The following experience I had may be of interest.

Two years ago I organized (in Ottawa, Canada) a (level play, Advanced rules) AC
tournament
to which beginners and intermediate level players were invited.
After the tournament one of the intermediate players spontaneously wrote me a
nice thank-you letter.
He was very appreciative of the tournament but singled out one thing for
criticism:
the fact that they did not play on full-size courts.

What the intermediates did play on, were not halfcourts. They were 7/8 courts.
The beginners played on slightly smaller than halfcourts. The lawns
were fast (about 11 Plummers) and even these small courts were
challenging to the players.

On receipt of this letter I sent a circular to all players, inviting their
input on the court size issue. I pointed out that the option of full
courts actually was available -- at the expense of travelling to another
nearby venue between games -- and that I took it for granted they would prefer
the smaller courts with no travelling between games.

Practically everybody responded and they were practically unanimously
in favor of full sized courts, travelling or not, greater challenge or not.

This was an eye-opener to me. I personally feel that smaller courts are better
for beginners. This experience brought psychological elements to light that
I was vaguely aware of but which I had underestimated.

The next year in a repeat of this tournament I let everybody play on full
courts.
They travelled between games with no complaint.
Everybody was happy --- the tournament manager
perhaps not all that happy!

Louis Nel

----- Original Message -----
From: "Trevor Bassett" <tbassett@...>
To: <AUS-Croquet@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 6:37 PM
Subject: RE: [AUS-Croquet] Advanced Play


Doran, I think you are confusing the issue here.

You have asked whether they play advanced or level play, I think what
you are really asking is whether or not Div 4 play lift and contact (ie.
advanced), which is also level play (ie. not handicap).

You seem to be referring to level play as no lift and contact, which is
slightly confusing.

I also find it very interesting that you claim to have had no adverse
consequences to changing from half court to full court. Have you ever
considered the effect of having to restrict tournament entries to suit
the available lawns, when I was a beginner it was awesome to play in an
event that had half courts that were full of players. If enough lawns
were available you could even hold multiple divisions at the same venue
at the same time, which was great for people that wanted to travel
together. It also gave the lower divisions a chance to watch better
croquet and learn from it. I for one think that changing from half
courts to full courts was a totally poor decision. Half courts allows
beginners to have a better chance of getting from point a to point b
with at least some accuracy, it gave them a chance to actually put
together an all round break and it gave them a chance to actually peg
out. I believe this has been lost by forcing them to play on full size
courts. If you now introduce advanced play for these division 4
beginners you reduce their chances even further. We should be
encouraging our beginners to keep control, make breaks and win games,
not have them worry about setting leaves after giving lift, peeling,
etc, these will all come as they develop as a player. You state that it
has had no adverse consequences but I have not seen too many players
progress from beginners to top level players in the past few years,
whereas back in my time players were going from beginners to state level
players in a few years. The Vic events for the top 10 players have been
filled with primarily the same players for years (with the exception of
this year with a couple of new players coming forth), whereas 10 years
ago the top 10 were changing from year to year. Could it be possible
that by removing the half court we have been slowing the growth of our
up and coming players as it is taking them years longer to develop the
skills required to play on the full size courts and in some cases
players have lost enthusiasm and stopped trying?

I think we should go back to half size courts and help develop our
players from the ground up.
I am definitely against introducing advanced play for Division 4
players.
In fact I would support a move to return things to the old days, ie.
half size courts for Div 4 & 3, then full size courts for Div 2 & 1 with
advanced play (lift and contact). My theory is that in Div 4 you are
just trying to learn the basics, as you develop and improve into a Div 3
player you learn how to make all round breaks (on the small lawn), then
once you have mastered that you are ready to attack the big lawn and
learn lift and contact, once you get comfortable with that you progress
to Div 1 where you are then ready to attempt peels and the like. If you
wanted to you could introduce lift and contact in Div 3 but still on the
small court so when you progress to the large court you already
understand lift and contact and are just adjusting to the larger court.
Alternatively, as we no longer have divisions as such, we could
introduce a 5th division in the middle where you are still on small
courts but advanced play is introduced, that way the development of a
top level croquet player can be harnessed from go to woe.

Cheers, Trev.

________________________________

From: AUS-Croquet@yahoogroups.com [mailto:AUS-Croquet@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of Doron Gunzburg
Sent: Thursday, 1 May 2008 5:34 PM
To: AUS-Croquet@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [AUS-Croquet] Advanced Play


Ernie

The question is whether , for fourth Div , your tournaments are advanced
or level play. In Vic the tradition has been to only have level...which
in my view is not helpful from a learning perspective. having been
instrumental in moving Vic from half to full courts for this group for
tournament play (with no adverse consequences) I'm now looking at this
next step.

Thanks John and Kay.

What about NSW and Tas?


On 01/05/2008, at 4:39 PM, Ernie & Margaret wrote:


Hi Doron
In Qld I dont know of any real h'cap tournaments being played.
Advanced adds another dimension to the game
and if you have to give a heap of bisques it gives
you an extra chance to catch up.

Ernie Melville
Qld

----- Original Message -----
From: Doron Gunzburg
To: AUS-Croquet@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 1:46 PM
Subject: [AUS-Croquet] Advanced Play


Hi all

I'd like to get an idea of the situation in each State
as to whether or
not all tournaments are Advanced Play, or whether 4th
Div players are
excluded from this (as in Vic at present).

Would appreciate your help

Regards

Doron
I



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