Will Quieter Pickleballs Grow the Game? 🤔 | Pickleball Connection

[@DannyBPlays]

If I move into a house and then a stoplight is built near my house which causes me to hear more noise, I can't do anything about it. Same with if I get a new neighbor who is loud during daylight hours. Unfortunately they're allowed to make that noise. Same with those at Crescent Lake with houses near the PB courts. Even if they moved in before the PB courts were built, it's on them. Now, if a neightbor builds a PB court in their backyard, right next to me, THEN I'm pissed. Otherwise, I've walked near the houses that have complained, you can barely hear the noise from their house, which makes me think you can't hear it at all when you're inside the house. People complaining about PB noise is usually that they can't go outside their house without hearing it but at that point, there's lots of noise I hear when I go outside and I can't do anything about it Short answer: they need to get over it

[@johnlaufer5795]

Regarding serving, it does get frustrating when someone tries to call your serve illegal just to get in your head. I had that happen in a mixed doubles tournament (foot fault called -- but I never move my forward foot on serve), as well as a round robin tournament (said paddle was above my wrist -- tough to do since I make contact with ball about thigh level). In both circumstances no other team, and no monitor or organizer agreed that there was a problem with my serve. "Coincidentally" both times people tried to call me on this, they were behind and they were especially having trouble with my serves.

[@vanadyan1674]

I just had a conversation with my 14 year old son at our local courts this morning about calling lines as a spectator, and basically what I said is unless the receiving team, ie the team whose responsibility it is to make the call, asks for help, keep your mouth shut.

[@LML-di8qc]

Yeah, I agree with you. Although, I am guilty of doing it 😌.

[@vanadyan1674]

@@LML-di8qc I've never actually said anything to anyone else, although I've definitely shot some looks, but when given the opportunity to say it to my son, I made sure to say it loud enough so everyone could hear it.

[@roman2011]

The game should evolve and try to be more quiet just like everything else in life. For example a major change for the better are EVs. They are absolutely quieter than ICE and that’s just a side effect of being more efficient. Same with landscaping machines. Everyone benefits from less noise including wildlife. Being annoyingly loud is just not necessary and is a sign the art of it is still in its infancy.

[@kenschoonover9395]

Illegal serve in rec play: I handle borderline serves the way you described ... good discussion. For blatantly illegal serves, as the receiver I will catch the ball, toss it back and explain in a non-confrontational manner that the serve was WAY illegal, please re-serve it.

[@adamheath4599]

Thing is, people don’t really know the rules as well as they think. This doesn’t happen to me as much, but people used to say I’d contact the ball above my waist. But, people assume that your waist is either, your hip or your belly button. My waist is actually about 2 inches above my belly button. A comment, I heard was that generally if someone hits with an upward motion, they’re generally hitting at or below waist level. This is because to generate optimal power with a top spin shot, you’d want it in your strike range which is about waist level. In the mlp there’s no waist level requirement and still you see pros hit at about waist level because that’s the optimal strike zone.

[@kenschoonover9395]

@@adamheath4599 For sure, the "waist" rule is extremely difficult to judge. My comment was only about what I do with blantant and obvious illegal serves. Close calls on the waist requirement is not one of those. I MAYBE would have a conversation about it after play if the person is open to it, but it's not something I would stop play to discuss.

[@gulfridge1817]

My city is not building courts due to the noise concerns. If a quiet ball is possible it would help the sport grow.

[@edwardmiller9062]

I think quieter balls should be the next step over quieter paddles. The fact is even currently pickleballs do not have a truly consistent bounce and the difference between pickleball brands is very drastic compared to other sports (Going from an X1 to a Dura can feel like two different games). Not to mention that a brand new ball vs a ball that has seen even a few rounds of play is different. I've played with the Gamma Librarian and while it's definitely not a pickleball, (plays very differently in regards to spin, pop off the paddle, and speed of drives) it's way more consistent in its characteristics. I feel like this is mainly due to the fact that it's a solid foam ball vs a wiffle ball not saying that foam is the answer but I do think the ball needs to evolve regardless of noise.

[@Prince_Gordon]

The first couple my son and I ever played doubles with threw the ball down on their drop serve. I was still like a 2.5 player with a wooden paddle, but I called them out on it. They basically just said, “No it’s not,” and we moved on, since anything I could say held zero ground. The next team we played against were a couple of elderly 4.5 or so players. My son pointed out that the guy was spinning the ball before he served. I held no chance against it, and they stopped the game at 7-0 and ran up to the net to give me some much appreciated advice. There was no way I was gonna tell that guy his serve was illegal. I’d actually bet he knew it was illegal, but just does it to show off. Nowadays as a 3.5 at best my son will usually point it out to me and we just let it all slide. If I were playing with a newer player that obviously didn’t know the rules I’d probably point it out if we were talking after the game, but that’s about it. I’ll call foot or volley faults mid point no problem, though.

[@rassabossa4554]

I play with a lot of beginners (where I play there may not be enough players for a foursome) and ran into an illegal serve and pointed it out to her. I kinda said "I don't really care but if you may play with a group does and you will be lost once you get accustomed to your illegal serve". She was playing a side to side ping pong serve.

[@MD-hk8xq]

I've got friends that are dealing with this right now in their HOA community. It seems that the complainers don't' want ANY noise, so quieter balls and paddles won't satisfy them. they don't want to hear it, even muffled, period. and this is about 6-8 hours A WEEK of play they are complaining about.

[@123BV8]

The quieter the better, keep the peace! Why not…

[@davidweidenbenner6262]

Played with the new “quiet” Gamma ball; it has almost no sound; downside……..ball doesn’t have characteristic playability; great for working on “fast” hands in house against a wall

[@vanadyan1674]

The loudest thing on an active pickleball court is, and always will be, the people there playing. The sound of the ball is just an excuse for NIMBYs to latch onto.

[@TomGoulet-h3b]

They cost $30 each

[@Dy1pickel]

Link?

[@attybong]

quieter balls just to appease people in the vicinity who hate pickleball? 😢😮