Know Your Competition Modes

Before we jump right into our top 5 competition modes for your next tennis club tournament, it’s important to understand the sheer format variety. 

Regardless of the type of game you want to play, it will fall into one of these categories:

• Challenge — This form tends to run for a long time (generally over a year or a season). Here, club members will challenge each other to matches during the period. A pyramid/league table is used for scoring (i.e. losers move down, winners move up).
• Elimination — Traditional knock-out games! The Women’s Tennis Association and ATP use this elimination style. They’re great for prize-money games, but if you have a lot of beginners in your club, they’ll quickly be left out.
• Group — For the social element, group formats are the best. They tend to be popular among club owners who want everyone to have a fair shot.
• Rotation — If you want all your members to play each other, the rotation style is best. It can be a type of group tournament too, depending on how you choose to structure it.
• Team — Whether each team is small or rather large, you can mix it up. If your club has a lot of novices, opting for smaller teams is best. 

Okay, now is a great time to move onto the best part — the top 5 competition modes for your next tennis club tournament! Hopefully, you’ll find a couple of ideas you are yet to try.

Top 5 Competition Modes For Your Next Tennis Club Tournament

#1 The Progressive Knock-Out

While the traditional knock-out is effective (it’s used in the Olympic Games and World Championships after all), it doesn’t give weaker players a chance to play lots of matches.

The progressive knock-out, however, does just that.

Here’s How to Do It:

1. Allocate players however you wish.
2. Winners play winners in various rounds until one player stands unbeaten.
3. Losers play other losers.
4. If a player loses in the first round, they won’t be able to finish in the top half.
5. Players that find themselves losing on the second round will only be able to get to the lowest quarter in the final.

The main advantage here is that you get a full ranking order with a penultimate match while including weaker players. However, it will take more time than a traditional knock-out.

#2 The Compass Draw

A compass draw tennis tournament is divided into 8 sections. Each of them depicts the point of a compass (hence the name). As soon as a player loses a match, they move into a different bracket. 

It’s a fantastic way for junior players to have a taste of what professional competitions are like without having to spend a lot of money.

Here’s How to Do It:

1. Use a reservation suite like Court Reservation to set up the matches.
2. Players talk to each other to set up their match.
3. Each player brings a can of balls to the match. One is used in the match, the unopened one is given to the match-winner in the seeding rounds and the loser in the final draw rounds.
4. Matches are best in 2 out of 3 sets.
5. Once the match is finished, players will enter the scores on the site.
6. The first 4 rounds are “seeding”. Once they’re finished, the final draw is posted.
7. Prizes are given to the winner and runner-up of the main bracket and the consolation bracket.

The main advantage here is that you get a full ranking order with a penultimate match while including weaker players. However, it will take more time than a traditional knock-out.

#3 4 Singles and 1 Double

This is a team tournament type, so you’ll need to set these up beforehand. On the day, you should toss a coin to see which team will be “ABC” or “XYZ”. Then, the captains can give each player in their team a letter.

This competition mode is fantastic for socializing and maintaining morale (especially essential during these still unprecedented times!).

Here’s How to Do It:

1. Set up teams of 2 to 4 players.
2. Do best of 5 matches (i.e. 4 singles and 1 double).
3. The order of play should be: single, single, double, single, single.

#4 The Stop Rotation

This competition mode is fantastic for players of all ages and abilities. It’s another team tournament where players win points for their group as play continues.

Here’s How to Do It:

1. Set up two teams — A and B. Of course, you can give them fun names if you prefer.
2. Place each member of team A across the net from team B.
3. Set a “stop” target (first to 5 points, for example).
4. Shout “go” to start all the matches.
5. First one to reach 5 points (in this case) shouts “stop”.
6. Players move to the court on their left.
7. And it continues until you run out of time!

5 The Leveler

Finally, we have the leveler which can be completed in one day. It helps make everyone equal because stronger players have to win points to beat their opponent.

Here’s How to Do It:

1. Decide on events (i.e. singles or doubles).
2. Ensure all players know you’re running a leveler score system.
3. Decide the leveler score for everyone (best on 0, weakest on 10).
4. Matches are first to 21 points. Play the best of 3 sets.

We’re sure you can’t wait to give these a go! 

References

– http://www.tennisplayandstay.com/competition/formats/formats.aspx

– https://www.allabouttabletennis.com/competition-and-tournament-systems-of-play.html

– http://www.tennisplayandstay.com/competition/elimination/compass-formats.aspx

– http://www.tennisplayandstay.com/competition/hidden-rotation/stop-format.aspx

– https://www.lta.org.uk/globalassets/officiate–volunteer/documents/organiser–official-resources/support-in-organising-tournamnets/how-to-run-internal-club-competitions.pdf

– https://www.compassdraw.com/about.aspx

Snacks abound: what do you want to be serving at your tennis club?

The key to figuring out exactly how to cater for events can also be difficult. Our advice is to determine what kind of event or party you are hosting and adjusting the menu as appropriate.

For example, if you are having a daytime party full of active tennis activities, you’ll want to prioritize healthier, less bloating snacks so that your guests can enjoy both training and your delicious food. 

If you are not planning to do any activities, and are holding a more refined party, the foods you’ll want to serve will, of course, be different. If you are planning a party in the daytime, we would recommend going back to the origins of tennis and serving a delightful, wholesome, and surprisingly filling British Afternoon Tea.

When planning a fancier fiesta in the evening, an evening of canapés would be the port of call. 

As you can maybe tell, our general recommendations tend to revolve around finger food and stuff that can be grazed upon throughout an event, rather than being gorged upon in one go. Your partygoers (being tennis club members), are likely to be relatively active and health-conscious, so giving them the option to control how much they eat on a granular level will be much appreciated.

First, we will consider what you can serve if you are planning a particularly active party, reviewing the healthiest options for this. 

After that, we will move to consider some more refined options you can serve, including canapés and the classic afternoon tea. 

If you have ever wanted to find out what food to bring to a tennis club party, then read on as we provide a comprehensive breakdown of the different options you have! It will be sure to leave all your guests satisfied, and hopefully raving about the delicious spread provided.  

Cheap, cheerful, and chock full of vitamins

So, let’s say you’ve organized or are attending a day of tennis fun at your tennis club. Of course, you want to provide some food, but want to make sure it is healthy and tasty for when people are taking breaks from games.

Here are some great choices for just that occasion:

Raw vegetables

When used as a snack, a raw savory vegetable/fruit is often referred to as a “crudité“. These can take many forms; we would recommend the following:

• Carrots
• Radishes
• Cauliflower
• Cucumber
• Celery
• Bell pepper (red and yellow in particular)

Homemade Hummus

This is one you might not think to make but is delicious. It is also surprisingly simple to do, and if you create the hummus yourself you can control how fatty (or not) you wish to make it! Hummus requires equal parts chickpeas, tahini, and quantities of olive oil and lemon juice adjusted to texture and taste, all blended up together.

You can also incorporate garlic as well but be careful with the quantities of raw garlic used as it can be exceptionally powerful. If you want a bit of garlic in the hummus, it might be worth roasting it first, as that will temper the harsh raw flavor. 

The Afternoon Tea

The afternoon tea. A staple of British high society, and an outstanding afternoon appetite-quencher. 

The key to a great afternoon tea is finger food. First: the sandwiches. Use a mix of white and brown bread. The types of sandwiches we would recommend for this spread is as follows: 

• Ham and mustard (find an English or Dijon mustard for this if you can – serve on white bread)
• Cream cheese, salmon, and dill (mix the diced dill with the cheese, serve on brown bread) 
• Beef and tomato (use thinly sliced peppered beef and even thinly sliced and salted tomato – brown bread and a light dash of mayonnaise is perfect here)
• Cucumber sandwiches – this one is simple, finely sliced cucumber on some lightly buttered white bread.

Cut these sandwiches into small “fingers” (rectangles) and serve with some scones (and clotted cream/jelly) and some fancy potato chips. Small quiches, tarts, and other such baked delights would work brilliantly too. 

Canapes

Here is the perfect food to bring to an evening tennis club party. The small serving size and huge variety in choice works brilliantly for health-conscious folks, and we have curated a couple of healthier canapé options to fit your club’s demographic.

Cucumber crackers with blue cheese and fruit

Combine thick slices of cucumber with blue cheese, and then alternating blueberries and pomegranates on each. This provides a sweet-savory, low-calorie snack that will blow partygoers away.

Smoked salmon, avocado, and pickled radish oatcakes

Take an oatcake (preferably seeded). Top it with some smashed avocado, a slice of delicate smoked salmon, two pickled radish slices and some freshly cracked black pepper. Consider some lemon juice squeezed on top as well. 

References

– https://www.drugs.com/cg/healthy-snacks-for-athletes.html

– https://www.bucklandmanor.co.uk/dining-drinking/afternoon-tea

– https://afternoontea.co.uk/information/what-is-afternoon-tea/

– https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/healthier-canape-ideas