Playing pickleball without a net is really easy. If you are just looking to have fun, you can hit the pickleball around with your friends almost anywhere with enough space. Where it gets difficult is when you want to try to replace or mimic the net somehow.
Set Up a Temporary Pickleball Court
Setting up a pickleball court on the fly is not that difficult.
If you already have your pickleball paddles and a ball it really just comes down to finding a space. This can be both easier and harder than you think. If you have no net no anything, but are willing to drive, going to a tennis court nearby and playing pickleball on that net is a great option.
If you want to play at any old park, or a playground, or your driveway, that’s doable too.
The area of a pickleball court is 44×20. The thing is you really need a bit more space than that.
Otherwise when a ball goes out of bounds or is hit deep you may not have room to maneuver outside the boundaries and hit it.
It’s better to opt for somewhere with about 5 feet of room on either side of the line. Honestly, if you’re just trying to have fun with friends you don’t even need to get the boundaries properly sized.
You can even make custom dimensions as long as you can play safely. Just make sure you have some way of marking them and get something to symbolize the net.
Setting Up Boundaries
For this we’re going to want to use any kind of marking material.
If you’re setting up a really temporary court, like a one and done court, just use chalk. Kids have been making unrecognizable creations all over pavements for years and no one cares because it’ll all wash away eventually. Chalk is great for pickleball court lines too.
If this is going in your driveway and you think you might reuse is just use some tape. A ton of different brands make sports floor marking tape that is meant for setting up athletic endeavors outdoors. Really any colored tape will do as long as it sticks.
Finally you could just use paint. I wouldn’t recommend it though. I used it when I was younger to mark off a three point line on my parents driveway and although its faded since, you can still see it today. But maybe you’re looking for something like that. I mean, you only have to do it once!
Also if its somewhere you can go barefoot use like shoes and backpacks on the corners and to mark the kitchen, literally whatever you can manage.
As I said earlier the court is 44×20 but mark the dimensions however you want. The kitchen extends 7 feet from the net on each side. Each service box is 10 ft wide and 15 ft deep. This will obviously change if you’re going off schedule but figured I’d give the dimensions just in case. Now you just need to figure out the net.
Playing Pickleball Without a Net
If you’re going out to hit with friends it usually doesn’t matter where it is, you’ll have fun.
However, trying to play pickleball without a net is certainly very different. It really doesn’t matter how high balls go. Most of the time unless it’s rolling the best thing to do it just play on, because you really are just out there to play around.
How to Represent the Net
If we are going to mark the net, visibility is most important. You can go with whatever option you chose above to mark your court dimensions. That’s one option.
Another one is setting up a line of cones. This will be shorter than the actual net height but will still give it an element of elevation that a line of chalk won’t have.
If you’re playing with 4 people and everyone brings a water bottle that can do the same thing too.
It’s unlikely given that you’re reading about playing pickleball without a net that you have a spare net from some other sport lying around but that would work great. Really you just need anything that can give a representation of proper of height.
Maybe you pull in some trashcans onto the middle of the court. These on the other hand will be too high to play pickleball but it gives back the vertical element to the game.
You don’t even need things that go in the middle of the court. Two poles that serve as markers on either side of where the net should be give a good height to eyeball for shots that are legal or not.
Finding a Cheap Pickleball Net
Honestly, if all these ideas sounded crummy to you that’s because they are. There really is no perfect solution. You’re game will go perfectly fine without anything to use for a net at all. You might not even mark the court dimensions. You’re clearly just trying to get out there with friends or family.
But it is really nice playing pickleball with a net. And a lot of nets are very portable and very cheap. Really not a bad idea if you find yourself wanting to play more and more and don’t really have a place to go. Most of these can even fit inside a backpack and will easily get transported by a car so its a great solution to the problem.