When it comes to playing Pickle Ball indoors, some people have a “ball colour” preference. Players like myself have a “ball colour” necessity. If you are colour blind like I am, there are certain colour balls you cannot play with. They appear as a “blur”. Just before the pandemic I ordered 6 approved indoor balls of each of the following colours from the following manufacturers. Orange-Red ball and Yellow from ONiX, Pink from Penn, Green ball and Blue from Franklin and White from Jugs. Each ball contained 26 holes and weighed 22-23 grams. The Blue balls from Franklin weighed the same as all the others however they made with a thicker plastic and seem “heavier” when struck. I managed to get approximately 40 people to try each colour and voice their opinion. People who tested these balls and were colour bind could not see the Pink (Violet), the Orange (Red) or the Green balls as they could the other colours. Colour blind people like myself, apparently see fewer “hues” than normal people. These balls (Pink, Violet, Red, Orange, Green and Pink) appear as a “blur” when struck at us. They lose all definition and almost appear as a “fireball” and striking a return shot with these balls because of the lack of definition is guess work. So, if you are playing Pickleball with someone who is colour blind indulge them and play with their Blue, Yellow, or White balls.
Are you colour blind??? There are degrees of colour or colour blindness. It is estimated. 6-8% of “white” MALES of northern European ancestry and only point five (.5) of women of this ancestry are “colour blind”. It seems “blue eyed males” are the main category where colour blindness seems to be most prevalent. 8% of the world are blue eyed. While nearly 40% of the world’s population have brown eyes.
Rank Country Percentage of Population That is Blue-Eyed
1 Estonia 89
2 Finland 89
3 Sweden 78
4 Iceland 75
5 Netherlands 60
6 Denmark 59
7 Ireland 57
8 Norway 55
9 Poland 52
10 Scotland 50 (my country of birth)
11 England 48
12 Wales 45
18 USA 16
As many as 8 percent of men and 0.5 percent of women with Northern European ancestry have the common form of red-green colour blindness. Men are much more likely to be colour blind than women because the genes responsible for the most common, inherited colour blindness are on the X chromosome.
If you are a male of northern European decent and having trouble “seeing the ball” check to see if you are colour blind. The most common way to test for colour blindness is called the Ishihara Colour Test. The test is a series circle made up of small, differently coloured dots that create an image, like a number or sometimes a squiggle. For those with normal colour vision, seeing the images is no problem.
Test yourself now! Check out the test https://colormax.org/
They give you 12 circles (I can make out the number in only one).
Colour blindness to me is a disability. Because I am colour blind I knew that I would not be able to get a job as a Fire Fighter, a Railway Employee, a Police Officer, a Bus Driver or an Airplane Pilot and that made me “disabled” to some degree. I read an advertisement in the ECONOMIST last week that the British Government MI6 is looking for people for their agency. So being colour blind and having just turned 76, I am not filling out an application for this or any of those other jobs. Pity!! Eh?