Meet the Man Who’s Ruining the Sport of French Open Champion Carlos Alcaraz
Hey, that’s Sandra Bullock’s son out there playing soccer with your kids. Oh, and those are Sharon Stone’s kids on the junior bowling league. Only in Hollywood can casual sporting event become something that can make the tabloids.
Have you noticed that new stripes are being painted on your neighborhood tennis court? Walk into many of the gyms in Los Angeles and see how the basketball courts are being repurposed for a whole new sport.
You can credit — or blame — Marshall Pura for most of it.
He’s the USA Pickleball Ambassador for California and wherever he sees a vacant space, or a tennis court not being used, he will go in and introduce the place’s manager to the fastest growing sport in the country.
It’s cheap — there’s no real expensive equipment necessary and most courts are free; it’s easy — a good workout but you don’t need to be a star athlete; and it’s fun — people of all ages and abilities are doing it.
Marshall, the 81-year-old former marathon runner and tennis player discovered the sport 13 years ago in New Mexico and became an instant fan. But when he returned home to Los Feliz, he couldn’t find a single court in all of Los Angeles County.
He contacted city and county officials, went to rec centers where they had under-used tennis courts, tried to show how simple it was to put down tape over existing courts, and explained how it could bring in more people to use the facilities. One tennis court can yield four pickleball courts, with 16 players.
“I tried to convince them, but I failed,” Marshall told me when I caught up with him at the Glassell Park Rec Center where he helped teach senior citizens about the game. “No one wanted to take the chance on it, but I had a feeling it was going to catch on.”
The Pickleheads (the non-derogatory name for fans of the sport) play this simple sport that is a combination of badminton, tennis and ping-pong. Because it doesn’t require too much running, it’s a big sport for senior citizens, especially those who loved tennis and aren’t as fast as they used to be.
Incredibly fit with twinkling brown eyes, Marshall didn’t stop trying to bring the sport to LA. He convinced the director of the Glendale YMCA to let him use an abandoned roof-top handball court. Then, he taught locals how to play, and he managed to get a lot of press about what he was doing.
Now, nationwide, it’s estimated that 36.5 million play the game at least once a year. The search map on Pickleheads.com shows 66 locations to play within 10 miles of my house in Hollywood.
It’s not an Olympic sport yet, and it isn’t slated for when the games come to LA again in 2028, but there are plenty of places to play for the athletes who come to town.
The biggest question I had for Marshall is about the injuries. In a moment of self-disclosure, I told him that last year I stumbled backwards and broke my left arm and was in a cast most of the summer. It happened only an hour after my chiropractor told me to be careful because it’s a big cause for injury for senior citizens now.
“You can get injured in any sport,” Marshall concedes. “And you can wear protective gear like goggles or knee pads. But for the most part I tell people, don’t run backwards.”
Yes, running backward was my downfall. And perhaps not wearing the right kind of shoes. I did continue playing after the fall and finished the game.
It’s fun, but for the life of me I can’t figure out how to keep score — it’s worse than tennis.
But Marshall can turn anyone into a Picklehead in less than an hour. His enthusiasm for the sport, and his success in transforming courts into active venues, earned him the title of Ambassador for the whole state of California by USA Pickleball, the national governing body of the sport.
The pickleball paddle is smaller than a tennis racquet and bigger than a ping-pong paddle, and the ball is a lightweight Wiffle ball. You do keep moving, and there is some skill.
And Marshall adds, “The rewards for your fitness far outweigh any of the dangers.”
Look for events and courts at www.laparks.org/pickleball, and www.pickleheads.com.
You can reach Mike at mikeszy@aol.com.
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Senior center leaders hanging out with Marshall Pura, USA Pickleball Ambassador for California, don’t sour to the idea of the game.
Photo by Mike Szy
