Pickleball
What is Pickleball?
Pickleball is a fun sport that combines elements of badminton, tennis, and table tennis. Played both indoors or outdoors on a badminton-sized court and a slightly modified tennis net. Two or four players use solid paddles made of wood or composite materials to hit a perforated polymer ball, over a net.
How Can I Try Pickleball?
It couldn’t be easier to have a go at Pickleball and discover for yourself just how much fun it is!
No special equipment is required and any comfortable clothing is fine. Trainers / tennis shoes are recommended. Just book the courts here as we have the nets, paddles and balls you need to play with. (WARNING: You will probably become addicted !)
Basic Rules
The ball is served underhand from the right side of the court and is played diagonally across to the other service court. The defending side has to let the ball bounce first before it can be returned and, subsequently, the serving side also has to let the ball bounce. It is only on the third ball that the ball can be returned immediately. Either you can play a volley or you can let the ball bounce first.
Points can only be scored by the serving side. You win a point if the defending side does not manage to return the ball, hits the ball out, does not let the serve ball bounce, volleys in the non-volley zone, or is hit by the ball. The game ends when one of the parties gets 11 points, with a 2-point lead.
When a side scores a point, the same person serves, but from the other side of the court. When a player loses a point, his or her partner serves from the side of the court where he or she is standing at the moment. If this service also fails to score, service goes to the opponent and the opponent begins the service on the right. For the first service, however, the service changes sides after only one serve.
When playing singles, the player serves from the left if he or she has an uneven number of points, and from the right with an even number of points. This is how scoring is kept: 1-0-1 means that the serving side has 1 point, the other side has no points, and this is the first server. Click Here for a copy of the 2025 Official Rule Book
Pickleball - some more detail
Pickleball is a sport played with a racket that combines elements from badminton, tennis, and ping pong.
The game is played on a court with the same overall dimensions as badminton doubles and the addition of a NVZ (area in blue on Basic Rules sheet below). The net is similar to a tennis net, but a little lower.
The game is played with a hard “paddle” and a hard, hollow plastic ball with holes in it.
Even though pickleball is like tennis, there are important differences that make pickleball especially more accessible for children and seniors.
The most important difference is the speed of the ball. A pickleball ball travels at about a third of the average speed of a tennis ball. It is equally important that the court is somewhat less than a third of the total area of a tennis court.
The smaller surface area combined with the slower ball speed, and an underhand serve make pickleball easier to play than tennis.
The game is the fastest growing game in the USA with more than 4.2 million players. The tipping point was around 5 years ago. Now Pickleball Courts are popping up all over the country including in retirement communities. The game started to take off in the UK around 2011 and now has over 120 Places to play and over 4,000 estimated players.
Click for a brief video explanation on How to Play Pickleball
Click Here to download a pdf of the Basic Rules below.
