Mattie J.T. Stepanek Park ○

Decent public courts, but they get pretty chaotic when the weather’s nice, especially on weekdays from 5–8 p.m. and weekend mornings. You can definitely find lower-level games, like at most public courts. The most annoying part is that the courts slope downhill.

I played from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM on a mid week. At first, the crowd wasn’t too bad, with about 5 or 6 paddles waiting. Once the sun started going down, it got really crowded. I didn't like the rotation format neither. It was 4 in, 4 out, win or lose, instead of letting people play a maximum of 2 games; I get it is crowed but 2 games should be fast enough for the rotation. We also had to move down the courts with each new rotation, which I found distracting during matches. The matchups were hit or miss. Everyone lines up their paddles along one side of the fence, so you don’t know who you’ll end up playing with. If you want a more challenging game with players around your skill level, you have to know who the stronger players are and place your paddle next to theirs. I also ran into a few players with an attitude who seemed more interested in showing that they were the veterans of the court. The sunlight is another issue around sunset. One side of the courts gets so much glare that returning a lob is tough or pretty much a prayer shot. On the positive side, I liked the nets. They’re good quality and set at the standard height. The courts are nice overall, but I noticed they aren’t level. If your back is toward the basketball courts, you’re standing higher than your opponents, so keep that in mind when you swing.

All day unless leagues are playing.

There's a great group across all levels weekday mornings from around 7:30-11:00 or so. Use the paddle stacking system with paddles on the fence near Court 1. Has 4 permanent nets. Ben and Colin Johns played here when they were younger!

Free to play; evening crowd goes until the lights cut off around 9:30pm. A go-to for show-up-and-rotate paddle-rack play in Rockville.