Club Rota System by Standard - Ideas

Discussion in 'General Forum' started by sykes4211, Mar 31, 2011.

  1. sykes4211

    sykes4211 Regular Member

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    We currently use the common peg board system at the club, it works well, but it's possible to get mixed up in uneven games & the stronger players, myself included want a balance of challenging games. I am looking for ideas that members have to solve this as I'm sure this is a common problem.

    I have heard about a ranking system to control the players that can be picked, but think this could cause problems, someone is bound to be upset.

    I have also heard about a "Top Court" system, where I think players move up the courts (we have 3) but not really sure how this works.

    Any help would be great - Thanks
     
  2. sykes4211

    sykes4211 Regular Member

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    Bump

    Any help or advice greatlt appreciated - Thx
     
  3. Line & Length

    Line & Length Regular Member

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    What you're describing is quite common when there's a wide range of ability in a group. I've come across a few ideas to try and address this.

    1) Dividing players into grades. I knew one club that graded all it's players from A (highest) to E (lowest). People picking games from the peg board could only pick people up to 2 grades higher than them (i.e. Es could only pick those up to C, D to B, C to A). The better players did get more challenging games, though it was considered cliquey & the internal politics of the club didn't help.

    2) Picking from the next 10. Most peg boards have a '3 from the next 6 or 7', though this can lead to the same games. One approach was to extend this to 10, enabling you to pick that other good player who is 2 games' worth back from you. Again, open to accusations of politics & some of the weaker players were constantly overlooked. This resulted in them playing too few games, not improving and generally getting fed-up and/or leaving.

    3) Mandatory shuffle. Halfway through the evening, a 'card-shuffle' is performed on the peg board. The back-half of the queue are intermixed with the front half. For example, if there are 16 in the quene, the new order would be 1, 9, 2, 10, 3, 11, 4, 12, etc. Produces a better mix of games, though doesn't necessarily give you the better games you're looking for.

    4) Team practise. For the last half-hour or so, picks can be made based upon teams. For example, a member of the men's 1sts could pick 3 other men's 1sts for a high-level game of doubles. Tends not to upset too many people, though some of the better players may come late to avoid playing the 'variable' games.

    In my opinion, none of these options improve on the standard peg-board. Being part of a club means playing a range of matches that vary in balance and difficulty.

    What is the ranking system that you've heard about?
     
    #3 Line & Length, Apr 7, 2011
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2011
  4. sykes4211

    sykes4211 Regular Member

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    Thanks for the reply, some great ideas.

    I thought I would share some information with formum members I have found and documented on the Top Court system i mentioned earlier.
     

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  5. Line & Length

    Line & Length Regular Member

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    Interesting idea. Is similar to something I've used in coaching. Everyone plays half-court singles for a fixed period of time (e.g. 5 minutes). When the time is up, whoever was winning goes 'up' a court and whoever was losing goes 'down' one. Repeated 5-6 times, this was quite good for sorting a group that I was unfamilar with.

    Applied to a club night, I can see 2 potential issues:
    1) People always choose the strongest partner to move/keep up. This could lead to some particularly one-sided games & the top few players monopolising the top court (albeit with temporary movements down to court B).
    2) Games won't finish at the same time. I suspect that is why the specification requires a minimum of 6 people per court. Still, if the top court rallies are shorter, their games could take less time. If the mid-court gets several games behind, the top court could run out of players. What happens then?

    As with any form of sorting, you need to be careful not to alienate the weaker players. Everyone should get roughly the same number of games.

    Is your club going to discuss this at your next AGM? If so, I'd be interested to hear what they think.
     

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