I think if a team member gets permanently injured (i.e. can't play for the rest of the season) there should be substitutions allowed to change the roster. The caveat being they can't play for any other team or for their own team in future games going forward. Also thought that while the games were amazing, the league felt very long (10 weeks is a long commitment!) and would love if there was an ability to shorten it (fit more games in? have 2 gyms? more game days in the week?).
1. If allowing substitutions outside of the roster, then there would be no need to have a roster more than 6. As much as it would be cool to be free agent and sub in whenever needed, I'm not sure how fair that really is. Or you make the team a roster of 6 and then allow for any substitutions. 2. I ran an idea where those watching can volunteer to line judge (not down ref though). Maybe it's like a credit towards the team and the team at the end of the season with the most credits gets a supplementary prize, like VNL has a green card.
Overall great experience. My only issue is the playoffs approach. Semis and finals the same day isn't ideal. Fatigue, strategy, recovery come into account. Additionally maybe give 1st place a bye or both 1st and 2nd. Another glaring issue is the many complaints about teams being above intermediate average. I think clear guidelines are needed.
Increase team roster size!
I LOVE the league! The only thing super stressful is having enough players with a rigid roster. Maybe there can be players who are strictly subs (they can’t commit/didn’t find a team/only have a few dates) and a list of their numbers and positions. Maybe we can also have people volunteer to be down ref or line judges to help the ref see plays.
I think you guys are doing a fantastic job. The league was a lot of fun. I love that all games are recorded so we can watch it again. Not sure if you can do live stream via Facebook but that would be fun so we can watch the matches if we can't make it in person.
2 refs
Website is amazing!!! Love that the YouTube channel includes a league playlist to quickly find/watch multiple videos. Loved having the full schedule up front!
Rules - I felt the warm-up was insufficient and rushed. Perhaps start the timer AFTER the Captains meeting at least. Most places, teams have at MINIMUM 6 minutes to warm up (middle school), but usually much more (high school, other adult leagues Ive done) especially if insufficient warm-up space around the court. Love having spectators, but hinders side warm up and it's distracting to teams playing.
Reffing was overall great, but some were much better than others. It's a difficult job to have one ref, so give them all credit! I thought Jean Luc was too inconsistent - especially with doubles calls and under net calls. I couldn't tell where his threshold was throughout a match. All refs seemed to take safety very seriously, but I'm not sure the written rule about center court was applied correctly. Often (across many matches/weeks/refs/etc) appeared player landed on center line and/or no opponent was near player under net, but under net was called. If under net is that strict, would consider changing written rule to match that you cannot pass/touch the center line at all (typically if part of the foot for example is on the center line, it's legal). Or whatever will be the judgment applied.
I would consider having each team provide one lines person for week and assigning them to the game before/following to help the refs. I understand paying customers, but think many people stay or come early anyway. Teams could arrange their own trades as long as there was a lines person always available for a match. Or some volunteers might do it for a team - this would help more consistently call in/out/foot fault/antenna.
Was surprised there wasn't a rule related to leaving rotation prior to contact of serve. Some teams took advantage of that and switched early, but don't think it had a large effect on the matches.
I do feel one team had too many advanced players for the dig this intermediate average on paper, but it was still a highly competitive league with many great matches.
Thank you so much for accepting feedback and all the hours, energy, and love that went into this league.
Mainly one refs had consistently bad calls. I never got his name but all other refs were great.
Lower prices for the league, I find it quite expensive for a "new league"...
discount for teams that are in playoffs ?
I think keeping the active roster size at 9 is a good number, but perhaps allow for 1-2 injury substitutions. Meaning, if someone is injured and the team wants to replace them, they have to be removed from the roster for the rest of the season (unable to return) and can be replaced by someone else. Given that the league spans 9 weeks, there's always the possibility or injuries or honestly just life coming up where players are unable to play the remainder of the season. If 1-2 of these individuals are females it would hamper the team for the rest of the season and also make the overall competition suffer since teams will be forced to play against 4 people.
also to make your life easier regarding the open play RSVP's instead of following up with each person, you should just automatically remove them from the "yes" list once the 5pm deadline hits 2 days prior (unless of course you spoke to them or something about the specific session). It shouldn't be on you to chase everyone down since we're all adults here and should be responsible enough. Also since they will be automatically removed at 5pm if they dont pay, i'm sure it will lead to people paying earlier if they dont want to risk it. I know you try to be very nice about the deadline but by sticking to the hard 5pm deadline, it'll allow more time for you to find any people to fill sessions as needed. I know for example the advanced session on Friday you're often stuck looking for people on Friday afternoon which can be difficult and unfair to you.
anyway, thanks for all the time and effort in putting all these events together!
Already the best
