Rules for CTPA
The Pickleball
- CTPA will not supply outdoor balls except in ladders and other event where there is a fee to play. We do supply Jugs yellow indoor balls when playing indoors.
- All players must bring their own outdoor pickleball to play. We expect EVERY player to have a pickleball with them.
- The most common ball use is the r Onix Fuse 2,e Dura Fast 40 and the Franklin X-40. We use the Franklin x-40 in ladder play
Starting serves
The person who owns the ball can serve first, but if you want you can put one or two fingers behind your paddle and let the opponent guess, even or odd. The winner can choose either to serve first or pick the side they want to start. Once selected the other team then decides on the other question.
Queuing to play
Depending on the game you are playing there are many different way of queuing to play next. Don’t just assume people on the court see you. Let them know that you are in their group and are expecting to play next. They will help explain the queuing process.
Displaying Membership Cards
This will be the new policy as we go outdoors. It will be strictly enforced this year.
We use membership cards, so we can ensure only paid CTPA members can play during CTPA times and indoors at a discounted rate. We do this because as CTPA members we are helping to pay off the debt of the courts and have a goal to expand courts in the future. Your membership fees help to generate the revenue to accomplish this. In exchange, the Township allows CTPA members only to use the courts 6 AM to 1 PM and 4 PM to 9 PM. Your membership card must be displayed one of three ways:
- You can put your card on the fence posts between courts when you are playing. When you move to another court you should move your card.
- You can pin the card to your shoe, hat or clothing.
- You can get a card holder and pin your card to your backpack but only if you hang your bag on the fence with your card clearly showing on your backpack. You cannot put a card on a duffle bag, or a bag placed on the ground or chair or leaning against the fence. Again, the bag must hang, and the card must be clearly displayed with the photo shown.
If you find someone left their membership card behind, put the card in the locked mailbox on Court 1 and the card will be returned to the owner.
You can replace a lost membership card at Parks & Recreation Customer Service for $20, but you should contact your session coordinator first to see if the card can be located.
What if people are playing without membership cards?
We will need everyone keeping an eye for Non-Members playing during CTPA times. We want to encourage all members to keep an eye out for someone that they do not know and check to see if they have a membership card.
Then most likely they are not CTPA members and are using your court while you are waiting. We encourage all members to politely ask those players for their membership cards. If they do not have one, then politely let them know that they need to be members to play and refer them to the bulletin board for further details. If they do not leave, then notify a CTPA session coordinator to handle the situation. Please be polite and encourage them to think about joining CTPA as we would like as many new members as possible.
Keep your CTPA Membership card with your pickleball paddle
You must have both to play
- There is a $20 fee to replace a lost card.
- Please do not loan your membership card to a non-member. You are basically cheating on all members who purchased membership with the common goal of expanding pickleball. Members who abuse the system will be asked to give up their membership and will not be renewed.
There will be a place at the dividing fence between two courts where members who are playing on the courts will hang their membership cards while playing.
Those who purchase a guest pass will hang their guest pass on the hooks instead of a membership card. Before queuing the guest must first present to the players/Ambassador a valid and non-punctured guest card. Guest passes are dated and by punching a hole in it with the hook will then invalidate it for future use. Guest passes waiting on the hook must have the correct date to be allowed to be use that day.
What happens if there are four of us but all of different ratings, or there is not enough players of my level to start a game? If you are a 4.0 player, and there is a 3.5, a 3.0 and 2,5 player, the four of you do not need to wait until another three people of your level arrive. Instead the four of you can start a game on the 2.5 level court. A higher level person can always play on a lower level court. A lower level player can NEVER play on a higher level court. So if you were a 3.5 and no other 3.5 players are at the court and there is a game going on at the 2.5 court, you can queue to play next player on the 2.5 court, until there is enough 3.5 players to start a game on the 3.5 court.
What if we are three 4.0 players and there is one 3.5 player waiting, can we invite him over to play on the 4.0 court? No. The only way the four of these player can play is if the three 4.0 players go to the 3.5 level court.
We ask all CTPA members to be involved to assure only those who are playing are valid members and are playing on the correct courts. Do not ask a lower level player to play on a higher court.