How to set up a pickleball club

From little acorns, mighty oaks grow …

Three months after we established our first venue for pickleball, we reflect on how interest in this fantastic sport has grown in our area and offer some tips for people who are thinking of organising pickleball sessions or starting a club themselves.

One day last December, huddled around a fireplace in our local pub, my friends Nic, Rob and I were discussing our sporting interests. From distance running  to yoga, tennis to strength training, the one activity that really got us excited was pickleball! But where to play? A fair drive from our nearest club and with a big gap evident on the Pickleball England Club Locator for North Staffordshire, we decided to take the plunge and set up our own sessions. We attended a Pickleball England Leaders’ course which was brilliant and further inspired us to get going. 

Our local university sports centre at Keele seemed like a perfect place to start and we did so by inviting groups of our friends to play. In fact, I played pickleball every day for a week before Christmas to engage as many people as possible! The great thing was that by the time we came to book out one of Keele’s sports halls with 4 courts on 14^th January, we had 16 people keen and ready to play.  We begged, borrowed and bought enough paddles to run the session and have never looked back.

Going from strength to strength

Based on feedback form this first session, we had the confidence to block book the sports hall for 6 weeks and, as word spread through our initial cohort, through the Pickleball England club locator and via social media, by the end of January we doubled our booking to 2 sports halls on Saturday mornings at Keele, offering 32 places which are booked out every week, with a waiting list. 

By the end of February, we had almost 70 people on our interest list and decided to seek out another venue, this time at a local school with availability in the evening. Again, social media, especially Facebook, has been a powerful tool in generating interest using images, videos and reviews from our “established” players.

People have also sought us out to help them to set up clubs, which we are more than happy to do. We are currently helping the students at both Keele University and Staffordshire University to set up their own clubs and are working with a local racquet centre to add pickleball to their portfolio.

Top tips …

A lot has happened for Pickleball People in less than three months! We are thoroughly enjoying running our group sessions and would encourage others to take the plunge. Here are our top tips for setting up a pickleball group:

1. Go on a Leaders course if you can or enlist the help of someone who has done this before (like us!) to help get you started. You will receive practical advice and encouragement.
2. Get your friends involved, and they will tell their friends…
3. Start small – try something at a local sports/leisure centre or school. You can start with just one badminton court, a lowered net and a small number of paddles – pickleball activities can be adapted in a taster session until you have a good idea of regular numbers.
4. Share your information on social media, with pictures of your players and let Pickleball England know to add you to the Club Locator.

Rachel Adams, March 2023