Rotation Rules

overview

Rotation is a venerated tradition and a featured attraction of Lakewood.  The goal of Rotation is to allow players to show up and play a competitive game of tennis at either the Regular or Advanced level.  After the 2017 Annual Meeting, the Lakewood Executive Board established a Rotation Committee to address concerns about the oversubscription of Advanced Rotation, the undersubscription of Regular Rotation and the level of play at both. As a result, the following rules were established.  The goal of these rules is to maintain an open and inclusive community, reiterate existing standards for participation at both Regular and Advanced Rotation, and to provide a mechanism to ensure that the standards are met. These rules of rotation play must be strictly observed.

Regular Rotation

To play in regular rotation members must have the following minimum skills:  dependable strokes on both sides under moderate pressure; the strength, ability and willingness to move on the court and chase down shots; the ability to volley at the service line and at the net; and the ability to serve with some strength and reasonable reliability.

Relaxed Rotation

To maintain an inclusive community, members who no longer satisfy the regular rotation standard of play or otherwise prefer a less aggressive game can play on a court that is designated by the Board as a Relaxed Court during proscribed times. Currently, there are insufficient Relaxed Rotation players to justify a Relaxed Court.

Advanced Rotation

To play in advanced rotation, a participant must meet all of these standards: possess strong fundamental skills, including a strong serve, play with power and consistency, and understand and use basic doubles strategy and teamwork.  Players are expected to run hard, play aggressively, and not restrain their own service or strokes, nor expect other players to do so.

Rotation Mixing

1. The goal in rotation is to mix up with as many players as possible.
2. With each rotation, a minimum of two new players on every court is desired.
3. If there is no bench, once a court finishes, they are the bench - and should announce this loudly to all other courts.  They may continue playing, but must stop and mix when the next court finishes or new players arrive.  
4. If there is a bench such that the same foursome would rotate onto the court, players are encouraged to mix to achieve the goal of two new players.  However, this is not mandatory as it could create lengthy bench time for some of the players.  Members should be flexible and use their discretion.
5. Some examples:

Scenario 1: 4 people are on the bench. They have not all played together before.   Rule: Go in as a group.

Scenario 2: 4 people are on the bench who have played together already.  To mix, use chits to pick 2 who will go in. Group coming off court uses chits to pick two to stay. The remaining two on the bench and two coming off the court are the next bench foursome – and go in together.

Scenario 3: 8 people on the bench and first two groups have played together already. To mix, use chits to pick 2 from Group 1 and 2 from Group 2 to be the next to go on the court.  The remainder are the first group on the bench.  The group coming off (Group 3) goes to the end of the bench.

Lakewood Standards Committee

The purpose of the Standards Committee is to give members guidance and to direct members to the most appropriate rotation for their level of play. As described above, the Club has established the skills appropriate for each level of rotation (regular and advanced) and asks members to respect these guidelines. However, we also recognize that a regular rotation player, in the course of improving their game, may wish to test their skills in Advanced Rotation from time to time with the purpose of ascertaining if they are compatible for ongoing play in Advanced Rotation.

The Standards Committee is responsible for fielding concerns about a player’s compatibility for particular levels of Rotation. Should such an issue arise, the Standards Committee suggests the following process:

• Any member wishing to raise a standards issue shall have played with the member whose skills are in question on at least two separate occasions.
• Before raising standards issue to the Committee, the member shall have read the description of the skills required for Advanced Rotation and noted the specific skills in question of that player. 
• The Committee, after having received concerns from multiple members about a particular player’s skills, will determine how to proceed. 
• The Committee will explore the issue in an unbiased fashion. If there is unanimous agreement that the concerns are valid, one Committee member will share the feedback with the member in question through a confidential dialogue, inviting self-evaluation.
• All concerns received by the Committee and its deliberation process will be confidential. Committee members shall be thoughtful regarding feedback and exercise discretion.