If you've never played
How pickleball works
Ten minutes to learn. Here is the game, why it suits a cold-climate town so well, the rules you need on your first night, the court, and what to buy once you know you like it.
The game
Two pairs, a court the size of a badminton court, a net a shade under a metre high, solid paddles and a hollow plastic ball with holes. The serve goes underhand and crosscourt. No one may take the ball out of the air until it has bounced a single time at each end. There is a marked zone either side of the net where volleying is not allowed. Games go to 11, and only the serving side scores.
Three fathers invented it in an American backyard in 1965 using table tennis paddles and a badminton court, and the badminton dimensions stuck. That is genuinely useful history rather than trivia: it is why a pickleball court fits into any hall marked for badminton or basketball, and why a stadium floor in a regional Victorian town can be reconfigured into more than twenty courts for a weekend.
Why it suits this town
- It is indoors. In a place where winter maximums sit in the low teens and the wind comes off the Southern Ocean, that is not a minor detail — it is the whole proposition. Nothing gets cancelled.
- It is social by design. Doubles, rotating partners, an hour and a half at a time. In a regional city, that is as valuable as the exercise.
- You can play on night one. The ball is slow and the court is small, so beginners rally within minutes rather than months.
- It is easy on the body. A third of a tennis court to cover, an underhand serve, a light paddle. People play this several times a week into their seventies.
- It scales. The same sport carries you from a first come-and-try session to a nationally sanctioned tournament played on your home floor.
The rules you need on your first night
- Serve underhand and crosscourt, one attempt. Strike the ball below waist height from behind your baseline, into the diagonal box beyond the non-volley line.
- Let it bounce once on each side. The serve bounces, the return bounces, and only then can anyone take a ball out of the air.
- Stay out of the kitchen when you volley. Standing in the non-volley zone is fine; volleying while any part of you touches it is not, including as your follow-through carries you in.
- Only the serving side scores. Games to 11, win by two, and the doubles score is three numbers — yours, theirs, and which server you are.
Two of those account for nearly every beginner fault: forgetting the double bounce at the start of the point, and stepping in to volley. Nobody expects you to call the score properly for a few weeks.
The court
6.1 m wide by 13.41 m long, and the same for singles and doubles. The net sits 0.914 m high at the posts and dips to 0.86 m in the middle — which is why the centre of the court is the safest target when you are stretched.
What to buy, and when
Start with nothing
Club sessions cater for beginners and equipment is available, so there is no reason to buy before you have played a few times. What you do need on night one is clean, flat-soled indoor court shoes. Not runners — they are built for forward motion and are behind most rolled ankles in this sport — and not shoes you have just worn outside, because grit on a timber floor is both slippery and unwelcome.
Then a paddle
Solid and stringless, capped at 43.2 cm in length and 61 cm for length and width combined. Core thickness, face material and where the weight sits all change how it plays, and paddles have changed enormously in the past five years — this article covers what actually matters now and what is marketing.
Buying in Australia beats importing. HUSTL is an Australian brand with a full performance range — and, as it happens, the title sponsor of this town's tournament. Pickleball Paddles groups its range by generation and core thickness, and Pickleball HQ carries balls, nets and several brands together. For a club or school kitting out a whole group with its own artwork on the face, Custom Paddles handles that end of the market.
And the right ball
Play here is indoors, so an indoor ball — softer, with fewer and larger holes — is the one to own. Outdoor balls are harder with more, smaller holes to resist wind, and they feel like rocks on a timber floor. One further local note: plastic balls become brittle in the cold, so a ball left in a car boot overnight in July is a ball that will crack in the first hard rally.
How a session runs
- Book your spot in advance — sessions here are managed through a scheduling app rather than by turning up.
- Arrive early enough to help set nets up, and stay to pack them down.
- Call the score before every serve, clearly enough for all four players.
- You call the lines on your own side, and anything genuinely doubtful goes to the other pair.
- Meet at the net for a paddle tap when the game ends, and rotate as the session intends.
Questions people ask
Do I need a partner, or any experience?
Neither. Sessions are open to all levels and rotate partners, so arriving alone is normal.
Is it played outdoors here?
Rarely, and by choice rather than necessity. The climate makes indoor play the sensible default all year.
Am I too old to start?
Unlikely — a substantial share of players in this region started in their sixties, and the club has run come-and-try sessions as part of the local seniors festival.
What's DUPR?
A rating system used to seed players into the right divisions at sanctioned tournaments, including the one held here. It is explained on this page.