Court surfaces: sharing the courts around fairly

Most clubs with a mix of courts have one nobody really wants. The old hard court in the corner, or the one that's a fair walk from the clubhouse. It's fine every now and then, but over a session it adds up — and it always seems to be the same few people who cop it.

Court surfaces is our way of sorting that out.

Why the same players end up on the worst court

When you're running a busy session, court allocation is the last thing you've got time to think about. So matches tend to land wherever there's a free court, and over a night that's rarely even. Some players spend half their matches out the back or on the surface they like least, and they notice.

How Setsy shares the courts fairly

You tell Setsy what each of your courts is like — its surface, and how far it is to walk to — and rank your surfaces from the ones players like most to the ones they like least. From there Setsy shares the less-popular courts around evenly, so everyone takes a turn rather than the same few getting stuck.

It doesn't change how the match-ups are made. The players in each match are worked out exactly as before — this only decides which court each match goes on. So you get the same balanced games, just spread more fairly across your courts.

How to set up court surfaces

Head to Club settings, then Courts. Set how many courts you have, tag each one's surface and walking distance, then drag your surfaces into your preferred order. The video above runs through the whole thing in a couple of minutes.

When it helps most

It's all optional — anything you leave as "Not set" simply won't affect anything, so there's no need to fill in every court if you'd rather not. And it works best when the less-liked courts are in the minority. If most of your courts are much the same, there's naturally less to even out.

One thing worth clearing up: this is separate from setting a court's priority. Priority just decides which courts get used first when you've got a few spare — it doesn't take turns sharing a particular court between players. The even sharing here is based on the surface and the walk, not the court number itself.

Give it a go

It's live now for everyone. Try it with your club and let me know how it feels — keen for any feedback, good or bad.

Thanks, Marty