Pickleball is a popular sport. Also popular is wearable technology usage. Because the validity and reliability of wearable technology during pickleball is unknown, the purpose of this research was to evaluate the ability of common devices to return heart rate and estimated energy expenditure during pickleball activity. Twenty adult participants were outfitted with a portable metabolic unit and heart rate monitor (criterion measures). Experimental devices were a Garmin Instinct, Polar Vantage M2, Polar OH1, and Polar Verity Sense. Participants played simulated pickleball for 10 min. Validity measures included mean absolute percent error (MAPE) and Lin’s Concordance Correlation Coefficient (CCC), whereas reliability measures included coefficient of variation (CV) and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The heart rate returned lower than 10% MAPE across all devices (Instinct = 5.73–6.32%, Verity Sense = 2.92–2.97%, OH1 = 3.39–3.45%) and greater than 0.85 CCC (Instinct = 0.85–0.88, Verity Sense = 0.96–0.96, OH1 = 0.93–0.94). The CV was below 10% (Instinct = 9.30%, Verity Sense = 2.68%, OH1 = 5.01%), and ICC was above 0.7 (Instinct = 0.77, Verity Sense = 0.98, OH1 = 0.91). The energy expenditure MAPE was greater than 10% (Instinct = 27.67–28.08%, Vantage M2 = 18.87–23.38%) with CCC lower than 0.7 (Instinct = 0.47–0.49, Vantage M2 = 0.62–0.63). Reliability thresholds were met in the Vantage M2 (CV = 6%, ICC = 0.98) but not in the Instinct (CV = 15%, ICC = 0.86). The Instinct was neither valid nor reliable for estimated energy expenditure, while the Polar Vantage M2 was reliable but not valid. All devices returned valid and reliable heart rates during pickleball.

Background: Pickleball is one of the fastest growing sports, and the use of virtual reality is also fast growing. Because the physiological responses in real life (IRL) vs. virtual reality are unknown, the purpose of this research was to compare heart rate, metabolic and pulmonary measures IRL vs. mixed reality (MR) during pickleball activity. Methods: Eleven adult participants were outfitted with a portable metabolic unit, heart rate monitor, and virtual reality headsets. Participants played simulated pickleball for 5 min IRL and 5 min in MR. Dependent variables included average heart rate (HR [beats per minute (bpm)], ventilation (VE [L/min]), tidal volume (VT [L]), respiratory frequency (Rf [breaths per min]), respiratory exchange ratio (RER), percent of calories from fat (FAT%), percent of calories from carbohydrate (CHO%), energy expenditure (EE [kilocalorie (kcal]), and VO₂ (mL/kg/min). Data were analyzed using paired t-tests with significance accepted at p < 0.05. Effect size measurements were determined by interpretation of small (d = 0.2), medium (d = 0.5), and large (d = 0.8). Results: All metabolic and pulmonary variables except for FAT% were higher during IRL when compared with MR with effect sizes ranging from median to large. Conclusions: The results of this study provide evidence that playing pickleball IRL results in greater physiological responses in comparison to MR. Since MR demands less exertion and substrate use than IRL this result can be beneficial for training purposes with the added potential of reduced injury.