STRAIGHT OFF THE BAT

Coming to a sports centre or tennis club near you this spring: the American sport of pickleball. A mash-up of tennis, badminton and ping pong, pickleball involves hitting a plastic ball over a net with a paddle. It has developed a cult following Stateside, where it became one of the fastestgrowing sports of 2020 (with a 21.3 per cent spike in interest), as Americans sought fun sports to play outside during the pandemic. And a study in the International Journal of Research in Exercise Physiology found that people who played three times a week for six weeks enjoyed lower blood pressure and enhanced oxygen intake.