It’s pretty standard to come to a pickleball court with a measuring tape to ensure the height of the net is 34 inches in the middle and 36 inches on the sides, yea? Well, the other day some friends and I decided to check the measurements of one of our local pickleball courts. It might sound silly - or a waste of time - but we decided to do so because the court had just been resurfaced. Just to paint the picture in your mind, this park has three tennis courts and one pickleball court, all in rough shape. They resurfaced the area to accommodate three tennis courts with lines for pickleball on all three and instead of one dedicated pickleball court they made two this time and they all turned out so well.

Even though the court is wet from rain, it's clear that the refinished surface turned out great!

A couple of people began playing and felt that the net felt further away than usual, while standing at the non-volley zone. Eventually the tape measure came out and yep, the measurements were off by about 4 inches.

It was just a short moment before all courts were measured out and guess what? Yes, all of the pickleball lines were off to varying degrees. Embarrassingly, it took us a second to think this over though but the non-volley zone 7 ft from the centre of the court/net to the back of the non-volley zone line. Similarily, from outside baseline to outside baseline, the court should be 44ft long.

I’ve played pickleball on improper courts. In fact, where I learned the game was on a court 8ft too short and about 3ft too wide; and played there for over two years. But as the game becomes more popular, which it is, and as players become more competitive, which they are, the expectation from people will be that they have access to proper courts with proper dimensions. So, I'm curious to know what type of courts you’ve played on and if you’ve ever come across one that seems to be the right dimensions but end up being off by a few inches?

If that's the case, let us know your experience playing on it - did it affect your game in any way?