We started playing with foam pickleballs for a very simple reason: neighbors.
We have our own pickleball court, but we also live in a neighborhood where sound carries. Anyone who has spent much time around pickleball knows that the distinctive pop-pop-pop of a plastic ball hitting a paddle can travel surprisingly far.
So, particularly when playing early in the morning, we started experimenting with foam pickleballs.
We’ve used two so far: an Onix foam ball, which unfortunately is no longer available, and the Enhance Ninja foam pickleball, which we currently use and which I have found to be a very good ball.
I originally thought foam balls would simply be a compromise—something we’d tolerate in exchange for keeping the peace with our neighbors.
Instead, something unexpected happened.
They started changing the way I play pickleball.
And some of those changes have actually improved my game with a regular pickleball.
A Town That Mandated a Quiet Pickleball
Foam and other quiet pickleballs have recently received considerably more attention because of what happened in Mashpee, Massachusetts.
Following years of complaints about pickleball noise, Mashpee mandated the use of a special noise-reducing ball on its public courts. The town approved the Vortexball EVO or an equivalent quiet ball as a compromise intended to allow pickleball to continue while reducing the impact on nearby residents.
I understand the problem Mashpee was trying to solve.
I don’t agree with the solution.
In my opinion, a town shouldn’t be dictating the particular pickleball people must use—especially when the approved ball can be extraordinarily expensive compared with a conventional pickleball.
There is a big difference between establishing a reasonable noise standard and telling players they have to purchase a particular expensive piece of equipment.
If the objective is reducing noise, establish the acceptable noise level and allow manufacturers and players to determine how best to meet it.
That said, the controversy surrounding Mashpee raises an interesting question:
Are quiet and foam pickleballs really as terrible to play with as some players claim?
Based on my experience, the answer is no.
But there is a catch.
You have to stop expecting them to behave exactly like a conventional pickleball.
Foam Balls Are Different
Let’s get this out of the way first.
A foam pickleball is not going to play exactly like a hard plastic pickleball.
The flight is different. The sound is different. The response to spin is different. And the harder you try to hit certain shots, the more obvious those differences become.
Those characteristics are usually presented as disadvantages.
After playing with foam balls for a while, I’m not convinced they all are.
In fact, some of the things I initially considered shortcomings have turned out to be surprisingly useful training tools.
What About the Bounce?
One criticism I’ve seen repeatedly is that foam pickleballs have a low, deadened bounce.
That hasn’t been my experience.
If anything, the foam balls we’ve played with tend to bounce slightly higher than conventional pickleballs.
That points to a problem with making sweeping statements about “foam pickleballs.” Foam describes the construction material; it doesn’t guarantee identical playing characteristics from one manufacturer to another.
Some foam balls may indeed have a dead bounce.
The ones I’ve used don’t.
The Enhance Ninja ball in particular has been quite playable.
You Have to Watch the Ball
Here’s one criticism with which I agree.
Foam balls can move strangely.
Without the holes and aerodynamic characteristics of a conventional pickleball, a foam ball can sometimes curve, drift or take a slightly unexpected path through the air.
That sounds terrible.
I’ve discovered that it isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
It forces you to watch the ball.
Really watch it.
It’s easy for experienced players to begin anticipating where the ball is going rather than continuing to track it all the way to the paddle. We recognize the shot, anticipate its trajectory and begin preparing for where we think it’s going to be.
A foam ball occasionally has other ideas.
As a result, I’ve found myself concentrating harder and tracking the ball longer.
Isn’t that something we’re constantly telling players to do anyway?
“Watch the ball.”
A foam ball makes you do it.
Spin Is Different — But It Isn’t Gone
Another common criticism is that foam balls don’t respond properly to spin.
That’s partly true.
I’ve found it difficult to generate the same amount of sidespin or underspin that I can produce with a conventional ball.
But topspin is another matter.
I can still generate topspin with a foam ball.
That distinction is important because simply saying “you can’t spin a foam ball” doesn’t accurately describe what I’ve experienced.
More interestingly, the limitations of the foam ball caused me to rethink one of the most basic parts of my game: my serve.
The Foam Ball Changed My Serve
I like to hit a hard topspin serve.
With a regular pickleball, I can combine pace and topspin and drive the ball deep into the service box.
When I tried doing the same thing consistently with a foam ball, it wasn’t particularly effective.
So I changed.
I began using a drop serve more often. I experimented with spin. And then I started hitting a high, looping serve.
Instead of trying to overpower my opponent, I concentrated on depth, trajectory and placement.
And guess what?
It worked.
In fact, the high, looping serve worked well enough that I started using it when playing with a regular pickleball.
Something I developed because of the limitations of a foam ball became another weapon in my regular game.
That was when I began looking at foam pickleballs differently.
Try to Crush One and You May Send It Into Orbit
There is another lesson foam balls teach very quickly.
Try to absolutely crush one and there’s a good chance you’ll send it into orbit.
You can’t simply blast every attackable ball.
You have to control the paddle.
You have to think about where you’re putting the ball rather than simply how hard you’re hitting it.
Angles become important.
Placement becomes important.
Touch becomes important.
Patience becomes important.
In other words, foam balls encourage something that sometimes gets lost as pickleball becomes faster and paddles become more powerful: strategy.
I enjoy hitting the ball hard as much as anybody.
But pickleball isn’t supposed to be a contest to see who can hit the ball hardest.
At least I don’t think it is.
Pickleball With the Sound Turned Off
Another strange adjustment is the lack of sound.
A regular pickleball gives you immediate auditory information. The familiar pop tells you something about the quality and pace of the opponent’s shot almost the instant the paddle contacts the ball.
A foam ball doesn’t.
You get more of a muted thud.
Some players consider that a serious disadvantage because we’ve unconsciously learned to use sound as one of the cues for determining what’s coming at us.
Again, I look at that a little differently.
It forces you to concentrate.
Without that familiar pop, you have to pay more attention to your opponent.
Paddle angle.
Swing path.
Body position.
Contact point.
Ball trajectory.
It’s almost like playing pickleball with the sound turned off.
Take away one sensory cue and you have to rely more heavily on the others.
For recreational play, that may initially feel strange.
As a training exercise, I’m beginning to think it has considerable value.
There is one advantage of foam pickleballs that requires almost no debate.
Getting hit with one doesn’t hurt nearly as much.
Anyone who has taken a hard plastic pickleball in the face, chest, hand or other sensitive location knows that a conventional pickleball can hurt.
A foam ball?
Not so much.
That makes foam balls particularly interesting for beginners, children, close-range drills and players who are apprehensive about being hit.
They also produce a noticeably softer impact at the paddle.
I wouldn’t go so far as some claims I’ve seen suggesting that foam balls are a “cure” for pickleball elbow. That’s a medical claim that goes well beyond anything I’m prepared to say.
But they certainly feel softer at impact.
Maybe We’re Asking the Wrong Question
Most discussions of foam pickleballs seem to begin with this question:
Do they play exactly like a regular pickleball?
No.
But I’m beginning to think that’s the wrong question.
A foam pickleball doesn’t have to perfectly reproduce a conventional pickleball to have value.
A foam ball makes me watch the ball more carefully.
It makes me concentrate more.
It makes brute-force attacks less effective.
It encourages placement.
It rewards strategy.
It forced me to experiment with different serves.
And one of those serves proved effective enough that I incorporated it into my regular game.
Those don’t sound like terrible characteristics for a training ball.
The Unexpected Benefit
We didn’t start playing with foam balls because we were trying to improve our pickleball.
We were trying to be good neighbors.
Our court is in a neighborhood where sound carries, and we didn’t want an early-morning pickleball game becoming somebody else’s alarm clock.
The Onix foam balls served that purpose well, although ours eventually wore out and they are apparently no longer available. We subsequently began playing with the Enhance foam ball, which I have found to be an excellent alternative.
Would I want foam balls mandated for tournament pickleball?
No.
Would I want my town government telling me exactly which $50 ball I had to buy before I could use a public pickleball court?
Definitely not.
Would I replace conventional pickleballs entirely with foam?
No.
But would I recommend trying foam balls if you have neighbors nearby, want to practice quietly, are teaching beginners or simply want a training exercise that forces you to play differently?
Absolutely.
That’s because I started playing with foam balls for my neighbors.
I kept playing with them because they taught me things about my game.
And maybe the biggest mistake we’re making when we criticize foam pickleballs is complaining that they don’t play exactly like regular pickleballs.
They don’t.
And that may be the point.