No, it’s easy! Pickleball is a complicated game with a lot of options and rules- that’s why we came along, to keep track of so many things for you. Instead of running back to your instruction guide to remember what button to push for what action and when, we’ve used real language text on-screen to show you. An example is the Q & A below about little on-screen arrows or “triangles” in corners. Another is the pre-match message of “BEST OF 1 GM TO 11 PTS.” It’s pretty clear what format you’re about to play if you press the button by the flashing bars. If you forgot to change the game format since your prior session or match… there’s your warning to use SETUP and change the format.

The LCD screen in game mode shows the four (or two) player positions as though you are looking ahead at the court in front of you. So you and partner are closest to you at the bottom and on the other side of the central scoreboard (replacing a net in the image) are the opponents, where you see their even or right-side player diagonally opposite your own even or right-side player, and their left player diagonally opposite your left-side player. It would be the same if a coach were diagramming out the locations of the players in an overhead view to show a play strategy.

We designed the PickleTime™ Digital Scorekeeper for maximum utility in its most frequent usage situation. For games to 11 that will be social play, not tournament play, and we almost never see players switch sides at six in social play. On the other hand both tournament and social play most often follow the official pickleball rules to swap ends at 6 points in a final game of multi-game matches, and that’s what the PickleTime™ Digital Scorekeeper will prompt you to do. You don’t HAVE to swap ends to proceed scoring the game. In fact you don’t have to wait for the reminder to expire; you can just press a button while the reminder and tone are on and it’ll be ready to proceed with the next rally.

Auto Score-forward is an advanced electronic program that you may find confusing at first because it works so fast.  It logs the rallies you played previously into memory and returns you to the point at which you left off in the game. Try it off-court a few times (make changes to SERVING or I AM?). With 1 or 2 points on the board, backwards/review to those screens, make a different selection, and notice the instant correction of the present score and correct positions without any re-entry of rallies played (it’s a very smart device!). If you don’t like it at first, you can instead use RESET MATCH (press-hold SETUP/Gear button) to start over and manually reenter all rallies played. But we warn you, manual reentry will slow down the pace of your game. That’s what less-smart units require you to do… start the game over from the beginning. You’ll come to love this feature!

Surprisingly, yes.  That’s why we recommend at least two players wear our scorekeeper, at least one on each team.  Errors include:  Starting the match with an incorrect “BEST OF x GMS TO y PTS” screen, making incorrect entries in the SERVING or I AM? screens, pushing the wrong button for the team winning the rally, forgetting to push a button for the team winning the rally, pushing a button twice for a team winning a rally.  We know, you wouldn’t make any of these errors, but in the heat of the game, it’s possible.  That’s why the PickleTime™ Digital Scorekeeper has so many versatile features for you to make corrections and get where you need it to be for the correct score, server, and player positions.

No, you certainly don’t need to, but we do recommend it for added comfort and better stability. Because our well-marked buttons are on top of the device, it won’t tend to slide around much from your pressing buttons, but we do recommend you use a “pinching” action between thumb and index finger on the right-side buttons only, which you need to press a lot more times in order to score games. These two buttons are the paddle-marked rally-win buttons, though they’re also used in certain setup situations together with on-screen prompts that indicate using them, like flashing bars or words next to them, or little triangle up or down arrows on the LCD screen for scrolling functions of the buttons.

The two right-side buttons are used most often to award a rally-win to one team, so they each have a pickleball paddle on them, indicating “play here.” The upper and lower left-side buttons have triangle up and down arrows on them. The down arrow button at lower left scrolls backwards through rallies played from the most current one logged to any earlier rally and scoreboard, and in fact all the way back to the pre-game setup screens if you want, where you can re-select any of the three possible game setup screens: 1st serving team, I AM? position for ME, and opponent’s 1st serving (“even”) player’s “name.” The up arrow at upper left is to return to the most recent rally again, finally arriving at the current score display and the forward button will not produce any more changes when you arrive there. And then finally there is the middle-left button with the gear-symbol, used generically for settings and in this case to enter SETUP mode (press & hold), or to toggle between clock display and game display (single push of the middle button). By the way, pressing it quickly to view day, date and time, will not interrupt your scorekeeping in a game; you just press it a second time to go back to the game display.

The battery is extremely easy to change when you get the LO BATT warning on the screen before a game. Just pry apart the top from bottom case halves, preferably using a flat-blade screwdriver in the enlarged slot on the right end of the unit, at the seam, and then push or pull out the old CR2032 battery from the battery clip (no tools needed), and replace with a new battery, being careful to place the positive-marked battery top-side upwards in the clip. Then place the case halves back together and press until all four corners have snapped into place and the seam looks even on all sides. The PickleTime™ Digital Scorekeeper will remember your game in-progress if you have to change the battery mid-game, though that would rarely if-ever be necessary.

Yes, when you’re ready you can remove the small Phillips head screw in the bottom of the case that locks-in the wristband, and pull the band out, buckle-end first (it won’t slip through the other way). The barb at the free end of the band might grab and stop the band from coming out the other side so you may have to slip through a thin knife blade or stiff strip of paper to hold the barb against the band as it passes through the final tunnel exit, just long enough to get the leading end of the barb past the exit-edge. If it still resists coming out, don’t force it and don’t panic. There’s another way: snap apart the case halves as if changing the battery, and the bottom with the wristband through it has two more small Phillips head screws; remove them and the plate covering the wristband tunnel and you’ll be able to easily press the barb through the exit point.

With its intuitive on-screen guidance, you’ll only need to do one or two SETUP-mode actions (like changing from 11-point to 15-point games, or Beeper ON/OFF, and score a game or two, maybe correcting a couple rally-win entry errors, to be an expert user who helps your fellow players get the score and player positions right. If you do a couple practice SETUP changes and game plays off-court first, you’ll really be well-prepared to score and track your games perfectly.

We like the retro look.  We also like that there is plenty of space between the buttons and that all the buttons are on top of the unit.  We could easily design the unit to be more compact, but there would be trade-offs in functionality and the weight difference would be insignificant.  In hundreds of hours of testing our scorekeeper has never interfered with our play. 

No, it’s easy! Try our scorekeeper for a couple of games in social play and using it will become second nature. 

1. If your opponents win the point, rotate the THEM dial.  If your team wins the point, rotate the US dial.

2. fFor keeping track of the server, when there is a side out, and the serving team’s score is even, rotate the serving dial to 1st E.  When there is a side out, and the serving team’s score is odd, rotate the serving dial to 1st O.  Rotate the serving dial one click clockwise when the second server starts serving.

3.  For keeping track of positions, the windows of the scorekeeper are laid out as if you are looking at the court from your (you, the wearer’s) perspective.  The correct position for each player is shown to the left and right of the score.

Yes.  All three dials rotate in both directions.

Surprisingly, yes.  First, if you forget to rotate a wheel after each rally.  Second, if you rotate the wrong wheel.  This is why we recommend at least two players use a scorekeeper during the game.

Yes.  They show the court from the wearer’s perspective.

Yes.  It is “one size fits most” and is made of stretchable, comfortable, felt-like material.  And it features our “barb,” so the wristband stays in a loop when taking the scorekeeper off and putting it on. 

No, you certainly don’t need to, but we do recommend it for added comfort and better stability. 

In hundreds of hours of testing, our scorekeepers have never interfered with our play.  It only weighs 1.1 oz.

Yes.  If you are a little bit mechanical, you can disassemble and reassemble the scorekeeper.

Yes.  The metal parts are stainless steel and the other parts are plastic.

Yes.  Pretend you are one of the players and use the scorekeeper as if you were that player.