A beginner pickleball camp on indoor, air-conditioned courts in Fort Myers, paced to where your game actually is, whether this is the first paddle you've held or your tenth time on a court still trying to put the pieces together.
Most beginner clinics assume you already know what the kitchen line does and what a third shot is supposed to do. This one starts at the part of the game you actually have questions about, then takes you a clear step beyond it. Coach Rick Wermuth keeps it simple: get the ball in, get to the kitchen, and leave with one named thing to work on. And because the courts at Pickle Rage are indoor and air-conditioned, the Florida summer stays outside where it belongs.
Cape Coral, FL · IPTPA dual-certified coach
Rick is an IPTPA-certified teaching professional based in Cape Coral, right across the bridge from the courts you'll play on. He holds both Level I and Level II from the International Pickleball Teaching Professional Association.
Level II is the one that matters for you: IPTPA calls it the Experienced Professional tier, and earning it means passing an on-court skills test at 80 percent or better across ten skill categories, plus teaching a live lesson in front of an evaluator. Its whole purpose is certifying pros to coach beginners and intermediates well. That's exactly the room this camp puts him in.
And here's the part that matters most if you're picking this game up later in life: Rick is 68. The knees, the shoulders, the pacing questions you're walking in with, he has them too, and his coaching is built around them. When he says a drill is doable, he means doable for you.
His camp plan reads the way he coaches. Underhand serve, get it in and deep. Punch, don't swing. See how many dinks you can hit in a row. And at the end of the morning, every player leaves with one named thing to work on, because one clear fix beats ten forgotten tips.
One clear fix beats ten forgotten tips.
On Saturday, August 15, that’s the coaching you’re showing up to.
Underhand serve, get it in and deep, then build from there. No jargon wall on day one.
Short drill blocks with targets, so you can see yourself hitting more of them by the hour.
Every player leaves with one named fix. That's how improvement survives the drive home.
The other players in the room range from first-time paddles to a few months in, which is the part nobody warns you about beforehand: the day moves a lot faster when no one is pretending to know more than they do. The first half hour is built to settle the nerves. Your coach walks the room, watches your warm-up rally, and starts naming the small things your body is already doing that will become the bigger things you fix later. By the end of that half hour, you've stopped wondering whether you belong here.
Then the drilling starts, paced in small blocks so the group can rest, watch, and try a thing five different times before the next thing. Your coach moves between the courts, watching every player's reps, calling out one specific adjustment, walking away, watching again. The drills change to match what the room is actually doing, not a printed script.
The last hour is live games with corrections in real time. Four players per court, small games, scoring not really the point. The patterns from the drills start showing up under pressure, sometimes well and sometimes not, and your coach is courtside calling out what to try next. By the time you walk off, the swing feels like yours. By the time the plan lands in your inbox a week later, you know exactly what to keep working on at the courts near your house.
This is the actual schedule Rick runs. Timings shift a little with the room, but the shape of the morning is exactly this.
Introductions and a quick overview of the day, then a light warm-up that already matters: ready position, the split step, and how to move up to the kitchen line without crossing your feet.
The continental grip, and simple tap-rally drills so the ball starts feeling like something you control instead of something that happens to you.
What a dink is and why it runs the whole game. Cross-court and straight-on, forehand and backhand. Then the fun part: see how many you can hit in a row, and watch the number climb.
Punch, don't swing. Paddle up and ready. Volley exchanges and target practice until the fast ball stops feeling fast. Then a real break, with water and seats.
Underhand, in, and deep. Target practice for consistency, then returns: deep first, move up second. The two shots that start every point you'll ever play.
The two-bounce rule, kitchen rules, and the common faults. How to keep and call the score out loud without second-guessing yourself. The etiquette nobody explains to beginners.
Real games with light coaching. Rick keeps you moving to the kitchen and talking with your partner, which is the whole social point of this sport.
A quick recap, your questions answered, and every player gets one named thing to work on. Then the group photo you'll be tagged in.
You smiled and said maybe next time, because you weren't sure your serve would actually land in the box. You've watched four pickleball tutorials on YouTube this month, and you can hold the paddle right, and you know what the kitchen line is now, but when you walk onto a real court the whole thing falls apart and you start reaching for balls you shouldn't be reaching for.
Most beginner clinics don't fix that. They stuff sixteen players onto two courts, hand out generic drills designed for everyone and built for no one, and the coach spends half the morning explaining the rules to people who already know them while you stand on the back court hitting forehands into the net.
Saturday, August 15 is built to fix exactly that. By the time you walk off the court at 1:00 PM, the swing that's been fighting you for months will have started to settle, and you'll know what the next thing to work on actually is.
You walk onto your local court a little before sunset. Three of the friends who invited you to play a month ago are already there warming up. The first ball comes back to you on a return, and instead of reaching for it the way you used to, your feet move first, your paddle stays low, and the ball lands deep in the corner where you actually wanted it to go.
Your friend pauses for half a second before saying “when did THAT happen?”
You don't tell them yet. You keep playing. The third shot drop you spent forty-five minutes drilling on Saturday lands soft. The kitchen rally goes twelve balls and you end it with a cross-court dink you didn't know you could hit until two days ago. Later that night the group chat from camp lights up with photos and someone asking when the next one is.
That's the difference between who you are right now and who you'll be on Monday, August 17.
Your third shot drop, your kitchen volley, the one specific shot you came to camp wanting to fix. By the second hour the coach has named it. By the third hour you're hitting it under pressure and it's still landing where you wanted it. That's the shot that quietly wins you the next six matches you play.
Most newer players play one gear: every ball, full tilt. That's why every third shot ends up in the net or out the back. Your coach catches it in the first rally and starts naming it as you go. By the second hour, you're choosing which balls to attack and letting the bad ones go. By the third hour, the game has slowed down enough that you can see where to stand, where the open court is, where your partner is. It stops feeling like the game is happening to you.
Three drills, your specific patterns, with reps and frequency. The kind of document you keep open on your phone at the court because you finally know what to work on next instead of guessing.
Eight players, four hours, two courts. By the end of the day you've traded numbers with three people you actually want to play with. The group chat starts before you get home.
The next Saturday at your usual court, a rally where your partner stops mid-game and asks what changed. The pace doesn't break on you anymore. The third shot lands. That's the moment a RallyUp camp is built for.
None of these cost extra. All three are included the moment you reserve your seat.
Your coach watches your game on camp day and sends you a written plan within 7 days. Three drills built around the patterns they saw in your specific play. The kind of plan you keep open on your phone at the court.
Lifetime access to the RallyUp Players community. Players from every camp are in there. Find someone to hit with, drill videos, and the group chat from your camp day.
If life happens and you can't make camp day, your seat credit travels to any future RallyUp camp anywhere in the US. No expiration. The seat is always yours, just on a different Saturday.
A private full day with a head coach runs $2,500. We took the same drilling progression, capped the court at 8 players so you still get eyes on your swing, and packaged it into one day.
Honestly didn't expect much. Walked off knowing exactly why my dink keeps popping. Grip change. That's it. Wish someone had told me a year ago.
13 indoor courts, air-conditioned, inside Southwest Florida's largest indoor pickleball club. No sun, no humidity, no August in Florida. Where Saturday, August 15 happens.
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Show up, do the work, and leave with a swing that's starting to feel like yours, a written plan from your coach in your inbox a week later, and a group of players you'll actually want to see again. Saturday, August 15 at Pickle Rage. When the 8 seats are gone, they're gone.
Reserve your seat for $249 →We add new camps every couple of weeks. Drop your email and we'll send the date the moment it's open.