This pickle ball thing is getting serious now

Peter_sweden

New User
Quite dramatic! Pickleball is (as of yet) almost unheard of here in Sweden. But maybe this is what's in store for us in the near future...
 

tennis3

Hall of Fame
Pickleball players are right in this case.

I was at the park tennis courts closest to my house a few years ago. A 50+ year old man and his 20-something year old son had set up a soccer goal in the tennis court and were playing soccer. This place has 3 tennis courts and each court is separated by fences (so each court is "individual"). The net was broken in the middle court. These guys were on one of the end courts so I took the court on the other end.

FYI, there's a full soccer field with nets just outside of the tennis courts.

Half hour later a family comes to play doubles. They ask these guys if they would take the middle court with the broken net to play soccer. These guys refused. My partner and I ask them to move as well, telling them that they shouldn't even be playing soccer on the courts in the first place. There's the normal posturing and threats you'd expect in this situation. Then one of the guys says "show me a sign or anything that says I can't play soccer on this court". He was right. No sign. So I told him I'd have one made.

Next day I called the Park Commissioner. Explained what had happened and especially told him about the broken net (which was almost certainly broken by soccer players or skateboarders). That's when he became interested. He doesn't like spending his budget on "vandalized" equipment. I told him to make signs that say "TENNIS USE ONLY". They were in place by the end of the week (and are still there).

Does this sign stop people from playing soccer (or pickleball) on the tennis courts? No, it doesn't. The courts are still just seen as "for public recreation". So the "tennis only" rule can't really be enforced. The only time the rule is enforced is if something is "vandalized" (net gets broken for example). Then the Park Commissioner gets involved. But he's mostly watching out for skateboarders or just general teenage vandalism.
 

cks

Hall of Fame
Pickleball players are right in this case.
Agreed. I don't like it, but from the video it appears that the pickleball players were following the rules and got their permit. Too bad the tennis players didn't have their paperwork in order.
 

eah123

Hall of Fame
Pickle ball is definitely being played on clay. It has taken over Saturday afternoons at my club’s Har Tru courts. The interesting thing is that picklers seem to be much more tolerant of worse playing conditions (weather and courts).
 

Nostradamus

Bionic Poster
Pickle ball is definitely being played on clay. It has taken over Saturday afternoons at my club’s Har Tru courts. The interesting thing is that picklers seem to be much more tolerant of worse playing conditions (weather and courts).
Red clay of rollan garros, its even better.
 

ktx

Professional
In this particular case, it was heavily reported on including discussed here. Pickleballers were literally interrupting a kids tennis camp run by the licensed instructors at the public tennis center and were just trying to make a point with all the videoing. This clip is conveniently edited and total click bait. So dumb.
 
D

Deleted member 629564

Guest
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cks

Hall of Fame
I found a better video that covers the event from the OP. Tennis club now has a temporary permit to use the courts.
 

dlam

Semi-Pro
This is really funny shiit
Gotta give it up to the pickle ball movement
They have no where it play
 

5sets

Hall of Fame
That’s really dirty to make a point with kids there for their camp. Makes me despise these dicklers even more. You’d think they would want to make friends in the tennis community as more and more clubs are adding Dickle to their offering.
 

ThinkPad

Rookie
Pickleball players are right in this case.

I was at the park tennis courts closest to my house a few years ago. A 50+ year old man and his 20-something year old son had set up a soccer goal in the tennis court and were playing soccer. This place has 3 tennis courts and each court is separated by fences (so each court is "individual"). The net was broken in the middle court. These guys were on one of the end courts so I took the court on the other end.

FYI, there's a full soccer field with nets just outside of the tennis courts.

Half hour later a family comes to play doubles. They ask these guys if they would take the middle court with the broken net to play soccer. These guys refused. My partner and I ask them to move as well, telling them that they shouldn't even be playing soccer on the courts in the first place. There's the normal posturing and threats you'd expect in this situation. Then one of the guys says "show me a sign or anything that says I can't play soccer on this court". He was right. No sign. So I told him I'd have one made.

Next day I called the Park Commissioner. Explained what had happened and especially told him about the broken net (which was almost certainly broken by soccer players or skateboarders). That's when he became interested. He doesn't like spending his budget on "vandalized" equipment. I told him to make signs that say "TENNIS USE ONLY". They were in place by the end of the week (and are still there).

Does this sign stop people from playing soccer (or pickleball) on the tennis courts? No, it doesn't. The courts are still just seen as "for public recreation". So the "tennis only" rule can't really be enforced. The only time the rule is enforced is if something is "vandalized" (net gets broken for example). Then the Park Commissioner gets involved. But he's mostly watching out for skateboarders or just general teenage vandalism.
After watching the video, I despise the dickle crowd even more. They wouldn't dare pull this pathetic stunt on a basketball court, over an outdated permit, or for any other reason. They'd get the stuffings paddled out of them.
 

5sets

Hall of Fame
Just allocate some tax money towards building more pickle courts, and then put signs up on tennis courts stating “tennis only”. When this Dickle thing came about, they didn’t have their own courts so they piggybacked on the fact that it’s a racquet sport but now like cockroaches their population has increased exponentially and it’s a serious problem.
 
Just allocate some tax money towards building more pickle courts, and then put signs up on tennis courts stating “tennis only”. When this Dickle thing came about, they didn’t have their own courts so they piggybacked on the fact that it’s a racquet sport but now like cockroaches their population has increased exponentially and it’s a serious problem.
Theres a park near me unmonitored by authorities that the 4 tennis courts do have tennis only signs but large pickleball groups always play anyway, how does a sign help if they don't care? Lol

I haven't tried to do anything about it just cause usually there are courts available not much of a ptoblem for me but if they werent yikes
 

mcs1970

Hall of Fame
Agreed. I don't like it, but from the video it appears that the pickleball players were following the rules and got their permit. Too bad the tennis players didn't have their paperwork in order.

Yeah but it looks like a kids tennis camp was ongoing.

Even if I had the paperwork I would have tried to find another pball or tennis court. Not the best of battles to fight. You lose even if you win.
 

5sets

Hall of Fame
Theres a park near me unmonitored by authorities that the 4 tennis courts do have tennis only signs but large pickleball groups always play anyway, how does a sign help if they don't care? Lol

I haven't tried to do anything about it just cause usually there are courts available not much of a ptoblem for me but if they werent yikes
You would care if you were meeting up your friend for some tennis and your court was infested with Dicklers. That is the gist of this thread.
 
You would care if you were meeting up your friend for some tennis and your court was infested with Dicklers. That is the gist of this thread.
Of course I care pickleballers are super ridiculous you didn't understand. What do you do anyway if they don't care and ignore tennis only on unmonitored public courts?
 

cks

Hall of Fame
I don't understand, a tennis club built their own courts yet needs a temporary permit to use them?
I believe in this case, the City of San Diego originally built these courts on public land. At a later date, the city decided to grant "Special Use Permits (SUP)" for these courts, which allows another organization to maintain the tennis courts without the city having to spending their public tax dollars to maintain them.
 
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I believe in this case, the City of San Diego original built these courts on public land. At a later date, the city decided to grant "Special Use Permits (SUP)" for these courts, which allows another organization to maintain the tennis courts without the city having to spending their public tax dollars to maintain them.
So the tennis club gets to pay to maintain the tennis courts only to have them robbed by pickleball players? Is that accurate? Lol
 

cks

Hall of Fame
So the tennis club gets to pay to maintain the tennis courts only to have them robbed by pickleball players? Is that accurate?
I believe so. The pickleball group found out that the tennis center did not have a valid Special Use Permits (SUP), since it was expired, and they got one for these courts. From new reports I watched, the city has since "renewed/reinstated" the tennis center SUP for now.
 
I believe so. The pickleball group found out that the tennis center did not have a valid Special Use Permits (SUP), since it was expired, and they got one for these courts. From new reports I watched, the city has since "renewed/reinstated" the tennis center SUP for now.
Lol I think the crazy thing is that they'd give a permit to pickleball for the courts. How about a permit for soccer to use the courts? Also let the tennis center know its expired and ask them if they want to renew permits before giving to anyone else?!
 

movdqa

Talk Tennis Guru
One of our local courts is now reserved for Pickelball from 6 PM to 8 PM. Not that it matters - a bunch of them camp out in the morning making it impossible to play tennis in the morning. They bring lawn chairs and occupy both courts while there are two or three matches on the court. We just scratched it off the list of public courts we play at.

At my club, they used to tape lines on the tennis courts and, of course, the tennis players complained about tripping on the tape. So the tennis players ripped the tape off. So the pickelball players used the basketball court on scheduled evenings. You can imagine how the basketball players felt about that. Pickelball has been moved to a warehouse facility that the club owns and everyone is happy now.
 
Yeah but it looks like a kids tennis camp was ongoing.

Even if I had the paperwork I would have tried to find another pball or tennis court. Not the best of battles to fight. You lose even if you win.
"You lose even if you win" is the motto of pickleball. It's a glorified cruise ship activity like shuffleboard or bad dinner theater, not a sport. I'm not gonna say that it's a fad and will go away, as I think it'll retain a place among a certain crowd as a recreational activity. But ultimately, the lack of exercise and reduced skill set is why it won't ever surpass tennis.

Heck, Futsal has never come close to competing with actual soccer (football) and is definitely more entertaining than pickle.
 

Chalkdust

Professional
"You lose even if you win" is the motto of pickleball. It's a glorified cruise ship activity like shuffleboard or bad dinner theater, not a sport. I'm not gonna say that it's a fad and will go away, as I think it'll retain a place among a certain crowd as a recreational activity. But ultimately, the lack of exercise and reduced skill set is why it won't ever surpass tennis.

I don't know why people feel the need to denigrate PB.
Yes, it does not require as much skill as tennis, nor does it provide as much exercise (at least when compared to singles tennis - dubs tennis, more debatable).

But, it's fun, and does provide some exercise if played at a high enough level.

Most importantly, and the reason why it is getting so popular, the barrier to entry is much lower than tennis, in terms of the skill level needed to have fun, in terms of players of different level still being able to easily play together, and in terms of the social aspects (ease of gaining acceptance into an existing group).

It's not tennis, and those that already have a tennis background are better off sticking to tennis. And kids looking to play a racquet sport are better off learning tennis.

But it's perfect for older folks who are reasonably athletic but don't have a tennis background. Tennis technique is hard to learn as an older adult, and it takes a lot of time and effort to get to a point where you can play at a decent level. Whereas the barrier to entry is much lower for PB. Quite frankly it's a better choice for many people.

Unfortunately there is some contention for facilities between tennis and PB, so maybe that's why there is some animosity.
Fortunately, in many areas like where I am, PB is now popular enough where most new facilities are built with both dedicated tennis and dedicated PB courts, so there is no issue.
 
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