What We Learned in Day 1 of New Open Play at Marshdale
All in all, it wasn’t a disaster.
The huge turnout today put stress on a new system for divvying up the courts - Advanced play on the four north courts, Intermediate play on the four south courts as EPRD announced. We were good at putting chairs outside the fence. Actually, there would have been no way to put them inside, it was so crowded.
There were lots of suggestions. But none without problems of their own. Rather than proceed with trial and error we’re going to stick with EPRD’s system and learn how to make it work best while working through alternative solutions.
Here are some things we can do:
When your game is completed, before walking off the court through the curtain STOP. Is there a game going on right in front of you with point in progress? Wait for the point to end before going to stack your paddles. Same with moving toward the paddles as part of the Next Four.
When one side - Advanced or Intermediate - is out of balance by a significantly larger number of players, ask yourself if you need to be in that group. If you’re playing up in the Advanced group, it would be beneficial to all if you grabbed a few players at your level and moved to Intermediate. Conversely, if you’re among the better players in Intermediate and there are far fewer Advanced players, move to the Advanced group. We’re counting on that middle group to self-select and keep the two sides in balance.
Have patience. Pickleball wan’t created in a day. It takes time to learn a new system.