Do pickeball lines on tennis courts bother you?

s40love

New User
They just recently put some tape at my club. I don't get bothered, but some people at my club do. What bothers me is that when it hits the tape, it causes the ball to bounce differently, like when it's hitting a crack.
 

mctennis

Legend
Yes, these lines bother me. I know they are trying to bring more people into the club. I'm all for keeping people coming in to use the club where I belong. However, I have noticed the same thing. They just resurfaced the courts and actually sprayed the lines in. That club's court do not skid like the other club I belong to does. I noticed that when I played on the other club's courts that had the pickle ball tape courts on them. Perhaps, just a theory here, perhaps the tape is just a temporary thing until they actually see how many people are going to keep playing pickle ball. Then when they see it is worthwhile to actually paint the strips on. No sense wasting money making the courts up if this "fad" will actually last. I think it is just a fad. it will be gone in about three years.
 

jonestim

Hall of Fame
Tape bothers me, but paint doesn’t. They used black paint on a couple here and it isn’t all that noticeable.

Then they built a 16 court pickleball specific facility, so we don’t worry about it anymore
 

mctennis

Legend
Tape bothers me, but paint doesn’t. They used black paint on a couple here and it isn’t all that noticeable.

Then they built a 16 court pickleball specific facility, so we don’t worry about it anymore
You mean one 16' pickelball court not 16 pickelball courts?
 

jonestim

Hall of Fame
If I had to guess the ratio of pickleball to tennis players in town I would say it is 2:1. The two parks that have tennis courts near me are not that busy. Pickleball is huge here.


PNPDronePic.jpg
 

eelhc

Hall of Fame
They're definitely distracting... So are basketball court lines... Ugh. That's why I belong to a club with no pickleball.

What annoys me more though... Whenever I am a visiting team to a club with mixed use courts, it always seems like I end up next to a court with 4 pickleball players uncontrollably giggling through their match.... Jut shoot me now.
 

J_R_B

Hall of Fame
At the club I played at last year, they put pickleball lines on a har-tru court in the middle of the season. I had never seen anything like that and it was a little distracting because they weren't different colored, just more white lines nailed down in the middle of the court, but I got used to it after 5 mins of hitting on the court. My match was against a guy who just couldn't handle the other lines. It was really strange, or I should say, he was really strange. He complained about the lines and even demanded a different court, although there was only one that wasn't used by our match, but two club members were using it, so we couldn't kick them off. I said we could wait a minute and see if they leave, but after a bit, I said we have to play or you have to forfeit. He kept saying he couldn't see the lines at all and couldn't make calls (which in itself makes no sense), but then turned around a minute later and complained about my line calls (even though there were marks - it was har-tru). How in the F can you complain that you can't even see the lines on your side one point and then complain about my calls on the other side the next?!? We were halfway through the second set by the time another court opened, so I said we can switch courts now if you want, but he said no, not in the middle of a set. That dude was just strange, a little "off" like maybe he has Aspergers or something and can't really socialize like normal people.
 

Cindysphinx

G.O.A.T.
I was playing on a court with the kiddie lines. I kept getting burned dtl in doubles over and over.

Then I realized my brain was reading the kiddie line as the doubles sidelines and was several feet out of position.
 

Simon_the_furry

Hall of Fame
My nearest court has pickleball lines. I don't play there often, but when I do, the pickleball lines don't bother me that much. They're sprayed-on bluish-black paint, so they don't mess up the visuals too bad.
 

mctennis

Legend
My nearest court has pickleball lines. I don't play there often, but when I do, the pickleball lines don't bother me that much. They're sprayed-on bluish-black paint, so they don't mess up the visuals too bad.
At least they are painted and not just taped on. The clubs i belong to use different colored lines for pickleball, more of a darker blue. Probably the same color you are talking about. Maybe that is the normal "acceptable" color used on tennis courts being dual used.
 

mmk

Hall of Fame
My club put small cross-marks on the indoor hardcourts for pickleball. I don't notice them at all when I'm playing. What was distracting was a few years ago there were a number of spots on those courts that needed to be patched, and they were patched with an off-white material. Until those got painted, when you were playing your brain would associate those patches with balls, and you'd be scared you were going to turn an ankle on a loose ball.
 

stevenymets

New User
If I had to guess the ratio of pickleball to tennis players in town I would say it is 2:1. The two parks that have tennis courts near me are not that busy. Pickleball is huge here.


PNPDronePic.jpg
Holy crap! Here, (outside of DC) I would have no idea what this was if it wasn’t for a tennis buddy mentioning it in passing. Granted, I don’t play a lot of public park tennis anymore, (funny, I just realized I don’t and I really should) so maybe this is at some of the parks and I am just clueless, but I have never even seen this played accept in videos.
 
D

Deleted member 23235

Guest
doesn't bother me.
i've played on enough crack filled courts, to just treat bad bounces as a training modifier, and good practice for clay
 

OrangePower

Legend
It does kinda bother me. Some of the local public courts (outdoor hard) have been repainted with lines for two pickleball courts per tennis court. It's not just the lines it's also the court color behind the baseline like in the picture below. I find it distracting, but it's hard to complain when it's free!

IMG_1723.JPG
 

IowaGuy

Hall of Fame
How is that going to work with the nets ins
It does kinda bother me. Some of the local public courts (outdoor hard) have been repainted with lines for two pickleball courts per tennis court. It's not just the lines it's also the court color behind the baseline like in the picture below. I find it distracting, but it's hard to complain when it's free!

How is that actually going to work with the nets installed? i.e. does not seem to be compatible for both sports without installing/reinstalling nets all the time?

A couple of my local courts also have pickleball lines, but they use the tennis net as their net as well.
 

IowaGuy

Hall of Fame
What is driving this trend towards increased pickleball across the country? Aging baby boomers who can no longer play tennis well?

Is this a trend in other countries as well?
 

RyanRF

Professional
It does kinda bother me. Some of the local public courts (outdoor hard) have been repainted with lines for two pickleball courts per tennis court. It's not just the lines it's also the court color behind the baseline like in the picture below. I find it distracting, but it's hard to complain when it's free!

IMG_1723.JPG

Ack!

I don't think the yellow would bother me, but extending the blue beyond the baseline would drive me nuts.
 

OrangePower

Legend
How is that going to work with the nets ins


How is that actually going to work with the nets installed? i.e. does not seem to be compatible for both sports without installing/reinstalling nets all the time?

A couple of my local courts also have pickleball lines, but they use the tennis net as their net as well.
The tennis net is left up permanently, and then when using the court for pickleball, portable pickleball nets are used (2 per court).
 

OrangePower

Legend
Ack!

I don't think the yellow would bother me, but extending the blue beyond the baseline would drive me nuts.
Exactly. I can deal with the additional lines although it's busy. But the blue behind the baseline is tough.

If this was at a paid tennis facility I would complain (or leave).

But considering it's free and public, and considering that it's hard to get public funds for maintaining tennis courts anyway, the silver lining is that perhaps having the pickleball crowd onboard will help keep the courts in good shape etc. The larger the constituency using the courts the better (from the perspective of allocation of city funds).
 

OnTheLine

Hall of Fame
My club installed pickleball a few years ago ... and un-installed it in the fall due to lack of interest ... but the tennis courts are packed both the clubs and the (few) park courts

There is one park in town with separate p-ball courts that are used some ... there is one p-ball league in town mixed that I think has a total of 6 teams in it
 
My nearest court has pickleball lines. I don't play there often, but when I do, the pickleball lines don't bother me that much. They're sprayed-on bluish-black paint, so they don't mess up the visuals too bad.
It all depends on what the colors are relative to the color of the court, it can vary greatly. They mess things up the the worst seeing and calling the service line. Tennis is rapidly losing it's turf to pickle-ball and mini-soccer.
 
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willeric

Rookie
Does anyone know where to find a good pickleball forum? Looking for information about how to transition from tennis to PB.
 

Simon_the_furry

Hall of Fame
It does kinda bother me. Some of the local public courts (outdoor hard) have been repainted with lines for two pickleball courts per tennis court. It's not just the lines it's also the court color behind the baseline like in the picture below. I find it distracting, but it's hard to complain when it's free!

IMG_1723.JPG
That is downright horrible. That should not be allowed to exist.
 

jonestim

Hall of Fame
What is driving this trend towards increased pickleball across the country? Aging baby boomers who can no longer play tennis well?

Some of that, but here it also seems to attract people that have never played court sports before. Out of curiosity, I looked at a photo gallery from one of the tournaments here in town. In 100+ photos I saw one person that looked like they were in their 50s, and 95% of the rest of the players looked to be 65+, with the majority looking over 70.

It is easy to pick up and from what I have seen, you can do it without much movement or sweating. It's a pretty low barrier sport that has a lot less complicated strokes than tennis.
 

IowaGuy

Hall of Fame
OK, well in that case, it sounds like a good activity for folks 70+ who might not be as mobile as they used to be. Better pickleball than no movement at all! But I'm not a big fan of them eating into our tennis courts...
 

willeric

Rookie
I saw a bunch of PB players in their 20s and 30s last night. Some played a set of singles in tennis, then spent the rest of the time playing PB. It seems tennis is dying around here (S. Florida) and PB is growing.
 

Simon_the_furry

Hall of Fame
Have you guys seen what really high-level pickleball looks like, though?
It's pretty intense. It's like ping-pong meets badminton.
 

rchjr2091

Semi-Pro
Have you guys seen what really high-level pickleball looks like, though?
It's pretty intense. It's like ping-pong meets badminton.

If this weather doesn’t improve soon, I told my group we may be having to pick pickle ball up at some indoor gymnasiums. Seems this winter is not being kind to outdoor tennis !
 

tennytive

Hall of Fame
I play both tennis and pickleball. We have many younger tennis players in our advanced group. It's just as intense as any tennis I've played. In our group ages range from 22 to 67, with most being somewhere in between. In the nice weather we play outdoors with the yellow lines on blue hard courts (no green border tho, that's awful) with portable nets. In winter we play indoors at several clubs, one of which had 64 people waiting to play on only 6 courts one instance.

Getting back to your question, the white lines of the tennis court bother me when I play pickleball. We have enough courts to play tennis without pickleball lines elsewhere.
 

5sets

Hall of Fame
It does kinda bother me. Some of the local public courts (outdoor hard) have been repainted with lines for two pickleball courts per tennis court. It's not just the lines it's also the court color behind the baseline like in the picture below. I find it distracting, but it's hard to complain when it's free!

IMG_1723.JPG
Ohhh! That's disgusting. I've never seen two pickleball courts condensed on a tennis court.

Around here there's just one pickleball court painted over each tennis court so they use the tennis net. I'm not opposed to seniors getting exercise, but as a tennis player we can't kick them off so it basically means less open courts on a busy weekend.

Also this painting scheme can play tricks on the eyes when calling serves. The pickleball baseline is like 6 or so inches past the service line, and even if it's in a different color it's a headache. Probably innocently more long serves and been called in, but am sure it's happened the other way around too.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G928A using Tapatalk
 

Simon_the_furry

Hall of Fame
I play both tennis and pickleball. We have many younger tennis players in our advanced group. It's just as intense as any tennis I've played. In our group ages range from 22 to 67, with most being somewhere in between. In the nice weather we play outdoors with the yellow lines on blue hard courts (no green border tho, that's awful) with portable nets. In winter we play indoors at several clubs, one of which had 64 people waiting to play on only 6 courts one instance.

Getting back to your question, the white lines of the tennis court bother me when I play pickleball. We have enough courts to play tennis without pickleball lines elsewhere.
So does playing pickleball mess up your tennis game?
 

S&V-not_dead_yet

Talk Tennis Guru
doesn't bother me.
i've played on enough crack filled courts, to just treat bad bounces as a training modifier, and good practice for clay

"Hah! I played on a court with a small tree growing in one of the cracks!"

"That's nothing: my court had a family of opossums that would scurry across."

"Luxury. Our court was in the middle of the fairway of hole 14. We had to huddle in one corner for fear of getting brained."
 

time_fly

Hall of Fame
The lines don't bother me as much as trying to play tennis indoors with 3 pickle courts going next to me. It gets pretty loud.
 

FedLIKEnot

Professional
I havnt experienced this much, but when I have it isnt as bad. That said I play double so just aiming for the blue so to speak without a focus on singles lines takes some of that worry out of it. However the SOUND of pickleball does bother me ... a lot.
 

Bluefan75

Professional
I havnt experienced this much, but when I have it isnt as bad. That said I play double so just aiming for the blue so to speak without a focus on singles lines takes some of that worry out of it. However the SOUND of pickleball does bother me ... a lot.

That's what I noticed. Last summer I was on my way to pick my wife up, so I stopped at a facility to practice my serve. This group of people came in and started playing pickleball. Good grief, it sounded like they were shooting off capguns a block away.
 

tennytive

Hall of Fame
So does playing pickleball mess up your tennis game?
At first my timing and rhythm would be off depending on which I played last. That wouldn't last long and then I was good to go. Try playing pickleball in the morning, ping pong in the afternoon, and then tennis in the evening… 2 or 3 times was enough for me.
 

Startzel

Hall of Fame
Have you guys seen what really high-level pickleball looks like, though?
It's pretty intense. It's like ping-pong meets badminton.

I thought the whole concept was you had to let the ball bounce if it was going to hand in the first box?

Those guys are clearly hitting balls out of the air that would have bounced in that first box.
 

Simon_the_furry

Hall of Fame
I thought the whole concept was you had to let the ball bounce if it was going to hand in the first box?

Those guys are clearly hitting balls out of the air that would have bounced in that first box.
I thought so too, but I suppose not.
These guys are professionals, so I guess whatever they were doing was legal.
 
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