Pickleball Games

Games - The 1 Flag Game

The flag game is the most common game we play, If everyone is aware of the rules and plays by them then it should run itself and make for a good mixed session of play with little downtime,

General Rules

1. There are 2 ends of the sports hall - a winning end and a losing end.
2. These ends a marked with a big L and W on the walls at each end of the hall
3. Winning teams should always move towards the winning end of the hall
4. Losing teams should alway move towards the losing end of the hall
5. This will mean winning teams play winning teams and losing teams play losing teams - thus making more even matches
6. There should only be 1 RED FLAG up in the hall at any one time!
7. At the start of a new game, previous partner split so they don't play together consecutively
8. A raised flag dictates that the court is ready to be approached in order to start a new game (only raise you flag if you are ready to accept new players and play a new game!)
9. Take your flag down as soon as someone has approached your court to play a new game - people not removing flags at this stage causes confusion for anyone else finishing their games.
10. For the flags, we use red lawn marker flags - there's plenty of types available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Marking+Flags+Lawn

Game Play - Full Courts

Step 1

1. The game on Court 3 finishes with players 9 and 10 winning
2. After checking for any existing flags and not seeing any, court 3 puts up their red flag
3. Court 3 continues playing (this can be practice, dinking or normal game - whatever they prefer )

Step 2

1. The game on Court 1 finishes with players 1 and 2 winning.
2. Court 1 see's the red flag on Court 3

Step 3

1. Players on Court 1 see that Court 3 is towards the Winning end
2. Therefore the WINNERS (of Court 1), move towards Court 3
3. The Winners of Court 1, take down the flag on court 3 and ask the loser of Court 3 to move towards Court 1 (IE losers on Court 3, move towards the losing end)

Step 4

1. The Losers on Court 3 have now moved to Court 1
2. Pervious partners swap, and become opponents for the next game
3. The end result is: -  
4. A winning team will always play a winning team
5. A loosing team will play a losing team
6. Partners become opponents.

When you have full courts of players the game should work almost seamlessly after people get used to the rules. When you have odd numbers (IE not directly divisible by 4), then it can be more tricky, but as long as you have a bit of patience, and play in the spirit of the game, it can still work well.

General Points

1. These rules apply if there is 2 or 3 additional players
2. Most rules of the main flag system still apply
3. The court with less than 4 players will be known as 'The Cooker' - on behalf of the fact singles and 1 vs 2 can be pretty exhausting.  
4. 'The Cooker' should NOT MOVE during the session. If people don't follow the rules correctly, then this can happen - EG one player moves to cooker with 3 people on, and they then they start playing a game of 4. This then means there's another court somewhere left with just 3 players.
5. The red flag still denotes a court where the players are ready to mix and play a new game
6. As on most occasions people would rather play in a full doubles match than a single match or a 1 vs 2 match, 'The Cooker' will often have a permanent red flag. This MAY not always be the case though - some may want to play out a singles or 1 vs 2 game - it is up to them.
7. If the people in 'The Cooker' want to play out their game, they should NOT have a red flag up!

Step 1

1. In the example below we see court 3 is 'The Cooker' with a 1 vs 2 game.
2. 'The Cooker' has its flag up, indicating that they are ready to swap players and play a new game
3. All courts play a game
4. NOTE - Because the red flag is not at either end of the hall, who approaches this court 3 after they have finished depends on which court they are on!
5. Example : -
6. IF Court 4 finishes first, then the losers of Court 4 approach Court 3
7. IF Court 2 finishes first, then the winners of Court 2 approach Court 3
8. This is because winners always move in the direction of the Winning end of the hall and Losers the loosing end!
9. Because of this, when you have odd numbers it may be fairer to have 'The Cooker' in the middle of the hall - as sometimes winners will go to it, and sometimes losers. If it were at a far end, then this would rest in either WINNER going there all the time or Loser. So having it in the middle makes it more balanced.

Step 2

1. Court 1 finishes their game
2. The WINNERS of Court 1 go to 'The Cooker' (as it is towards the winning end of the hall)
3. 2 players on Court 3 then go to Court 1 to play.
4. The 2 players that go to Court 1 should be decided by the players on Court 1 - relying on a judgement of fair play to choose which 2!
5. NOTE - In this case the FLAG on The Cooker is NOT taken down, as the players now on Court 3, don't want to play out their game of 2 vs 1.
6. NOTE - IF the players on Court 3 wanted to play out their 2 vs 1 game, then they should put their flag down and everyone plays until the next court raises a flag.

Step 3

1. Players on Court 1 and Court 3 have now mixed into the below order
2. Play continues until the next time a game ends and the system repeats

General Points

1. In the case of 1 odd player, they will likely be sat on the benches.
2. When a Court finishes, players on the finishing court, should courteously ask the odd player if they want to swap in.
3. The flag is put up on the Court
4. The single player then swaps in to the court and effectively acts as their replcement (IE they will assume the result W or L of the player they swapped with, and continue accordingly).
5. Play continues as would now occur with all full courts

The MULTI Flag Game

This is a variation of the flag game which can be suitable if you wish to have less player mixing. EG if there is a cases where you would like little mixing between abilities - this is a good solution.