There’s a whole family of “paddle” sports, and platform tennis is the one built for cold weather. If you’ve seen people playing on a fenced, elevated court in the middle of winter, that’s platform tennis (sometimes called “paddle”). Here’s how it compares to pickleball — and how the paddle-sport family fits together.
The court and the screens
The defining feature of platform tennis: it’s played on a smaller court surrounded by 12-foot wire screens that are in play, like squash — you can let the ball hit the screen and play it back. The court sits on a heated aluminum platform so snow melts and you can play through winter. Pickleball has no screens; once the ball is out, it’s out, and there’s no heated deck.
Paddle and ball
Platform tennis uses a solid, perforated paddle and a spongy rubber ball that’s heavier and deader than a tennis ball. Pickleball uses a similar solid paddle but a hard, perforated plastic ball. Both are doubles-first sports played close to the net.
Scoring & format
Platform tennis uses traditional tennis scoring (games and sets, 15-30-40) and is almost always doubles. Pickleball uses its own simple games-to-11 scoring and can be singles or doubles.
The paddle-sport family
It’s easy to mix these up, so here’s the quick map: pickleball (open court, hard plastic ball, biggest in the U.S.), padel (enclosed glass court, tennis-like ball, big in Europe and Latin America), and platform tennis (heated deck with wire screens, spongy ball, a U.S. winter sport). All use solid paddles; the courts and balls are what set them apart.
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