{"id":1179,"date":"2026-10-24T03:20:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T03:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1179"},"modified":"2026-10-24T03:20:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T03:20:29","slug":"origin-story-net-dropped-from-60-badminton-height-to-36","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1179","title":{"rendered":"Origin Story: Net Dropped from 60&#8243; Badminton Height to 36&#8243;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Pickleball Started with the Net Way Too High\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XFMVHXSHNlE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Summary<\/h2>\n<p>Aylex notes pickleball\u2019s first net wasn\u2019t today\u2019s height. In 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Joel Pritchard and Bill Bell grabbed ping-pong paddles and a plastic ball on a badminton court \u2014 the net started at badminton height, 60 inches.<\/p>\n<p>The ball bounced so well they lowered it to 36 inches. Knowing the origin helps the modern 36&#8243;\/34&#8243; geometry make sense.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Origin net: badminton height ~60&#8243;<\/li>\n<li>Lowered to 36&#8243; because the ball bounced so well<\/li>\n<li>1965 Bainbridge Island origin story (USA Pickleball history)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Next rules argument: remember today\u2019s height is already a compromise from 60&#8243;<\/li>\n<li>Pair with the 36&#8243; sides \/ 34&#8243; center tip when teaching net geometry<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"tdd-newsletter\">\n<p><strong>Get the 5 best pickleball tips every week<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/subscribe-forms.beehiiv.com\/v3\/loader.js\" data-beehiiv-form=\"0e5f3fe0-e4d3-4036-8d7f-c33b311980b2\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thedropdrive.beehiiv.com\/subscribe\">Subscribe free<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aylex notes pickleball\u2019s first net wasn\u2019t today\u2019s height. In 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Joel Pritchard and Bill Bell grabbed ping-pong paddles and a plastic ball on a badminton court \u2014 the net started at badminton height, 60 inches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[562],"tags":[921,1239,1111,1238],"class_list":["post-1179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fundamentals","tag-aylex","tag-bainbridge-island","tag-net-height","tag-pickleball-history"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/09-ready-position-closeup-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}