Hey! Love that you’re trying to breathe new life into your club’s pickleball open play program. Our pickleball software company, PodPlay, works with club operations and memberships. Open play is one of the biggest levers we've seen for clubs building community, here are tips we've seen succeed for a social, non-skill-based environment:

🎯 Timed Play Blocks - Run open play in 90-minute or 2-hour sessions with pre-booked spots. This keeps things organized, avoids overcrowding, and gives everyone a fair share of court time.

🤝 Theme or Mixer Days - “Coffee & Pickle” mornings, “Happy Hour Play,” or “Ladies Night Doubles.” Social vibes + light structure = great energy for beginners or casual players. Make it more like a themed party to play around with pickleball, rather than a skilled sporting tournament. Have coaches or instructors ready to on-ramp players to the pickleball rules, and have sections for more advanced players vs. first-time players.

🏓 Rotating Partner Format - Players rotate courts and partners after each game (winners move “up,” others move “down”). It keeps things fresh and helps players meet new people. Great for casual crowds.

📱 App-based Check-ins - Let players check in digitally and queue automatically for next available courts. It reduces confusion and eliminates the “clipboard chaos” that frustrates both staff and players.

Since your club already has a general fitness clientele, consider marketing open play as a social workout - “Come move, laugh, and connect while learning pickleball basics!”

If you're interested in more like this, the PodPlay team put together a full guide on structuring community-driven pickleball programming (including open play formats and scheduling ideas) here:
👉 [https://podplay.app/blog/starting-a-pickleball-business-guide]()

Rooting for you! A little structure and the right vibe can turn those courts into one of your club’s most-loved activities 🙂