December 2022 Member Update

LPPC Organizational Changes

An email went out to membership on Nov. 30 about some changes to our club structure going forward. Please make sure to read it if you haven’t yet.

Indoor Play Guidelines

The full list of guidelines can be found here. Please review them all if you haven’t already. A few points that have been added recently based on feedback/observations after our first month of indoor play:

  • If you sign up to play, show up or cancel more than 1 hour in advance. If you are on the waitlist, do not show up hoping to play. The system will send you an email if you are moved off the waitlist because someone else cancelled. If you don’t get an email, do not expect to play.

  • Guests: Writing their name in the “Notes” field is not signing them up. There is a specific field to choose how many guests you are bringing. This is necessary to make sure the total number people signed up for a given time does not exceed the maximum allowed — names written in the Notes field cannot be counted by the system. Once you choose 1 or 2 guests, you will be given fields to enter their names.

  • You must wear “court shoes” for safety reasons.

  • Wait to walk behind a court until all play on that court has stopped and do so quickly so the players can continue their game.

  • Some people are choosing to “share” a spot when one person can’t sign up because an event is full.

    • We do not recommend this (since you are already going to be sitting out some of the time).

    • If you choose to share a spot anyway, please truly act as if you were a single player. For instance, player #2 cannot put their paddle in the line up to go on court until player #1 comes off the court.

Gift Suggestions

Not sure what to give your loved one for the holidays? A couple of ideas:

  • A membership in the La Pine Pickleball Club! $50 for an individual, $100 for an immediate family (includes up to 2 adults and all children in household under 18).

  • A new paddle, shoes, bag or other gear from Pickleball Planet. Remember to use code “LaPine2022” at checkout so that you will not be charged for shipment to La Pine, since Jen and Rick can usually arrange to deliver your products to you at the courts.

LPRD Thermostat

We understand it is quite warm in the gym at LPRD. Unfortunately, the heating system for the gym is connected to the office area. We cannot adjust the gym thermostat alone, and LPRD has asked us not to adjust or ask to adjust the thermostat in the office area.

Treasurer’s Report

Total funds as of 11/14/22: $ 10,929.37

  • General Fund $ 5,549.91

  • Tournament Fund $ 5,379.46

Rule Check — Incorrect Score Called

Pickleball has some unique rules that set it apart from other paddle sports, and also the rules are constantly evolving. Every year, Pickleball’s governing bodies go through an extended process to review and update the rule book. We’ll start trying to highlight one rule each month here to raise awareness, and if there are any big new changes for 2023, we’ll share them as well.

For this month, let’s take a look at one of the changes that was made for 2022 that has to do with what you should do if the score is called incorrectly. Prior to 2022, the rule stated: “If the server or referee calls the wrong score, any player may stop play before the “third shot” occurs to ask for a correction.” However, at the start of 2022, the rule changed to “If the server or referee calls the wrong score, once the serve is made, play shall continue to the end of the rally and the correction made before the next serve. After the serve is made, a player who stops play based solely on an incorrect score call, will have committed a fault and shall lose the rally.”

So, even if you are correct when you point out the wrong score was called, you will still lose the rally if you stop the point after the serve. Finish the point out and then correct the score. These are the rules that apply in league play and tournaments, so they are how we should practice as well.

Editor’s note from Jan. 1, 2023: This rule basically just got reverted back to the pre-2022 version, so I’ve done a strikeout on what was written above to try to avoid confusion. As of Jan. 1, 2023, the rule is updated to: “If the wrong score is called, the referee or any player may stop play before the return of serve to correct the score. It is a fault to stop play after the return of serve to identify or ask for a score correction. It is a fault to stop play to identify or ask for a score correction when the score was correctly called.” This will allow you to stop the play to fix the score if you do it before the return of serve. If you are wrong however, a fault will occur.

New Members

Our numbers continue to grow every month, and we have now reached 200 members! Welcome to all our new folks:

Destiny Yourdon, Michele Kelley, Sue Wente, Ed Mosman, Carol Mosman, Laureen Anderson, Ginny Ann Nichols, Kasuna Duffey, Jane Shoemaker, Betsy Packard, Lucy Lawrence, William Riordan, Suzanne Moore, Sandra Henderson, Jolynne Ash

Wider World of Pickleball

The catch phrase for the last couple months in the greater pickleball world seems to be consolidation. Examples include:

  • The two leading pickleball tournament organizing websites PickleballTournaments.com and PickleballBrackets.com unite and will become Pickleball.com. The full pickleball.com site “will launch in January and feature a next-generation tournament platform, ratings, league and ladder management, expanded new player resources, court scheduling, amateur highlights, and so much more.” Am I looking forward to having a shorter website name to reference when talking about tournament sign-ups? Yes! Am I hoping for an improved interface that makes navigation significantly better than pickleballtournaments.com? Absolutely!

  • Ratings: maybe the alphabet soup of all the different ratings systems will get a bit simpler with the announcement that pickleball.com will be using DUPR as its ratings system. The FAQ’s say it may take up to 6 months for the merge to complete, so in the meantime tournament players will continue to have WPR’s (PickleballTournaments.com historical system) and PBR’s (PickleballBrackets.com’s historical system, or beer). UTPR’s (USA Pickleball’s sanctioned tournament rating system) will also continue to be used until such time as USAP “decides to utilize something different.” Read all the FAQ’s here.

  • Newly created Vibe League merged with Major League Pickleball. This one went so fast you might have missed it, but here’s the timeline:

  • Apparently, pickleball isn’t the only fast growing sport with in-fighting and competing pro leagues.

Last but not least, if you are trying to get more practice in this winter but having trouble getting enough court time, here’s an option.