Who knows about the Har-Tru Pickle Flex Pro pickleball court surface?

In the universe of pickleball court surfaces, things are volving fast and furiously.  We are a (relatively) new sport and an adaptation of a variety of existing sports so, while there are prevalent existing court surfaces for sure – I would say the verdict is very much still out about what is “best” and will become the de facto standard.

We’re all used to playing on the traditional hard court but really, few of these have been truly designed for pickleball itself but rather are an adapted version from some other sport.  In fact, I might even guess that half (is that crazy?) of the courts out there have the lines of some other sport on them – tennis, basketball, junior tennis, etc.  That definitely makes it harder to play our sport but it also suggests that we have yet to decide what the best court surface actually is.  It’s so common in fact, there are videos online with 100+ thousand views about how to do it.

But, that’s a little crazy right?  Pickleball is a huge sport in its own right (see previous blog post on this), we should have our own courts, with our own lines (only our own lines) and built with our sport in mind.  Particularly, the “impact on the bod” piece.  There’s lot’s of chatter about this – but it’s true – many people come to pickleball from other racquet sports that the body can’t do anymore.  Pickleball courts are way smaller than tennis courts so that helps a lot but there are other differences that can help.

Enter Har-Tru Pickle Flex Pro.  I haven’t played on it - so this is not an endorsement – but I have heard about it and read about it and it has great promise, not the least of which being that it was developed by a court surface industry leader.

It seems to be similar to Pickleroll and/or Cushion X which are mat systems that can be rolled in and out easily making it possible to create a court somewhere quickly.  The main differences (without having played on all 3) seems to be that Har-Tru Pickle Flex Pro:

·       -Is a tile system v. a mat

·       -Is heavier than say Pickleroll (I have played on this and noticed it can have trouble sitting flat)

·       -Is thicker than others (2 to 4 times thicker) because it has a rubberized cushion base which promises to be both easier on the body and also quieter -both good things IMO – while still playing similarly to the traditional, cushioned hard court that comes from tennis.

There is a place opening in Chicagoland that will use this court surface, which I can’t wait to try.  I’m super hopeful that it delivers on all of these promises!

Please, if you have played on it already, please chime in below with your impressions.