Pickleball has taught Erik Kaplan a lot of life lessons, though one in particular stands out: You have to play the best for the role that you’re in.

 

“You can extrapolate that out to a lot of things in life,” he says. Working with a partner on the court can mirror the ways in which we work with people in our day to day lives.

 

Erik’s passion for pickleball began in an unexpected place: Am Shalom’s pickleball social.

 

“We had just finished building a house in Winnetka and I kept hearing about pickleball, pickleball, pickleball – it’s the fastest growing sport but I knew absolutely nothing about it. I saw the email that Am Shalom was doing an Intro to Pickleball Social. I had been working so hard on the house that I had to take the opportunity to decompress!”

 

Erik had a big sports background but no racquet skills to speak of. He tried to get his family to join him but when it became clear that they weren’t as interested in learning the game, he went on his own.

 

It was love at first dink.

 

After that first session he was hooked. As he signed up for more and more classes and began joining leagues, his pickleball network expanded and he began seeing his pickleball community everywhere – even at Am Shalom.

 

He formed a pickleball social group – The Spicy Ballers – and developed a drill group that met for two hours a day, five or six days a week. He entered tournaments, won some medals and even took home the gold once.

 

“I joke with my wife that this is a retirement plan. My lifetime winnings are probably going to be around $200.”

 

Erik’s family never quite picked up the competitive pickleball bug, but his daughters, Sarah (12) and Emily (10), will play with him socially. They’re also keeping him company at a professional pickleball tour happening this week in Northbrook.

 

Erik and his wife, Kristi, joined Am Shalom in 2021.

 

“After experiencing how Am Shalom engages children in the family services, that resonated with us. We’ve been happy ever since, we try to get involved as much as we can with the synagogue and definitely appreciate when Am Shalom does things like the pickleball social. It opened up a whole new world and I embraced it with open arms.”

 

Are you passionate about pickleball? Meet other players over Shabbat dinner on October 23 at One Shabbat, Many Tables. Click here for more information.