When your municipality opens up new public courts the first thing you should do is check Facebook and other Social Media for a group. Often times your new courts will have a Facebook page that you can use to see when groups of players are meeting at the courts. This might be broken down into levels and/or include open play (all levels welcome). An example of this might be Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9 am to noon level 4.0 and above. The other days might include open play.

The next order of business would be to check for signs (if any). In this case, there might be (a) court(s) designated as a challenge court(s). Meaning the winners stay on the court as long as they win. This is usually attracts higher level players. Also, some courts might have signage that says “Competitive Play” usually indicating a higher level of play. This would be coupled with the rest of (the) court(s) designated as “social play” which is designated for all levels.

If there is no signage the courts are be available to anyone on a first come first served basis. This system is the same as tennis works in this context. As to how long a set of players holds a court if others are waiting it would normally be until the game being played is over.

There may also be signs that say “Pickleball Only”. If people are playing tennis or any other game on these courts, they can politely be asked to leave.

Once open to the public each court will have its own culture. Meaning it will include good players or perhaps only open or social play which is available to players of all ability levels. Please click here to see our article on court culture.

Over-all a little bit of courtesy and common sense goes a long way!