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East Green Lake Pickleball and Tennis Courts
Resurfacing
Introduction
This document presents the Seattle Metro Pickleball Association's
recommendations for establishing equitable tennis and pickleball
court lines on the East Green Lake pickleball and tennis courts in Seattle.
Recommendations
1. Create 10 Pickleball Courts
The space is large enough to accommodate 10 regulation-size pickleball courts.
Limiting the number of pickleball courts to 6 would be a poor allocation of resources.
On the picture below, slide the blue dot towards the left to compare the recommended layout to a 6-court layout.
2. Include A Waiting Area Inside The Fence
Pickleball players need a space to congregate and socialize while waiting for a game.
Given that the current project is limited to resurfacing,
we recommend allocating space for a waiting area
inside the fenced area.
Otherwise, we would recommend moving the waiting area outside the fenced area.
3. Adopt Independent Lines
Overlapping lines create confusion.
We recommend adopting a pickleball court layout that doesn't have any pickleball lines overlapping with tennis lines.
4. Adopt Contrasting Line Colors
We recommend any of the following color schemes:
Tennis lines: white
Pickleball lines: orange
Court area: blue
OR
Tennis lines: white
Pickleball lines: red
Court area: green
Both of these options use traditional colors for the tennis court and tennis lines.
They also provide good contrast across all colors.
A specialist should pick the exact color shades to provide suitable contrast.
On the picture below, slide the blue dot towards the left to compare the two recommended color schemes.
5. Adopt Blended Line Intersections
We recommend the adoption of blended line intersections for the most egalitarian treatment of all sports.
If painting blended line intersections is not feasible, we recommend the adoption of crossover line intersections.
Since many more pickleball players than tennis players will be using these courts,
and since tennis players
do have the option of playing at over a hundred courts lined exclusively for tennis,
we recommend that the pickleball lines be drawn on top.
6. Adopt an Age Friendly Surface
We recommend the use of a cushioned surface to help protect the knees of older players.
The city's current court resurfacing budget might not currently allow for a cushioned surface.
If that is the case, give a chance to the pickleball and tennis player community
to raise the appropriate funds for it.
When you introduce pickleball in a new area, it is reasonable to first try out options on a small scale. Early on, space optimization is not the main concern.
For example, you might run a pickleball pilot project by developing a few courts in different configurations.
An early option might be to add pickleball lines in such a way that a single tennis court can
be used as a single pickleball court, as is the case at the
Observatory Courts
in Queen Anne.
Or, another option is to put two pickleball courts per tennis court as was done at the
Walt Hundley
courts in West Seattle.
Most likely, at the conclusion of a successful pilot program, you will have discovered that pickleball
is a sport with a strong social component. People like to play where they know
they will find many other players.
Full-fledged program
When you exit the pilot program and decide to support pickleball as any other sport,
it is important to recognize that having many pickleball courts in a single location is essential
to the development of a pickleball community.
In a full-fledged pickleball program, it makes little sense to paint lines for a single pickleball court on a single tennis court
when you can easily fit two or four pickleball courts in that space. You should be able to fit six to eight
pickleball courts on a double tennis court, ten to twelve pickleball courts on a triple tennis court,
and twelve to sixteen pickleball courts on a quadruple tennis court.
Why opt for space optimization?
You wouldn't want to paint lines for two tennis courts when there is room for three courts.
Why would you paint lines for two pickleball courts when there is room for three or four?
Seattle and Seattle Parks face a strong and increasing demand for pickleball courts.
Let's make sure we make the best possible use of the space that is available.
How to optimize use of the available space
Space-use optimization when adding pickleball lines to existing tennis courts is more of an art than a science.
The general ideas underlying it are to:
Put in as many courts as possible, but no more.
Leave room behind the baselines and outside of the sidelines:
design for the total play areas, not just for the court areas.
Be somewhat flexible with the space on the side of the courts
when designing courts for recreational play.
Let's review both basic facts and principles underlying space optimization for courts.
"The recommended minimum playing surface area
measures 30 feet wide and 60 feet long."
So, you can fit exactly four pickleball courts on a typical tennis court.
To keep things interesting, sometimes the tennis play area is not a rectangle.
It is more of a rectangle with the corners cut off at a angle.
And there doesn't seem to be any standard way of cutting the corners.
For recreational play, tennis courts are often squeezed together.
Although each court is supposed to have 10 feet of extra space on each side,
two tennis courts laid side-by-side sometimes have only 10 to 12 feet between them instead of 20.
Something similar can be done for pickleball play. Pickleball courts laid side-by-side might be squeezed together and have fewer than 10 feet between them.
Note that this squeezing applies to the width of the play area but not its length.
Safety and playability dictate a minimum of 8 feet of space behind pickleball baselines.
"Courts shall be laid out with the long axis north and south;
however, geographic considerations may modify this orientation
in order to minimize the adverse effect of serving into the sun."
The same adverse effect holds for pickleball, even though it sometimes may seem practical to orient pickleball
courts east to west to fit into a less-than-optimal space.
To experience play on an east-to-west oriented court, go visit the pickleball courts at the
International School
in Bellevue, WA, on a sunny evening.
If your court is protected from the rising and setting sun by a hill, a tall building,
or tall and dense vegetation, then using an east to west orientation might be suitable.
Include a waiting area
Why a waiting area?
Usually, when people decide to go play tennis, they form a twosome or foursome
and convene at a specific time and location to play together.
While some pickleball players use the same process to organize games,
pickleball play is often much more convivial and fluid.
During open play, pickleball players may come and go over several hours.
Many more pickleball players might congregate on the courts than there
are available spots to play. Each game lasts 15 to 20 minutes. After a game ends, the players involved
rotate out, and some of the players who were waiting rotate in. If there are 10 games going at the
same time, a new game starts every few minutes.
How many people will be waiting?
In our experience, at the peak play times, there will be up to one-and-a-half times as many people waiting as
there are people playing pickleball.
With ten pickleball courts, there will be 40 people playing and up to
60 people waiting to play.
More ▽
Once there are more people waiting than playing, people spend more time
on the sidelines than playing.
This is pretty much the maximum number of players that outdoor courts
will accommodate gracefully, but allowances need to be made for age, stamina,
and how long people have already played earlier in the day. For instance, older or less-fit players might be very happy to
have rest periods between games, while younger or more physically fit players might prefer to keep playing for hours at a time.
Some people like spending half a day at the courts and might not mind a longer wait between games.
When there is a large crowd of people waiting to play, the people who prefer a quick turnaround between games might still hang out,
hoping that the crowd will thin out.
When there are one-and-a-half times as many people waiting as playing, people are likely to decide to find another place to play, or forgo playing altogether.
Avoid court-line overlap
What we mean by "overlapping" lines
In this document, we distinguish crossing lines from overlapping lines.
The following two squares have crossing lines.
Crossing lines are unavoidable on multi-sport courts.
The following two squares have overlapping lines.
Unsurprisingly, it's entirely possible to design multi-sport courts to minimize the number of overlapping lines.
Why overlapping lines matter
When you have two overlapping lines, one line is often presented as being on top of the other.
Here the yellow line is on top.
Here the red line is on top.
Imagine you have to play a game that requires that you to stand in the red square and not step out of bounds.
You can pick any of the following four courts. Which one is your favorite? Which one is your least favorite?
The one with the red square on the bottom?
The one with the red square on top?
The one where neither square is on top?
The one where the squares do not overlap?
The case against overlapping lines
Overlapping lines create confusion because they require that players quickly determine
which lines are relevant and which are not. The more complex the overlap design is
— involving partial lines, extended lines, and irrelevant lines —
the more confusing it is. Imagine playing a sport on that confusing array of lines.
Take a look at existing multi-sport athletic fields as an example.
These three Magnuson Park multi-sport fields are designed to have almost no line overlap.
The Garfield High School multi-sport field is designed to have almost no line overlap.
All of these fields were designed to have very few overlapping lines across various sports:
To limit the line confusion across all sports.
To put all sports on an equal footing.
Shared pickleball and tennis courts with overlapping lines creates confusion.
Flatly, the sport that ends up with its lines on top gets privileged treatment over the other.
The privileged sports' players can focus on their line color and ignore the other colors.
Whichever sports ends up with its lines on the bottom gets shortchanged.
Its players have to sort out which lines of the "other" color
are relevant and which ones are not, on the fly, in the midst of a fast game.
Designs for multi-sport courts can and should avoid privileging a particular sport.
The following video shows two tennis courts with lines painted for six pickleball courts.
The drone images clearly show all of them from above at the 15-second mark.
Notice that pickleball courts on the top and bottom of the screen share a sideline with a tennis court.
The pickleball courts in the middle do not share any lines with any tennis court.
If you play on the top or bottom pickleball courts, most of your pickleball court lines are black,
except for a sideline which is partially white. You have to ignore most of the white lines, except for that one side line.
When the pace of the game is fast, it's challenging to remember which lines are relevant and which ones are not.
In the same video, at the 1-minute mark, you see a pickleball player serving a ball.
That person and their partner then make their way to what they think is the pickleball non-volley line. However, they mistakenly stop
at a white tennis line that is located about two feet from the non-volley line. That particular white line should be ignored for pickleball.
Yet this becomes a perfect example of the confusion created by the design of this blended court where some of the white lines
are included in the play, while others are to be ignored.
If we were to move the top and bottom pickleball courts a foot towards the middle courts,
they would no longer have any line overlap with the tennis courts. A minor design change such as this would greatly help
pickleball players who could then ignore all white lines since their courts would be made exclusively
of black lines. And it's hard to see how this simple change would inconvenience tennis players.
Not incidentally, the the pickleball rules clearly state that
all lines should be of the same color, a rule that should steer us away from shared tennis court lines.
The case for overlapping lines
When pickleball lines are first added to tennis courts, tennis players are often concerned that the pickleball lines
will interfere with tennis play.
They ask to see as few pickleball lines as possible.
This means that they ask for tennis lines overlapping pickleball lines.
Too often this means that tennis players have court lines all in one color, while pickleball players have to
contend with pickleball court lines partially made of tennis lines.
Tennis players have the luxury to ignore all pickleball lines.
Pickleball players, however, must figure out which tennis lines are in play and which are not.
Moreover, different pickleball courts in the same location, or even two sides of the same pickleball court
can end up having different line color patterns.
It does not have to be that way.
All the confusion of lines is unnecessary. If the courts are laid out so that tennis and pickleball lines do not overlap, then all players can
completely ignore the other sport's lines.
To promote tennis amongst younger children, the
United States Tennis Association
has developed the
"10 and Under Tennis" tennis format
which uses smaller courts, smaller rackets and slower balls.
Doing so, they allowed for lines for the smaller courts to be painted on existing regular tennis courts
using "blended" lines.
All three tennis rule books specify that blended lines should be
"within the same colour family as the background playing surface."
"Currently, courts with permanent blended lines and standard line markings
are authorized for professional play by the ITF for both Men's and Women's $15,000 and $25,000 events."
and
"However, ITF Women's $60,000, $80,000 and $100,000, as well as ATP Challengers,
are not allowed to have blended lines. Courts with permanent blended lines may be used as practice courts only at these events."
"All lines should be [...] of the same color, clearly contrasting with the color of the playing surface."
Line color selection
How to select pickleball and tennis court line colors
Are you going to host professional tennis matches?
↓
↓ Yes
↓ No
Check with the sanctioning professional tennis organizations
↓
Are you going to host tennis matches sanctioned by a tennis organization?
↓
↓ Yes
↓ No
Check with the sanctioning organization. Most likely,
you will not be able to create a true multi-sport court:
You will have to use white tennis lines and blended pickleball lines.
Avoid overlapping lines.
↓
Use tennis and pickleball line colors that are clearly contrasting with the color of the playing surface.
For instance:
paint the court surface green
paint the tennis lines white
paint the pickleball lines red or yellow
Avoid overlapping lines.
How to select pickleball and tennis court line colors in Seattle
Tennis courts that will not see USTA-sanctioned play do not need to strictly follow USTA color guidelines and
can use player-friendly contrasting colors for pickleball lines.
Are you going to host professional tennis matches?
↓
↓ Yes
↓ No
Check with the sanctioning professional tennis organizations
↓
Are you going to host tennis matches sanctioned by a tennis organization?
At the Amy Yee Tennis Center and Lower Woodland Park
Check with the sanctioning organization. Most likely,
you will not be able to create a true multi-sport court:
You will have to use white tennis lines and blended pickleball lines.
Avoid overlapping lines.
↓
Everywhere but at the Amy Yee Tennis Center and Lower Woodland Park
Use tennis and pickleball line colors that are clearly contrasting with the color of the playing surface.
For instance:
paint the court surface green
paint the tennis lines white
paint the pickleball lines red or yellow
Avoid overlapping lines.
Is there really no other solution?
If your facility is unlikely to be hosting sanctioned professional tennis tournaments, you can get creative.
You could for instance consider adopting a coloring scheme similar to what was done
at the Bobby Riggs Tennis Center around 2015 as shown
in this video
at the 2:58 mark.
Below is an alternate option that emphasizes the tennis courts but has pickleball lines
using a single color.
Optimize line intersections
Line intersection options
Good: Accommodating
This is the option you might have to choose if you are adding pickleball lines to your tennis courts but need to be able to host
sanctioned tennis matches. Check the sanctioning's tennis organization's rulebook for exact specifications.
This option communicates that tennis is the primary sport and you are simply accommodating pickleball players.
Better: Crossover
This option favors one sport over the other.
This is a perfectly good option if the red lines will be used a lot more often than the yellow ones.
This is what is done on Seattle multi-sport athletic fields.
Best: Blended
Blending the line intersections is the perfect option
when fair treatment of everyone is important.
"Age Friendly Seattle supports parks and other green spaces [...]
that can be used and enjoyed by people of all ages and abilities."
and
"Age Friendly Seattle supports learning, fitness,
social, cultural, and spiritual activities for older adults as well as intergenerational
activities that are accessible, affordable, safe, and fun."
and
"Goal 5.4: Create opportunities for intergenerational activities [...] and other
programs."
Age-friendly pickleball courts
Aging pickleball players sometimes find their knees don't do well when playing extensively on very hard surfaces.
Fortunately, the sports court industry has developed a method to apply several layers of cushioned rubber between the
cement or asphalt base and the top layer of paint.
Since pickleball is one of very few intergenerational physical activities
that can be used and enjoyed by people of all ages and abilities,
it makes sense to use a cushioned surface when resurfacing courts.
Current State of Affairs
What's going on?
The Seattle Parks Department plans to resurface the East Green Lake Tennis and Pickleball Courts
located by the Green Lake Community Center.
What does it look like right now?
Three side-by-side tennis courts.
The leftmost (western) tennis court has hard-to-see lines for two pickleball courts, one on each side of its net.
The other two tennis courts do not have any painted pickleball lines.
Can't see the pickleball lines?
If you can tell that it's hard to see the pickleball lines on that picture here, know that it's hard to see them in real life as well.
Here is a drawing to make the court layout clearer.
Seattle Parks' current plan
The current plan calls for lines for 6 pickleball courts
Paula Hoff, a Strategic Advisor in the Superintendent's Office,
communicated the Park Department's intention to have lines for 6 pickleball courts
painted on the East Green Lake tennis courts.
They didn't provide a layout, although it is likely to look like the drawing that follows.
All Seattle double and triple tennis courts that have been made to accommodate pickleball lines until now (May 2020) have
followed the same pattern: one pickleball court on each side of each tennis net.
More ▽
Keep in mind that the plan is for "lines for 6 pickleball courts",
which is not quite the same as "6 pickleball courts".
Pickleball players will likely have to continue to bring temporary pickleball nets.
We expect the two semi-permanent pickleball nets that are already there to still be there
after the resurfacing.
Each year, the City of Seattle resurfaces a few outdoor tennis, basketball and pickleball courts.
The yearly budget is usually $100,000, although it seems to have been reduced to $75,000 for 2020 and
it could be reduced further due to upcoming reductions to the City's budget related to Covid-19 losses in revenue.
The East Green Lake resurfacing project will be funded by that 2020 budget.
Anything other than resurfacing, such as for instance creating a waiting area outside of the
courts, is outside the scope of this project.
Pros and Cons ▽
Pros
Plenty of space on the sides for pickleball players to congregate while waiting for a turn to play.
Cons
Limiting the number of pickleball courts to 6 is a poor allocation of resources.
The East Green Lake court space is large enough to accommodate 10 regulation-size pickleball courts.
A 10-court solution would accommodate, in the same space, 67% more pickleball players than this 6-court solution.
Limiting the number of pickleball courts to 6 artificially limits the size of the pickleball community that can form at this location.
Pickleball players who currently play at East Green Lake already create 8 courts, using masking tape to add 6 more courts to the two
current official courts.
People who play there often create 8 courts.
Isn't there room for 10 courts even?
Here is a 10-court layout
Courts
The pickleball courts in this layout are drawn so that if you were to put fences in between the courts,
all courts would end up with play areas of the exact same size.
On the picture below, slide the blue dot towards the left to see that idea displayed.
More ▽
The total play area is about 150 feet by 120 feet.
The official
pickleball rule book,
rule 2.A.3 says:
"The recommended minimum playing surface area measures 30 feet wide and 60 feet long."
That means the East Green Lake court play area is large enough to accommodate 10 pickleball courts.
Waiting area
If there is no need for a
"waiting area"
inside the fence, this is a pretty good layout.
In the case of the East Green Lake courts, there is room for a waiting area outside the courts
on the East side, but it could get muddy on rainy days and people probably won't
want to leave their belongings unattended in such an unsecured, publicly accessible area.
More ▽
A waiting area is a place where people who are waiting for a turn to play can congregate.
At the busiest time there can be more people waiting for a turn
to play than people actually playing.
A waiting area is also a place where players might leave their pickleball bag while they are playing.
Pros and Cons ▽
Pros
No space wasted on a waiting area inside the courts.
"The recommended minimum playing surface area
measures 30 feet wide and 60 feet long."
This allows for a 20-foot wide pickleball court with 5 feet of clearance
on each side.
In this layout, there is an 8-foot space between pickleball courts.
Toggle the "Display Rulers" switch
beneath the drawing to see the most relevant measurements.
Waiting area
This layout provides for a
waiting area
included within the fence.
Players who are waiting for a turn to play
typically congregate on one side of the court
to socialize and coordinate order of play.
Therefore, having a single larger waiting area on one side of the enclosure
is preferable to having a smaller area on each side.
More ▽
A waiting area is a place where people who are waiting for a turn to play can congregate.
At the busiest time there can be more people waiting for a turn
to play than people actually playing.
A waiting area is also a place where players might leave their pickleball bag while they are playing.
On the picture below, slide the blue dot towards the left to compare this design to the previous one.
Pros and Cons ▽
Pros
A waiting area is available inside the fence for people to congregate while waiting
for a chance to play.
The space between adjacent pickleball courts is slightly reduced compared to the previous
solution.
Many lines.
10 courts, fewer lines, more confusion
Here is a 10-court layout with way fewer lines
This layout might look more pleasant to the eye when viewed from above because there are fewer lines
than in the previous layouts.
But when you play, your court might be made of all lines of one color and some lines of the other color.
When focusing on the action, it's not always easy to
remember which lines are relevant and which ones are not.
It is not just that your court is made of two different color lines.
It is also that you will find on your court some lines of a specific color
that are part of your court, and some other lines of that same color
that are not part of your court.
Also, relevant lines will vary from court to court,
and from one-side of a pickleball court to the other side of the same pickleball court.
On the picture below, slide the blue dot towards the left to compare a pickleball-on-top design to
a tennis-on-top design. The line segments highlighted in green will switch color as you slide the blue dot.
More ▽
When the blue dot is on the right, the pickleball courts are entirely made of blue lines,
while the tennis courts are made of a mix of blue and red lines.
This means that pickleball players can focus on the blue lines and ignore the red lines.
Tennis players have to figure out which of the blue lines are relevant
and which are not.
When the blue dot is on the left, the situation is reversed.
The tennis courts are entirely made of red lines,
while the pickleball courts are made of a mix of blue and red lines.
This means that tennis players can focus on the red lines and ignore the blue lines.
Pickleball players have to figure out which of the red lines are relevant
and which are not.
Toggle the "Highlight Line Overlaps" switch
beneath the drawing to turn the highlights on and off.
The lines are slightly thicker in this drawing to help you better see the difference between red and blue lines.
Pros and Cons ▽
Pros
No space wasted on a waiting area inside the courts.
Fewer lines than in a no-overlap design.
Cons
Not suitable if a waiting area is needed on the courts.
There is actually room for 10 pickleball courts here.
We proposed several 10 court solutions above.
If a 10-court layout is not acceptable,
then maybe an 8-court solution will do.
On the picture below, slide the blue dot towards the left to compare this design to an equivalent 10-court design.
More ▽
The total play area is about 150 feet by 120 feet.
The official
pickleball rule book,
rule 2.A.3 says:
"The recommended minimum playing surface area
measures 30 feet wide and 60 feet long."
So, the play area is large enough to accommodate 10 pickleball courts.
Waiting area
If there is no need for a large
"waiting area"
inside the fence, this is a pretty good layout,
although it does not accommodate as many players as a 10-court layout.
In the case of the East Green Lake courts, there is room for a waiting area outside the courts
on the East side, but it could get muddy on rainy days and people probably won't
want leaving their belongings unattended there.
More ▽
A waiting area is a place where people who are waiting for a turn to play can congregate.
At the busiest time there can be more people waiting for a turn to play than people actually playing.
A waiting area is also a place where players might leave their pickleball bag while they are playing.
A 10-court solution would accommodate, in the same space,
25% more players than this 8-court solution.
8 courts with a large waiting area
Here is an 8-court layout with space for a large waiting area on the left
Courts
There is actually room for 10 pickleball courts here.
We proposed several 10 court solutions above.
If a 10-court layout is not acceptable,
then maybe an 8-court solution will do.
This design offers a 23+-foot wide space between the left fence
and the closest pickleball sideline.
More ▽
The total play area is about 150 feet by 120 feet.
The official
pickleball rule book,
rule 2.A.3 says:
"The recommended minimum playing surface area
measures 30 feet wide and 60 feet long."
So, the play area is large enough to accommodate 10 pickleball courts.
Waiting area
This layout provides for a
waiting area
included within the fence.
Players who are waiting for a turn to play typically congregate on one side
of the court to socialize and coordinate order of play.
Therefore, having a single large waiting area on one side of the enclosure
is preferable to having a smaller area on each side.
More ▽
A waiting area is a place where people who are waiting for a turn to play can congregate.
At the busiest time there can be as many people waiting for a turn
to play than people actually playing.
A waiting area is also a place where players might leave their pickleball bag while they are playing.
On the picture below, slide the blue dot towards the left to compare this design to the previous one.
Pros and Cons ▽
Pros
A large waiting area is available inside the fence for people to congregate while waiting
for a chance to play.
If you combine both of these together, you could get the following
"8 pickleball courts on three tennis courts" solution.
This layout might look pleasant when viewed from above
because it is made of relatively few lines.
But when you play, your court might be made of all lines of one color and some lines of the other color,
which certainly takes some getting used to.
When focusing on the action, it's not always easy to remember which lines are relevant and which ones are not.
Also, relevant lines will vary from court to court,
and from one-side of a pickleball court to the other side of the same pickleball court.
On the picture below, slide the blue dot towards the left to compare a pickleball-on-top design to
a tennis-on-top design. The line segments highlighted in green will switch color as you slide the blue dot.
More ▽
When the blue dot is on the right, the pickleball courts are entirely made of blue lines,
while the tennis courts are made of a mix of blue and red lines.
This means that pickleball players can focus on the blue lines and ignore the red lines.
Tennis players have to figure out which of the blue lines are relevant
and which are not.
When the blue dot is on the left, the situation is reversed.
The tennis courts are entirely made of red lines,
while the pickleball courts are made of a mix of blue and red lines.
This means that tennis players can focus on the red lines and ignore the blue lines.
Pickleball players have to figure out which of the red lines are relevant
and which are not.
Toggle the "Highlight Line Overlaps" switch
beneath the drawing to turn the highlights on and off.
The lines are slightly thicker in this drawing to help you better see the difference between red and blue lines.
Pros and Cons ▽
Pros
Fewer lines than in a no-overlap design.
Cons
Designing shared pickleball and tennis courts with overlapping lines
creates confusion.
Whichever sports ends up with its lines on top gets privileged treatment over the other.
Its players can focus on their line color and ignore the other colors.
Whichever sports ends up with its lines on the bottom gets short changed.
Its players have to sort out which lines of the "other" color are relevant and which ones are not.
Half of the pickleball courts have 8 feet of clearance behind the baselines.
The other half has 6 feet of clearance on one end and 10 feet on the other.
It would be much better to move the second set of pickleball courts two-feet
away from the tennis net,
which is what we do in the
next design.
The horizontal spacing between pickleball courts is quite uneven.
Consider the row of 4 pickleball courts on top:
The two pickleball courts in the middle of that row are quite close to each other.
Eight courts with overlapping lines, Take 2
Make sure you read our section about
overlapping lines
above before you proceed.
By now, you probably already know that we prefer layouts
without overlapping lines.
If you are already convinced, feel free to skip this section.
In the previous layout, some pickleball courts had
one side with a 6-foot space behind the baseline,
and the other side with a 10-foot space behind the baseline.
The option we present here fixes that problem.
All courts now have an 8 foot space behind all the baselines.
This layout might look pleasant when viewed from above
because it is made of relatively few lines.
But when you play, your court might be made of all lines of one color and some lines of the other color,
which certainly takes some getting used to.
When focusing on the action, it's not always easy to remember which lines are relevant and which ones are not.
Also, relevant lines will vary from court to court,
and from one-side of a pickleball court to the other side of the same pickleball court.
On the picture below, slide the blue dot towards the left to compare this design to the previous one.
More ▽
Toggle the "Highlight Line Overlaps" switch
beneath the drawing to turn the highlights on and off.
Pros and Cons ▽
Pros
Fewer lines than in a no-overlap design.
All pickleball courts have 8 foot of clearance behind all their baselines.
Cons
Designing shared pickleball and tennis courts with overlapping lines
creates confusion.
Whichever sports ends up with its lines on top gets privileged treatment over the other.
Its players can focus on their line color and ignore the other colors.
Whichever sports ends up with its lines on the bottom gets short changed.
Its players have to sort out which lines of the "other" color are relevant and which ones are not.
The horizontal spacing between pickleball courts is quite uneven.
Consider the row of 4 pickleball courts on top:
The two pickleball courts in the middle of that row are quite close to each other.
Eight courts with overlapping lines, Take 3
Make sure you read our section about
overlapping lines
above before you proceed.
By now, you probably already know that we prefer layouts
without overlapping lines.
If you are already convinced, feel free to skip this section.
This new layout improves on the previous one by creating
more even spacing between the pickleball courts.
This layout might look pleasant when viewed from above
because it is made of relatively few lines.
But when you play, your court might be made of all lines of one color and some lines of the other color,
which certainly takes some getting used to.
When focusing on the action, it's not always easy to remember which lines are relevant and which ones are not.
It is not just that your court is made of two different color lines.
It is also that you will find on your court some lines of a specific color that are part of your court,
and some other lines of that same color that are not part of your court.
Also, relevant lines will vary from court to court,
and from one-side of a pickleball court to the other side of the same pickleball court.
On the picture below, slide the blue dot towards the left to compare this design to the previous one.
More ▽
Toggle the "Highlight Line Overlaps" switch
beneath the drawing to turn the highlights on and off.
Pros and Cons ▽
Pros
Fewer lines than in a no-overlap design.
All pickleball courts have 8 foot of clearance behind all their baselines.
More even horizontal spacing than in the previous two layouts.
Cons
Designing shared pickleball and tennis courts with overlapping lines
creates confusion.
Whichever sports ends up with its lines on top gets privileged treatment over the other.
The privileged-sport players can focus on their line color and ignore the other colors.
Whichever sports ends up with its lines on the bottom gets shortchanged.
The shortchanged players have to sort which lines of the "other" color are relevant and which ones are not.
Summary
This document presents the recommendations
of the Seattle Metro Pickleball Association
for establishing equitable tennis
and pickleball court lines on the
East Green Lake pickleball and tennis courts in Seattle.
Usually, when people decide to go play tennis, they form a twosome or foursome
and convene at a specific time and location to play together.
