Running a club

What is the best format to run a table tennis club? Round robin seems to burn people out, and is a lot of work from my experinece.

I have thought about winner stays up, but first, a match against a league opponent (best of 5) to determine rankings. Eventually, every 8 weeks or so, the no. 1 ranked player would get a match for the league championship.

Or possibly a giant blind draw double elim tourney every week? Please, any and all suggestions appreciated!

Originally Posted by Flathitter

What is the best format to run a table tennis club? Round robin seems to burn people out, and is a lot of work from my experinece.

I have thought about winner stays up, but first, a match against a league opponent (best of 5) to determine rankings. Eventually, every 8 weeks or so, the no. 1 ranked player would get a match for the league championship.

Or possibly a giant blind draw double elim tourney every week? Please, any and all suggestions appreciated!

I'm a bit confused. I've been running a club for years now - making sure it runs fine, accepts new members, does what it takes to retain existing ones, facilitates competition participation, offers occasions dedicated to older seniors, youths, higher-level players. Keeping the accommodation and club equipment up to par, investing to lower the financial and ecological footprint (using solar, LED lighting, heat pumps), and so on. Managing the daily operations of opening, ‘staffing’ the ‘bar’, cleaning, restocking, and making longer-term plans to keep things vibrant, participation up, and financially solid.

People show up when the club opens, and play against whomever is ready, able, and willing. When things get crowded, those that've been hogging a table for a longer span of time usually step aside themselves to let others play too — or they are gently nudged to do so (there's rarely a need to).

These things you describe don't ring a bell, for me. What are you trying to ‘run’ here?

A set format for league play. We have tried open play before, but players seem to lose interest and end up being idle, or lost. We play one night a week from 6:00 est to 10 pm.

i do all the things you mentioned in terms of administration, but open play has never been popular, or at least worked for our club.

We do have open play for an hour or so, then it goes into a format. Round robin, double elim tourney, etc.

So, to answer your question, I guess would be what format would work best for organized play?

Thanks! The ladder sounds good, and pretty much runs itself . Do I need anything to make it, or just use a dry erase board ?

One club I visit does a round robin with three or four groups of five or six players in each. Then from week to week they do. promotion and relegation. So the top two players in groups two and three move up a group, and the bottom two players in groups one and two move down a group. That gives us something to play for. And it mixes up the players widely without making too many bad mismatches.

Some worthy hints on possible intraclub activities.
https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Table-Te...lub-Activities

How many tables available and how many players on average? That dictates the format.

Could you give me some examples and numbers that dictate format? Thanks!

Originally Posted by Flathitter

What is the best format to run a table tennis club? Round robin seems to burn people out, and is a lot of work from my experinece.

I have thought about winner stays up, but first, a match against a league opponent (best of 5) to determine rankings. Eventually, every 8 weeks or so, the no. 1 ranked player would get a match for the league championship.

Or possibly a giant blind draw double elim tourney every week? Please, any and all suggestions appreciated!

the best way is not that way make league of all players and the bottom challenges the playercabove until every one has played that way you know who is the best players then handicap the top players

flathitterit will produce a lot of fun because every one wants to be top so every week the league will change at the end od the season an award for no1 and runner up no2 buy to cheapcups/ sheilds cost about £2.5.

Originally Posted by Flathitter

Could you give me some examples and numbers that dictate format? Thanks!

There is a venue in my city that organises open tournament twice a week.
There is min 6 and max 9 tables available and max 32 players. On average 20-25 players are playing.
We have a system that guarantees a player will play min 5 matches that night.
At the start blind draw determines groups and at the end there are playoffs for each place in standings - 1th place, 3th place ... 31th place.
Loss doesn't mean early exit, everybody gets to play same number of matches, stronger players are not benefited in any way.
Weaker players get a chance to play stronger players.
Stronger players don't get bored because in a later stages they'll play against other stronger players.
Half an hour before start people come and warm-up with each other. But anybody can come few mins before draw because application is simple online web form. You can apply as late as 1 hour before start.
Anybody can come and for a small entrance fee of 5 EUR.

There is a point system for 1st place, 2nd place etc. These points are accumulated for each player through the year and there is a ranking list. I think these points have to be defended, like tennis ATP points. Anyway that's not very important to most players who play there.

At the end of the day each player plays 5 to 6 matches with different opponents and tournament usually lasts 2.5 hours. Out of those one gets almost 2 hours of table play.
I find it better and more fun than league matches.
It's been running for years in the same format.

All this is possible in such format because there are few players per table.