{"id":65943,"date":"2025-08-13T06:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T06:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/65943\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T06:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T06:56:08","slug":"not-into-baseball-basketball-football-or-soccer-try-some-of-these-instead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/65943\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Into Baseball, Basketball, Football or Soccer? Try Some of These Instead."},"content":{"rendered":"

This may come as a shock, but alternative newsweeklies aren\u2019t typically hotbeds of jock types. We don\u2019t host after-work pickup games of soccer, basketball or flag football, though WW staff did manage a group pickleball outing a couple of years ago with no major injuries. So, for this sports issue, we\u2019ve compiled a guide to some alternative sports for people to try, hopefully that won\u2019t trigger any latent elementary school gym class trauma.<\/p>\n

Pickleball is hardly an alternative sport anymore, given the explosion in courts across the country and the fact that Andre Agassi went pro in April. In our own westside \u2019burbs, two new pickleball facilities\u2014RECS Tualatin and Pickleball Kingdom\u2014will open five minutes from each other in Tigard-Tualatin. But the love-it-or-hate-it paddle sport with the distinctive thwack-thwack soundtrack provides tons of physical, mental and social benefits, according to Kevin Richards, founder and CEO of RECS indoor pickleball courts. RECS stands for recreate, exercise, compete and socialize. \u201cPickleball is our flagship sport because it delivers on all of those things,\u201d Richards says.<\/p>\n

Here are five prospects for your new favorite sport, and how to get started in each. This is, obviously, not an all-inclusive list, and there are myriad ways to get creative with new athletic pursuits. Pole dancing, dragon boat racing, bouldering\u2014Portland\u2019s got you covered.<\/p>\n

\"\"Pickleball (Alt-Sports) (Courtesy of RECS) 1. Pickleball<\/p>\n

The rules: Think of pickleball as mini-tennis or mega-pingpong. Single players or a pair of doubles hit a plastic ball back and forth across a net with small handheld paddles. The court is about half the size of a tennis court, and the ball doesn\u2019t move as fast, so even people who aren\u2019t super fit, coordinated or clear on the rules can still have a good time on their first day.<\/p>\n

Gear: Tennis shoes and breathable athletic clothing, preferably with pockets to hold extra pickleballs.<\/p>\n

Challenge level: 3 out of 3. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be in great shape but balance is the most important thing,\u201d Richards says. \u201cInjuries happen when people haven\u2019t done anything athletic in a while, but their brain remembers when they could do more athletic things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venues: Tons around town, including The People\u2019s Courts (2700 NE 82nd Ave.), Jumbo\u2019s Pickleball (2320 Lloyd Center), and RECS (17015 SE 82nd Drive, Clackamas), the latter of which offers weekly introduction to pickleball clinics for only $20. There are free, outdoor courts maintained by Portland Parks & Recreation, too.<\/p>\n

\"\"Cricket (Alt-Sports) (Engineer John\/Pexels) 2. Cricket<\/p>\n

The rules: Cricket is similar to baseball and hugely popular in South Asia, Australia and the U.K. Players score runs by hitting the ball with a bat and running between wickets on the cricket pitch, which is a rectangle, not a diamond. It\u2019s a little rude to call cricket an alternative sport since it\u2019s the world\u2019s second-most popular, behind only soccer, but here in the U.S., it remains up and coming. Arun Batish co-founded the Portland Metro Open Cricket League in 2002 with his friend Suresh Nair, both of whom are originally from India. They say the sport is super easy to pick up and a wonderful way to get outside, socialize and relieve stress.<\/p>\n

The Portland league plays \u201csoftball cricket\u201d so there\u2019s way less chance of getting hurt, too. Over the past two decades, the league has grown from two teams up to 26. \u201cWe draw a diverse group of people to the league, in terms of people from different countries and age groups, and they all have a good time,\u201d Batish says.<\/p>\n

Gear: \u201cYou need a bat and a ball, and as a league, we provide the balls,\u201d Nair says.<\/p>\n

Challenge level: 2\/3. You\u2019ve got to be able to run between the wickets, plus have the hand-eye coordination to hit a ball with a bat.<\/p>\n

Venues: There are proper cricket pitches in Tigard, Gresham and out in Banks, but the game can be played on soccer fields, too, Batish says.<\/p>\n

\"\"Lawn Bowling (Alt-Sports) (Courtesy of Portland Long Bowling Club) 3. Lawn Bowling<\/p>\n

The rules: Many world cultures have outdoor bowling sports, with slight variations. The French play p\u00e9tanque, Italians play bocce, Belgians go feather bowling, etc. The version that originated in Britain, lawn bowling, has a home here at the Portland Lawn Bowling Club in Westmoreland Park (the club shares a venue with the Portland P\u00e9tanque Club). \u201cIt is curling on grass, with biased [asymmetrical] balls,\u201d says Kane Tobin, PLBC president.<\/p>\n

Players try to stop their bowls as close as possible to a small white target ball called a jack. \u201cIt takes about 30 minutes to figure it out,\u201d Tobin says. \u201cAnd then it takes a lifetime to get as good as you want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gear: The club provides equipment for newbies.<\/p>\n

Challenge level: 1\/3. \u201cIt is a great light workout,\u201d Tobin says. \u201cYou\u2019re walking back and forth and doing some light lunges.\u201d Bonus: You can easily do this sport while holding a drink and not spilling it.<\/p>\n

Venues: PLBC hosts free open houses at Westmoreland Park (7530 SE 22nd Ave.) twice a month for people to try out the sport. The next one is Aug. 20. Portland Parks & Recreation also offers lawn bowling lessons.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disc Golf (Alt-Sports) (Jesse Tomaino) 4. Disc Golf<\/p>\n

The rules: Disc golf is a round of golf with Frisbee-like discs. Players start at a tee pad and make their way to the target, which is a basket with chains that you try to land your disc in in as few throws as possible. As in traditional golf, beginner courses mostly consist of par 3s, but big championship courses have par 4s and 5s, according to Jesse Tomaino, vice president of Stumptown Disc Golf Club.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great excuse to get outside, especially in the Northwest in the forest; it\u2019s just really zen,\u201d Tomaino says. \u201cAnd we get the competitive aspect in the tournaments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gear: \u201cOne used disc for $5 to $10, and that\u2019s all you need to go out and play,\u201d Tomaino says. \u201cIt obviously gets more involved the more you play. Eventually, you\u2019ll have a bag of 20 discs before you play in tournaments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Challenge level: 2\/3. You must be able to walk a couple of miles and throw a disc repeatedly.<\/p>\n

Venues: The only 18-hole course within city limits is in Pier Park in St. Johns, which Tomaino deems \u201capproachable but challenging.\u201d There are beginner courses in Hillsboro and Gresham. <\/p>\n

\"\"Fencing (Alt-Sports) (Tima Miroshnichenko\/Pexels) 5. Fencing<\/p>\n

The rules: Call it epee, foil or saber fencing\u2014it is all sword fighting and it is badass. Those are the three main weapons available in fencing, which is an old martial art based on real combat. PDX Fencing (5645 SW Arctic Drive, Beaverton) specializes in coaching saber, which is the most aggressive of the three, says Charles Randall, PDX Fencing owner and head coach. \u201cSaber is a cavalry weapon\u2014it\u2019s a slashing, cutting motion, but you can also stab with the point.\u201d <\/p>\n

Two fencers face off in bouts in which they try to score points. These take one or two seconds each. (\u201cIt\u2019s chess at 100 miles per hour,\u201d Randall says.) Epee and foil, which are taught at places like Northwest Fencing Center (11117 SW Greenburg Road, Tigard) and at recreation centers, are a little more beginner friendly. All of them get right to the point, so to speak, for newbies: \u201cIf you don\u2019t give them a weapon in their hand right away, they\u2019re going to go play soccer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gear: Most clubs and classes supply all of the equipment to start, so just wear comfortable clothes and rubber-soled shoes. Once people commit to the sport, the first things they\u2019ll need are a mask, glove and sword. <\/p>\n

Challenge level: 2\/3. Fencing requires split-second decision making and intricate footwork.<\/p>\n

Venues: In addition to the many suburban studios, Portland Community College offers fencing classes, and there\u2019s Studio of American Fencing (4048 NE 42nd Ave.).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This may come as a shock, but alternative newsweeklies aren\u2019t typically hotbeds of jock types. We don\u2019t host…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82,42018],"class_list":{"0":"post-65943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-sportsland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}