Pickleball is a sport that involves hitting a ball with a paddle and trying to get it back into the net using your feet, legs, arms, or body. As you can see, it’s a very high-intensity sport that involves you running up and down a court for hours on end.
A standard game of pickleball lasts between 15 and 20 minutes, but you can never just play one game, right?
At the end of a long day playing pickleball, your entire body will be aching. So, how many calories did you burn playing? We find out below.
What Is Pickleball?
Pickleball is a sport that uses a number of different aspects from tennis, badminton, and table tennis. It is like a happy hybrid of them all. People of all ages can play together, and you can either play singles or double teams.
Pickleball consists of you hitting a small ball over a net with a paddle rather than a racket, back and forth until one player allows it to fall to the floor. Just like in tennis, you will need to protect your side of the net to avoid the ball falling on your side.
If you are playing a singles match, you’ll have to move much more to get the ball than if you were playing a game of doubles.
How Many Calories Does Pickleball Burn?
The number of calories you can burn while playing pickleball varies depending on a number of factors. These include the length of the game, your fitness level, and whether you are playing singles or doubles.
Length Of The Game
Pickleball can be played both competitively and casually. Each game is first to 11 points, and this usually takes between 15 and 25 minutes to complete. If you are more advanced at the game, you might be playing for longer – some games can reach up to 50 minutes long!
If you are relatively new to the sport, however, your games might be on the shorter side of 15 minutes.
Pickleball tournaments are where two or three games are held together, which almost always last over an hour. Some tournaments last for two hours, or even more.
Obviously, the longer you’re playing pickleball, the more calories you’re going to burn. So, the better you get at the sport, the longer your games will last and the more calories you’ll be able to burn while playing.
Fitness Level And Weight
People with lower fitness levels burn more calories than people with higher fitness levels. This is because they are using their whole body to hit the ball, whereas people who are fit may only use their legs and arms.
The fitter a muscle is, the fewer calories it will burn while being used. However, fitter people might also play longer pickleball games, making them burn more calories in the short run.
However, people with a lower fitness level should still be burning more calories in a shorter amount of time while playing pickleball.
Your weight will also play a part in how many calories you can burn playing pickleball. It’s estimated that a 160-pound person can burn around 250 calories for a casual 30-minute game of pickleball, while the same person can burn 350 calories for a high-intensity game.
A 200-pound person could burn 350 calories for a casual game and 475 for an aggressive game.
Singles Or Doubles Games
If you are playing singles, you are solely responsible for protecting your side of the net from the ball. This means that you’ll have to move further and quicker from one side of the court to the other to hit the ball before it touches the floor.
On the other hand, if you’re playing doubles, you will only need to protect half of your side of the court. This means that you’re less likely to move as much and therefore you’ll burn fewer calories.
How Many Calories Can You Burn In A Game Of Pickleball?
As a general rule, you can burn between 8 and 11 calories a minute while playing pickleball. This variation takes into consideration all of the external factors that we have mentioned above. If you are extremely fit or playing doubles, you might burn less than 8 calories a minute.
On the other hand, if you have a lower fitness level or are playing an extremely high-intensity game, you might burn 11 or even more calories a minute.
As we mentioned earlier, a standard game of pickleball lasts between 15 and 25 minutes. This means that a game could burn between 120 and 275 calories. That’s a lot of calories for less than half an hour’s work!
In pickleball tournaments, however, you can burn even more calories as multiple games are played. These often last for at least an hour, so you could be burning between 480 and 660 calories!
How Many Steps Can You Make During Pickleball?
With the introduction of fitness trackers and smartwatches, people are going mad about how many steps they make in a day.
Walking is an excellent cardiovascular activity, so it makes sense why people want to make sure that they’re getting enough steps in a day.
You’ll be happy to know that a casual game of pickleball can equate to between 4000 and 5000 steps for an hour of playing. For a more high-intensity hour, you could be making 6000 to 7000 steps.
Summary
We hope that you’ve learned what you wanted to know in this article. While there are many factors that can affect how many calories you burn while playing pickleball, the general average is between 120 and 275 calories in just half an hour.
The more you play pickleball, the more advanced you’ll get. This means that you can play longer games and therefore get more steps in. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll burn more calories.
As you get better at pickleball, you’ll find your fitness level increasing and therefore you might start burning fewer calories despite playing at a higher intensity.