The Art of Pickleball Open Play

Believe it or not, there is an art to pickleball open play.

The idea of open play is to bring together players of all levels, ages, and gender in the spirit of community, teamwork, and sportsmanship, but sometimes, it goes off script.  

There are so many different types of players you’ll encounter at open play:

• The player who watches on the sidelines working up the nerve to play
• The player stretching on the sidelines chomping at the bit to get in a game
• The player who apologizes after each shot is missed
• The player where every time we miss, it’s your fault and you get “The Look”
• The player who always has to win
• The best player on the court
• The player who finds every way to cheat the rack-up system
• The player who refuses to rotate
• The player who’s just happy to be there
• The bad line caller
• The player who coaches everyone up
• The fist pumper

….and the list goes on and on…..

Here’s the short of it: with open play, you are taking a chance to get in some good games at essentially no cost. You’ll undoubtedly be competing with players of various abilities. And you’ll encounter a handful of characters as mentioned above (and you may relate to one or more of them), but here are the most important parts to keep in mind. 

1. Go in with a good attitude. Smile, laugh, high five, and have fun. 
2. Pickleball can provide life lessons on being a good human. Learn from adversity. 
3. Play your game and don’t sweat the small stuff.  

No one is winning a prize out there, so if the ball is close and you are unsure, call it in and set the tone. Be a positive leader and others will follow. This is psychology at its finest. 

If playing below your level, work on your specialty shots, controlled dinks, a new serve, etc.  Work on being a good supportive partner. If you are playing above your level, rise to occasion and stay in the point as long as you can. Remember, pickleball games are typically a short ten to fifteen minute experience. After that you get to rotate, so make the most of the short time with those players on your court. If it’s not going well, you get to start over again soon. Head up, next play!   

When Slate Pickleball Club opens in September, we will have daily opportunities for Open Play. Our Level-Based Open Play will be run by a highly trained Slate Coach to ensure you have a great time, as well as being accurately assigned a Level. This is critical as all players must be assigned a Level to be able to sign up for programming! 

Our Open Play schedule for the Fall Season will be as follows:

Wide Open Play | all level | complimentary with membership ($45/month adult individual or $15/day for daily):

• Daily 7-9am
• Sunday – Thursday 12-2pm

Wide Open Play | Levels 5-7 (3.6 and up) | complimentary with membership:

• Friday and Saturday 12-2pm

Level-Based Open Play | all level | coach-run | up and down basket system | $4/hour:

• Daily 9-10:30am
• Daily 10:30-12pm

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We can’t wait to see you on the courts!