Archery, bocce, water volleyball, sand volleyball, beach tennis. This is Florida....get out and enjoy!

I started playing guitar when I was about thirteen, and I wanted to be a rock star. Here in The Villages, I no longer want to be a rock star, but I play mandolin and dobro in three bluegrass jams every week, and I’ve played in as many as nine jams a week. The opportunity for mediocre to talented amateurs (and even retired professionals) to play in so many jams is unusual and fills me with delight. To my surprise, dozens of people come to listen to us play, too. I’ve pretty much given up most of my original plans of what I would do here in order to play music. There are even jams where those who barely know three chords can sit in a big circle of players and have a great time (playing ukuleles, for example). The folk music jam draws a huge number of both players (mostly guitar players, but others are welcome) and audience (many of whom also bring instruments and play along!). Nearly everyone also sings these folk songs at the top of their lungs. Loud singing like that leads the brain to produce dopamine, which gives a feeling of well-being and makes people smile, laugh, and like each other. It’s really a terrific sort of therapy. Imagine a hundred people shouting out “Puff the Magic Dragon.” I believe there are ukulele jams at three levels. I think there are dulcimer jams at two levels. Both are easy instruments to get started on. If you want to know more about what is available, go to the top of this page, click on Entertainment, scroll down to Clubs, and type in Music in the Search box. That will get you most of them. Some are meant more for retired music teachers and such and not open to the rest of us (the big band jazz band that is mostly horns or the Dixieland band), and some are advanced (such as Beatlemaniacs, or the Advanced Acoustic Guitar jam that plays mostly Sinatra-type songs on acoustic guitar with jazz chords). There’s even a harmonica group led by one of the best players in the country. There are a couple orchestras, I think. What I don’t see listed are string quartets. Perhaps they exist but meet in people’s homes. There are also drum circles and people (mostly women) who beat on big rubber exercise balls with sticks in time with recorded music.

Activity
 

How about Disc Golf? My husband plays this. Not sure if it was mentioned.

The Villages Habitat for Humanity club builds and repairs home in and around TV supporting the actual Lake Sumer Habitat organization. They raise their own funds to be sole providers of labor for the houses they build. Currently we are building our 3rd home for a lovely lady and her daughter. So if you know which end of a tape measure to use and can swing a hammer, that sounds like non-typical retirement activities.

There are many other clubs that raise $1000s of dollars for doing great things… such as
Villages Honor Flight Main Page

Lawn bowling and croquet

Archery, RC car racing, drones..

ZIP Lining in Ocala

Craig Cats on Lake Harris

Boating the Chain of Lakes

Go Carting at several area places

Paddle Boarding

Water volleyball, badminton, karate, soccer, and track and field.

Archery in The Villages
 

2 archery ranges and archery club with large membership.

No other retirement community has the breadth of music and theater performance groups available. Not talking about just going to shows, but in performing with these groups. A number of concert bands, jazz bands, and other ensembles (I can think of 12 off the top of my head), 3 large choral groups and a few smaller groups, a number of theater and acting groups, 3 or 4 musical theater groups, and a number of dance performance groups of various sizes and style. Nowhere else will you find this level of activity for seniors in these types of activity.

Very informative!

Why does everyone want to take care of our amenities and not want to pay for them

Table tennis
 

Table Tennis, for newbies and competitive players. Also isn’t there a paintball club?

how about live dancing at the town squares where disco meets rock and line dancing

Forgot to mention there's also ballet classes! They even put on performances. Gluttons for punishment!