While the pickleball craze is still going strong, a new sport called Spec Tennis is also starting to pick up momentum throughout the U.S. Originally created in 2016 in Northern California as a social experience, spec tennis has now gained its own popularity while being a great bridge to and from tennis.
Differences between Pickleball & Spec Tennis include:
- Pickleball uses a solid paddle shorter in length and substantially lighter in weight to the spec tennis paddle.
- The ball used in pickleball is a plastic wiffleball so it doesn’t bounce very high, whereas spec tennis uses the low-compression tennis ball.
- In pickleball, the ball must bounce once on each side of the court before anyone can volley. In spec tennis, this rule doesn’t apply. Players can serve and volley.
- The sound of the pickleball hitting the paddle creates a lot of noise, and there have been issues with noise complaints in several communities. Spec tennis does not create the same noise and is more like the sound of people playing regular tennis.
