Pickleball: Everything you need to know about the trendy racquet sport before playing for the first time

In Spain, where the Spanish Pickleball Association is already formed, you can play pickleball with relative ease if you live in a large city or near one of the main urban centers, such as Seville, Madrid or Barcelona. It is not difficult to find a sports club that has a track adapted for this sport that combines details of tennis, badminton and table tennisalthough it is also inevitable to compare it with paddle tennis.

Surely, this last discipline is its main rival when it comes to conquering an audience: in the United States, where paddle tennis is played less, pickleball is triumphing and in Spain, where paddle tennis is widespread, it is taking a long time for pickleball to achieve its popularity. space. But both sports can coexist because they are not as similar as they might seem at first glance.

You will see it if you continue reading, when you see what the material used in pickleball is like, the characteristics of its playing court and even the scoring dynamics. But before that, pickleball must be put into context, a sport that was not born before yesterday.

Origin of pickleball

To find the origin of pickleball, although it sounds like a new sport, you have to travel back in time to 1965. It was then, explains the FPP (Professional Pickleball Federation), when Joel Pritchard, congressman from the state of Washington, and businessman Bill Bell, shaped the foundations of what is today a professional sport in the United States, where it has its own circuit, like tennis or paddle tennis.

What both men did for fun was improvise, playing with what they had: some table tennis paddles, a perforated plastic ball and a badminton courtwhose net they ended up lowering from the playing experience when they found that the perforated ball bounced well on an asphalt surface. Eventually, they created the rules and eventually, in 1975, built the first pickleball-specific court in a mutual friend’s backyard. According to the FFP, the first article about this sport was published a year later in the National Observar and in 1984 the first, still amateur, pickleball association was created, which in just two decades of history was already a reality.

This association, the USAPA (acronym for United States Amateur Pickleball Association) already gave rise to the International Pickleball Federation (IFP) in 2010, a date that coincides with the beginning of the takeoff of pickleball both nationally in the United States and internationally, if Well, it has been this decade when this racket sport has also begun to be known in Europe.

This has also been contributed to by investment in marketing by USA Pickleball, the current name of the American Pickleball Federation, formerly USAPA, and by sports brands specialized in racquet sports, which have organized events to publicize this sport outside the country of the stars and stripes coinciding with major sporting events such as the US Open tennis. In fact, images of Carlos Alcaraz playing pickleball in New York went viral at a publicity event held in the Big Apple before said tournament.

Pickleball: this is the playing court

Pickleball, whose name it owes, tells the legend promoted by the FFP of the dog of the game’s founders, who was called Pickles – apparently he used to run and steal the game balls -, It is played on a hard surface, similar to the “hard court” of tennisbut in different dimensions.

The pickleball court is smaller; It is more similar to badminton. Specifically, it measures 13.41 meters long and 6.10 meters wide and is divided into two very different parts: the free play area, which would be the back of the court, and what is known as the ‘kitchen’. English), the part closest to the net, in which volleying is prohibited as we will see later in the game rules.

In total, the pickleball court has the side lines, the center line, the baseline and the one that precisely marks the limit between the area where you can volley and the area in which it is prohibited, the aforementioned ‘kitchen’.

The net is similar to that of tennis because it is low: it measures 86.36 cm in the center and 91.44 centimeters at the ends. While the balls are very different from other racket sports: they are made of a specific plastic material and are perforated. Depending on whether the court is outdoors or indoors, the balls are different: the indoor ones are lighter.

The pickleball paddle

The pickleball paddle is also very different, which It doesn’t look like a tennis racket but it doesn’t look like a paddle or table tennis racket either.. If anything, it is somewhat more similar to the latter, but has its own characteristics. The handle is like that of other rackets and rackets, similar, but not the face, which has no holes: it is smooth or slightly textured.

As the team explains Wilsonthe faces of the pickleball paddles can be wide, classic or long, and their thickness is 13 mm if you want to obtain greater control and up to 16 mm, which provides greater power. “The long blades provide better reach and a closer sweet spot to achieve excellent power,” indicates the manufacturer.

The weight also varies with respect to the racket or racket of other sports: most weigh between 198 and 255 grams according to the aforementioned manufacturer. “Heavier blades offer more power, while lighter ones provide better control and maneuverability,” say Wilson. Ideally, they add, the weight “allows easy swinging without causing stress on the shoulder, elbow or arm.”

Regarding the material of pickleball paddles, it must be taken into account that most are made of graphite (fiberglass composite) or fiberglass, the lightest. “The carbon fiber improves feel and control, while the fiberglass composite offers a little more agility in each swing,” they explain from Wilson.

And finally, also The handle or grip is a decisive factormost being 10.2 to 10.8 cm in length. In this case, the appropriate size, Wilson’s team concludes, is the one that “allows a small space between the palm and the tips of the fingers when gripping the paddle.”

Pickeball rules and scoring

Once equipped and knowing the playing surface, the most important thing remains: knowing the rules of the game and its scoring.

We have already anticipated one of the most important ones: You cannot volley in the area closest to the netand you cannot enter it as a result of the inertia of a volley from outside it. It is like if a tennis player touches the net; the point is lost.

In this area known as the ‘kitchen’ you can hit the ball, but as long as it has bounced before. Therefore, in pickleball, wrist play, skill and flexibility, as well as mental quickness, are very important.

Another rule exclusive to the serve is known as the two-pot rule. When serving, which is done diagonally, as in tennis and paddle tennis, but from the hip, as in this last racket sport, He has to bounce the serve once in the opponent’s court before being hit. Up to this point it is the same as tennis: the difference is that it is also mandatory to let the rest bounce, so that the team that serves cannot not volley the rest directly.

Another differentiating nuance is that in pickleball there is only one serve available, so there is no concept of a double fault, and if it bounces on the line that marks the space of the no-volley zone or within it, it is out. In tennis and paddle tennis, on the other hand, if it touches the line of the service box, it is good.

What pickleball is the same as tennis and paddle tennis is that the ball can only bounce once: two pots or more is a lost point for the team that plays on the side of the net where the ball hit them.

Scoring in pickleball

And what does pickleball take from table tennis?you may be wondering. In addition to the appearance of the racket, the scoring is also similar because each set is played to the best of 11 points, with two points difference to win it.

However, the way of scoring a point is not the same nor the service turn. in pickleball Only the team that serves scores points.. If the point is won by the team that is ahead, it takes its turn to serve, but does not add anything to its box.

In this way, a standard serve turn in a doubles match – it is the most popular format, although it can be played individually – pickleball would be like this, as USA Pickleball explains: each member of the team has a number (player 1 or player 2 ). At the start of the match, player 2 of a team serves; If he wins the point, he adds it to his box and continues serving. If you lose it, there is a change of service turn and player 1 of the other pair begins to serve. When the team ahead wins a point, the serve turn goes to player 2 of said pair, and when he loses a point on the serve, the serve turn changes teams again. Furthermore, the serve is alternate: if you win a point on the serve, you do the next one from the other half of your field, towards the other member of the rival pair.

In summary, Each couple has two opportunities to score points in their turns of service. except for the one who starts serving the game, who only has one, the turn of his player 2.

It is important, and a rule of professional pickleball, that the player who serves calls the score before putting the ball into play: To do this, explains USA Pickleball, you have to say out loud three numbers: your player number (1 or 2), the points your team has, the one whose turn it is to serve, and lastly, the points of the remaining equipment.

Although it is in English, in this official USA Pickleball video you have summarized all the pickleball rules that we have detailed in this report, in case you need to review them to be ready for your first match of the trendy racket sport in the United States.