OOAK Table Tennis Forum

One of the things I've been trying to get introduced in our local area is a singles league, played on one session a week, in which all who come are seeded and split into a number of all-play-all divisions for that evening. I've taken part in something similar before, and found it a great way to get competitive experience at an appropriate level, but without committing to a team.

Having failed to get buy in from the local leagues, I'm thinking I might just go ahead and organise it myself. Here's the question: how many people do you think are optimal per division? If you have say 2 hours in which to play, how many games could you fit in? Would leagues of 4 people be sufficient? That would mean 12 games, with everyone playing twice. What about 6? That would be 15 games, but only one match between the same opponents.

I can easily fit 4 tables and 5 at a push, so I could then accommodate between 16 and 30 people. If a match is 10 mins on average, 12 games sounds about right. Does that sound on the short side? We play 9 + doubles on a league night, so it'd be a generous amount of games. But 4 x all play all isn't a huge amount of variety.

Thoughts? Ideas? Comments?

_________________
Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!

Our league is run in a 'singles' format, but does not use divisions:

- You show up during league hours, your name goes into the player pool
- League director maintains the match queue, putting together players of approximately equal level
- You only play any opponent once

On a typical night we have 25-30 people playing ~70-80 matches on 6 tables in 4+ hours.

The reason I like it (and others seem to as well) is because of flexibility it provides. I don't have to be there at 6 pm for division draws, I can get 2 games a night if I only have limited time or 7-8 if I feel like it.

You do need a good director who keeps the matches flowing, shuts down arguments and keeps things fair. Needless to say he/she does not really get to play.

_________________
USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

OK, so what time does it start and end? Oh I see.. 1800. That feels early - how many turn up then?

_________________
Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!

Nominal hours are 6pm -10pm, but on a few occasions I managed to show up just before 6 pm and there were already 5-6 matches going. I'm sure it goes beyond 10 pm as well. Again, not having divisions helps here, easy to drop-in and drop-out, so it helps to accommodate players with different schedules.

We had this league running since June 2014 and turnout has been pretty consistent - hope it continues. If I am not mistaken, we've had ~190 unique participants over that time, but of course some of them only showed up once or twice.

I know there is some effort by USATT to grow regional leagues and make them team-based like in most of the Europe. I wonder if commitment required from the players will be an obstacle here, though.

_________________
USATT: 1807 | League: 1887