By: Brayden Yin

Pickleball is a new sport that has exploded in the past few years, and the noise of the ball hitting the paddle has driven people in the vicinity of the courts to entirely new levels of annoyance.

Mary McKee is a resident of Arlington, Virginia, and the Walter Reed Community Center, located less than 100 feet from her yard, has been repurposed from tennis courts to pickleball courts. “There it is,” she said, gesturing to a group of players on the courts, the first players of the day. More arrived quickly, until there were six games of pickleball going at the same time.

The sound of the ball and the paddle has been likened to the sound of microwave popcorn, with its uneven bursts of sound that heightens to a clatter. McKee, along with many others, have complained about the unwanted noise of the new sport.

“I thought maybe I could live with it, maybe it would fade into the background,” she said. “But it never did.” The noise began at the height of the COVID pandemic, and now it is getting even worse. She can even hear it reverberate around her house when the windows are closed.

Why is this racket so annoying, even compared to other neighborhood noises such as dog barks and lawn mowers? The sound of a pickleball hit from 100 feet away is 70 decibels, while everyday “annoying sounds” top out at around 55 decibels.

Pickleball noise is a cause of constant annoyance to many who hear it, and it shows no sign of subsiding.