As pickleball surges in popularity, the conversion of existing tennis courts for pickleball use will inevitably be considered. Today I am sharing my thoughts from a tennis perspective on some “best practices” to accommodate the needs of both the tennis and pickleball communities.
I have recently become absolutely hard over that when a tennis court is adapted for dual use between the two sports, the pickleball lines should never traverse the existing tennis net. There are two reasons that drive that position. It essentially boils down to net height and efficiency.
In racquet sports, when it comes to the height of the net, “close” doesn’t cut it. A properly configured tennis net will be 36″ tall in the middle and 42″ at the post. A pickleball net is 36″ on the side and 34″ in the middle. Additionally the posts for each sport are in dramatically different positions on a shared net. The net height matters.
In “Tennis Net Tension, Pickleball, and Wrenches” I described how pickleball players using the blended lines courts at my public park frequently use a wrench to lower the net tension so that it sags to the approximate post height for that sport. In conversation with other tennis players, I am convinced that this is a very common practice wherever the blended lines traverse the tennis net.
One of my primary issues with wrenching down the net tension is that the pickleball players in my park don’t always return the height back to the tennis configuration. However, that lack of consideration has also allowed me to inspect whether that practice produces a rules compliant pickleball net. According to my tape measure, it does not. I have yet to find a sagging net that is 34″ in the center and 36″ in the position where the pickleball posts should be.
My engineer brain can’t help but to try to solve that problem for the pickleball community. Go to the local hardware store and buy two yard sticks. Take a wooden file and cut a groove in one end of each stick. Adjust the net strap on the tennis net down to 34″. Wedge the yard sticks under the net at the proper location for the pickleball net posts. You’re welcome.
This is the most equitable solution for sharing a traversed net on a blended lines court. Additionally the net configuration is easily reversed as adjusting the height of the center net strap is trivial for either community.
The other reason that pickleball lines should never traverse the tennis net is fundamental efficiency. It results in one pickleball court where there could have been four. While the blended lines will make the court space visually busy, the tennis players will get used to it and the pickleball players will have more courts. It’s a win-win.
Of course, this means that someone will have to provide four freestanding pickleball nets with wheels. In a lot of settings, it is probably fine to permanently leave those nets on the court. While theft of a portable pickleball net might be a concern, they are heavier and more awkward to move than you would think. The other alternative would require individual players to bring their own portable pickleball nets (<-Affiliate Link) to the court. Those currently sell for about $130 from Amazon.
I feel like this is an opportunity for the tennis and pickleball communities to work together to optimize shared court space into a configuration that maximizes the benefit to both sports.
