Pickleball is one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States. With the number of pickleball players and courts increasing, the distinct noise associated with pickleball is becoming a common feature in suburban soundscapes. Community opposition to new pickleball courts often cites nuisance noise as a cause of concern for new court development. Should new community noise metrics be developed for this emerging sport? Currently, many in the acoustics community are debating if pickleball noise should be described as "regular impulsive", or even "highly impulsive". Thus, this paper seeks to understand how pickleball noise compares with other regular and highly impulsive sounds. Acoustical measurements of pickleball paddles are compared to regular impulsive sounds (ping pong paddles, basketball dribbles) and highly impulsive sounds (hammer hits and small arms fire). Acoustical signatures and overall sound levels of the various impulsive noises are compared, and recommendations for characterizing the noise impacts of pickleball are presented.
Jensen et al. (Fri,) studied this question.