public park time etiquette

[sureshs]

Originally Posted by Alchemy-Z

They walked off in a huff and started asking other courts if they were done and eventually got one

I had a bad experience at my club. A member had brought some guests over (which is allowed) and they were playing doubles. When their time was up, they would not move because my partner was delayed. I often practice serves by myself, and sometimes will do that for a long time without a partner, but evidently they thought that at least 2 people should be there or they would not give up the court. I had to call the office and have them thrown out. Before that, they started using tactics like starting a game in the middle of the dispute and then claiming they needed to finish it, etc. Luckily it never happened again.

[Alchemy-Z]

Originally Posted by sureshs

I had a bad experience at my club. A member had brought some guests over (which is allowed) and they were playing doubles. When their time was up, they would not move because my partner was delayed. I often practice serves by myself, and sometimes will do that for a long time without a partner, but evidently they thought that at least 2 people should be there or they would not give up the court. I had to call the office and have them thrown out. Before that, they started using tactics like starting a game in the middle of the dispute and then claiming they needed to finish it, etc. Luckily it never happened again.

Yeah..when time is up time is up... at our club at least on clay the kids that work the courts show up at the top of each hour to broom off the courts and then at 5 Min after the hour the next person in line can come on unless you have scheduled multiple hours which they Give you a 2 hour card that clips to your score keeper...and the kids collect your card after the first hour and then return in the 2nd to broom your court.

[dman72]

Originally Posted by sureshs

I had a bad experience at my club. A member had brought some guests over (which is allowed) and they were playing doubles. When their time was up, they would not move because my partner was delayed. I often practice serves by myself, and sometimes will do that for a long time without a partner, but evidently they thought that at least 2 people should be there or they would not give up the court. I had to call the office and have them thrown out. Before that, they started using tactics like starting a game in the middle of the dispute and then claiming they needed to finish it, etc. Luckily it never happened again.

And you paid for it? You asked them nicely to give up the court and they didn't? I'd be out there on one side of the court running around hitting balls as hard as I could.

[sureshs]

Originally Posted by dman72

And you paid for it? You asked them nicely to give up the court and they didn't? I'd be out there on one side of the court running around hitting balls as hard as I could.

No question of paying on the spot, it is a semi-public, semi-private facility and I am a paid member.

And there were four of them, and they were playing mixed doubles. You know how it is - if women are around, the men become more stubborn. The problem seemed to be the guests, but the member should have told them how it works. The guests had coolers and drinks out and evidently expected to be around for hours.

[volleygirl]

Originally Posted by dman72

And you paid for it? You asked them nicely to give up the court and they didn't? I'd be out there on one side of the court running around hitting balls as hard as I could.

LOL Just run out there and start crushing the ball like Tom Hanks did in that movie 'Bachelor Party'

[sureshs]

Not a good idea. If you injure someone, you could be held liable, regardless of the merits of your claim on the court. There was a recent thread about how players are suing other players for injuries, and there seems to be a gray area there - assumed liability can be overridden if action was deliberate or extreme in nature.

[dman72]

Originally Posted by volleygirl

LOL Just run out there and start crushing the ball like Tom Hanks did in that movie 'Bachelor Party'

"Let me show you how this is done people"..overhead smash right between the eyes of one of the women....whoops!!!

[dman72]

Originally Posted by sureshs

Not a good idea. If you injure someone, you could be held liable, regardless of the merits of your claim on the court. There was a recent thread about how players are suing other players for injuries, and there seems to be a gray area there - assumed liability can be overridden if action was deliberate or extreme in nature.

Okay Mr. Litigation.

Actually, at a local tennis party, one of the coaches just missed hitting me in the eye with an overhead on what I thought was a casual goofing around point that I wasn't prepared for..I actually felt the ball graze past my eye lash, that's how close he came.

After the initial thoughts of turning him into a popsicle stick with his Dunlop, I told him he was lucky he didn't hit me because he'd probably have a lawsuit on his hands, as well as the club he was working for. So what you say isn't completely invalid. I would not hesitate to just walk in the middle of the court under the proposed scenario, though.

[tennis tom]

Originally Posted by Alchemy-Z

...then a group of 4 ladies show up...NIKE head to tow matching tennis bags and tell the girl that they need to get off court so they cant play "real tennis"

...My friend was closest and said "Ladies the wait time is 1 hour and they started 5 min after us and we have been here for 30min so you can wait for us for 30min...or 35 for them

Lady says "fine but I am calling the parks department"

Good on your friend for having balls (tennis) to stand up to the tennis witches! At my club they even putting charging stations for their brooms. I wonder what the "laidy" was expecting to happen when she called the park dept--they're probably on the beach at Cancun with the money that should be going to maintain the courts and have a college PE major as a monitor like they use to have in the good old days, that actually did exist.

I think if someone's practicing their serve that's a legitimate use of the court (probably, because I do it a lot). If someone goes to the trouble of hauling a ball machine onto a court I think they've earned the right to use it. If I see someone lurking while I'm practicing, I'll ask them to "help" me with my service practice by returning the serve, they are always happy to oblige, and that way it helps them too--the dynamic of practicing one's serve changes when there's a living, breathing body on the other side of the net.

I'd say the main thing is to communicate with the folks when they show up, be friendly, explain what you're doing and the your time paramaters and all should work out alright--if they are all not witches.

[NLBwell]

Originally Posted by sureshs

I had a bad experience at my club. A member had brought some guests over (which is allowed) and they were playing doubles. When their time was up, they would not move because my partner was delayed. I often practice serves by myself, and sometimes will do that for a long time without a partner, but evidently they thought that at least 2 people should be there or they would not give up the court. I had to call the office and have them thrown out. Before that, they started using tactics like starting a game in the middle of the dispute and then claiming they needed to finish it, etc. Luckily it never happened again.

If you have a reservation, it is your court. You paid for the time (either per hour or monthly dues). You can have a party with cake and ice cream if you want. This is different than a public court where you should not have a party with cake and ice cream and prevent someone else with equal rights to the court from playing tennis.

[Venetian]

Originally Posted by NLBwell

Good for you! Everyone has the right to play tennis equally. There is no judgement on how well they play.



Didn't used to be that way in Northern Virginia. No one would have thought of being that selfish with a scarce commodity. It is because society has changed and being selfish is no longer thought to be out of the norm. Besides, we would have harassed the person to leave if they didn't leave. If they were cooperative, we would have helped them pick up the balls and, if somewhere close in tennis-level, might have invited the person to hit with us a little during the warm-up.
Never seen 4 people try to bump two, though. Might have led to a knife-fight or gunfight at some of the courts we used to play at.

I'm failing to understand how their behavior would be selfish. If anything, it sounds like you and your friends were quite selfish in the use of your "intimidation" tactics to get people to leave the courts whenever you wanted to use them.

All that aside, I would love to live somewhere where there were enough people that wanted to play tennis that fights over court time actually broke out.

[Cindysphinx]

Agreed.

If I had set up a ball machine and you showed up later and started heckling me, I'd never vacate for you. When did people get so entitled that they think they can evict others in a first-come, first-served situation?

I would order a pizza to be delivered and eat it in front f you before I would let you play. And I wouldn't offer you a slice.

[sureshs]

What about a topspin shot?

[Fusker]

If single individuals should vacate a court for 2 or more people, I guess the only way to work on your serve is to play matches or show up at 6 AM in the morning? It seems that I was lucky that as a teenager training I didn't run into one of these confrontational foursomes (that seem common according to posters here) that go around threatening people until they vacate the court.

Who knew that tennis bred so many tough guys!

[tennis tom]

Originally Posted by Cindysphinx

Agreed.

... And I wouldn't offer you a slice.

Originally Posted by sureshs

What about a topspin shot?

Finally got that, I would do nothing but slice.

[Sumo]

Originally Posted by dman72

Okay Mr. Litigation.

Actually, at a local tennis party, one of the coaches just missed hitting me in the eye with an overhead on what I thought was a casual goofing around point that I wasn't prepared for..I actually felt the ball graze past my eye lash, that's how close he came.

After the initial thoughts of turning him into a popsicle stick with his Dunlop, I told him he was lucky he didn't hit me because he'd probably have a lawsuit on his hands, as well as the club he was working for. So what you say isn't completely invalid. I would not hesitate to just walk in the middle of the court under the proposed scenario, though.

You have to be joking.

[dcdoorknob]

Seems like there was another thread on this topic not too long ago.

And it had lots of people calling anyone who disagreed with their own notions of what *should* happen in every case everywhere names like "selfish" and "not a good person" too.

Fun!

[Venetian]

Originally Posted by dcdoorknob

Seems like there was another thread on this topic not too long ago.

And it had lots of people calling anyone who disagreed with their own notions of what *should* happen in every case everywhere names like "selfish" and "not a good person" too.

Fun!

I remember there being a guy commenting from the sidelines with a holier-than-thou attitude as well.

Disclaimer: All in good fun

[dcdoorknob]

Originally Posted by Venetian

I remember there being a guy commenting from the sidelines with a holier-than-thou attitude as well.

Disclaimer: All in good fun

Considering it's your first post in the thread too, right back atcha buddy!

Except you manage to come across with a holier-than-thou attitude by accusiont someone of being holier-than-thou, which admittedly is more impressive.

[NLBwell]

Originally Posted by Venetian

If anything, it sounds like you and your friends were quite selfish in the use of your "intimidation" tactics to get people to leave the courts whenever you wanted to use them.
.

For a single person, they were not supposed to hold a court by themselves and were breaking the rules. I guess we could have called the police, but since this was an area with a real crime problem, they just would have laughed at us.
If it was people playing tennis and we had been waiting more than an hour, so that they were overstaying their allotted time no matter when they had shown up, we would just mock them with nonsensical exclamations in French.