Although nowhere near as established as the sport is in the USA, there are still plenty of UK courts and clubs on this side of the Atlantic for playing pickleball. These clubs are almost always run by people who are extremely passionate about the sport, and more than happy to help out anyone taking up the sport for the first time.
There are at least 386 pickleball clubs across England and Wales, according to Pickleball England, with most people being less than 30 minutes away from a pickleball court. It is slightly more sparse in Northern Ireland and Scotland, but those living in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast all have courts in the local area.
If you are looking to get started and play pickleball, why not check out our guides on how to play and what equipment you may need?
Local Clubs
The best place to find a club near you is the extremely helpful Club Locator tool on the Pickleball England website. There, you can search your local area for the nearest clubs and find contact information so you can discuss trying it out with the club before heading down there.
David Lloyd Leisure
The gym chain has recently begun to put pickleball courts in many of its UK locations, rolling out at 19 initial locations in 2022, and continuing to expand that number in 2023.
Playing pickleball on a tennis court
Though not ideal, if you do not live close to a pickleball court, you can make do with a tennis court. You can very quickly create a usable pickleball court simply by using the net, service boxes and a few cones to mark off ‘the kitchen’.
The ‘non-volley zone’ extends 7 ft away from the net on both sides of the court, so use the cones to mark this out. Tennis service courts are 6.4m long, whilst each side of a pickleball court is 6.7m, just slightly longer. You could either bring more cones or simply play on a slightly smaller court for the convenience of using the service line.
Playing pickleball on a badminton court
It is even easier to convert a badminton court into a pickleball court as the dimensions of a badminton court in its doubles configuration are identical to those required for pickleball.
Similar to the tennis courts, simply bring some cones to mark out the 7 ft non-volley zone, lower the net, or replace it with a 34-inch pickleball net, and the court is ready to play on.
