Ottawa residents had the opportunity to try pickleball at the Glen Cairn Community Centre on Thursday, Sept. 4. Tom Collin

 Man was I in a pickle last week

 
 Presented with the opportunity to be one of the first Ottawa residents to try a new sport called pickleball, I drove to Kanata last week in an effort to find a sport I can dominate in.
 

 After the game, I am still looking.
 
Pickleball is a sport played on a badminton-sized court, and is a lot like ping-pong, if you were allowed to stand on the table to play.
 
Using racquets that are slightly larger than table tennis paddles, the goal is to return a ball over a net until someone makes a mistake.
 
Points can only be scored on a serve (which has to be underhand), and if playing in pairs, both members of a team serve until they both lose it. The first to 11 wins.
 
Pickleball is new to the Ottawa area, although it’s been a sport for 44 years. I was invited by the City of Ottawa to try the game as city staff were in training to learn how to play pickleball.
 
Wayne Roswell, a member of Pickleball Ontario, was in Ottawa on Thursday, Sept. 3, to teach the game to city employees.
 
He plays the sport because it’s a fun way to get some exercise.
 
“The experience for me has been, it has to be fun or else I won’t do it,” he said about exercising. “(With pickleball) I can go out as an average player, laugh and have fun.”