Pickleball – one of the UK’s fastest-growing sports

Add some pickle to your play, says Ettie Neil Gallacher

What started across the pond in the 1960s as a game for children to play in their backyards is vying with padel to become one of the UK’s fastest-growing sports.

While pickleball’s largest market remains the USA – indeed, it was named the state sport for Washington in 2022 – it saw a 65% increase in membership in the UK during 2024.

How pickleball is played

1. It is played with a solid bat and uses a perforated plastic ball that results in a low bounce.
2. Pickleball is played on a slightly smaller court than padel, with badminton-style boundary lines and no walls – so, unlike padel, the ball can’t be played off them.
3. Anyone who has a tennis court can add pickle lines and thus start playing immediately, which lends expediency to its colonisation of the shires.
4. Mainly played in doubles, with a bounce serve and no-volley zone at the net (called the kitchen), it allows for eight- to 80-year-olds to play together on one court and is excellent for balance, agility and reflexes.

The rating system, called DUPR (Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating), gives players an accurate ranking: a useful addition when seeking out similar players for a match. Field Editor Alexandra Henton started playing pickleball last year. “I’ve played padel and pickleball, and while padel can be more nuanced there are fewer courts, although numbers are growing,” she says. “Pickle is like catnip for my competitive streak and easier to fit into my busy schedule than long games of tennis. It is also excellent fun to play as there are zero barriers to entry – you can pick up the basics and be playing a match after an hour. I can play with my father and my niece and nephew on a pretty equal footing, which is great. And anyone with a tennis court can turn it into a pickle court. It’s a far throw from being served at and using a tennis racket to defend ourselves, which is how we learned to play as children.”