👓 Eye protection: We encourage players to wear safety glasses. Safety glasses may offer some eye protection when balls deflect off your own paddle or your doubles partner’s paddle. Safety glasses are available from hardware stores, online or from optometrists (if you need prescription glasses).
👟 Shoes: We encourage players to wear shoes that are designed for pickleball. The shoes we wear are from Picklemania.com.au
🚧 Court barrier: We have a barrier positioned between the baselines, separating the courts. The aim of the safety barrier is to limit the number of balls that go between courts plus to discourage players from performing backswings near the baseline of the court behind them.
🤾🏼♀️ Don’t run backwards: Player safety is more important than winning a rally. Running backwards can be a safety risk and should be avoided.
⏹️ With returns and drives we encourage players to make contact with the ball in front of their body (eg hitting a half-volley) rather than moving backwards to hit the ball behind their body. Forward momentum is better and safer than moving backwards.
🛑 If you are playing on the middle courts (court 2 or 5), when you exit at the end of your game please wait for a break in play (end of rally) on the adjacent court so that all 4 players can safely exit together at the same time.
🙆 Warm up: it’s best to warm up before commencing play. A suggested warm up is 1 minute of dinking, 1 minute drive to volley (one player near the baseline the other at the kitchen line) and/or 1 minute drop shots, plus a few serves. Avoid running backwards. Other warm up methods, adjusted to the players fitness and mobility, include light jogging or walking, jumping rope, shuffling side to side. You may also like to perform stretches before and after playing. When you commence gameplay, ease into the game play.
🎾 Balls on court: if a ball from another court rolls onto your court - call out ‘ball on court’, stop play, retrieve the ball, then replay the rally. Please avoid hitting the ball back towards another court - as that then interferes with gameplay on adjacent courts. Best practice is to place the extra ball into a ball bucket or your pocket. Avoid going onto an adjacent court to retrieve a ball.
⚠️ Know your limits: It’s important to play according to your ability, fitness and mobility. Avoid running backwards, avoid over-reaching. avoid diving. Adjust your gameplay based on your current fitness, mobility and agility and that of your partner and opponents. We discourage the use of lobs against opponents with limited mobility.
🚰 Stay hydrated: It’s important to drink plenty of water before, during and after. For longer sessions, you may look to use electrolytes.
After 3 or more sessions with Pickle Hub we require players to obtain Sports Personal Accident Insurance by becoming a current financial member of PAQ (Pickleball Association of Queensland) or a local pickleball club. (Pickle Hub do not offer club memberships).
Sports Personal Accident Insurance covers for injury when you play in organised sessions at Pickle Hub; when you play in organised sessions at a club affiliated with PAQ and when you play in sanctioned tournaments.
Pickleball Assoc. Qld (PAQ) Membership is $62/yr (or $49.25/yr for 65+ years). Other Pickleball clubs are $85/yr (or $70/yr for 65+ years). To join PAQ use the link below for your age, then select Pickleball Assoc. of Queensland from the list
Click here to see a list of Pickleball Clubs with links to gain membership.