The IPBL, the country’s first official pickleball league, supported by the Indian Pickleball Association (IPA) and recognized by the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, was held with glamor and glitz, on a makeshift court inside the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall at the Indira Gandhi Stadium. To the untrained eye, it resembled a slow tennis match played on a badminton court, with strokes reminiscent of table tennis. But the league didn’t feature watered-down versions of familiar games. It exposed the truth that every transitioner eventually learns: Pickleball is not a transition sport. This is a reset.
The real arrival of pickleball in India can be traced back to the Covid lockdown. As uncertainty engulfed organized sport, many athletes became restless. While some trained within the confines of their homes and others turned to social media, some took up the country’s most viral new sport, pickleball. Most came from racket-sporting backgrounds, which made the initial learning curve gentle. But picking up the paddle wasn’t just about changing equipment. This meant abandoning the reflexes that had been relied upon for more than a decade. Tennis players had to learn how to “unhit”. Table tennis players had to stop cutting corners on everything. Squash athletes had to slow down in a sport that punishes impatience more than weakness. Even people with elite athletic backgrounds have found that fitness in the kitchen alone is no mean feat.
“I think people come in thinking it’s easy,” says Sindoor Mittal, a former national-level swimmer for the Mumbai Smashers who started playing pickleball just last year and is already competing at the highest level in India. “But once you start playing seriously, the first thing you realize is that it’s a thinking game.”
The idea that pickleball rewards restraint over aggression, decision-making over dominance, binds together a remarkably diverse group of athletes. In the IPBL, the people coming from tennis, table tennis and squash were not just adopting a new sport; They were collectively defining what Indian pickleball could look like.
The great ‘unlearning’: Why pickleball demands a reset
For most converts to the IPBL, the hardest part of pickleball wasn’t learning a new shot – it was mastering an old shot.
Hyderabad Royals’ Shreya Chakraborty, who played professional tennis for India before ending her career after two knee surgeries, felt that struggle immediately. “In tennis, if you serve well, you advance,” he said. “In pickleball, you have to stop yourself. You have to bounce the ball. It takes time to break that instinct.” She believes that singles come naturally. Doubles did not. “In tennis we don’t go slow. There is no concept of drop, drop, drop. Patience was the hardest thing.”
Lack of patience is a recurring theme among tennis converts. Lucknow Leopards’ Aditya Ruhela, a multiple-time national-level player, put it bluntly: “Tennis players don’t have the patience to dink.” Power, once a weapon, becomes a liability in the kitchen. “You can’t win on strength here,” said the nation’s No. 1 men’s singles pickleball player. “You have to wait, create angles, make people uncomfortable. It’s very difficult when you’re trained to finish points quickly.”
The challenge for table tennis players lies elsewhere. Pearl Amalsadiwala, who played TT at the national level for seven years, brought lightning-fast hands and reflexes – but she had to give up her reliance on spin. “In table tennis, everything is underspin,” she explained. “In pickleball, you have to let it go. You can’t cut everything. You have to push, especially when dinking.” Even the rhythm had to be learned again. “TT is very fast. Pickleball seems slow, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.”
Across the background, the fall of the third shot emerged as the universal humbler – the shot that evokes impatience, ego and muscle memory all at once. Tennis players beat it. TT players over-spin it. Squash players run around in it. Players agreed that mastering it was less about technique and more about patience.
This is where pickleball breaks away from its cousins. It doesn’t reward the fastest, strongest or most capable player – at least not immediately. It rewards the person willing to stop, reset, and rethink. In forcing athletes to forget years of instinct, pickleball reveals its true nature: not a hybrid, not a shortcut, but a sport that asks its players to start again.
Why pickleball thinks differently
For a sport that often looks like a futsal version of tennis, power and serve – the defining factors in tennis – have little or no place in pickleball. “In tennis, power is essential. In pickleball, too much power hurts you. You have to slow down, control the ball and make the point,” Aditya said. “A lot of things that seem natural in tennis don’t work here… patiently releasing the ball again and again was definitely something I had to learn,” Shreya said. Footwork, shot placement and patience replace brute force, and singles or doubles require careful planning rather than hitting hard from the baseline.
Squash, with its lightning-fast speed and focus on deception, only partially translates. Amol explained, “In squash you can hold your swing until the last moment and wrong foot someone. In pickleball, you don’t get that much time – everything happens fast. Deception requires serious skill.” Reflexes and anticipation help, but players must rethink how to attack and defend in a game where the pace feels controlled but unreliable.
Table tennis emphasizes paddle variation and spin to control points, but in pickleball the racket is standard and options are limited. “Continuity – just putting the ball in, making an extra shot – often decides the issue,” Pearl explained. Quick hands and reflexes help, but the game rewards smart, patient shot selection more than spin moves or flashy strokes.
The kitchen line and third-shot drop rules further define the game. They force players to constantly plan their next move, create angles, exploit opponents’ weaknesses, and systematically score points rather than relying on a single winner. Each shot is part of a larger strategy, requiring patience, accuracy and mental discipline.
As Aditya summarized, “The baseline game is easy for tennis players, but on the kitchen line, patience becomes key, and that’s where everyone struggles. Even top tennis players like Jack Sock struggled when breaking into pickleball. Singles was fine for him, but doubles required real adjustment. This shows that pickleball requires a lot of skill and time to master on your own. Patience is everything. You can get by with power alone. Can’t win. You need patience, angles and creativity.”
Pickleball may borrow elements from other racquet sports, but its challenges – patience, strategy and adaptability – make it an entirely unique sport, demanding a new mindset from each player.
Who keeps the shore?
Ruhela and Chakraborty believe that converts have an edge over pure pickers. Ruhela said tennis players dominate in singles, while table tennis and badminton players excel in doubles with their quick reactions. He said: “In singles, yes – my tennis background helps. I can run, hit passing shots and score points. But in doubles, badminton or table tennis players have an advantage because they have faster hands. Tennis players generally have big strokes, not quick reflexes.”
Chakraborty, who was medically advised to quit tennis after undergoing a second knee surgery last year, echoed the thought: “Players coming from badminton or table tennis have huge advantages – flicks, hands, net game, doubles instincts. Compared to someone who has never played a racket game, I definitely have an edge, especially in the first few months.”
Amol, who played squash at the national level till the age of 16, offers a different perspective, saying that while background gives players an edge, the advantages at the competitive level are subtler. He explained: “I don’t think anyone has an edge over anyone. There are a lot of nuances to the game – you may be better in one area, but someone else will be better in another… Even players with no racquet-sport background can start fresh and excel. That’s what makes pickleball so unique.”
From a neutral perspective, Mumbai resident Sindoora, who started coaching pickleball within four months of learning and played her first tournament in August, said it best: Regardless of background, it is on the kitchen line where past ideologies meet and the game is ultimately decided. “Tennis players come with advantages – serves, returns, drives and singles instincts. But Kitchens’ entire game – dinking, speed-ups, mid-court resets, third-shot drops – is new to everyone, including tennis players,” the 42-year-old player said.
Pickleball may be a game of borrowed words, but in India it is finding its own voice. The kitchen line is its punctuation mark – where all the players suddenly speak the same language: slowly, gently, patiently. And as the game continues to grow in India, Sindoor hopes that more pure pickle makers will emerge on the scene. “I think it depends on the younger generation. I’m seeing a lot of kids — from seven or eight years old up to mid-teens — getting into pickleball now. They’re the ones who will become true, homegrown pickleball players. And it’s going to be very interesting to watch, as they learn the game as their first discipline rather than taking up another sport.”
