This Example was taken from the Kiplinger Retirement Report: Volume 32, Number 12, December 2025, Page 21.
“Balancing Joy and Risk
* Jason Fruen, a 51-year-old real estate agent in Minnesota, has an enter social scene at the pickleball court , where a regular group of four or eight comes to play and then goes out for a drink or checks out a concert. In his two years on the court, he has seen some terrible injuries, including someone who was hit in the eye and another man who tripped and hit his head.
* On August 6, Fruen posted a photo of his foot in a boot on Facebook after suffering a calf tear, announcing: “Well I went and did it this time…Tore my calf muscle driving to the net, felt it pop & down I went.”
* Fruen, who says he mostly lifted weights before starting pickleball, says by the time he reached a local orthopedic urgent care, he couldn’t walk. But he considers the calf tear “one of the luckiest of the injuries you can get, ” because surgery wasn’t needed. Even so, he made sure to elevate, ice and and rest.
* Three weeks later, he was back on the court-reducing his playing time from four or five weeks to two. Now he makes sure to stretch in the hot tube, strength train and give himself permission to rest when he’s hurting instead of forcing himself on the court.
* For Terry Landers in Maine, the risks were worth it. After concussions, surgeries, and a wrist held together by metal, she has changed nothing about the way she plays-except she’s traded her volleyball shoes for pickleball ones. “No, no, I’m not an idiot” she says, “I play as aggressively as I always have.” “
NO COMMON SENSE
ANALYZE THE EXAMPLE
* Which supports and barriers were in play?
* What were the dynamics?
* Who, or what, won the Tug-of-War?
* Discuss the outcome with your friends and family.
* Use Post #4 as a reference for the dynamics and relationships between supports and barriers.
