How To Layout The Perfect Pickleball Complex or Venue

The word is out and pickleball courts are popping up everywhere.  Parks departments are building pickleball courts. Towns and cities are building pickleball courts.  County’s are building pickleball courts.   Yes, the word is out that having pickleball courts can be a boost to the local economy, and can do wonders in pulling communities together socially.  But be careful.

Consider this as a PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT.

Let us start by saying that In our opinion, any pickleball court is a good pickleball court.  Give me a piece of chalk and some portable nets and we’ll have some fun. That is what is making pickleball grow so fast.  But many communities are spending the money to build pickleball courts and some do a great job, and some…..not so much. We’ve seen the best and the worst of pickleball court planning.

Happened to recently catch a new court layout (location will remain unnamed here) where they had a nice distance between the courts, but decided to place a light pole between two of the courts, positioned about half way between the non-volley lines and the baselines.  Guess they wanted good lighting, but OUCH when players start running into that misplaced pole. 

Almost as bad is the court layout that leaves so little room between the baseline and the back fence or wall, that you can’t take a good back swing to serve, let alone running down a lob that was carefully placed over your head.  I’m sure many of us have bruises to show from that lack of court planning.

So this PSA is to help you help those who are building the courts and complexes across the country. There are a lot of things to consider when you build pickleball courts.  So the best thing you can do is educate those builders before they build something they will regret later.

So if you are laying out a new pickleball court complex, what kinda things should be considered?

1) Think seriously about the number of courts you’ll need. 
Are you building courts to simply accommodate the number of players who currently play in your area.  This is the most common mistake made by communities.  Keep in mind that the sport of pickleball is without question, the fastest growing sport in the country and on track to continue its growth path for years.  So plan ahead now.  Otherwise you will have a logjam of disgruntled players very soon, and your growth will stop.

2) Plan adequate space for your courts
This is the second biggest mistake made by pickleball court planners.  Everyone of course wants to squeeze in as many courts as they can in their available space.  But if you squeeze too much and leave too little room between your courts or beyond the baselines, you will create permanent problems, including creating injuries from running into fences or even a player from an adjacent court. 
The USAPA provides the following minimal guidelines for each court:
A total playing area 30 feet wide (9.14 m) and 60 feet long (18.28 m) is the minimum size that is recommended. A total size of 34 feet by 64 feet is preferred.

3) Plan proper access to your courts.  
We see so many pickleball venues that have lots of beautiful courts, but no easy way to enter into the courts. This causes continuous interruption of play.  In placing your gate access to the courts, a good rule of thumb is to position your gates in such a way that a player never has to cross more than one court to arrive at the court they are going to play on.

4) Plan your court useage.  It’s one thing to build a pickleball complex for recreation only play.  But quite different if you are planing to hold tournament play at your venue.   The idea behind holding a tournament is to give a very unique feel for your registered players that is quite different from just playing socially on their home courts.  Otherwise they might as well stay home and play. If you intend to hold tournaments at your new complex, then plan ahead for having a designated area for some vendors.  That area should be in the high traffic area where the players will hang out between matches.  You will need an area for a hospitality tent for your players.  You will need an area for your referees and volunteers to hang out and rest between matches or between duties.  And you will need an area for your tournament operations desk.  What else might you use your courts for?  Plan accordingly, otherwise you potentially shut the door on those additional opportunities to utilize your courts.

The video below was shot recently in Griffin, Georgia where Spalding County has built as close to a perfect pickleball complex as we’ve seen.  They have thought of, and covered so many issues which make for a great pickleball venue.  Do you have to incorporate all their ideas?  Of course not.  But our hope is that this video will help stimulate thoughts and ideas for your next pickleball courts.

Watch This Video For Great Pickleball Court Layout Ideas

So there are a lot of things to consider as you plan that next great pickleball facility.  But it is certainly worth the time it takes to figure it out now rather than later.  The results undoubtedly will show up as increased growth.

Put in the planning time now and you’ll be very happy you did.

Keep up the great work everybody.  Pickleball Rocks because of you.

Rocket, Stephanie, Jason, Wyatt, Josh, Zack Cam, LeEllen and Abby
The Pickleball Rocks Team

Amazing Pickleball Points: Just Wow

We are so thankful that today’s technology allows the capture of so many fantastic points, games and matches from the great sport of pickleball.  Below are some of our favorites, shared by our pickleball friends.  ENJOY!

From Nationals VIII: Gold Medal Match in the 19+ Men
11 Jaw Dropping Points from Matt Staub and Daniel Moore vs Kyle Yates and Wesley Gabrielson.
Captured masterfully by The Pickleball Channel

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How To Start Pickleball Now In Any Community

The question comes up all the time.  How did you get pickleball going in a tiny town like Brookville, Indiana and then in all those places around you?

Well, the old adage of “it’s not what you know, but who you know” has never been more true.  In our case we took the time to make the right connections and build the right relationships first.  Then pickleball magically took off.    It’s hard to explain, so we boiled it all down into 3 simple steps, wrote it all down and made it available at www.StartPickleballNow.com .

We believe anyone can grow pickleball in any size community, town or city if you just follow the three basic suggestions / tips in the free report from www.StartPickleballNow.com

We enjoyed writing it.  Hope you enjoy abundant pickleball growth from it.

Grab your copy today at www.StartPickleballNow.com

Start Pickleball Now

Enjoy,

Rocket, Josh, Abby, Zack and Stephanie

The Pickleball Rocks Team

Who Cares About Wooden Paddles? WE DO and Here’s Why

WHY SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT WOODEN PADDLES?

Mainly because the wooden paddle is one of the best tools we have for growing our sport faster.

We rarely sell a wooden paddle to an individual player.   Don’t even try to.

What a wooden paddle does is helps us eliminate one of the main barriers (COST) to finding new places to play.

An under $10 paddle opens up a myriad of new places to play very quickly and allows us to grow the sport faster.

We just recently opened a new church to pickleball. We put a good composite paddle in the pastor’s hand to try it. After he loved it, we explained that we could have them up and playing for under $200. We ordered the USAPA net and 4 wooden paddles for them. We donated a couple of balls to show good will and we now have 3 new indoor courts open to our community.

We did the same thing with a local fitness center last month. We put a paddle in the owner’s hand to try pickleball. As soon as he was hooked, we sold him a net and 4 wooden paddles for $200. We donated a few balls. Now there is pickleball there every single day.

When you are trying to get places to play, the first thing that place looks at is the cost to get started, and we have found there is a big difference in their cooperation and willingness to get started when you tell them it’s under $200 to get started as compared to $400+ for better paddles that they have to worry about getting beat up or taken. They don’t have to worry about a wooden paddle walking off or getting damaged so their stress level is less.

I’ve heard some people say we are doing players an injustice when we start them with a wooden paddle.  PLEEEEEASE!!!!!  Give those new players some credit.

From our experience, we rarely end up selling any wooden paddles to a facility’s new players nor do we try to. Weeks after starting a new location, we walk in and we don’t see any wooden paddles. Everyone is using decent paddles.   The new players just naturally want a good paddle. They don’t have to be told or sold.

I might be off base, but I believe our number one goal as players, and as ambassadors is to grow pickleball and that is done most efficiently through starting new places to play. Everything else seems to take care of itself.

At www.ThePickleballPaddleFoundation.com, you can buy a good, almost indestructible wooden paddle that is under 10 ounces for under $10 with FREE shipping.  It plays quite well.  We’ve tried it numerous times.  Pickleball Rocks Wooden Paddle

By the way, if you really feel you need to have a bag full of composite paddles before you can teach people the game then, if you are a free member of The Pickleball Champions Club, you receive, as part of your free membership, a personal use coupon good for 10% off any Pickleball Rocks gear, including paddles, at PickleballShopping.com. That would put you into the world famous Pro-Lite Classic composite paddles for around $43.

Personally, when I’m going to teach, I have my 2 “good” paddles in my bag and 2 wooden ones so I can just get a foursome on the court to experience the game. I don’t have much invested and that’s all I need to help pickleball grow.

Keep up the good work(s) everyone.

Together let’s double pickleball in 2015. #doublepickleball2015

Rocket

Helping Pickleball Grow

One year in the making, the Pickleball Rocks team is proud to launch the new website HelpingPickleballGrow.com.

Helping Picikleball GrowWe love the time we spend on the courts and hanging out with our pickleball friends.  But the one thing we enjoy more than any other is helping communities grow this great sport all across the country.

It is so much fun to be a part of the great growth that pickleball is experiencing everywhere.

As much as we’d love to, we simply can’t be everywhere, so we spend a great deal of our time building programs that will help players and communities grow even faster than normal.

Our latest 3 programs, all available through HelpingPickleballGrow.com, have all been built and tested to help pickleball grow anywhere, anytime.

They are:

The Pickleball Mile: Offering people the gift of good health through playing pickleball for exercise.  Track your pickleball playing and win rewards.  Introduce new players and win rewards.  The perfect tool to introduce and use in any community and/or club to help your numbers grow.

The Pickleball Champions Club Offering people who champion this sport, the tips, tools and specific techniques that will help grow their club and their community.

The Pickleball Rocks Paddle Foundation Providing free or extremely low cost equipment for schools, YMCAs, and parks and recreation departments.

We hope you will join us in the cause to double pickleball in 2015.

Though some wonder whether doubling pickleball would be a good thing, one thing we know for sure is that if we can get everyone to introduce pickleball to just one new player this year, we would double the number of players and in doing so we would attract the attention of sponsors as well as parks and recreation departments, YMCAs, and community and town leaders all across the country.   Rest assured this type of attention would bring more courts and more support than ever before.  #doublepickleball2015

CLICK THE IMAGE TO SEE WHAT ALL THE EXCITEMENT

IS ABOUT AT  HELPING PICKLEBALL GROW.com  ====>>>>>>     Helping Pickleball Grow