Pickleball bounce test: 78 in drop, 30 to 34 in bounce

What is the official pickleball bounce test?

USA Pickleball sets the ball rules in its Equipment Standards Manual, and its rulebook says ball designs must be approved by USA Pickleball. The bounce test is part of that approval, and the approved list is on the USA Pickleball website.

The ball is dropped from 78 in (198.1 cm), about 6 ft 6 in, onto a granite surface plate at least 12 by 12 by 4 in (30.5 by 30.5 by 10.2 cm). It must bounce 30 to 34 in (76.2 to 86.4 cm), measured to the top of the ball. The test is done at an ambient temperature of 70 ± 5 °F (21 ± 3 °C).

Note the detail: the bounce is measured to the top of the ball, not the bottom as in tennis and padel. If you measure to the bottom, you will read about 3 in (7 cm) low, because a pickleball is 2.87 to 2.97 in (7.29 to 7.54 cm) across.

How high should a pickleball bounce?

Here are the official figures, the rest of the approved ball spec and a rough net-height shortcut. The net height comes from the rulebook: 36 in (91.44 cm) at the sidelines. The shortcut is our own arithmetic and only a rough guide, because the manual does not say where on the ball the 78 in drop is measured from. A new ball dropped next to yours is the better reference.

How to run the bounce test at home

1. Choose the floor. Use concrete, a hard court or a stone floor. Wood, rubber gym floors and carpet absorb energy and give a lower reading.
2. Let the ball settle at room temperature, close to 70 °F (21 °C), for at least an hour. Cold balls bounce lower and hard plastic is more brittle when cold.
3. Mark a wall or door frame at 78 in (198 cm) from the floor, then add marks every inch or 2 cm from 26 to 38 in (66 to 97 cm).
4. Set your phone a couple of metres away, filming in slow motion, with the marks in view.
5. Hold the ball with its bottom level with the 78 in mark and simply open your fingers. Do not throw or spin it. The manual does not say which point of the ball the drop is measured from, so pick the bottom and stay consistent.
6. From the video, read the top of the ball at the peak of its first bounce.
7. Drop it three times, turning the ball to a different spot each time, and note all three results.
8. Do the same with a new ball of the same model, so you have a reference for your floor.

What your result means

Indoor and outdoor balls in the bounce test

Indoor and outdoor balls must both meet the same 30 to 34 in bounce. They get there differently. Pickleball Central, a retailer, describes outdoor balls as harder and heavier with 40 or more small holes, and indoor balls as softer with 26 larger holes.

That means you should only compare a ball with a new ball of the same model. An outdoor ball next to an indoor ball tells you about the design, not about wear.

Why bounce isn't the whole story

A pickleball does not lose pressure, because it is hollow plastic with holes. It wears by softening, cracking and going out of round. Pickleball Science, an independent enthusiast site, measured a popular outdoor ball losing about 10% of its stiffness per hour of play, but also found that stiffness is not the main driver of bounce height. A softer ball can still bounce 30 to 34 in.

So a ball can pass a bounce test and still play differently off the paddle. That is why dropping it on several spots matters: a soft spot or a crack often shows up as one drop that does not match the others. Look and squeeze as well. Our guide on how to tell if a pickleball is dead lists the signs.

Temperature changes the result

USA Pickleball tests at 70 ± 5 °F for a reason. Plastic gets stiffer and more brittle in the cold, and Pickleball Central warns that hard outdoor balls crack below about 40 °F (4 °C). If you test on a cold court in the morning and a warm one in the afternoon, you are not comparing like with like. Test your ball and a new ball together, at the same temperature.

The bounce in one number

The coefficient of restitution, or COR, is the ball's speed just after a bounce divided by its speed just before. Working back from the official figures gives about 0.62 to 0.66 for a new pickleball, against about 0.75 for a tennis ball. That is our calculation, ignoring air resistance. The time between the first and second bounce in the official test works out at about 0.79 to 0.84 seconds.

Those gaps can be heard. Timing bounces by sound is an established method in physics teaching, published in the American Journal of Physics.

Doing it with your phone

BallCheck runs the bounce test by sound, so you do not need a tape measure. Put your phone on the court, drop the ball and it times each bounce, then compares the ball with a new pickleball on your court type. It also flags balls whose bounces are uneven from drop to drop, which is often the first sign of a soft spot. Reference values assume lab conditions on granite, so drop a new ball on your own court first to calibrate. The free web version works in your browser today.