Porta Potty: No Go

3.0 Shoot Out Openings

Shootouts - How to Qualify and How Register, And Why I Don't See Shootout Events in My Calendar

Rating Etiquette:  Note From The President

Rating Questions: Who's a What?, I Can Play Which? Don’t Repeatedly Bruise My Opponents?

July Play Data

Smart Phone App for SAPC Members

Youth Opportunities

Porta Potty: No Go

With all the legwork in discussing, consulting and arranging for this vital, yet basic means of dealing with our diuretic urgencies, you’d have thought we were planning a lunar landing. The considerations and approvals required for placing a Porta potty at Alpine seemed to approach that level of NASA detail.

Unfortunately, it will not be in place this year. The club worked to get all our ducks in a row with the costs, supplies, insurance and cleaning assignments but alas, our plans were waylaid by that significant, now multi-seasonal x-factor we know as Covid.

Here’s the City’s response to our request.

……………..

Thank you for your request to place a portable toilet at Alpine Park at your association’s cost for the 2020 season.  The heath and safety of our community members and staff remain a top priority for the City of St. Albert.

 The City has an annual program where 35 portable toilets are placed throughout the City at local sports fields and high traffic parks.  However, the financial commitment for the program to adhere to the additional cleaning requirements due to COVID-19, resulted in the decision to not operate the portable toilets for 2020 in St. Albert.

 At this time, the City cannot approve your request; to maintain consistency and uphold the value of public safety, the City of St. Albert is not approving the addition of the portable toilet at Alpine park in 2020.

…………………………..

Thank-you to Ed Dover (club member) of Live Easy | Home Service Experts who offered to pay for the rental cost of a porta potty.

 3.0 Shoot Out Openings

And these “Shoot Outs” are a good thing?- that you want to attend?, be in front of?, and put your name in for??

Why yes! In fact, some players find that our shootouts are the best play they have ever had because they are closely matched with players of their own skill level. These “tournament-similar” games are often close, have heart pumping action and help to improve your partner work and game focus. Seeing these same players each week also increases your social connections!

Register by clicking the on the “3.0 Shoot Out Preregistration” banner on the Alpine Calendar.

You will get a welcome email, then a weekly invite email that you must confirm, to be included in that week’s play.

Shootouts - How to Qualify and How Register, And Why I Don't See Shootout Events in My Calendar

Here’s More “How To” Instructions about Shoot Outs

 To be in the pool and be eligible to register, one must first PRE-register for the entire Shootout season. To be in the next week's event (a specific weekly shootout), you must then successfully register for that event.

You PRE-register by clicking on the 3.0 or 3.5+ Pre-registration event in the Alpine calendar or the Reserved Play calendar.  If that pre-registration "event" is full, add your name to the waiting list.

You register for a weekly event by either clicking "Register" in the weekly email you get OR by clicking on a particular weekly event in the calendar.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You will only SEE these events in your calendar IF you are a member of the PRE-registered pool.  All other members, please note that these events are at 6 pm every Tuesday (3.0) and Wednesday (3.5+), but do not show up in your calendar.  Sorry, but this is the only practical way of limiting registrations to those who have pre-registered.

Also, please note that weekly shootout event registrations open at 6 pm, six days before that weekly event.  Before this time, you will not see a "Register" button in the Calendar event.

Questions? email Regplay@pickleballstalbert.ca or a shootout captain (Ken Dentzien - 3.5+; Mikki Melnyk or Roger Bradley - 3.0).

Rating Etiquette:  Note From The President

I have fielded many questions about rated play and extend an apology to members who have asked about playing down. I have been telling them they should not be attending 3.0 sessions. This year at Alpine we have only added + to the 3.5 play as it encompasses members at 4.0 Level as well.

The reason 3.0 is in place, is that we have over 100 Players at this level and wanted to provide them with an opportunity to play without 3.5 rated players using all of the courts.

 Upon reflection and on review of the club’s expectations, members can play down. (See next article)

~Eileen

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Note: this "play down" option is excluded from Shoot Outs & Round Robins That means, no sandbagging at lower level Shoot Outs or Round Robins. ..and sorry, no esteem boosting domination allowed.

Rating Questions: Who's A What?, I Can Play Which? Don’t Repeatedly Showboat My Stuff & Bruise My Opponents?

Perhaps it’s a Spring thing, (mid June for St. Albert), but there have been many questions about rating levels, so we’ve revisited our club policies have the following refresher and revision on expectations of members.

What Level Can I Play At?

Members can play down a level or lower from their Rated ability for GENERAL play only. This allows for advanced Members to coach the lower level, and to be ENJOYED for your participation in their play, NOT to win every game and feel superior in your playing ability.

Who Are YOU to Ask??

Club sessions are wonderfully overseen by our volunteer captains. Captains are there to assist us all, in organizing the session play. In performing these session duties, you may be approached by a captain to confirm your rated level of play. Captains can ask a member about their rating level. This is simply something they may need to do. Please respond civilly.

In the binder at the venue there is an up-to-date list of member ratings. If there is some apparent error with the manual binder, you may “go digital” to show the captain your club Membership Profile. If you have a freshly acquired and much celebrated updated rating (yay!), please bring your form to show, and remember to email our Membership Director to get your Member Profile updated. 

Club Rules Regarding Ratings

● Do not tell another SAPC member that his or her rating is incorrect. If you believe someone’s rating is incorrect, please contact the Captain at the venue.

● Do not tell another SAPC member not to attend club-organized play for a particular rating level because you think he or she isn’t good enough to do so. If you believe someone is attending club-organized play that is inappropriate for his or her rating level, please contact the Captain at the venue.

● SAPC members are allowed to attend club-organized play for their  level or lower. For example, an SAPC member who is rated 3.5 can attend club-organized play for 3.5, 3.0, 2.5, etc., but cannot attend play for 4.0 or higher. This gives advanced players a chance to help mentor less-skilled players, who in turn have an opportunity to learn by playing with better players; it also allows players recovering from an injury to ease back into playing.

● Couples who want to play together must play at events intended for the lower of the two ratings. For example, if one person is rated 3.5 and the other is rated j.0, when playing together they must play at events for players rated 3.0. If an event includes play for both rating levels (such as “3.0+” in the previous example), they must each participate with the players at their own level—e.g. the 3.0 player should play with the other 3.0 players in attendance, and the 3.5 player should play with the other 3.5 players in attendance—unless the event mixes everyone together.

● Do not use the ratings system as an excuse to behave poorly toward other players. It’s all too easy to look down on players who have a lower rating than you, or to resent players who have a higher rating than you. Always respect your fellow club members, regardless of their rating.

If there are any questions about any of these rules, please contact a Board member (their information is in the binder and on the club website).  If there are questions about Rating Clinics, email rating@pickleballstalbert.ca, or see more detail on our “Skills Levels & Ratings” club page.

July Play Data

We have all been participating in a grand outdoor July Alpine playpen, and for those of us still interested in a world where numbers are gathered, studied and evaluated- the lab coats n’ clipboards have thusly concluded: the SAPC consistently enjoy this sport in rain, wind, clouds, and even with fatigue, they come still.

Here’s the session data from Alpine.

• 3.0 play:.  6 sessions, average 23 people, Total 142 
• 3.5  play:  11 sessions, average 25, Total  269
• All play:  10 sessions, average 21, Total 209
• 4.0 play NEW.  3 sessions. average 7, Total 21 
• Round robin 3.0:  3 sessions average 16, Total 48 
• Round robin 3.5:  3 sessions. Average 16, Total 50 
• Round robin ALL:  I session,  5
• Kings and Queens: 2 sessions, 15 and 3 

Note: Shoot Out data hasn’t been included in the above, as it’s vast popularity has broken our abacus spools. Thanks to Ken’s sharpie & appealingly legible whiteboard & the Mikki/Roger dynamic duo (plus James "the wiz" Porter), we have we been manually interfacing- to conduct & adjust weekly events.

Smart Phone App for SAPC Members

Yes, you read that correctly. Now there's a tech-friendly way to securely access your Membership Directory to connect with friends for when you need a fourth on the courts?..want to invite folks to your patio party?.. or let Mark N. know he left his spiffy chapeau on the fence?

Members can simply download "Wild Apricot for Members" from the Apple Play, or Google Play Store.

Once you download this app and log in using your SAPC ID, you can:

• See your event registrations (called "tickets" in the app)
• See a list of upcoming club events (and register for each weekly 3.0 or 3.5+ shootout if you are in the pre-registration pool and therefore eligible to register)
• See the member directory
• See your profile (and prove your consolidated (club or tournament) rating to a captain if asked)

Captains may also use the member directory to look up a player's consolidated rating. As mentioned in an article above, captains may need to check ratings now and then.  Members, if you have disabled the display of your rating in the member directory,  please consider changing it from "No Access (hidden) to "Members" (can view). 

Being able to access our Membership Directory using this digital, real-time sync'd tool saves us from having to format, print and distribute member rating lists every time we have some rating changes. So, we're saving trees, some extra browser clicks, emissions, all that earth-friendly, sustainable future generations good stuff too. Look at us go!

Youth Opportunities

If you are interested in opportunities for youth pickleball at the Provincial level, you may email youth@pickleballalberta.org.  We are informed that at the moment they are merely gathering information for future correspondence, and you're invited to connect with them if you're a household that have youth interested in playing.

If you are interested in SAPC club youth programs, you may email us at SAPC Info, and we'll keep you posted on any upcoming activities and/or opportunities to volunteer for sharing your ripened wisdom and pearls of play.