McGaw Court Reservations

Listen up, now, because this is an important subject!

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Typically, you do not need a reservation!

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Court space in our area is limited and there are many players that want to use these courts. We can cultivate an adversarial culture where we fight for possession courts -- by being first or by paying reservation fees -- or we can try to share, coordinate and cooperate!

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If there are special circumstances -- maybe your schedule is highly constrained or you have special visitors in town -- and you want to be absolutely certain to have a private court at a specific time and place then, by all means, use the City of Fitchburg's reservation system to pay to reserve a court. But if you are flexible -- if you are willing to play with others or willing to take turns with others or if you can choose a place and time that's not usually busy -- then play as a drop-in player! Simply show up, possibly joining other players that don't have formal court reservations. If there is an open court, grab it and play. If all courts are in use, work with others to figure out how everyone can get time on court. Sometimes it won't work out and you might choose to leave and try again later. Or you might decide that you need a reservation after all. But most of the time players ought to be able to find a way to make it work for everyone; after all, if we can't cooperate, we revert to an adversarial pay-to-play model! If there are many players present, use McGaw's paddle saddles and follow normal court usage rules.

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Now, there are some software tools that we can use to help coordinate pickleball sessions:

• PlayTimeScheduler (free and easy to use) maintains a calendar with a list of planned sessions at each location; please use it for planned drop-in sessions as well as reserved sessions -- especially large sessions -- so that others are aware that you intend to use courts. Also use PlayTimeScheduler to search for a time when courts are less crowded. If your plans change, be sure to cancel the session on PTS so other players are aware that courts are available!

• Announcements of lessons and clinics are sometimes made on the Madison Pickleball Meetup Group.

• If you use private email conversations to coordinate with friends, leverage PlayTimeScheduler to help choose a suitable time when the courts aren't crowded and then create an invite-only PTS session so that other players are aware when courts will be in use.