Regarding practicing just before a match – remember its important just to be on court with your partner and playing games with them. The mentality and tactics is what needs to be practiced, NOT technique (as you say, this will not work). I am not even sure that having “match practice courts” is a good idea, but simply that, as of “match practice time”, you play with your partner, or a partner (unless you want to keep switching it round), and make sure that when it is time for your game, you go on against a pair from the same team as you, or from the team below, or the team above.

e.g. Mens 1 players can play vs Mens 1 or Mens 2 pairs. Mens 2 can play with Mens 1, 2 or 3, and Mens 3 players can play with mens 2, mens 3 or social players.

Obviously you do not necessarily need to classify it by which team you actually play in, but maybe by what standard you are, roughly speaking (potential problems here!).

Thus, when “practice time” starts, instead of mixing it all around, you only start picking “tough” games, or at least are not given dark looks if you start picking tough games. Let the mens 2 players play against a mens 1 pair! The mens 1 pair will be aiming to dominate and crush the opposing pair, whilst the mens 2 pair will be looking to compete and improve. This is good practice for everyone. Splitting up the players is not necessarily helpful match practice. It may help the teams become more “balanced”, but is not, in itself, good practice for playing competitively. You need to compete with your partner. It is important the mens 1 pair do not “go easy” on the others – that is not good practice!

Good topic Peter!

If your club was to have an AGM would you vote for having training scheduled into your club nights?
After all you want a successful team.
If the hierarchy at the top of the club promoted training positively & set out its stall. Would you stay? Would you leave for another club. Or do the training & if wanted go to a different club to games?

Peter, interesting post. Some comments:

I think having two courts as “match practice courts” is a terrible idea. This creates a physical divide between different sections of the club, and you might as well advertise it as a seperate club night or something. You should use all the courts for everyone. However, people should know who wants to play practice matches and who doesn't. Note: I am trying to be really careful with the messaging of this. “Match practice courts” or similar sounds like some exclusive “training area” for those who are “worthy”. However, “practice match courts” sounds like an area for those who want to play serious competitive games. The first is defined by skill – which is bad. The second is defined by desire/dedication/frame of mind/competitive spirit, which is very very different! By not limiting it to 2 courts, where you must go to those courts to “join in”, simply having it as something players can opt in to, and be included in “tough” games, or opt out of to keep it friendly, will create less of a divide I think. I think having a seperate physical area for this stuff is a risky plan.

So, for the last hour, how should it work? Well, whoever is at the start of the peg board chooses the game. Obviously.

If they are there for a social game, they choose from the next free X number of social players (might be “ignoring” some players who want to play a competitive game – this is ok!).

If the person choosing the game is a “practice match” player, then they put themselves and their partner on (or pick a partner), and then select from the next 3 or 4 “practice match” pairs, or at least avoiding the 2 pairs that have just come off court (if possible). I wouldn't necessarily put a boundary on who you are allowed to pick – if they are a pair and they want to play against a much stronger opponent, they can do that, but it might be a very quick game! Limiting it to just your team is not necessarily a good idea, but this is one of those things you have to wait and see how it pans out.

I don't think its fair to just open up the whole board for practice matches and not for everyone else, but it makes sense to allow people to mix things up a bit if they want to (and try to avoid a pair coming off and immediately being challenged to a game by someone at the start of the queue).

On peg boards…

I used to play at clubs with peg boards. They never worked well, in my opinion, unless people picked sensible games! Remember, you can always “escape” from your games by removing your peg, and putting it on again later, or moving you name to the end of the queue – this is allowed.

The club I play at now has a combination of one person picking, and everyone just choosing games. Generally what happens, is when one game finishes, the players that have been waiting for a game for a while walk onto court, but without a game having been picked, and then invite players to stay on, or invite players who have been sitting off to play. This allows them to pick a reasonable game. It is ok for 1 or 2 players to “stay on”, in order to mix things up, as long as there are not too many people waiting.

You are entitled to refuse the game, saying “i am waiting for a game with them” – people do not take offence, they just grab another player, or say “go on! have a game” and you go on and play with them. Its all very good natured. Generally, players do not ask those players for a game that they wouldn't want to play with. So for example, the worst player in the club generally doesn't ask the best players for a game, but they would ask more or less anybody except for the top 2 or 3 players.

Generally, the best players play amongst themselves, but they will also mix in with everyone else if they are not involved in the “toughest” games. What this normally equates to, is the best players playing a couple of games amongst themselves, with 1 or 2 of the best players mixing in with everyone else for a few games, until it is their turn to play “tough” games. When the organiser of the club is not playing, she organises games and makes sure people have not been sitting off for too long.

When there are lots of players, this works really well. Everyone gets some good games. Nobody is stuck playing on a game they don't want to (because you can politely refuse). This does not work if you do not have many players at club (which is very rare). We have 3 club nights a week – most of them are great, and sometimes (if the weather is hot, or people are injured etc) then it is a more difficult club night and you may not get much variety of game – but what do you expect with so few people at club?

Personally, I think the way my club “runs itself” but with “an overseer” who can step in to organise things sometimes, works really well. If you want to “escape” a game, you generally go to the lady in charge and ask her if you can have a specific type of game, with a few people, and then when the time comes, you can go on for that game. Sometimes people organise games amongst themselves, and ask the lady in charge if thats ok, and then go on when the time comes.

However, our club does not cater to absolute beginners. You generally have to be interested in playing competitively (intermediate and above) to enjoy club nights. But then again, we don't have many courts, and other pay and play sessions run during the week for “lower” standards of play…

Interested to hear your thoughts.