Initial Development Through Serial Pilot Studies of the Pickleball Power and Placement Test

There are no widely used standardized tests of pickleball skill. The purpose of this research was to develop a test to represent general paddle-stroke ability via evaluation of the serve. This paper describes multiple phases of sequential exploratory research studies that iteratively developed the procedures of the Pickleball Power and Placement test. Additionally, we performed preliminary examinations of reliability and validity. In early phases, pickleball players were recruited to perform the test in a single session to determine aspects of its reliability. In later phases, players were recruited to perform the test immediately prior to playing in a pickleball tournament to test the validity of the test for predicting winning performance in the sport. The results of the earlier phases demonstrated good inter-rater reliability and helped provide data-driven modifications to the test setup and procedures. The results of the later stages demonstrated preliminary validity for the test to predict winning performance in singles and women’s doubles tournaments, though not for men’s doubles. The results of the final stage indicate that the current procedures may not adequately provide participants with an opportunity to overcome the learning effect on the test; however, the learning effect may be of such small effect size to have no practical relevance. We conclude that the Pickleball Power and Placement test demonstrates sufficient reliability and validity to warrant further development and more rigorous testing.