Fun Friday

To link in with the Friday squash/racketball club play (6.30-8.30pm) & the Friday Happy Hour (8-9pm), we successfully trialled a ‘turn up and play’ Fun Friday tennis session from 6.30pm on Fri 14/10/22 which will run again periodically  – dates will be publicised here & in the Events Diary when agreed.  In the event of bad weather, check session’s Going Ahead/Cancelled status in the Club Mixer Google sheet.

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The Fun Friday format is to play a variety of mini-games* that almost ANYONE can join in with, so turn up at any time with your racket and get stuck in!  You just need at least a reasonable ability to feed and return a ball (no serving required) so that everyone can enjoy the play.  Families with older juniors (age 12+) particularly welcome.

The mini-games that are likely to be included are described below.   We will typically start with Round the World on Court 1 at 6.30pm – just join the shortest waiting line (at either end of the court) when you get here!

Each mini-game will be initiated on Court 1 – start here & learn what to do, then stay on or move to Court 2 (if you identify as a less confident player or are happy to play at a gentler pace) / Court 3 (if you identify as a stronger player and would like a more active, competitive game), and replicate the mini-game with players there.  The choice of court is up to you at all times – just find a spot where you can have fun, with about the right amount of waiting time for rest & chat without getting cold!

From 8.15pm we will get the club Table Tennis table up & running in Squash Court 2 – bats & balls provided by the club or bring your own, and challenge anyone else who shows up!  You must wear clean, non-marking shoes on the squash courts – you will likely need to bring a 2nd pair so as not to carry in sand from the tennis courts. Check the soles and do a mark test in advance, then double-check no marks are being left when you start moving about on the court.

Contact for any queries:  Eleanor Bird

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Round the World  – an initial warm-up game

• Roughly half of all players line up centrally at one baseline, half at the other

• 1 player feeds a ball into play (singles court only) then runs to the right of the net post, to join the end of the line at the opposite end of the court – their place is then taken by the next player in their line
• The player receiving that ball (at the head of opposite line) does the same, i.e. returns into the singles court and runs to the right to join the end of the opposite line, with the next player in line moving up to take the next ball
• The rally continues, with each player hitting the ball then running to the RIGHT around the net (anti-clockwise) – the aim is to keep the ball in play with solid strokes back to the waiting line, NOT trying to hit an outright winner but avoiding making a mistake

Notes for Lansdown Friday play:

• As the ball comes over the net to you at the head of your line, call out your name (first name only needed!) – this both shows that you know you are next to hit the ball (!) and helps everyone to learn who they are playing with
• If you would struggle with too much running due to injury/fitness issues, after hitting you can rejoin the back of the line on the same end, rather than run to the other end of the court
• Initially there will be no penalties – if you miss the ball, pick it up and feed it back into play.  Or if the opposite player hits a ball out to you, you can either catch the ball and feed it back, or choose to hit the ball from the out position
• Once everyone is warmed up, the co-ordinator will blow a whistle and from then on if you miss or hit a ball out, you will be out of the game – move to Court 2 (for a relaxed, gentler game) or Court 3 (for a more competitive game) and hit with other ‘out’ players until the Court 1 game is ended (once you get more than 4 people on your court, you can start your own Round the World game so as to include everyone, with no penalties for misses again)
• For everyone left on Court 1, play continues exactly the same until there are only 4 players left – at this point, do not run to the opposite line after hitting a ball, move to the back of your own line instead
• Eventually there will either be 1 person left who hasn’t made a mistake – who will become King/Queen of the World – or the Coordinator will whistle an end so we can move on to other games!  We may run more than one Round the World game at the start of the session, depending on timing.

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One Ball Live – develops groundstroke consistency and attacking net play

• Players line up on each side of the court as shown:

• Two sets of players rally with one another in a “split-court” set up, i.e. where the court is halved
  vertically:
• A1 & A2 both feed a ball into play (into their half-court only) with B2 & B1 respectively returning
• After a successful feed and return (pick up ball and start again if not), play continues until one player makes an error (misses the ball or hits it long/wide) – the person making the error then shouts ‘Live!’ and the remaining ball is played out by all 4 players
• When the point finishes, players move anti-clockwise to change places on their end of the court – A2 moves left into A1 position with A1 coming off court to the left and joining the end of the A team queue, A3 joining from the right to take A2’s place; and the same movement on the B team end (B2 moves left to replace B1, B3 comes on to the right hand side of the court).  I.e. once the game gets going, players will play a point from the Right then the Left hand side before going off court and joining the queue to go around again
• Play continues until the co-ordinator calls an end to the game!  You can change courts or join the line on the other end of the same court if you want – whatever works to get balanced numbers and not overly-repetitive playing patterns on each court

Dingles (a portmanteau of Doubles & Singles!) is an alternative version of this game:

• A1 & A2 start play cross-court, ie A2 to B2 and A1 to B1 in diagram above
• When 1 singles rally finishes, the erroring player shouts ‘Dingles’ and everyone plays the remaining ball
• A double team (on one side of the net) win a point if they win BOTH the singles & doubles rallies

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Triples – develops quicker reactions and alertness at the net

• Divide into two teams, with a minimum of 3 players at each end of the court
• 1 player stands in the middle at the net and two players to left and right behind the baseline
• Extra players wait at the back fence to fill in from the baseline after each point

• One of the baseline players feeds the ball into play to another baseline player to return to the back court again (avoiding the net players at this stage  – they should not make an attempt to go for the ball until it is ‘live’)
• After a successful feed and return (pick up ball and start again if not), the ball becomes ‘live’ – play out the point using the full doubles court, with the net players actively trying to intercept to win the point (or judging when to leave the ball to the baseline players if they cannot put it away easily).
• After each point, players rotate clockwise – if there are players waiting at the back, the 3rd player (to the right on each baseline) comes off court and the player next in line at the back left comes on
• Play continues until the co-ordinator calls an end to the game!  You can change courts or join the line on the other end of the same court if you want – whatever works to get balanced numbers and not overly-repetitive playing patterns on each court

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Don’t Break The Chain –  aims to improve doubles play, groundstrokes, and net shots

• Players should distribute themselves into the 4 court positions for doubles play, with roughly even queues of players waiting to take up each position next time if there are more than 4 players:

• A1 feeds the ball to D1 who MUST return to B1 who MUST return to C1 who MUST return to A1 who MUST return to D1 and so on – you are not trying to win the point but to keep the ball in play as long as possible following the correct pattern
• If the ball is missed or hit out/to an incorrect player within the 1st rotation (ie ‘chain’ doesn’t go all the way through A-D-B-C-A without breaking) then the ball should be fed into play again by the player breaking the chain
• Once one rotation has been completed (ie as soon as A is hitting the ball to D for the 2nd time), any misses cause the chain to be irredeemably broken – the point is over & the active players move to the end of the queue for the next position (as shown in the diagram) i.e. A1 moves to the back of the B position queue, etc
• Play continues until the co-ordinator calls an end to the game!  You can change courts or skip ahead a position on the same court if you want – whatever works to get balanced numbers and not overly-repetitive playing patterns on each court