Pickleball: Great Fun or Annoying Noise

Pickleball is a very popular game. It is easy to learn, it is social, it doesn’t cost a lot to get started and you don’t have to be a great athlete to enjoy it. You can have a great workout and lots of fun no matter how good you are. 

Pickleball is also driving neighbors near Wallingford Park crazy with its annoying noise. A Wallyhood reader sent us a note about noise from pickleball games at the Wallingford Park (park website) that have been starting very early in the morning. We decided to look into the problem, what the rules are for the park and what’s going on with pickleball plans in our city.

Noise from pickleball has become quite an issue all around the country and here in Seattle. And for good reason. A hard hit pickleball generates a high pitch sound with a frequency of about 1.2k Hz (the same as the beeping noise from a garbage truck backing up) and 70 decibels (a vacuum cleaner) at 100 feet. It gets your attention. More casual play generates less noise but is still much louder than tennis. For comparison, tennis at 100 feet is about 40 decibels, which is closer to a whisper.

Wallingford Park has two tennis courts that are next to Wallingford Ave N. The courts are lined for tennis and have tennis nets. That doesn’t stop people from playing pickleball on the tennis courts. The courts are within 100 ft of houses so pickleball playing can be really annoying to neighbors. 

I stopped by Wallingford Park and talked with a tennis player who had just vacated the court. They said pickleball players are often on the courts and that just demonstrates that more courts are needed. There were pickleball players taking the court as soon as the tennis players left. There isn’t much difference in the height of the net between tennis and pickleball – a tennis net is 36” at the center and 42” at the posts. A pickleball net is 34” high at the center and 36” at the posts. A tennis net is much wider (42 ft versus 22 ft). 

Seattle Parks

Seattle Parks’ Jonathan Garner was helpful in providing some information about the park. He said that Wallingford Park is open from 4am to 11pm. The courts are first-come/first-serve unless someone has made a reservation (https://www.seattle.gov/parks/rentals-and-permits/tennis-courts). Park goers can play tennis, pickleball or another game as long as they follow the rules on court reservations – no more than 90 minutes if someone is waiting and leave the court if someone has a reservation. 

The city does not have plans to line the courts at Wallingford Park for pickleball nor are there plans to add pickleball courts at this park. 

Seattle Parks did a study that outlines plans to expand pickleball courts and ideas that are being considered. The parks department also has a webpage dedicated to pickleball at https://www.seattle.gov/parks/recreation/sports/pickleball

The Seattle Parks study was done a couple of years ago and it mentions Lincoln Park in West Seattle as a future spot. Not anymore. As an example of neighbors not wanting pickleball noise, residents near Lincoln Park successfully challenged the construction of pickleball courts.

What can be done about pickleball noise?

The city is running a pilot project in Belltown for “quiet” pickleball using special paddles developed by the company OneShot and in collaboration with retired engineer Paul Lichon and a professor at the University of Washington. Information on this project is on the Seattle Parks pickleball page.

Quiet paddles do reduce sound but not by much. For the average player who doesn’t smash every shot, they reduce sound by a little bit. For experienced players hitting the ball hard, they don’t do much to reduce sound and they do change the feel of the game. Products from companies like Owl have gotten bad reviews because the paddle cover tends to fall apart. Work is ongoing to find a better way to reduce paddle noise.

Sound barriers around pickleball courts have been tried in other cities. These are expensive ($50k per court), have had mixed reviews and they don’t last. 

The best solution for reducing noise complaints has been to construct the pickleball courts away from houses, such as putting them in the center of a park instead of on the sides. The pickleball courts at Green Lake are very popular and a long way from houses. 

Wrap Up

For residents near Wallingford Park that are bothered by the sound of pickleball, there was no solution offered by the city. Pickleball playing is allowed when the park is open. As the residents near Lincoln Park demonstrated, Seattle Parks will listen if there is strong community input. Perhaps asking the city (or the pickleball players) to limit pickleball playing times to after 8am would be a good compromise.

Other reading

Centennial City, Colorado Pickleball noise assessment
If you really want to nerd out on the science of pickleball noise, this document is the ticket.

Article from “The Hustle” about making pickleball quieter
This is lighter reading and information here was used in this Wallyhood article.