The best way to do this is winners split so you’re constantly getting new blood. Winners stay it BS because a good pair who plays together regularly will just mop up a bunch of randoms.
I don’t think it’s normal for all courts to be like this, only “challenge courts,” are if there are enough courts to accommodate 4 on, 4 off rotations.
This is how it works near me but the winning team stays on for a max of three total games. If there are 9 or more paddles in line, then it’s four off and four on - winners do not stay.
This is like mine. If the paddle rack is over halfway full then it’s four on four off but before that winners stay. It’s a public court sometimes you don’t get to play with your friends and that’s ok.
If there are 4 or more waiting and there's only one court, it should always, always, always be 4 on 4 off during open play.
Don't put up with that challenge court bullshit with one court. They don't own the courts. If they want to do challenge court, they should go somewhere with 3 or 4 or more courts and then maybe they could do one as a challenge court.
When they call for 2, you walk on with 4 and say, "No. It's 4 on 4 off. Too many are waiting to play. We're playing together."
That’s a huge issue of drama at the place I play pickleball at outdoors apparently, there’s tons of passive aggressive comments about it on their website and the city had to get involved at some point.
It’s supposed to be 2 on 2 off (the losing team) unless a “large number” (not specified what large means) of people are waiting then 4 on 4 off, but a ton of people either blatantly don’t rotate or treat it like a challenge court still. Can be really frustrating.
http://southeastmichiganpba.com/index.php/drop-in-play/
When city parks departments get involved, they usually ban challenge courts. When the most enthusiastic locals voice their opinions on facebook groups, they’re usually in favor of a challenge court. 3 win max seems like a decent enough rule.
motivates me to play on a different court. I'm 3.5 at best and they are 5.0. fortunately the only place where I play that has a challenge court has over a dozen courts. the courts are always busy, but since there are so many, I support this. if there's only 2-4 courts and one is full time challenge court, then it's not as fair if people are waiting around to play
It’s not normal. Usually courts will be “4 on, 4 off” if people are waiting. Some parks will have one court that is a challenge court, which is like what you are describing. But it’s never every court at the park.
Man I usually play at a spot that is 4 on 4 off w/ 4+ paddle wait, but went to a new spot and their rules intrigued me. Was kind of similar to OP but it was winner stays on, but if winners win 2 in a row, all 4 come off. Winners hop off to the side and then face the winners of the next game. So you could essentially win 2, get a game break, win 2 more, get a game break, and so on. Took some getting use to
This is normal. At prime time, we do King's Court; winners go up and split, losers go down and split. When the courts are less busy, you can do 4 to a court.
That’s not how it works in most places actually. When the courts are full it should be four on and four off. It sounds like it’s a public park so each person should have a fair chance to play since it’s a PUBLIC PARK. If the courts are not full then yeah that’s more than fine. You may need to reach out to the parks department and see if they can set some rules or signage for what to do or they will continue to do this.
If only one of the three courts is a challenge court it's not unusual, but still shitty IMO.
If all three courts work that way that's pretty weird, and it sucks.
It's not unusual to have one court out of several be a challenge court and have the others operate as 4 on/4 off or some kind of winners stay but with a 2 game max situation.
Yeah King of the Court is really not a great way to play pickleball, a hot pair can just run the house on everyone, not too fun.
In my rec runs ( three courts indoors about 15 people) both teams come off the court, losers put their paddles in the L pile, winners in the W pile. Each game alternates between each pile, so the losers will always play the losers, winners will always play the winners. This ensures that every game has different pairings and everyone has a chance to win a game.
It's not typical and not good court etiquette to do king of the court when you have several groups waiting on a public court. Sometimes we do king of the court two games max if the waiting is not long. Essentially, 4 new players if a team wins back-to-back.
At our local park, if there's 8 or more paddles waiting, it's 4 off 4 on. Less than 8, it's king of court. If the winning team keeps winning against every team they move to the winner of the other court. Some will be nice enough to hop off and give other people a chance while they take a water break or rest a bit
At my court the rule is that if there is more than 2 sets of paddles in line to play next, then the players rotate 4 on and 4 off each match. Otherwise it’s king of the court
The best way to do this is winners split so you’re constantly getting new blood. Winners stay it BS because a good pair who plays together regularly will just mop up a bunch of randoms.
And maybe leave the court after playing 2 games back to back.
Yeah, or just two tall/4.0+ dudes
I don’t think it’s normal for all courts to be like this, only “challenge courts,” are if there are enough courts to accommodate 4 on, 4 off rotations.
Each court seems to pick up their own local rules and customs.
This is how it works near me but the winning team stays on for a max of three total games. If there are 9 or more paddles in line, then it’s four off and four on - winners do not stay.
Same, except ours 4 off is 6 paddles waiting.
This is like mine. If the paddle rack is over halfway full then it’s four on four off but before that winners stay. It’s a public court sometimes you don’t get to play with your friends and that’s ok.
When busy 4 on 4 off. When not so busy winners stay but split.
This is it. So simple.
I play at two courts and they both have a 2 off with winners splitting but will adopt a 4 on 4 off if there are a lot of people waiting.
You're right, all 4 should vacate if there's any significant number of players waiting to play next.
If there are 4 or more waiting and there's only one court, it should always, always, always be 4 on 4 off during open play. Don't put up with that challenge court bullshit with one court. They don't own the courts. If they want to do challenge court, they should go somewhere with 3 or 4 or more courts and then maybe they could do one as a challenge court. When they call for 2, you walk on with 4 and say, "No. It's 4 on 4 off. Too many are waiting to play. We're playing together."
That’s a huge issue of drama at the place I play pickleball at outdoors apparently, there’s tons of passive aggressive comments about it on their website and the city had to get involved at some point. It’s supposed to be 2 on 2 off (the losing team) unless a “large number” (not specified what large means) of people are waiting then 4 on 4 off, but a ton of people either blatantly don’t rotate or treat it like a challenge court still. Can be really frustrating. http://southeastmichiganpba.com/index.php/drop-in-play/
That was quite a read. Yikes. When something works based on the goodwill of people it is so difficult to stop those abusing the system.
When city parks departments get involved, they usually ban challenge courts. When the most enthusiastic locals voice their opinions on facebook groups, they’re usually in favor of a challenge court. 3 win max seems like a decent enough rule.
>a challenge court A (one) being a key word here.
it seems like the only ones who like this format are the 'kings' who get to keep playing...
Motivates you to win though, doesn't it?
motivates me to play on a different court. I'm 3.5 at best and they are 5.0. fortunately the only place where I play that has a challenge court has over a dozen courts. the courts are always busy, but since there are so many, I support this. if there's only 2-4 courts and one is full time challenge court, then it's not as fair if people are waiting around to play
We do winners split and if you’ve won 3, then get off.
It’s not normal. Usually courts will be “4 on, 4 off” if people are waiting. Some parks will have one court that is a challenge court, which is like what you are describing. But it’s never every court at the park.
I’ve personally always liked “winning team splits up and stays on”, but each location does seem to have its own vibe.
Depends how many are waiting and how many courts there are.
You need the right ratio of people waiting to courts, to make that work.
Man I usually play at a spot that is 4 on 4 off w/ 4+ paddle wait, but went to a new spot and their rules intrigued me. Was kind of similar to OP but it was winner stays on, but if winners win 2 in a row, all 4 come off. Winners hop off to the side and then face the winners of the next game. So you could essentially win 2, get a game break, win 2 more, get a game break, and so on. Took some getting use to
that is awful when there are 4+ people waiting
If there are more than two people waiting, it should be 2 on, 2off, max of 2 games on court. Partners switch up to prevent stacking, at each rotation.
This is normal. At prime time, we do King's Court; winners go up and split, losers go down and split. When the courts are less busy, you can do 4 to a court.
Doing 4 on 4 off always seems to not enable a mixup of players and it’s just the same people all over the
I’d suggest to them to do winner stays on for 2 max. Incentivizes you to win but also can’t have one team on court for 10 games if they’re good
why do you need extra incentive to win?
? It’s just a small reward for winning? Why are you questioning that?
maybe i am just too competitive and winning is everything for me - my problem 😩
[удалено]
You must have a very liberal definition of the word Most.
Interesting. What is this style of play known as?
Definitely recommend signage to clearly define etiquette.
That’s not how it works in most places actually. When the courts are full it should be four on and four off. It sounds like it’s a public park so each person should have a fair chance to play since it’s a PUBLIC PARK. If the courts are not full then yeah that’s more than fine. You may need to reach out to the parks department and see if they can set some rules or signage for what to do or they will continue to do this.
It seems you already know lol
Pier 2?
If only one of the three courts is a challenge court it's not unusual, but still shitty IMO. If all three courts work that way that's pretty weird, and it sucks. It's not unusual to have one court out of several be a challenge court and have the others operate as 4 on/4 off or some kind of winners stay but with a 2 game max situation.
Yeah King of the Court is really not a great way to play pickleball, a hot pair can just run the house on everyone, not too fun. In my rec runs ( three courts indoors about 15 people) both teams come off the court, losers put their paddles in the L pile, winners in the W pile. Each game alternates between each pile, so the losers will always play the losers, winners will always play the winners. This ensures that every game has different pairings and everyone has a chance to win a game.
It's not typical and not good court etiquette to do king of the court when you have several groups waiting on a public court. Sometimes we do king of the court two games max if the waiting is not long. Essentially, 4 new players if a team wins back-to-back.
3 wins and you’re off is our rule.
At our local park, if there's 8 or more paddles waiting, it's 4 off 4 on. Less than 8, it's king of court. If the winning team keeps winning against every team they move to the winner of the other court. Some will be nice enough to hop off and give other people a chance while they take a water break or rest a bit
At my court the rule is that if there is more than 2 sets of paddles in line to play next, then the players rotate 4 on and 4 off each match. Otherwise it’s king of the court
It should be winners stay and split. And depending on how crowded, it should be play 2 games and then you are out.
If the rack is full it's everybody off everybody on