I am a Switch Hitter

I am living a double life and I am ready to come clean about it. The toll of carrying this mental weight around with me any longer is too much for one person to bear. Are you sitting down? Are you ready to share in my burden of knowledge?

I am a switch hitter.

I play both tennis and pickleball. There I said it, it's out in the universe now and wow was that ever cathartic. Here's the thing, I need this to be a gentle reveal. Please don't tell my tennis friends that I am sneaking in more and more pickleball - and please don't tell my pickle friends that my first true love is tennis! Can you do that for me? Are we in the trust tree here?

We are a family divided - I feel like a child being shuffled back and forth between houses. It seems that many pickle players that I know have divorced themselves from tennis, "I used to play...blah blah blah" - and are now on an all out Pickle quest of domination. In the tennis realm, there is an undercurrent of annoyance by the infestation of the pickleballers on our courts and God forbid we are on a court next to picklers - Ugh, the noise! So where do I fit? The answer is I swing both ways.

So here is where it gets interesting: when I am playing tennis, I too am annoyed at the pickle players. The sound of the ball being hit is the worst and there is so much commotion to try to tune out - but here is where the magic happens - when I am playing pickle, I am not even thinking about the tennis players and I am just having fun.

I realized that I am just more serious about my tennis game and I have more fun with my pickle game. I like the social jibber jabber of pickle, the leveling of the playing field that transcends age and gender. It truly is a magical melting pot where all walks of life can come together and everyone is a threat. You hear about Edith? She's 79 but damn, can she dink like nobody's business. Oh, have you played Tiffany? She's a bit spastic and I hate how she plays unconventionally but can she get by with her wicked slice shots (thanks tennis)! I love that we are all "specialists" in different areas - making each and every game a new adventure.

So I came here to say that my worlds are colliding and I can't keep this up much longer. Just this morning I played Pickle and came out to the common area and saw some tennis friends who asked if I was playing Pickle. Step one, I admitted that yes, they had caught me day dinking. We will have to see how it goes because once is an anomaly and twice is a pattern. I might be setting myself up for an intervention in the near future.

Stay tuned, and in the meantime, if you are a Switch Hitter like me, please take a peek at our Switch Hitter Tee. It might be just what you need to gain the confidence to share your true identity to your fellow tennis and pickle players. My hope is that with time, we switch hitters will be accepted with open arms in both arenas! Switch Hitters unite! It's time to come out of hiding!