What is pickleball and where you can play it in Lancaster

Pickleball is a really fun game especially suitable for beginners and older players and incredibly popular in the USA and Canada.

The court is the same size as a tennis mini court, but with different line markings and very different paddles and plastic balls.

Different scoring too but anyone who has played table tennis, badminton or tennis before will adapt to it very quickly.

Here’s how to play pickleball:

The only equipment that is truly necessary to play Pickleball is a paddle and Pickleball.

Pickleball is played on a rectangular 44’ by 20’ court. The court is divided into two sides by a low net.

There are two sidelines (orange lines), two baselines (orange lines), a centreline on each side (blue lines), as well as two non-volley lines (white lines), which creates an area affectionately called the “Kitchen” in Pickleball.

The centre line divides each side into two service courts, the left service court and the right service court. This allows players to know where to serve the ball and where to stand when serving.

Matches are played best two games out of three. Each game is played to eleven points, win by two. Or if you are playing one game, it is played to fifteen points, win by two.

Pickleball can be played as singles or doubles, with doubles being the most popular.

The start of a game begins with a serve. The player standing in the right service court is always the first server, whether at the the beginning of a game or on a side-out. Before serving the server must call the score.

A Pickleball serve must be hit underhanded from behind the baseline cross court into the opposing team’s service court. The serve must clear the net and not land in the kitchen. Sometimes the ball will hit the net but still land in the correct serving court. This is called a let and the server must redo his serve until he either serves correctly.

An important rule in Pickleball is the double bounce rule which says the ball must bounce once on each side before either team may start volleying the ball in the air.

The player returning the serve must let the ball bounce before returning it to the opposing team’s side in either service court.

A unique but important aspect of Pickleball is the non-volley zone, also known as the Kitchen. Players may not hit the ball while standing in the kitchen unless the ball has already bounced on their side. Players may not step into the kitchen to volley the Pickleball. Players may not enter the kitchen on a volley even if their momentum carries them into the zone.

The main gist of Pickleball is to hit the ball back and forth until someone makes a mistake. It is really that simple.

Lancaster Tennis Club was very lucky to have been awarded a grant from the Eric Wright Charitable Trust to fund the purchase of the net, paddles and balls and the expensive paint needed to transform the court.

The club has a pickleball only membership fee for anyone who doesn't also want to play tennis.

For more information contact Susan Lucas at [email protected] or tel: 07771 734920.