{"id":23,"date":"2026-09-19T14:08:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T14:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/williamjackmorgan.com\/?p=23"},"modified":"2026-10-09T00:47:34","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T00:47:34","slug":"why-pickleball-belongs-in-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williamjackmorgan.com\/?p=23","title":{"rendered":"Why Pickleball Belongs in Retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the best surprises of retirement has been pickleball. It\u2019s social without being complicated, and competitive enough to keep you coming back \u2014 with the same honesty any active sport deserves: play smart, because knees and joints still matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most days you\u2019ll find me on a pickleball court somewhere around Northwest Arkansas. I joined <strong>USSP<\/strong> and generally play in <strong>USSP-sanctioned tournaments<\/strong>. My paddle is a <strong>J2CR<\/strong> with the <strong>Crystal Blue&#x2122; Endurance<\/strong> surface \u2014 a setup I trust when the points get long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In <strong>December 2025<\/strong>, I played in the <strong>USSP Nationals<\/strong> at <strong>Pictona in Florida<\/strong>. That trip still sits with me: the travel, the nerves, the competition, and the reminder that retirement can still include big goals and new courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For me, pickleball is more than exercise. It\u2019s rhythm, community, and a reason to get out of the house that doesn\u2019t feel like a chore. More court stories \u2014 and photos \u2014 coming soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-9-16 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"pictona\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/M-9tMBRZFsI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YouTube<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the best surprises of retirement has been pickleball. It\u2019s social without being complicated, and competitive enough to keep you coming back \u2014 with the same honesty any active sport deserves: play smart, because knees and joints still matter. Most days you\u2019ll find me on a pickleball court somewhere around Northwest Arkansas. I joined&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pickleball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjackmorgan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjackmorgan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjackmorgan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjackmorgan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjackmorgan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/williamjackmorgan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36,"href":"https:\/\/williamjackmorgan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions\/36"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjackmorgan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjackmorgan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjackmorgan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}