A Fast Moving Pickleball Game With Multiple Players
Olympic Pickleball is a game I adjusted from a tennis game I used to run when I was teaching tennis full time. It's a lot of fun and can be played when you have only one court but more than four players. It works best with 7 players but you can play with 6 or 8 as well. You also need one person feeding the balls.
There is a winning side of the court and a challenging side. The goal is to stay on the winning side as long as possible. When on the winning side you and your partner start on the baseline. The challengers start at the kitchen line. The other challenging teams that are not playing wait just outside the playable area. They need to be ready to jump in because a rotation only take a minute or so. The feeding person feeds a ball to the team on the winning side and the point starts. They can drive, drop, lob, or whatever. If they lose two points in a row, they are out, and the challenging team runs around to take their place. The team that was just replaced comes around and gets in the back of the challenger line. As the new winners are running over the next challenging team takes their spot at the kitchen line. The challengers get out if they lose two points. They don't have to be two points in a row. If a team seems to stay on the winning side for a long time the feeding person can get creative with the feeds to make that first shot harder. The last rule is that if a clean winner is hit, the team that didn't touch the ball is automatically out no matter which side of the court they are on.
Next time you have only one court and 6-8 people that want to play, give it a go. It helps to have a large basket of balls for this one.
Where everyone is positioned at the start of each point.