Two racquet sports are experiencing huge rises in popularity both in the United States and globally as of late: pickleball and padel. Both sports are vying for attention and dollars internationally, and proponents of both sports currently claim that their sport is the “future” of racquet sports. So, what’s the difference between padel and pickleball?
What Is Pickleball?
Pickleball is a racquet sport played with solid-faced paddles and customized plastic balls with holes drilled for aerodynamics. Pickleball is primarily played on hard courts, often using one side of a tennis court with pickleball’s lines chalked out. Pickleball can be played on clay, hardwood floors, and other surfaces, but its plastic ball does not generally bounce high enough to provide a decent playing experience unless played on a harder surface like a tennis hard court.
Like tennis, pickleball courts have two sides split by a net, with lines painted onto the surface to mark the playing area in general along with service zones and a feature unique to pickleball called the “Non-Volley Zone.”
Pickleball was invented in the mid-1960s by three neighbors from Bainbridge Island outside of Seattle, Washington. The families, looking for activities to occupy their bored children on summer break, cobbled together various pieces of equipment from around the property (including ping pong paddles and a baseball whiffle ball) and used an existing badminton court outline already chalked onto their driveway. The name was coined by one of the mothers, calling the sport “Pickle Ball” in an homage to the term “Pickle Boat” in crew racing (which is a boat comprised of non-starting oarsmen, thrown together for a competition). Pickleball is most popular within the United States and Canada but is experiencing growth around the world, especially in Australia, China, and parts of Europe.
What Is Padel?
Padel (which is pronounced like the word “paddle” and not “pah-del”) is a racquet sport that is best described as a version of tennis played within an enclosed squash or racquetball court, where the walls can be used during the course of play. It uses similar paddles as Platform Tennis, which are non-stringed solid faces with multiple holes for aerodynamics during the swing. Padel uses a decompressed tennis-like ball that has the bounce and consistency of a “green ball” tennis ball used by intermediate youths (tennis balls are generally compressed to 14 psi, while padel balls are compressed to the 11-2 psi range). Padel uses the same scoring system as tennis and is played in sets.
Padel is mostly played on artificial turf fields today, but older courts can be found built on hard court tennis surfaces like asphalt or concrete. Like pickleball, a padel court is separated by a net and has lines on the floor marking the service zones, but the playing surface exists entirely within the confines of non-opaque walls made of glass or plastic. Balls that hit the walls before bouncing are “out,” but balls that bounce off of the walls after hitting the floor can be played and returned over the net as long as they remain in play and have not bounced twice.
Padel was invented by a Mexican businessman in 1969, who adapted a four-wall enclosed squash court on his property in Acapulco to play a version of Platform Tennis. After he began playing, a European friend was taken by the sport and built courts in his native Spain, which explains the mostly European growth origins of the sport. Today the sport is most popular in Europe, South America, and its founding nation of Mexico, but Middle East investments are helping to globalize the sport.
Is Padel The Same As Pickleball?
No, Padel is not the same as Pickleball. Pickleball is most similar to a miniature version of tennis, played on a smaller court and with a plastic ball. Padel is most similar to Platform tennis, played within an enclosed structure made of clear walls instead of platform’s wire mesh walls.
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This article originally appeared here and was republished with permission.
