By Larry Kidder | A pickleball tournament organized by the Loma Linda Pickleball Club and held at Drayson Center was featured in a recent Pickleball Channel video. Watch the video at www.pickleballchannel.com/Loma-Linda-Pickleball-I-Heart-Pickleball. Scroll down for more photos.
Back in 2005, Loma Linda was recognized as one of five "Blue Zones" by National Geographic fellow and New York Times best-selling author Dan Buettner. Several Drayson Center Senior Wellness Program members were among those highlighted in the story.
This past January, the Loma Linda Pickleball Club held its inaugural Winter Games on Sunday, January 28, at Loma Linda University Drayson Center. More than 300 attended with 200 pickleball players signing up to compete. A video crew was also on hand that day to shoot footage of the day's events and interview Ernie Medina, DrPH, associate professor of public health and founder of the Loma Linda Pickleball Club, as well as other club leaders.
The finished video was recently published by the Pickleball Channel on YouTube. The link is provided above in the photo caption.
The sport has continued to grow in popularity at Drayson Center, which has created four dedicated courts and lined all of its tennis courts for pickleball, resulting in 26 potential courts. This establishes Drayson Center as among the largest pickleball venues in the U.S.
Pickleball fits well within Loma Linda University Health's mission of wholeness, providing fun, fitness, and fellowship for pickleball players of all ages and backgrounds. A mix of other racquet sport -- from table tennis, to badminton, to tennis itself -- pickleball is played on a badminton court with a net at ground level. The scoring is unique to pickleball. Because of the use of paddles and a smaller sized court than tennis, the sport allows players of all ages and skill levels to mingle for fun and exercise.
For more information regarding ongoing pickleball activities and upcoming events, call Drayson Center Membership Services at 909-558-4275 or visit drayson.llu.edu.
Ernie Medina Jr., DrPH, assistant professor of public health in the LLU School of Public Health, is interviewed by the Pickleball Channel. Medina founded the Loma Linda Pickleball Club several years ago.
This is the famous November 2005 issue of National Geographic magazine that named Loma Linda as one of five Blue Zones in the world. Loma Linda differs from the other four Blue Zones as the only one in North America and located in a busy metropolis of Western Civilization -- Los Angeles, California. Buettner identified the world's Blue Zones as areas with higher numbers of centenarians.