Scheduling Objectives and Format Compliance Importance

It is important for players to play the EXACT FORMAT each week. A lot of factors are considered when putting together court pairings ...

• Competitive Balance
  • All players are not interchangeable. Individual court pairings are put together to create enjoyable, competitive play. 
  • On 4-player courts, often players of similar ability are grouped together. When this is not possible, we may group two stronger players of like ability and two slightly weaker players of like ability in order to create two competitive sets. 
  • On 5-player courts, the pairings are done similarly. There is added complexity based on time and geography issues. Often a 6:00 player will be scheduled as #1 on a 5-player court because they are also playing at 8:00 at a different site. For the same reason, some players will be scheduled as #5 on an 8:00 court because they are playing somewhere else at 6:00.
  • It is important that all players show up on time and not use the 5-player court situation as justification for showing up late. It is also important that the players play as the exact number assigned to them in the rotation schedule. The only time to alter this is if someone is late and was listed as a 1-4 player. Then simply switch the #5 player with the player who is late. Late means at least 5 minutes after the assigned start time.
  • When one player cancels or gets someone else to take their spot, the competitive balance is usually compromised. This can result in three blow out sets as one player will either be too strong or too weak for the court. This is not fun for anyone.​ 
• Season-Long Variety, Fairness and Win% are Interconnected
  • ​Short-term court scheduling goals are to create fun, competitive situations each week. The longer-term goals are to create fair scheduling that averages out over the course of the 26-week season. Players who start to get too high of a winning percentage will find they start playing better competition on a weekly basis. This is meant to be the reward for winning.
  • Do not get caught up in your winning percentage. The way this league is designed, about 90% of the players who play at least 13 times for the 26-week season will end up between 40% and 60% winning percentage. That is because you will gradually start playing better competition as your position in the standings improves. Only outliers on the top end and bottom end, and players who play only a few times, should end up outside that range. 
  • Efforts are made to create like pairings for players at the high end. The top 10 or so players should expect similar pairings as the other top players over the course of the season. Players 1 to 5 are viewed as interchangeable as are 6 to 10. Then the groupings get broader - 11 to 20, 21 to 40, etc. Players 1 to 5 should find their pairings similar to other 1 to 5 players over the course of the season. This should be proportional. Meaning, a player who plays 50 sets should have about twice as many matches against other top 5 players as one who plays 25. This won't be exact but efforts are made to be as fair as possible.
  • Pro-Fill Ins. When pros fill in on lower courts - they will most likely win all three sets. Their purpose is to level out play and create fun points for all. Naturally they will try a little harder with the weakest player on the court. Platform Tennis League players with win rates above 33% should play in this situation a similar number of times over the course of the season as their contemporaries. Again this is proportional to the total number of sets played in a season. This will not be exact - as sometimes pros are required to fill in at the last minute and are not part of the planned scheduling. Players with below 33% win rates may find themselves in this situation more often. The pros results never count but the other players' do. 
• 2-Hour Time Commitment & 5-player vs. 4-player Formats
  • When you opt "In" for the week - you are committing to a 2-hour block of time. You will be expected to actually play at least 1.5 hours of that time & you must be available for the entire two hour slot. No exceptions, other than injury or emergency. 
  • On 4-player courts, play three regular sets - one with each partner. If you are finished quickly (under 1:15), offer to play an additional set for fun. Do not "lobby" for quitting. If you signed up to play twice, that carries no weight in this decision - consider the others that reserved a whole night for play & are only playing once. We have a lot of players who are new or don't have other opportunities to play and they benefit from the extra play. 
  • On 5-player courts, play the EXACT FORMAT & ROTATION SCHEDULE. This includes "no-ad scoring" and a tiebreaker at 5-5. Meaning, it is still first to 6 win by 2, but if the score should happen to get to 5-5 that's when you play the tiebreak. This is necessary to get 5 sets played in under 2 hours. Also, refer to the league rules for how to proceed when time constraints affect the completion of all sets. You will not play every possible combination - and this will not be exactly "fair" on a week-by-week basis. Competitive discrepancies should average out over the course of a 26-week season. Absolutely no lobbying for certain numbers in the rotation based on match up preferences.
• Playing Two Sessions in a Night
  • All players get scheduled for one session before anyone is considered for a second session.
  • ​Players are encouraged to sign up to play both sessions. After all, the mission is more play. For this reason, we will generally prioritize more play over scheduling 4-player courts as long as competitive compatibility is not compromised.
  • Everything is paid for in advance - court time, balls, etc - we might as well use everything.
  • Players offering to play 2x gives us more flexibility with scheduling.
  • Most weeks, more players choose this option than can be accommodated. It is important to understand that nobody is guaranteed this privilege and no efforts will be made to award this privilege evenly. This should be looked at as a bonus. The primary reason for scheduling a player twice is to get as many high quality, compatible courts as possible.
  • To improve your odds of getting selected to play twice - choose both geographic options "North" and "South." You may play at two different clubs, but they will be close together - i.e. never CCC and Glendale on the same night.
  • Understand that it is tougher to pair outliers on the bottom end (win % under 33%) in as many compatible situations. These players are encouraged to sign up for two sessions, and will be scheduled twice as opportunities present themselves.