Are you wondering what is pickleball and how to play it? In this article, we will give you a detailed overview of pickleball, the history of this sport, when and where it’s invented, and what required to play this sport, and how to play it? We will also share some basic rules of this sport.
What Is Pickleball? When And Who Invented This Sports?
Pickleball sport is popular for all ages (from kids to old, it’s become famous). After Pickleball invented in 1965 and it is one of the tops and fastest-growing sports in the United State and growing all over the world like the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and also started to play in Asian countries.
The Game was invented by 3 dads: Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum. One of the fun facts is the name of the game Pickleballs comes from Joel Pritchard’s family dog name: Pickles.
Pickleball is one of the paddleball games and many things of it are related to racket games. It is a combination of few paddleball & racket games like Badminton, Table Tennis, and Tennis. People play this game as single or double.
Basic overview of Pickleball
This sport is the fastest growing sport in the United States. This sport is getting more popular day by day because this is a very easy sport. Anyone can become an intermediate player within 10 to 20 minutes of playing. Moreover, this is not an energetic sport like football, cricket, tennis, and badminton. That’s why this sport is more addictive than other sports.
How to play this sport?
In this section, you will learn how to play pickleball. Also, you will get some basic rules about how to serve in pickleball and what is required to play this sport: about the court, the equipment, a little bit about scoring.
At first you have to find a court and 1 or 3 more players to play pickleball. Also, you need to know about the sport and its history before playing it.
How to find players to play?
If you don’t know someone who is ready to play pickleball with you, then you can follow this method to find a few players. When you will introduce pickleball to your friends & family members they will be sure interested to play this game and mostly pickleball is a game which much fun to play with family members.
If you don’t find any friends or family members to play with you, then you can find a few players near you by joining our Facebook pickle ball group. Probably you will find a few members near you.
How to find a pickleball court near you?
You can easily find a court near you from this list by the USA Pickleball Association (USAPA). They have all the place names and addresses in the United State where you will able to play the game. Also, they organized by state, so you will find nearby courts easily.
But if you see that the location is so far then you can create one court by following the below structure. We show step by step structure to build one court. And it is easy to understand by the below structure image.
This sport is played on a badminton-sized court: 20 feet (Orange Line) two baselines by 44 feet two sidelines (Red Line) field, which is divided into two equal part by a 20 ft wide net (Suppose White Line) 1 centerline on each side (Yellow Line) & 1 non-volley line on each side (Green Lines).
Note: We used the colors for lines only because you can understand them easily.
Each part of the court has 10 ft by 15 ft long right serving and left serving court, as well as a non-volley zone (20 ft by 7 ft) which is known as the kitchen.
What do you need to play pickleball?(Pickleball Equipment)
There are only three things you need before starting a pickleball match. The three things are Balls, Paddles, and nets. You can wear any comfortable clothes for playing, there is no required clothing.
- Good Pickleball paddles
- Pickleball balls, similar as wiffle ball (pickleball ball guide is given here)
- Pickleball nets (21 feet 9 inches, net height is 36 inches)
Professional players also use:
- Pickleball Shoes (Shoes for men and women, Shoes for plantar fasciitis)
- Pickleball Bag (For carry paddles, balls, shoes, etc. most of the players use specific bags)
Matches
Pickleball matches can be played as single or double. Both (Single and double) formats have followed by the same rules, but there is a difference between scoring. The object of the pickle ball is to be the first team or the player score at least 11 points and must win by 2 points. You can get more about scoring from here.
To start the game, you have to simply serve the ball and start. But here are some important rules you have to follow while serving. Every pickleball player needs to know what is legal serve and make it effective. So let’s talk about what things you should follow to make a legal serve.
First of all, the contact between the paddle and ball has to happen below the waist, and the arms need to be moving in an upward motion. Moreover, the paddle needs to be below the wrist, and for each serve the server must keep his or her both feet behind the baseline. While serving make sure to hit the ball before the bounce. You can hit the ball if the ball gets bounced.
As every point you earn begins with a serve, so the serve must be effective to get the point from opponents. The play always starts from the right serving area. You can learn more about deep serving from this article.
Read More:
You might know how to serve on the court as you can score very soon with your special tricks. So for serving, you may follow your personal way on how exactly you like to serve. Here in this post, we will talk about 3 types of pickle ball serves:
- Slice serve
- Topspin serve
- Traditional serve.
When you are a beginner or have become an expert player in a pickleball game, you can serve by those 3 ways. The direction of those serves are described below:
- Slice Serve: When it is about slice serve, you are going to carve underneath the ball and you can put a sidespin on the ball.
- Topspin Serve: When it is about Topspin serve, you have to roll your wrist over the top of the ball and that gives the ball a little different bounce.
- Traditional Serve: For traditional serve, you have to push straight out to get the ball a little deep on the court.
Double Bounce Rule
The double bounce rule is also known as the two bounce rule, which means when the server serves the ball, the receiving team must let the ball bounce once before returning to their opponents. And the serving team also needs to follow the same thing before starting to play the rest of the match.
Volley
After the ball bounce on each side of the net, the players can hit the ball without bounce as long as they are not in the kitchen ( the non-volley zone). You can not hit the ball in the air without a bounce while you are in the kitchen.
Faults in pickleball
Faults in pickleball means mistakes. There are several types of faults you will face while playing pickleball. Some of the major faults are listed below:
- While serving if the ball touches any part of the kitchen area including the non-volley line.
- The ball out bounces the sideline or baseline.
- If you can not pass the ball to your opponents if the ball hits the net.
- You hit a volley while you are in the kitchen, that is a fault in pickle ball.
- If you are unable to hit the ball after one bounce. If the ball bounce twice is a fault.
FAQ
In the pickleball court, there is a section called non volley zone, which is 7 feet long. While standing in this zone, player can not volley. Thats why this zone is called non volley zone, also known as the Kitchen.
Double-Bounce Rule or Two-Bounce Rule is one of the most common question asked by beginner players. Official Pickleball rule book refer the rule as Two-Bounce Rule.
The rule is when the ball is served, the receiving team must let the ball bounce before they return it. And also the serving team have to do same before return.
One of the greatest thing in pickleball is you can enjoy it on both indoor and outdoor. So if you are uncomfortable to play games outdoor then you can play the game indoor. But there are few difference between indoor and outdoor pickleball. like ball size, ball holes, etc.
An Interview with the inventor of pickleball Bell and Barney McCallum
Conclusion
Hopefully, you can understand what is pickleball, and some basic knowledge about this sport. If you have not tried to play this sport, try it today. You will love it and could be addicted to this sport. Thanks for reading and please subscribe to our newsletter for getting the news of pickle ball.
