Understanding Pickleball Noise

The pickleball pop lasts less than 1/100th of a second.  Because it happens so fast, it is often very difficult to measure accurately with regular sound equipment.

Highly impulsive sound is so troublesome that experts add a 12 dB penalty when being measured. This means that if the pop is measured at 60 dB, but it's highly impulsive noise, the penalty should be added and the reading should be reported as 72 dB ( ANSI S12.9 Part 4 and ISO 1996 Part 1).

Civilians have never been exposed to unwanted impulse noise, day after day, month after month, year after year.  It is an entirely new type of noise in the soundscape.

Yes, the noise is very different. The impact on the nearby community is profound, unmistakable and annoying.

• Pickleball hits are much louder than tennis hits, measured in decibels (dB).  

• The pitch (or frequency) of a pickleball pop is very high, catching attention, a tiny alarm in the cognitive part of our brains "this is not supposed to be here." 

• Pickleball is faster paced than tennis, leading to more noise events in any given time period. Also, one or two tennis courts can be converted into four to eight pickleball courts, bringing more players and more pops into the same area. 

• Pickleball game are shorter than tennis, leading to crowds of players and spectators ready to rotate.

• As pickleball expands in popularity, courts can be busy from 7 am until late at night. Unregulated courts have attracted music and boisterous shouting.