Pickleball Clubplay

Four Pickleball courts can be set up on Centre Court (the hard court nearest the clubhouse).   2 full size Pickleball courts have been marked out adjacent to the patio for use with the 2 white Pickleball nets stored on the side-lines.  Take one bag per court from the Pickleball locker which contains bats & balls, plus court markers if needed.  A further full size court is marked out in the quadrant by the hedge and car park, for use with the black Pickleball net stored there.

NB. the recommended full area of a Pickleball court is 34 x 64 feet (10.4 x 19.5m) – this allows room off court to run into when playing the ball.  Line markings should be 2 inches wide (as for tennis).

If a 4th court is required a mini-tennis net can be obtained from the Office and set up in the remaining quadrant (a net height of 31 inches typically – raise net as much as possible towards 34 inches high in the middle).  The kitchen line has been measured and marked on the mini-tennis court there and the red court lines can be used as approximate court boundaries (a smaller 11m x 5.5m size than the 13.4m x 6.1m used for Pickleball).

Session format

Club sessions ideally consist of doubles games, with rotation of players around courts approximately every 15 minutes.   Rally scoring to 21 is the preferred game format but where players are waiting to rotate in, a shorter ‘rally scoring to 11’ game is advised – see Rules & Scoring

If there are not even doubles numbers, other playing formats that can be used are:

Two player Singles

• – For format & scoring see Rules & Scoring however if there are doubles games on other courts then it’s recommended everyone plays rally scoring (to 21 or 11 as agreed)
• – If the full court is too much for either player to cover try Skinny Singles – serve diagonally as for normal singles but then only play in that diagonal for the rest of the point

Three player Singles vs Doubles

• – Use Rally Scoring – serve changes side each time the serve is lost, with the doubles team players serving depending on the score i.e. right hand player if score is even and left hand player if score is odd

Five player rotation

• – Use traditional ‘side out’ Scoring but when any server loses their serve, they swap out with the waiting player
• – Keep to a 1st & 2nd server per side pattern (a player swapping in when the 1st server has lost does not serve in that turn) with 1st server on a team always being the player on the right hand side (regardless of when they last swapped in or out)
• – Finish when one side reaches 11 points or 2 ahead – it may be unclear who exactly won though, as everyone may have played on that side at one point or another!
• – The winning server should then swap out with the waiting player before you start another game