Dear SJPA Members,
You may have seen Kent Silhanek’s recent message that Troon has accepted a recommendation that the SJPA Board forwarded to them regarding the open sessions, based on Whiteboard court usage and on SJPA member feedback. Our main goal in formulating this proposal was to maximize the opportunities for as many members as possible to play pickleball. Up to now, the open sessions provided times when anyone could play, and times when those at a specifically defined playing level could play.
Members of the SJPA board monitored court usage for the past two months and it remained clear that many courts were being left open – not available for reservation, but not used during the opens because there were too few players to fill all of the courts. This was especially true during the sessions that were assigned to the advanced beginner and intermediate levels.
Based on this data and member feedback, we recommended all courts be used during the times scheduled for whiteboard play and that courts be segregated by level of play.
There is one aspect of the SJPA recommendation that Kent’s message did not mention relating to flexibility in which of the four levels (beginner, novice, intermediate, and advanced) players choose to play. The vast majority of players who have been rated by Troon, either by Greg Rymer or Kim Mihan, currently have ratings of 3.0 (47%) and 3.5 (40%). However, there are many more players who have not been rated or whose ratings are years old and may not accurately reflect their level of play. We believe that these players have a sense of where they would be rated based on who they play with. To encourage all players to join the open play where they feel that they belong, we recommended that the boundaries for levels should be somewhat “fuzzy”. The following graphic is meant to convey this.
Our desire with this approach is to allow more players to feel that there is a place for them to play comfortably in the new open schedule. We hope that players will welcome the broader definitions of levels and find the play enjoyable.
Additionally, it seems likely that the individual court designations will also need some flexibility depending upon who shows up to play on any given day. For example, if there aren’t enough advanced players to use both courts 7 & 8, players from another level should be able to use the one(s) that are not being filled by the advanced group. If more advanced-level players show up later, then those courts would revert back to the designated level. We expect that players will be able to work this out cooperatively as conditions necessitate.
Finally, we would like to thank our membership for all of the open feedback. We hear you and appreciate your input! Your frankness helps us to put together recommendations like this that are intended to support our membership in working with Troon management to make pickleball enjoyable for all. We will continue to monitor, listen, and make recommendations for additional modifications as appropriate.
I look forward to seeing you on the courts!