Platform tennis players think inside the box
DAVID WALDSTEIN, THE STAR-LEDGER
NEW JERSEY
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2008 
For most of the racket-wielding world, the first fallen leaf of autumn is a signal to pack away the sunscreen and retreat to the halogen-lit refuge of indoor courts.
But for a growing stratum of a cultish group of athletes who, each fall, happily exchange strings for foam core paddles, the annual dip in temperature is a time to rejoice and make the yearly migration over to the aluminum courts and chicken-wire walls of platform tennis.
"Forget tennis," says platform devotee Maylen Pierce of Oldwick. "This is the game. We're all addicted."
Pierce and two of her platform-playing friends were out in their layered warmups on a chilly morning this week. They were taking a lesson with Guy Moore, the director of rackets at Plainfield Country Club in Edison, which will be the focus of the platform tennis world this weekend for what organizers call "the Super Bowl of platform tennis."
Saturday and Sunday -- regardless of the weather since platform is played in rain, sleet and snow on a heated deck -- the top eight men's doubles teams in the nation will compete for the Premier Cup.
"We're going to do it the best it's ever been done," Moore declared.
Moore, who is partnered with Drew Broderick, is ranked No. 7 in the world by the American Platform Tennis Association, and is the de facto host of the tournament. A former college tennis player at the University of Alabama, Moore started playing what more casually is called "paddle" about 14 years ago. He spends the summer teaching tennis, then in the winter months moves over to the game he now considers his favorite.
"I've played my tennis," he says after a lengthy pause to make sure he truly believes it. "This is my sport now."
With its wintry backdrop and knit-capped players hitting balls off the screen, platform tennis is a melange of racquetball, cross-country skiing and a night out with lively friends. This game seems to have a magnetic attraction among its adherents, and obviously it's not the aluminum playing surface.
The court is one-fourth the size of a tennis court surrounded by a 12-foot wall of chicken wire. The playing surface is constructed of aluminum planks with grit painted on top for traction, and elevated a few feet off the ground so that heating elements can be placed underneath to melt any snow or ice.
The ball is heavier and denser than a tennis ball and when it's cold it doesn't bounce very high. Paddles are 18 inches long with a gritty foam core surface (usually about three-quarters of an inch thick) with 87 holes drilled through it for aerodynamic movement and spin.
The rules are very close to tennis except for one key element. The ball can be played off the wall after it hits inside the lines of the court. Because of that, it's almost impossible to put the ball away with a winner because hard-hit balls bounce gently back into play, and often give the receiving team a better angle to set up a winning shot.
The key to paddle is patience. Rallies are often very long, up to 40 or 50 hits for ordinary players, but in championship play with good, patient players, rallies can last over 400 total strokes.
Points are most often determined by error, not by winners.
"Ninety percent of the time," Moore explained, "the team that hits the ball last loses the point. You have to be patient and consistent."
Invented in Scarsdale, N.Y., in 1928 by two men looking for a winter pastime, platform tennis had its heyday in the 1970s and has always enjoyed a steady but devoted following in the northeast, especially New Jersey and New York, and the Midwest.
But today it is making a resurgence. The APTA estimates there are about 4,000 courts across the country with 8,000 APTA members and 17 regional leagues. APTA executive director Ann Sheedy says her organization has few records for past membership, but says participation has increased over the past decade.
"There are more courts, more leagues, more players," she said from her home in Pittsburgh, which is also where the APTA is based. "I wish I had the numbers, but there's no question it is growing."
At Plainfield, participation has grown roughly 400 percent in the last 10 years, from about 40 players to 160 now.
Westfield's Clarissa O'Hern is one of them. A former top 50 regional tennis player as a junior in Chicago, she still enjoys her tennis during the summer months. But when she starts to see her breath on those cool autumn evenings is when the fun really starts. O'Hern, who is married to former Dartmouth and Christian Brothers Academy hockey standout Paul O'Hern, started playing paddle six years ago, and now she can't stop.
"It's like a cult," she said before her lesson with Pierce and another enthusiast, Susan Greaney of Scotch Plains. "I didn't drink the Kool-Aid at first, but now I just love it. It's a better workout than tennis, and it's more athletic, and it's fun playing in the cold weather. It's kind of an extreme sport."
Paddle is mostly a game of doubles, which also helps to promote its festiveness. And it's certainly less formal than tennis, where many clubs still require white garb. With their casual athletic wear, platform players look like they are out for a winter jog, and playing through snow and rain instills a sense of hardiness and camaraderie.
And any platform tennis facility of any distinction will feature a warming hut, which is one of the endearing features of the sport and makes it such a community event. Some, as in Plainfield, have fireplaces and flat screen TVs and during and after matches players congregate there to enjoy a post-match beverage and a chin wag about the game.
"Four people inside an outdoor cage in the winter," Pierce says, "there's just something fun about that."
Courting favor: Clayton Paddle Club hopes to increase interest in winter tennis sport
By CHRIS BROCK
WATERNTOWN (NY) DAILY TIMES, STAFF WRITER
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2008
CLAYTON — When one thinks of paddles and this village, water sports come to mind. But there is a little-known group here that uses paddles in the winter only and is struggling to stay afloat.
Its members need your help and will host an introductory clinic about their sport — platform tennis — on Saturday.
Clayton Paddle Club member Lora A. Stopper said the club was formed in the early 1990s when the Clayton Yacht Club allowed it to install a platform tennis court at its facility on Bartlett Point Road just outside the village.
The sport usually is played in the winter months. The 60- by 30-foot court is elevated about a foot off the ground, and propane heaters underneath keep it free of snow and ice. "It's just something to do in the winter and to get outdoors," said Mrs. Stopper. "It's fun and competitive. There's also the social aspect."
Mrs. Stopper said the game usually is played by two people on each side. The rules resemble those of tennis, with a main exception: players can play a ball rebounded off 12-foot wire fencing that surrounds the court. According to the American Platform Tennis Association, paddles for the game are made of a composite material with aerodynamic holes drilled in the heads. Paddles are about 18 inches long. The game's spongy rubber ball is 2.5 inches in diameter. A "flocking" material on its exterior keeps the ball from skidding.
The Clayton club's aluminum court was purchased from and installed by the Reilly Green Mountain company of Orange, Conn. The company's Web site says it has built or maintained more than 6,000 courts nationwide. But the court at the Clayton Yacht Club needs more action or its days may be numbered. "The club wanted us to do something with the court," Mrs. Stopper said. "The court hasn't been used in a couple of years. It was stagnant, and the group fell apart. My husband, Jack, decided to try to get it going again."
Mrs. Stopper estimates the club needs about 60 members "to get it off the ground again." "We're trying to get enough people together to charge a membership fee to the paddle club," she said. "We're looking for new members, which is why we're hosting a clinic." Mrs. Stopper said the club's yearly membership fee is $200 person. She said that although there is just one court, the club works out a schedule where four people can play at a time. Matches last one and a half to two hours.
A form of the game was created in 1898 in Albion, Mich., when 14-year-old Frank Peer Beal watched tennis matches at Albion College, according to the American Platform Tennis Association. He thought a tennis court would be nice for his backyard, but the area was too small. He improvised, creating a smaller court. He later became a tennis champion and a chaplain, never forgetting the smaller court of his boyhood. He became associate minister of the Judson Memorial Church, at Washington Square, New York City, where he persuaded Manhattan's director of recreation to install paddle tennis courts.
However, Mr. Beal's game didn't use fences and wasn't specifically played in winter. His game is commonly known as paddle tennis. According to Reilly Green Mountain, modern platform tennis was created in Scarsdale in 1928 by Fessenden Blanchard and James Cogswell. "They wanted to play their own version of tennis on a homemade backyard court, which was raised above the mud and snow on a wooden platform surrounded by chicken wire." the company notes.
Paddle tennis - wild winter workout a 'riot'
RACHEL COLLINS, SEACOAST ONLINE
MAINE
DECEMBER 13, 2007
Martha "Marty" Dignan admits she had second thoughts when she headed out to play tennis this past week as the temperature hovered in the 20s."I didn't really want to go when I saw it was 25 degrees out, but I had signed up," she said.
So she put on several layers of clothing and headed to the snow-covered court in her hometown of York, Maine. That's right. Dignan had scheduled a doubles match with her husband and another couple in Maine in December - outside. But she is far from alone.
Paddle tennis or platform tennis - a sport particularly popular from Connecticut south and west as far as Ontario, Canada - has made its way to Maine and New Hampshire. In essence, the only racquet sport played outdoors year-round in snow country, paddle tennis is played on an elevated aluminum deck about one-quarter the size of a regulation tennis court. The rules are much like tennis, except that the ball can be played off the 12-foot-high screened walls, as in racquetball and squash.
To make play possible in icy weather, the base of the enclosed court usually has a heating system, which melts the ice from the aggregate deck surface - once any snow is shoveled off first. And most courts have lighting systems that allow for nighttime play. Wentworth by the Sea Country Club in Rye has two courts, the Arundel Paddle Club in Maine has two and, as of two weeks ago, the newly formed York Paddle Tennis Club has opened a court on leased land.
"It's a riot," said Dave Carley, of York, Maine, a longtime avid player of traditional tennis. "It completely alleviates the need to play indoor tennis in the winter. It's just so much more fun to be outdoors." Dignan agreed. "I love to be outside and I don't like skiing, so this is perfect," she said. "It helps chase away the winter blues."
Caleb Fox, one of the organizers of the York club, said admittedly "you start off feeling a little chilly." "But you quickly warm up because you're always moving," he said. "Every part of your body gets a workout."
Though paddle tennis players don't run as much distance as someone playing tennis, the use of the screens makes play very quick. "It's much quicker than tennis," said Fox, who plays both sports. "It's a combination of tennis and racquetball."
Platform tennis is typically a doubles sport, with two players on each side of a 34-inch- high net. The 18-inch-long paddles are made of a composite material with aerodynamic holes drilled in the head, while the rubber ball is spongy with a "flocked exterior" that keeps it from skidding.
"We had a great time," said Jodie Lawlor, of York, who together with her husband, Michael, and three children - ages 8 to 12 - are members of the new club. "It was just nice to be outside and I think it will be nice to have a sport to go to at night and do with the kids."
Though the York club has yet to build a warming hut, it is expected to add lights to its court within the next few weeks, Fox said. For now, members instead take turns stoking a fire that they sit around between matches - sometimes drinking hot chocolate and eating cookies. "It's more social than anything," Lawlor said.
Certainly that's part of the allure, since most platform courts are accessible only by either joining a private club like York's, Arundel's or Wentworth's or being invited as a guest.
"You probably have more camaraderie because you're so much closer to each other," Fox also noted, since the courts are much smaller than those used for tennis. The sport also lends itself to being played by those of all ages. For instance, the York club's members range in age from teenagers to players in their 70s.
"It's just people who want to play a winter sport," Fox said. And it helps that many know how to play a racquet sport already - such as tennis, ping-pong, squash, or racquetball. According to Dick Squires, author of "How to Play Platform Tennis," "Patience and ball placement are more effective assets than sheer power and speed."
The other keys are not only becoming comfortable with the balls bouncing off the screens but using those screens to your advantage.
"In the hour and 45 minutes we played I had maybe three shots off the screen and onto the other side," Lawlor said. "I'm not used to hitting off the screens yet." But she, like other newcomers, welcomes the opportunity to continue to play an outdoor racquet sport despite the wintry weather.
"It's great fun being out there in the cold," Fox said. "It's a fabulous sport." In fact, though it is fairly novel in northern New England, platform tennis is not really new. It has been around since 1928 when two men in Scarsdale, N.Y., - James Cogswell and Fessenden Blanchard - built a wooden platform so they could play deck tennis.
They surrounded the deck with chicken wire only after they tired of retrieving the balls from snow banks.
Then, before long, they adopted the off-the-wall play rule, still in effect today.
Though in the 1970s there were some 400,000 players according to the American Platform Tennis Association, that number declined significantly in the 1980s with a gradual resurgence in the '90s.
Today, in the United States there are an estimated 4,000 courts, 8,000 APTA members, 17 regional leagues, dozens of certified pros, more than 100 sanctioned tournaments and 26 annual national championship events.
"I think once people play, they'll find they'll be hooked," Carley said. "They'll find it's not only as fun as tennis, but it's in the winter and it's outdoors." Certainly sounds like a perfect New England combination. Think you or your group should be profiled in Get off the Couch? Contact Rachel Collins at Rcollinsme@aol.com .
For information about York Paddle Tennis Club, see www.yorkcommunitymaine.org/yptc or contact Caleb Fox at cfox@binswanger.com
Marty and Bill Dignan prepare for platform tennis battle at the York Paddle Tennis Club. Photo by Martin Zombeck
Youth will not be served here
MAYA KREMEN, THE RECORD
HACKENSACK, NJ
NOVEMBER 24, 2007
The air was full of chill on Friday, but it was also full of love.
This being a tennis game, the air was also full of whizzing balls, "ahhhs!" "beautifulllls!" and the occasional (insert sound of frustrated player throwing racket to the ground here).
Seven duos from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and beyond braved the cold (and four platform tennis tournaments. The game had only one requirement: Partners' ages had to add up to more than 125.
"You just have to be old," said Joe Holmes, summing it up.
Old, maybe. Fast, definitely. Platform tennis, or "playing paddle" as they call it, is similar to tennis -- except the rackets are shorter, the courts are smaller and balls that ricochet off the fence that surrounds the court are considered fair game. Also, you are only allowed only one serve, not two.
All of that requires less power and more dexterity, which is one reason why Bob Brown, the oldest player at 79, could hold his own against men 20 years younger.
"People are passionate about paddle," said his wife, Ann Brown, who was watching him play from a windowed clubhouse. "It's a mind game too. My husband was a golfer. Then he picked up a paddle and put down his club."
Clad in polar fleece, long sleeves and baseball caps, the men didn't seem to notice the cold. With a few swift strokes, Brown and his partner were able to defend themselves against another, younger team, 6-0.
In the end, the seven teams were whittled down to two, who played each other for the title. No one was surprised when Scott Estes, 61, and Michael O'Donnell, 67,, former state over-50 champs, were declared the winners.
The two were awarded champagne, which Estes plans to drink on New Year's. They also shared lunch and a round of beers with their fellow players.
The game is competitive, but it's social too. Players have dinner and cocktails together. Some have played together for more than a decade. Holmes met his wife when they were fixed up during a platform tennis game 34 years ago.
"We played together as mixed doubles for a year and a half," he said. "I thought if I can survive that, marriage should be easy."
Smaller courts means more dialogue between players. Ken Persson, 52, of Leonia taught Tenafly resident Bob Perez, 55, how to play. When the two men squared off Friday, Persson offered support (and the occasional teasing comment) to his protege, who is originally from Cuba.
"They call that the Cuban missile launch," he said, when Perez's hit ricocheted out of bounds.
When Persson missed one, he chided himself.
"I'm too old for this," he said.
"You're not too old" came the reply from Frank Gallo, 74, from across the net. "You're the youngest one here."