Organizing a Program and Making Everyone Happy

Balancing Beginners and Advanced Players in Open Play

As pickleball explodes across the country, organizers everywhere are asking the same question: how do you serve beginners and experienced players in the same session? Not every player wants to teach, and not every experienced player wants to spend their court time doing it — and that's okay.

Ideas for Organizers

• Split by hour. In a three-hour session, make hour one beginner-only, hour two mixed, and hour three experienced-only. This gives everyone two hours of play, with some overlap for mixed-level exposure.

• Split by court. On a four-court venue, designate two courts for recreational play and two for competitive play, adjusting based on attendance.

• Split by day or time. Offer beginner sessions in the morning and advanced sessions in the afternoon (or vice versa), and rotate so all levels get variety. Add an evening session for working players if you can.

• Use rotational courts. Winners move up a court, losers move down, until play naturally levels out. This requires patience and buy-in from everyone.

You can't make every player happy, but players should also know where they fit. If you're playing for exercise and fun, recreational sessions are likely the better fit. If you're losing consistently at a higher level, it may be worth developing core skills — like third-shot control, spin, pace variation, and smart net play — before moving up. Just as varsity teams don't scrimmage the freshman squad, advanced players deserve time to play at their own level too. 

The Case for Teaching Anyway  

That said, experienced players spending time with beginners isn't a loss — it's valuable for everyone. Teaching reinforces your own fundamentals, and slowing the game down to focus on finesse and placement (rather than power) often sharpens your higher-level game too. The beginner gets mentorship; the advanced player gets a low-pressure space to rebuild control. 

Practice Outside of Game Night 

Most players never practice outside of organized play — but game night alone won't accelerate improvement much. In a two-hour session, you might only touch the ball a few hundred times, with just a handful of "clean" reps on any one shot. Deliberate practice — lessons, clinics, wall work, or drilling with a partner — builds the repetition your muscle memory actually needs. Resources like Pickleball CPR Drills offer structured drills for solo or group practice. 

Finding the Balance 

For organizers, don't always lean on your advanced players to teach — they want to play too. Schedule dedicated time for like-skill matchups, let beginners learn from each other, and recruit experienced volunteers who enjoy teaching to help when they can. Structure sessions by level, keep games efficient to maximize court time, and when players ask where they belong, guide them honestly — the USAPA rating system is a good reference point. 

Organizing is hard, often thankless work, and your effort matters. Reach out to local YMCAs, schools, churches, and rec centers to find more court space, and lean on experienced players in your community to help share the load — without burning anyone out. 

Remember: the expert on anything was once a beginner. 

Paddle up and play more pickleball!