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Pickleball Terminology: Your Guide To Learning Pickleball Lingo

If you are a beginner or a first timer in a pickleball world, you better to find out the language or terms of what pickleball communities are using to be able to engage and pick up the game easily. Not to worry, you are in the right place! 

1. Ace - Ace refers to a serve which the opponent cannot bring back or cannot return the serve and the point can be won without returning the serve.
   
   
   
2. Dill Ball - refers to a live ball, shots, that’s inbound and bounced once.
   
   
   
3. Dink Shot - This is kind of a soft shot wherein shot go over directly over the net and falls into the opposing non-volley zone
   
   
   
4. Falafel - A short shot hit in the pickleball ball with just a small power.  It is also known as the “dead paddle”. 
   
   
   
5. Flabjack - This shot is a midair shot that must bounce once before it may hit during one of the first two shots of any point.
   
   
   
6. Kitchen - Refers to the non-volley zone
   
   
   
7. Let - a serve that hits the net cord and lands in the service court.
   
   
   
8. Non- Volley zone - This is the 7 foot section of the court on either side of the court. All players are not allowed to volley the ball within this zone which includes all lines around the zone.
   
   
   
9. OPA - This is a word to announce or shout that once the third shot has been hit, it means that the open volleying has already begun.
   
   
   
10. Paddle  - a racquet that used in playing pickleball.
    
    
    
11. Pickle - a warning word from the server to alert all players in the court that they are about to serve.
    
    
    
12. Pickled - losing a point in the whole game. Getting a zero point in the pickleball game, this will be called “pickled”.
    
    
    
13. Pickler - a plickleballplayer who is very hooked in the pickleball sport and also known as the “pickleball addict”.
    
    
    
14. Pickledom - the place where the championship match of a tournament is played.
    
    
    
15. Poach - this is a double match game. If the player crosses over in the side of his partner to hit the shot.

These 15 pickleball sayings are only among the basic words or terms that you need to learn. What is more important is understanding the rules of pickleball.

The Dink History of Pickleball

What is Pickleball? How did it start? Who invented this sport? These questions come to our minds when we first encounter this game. 

Then, Let's have a quick brief history of Pickleball!

Pickleball is a game that resembles tennis in which the players use paddles to hit a perforated plastic ball over a net.  Way back 1965 when Joel Pritchard, a Congressman in Washington State, Bill Bell , a successful Businessman and Barney McCallum founded this game in Bainbridge Island Washington. During that summer, When Pritchard and Bell returned to Pritchard home after they played Golf, they found their families sitting around and nothing else to do. Using the improvised equipment, they started to play with ping pong paddles and a perforated plastic ball. Afterwards, these three men created a rule which heavily relied on badminton. Their purpose of this game is to provide the whole family to play together. 

And they Succeeded!

In 1967 when they constructed the First permanent pickleball court in the backyard of Bob O’brian who was the friend and neighbor of Joel Pritchard.

Over the years, Pickleball was played in all 50 States and continues to make it in big sports competitions and tournaments attended with different ages.

This is proof that in times of our boredom, creative minds strike to our head and build a kind of sport that we will enjoy,  have fun and excitement not only by ourselves but also to make us bond with the whole family and friends.

Building a future always comes with a great history, so into sports like Pickleball.