Breaking News: Lime Green Pickleball Shirts No Longer Banned

January 1st, 2023: The new USA Pickleball Rules officially went into effect.

SPOILER ALERT: You can wear Lime Green shirts or apparel while playing pickleball. No Rule Against It.

Every year it is a big deal. The new rules go into effect and immediately everybody starts talking about them. Some rules get no discussion, while some rule’s conversations go viral with players dissecting every sentence and word to make sure they understand the intent and how to apply the rule to their next game of pickleball.

This year one of the first posts to hit social media was a post that said “lime green shirts will have to stay in the closet. USA Pickleball rules have now banned them.” And just like that, people started commenting and sharing the news in record Fashion. It became entertaining to watch social media take this very simple rule and twist it into something it isn’t. Soon the whole world was talking about the fact that one of their favorite colored shirts could no longer be worn on a pickleball court.

So if you know anything about Pickleball Rocks, you know we sell shirts, and yes we sell lime green shirts. And yes we sell lime green shirts in big numbers. So at first, that first social media post was quite disappointing to us, but at the same time became intriguing to us.
The intrigue????

Did USA Pickleball actually single out one color and ban it from being worn in the sport of pickleball? Just didn’t seem to make sense. So we did what any good, common sense practicing pickleball player would do. We decided to actually read the rule book.

What did we find?
The rule that everyone was talking about is rule 2.G.1. Safety and Distraction: A player may be required to change apparel the is inappropriate, including that which approximates the color of the ball.

So somehow social media took that simple rule to mean, YOU CAN’T WEAR A LIME GREEN SHIRT.

Rule 2.G.1 is for player’s protection, and rightfully so, but the rule is ONLY for a piece of apparel (could be a shirt or could be shorts, or could be wristbands) that is exactly the same color as the ball being used. In other words, you literally can’t see the ball when it is laid on the apparel. If there is a contrast, a tournament director will not ask for a change. In rec play, we are the referee, and likewise we should only ask someone to change an item if it truly is causing the complete loss of sight of the ball.

Think about it. In rec play and even in tournaments there are many different colored balls being used. White, Red, Lime Green, Yellow and many others.

This picture below from social media, shows well known pro player Dekel Bar in a lime green shirt. If you look at the ball in his hand, it is yellow. So a tournament director would never ask for a shirt change.

So the bottom line is, wear what you want (but not exactly the same color of the ball). Have fun and…
LET’S PLAY.
-Rocket

Breaking News: Lime Green Pickleball Shirts No Longer Banned &Raquo; Dekel In Lime Green

Breaking News: Lime Green Pickleball Shirts No Longer Banned &Raquo; Guy In Yellow Shorts

Originally Published on PickleballRocks.com

Rodney "Rocket" Grubbs Pickleball Pro

Rodney “Rocket” Grubbs is a USAPA Legacy rated 5.0 player and has been playing pickleball for over 10 years, and has medaled in many sanctioned tournaments including Gold medals in the 2017 Spanish Open, the 2018 Italian Open, The Duel in the Desert in Casa Grande, The Happy Trails Classic, The Pebble Creek Classic and numerous USAPA Regional tournaments.

Rocket is the USAPA Ambassador for Southeast Indiana, but travels the country promoting the growth of pickleball through his family’s company and world famous apparel brand, Pickleball Rocks (www.PickleballRocks.com).