Guidelines of Play GENERAL RULES Pickleball Above the Clouds is primarily a facilitator of social pickleball. Organized play is exclusively doubles. We encourage mixed play with skill levels covering a wide range of abilities. We do however suggest that you at least have some rudimentary 3.0 level skills. New players with less than 3.0…
Guidelines of Play
GENERAL RULES
Pickleball Above the Clouds is primarily a facilitator of social pickleball. Organized play is exclusively doubles. We encourage mixed play with skill levels covering a wide range of abilities. We do however suggest that you at least have some rudimentary 3.0 level skills. New players with less than 3.0 level skills (as defined in pdf below) are usually referred to the PAC pickleball beginner group where they can hone a few skills before moving up to PAC play. The objective is to get everyone present on an open play day as near an equal amount of play time as possible. With that said, there are 3 afternoon/evening play sessions we know of for competitive play for higher skilled players self rated at 3.5 and above (see FACILATED PLAY menu).
At the outset, teams are self assembled upon arrival and court availability. As a general rule, winners stay on the court they’ve just played and split and the first 2 waiting players join them in the next open game. In the prime summer season we have seen all courts in play and quite a few players waiting. When this happens we recommend the paddle stacking procedures described below. When the number of waiting players exceed the number of available courts, we will often revert to a 4 on 4 off regimen.
When your game is complete and you leave your court we ask that you pick up loose balls and re-bucket them before going to paddle up or wait for your next game.
PADDLE STACKING
(for more than four players waiting)
1. Put your name on your paddle!
2. When you come off the court after your game, put your paddles at the end of the paddle line. We will stack SOUTH to NORTH with south going first. The south side is the one nearest the upper parking lot.
3. Paddles must always be placed at the end of the line.
4. You may put your paddles down as a single paddle, two stacked paddles, or four stacked paddles. Two stacked indicated you want to play partners with the other paddle owner, while four stacked paddles indicates four players who wish to play together.
5. Players may not stack their paddle with someone else’s without that player’s permission.
6. Players may only stack paddles at the end of the line. If you want to stack with players further along in the line, they must bring their paddles back to the end of the line to be stacked.
7. Those stacking paddles will give up playing time for the chance to play with a partner (2 paddles stacked) or in a 4-some (4 paddles stacked).
8. If you are a single paddle and do not wish to play with a particular group you may ask the owner of the next single paddle in the rotation to take your place.
Pickleball Above the Clouds 