Safety In Pickleball

Safety in Pickleball Introduction

Pickleball BC (“PBC”) as the BC Provincial governing body for pickleball and as an advocate of safety, injury prevention and common-sense approaches to help keep our members safe on the courts, would like to summarize our policies with respect to Safety in Pickleball in BC.
PBC is committed to creating a culture and environments that are safe, respectful and inclusive for all BC pickleball activities.  This means that we strive to make all environments used for pickleball physically safe, accessible, psychologically and culturally safe, and inclusive. 

Medical First Aid
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Our recently updated Medical First Aid and Reporting Policy outlines how to report injuries including dealing with possible insurance claims.  These steps are important once an injury occurs, but more importantly, we want to encourage the PREVENTION OF INJURIES, as described in our Pickleball Safety and Play Etiquette guidelines, also on our website.  That document includes:
1. Wear proper court shoes
2. Do NOT back up on the court, turn and move sideways
3. Do NOT run onto other active courts when playing your ball
4. Do NOT chase your ball through other active courts – wait for others to return your ball to you
5. When retrieving a loose ball, look for players waving at you, when possible, return the ball
behind courts
6. STOP play immediately if a loose ball comes on your court or behind it – shout BALL ON.
Then replay your rally
7. When going to and from a court be aware and stay clear of other active players and courts
8. Keep yourself well hydrated

Court Sense

Other factors that can reduce the likelihood of injuries include:
  1. Court design, such as padding on walls, proximity of courts to each other, toppers on chain link fencing that is lower than 6’ high, etc.
  2. Protective eyewear – our goal is to have as many members as possible wearing protective eyewear at all times on the court.  As this direction is gaining momentum, we’re not overly concerned with the type or brand of eyewear, JUST WEAR SOMETHING.   Some clubs have mandated or successfully phased in the use of protective eyewear; contact us for more information.

Youth Safety

Maltreatment occurs when someone purposely does or says something that hurts another person, intentionally or unintentionally.  It may also occur when someone does not so something on purpose when they are supposed to do it. If you have witnessed or have been directly affected by maltreatment at a Pickleball BC event or activity, please use the link here to report the incident.  A Pickleball BC representative will be in contact. 

Please note that if the incident occurred during a local club event or activity you should be working with your local club representative before contacting Pickleball BC. 

Maltreatment includes:
  • Physical maltreatment 
  • Contact: Hitting, pushing, etc.… 
  • Non-contact: physically punishing exercises, providing drugs or alcohol to underage participants. 
  • Physiological maltreatment: 
  • Verbal 
  • Non-assaultive Physical Conduct 
  • Denial of support or attention 
  • Deliberate non-contact behaviors by a person in authority 
  • Neglect: not giving someone the care or support they need 
  • Sexual Maltreatment: doing at saying something sexual that causes harm. 

Pickleball BC Safety in Sports Supporting Policies

The following Pickleball BC Policies (posted here) are:
  1. Abuse Prevention Policy
  2. Code of Conduct and Ethics Policy
  3. Complaint Recognition and Resolution Policies
  4. Safety and Etiquette Policy
  5. Child Sexual Abuse and Inappropriate Conduct With Youth documents posted on the Pickleball BC website Polices and Plans page (under "Resources") 
 
We recognize that there are other safety tips that aren’t mentioned here; If you have suggestions on this topic, please forward them to us at: [email protected]

​We will continue to publish information that can help us all achieve our goal of Safety in Pickleball.