03/29/2020
With all the 15000 Pickleball courts now in the USA some Paddle Tennis players are in fact finding that you CAN play a version of Paddle Tennis on these Pickleball courts.
Yes the net is 3 inches higher,yes the court is 6 ft shorter but the Kitchen line becomes the Restraint line and it kind if becomes old school Paddle Tennis by using the thinner grittier graphite paddles, and not the thicker Pop Tennis style paddles.
The game slows down a bit because now its easier to hit out being 6 ft shorter,the ball is up a little higher with higher net.So it is now very important to touch and drop and work,spin,the ball more on the Pickleball court.Also the fact that the Official ball going forward will be the Orange Dot deflated tennis ball that is readily available in sporting goods stores tennis shops and online.This Orange Dot Tennis ball comes factory deflated so no need now to puncture the ball and deflate it.This Orange Dot Tennis ball is even has a slightly softer feel to it and is about 10 percent slower than a normal deflated tennis ball.
Its needed to slow the game down a bit on Pickleball courts because typically the overall size allotted for aPickleball court is somewhat less than a regular Paddle Tennis court.The side allies are slightly less and and if the thicker powerful 38mm,29mm,23mm and even 17mm allowed the faster punctured tennis ball does not stay in these confines.
So we must slow the game down on Pickleball courts.The thinner stiffer GRITTIER 14mm to 16mm paddles and the Orange Dot ball does this very nicely.
We Paddle Tennis players want Paddle Tennis to grow and not fade away,we are seeing huge growth in Pickleball worldwide now, let's adapt a bit and get back to old school style Paddle Tennis with the ktchen/restraint line grow along with Pickleball.
We have an incredible opportunity in front of us we never had the luxury of 15000 courts to play Paddle Tennis on ever befor ,Paddle Tennis was always a niche sport.Here is an opportunity to take Paddle Tennis main stream worldwide.
The United States Paddle Tennis Association has now 15000 courts and growing.
1 Court 2 Sports,let's marry these two great paddle sports.
Several other things to consider why Paddle Tennis is a great fit on these courts is this.
Many hardcore Tennis players do NOT want to play Pickleball for whatever reasons,but they are willing to play Paddle Tennis.
The NOISE factor in Pickleball does limit it somewhat and many clubs and facilities limit Puckleball play because of the NOISE IT MAKES ,but Paddle Tennis played with the thinner stiffer paddles and not the thicker style Pop Tennis paddles is no noisier than regular Tennis.
We hope you Paddle Tennis players can see the opportunity that is in front of us.I see growth for Paddle Tennis like never befor.
Truly.john of paddles4less and XTP sports.
