Dumb questions regarding pickleball court dimensions/setup

[AleYeah]

I'm a diehard tennis player, but by no means a pickleball hater. I've played a few times and generally had fun interactions with pickleballers when I'm playing tennis on a neighboring court. (Noteworthy: I live in a town with a fairly active tennis scene- Greenville, SC- and one of my local parks had their tennis courts converted to a pickleball exclusive setup. I like that it's a sport that folks of all ages can enjoy, and especially love seeing older folks out there and active.)

The dumb questions:
1. Why couldn't the court depth be exactly the same as the tennis service boxes?
2. Why couldn't the net be exactly the same height as the tennis net?

Occasionally I'll hear complaints about pickleballers, and when I do, it's inevitably that they leave a tennis court with the net yanked down and/or line tape still on the court surface. Did the guy that invented pickleball purposely plant this seed of animosity as a social experiment lol?

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

I'm a diehard tennis player, but by no means a pickleball hater. I've played a few times and generally had fun interactions with pickleballers when I'm playing tennis on a neighboring court. (Noteworthy: I live in a town with a fairly active tennis scene- Greenville, SC- and one of my local parks had their tennis courts converted to a pickleball exclusive setup. I like that it's a sport that folks of all ages can enjoy, and especially love seeing older folks out there and active.)

The dumb questions:
1. Why couldn't the court depth be exactly the same as the tennis service boxes?
2. Why couldn't the net be exactly the same height as the tennis net?

Occasionally I'll hear complaints about pickleballers, and when I do, it's inevitably that they leave a tennis court with the net yanked down and/or line tape still on the court surface. Did the guy that invented pickleball purposely plant this seed of animosity as a social experiment lol?

Pickleball was originally developed on a badminton court back in the 1960s. The outer dimensions for badminton doubles is still the dimensions for p'ball to this day.

The short service line was changed at some point in p'ball history for a slightly larger NVZ (kitchen). That line, in badminton, is 6.5 ft from the net. The pb kitchen line is now 7 ft from the net

Note that p'ball scoring rules (& serve rotation) were adopted from badminton as well. However, badminton changed to rally scoring in 2006 -- so they are no longer similar

Don't know why p'ball uses a slightly lower net than tennis does.

 

[AleYeah]

Pickleball was originally developed on a badminton court back in the 1960s. The outer dimensions for badminton doubles is still the dimensions for p'ball to this day.

The short service line was changed at some point in p'ball history for a slightly larger NVZ (kitchen). That line, in badminton, is 6.5 ft from the net. The pb kitchen line is now 7 ft from the net

Note that p'ball scoring rules (& serve rotation) were adopted from badminton as well. However, badminton changed to rally scoring in 2006 -- so they are no longer similar

Don't know why p'ball uses a slightly lower net than tennis does.

Interesting... the sport is a lot older than I'd assumed!

 

[ByeByePoly]

I'm a diehard tennis player, but by no means a pickleball hater. I've played a few times and generally had fun interactions with pickleballers when I'm playing tennis on a neighboring court. (Noteworthy: I live in a town with a fairly active tennis scene- Greenville, SC- and one of my local parks had their tennis courts converted to a pickleball exclusive setup. I like that it's a sport that folks of all ages can enjoy, and especially love seeing older folks out there and active.)

The dumb questions:
1. Why couldn't the court depth be exactly the same as the tennis service boxes?
2. Why couldn't the net be exactly the same height as the tennis net?

Occasionally I'll hear complaints about pickleballers, and when I do, it's inevitably that they leave a tennis court with the net yanked down and/or line tape still on the court surface. Did the guy that invented pickleball purposely plant this seed of animosity as a social experiment lol?

Interesting question. I think same net height and the losing the extra 1ft length on each side in pball would not change the game drastically … and think of avoiding the hideous extra lines they put on the tennis courts. I think the bigger problem is the width … 27 ft tennis singles lines … 20 ft pickleball court width. But this tennis player just a couple of months into pickleball would probably enjoy pb doubles more with the 27 ft width … because it would move doubles a bit away from almost being an exclusive kitchen game. It would be nice to bring baseline passing skills into the mix imo. Singles … 27 ft … not so much, 20 ft is plenty to cover and baseline skills already a factor.

 

[tennytive]

Don't know why p'ball uses a slightly lower net than tennis does.

The story I read said it originated in 1965 on someone's driveway. There's even a photo of that original "court" somewhere online. Only a guess, but I would imagine they used a badminton net which measures 34 inches high set up on the ground instead of raised up on the traditional poles. That might also explain the court width dimension as well. Don't have any idea about the NVZ, but that turned out to be the great equalizer preventing net play similar to tennis.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

The story I read said it originated in 1965 on someone's driveway. There's even a photo of that original "court" somewhere online. Only a guess, but I would imagine they used a badminton net which measures 34 inches high set up on the ground instead of raised up on the traditional poles. That might also explain the court width dimension as well. Don't have any idea about the NVZ, but that turned out to be the great equalizer preventing net play similar to tennis.

Standard badminton net dimensions are 30” by 20 ft. It should be set up 61” at poles and an even 60” (5 ft) at the middle.

A pickleball net is set up for 36” at the ends and 34” in the center. A tennis net is 36” at the center strap and 42” at the poles (or at the singles sticks).

 

[tennytive]

Thanks for that correction, like I said only a guess. I will measure the PB net next time out. As it is suspended with a metal assembly, there is maybe a 4" gap from the floor to the bottom of the net. This is for indoor nets, the outdoor nets are set up like you described and much preferred as they have little to no gap at the bottom and a net strap across the top just like in tennis, whereas the indoor nets are so flimsy they allow marginally hit balls to crawl over the net and win cheap points. As a former linesman, I set up singles sticks and measured nets many times and your info is exactly correct.

 

[5sets]

Set up your pickle court at an abandoned parking lot or an unused basketball court. Just please don’t set up shop on courts made for tennis where tennis players like to play.

 

[tennis3]

Set up your pickle court at an abandoned parking lot or an unused basketball court. Just please don’t set up shop on courts made for tennis where tennis players like to play.

To me that’s the strength of PB. The fact that you can play in the driveway, parking lot, or dead end street. Just chalk the lines. I bought an amazing net for $190 on Amazon that’s an exact ripoff of the “On Court Off Court” net that sells for $450.

 

[GlennG2]

Pickleball was originally developed on a badminton court back in the 1960s. The outer dimensions for badminton doubles is still the dimensions for p'ball to this day.

The short service line was changed at some point in p'ball history for a slightly larger NVZ (kitchen). That line, in badminton, is 6.5 ft from the net. The pb kitchen line is now 7 ft from the net

Note that p'ball scoring rules (& serve rotation) were adopted from badminton as well. However, badminton changed to rally scoring in 2006 -- so they are no longer similar
originally
Don't know why p'ball uses a slightly lower net than tennis does.

Tennis net is 36" in the middle. Pickleball net is 36" at the post, 34" at the middle. My guess is when they originally set it up the pickleball net in the backyard badminton court, they thought they set it up the same as tennis, but really didn't know tennis.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Tennis net is 36" in the middle. Pickleball net is 36" at the post, 34" at the middle. My guess is when they originally set it up the pickleball net in the backyard badminton court, they thought they set it up the same as tennis, but really didn't know tennis.

Perhaps. They may have used the existing badminton net but just moved it down so that it was 3 ft at the posts and was allowed to dip 2" in the center