Hello everyone
Another season of The Rochester Tennis League is approaching and I can't wait to get out there and start playing outdoors again. I am sure most of you share my enthusiasm especially if you didn't play much over the winter. This will be our 7th season and every year we try to add some new opportunities to play tennis. This season, those of you that like playing doubles will finally get your wishes granted. We plan to trial a doubles league this spring and if it turns out good, we will keep going with it.
As I announced last season , we are changing session I format so matches get more competitive from the start. Players will be divided in levels from the beginning. Last year we talked about it and it seems like majority of players would be in favor of this change.
New session I format
All players will be divided in levels according to their previous results. Depending on final numbers, each division(level) should have around 8 players. During the session I, you will get to play everyone in your division once. At the end of the session, top two players from each division will move a level up and bottom 2 will drop down. Second session will have the same format. This change should bring up more competitive matches and less lopsided ones. Hopefully it will be more enjoyable format for everyone since you will get to play opponents close to your level every week.
It will be challenging to set up divisions to begin with, it won't be perfect but we have to start from somewhere. For example, we will primarily look at 2011 session 3 results to see where we all fit , but also we have to make sure people who missed session 3 are also placed appropriately. Aside from that, we get a good number of new players and it won't be easy to determine where they belong as well. Most likely we will set up some pre-season matches for new people.
As I said, we plan to try out a doubles league this spring. I have been skeptical about it in the past, but I figured why not give it a try and see how it goes. My main concern was that it would be too difficult for 4 people to agree on same day and time each week. So we will need to tweak the format a bit to make it work.
The doubles league will go parallel with singles league, but it will have a little bit different set up. The main difference will be scheduling. We plan to have set days for doubles league matches so people who sign up will know what day they play each week.
For example, we might pick Monday 5:30pm as scheduled time for the doubles matches, and we can have Thursday as a back up day in case it rains on Monday. So to begin with, the doubles league won't have scheduling flexibility that singles league has. After we test it out for one session, we can change and modify rules accordingly.
Players that sign up for doubles will need to be very committed to the schedule, and it will be expected that they are available on designated days. We might also have some subs available.
Next question that comes up is how do we set partners?
One idea was to get 4 people on the court and rotate partners every set. So each week and match you play with different partners. The other option was to have same partner every match. I think majority would be in favor of having same partner throughout the session so we will start that way.
Those of you interested in playing in doubles league can sign up whether you have a partner or not. If you already have a partner you can sign up as a team, and you will play with that partner for the entire session or longer if you chose to do so. Those of you that don't have a partner will be paired up with each other.
I think we will have a pretty good group of players interested, and I hope we put up a successful session. The doubles division should be a nice warm up event for USTA summer league as well.
On the flip side once USTA starts in June, number of people interested in doubles might decline.
Session I signup
All of you that played in the league before, will be getting an e mail from me asking you if you want to sign up for session I. You will just need to reply to my e mail. I will send a separate email for doubles league sign up. All new players that haven't played before will need to sign up on the link below
Sign up fees
Just like in the past, all of you that played in the league before will get to play for free. All new players that never participated in the league before, will need to pay a sign up fee in amount of $10 per each session during their initial year. If they end up playing all 3 sessions their total cost will be $30. If you know someone who might be interested in joining the league you can point them to the web site or forward them my e mail address.
Anyone can make a voluntary donations to the league using the Donate Paypal button on this blog or on the main web site.
Depending on number of new players and donations we hope to pass rewards and trophies as we did last year.
Contact info
In order to improve communication , all players will be required to submit their phone numbers this year. E mail will stay our main way of getting in touch with each other, but phone will be a nice addition especially if your opponent is not responding to your e mails . Hopefully this will result in more matches completed . A spreadsheet with players contact info will be emailed to you. The same info will be visible on a password protected page on our web site.
Women's league
Just like last year women will be able to play in the men's league and also in women's only division. Returning players will get an e mail from me about the session I signup and new players can sign up on this link http://womenstennisleague.moonfruit.com/#/sign-up/4540227745
Any ideas and suggestions are welcome.
So long for now, I will get back to you soon regarding the session I signup.
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