Pickleball Events

On this page we will list different types of events or activities that pickleball clubs can use to promote Pickleball in their club.

Drop-In Play:

.....Drop-in play times are times when the courts are reserved for social play by all club players that shows up. Generally, when a lot of players show up, players will tend to split up by ability, but you will usually get quite a few chances to play with players both better and worse than yourselves.

.....The idea is have some times where players can get together with and meet other players of all abilities without having to prearrange a match. Players should player no more than 2 matches when others are waiting with at least 2 players or more rotating out after each match. Each club should establish there own procedures to be followed when players are waiting.

.....While you generally shouldn't need to be particularly good to play drop-in, you should know the rules, and be generally able to at least hit the ball.

Ladder Play:

.....Ladder Play is a method used by some Arizona Pickleball groups to provide competition among its members and to provide one method of meeting other members of similar ability. The method described below is used by Sun City Grand and Sun City West with some variations between clubs.

.....A ladder match consists of 4 players on a court playing 1 game to 15 points with each of the other 3 players. The team first reaching 15 is the winner. You do not have to win by two points. Teams will switch sides when one team reaches 8 points. If you forget, then simply switch sides as soon as you remember.

.....Players start the match by flipping a coin or other means to decide who gets the choice of serve or side. If Team A wins the toss and chooses to serve or to receive, then Team B may decide which side of the court they wish to start the match on.

.....At the end of each game, each player should record on the official score sheet the number of points they made in that game. After the third game, each player will total their scores for the three games and then initial their final score. If for example, Player 1 made 8 points, 11 points, and 15 points for the three games, his final score will be 34 points.

.....The ladder captain will later determine a players new position on the ladder by finding his winning percentage. He will do this by dividing the players total points scored by the total points possible. For example, taking Player 1's score for the day of 34 divided by 45 would be 75.55%. The ladder is arranged by listing the players from the highest percentage to the lowest. This allows players to play with players close to their own ability and at the same time allows for quite a bit of movement back and forth on the ladder. An unknown player will usually start at the bottom of a ladder, but the ladder captain has the option of placing them higher if they are of known ability. A new player is usually restricted in how far they can move up the ladder regardless of their score.

.....An alternate method of moving players up or down the ladder that is used in Sun City West during the summer is to only move the lowest scoring player in a group of 4 down to the next lowest group, and to only move the top scoring player up to the next group. When using this method, the ladder captain does not keep track of the players percentages, but only their position on the ladder. This has worked fairly well in SCW.

.....Happy Trails Pickleball Club uses a unique ladder system that is similar, but more complicated than that used by Sun City West during the summer months. If you visit their web site, you can find an explanation of their current ladder system, their previous system, and why they switched methods. It is fairly interesting, and I think from my experience on the other ladder systems, that they make some good points for using there system.

.....Depending on how many players and courts a club has, it may have either one ladder or several divided by ability levels such as "A", "B", "C", or "Advanced", "Intermediate", "Novice", etc.

Handicap Tournaments

.....Handicaps can be used for any tournament and will provide a better chance for all teams or individuals to win a match or possibly even the tournament. They are usually used in a tournament where partners are drawn by chance to help give every team a chance and usually provides surprise winners. Remember that a team playing against another team with a handicap not only gives up points, but must play more carefully giving up some of their power shots to avoid errors. This also tends to make the matches closer! Use the following steps in using handicaps.

• Wait until the draw is closed and all teams are paired.
• List teams from best to worst. You will usually have several groups of teams of similar ability
• Now assign handicap points starting with team #2 in an effort to make teams equal. Groups of teams of similar ability should have the same handicaps.
• You should probably never assign more than an 8 point handicap in an 11 point game or 11 point handicap in a 15 point game.
• Now make the tournament draw. If team A has a 8 point handicap and team B has a 4 point handicap then the match will start with team A having 4 points. The team with the handicap will serve first.
• In a two out of 3 game match, the team losing the first game will have the handicap adjusted by 2 points in their favor. In the example given, if team A loses the first game they will start the 2nd game with 6 points (4+2), but if team A wins the first game they will start the 2nd game with 2 points (4-2). This tends to promote more 3 game matches.
• Remember this is a format that produces surprises. It is impossible to handicap teams perfectly and teams do have good days and bad days and even good games and bad games, so just do your best.
• Because it is impossible to handicap perfectly, it often helps to combine handicaps with the Points of the Compass Format so that everybody gets at least 3 matches regardless of how bad your handicapping turns out to be.

Points of the Compass Format

.....The Compass Format can be used on any tournament with a fairly large number of entries. If you do a search on the Internet you can find an explanation of this format that involves winners and losers moving different directions after each round. However, the basic idea is that everyone starts in Division 1. After round 1, you will move all losers into a 2nd division we will call Division 2. After round 2, all winners in Division 1 will remain in Division 1 and all losers in Division 1 will go into a new Division we will call Division 3. All winners in Division 2 will remain in Division 2, while all losers in Division 2 will go into a new Division we will call Division 4. At this point, we have 4 different divisions and any further loses results in elimination. In this format, everyone is guaranteed at least 3 matches and there will be winners in 4 different divisions. This format works best when entries can be restricted to 16, 32, or 64 teams. It is suggested that a list of alternates be kept for last minute substitutions.

Luck of the Draw Tournament:

.....A Luck of the Draw tournament is one in which players have partners assigned by the Luck of the Draw. It could consist of Men's and Women's doubles one time and Mixed Doubles another time. You could have all ability levels in each category, or you could have a separate division for each ability level such as: "A-Mixed Doubles", "B-Mixed Doubles", and "C-Mixed Doubles". If you combine all ability levels in one category, you should probably not allow "A" players to play with other "A" players and you should either assign handicap points, use a points of the compass format, or a double or triple elimination format.

Choose Your Own Partner:

.....This is a doubles only tournament in which you choose your own partner. Otherwise the choices are exactly the same as the Luck of the Draw tournament described above. These tournaments are almost always divided up into ability groups such as "A", "B", "C" but again the various formats such as points of the compass, double or triple elimination, consolation, or handicapped can be used.

Luck of the Draw Social:

.....This is usually a non-elimination semi-round robin mixed doubles social tournament in which players enter divisions that are organized into ability groups such as "A", "B", "C", "D", or "A-B" & "C-D". You should create groups that fit your clubs ability levels.

.....Play in each group will consist of 3 or 4 rounds with each round consisting of 1 game to 11 or 15 (win by 1 point). Matches are scheduled in advance by number with participants playing with as many different partners and opponents as possible.

.....After the schedule by numbers is made, players are assigned their numbers by random draw. A schedule/scorecard should then be printed out for each player that shows which players are playing each round, who they are playing with, and what court they are playing on. For example, player 3 will have a schedule with his/her name at the top and highlighted each round that it appears on the schedule so he can find his/her matches easily. There should also be places on the scorecard to show how many points the player scored for each round plus a place for the total score for all rounds. Sample Score Card (Note: m3 is a man & w3 is a woman)

Team Matches or Social Play

.....There is a need to come up with ideas on formats of play between clubs such as Arizona Tradition playing with or against Sun City West. These events could be competitive matches between players of similar ability from both clubs or they could provide an opportunity for social play with new players in a variety of formats.

.....One idea would be to invite one club a month to participate in drop in for one morning or evening. "A" & "B" players would play at one club and "B" & "C" would play at the other. I'm sure there are lots of different possibilities, but these activities have to take place at both clubs to get approval from the various recreation boards. EMail your ideas to Bob@ AZPickleballFun.com or click here and fill out the form. I will post ideas which seem to have possibilities!