See also: Desireable characteristics for cooperative tennis

Editors note: The following rules have proven too difficult to learn and use, especially the Intermediate Accuracy rules. We have gone back to the drawing board and we now have all new rules available.

Thanks go to Becky Kinney and Suzie Schickel for their feedback on these rules!

All New Second Version of Cooperative Tennis Rules.

Cooperative Sports Tennis Rules

The following rules are for teams of two to four players. In the beginner rules, all players are on the court. In the intermediate to expert rules, two players are on the court while the others act as score keeper, time keeper and/or coach. Two player teams have the extra challenge of keeping score themselves (once they reach the intermediate level) which some people find to difficult.

Beginner

All of the players simply rally, and each time the ball crosses the net a point is scored. The goal is to get as many points as you can before an error puts the ball out of play. Thus, each rally is its own game. If you have three team members, you might want to switch off which player is on one side of the net by him/her self.

Intermediate

There are two versions of the intermediate game, one emphasizes power, the other accuracy. Each should be played to gain skills before moving to the advanced rules.

Accuracy: Two players at a time rally as in the beginner game. The additional team member(s), if any, act as score keeper and coach. A point is scored when a player hits a good shot from a different quadrant of the court than ga last struck the ball. Each rally is begun with a traditional tennis serve (diagonally across the court and into the opposite service quadrant). As a bonus, if a serve that lands in the service quadrant is returned as a good shot then the return scores a point. Every few rallies the player(s) that are keeping score or coaching switch off with the players that are on the court. See this figure for an example of a rally.

Power: Two players at a time rally. The additional team member(s), if any, act as score keeper/timer and coach. A game consists of one or more rallies and ends after a predetermined time limit of 10 minutes or more expires. The players score a point every time the ball crosses the net. It is best to use a count down timer to track the amount of time remaining in the game. When the ball is out of play, the timer may be stopped to allow relaxed ball retrieval and setup for the next rally. The timer should be restarted when the ball is served. Every few rallies the player(s) that are keeping score or coaching switch off with the players that are on the court.

Advanced

The timed game of the intermediate Power game is combined with the scoring system of the intermediate Accuracy game.

Expert

All the rules of the advanced game apply. In addition, at least every other shot must strike the court before it is returned.

General Rules of Play for all Levels

The ball must be struck either before it strikes the court or after the first bounce. A ball that is going out of bounds or has struck the court out of bounds may still be struck, as long as this rule is honored.

The ball must pass over the net before the returning player can hit the ball. In other words, reaching over the net to strike the ball is not allowed (ends the rally).

Definitions of terms used above

Rally: The act of hitting the ball back and forth over the net.

Good Shot: The act of hitting the ball over the net and into the in-bounds (singles) area of the court on the other side, or to a position where your team mate can hit and return the ball as a (another) good shot.

A quadrant of the court: Each of the four areas of the court delineated by the singles boundary, service area and an imaginary line extending the center line to the base (back) line of the singles court.

Ga: A neuter personal pronoun (e.g.: he, she, him, her, but without gender).

Notes on the advanced game

Note some differences from competitive tennis: the rally can continue play even when the ball is struck out of bounds, although the hit that sent it out is not considered a good shot unless it can be returned as another good shot. However, a ball struck from out of bounds can result in scoring a point, as long as it is over a different quadrant and is a good shot. Another way to think of it is that the outer boundary lines of the court are for determining good shots only, when the ball can not be returned by your team mate.

Note about the first return: This scores a point even though the last quadrant (in a previous rally) the ball was struck from may have been the same, as long as the serve bounces in the service court. The rational for this is a reward for a good serve that is returnable as a good shot, both significant skills very important to the competitive rules of tennis. When the serve is not in the service quadrant, the rally can continue, but the first return can not score.

Please give me feedback!

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

If you want to stay in touch

Send me your name, address, phone number and I’ll put you on our mailing list. When “Cooperative Sports” magazine or our World Wide Web site is ready, we will be sure to contact you!

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