Neil Simon was on to something when he wrote “The Odd Couple” and brought it to Broadway in 1965.
Persnickety Felix Unger and slovenly Oscar Madison were thrown together by some sleight of the playwright’s hand, and their opposing personalities, values, views, and habits made for great comedy.
That’s what comedy boils down to, right? - the unexpected bursting free from the expected?
What about odd couplings in sports?
I suspect that a lot of sports were born of some unholy alliance. Take pickleball, for instance. Legend has it that it came forth from a group of bored Bainbridge Islanders who devised the game from the odd collection they had on hand: a whiffle ball, badminton net, and ping-pong paddles.
Curling? Maybe someone in the frigid north went out one day to sweep snow from an icy street and noticed that rocks readily sailed along on the clean surface. An unexpected combination, yes? Rocks, brooms, and ice? But it’s hard-wired into cultures dealing with heavy-duty winters.
How about some new opportunities for Age-defying Athletes to shine? I have a couple of suggestions, below, and, as always, welcome your ideas.
Bicycle golf
This is so perfect, I’m surprised no one has ever invented it before. (Of course, I am cycling biased!)
Straightforward enough:
Electric-assist bikes are outfitted with carriers for golf club bags. Players cycle from position to position on the course, avoiding the greens, of course.
Bicycle golf has several advantages:
It provides exercise along the lines of walking the course, but it’s much easier on the body.
Because it’s played with e-bikes, even the older novice cyclist should have no trouble navigating hilly layouts.
E-bikes are easier on the fairways than traditional golf carts, and perhaps equivalent to walking trolleys.
No “cart path only” restrictions.
Downsides:
It’s a course investment, naturally, but it opens the game to prospective players who might not want to fuss with a traditional golf cart, and can’t see their way to walking.
Courses would have to maintain the bikes, but I don’t expect that would be much different than maintaining a fleet of electric vehicles. Besides, it need not be an either/or choice anyway.
Stand-up paddleboarding and cornhole
Even Age-defying Athletes need to improve and/or maintain good balance. And stand-up paddleboarding (SUP) is renowned for doing just that.
So, why not burnish balance while improving aim (an advantage in numerous sports)?
SUP plus cornhole does that.
The game can be played by one-four competitors, each of whom stands on a paddleboard in a lane along the side of the pool. While SUP-ing, they take turns tossing bean bags to the cornhole slide set up on the pool deck.
Each bag would need to be tethered to a string so that competitors could remain standing and retrieve their bags. Thinking about it now, it’s probably necessary for the bags to float (!).
Scoring would be the same as for traditional cornhole: one point per bag on the slide, and three points for any bag inside the hole.
Advantages:
Excellent core workout plus balance enhancement
Good for improving aim
If offered at a swim club that already provides SUP lessons, this is a great way to attract new students.
Assuming that SUPs are already available, this is an inexpensive sport to launch.
Advanced players could aim at a cornhole slide that itself floats in the pool on an unoccupied stand-up paddleboard.
Downside:
Players would need to know how to swim, which would layer on some complexity.
Bag-on-a-string idea needs some refinement. Even with the retrieving cord, the bag could be difficult to fish out of the hole. Shots that land wide or just on the flat slide surface should be OK.
Ten pin tennis
OK, now, this one is a bit rough, but work with me on this concept, which combines tennis with ten pins…
In this game, the objective is to hit one or more ten pins positioned at the baseline of each end of the court. Shots at the pins can only be volleys, and must be made from within the service box.
It’s a doubles game, but one in which one team member is positioned on each side of the court – as opposed to today’s tennis, when the opposing players face each other across the net. In other words, a player from team A and one from team B are at each end of the court.
Team A serves into the box, but either player (A or B) at that end of the court may return the shot. In returning this return, Team A (the original server) attempts to set up a volley for his/her partner. Of course, the team B player may interfere with this by alternatively trying to set up a volley for his/her partner.
Each overturned ten pin is worth one point. Games are won by the first to five points.
Advantages:
Great for older players who can concentrate on shorter shots and volleys.
Power is less important than precision, also good for older players.
Brings a whole new mental dimension to the game. Different strategies will be required.
No modifications of the courts, racquets, or balls. The only addition is ten pins (or cones, which teaching pros should have in abundance).
Downsides:
Complex - players may become frustrated until they get the hang of it and abandon the game prematurely.
Opposing players on same end may accidentally injure each other, so guidelines on hitting will need to be developed.
In conclusion
“The Odd Couple,” fittingly enough, has had a couple of endings – Felix returns to his wife, for instance, or he doesn’t – and these new odd-coupled sports may eventually have new twists and turns.
But being an Age-defying Athlete is all about trying new things, so maybe these sports will add some zing to their experiences.
Who wants to go first?