Challenge Courts - Santa Monica City Rules for Beach Tennis Courts
Some local Santa Monica players brought up the city’s official rules for the beach tennis courts, and suggested we try following the ‘challenge court’ rules as laid out on their website.
Some of us have known about these rules, but don’t follow them because the ‘community rules’ have already been established - Challenge Courts of any configuration (intermediate/advanced mixed, men’s, women’s teams), with traditional matches of 6 games, or matches of only 4 games (first to 4, no tie breaks).
According to the Santa Monica City rules for Beach Tennis Courts:
After 12pm, all courts should be challenge courts if all courts are full, and if there are any players waiting to play.
The lines owners (original group configuration) determine the Team Configuration for the court’s subsequent matches: Men’s, Women’s, or Mixed.
The original group’s configuration can determine whether or not they want to change the configuration.
Example:
If a Mixed or Men’s team want to challenge a Women’s challenge court, the original Women’s teams can choose whether or not to allow those challengers to play. If they allow a Mixed/Men’s team to challenge, and that Mixed/Mens’ team wins, it doesn’t change the original team configuration for that court, and the Mixed/Men’s team doesn’t stay on as winners.
Since the beach tennis community here in Santa Monica can be pretty active even on the ‘non business days’, the courts can get crowded and wait times can be long. I think if we actually followed the city rules, it’ll probably create some… friction.
The current Santa Monica beach tennis community usually goes by the “My Lines, My Rules” vibe. This usually means that if you brought your lines, you can do what you want with the court: make a challenge court with anyone welcome; make a four-on/off court welcoming anyone; or you can hog the court for only your own group.
Even though most of the bt players are cool, and frequently reserve a court for practice or league matches, there are some groups play in an endless rotation, not allowing others to play. It can be frustrating to others waiting around to play on a busy crowded day. On top of all that, local coaches take up courts with their lessons, creating more wait time. Following the city rules could allow more play time for the community.
Most of the players connected to Beach Tennis Love already act communally in regards to their court lines on the free days. We love to play beach tennis, and we want others to love it too. Maybe we’ll try implementing these city rules in our daily play, and spread awareness to get the whole community doing it. We can always show more sportsmanship and be more inclusive, hopefully weakening some of the ‘cliques’ that kill the fun vibe.
What do you think?
My Lines, My Rules - Always? or Challenge Courts All Around?
