Bump Doubles
Bump doubles maximizes variety of play with different teammates and opponents. After players play a set, the winning teams bump up (move up) one court, and the losing teams bump down. Former teammates split apart to become opponents, and a total of 3 sets are played.
Bump Doubles will only take up a maximum of 4 out of the 6 courts during any given session. The Bump Doubles schedule is as follows:
| 3.5/4.0 | 4.5+ | |
|---|---|---|
| Spring (Mar-May) | Sundays, noon-2pm | Saturdays, noon-2pm |
| Summer (Jul-Sep) | Sundays, noon-2pm | Saturdays, noon-2pm |
| Winter (Nov-Jan) | Sundays, 1-3pm | Saturdays, 1-3pm |
Participation
Bump doubles is only available to paid WTC members who are rated NTRP 3.5 and above. The WTC membership year runs March 1 through Feb 28/29. There is no separate charge to sign up for bump doubles.
Each week, roughly a week in advance, players will receive an email asking about their availability to play. You will only need to respond if you wish to change your default availability status that week. Another email will be sent out 2-4 days later showing the lineup. The email will also show certain players’ names highlighted in ORANGE: those players are assigned to bring balls.
When more than 16 players (or some number of players not evenly divisible by 4) are available to play, the 4, 8, 12 or 16 players who have played the least number of times to date are selected to play. Those not selected are asked to keep their schedules clear for 48 hours so they can act as subs for players who cancel. There is no separate “sub list” for this event; those who might want to play “just once in a while” are encouraged to join and just play once in a while!
IMPORTANT! A 3.5 player will have an estimated dynamic rating between 3.00 and 3.49 by definition, a 4.0 player between 3.50 and 3.99, and so on. Also, the general rule of thumb is that a male 4.0 player will play as well as a female 4.5, and a male 3.5 will play like a female 4.0. With this in mind:
- A female 3.5 player may only play in the 3.5/4.0 group if her tennisrecord.com match history shows 3.30 or above for 5 or more matches in a row.
- A female 4.5 player may only play in the 4.5+ group if her tennisrecord.com match history shows 4.10 or above for 5 or more matches in a row.
- A male 4.0 player may only play in the 4.5+ group if his tennisrecord.com match history shows 3.80 or above for 5 or more matches in a row.
These rules are very important – without them, it widens the gap in skill in the group, causing the top players to lose interest and stop coming. For example, if all female 3.5’s were allowed to play in the 3.5/4.0 group, that means that 3.01 females could potentially be on the same court with 3.99 males. This would be equivalent to having 2.51 males playing against 3.99 males, a gap that is way too large to be any fun for anyone.
The Tennis Record website is not affiliated with USTA, but it harvests public adult league match data from the USTA website.
To sign up, use the form below!
Format
Start on your assigned court. Three players spin racquets to determine partners. The two racquets that match are paired up on the same team. If all three racquets match, spin again. Keep your warmup down to 5 minutes, and play “first serve in” during the first 4 games of the first set.
The winning teams bump up to a higher court (or stay on the highest court, which is court 4, the court farthest east). The losing teams bump down (or stay on the lowest court, which is court 2, the court farthest west). Balls stay on the court.
For the next set, all previous teammates split apart and become opponents. One player spins their racquet and has either of their two potential teammates call it to form teams.
Play 3 sets total.
All sets begin with normal ad scoring, except play to 5 games instead of 6 (and tiebreakers at 4-4). When the first court finishes, let all of the other courts know. The other courts immediately switch (even when in the middle of a game*) to NO AD scoring.
When you play a tiebreaker, it should be the Coman tiebreaker: serve one point, switch sides, then switch every 4 points. In other words, switch sides after 1 point, again after 5 points, again after 9 points, etc. Everything else is the same as the “traditional” tiebreaker in terms of who serves at what time, score required to win (first to 7), etc.
The Coman tiebreaker is advocated by USTA for league and tournament play. In singles, it ensures no players are on the “bad” or “good” side of the court for too many points in a row. In doubles, it does that, plus it makes it so the people serving continue to serve on the side of the court they had already been serving during the entire set. Click here to read USTA’s official documentation on this.
* When in the middle of a game and switching to NO AD scoring, if the score is already “ad in” or “ad out,” play that point as normal, and switch to NO AD scoring the next time the score is deuce.
Signup Form
If you do not know your NTRP rating, for now just use USTA’s NTRP General Characteristics publication to make your best guess.