question about Alta mens high A levels

[Conrads]

i am captaining a new alta mens team for the fall season. I am thinking we are going to be about the A3 level. For those who have played this level what is the spread of skill levels from line 1 to 5 in order to be competitive and make the playoffs. thanks

[spot]

I think that is sort of an impossible question. You can do it with a topheavy lineup or you can win with depth. If you have awesome guys up top then you can get away with playing some weaker guys at the lower lines.

In playoffs some of the line 1 guys you face will probably have played D1 college. But its really hard to say what the spread of skills are because teams are built so differently in ALTA.

[TennisCJC]

Most A3 teams will have lots of depth - at least the ones that go deep into the playoffs. You will see some weak number 5 teams during the season, but less likely during playoffs.

We made semi-finals severals years ago at A3 and did it with depth. We had 5 pretty solid teams. Our 1s were not over powering - they went 1-2 in 3 rounds of playoffs, but lines 2-5 were solid. We had a guy playing 5 who could win at 2, but his partner was not as strong.

Also, line 1 and 2 teams at A3 could be very good for a couple of the teams. As stated above, you will likely see 1 or 2 real ringers - guys who should be playing AA but live in the neighborhood or guys who like to play down to win.

[bcart1991]

We were A2 this past season and made playoffs.

Our 1s and 2s were a notch above the 3s and 4s, who were a notch above our 5s.

We were kinda strange though, We made City Finals at A5, lost/added a couple guys, made playoffs at A3, dropped/added a couple guys, made A2 playoffs. Lost in the first round at both A3 and A2.

[Old school Paul]

Three years ago we went to the finals when I was living in Atlanta with a mixed group. We had one 5.0, 3 4.5's,and the rest were 4.0. We lost to a similar team.

[bcart1991]

This past playoff match, our solid line 1 lost a tight 3-setter to a former Penn State All-American and his partner. They were unreal at net.

[Conrads]

Originally Posted by bcart1991

This past playoff match, our solid line 1 lost a tight 3-setter to a former Penn State All-American and his partner. They were unreal at net.

This is awesome. I am sort of a ringer on this team...i am like a 5.0ish level but got tired of driving a lot to play AA3 and AA4 so put together a team of local friends.

I think i have only one other solid 4.5 that could play line 1 (older ex D1 lefty),3 strong 4.0s,and rest mostly lower 4.0s and 3.5s. I am just hoping to be competitive and stay at like an A2-A3 level

[chatt_town]

From my experience, you need to have strong players throughout the lineup to have a chance at winning city. Lines 1 and 2 win matches...4 and 5 win championships. 3 is the critical spot because if your 1's and 2's get beat you have 3's to get you to the back which again will win you championships. I watched my wife's team at A1 and AA3 win the championship at 3 4 and 5 back to back seasons.....twice(4 championships). All 4 they had to pull lines 3 4 and 5 out. If you seriously have some guns at the top...then you can put some solid players at say 4 and 5. Again...that's if you have a couple of stud teams at 1 and 2 where you can get a win out of one of them. I've also play in 4 alta finals...we won 3 of them and 2 of them went down to line 5. The one we lost also went to line 5. This was A4 and A3 finals...for all. Good luck. I think we are coming in at A2 or A3 this season.

Originally Posted by Conrads

i am captaining a new alta mens team for the fall season. I am thinking we are going to be about the A3 level. For those who have played this level what is the spread of skill levels from line 1 to 5 in order to be competitive and make the playoffs. thanks

[TennisCJC]

Approximately 25 years ago, we won the city at A3. We had 2 guys who played for Georgia State and another guy who played college tennis on our team. One of the guys played #1 singles at Ga St and he was the 2nd best player on our A3 ALTA team. All of us were between 25-35 years old. We were deep too with decent players all down the line-up.