my backyard is decent sized, maybe 80x40 feet, and ive been throwing down pool noodles and cardboard boxes as gates for a while now which works fine for practice but theyre a pain to set up every time and the wind just knocks everything over. been thinking about building actual proper gates out of PVC or maybe buying a few of those collapsible flag-style gates you see at club events.

not trying to host events or anything, just want something i can leave mostly set up that i can fly through consistently and maybe change the configuration sometimes. budget is probably like $150-200 total. anyone done something like this and is there a design that actually survives a few crashes without me having to rebuild it every session

pvc is the way to go for something semi permanent imo. i used 3/4 inch pvc for the upright poles and 1 inch for the base cross pieces, the slightly different sizing means you can sleeve them together without glue and they pop apart on impact instead of snapping. painted mine with spray paint and used pool noodles slid over the top arch section so they have some give when you clip them. total cost was maybe $80 for everything from home depot and its been standing in my yard for like 8 months now through rain and everything. the bases are just T fittings with short legs, no stakes needed unless its really windy.

honestly in a space that size you might find that fixed gates actually limit you more than the annoying cardboard setup because you cant change the course. i went through this and ended up doing a hybrid where i have four solid flag poles with concrete bases at the corners and then everything in between is just the collapsible flag style gates that pack into a tube. they're not super cheap, paid like $25 each for mine, but they stake into the ground fast and survive crashes pretty well. just something to think about before you commit to a fixed layout