Some bipartisan senators are picking up paddles and trying out America's fasting growing sport as a way to build relationships. They're trading partisan barbs for friendly competition.
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis co-chairs the Senate pickleball caucus and recently played with a group of D.C. pro players"There are no excuses," Tillis said."You can do it before the committee meeting starts, go take a shower and you're at work.""They trash talk me, humiliate me, we have fun," Tillis said.
Ten years ago, the average age of most pickleball players was in the fifties, now it's in the thirties.Kuhn brought four members of the co-ed D.C. professional pickleball, who played collegiate tennis, to put on a clinic for the lawmakers. Kuhn noted last year the league had roughly $1 million in prize money, and this year it will be up to $5 million.
"It's a really fun way to have like intergenerational camaraderie and you know, I think it's a fun sport regardless of how old you are." Lummis plans to play again and says what she likes about the sport is that"anybody can play at any age and everybody can play together."Gillibrand usually plays a weekly tennis match on the Dirksen court, which plays triple duty with space for basketball, tennis and now, pickleball. The crowded schedule means Gillibrand and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had to negotiate a schedule around his regular basketball games.
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