Quick answer
Pickleball is a compact racket sport played on a small court with a solid paddle and a plastic ball. It's the fastest-growing sport in Australia — and most people are playing a real game within 20 minutes of learning the rules.
What is
pickleball?
Pickleball is a compact racket sport played on a small court with a solid paddle and a plastic ball. It's the fastest-growing sport in Australia — and most people are playing a real game within 20 minutes of learning the rules.
Pickleball is played on a court roughly the size of a badminton court. Two or four players hit a plastic ball with solid paddles across a low net. You serve underarm, can't volley near the net (the kitchen rule), and score points to 11. That's essentially it.
- 01 Serve underarm, below the navel, cross-court, into the diagonal service box. One attempt. The ball must clear the kitchen.
- 02 The receiver lets it bounce and returns. No volley on the return.
- 03 The serving team must also let the return bounce before volleying. This is the two-bounce rule — both sides must let it bounce once before the rally opens up.
- 04 After those two bounces, the rally is open — volley or groundstroke, your choice. Except from the kitchen.
- 05 First team to 11 points, win by 2, wins the game. You can only score on your own serve.
Pickleball was invented in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington State, by three dads — Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum — looking for something to do with their bored kids on a summer afternoon.
They had a badminton court, but no shuttlecocks. So they improvised: ping pong paddles, a wiffle ball, a lowered net. By the end of the weekend they had working rules. The sport spread slowly through the US as a senior lifestyle activity, then exploded globally from around 2020, driven by pandemic outdoor activity, celebrity endorsements, and heavy media coverage of professional leagues.
Australia picked it up quickly. Pickleball Australia estimates participation has roughly tripled since 2022 — Queensland in particular has seen a wave of new community courts and club formations. It is now played in every state and territory.
Pickleball has the lowest barrier to entry of any racket sport. The court is small, the ball is slow, and the underarm serve is forgiving. Most beginners feel like they're playing a real game before their first session is over — not just drilling.
Open play sessions are pickleball's defining format. You show up alone, rotate partners every game, and leave with a few new people to message. It's built around community in a way most sports aren't. Clubs across Queensland run these sessions daily.
The small court means less running. The underarm serve is easy on the shoulder. The pace can be kept social without feeling like a slow game. Pickleball is particularly popular with over-50s returning to sport after years off — but it's genuinely competitive at every age.
A pickleball paddle looks like an oversized table tennis bat. It's solid composite, graphite, or carbon fibre — no strings. Thicker cores give more control on soft shots near the kitchen; thinner cores give more pop on drives. Beginners do well on a mid-range composite paddle and can upgrade once they know their game.
There's no shortage of options: the Australian market has grown enough that paddles from most major brands are available locally.
A pickleball is a lightweight hollow plastic ball with holes — similar to a wiffle ball but more precisely engineered. Outdoor balls have 40 smaller holes and a harder shell for wind resistance on harder courts. Indoor balls have 26 larger holes and a softer shell for gym floors.
Balls crack rather than go dead — you'll know when one is done because it splits. Deadball collects cracked pickleballs from Queensland clubs for recycling, keeping them out of landfill.
| Pickleball | Tennis | Padel | Badminton | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Court size | 13 × 6m | 23 × 8m | 20 × 10m | 13 × 6m |
| Ball type | Hollow plastic (perforated) | Pressurised rubber | Pressurised rubber | Feather or nylon shuttlecock |
| Serve style | Underarm, below navel | Overhead | Underarm, below hip, off bounce | Underarm |
| Learning curve | Very low — rally in first session | High — weeks to sustain rallies | Moderate — walls take time | Low to moderate |
Courts by region
Open play sessions are the norm at most Queensland clubs — you can show up alone and be matched with partners within minutes. Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and the Sunshine Coast have the most options, but venues exist in Mackay, Rockhampton, and most regional centres. Use the Deadball map to find what's near you.
Dead balls at your club? Get a Deadball recycling bin — free for Queensland clubs.
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