Fall & Winter Rules
~ Nooo Monkey Business ~
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We play the traditional pickleball format (not paddlewars style).
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Play to 11. Win by 2 points. Stop at 13. (Whoever gets to 13 first wins.)
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Fall: Each team fields two pairs (four players total). In the winter, each team fields three pairs (six players total).
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There are three rounds. In round one, each pair plays the same opponent pair twice. For example, WildBlue players 1 & 2 will play two games against Verdana players 1 & 3. At the same time, in round one, WildBlue players 3 & 4 will play Verdana players 2 & 4. In the winter, there will be another pair, such as 5 & 6 vs 5 & 6.
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For each of the three rounds, different home pairs will play different visitor pairs.
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For a full list of which players play vs. which players, see the fall scoresheet which is available on the Documents page on this website. (The winter scoresheet is coming soon.) Keep in mind, there will be some overlap; the rotations cannot be set up so you play against all different people every time. It's math.
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In each round, for the first game, the visiting team chooses side or serve. There is no "deferring." For the second game, the teams switch sides.
- If rounds one, two and three result in a tie, play a one-game super tie-breaker. In the fall, that would be 6-6. In the winter, that would be 9-9. For the super tie-breaker, each team chooses any two players (who have already played at least one full round). The visiting team chooses side or serve. At 6 points, switch sides. Play to 11. Win by 2 points. Stop at 13.
- The same 4 players from each team must play the entire match. In the winter, it's 6 players. Exception: If someone gets hurt, has heat exhaustion, or otherwise cannot continue play, a sub may take over, and the original person may not return to play.
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Players may call any number of 20-second breaks to drink water and/or wipe off.
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Each pair may call a 2-minute time-out 1 time during a game, and more if the heat is extreme.
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If a team does not start the match with four players (in the fall) or 6 players (in the winter), that team automatically forfeits any tie-breaker.
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We follow the USAPA official rules: https://usapickleball.org/rules/. If those rules conflict with the Estero Sisters’ rules, go with the Sisters.
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Partners may talk to each other anytime, including during games.
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Nobody else may coach or give advice during a game. This includes captains, teammates, and the crowd saying things such as, "Do that again," “Great idea to lob it,” or “Nice hitting it to her backhand.” While these comments sound the same as "Great job!" they are not the same. No monkey-butt comments. :)
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Teammates, coaches, and the crowd may give advice between games.
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Scoring: If a team forfeits because it can’t field enough players, the other team gets a bye, not a win.
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Sometimes, for certain dates and teams, we organize a round robin instead of league play. Round robins do not count toward the league scores.
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For the final league score, we take the average of each team’s possible wins. Thus, if one team plays all 9 games in a season, its final score will be wins/9. If another team plays 8 games (because they had a round robin, for example), its final score will be wins/8. The team with the highest average wins is the league winner.
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At the end of the season, if there is a tie for the winning team, we will look at (1) which team won when those two teams played each other (2) the number of games each team won throughout the season not including tie-breakers and (3) TBD. Thus, it is important that all teams finish all rounds and games.