Pickleball at a tennis club: sharing the courts

Pickleball has grown fast in Britain, and most new groups are looking for courts. A tennis club with empty courts on a weekday morning is the obvious place to ask. For the club, it can mean busier courts, new members and income from hours that earned nothing.

It can also mean the longest argument the committee has ever had. Tennis members worry about losing court time, about lines on their surface and about noise. Pickleball players feel like guests on sufferance. Most of that is avoidable if the club decides the details before the first session, not after the first complaint.

Start with a trial on one court#

The clubs that have done this well nearly all started small: one court, at fixed hours, for one term. A trial lets tennis members see the effect for themselves, and gives the committee numbers to decide with.

Before the trial starts, write down:

• Which court, and why that one.
• Which hours. Pick ones the tennis players do not use.
• What you will measure: how often the hours are used, how many new members join, and any complaints.
• When you will decide, and who decides.

One London club left four pickleball courts marked on a tennis court over a summer. Members booked them for social play about 5% of the time, against 45% for tennis on the same courts. Its tennis committee then asked pickleball to prove itself on one outdoor court before converting any more. Whatever your numbers show, having them is what turns an argument into a decision.

How many pickleball courts fit on a tennis court#

A pickleball court is 6.1 metres by 13.4 metres, about a third of a tennis court. The LTA says up to four fit on one tennis court, two side by side at each end, with a pop-up net for each. Its page on pickleball courts in Britain has the measurements and the lines.

For a trial, two courts on one tennis court is plenty. It gives eight players a game at once, and more can wait.

Lines and nets#

For the trial, use temporary lines. Throw-down lines, chalk or court tape are cheap and come off. Nobody has to agree to anything permanent before they have seen it working.

If the trial goes well, paint them. Pick a colour clearly different from the tennis lines, and ask the contractor who looks after the surface first. Painting can affect a surface’s warranty, and on clay or artificial grass painted lines are not really an option.

Portable nets are better than the tennis net. A pickleball net is 86 cm at the centre, a little lower than a tennis net, and the tennis net only serves one court. Pop-up nets fold away, and one per pickleball court means every court on the tennis court can play. Decide where they are stored and who puts them out.

Which hours pickleball gets#

The best hours for pickleball are the ones tennis does not use. At most clubs that means weekday mornings and early afternoons, when the tennis players are at work. Many of the people taking up pickleball are free then.

Keep pickleball off the peak tennis hours, at least to start with: weekday evenings, weekend mornings and club nights. A tennis member who cannot get a court on a Tuesday evening, and sees pickleball on it, will oppose the whole thing. It will not matter how quiet the courts are at ten on a Wednesday morning.

Review the hours each term with the booking numbers. If the pickleball sessions are full and a tennis court nearby is empty, there is a case for more. If they are half empty, there is a case for fewer.

Booking the courts#

This is where sharing goes wrong most quietly. Suppose players book single pickleball courts, and those courts sit on a tennis court. Then the booking system has to know that one tennis booking blocks every pickleball court on it, and the other way round. Many systems cannot do that, and the first anyone knows is two groups arriving for the same court.

The simplest answer is to hold the whole tennis court for pickleball sessions, the way you would for club night or coaching. Nobody can book tennis on it during the session, and inside the session the pickleball players run their own rotation. A paddle rack by the court and the system in who plays next: rotation systems for club nights works well.

Noise and the neighbours#

Pickleball is louder than tennis. The paddle is hard and the ball is hollow, and the pop carries further than a tennis ball. It bothers the tennis players on the next court as well as the houses beyond the fence, so think about both when you pick the court.

• Use the court furthest from the houses.
• Keep sessions to the daytime, and away from early mornings and late evenings.
• Talk to the nearest neighbours before the trial, not after the first complaint. Tell them the hours and who to call.
• Ask players to use quieter balls and paddles if your club has close neighbours. Quieter equipment exists.

Membership and money#

Decide how pickleball players join before they ask:

• Pay and play for the trial. A session fee lets people try it without the club deciding a category yet.
• A pickleball membership after it. Usually cheaper than full tennis membership, because it covers fewer hours and fewer courts.
• Members who play both pay the full membership and can play either.

Membership categories and fees for racket clubs covers how to set a new category so it sits fairly beside the others.

Buy a starter set for the trial: two portable nets, a few paddles and a bag of balls. It means newcomers can try it without buying anything, and it is the cheapest thing the club will spend on new members all year.

Insurance and the governing bodies#

Before the first session, ask whoever insures the club whether pickleball is covered. If the club is insured through its governing body, read that body’s guidance on pickleball. Pickleball England also affiliates clubs and groups, and its guidance on starting a club is a useful read for whoever runs the sessions.

A voice on the committee#

Once pickleball is more than a trial, give it a voice. A pickleball representative on the committee, or a section with its own organiser, means problems are raised early and by someone who can fix them. A sport without a voice on the committee will feel like a tenant, and tenants leave.

Most of the argument is avoidable if the club decides the details before the first session, not after the first complaint.

A court-sharing agreement to copy#

Write the arrangement down, agree it at a committee meeting, and put it where both sets of players can read it:

Running it in one diary#

Sharing works best when everyone can see the courts in one place: which are held for pickleball, which for club night and coaching, and which are free. In Clayside, a pickleball session is a block on the court diary, like club night, so nobody can book tennis over it. Once the club has a court of its own for pickleball, it can be marked as one.