Cooperative Tennis Rules
(second version)

This is an all new version of the rules. Thanks go to Mike Lewitt, Becky & John Kinney who tried out the first rules and provided feedback. Thanks also to Suzie Schickel, who provided some feedback after simply reading the first version: she found them difficult to understand. I think the new rules should be simpler!

Overview

The object is to complete at least one set of six games in as little time as possible. A game is completed in one successful rally as defined below, but it may take several rallies to succeed. At the end of play, you calculate your score as the average amount of time it took to complete each game (which can be done automatically with some sports watches).

Size of your team

These rules can be played with a team of two to four people. Everyone plays at the same time. The more people you have, the more challenging the game is, so you might want to start out with a two person team.

Individual game: definition and play

A traditional tennis serve (standing behind the back line and hitting into the service quadrant of the court diagonally across from you) starts a rally. Every other rally is served from the opposite side of the center line. A game is completed when the following two criteria have been met in a single rally:

Each player has hit the ball from within each quadrant of their side of the court. Note that it is where the ball strikes the racquet that counts, not where the player is standing.
At least two hits by each player must be “ground strokes” (where the ball strikes the court before the player hits the ball).

A rally ends when no player is able to return the ball before it strikes the ground a second time. “Out of bounds” balls may be returned, however.

Each player should keep track for themselves which quadrants they have hit the ball from so far and with the help of their teammates, endeavor to complete their required hit locations and ground strokes. When each player has completed their part of the game requirements, they should say “game”. When all players have said “game” during the same rally, the game is completed.

Service Rotation

The same player serves until one or more games are completed. The number of games served before rotating depends on the size of your team, as indicated in the table below:

Number of players on your team	Number of games to serve before rotating
2	3
3	2
4	1

Keeping time and calculating your score

The object is to play a predetermined number games as fast as you can. A sports wrist watch with a stop watch function should be employed. The timer should be running whenever the ball is in play, but you may stop it when you need to retrieve balls, switch sides of the court, or you simply want to take your time getting back into position for the next serve.

A set consists of six completed games. At least one set must be played before a score can be calculated.

When you rotate to a new server, the player who is the time keeper should rotate as well. Pass the watch or use additional watches to keep time, but be sure that only one watch is running at a time so you can add the times from all watches when you are done playing to calculate your score.

Once you have completed at least one set of six games, you may calculate your score by dividing the total lapsed play time by the number of games you completed.

Automatic score calculation

Note that some sports watches have lap and average lap features that are designed for running but should work perfectly for automatically calculating your final average score. The timer must allow you to start and stop the over-all time without clearing the lap data. One watch that we have found with these features is the Sportline Model 150. To use one of these watches, zero the stop watch at the start. Then when you start play, start the timer. When you complete each game, use the lap function. When you want a time-out to retrieve balls, stop the timer and restart it again before the next serve. When you want to see your average, use the average lap feature. This is particularly nice to see how you are doing for an average before you complete all your games.

The learning curve

The physical challenges of tennis have a steep learning curve. Beginners will have trouble completing a single game as described in the rules above, and completing an entire set of games could take all day! Don't be discouraged. Beginner tennis players (cooperative or competitive) don't need to keep score to know if they are improving, they can just rally and have fun. When you want a bit more of a challenge, see how many games you can complete each time you go out to play, but don't use a timer or try to calculate an official score. Once your team can complete games fairly regularly, you will be ready to use your stop watch!

Strategies

The beginners strategy for completing games quickly is to hit the ball at a slow to moderate speed as accurately as you can, such that your teammates can hit the ball in each of the quadrants in turn. Keeping the speed down improves your chances of completing the game quickly, because your team will make fewer errors and require less rallies to complete a game. Once you find that you can often complete a game in the first rally, then is the time to hit the ball faster to improve your score even further.

Please give us feedback!

Cooperation in Sports, Inc. is in the startup phase of its business, including the development of the cooperative rules themselves. We would love to get feedback on these rules so we can improve them together.

Original Cooperative Tennis Rules

Cooperative Tennis Rules by David Gaia Kano

Cooperative Sports
Lebanon, NH, USA
(603) 298-9882
Send the founder e-mail

Cooperative Tennis Rules(second version)