorecards allow players to keep track of their improvements.
He has also invented a specifically calibrated ball shooter, which he has cheekily named Gherkin.
It will deliver, at varying speeds, about one hundred balls in 15 minutes.
Between games, or after working through the challenge stations, players can practise any weaknesses they feel they have – using Gherkin.
Pickleball is a paddle sport in which two or four players hit a hollow plastic ball over a net using enlarged table-tennis paddles, until one side loses the point.
Scoring is based on various infractions or failures and only the serving side can score.
It is played both indoors and outdoors.
Pickleball was named the fastest-growing sport in the United States by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association and by 2023 it was estimated to have more than five million players in the US alone.
Australia is fast catching up with several players now ranked highly in the world.
The health benefits of pickleball, both mental and physical, are well documented.
Gordge has a Pickleball Coaching Diploma and a current First Aid Certificate.
He is keen to spread his love of the game to anyone wanting to learn.
“It’s all about the fun,” he said.
To find out more about The Pickleball Shed, contact Dennis Gordge at 0412 467 353 or email pickleballshed@gmail.com
Source:
Tricia Timmermans