Tips & Tricks

1. Rush the Centerline—it is a good strategy if your opponent does not have a good passing shot.
   
2. Move Your Opponent Back and Forth, Up and Down the Court.
   
3. Spin the Ball.
   
4. Get lots of Competition with Players better than you.
   
5. Organize Tournaments and Clinics.
   
6. Make holes in your racket for a faster racket. Before drilling the holes, take duct tape and place it around where you want to drill. Be sure not to make the holes too big so they won't affect your shot. After drilling the holes remove the tape, you should be left with a smooth hole.
   

Handicapping Games

1. Handicap the games so that everyone can play with everyone.
   
2. That means that better players can play with others who aren’t as good and it can still be competitive.
   
3. The maximum handicap allowed under the StreetPaddleTennis.com rules is 5. That means that a better player starts the game with a ‘0’ while his or her opponent starts with 5 points. So the weaker player has to win just two points to win the game while the stronger player has to get seven!
   
4. Create your own ladder of competition with a handicap like golf only the inverse of it. For example, on our block we have the following rankings:

   • Leo Handicap 5
   • Adam Handicap 5
   • Rachel Handicap 4
   • Matt Handicap 3
   • Tanya Handicap 2
   • Miriam Handicap 1
   • Jessica Handicap 0

5. Obviously, StreetPaddleTennis.com handicaps are the opposite of golf—the higher the handicap, the better the player!

Other Considerations—Use Only Wooden Rackets for the Street Game

1. StreetPaddleTennis.com is to be played only with wooden rackets.
   
2. You may not use titanium or any other composite rackets.
   
3. The reason for this is that we want to:

   • have all players playing with the same type of rackets;
     
   • keep the speed of the game somewhat lower so it isn’t just a power game—we want to encourage aerobic exercise and lots of long rallies;
     
   • keep the cost of the game down so it can be a true ‘street’ game where everyone can afford to play—titanium rackets and other types of high performance paddle tennis rackets are four to seven times the cost of wooden rackets.
     

4. The objective here is to have maximum fun.

Other Considerations—Mixed Doubles and Wheelchair Athletes

1. We believe that Street Paddle Tennis can be enjoyed by everyone—young and old, male and female, playing singles and doubles together.
   
2. Mix players of different skills on doubles team and you can still have a very competitive game. You can use handicapping scores for doubles too.
   
3. Remember when you play doubles, all the players for both teams must be on the base line on the serve—you cannot station one player at the centerline on the serve but he or she may race the centerline after the serve!
   
4. We believe that Street Paddle Tennis can be enjoyed by wheelchair athletes too who can do amazing things in basketball and other sports.