Pickleball Nets

A pickleball net is the one piece of gear that turns a driveway, a tennis court or a school hall into a place to play. Everything else you can improvise. The net you cannot, because the whole game is built around its exact height. Regulation is 6.7m (22ft) wide, 0.914m (36in) high at the posts and 0.86m (34in) at the centre. The sag in the middle is deliberate, and it is why balls clipping the centre die and balls clipping the edges pop up. Anything narrower than 6.7m is a training net, not a court.

We stock full-width portable nets in Australia, dispatched from Sydney. If you want the reasoning behind the numbers before you buy, our pickleball nets buyer's guide works through frame types, tension systems and what actually fails first.

What we stock

We carry two full-width portable nets. Both are regulation, and both go up in a few minutes.

• Selkirk SLK Prime Portable: steel frame, tension straps and a nylon carry bag. The one most people should buy, and the net that goes into our pickleball sets.
• JOOLA Elemental: the same regulation footprint, with bent interlock steel legs and knotless netting, from a brand we are an authorised Australian dealer for. The packed bag weighs under 9.1kg with every piece inside.

Net height and court dimensions

A pickleball court is 6.1m x 13.4m (20ft x 44ft), the same footprint as a doubles badminton court. The net spans the full width of the court plus the posts, which is why a regulation net measures 6.7m (22ft) end to end and sits wider than the sidelines. The non-volley zone, the kitchen, runs 2.13m (7ft) back from the net on each side.

Those three numbers are all you need before you buy tape. If you are marking out a driveway, a carport or a hall floor, our net height and court dimensions setup guide has the full measurements with a diagram, including how to lay out a court on a tennis court that is already lined for something else.

Worth knowing: the 0.86m centre height is measured with the centre strap pulled down. A net that measures 0.914m in the middle is a net nobody has tensioned properly, and it changes how every dink and drop behaves.

How to pick one

Three things matter, and price is not one of them at this end of the market.

• Width. It is 6.7m or it is not a court. Narrower nets exist and they are fine for drilling, but you cannot play a real game on one, and you cannot use one to teach someone the kitchen line.
• Frame. Steel holds tension better than fibreglass and survives being packed and unpacked twice a week. Fibreglass is lighter to carry and gives up sooner. If the net lives in a car boot and comes out for social sessions, take the steel.
• Setup time. If it takes twenty minutes you will stop bothering, and the net will live in the garage. Both of ours assemble quickly, and one person can manage on their own.

Weight is the honest trade-off nobody mentions. A regulation portable net is a real object: full width, steel, and a bag you carry with two hands. That is the cost of a net that stays taut through a three-hour session.

Setting one up

Both nets go up the same way: assemble the frame, hook the net on, then tension it. One person can manage, two is quicker.

The centre strap is the part people skip, and it is the part that gives you the correct 0.86m sag. Pull it down until the tape sits level and leave it there. On grass, expect to re-tension once after the first ten minutes as the frame settles into the ground. On a hard court in summer, check it again after an hour, because webbing stretches in heat.

Pack it down the way it came out. The single most common way a portable net dies is being forced into its bag with the poles in the wrong order, which bends the joints that hold your tension.

Where you can actually play

A portable net opens up more surfaces than people expect. A standard double driveway is usually wide enough. A tennis court gives you room for a full court with space behind the baseline, and the existing service lines are close enough to eyeball a kitchen. School halls and community centres work well, and are where the quiet foam ball earns its keep, because the noise that gets pickleball banned from shared spaces comes from the ball, not the paddle.

Grass is playable but slower, and the ball will not bounce true. If grass is your only option, read our take on indoor versus outdoor pickleballs first, because ball choice matters more on soft surfaces than net choice does.

What to pair with the net

A net on its own is half a setup. You need paddles and balls, and the honest shortcut is to buy them together.

• Balls. Outdoor play wants a hard, 40-hole ball. Our pickleball balls range covers outdoor, indoor and quiet foam, and the Franklin balls buying guide explains why the X-40 is the one most Australian clubs settle on.
• Paddles. Start at starter pickleball paddles if the net is for family and friends, or go straight to the full paddle range if you already play. Our picks by play style is the fastest way to narrow it down.
• Everything in one box. Our pickleball sets pair this same net with paddles and balls at a lower price than buying the parts separately. If you are setting up from nothing, start there instead.
• Practising alone. A net plus a ball machine is a genuine training setup. If there is nobody to hit with, our solo practice guide covers what you can drill against a net on your own.

New to the game entirely? Read the rules and scoring and our beginner's guide to starting in Australia before you spend anything.

Looking after a portable net

Portable nets last years if you do three things. Dry it before it goes in the bag, because netting packed wet mildews and the webbing rots at the stitch lines. Release the tension when you pack down, so the straps are not held under load for weeks. And store the poles flat rather than standing them in a corner where the joints take the weight.

Replacement parts are worth asking about rather than replacing the whole net. If a strap or a pole section goes, get in touch and we will chase the part.

Clubs, schools and councils

We supply court kit in volume across Australia: nets, paddles by the dozen and balls by the hundred. We invoice on purchase order, and you deal with Ben and Chris directly rather than a reseller portal. Multiple courts usually means multiple nets plus a paddle spread that covers a wide range of hand sizes and abilities, and we will put that together rather than sell you a pallet of one thing.

We also do custom club merchandise if you are kitting out a club rather than just a court. Tell us your court count and headcount and we will come back with a pack.

Buying a pickleball net in Australia

Free Australian delivery over $150, dispatched from Sydney, and a 30-day return on factory-fresh gear. Nets ship as a bulky item, so allow a little longer than a paddle to arrive, particularly outside the capital cities.

Still deciding between the two? The Selkirk is the default recommendation on frame and tension system. The JOOLA is the one to take if you already run JOOLA gear or you want the heavier interlock leg design. Either way you are getting a regulation court, which is the only thing that actually matters.

Browse the rest of the range: pickleball equipment, paddles, balls, bags, paddle accessories and training aids.