1. Tools and Techniques Sports and Athletics Focus on the Competitive Format

2. The proliferation of competitive athletics has caused problems. Sports are organized by adults, and are over influenced by adult values. Recognizing these problems, a number of programs have developed that try to refocus on the benefits of competition and athletics. One of the better programs is the ASEP or American Sports Education Program http://www.asep.com/. This program is recognized by its motto "Athletes First....Winning Second".American Sports Education Program ASEP recognizes the crucial role that coaches play in reaching the stated objectives of youth sports. The ASEP program is designed to prepare coaches by helping them develop a sound competitive philosophy, by assisting them in teaching fundamentals and strategies, and by understanding the growth and development process of young athletes, as well as how to reduce injuries.

3. Leagues A league is an association of teams (or individuals in an individual sport) with the common interest of competing against one another in their chosen sport. Leagues are organized to make the scheduling of play easier, and to combine persons or teams of like skill or interest. Programmers can use the league structure to make competition more fair. For example a league can be used to allow the more competitive teams to play each other, or the less competitive.... Leagues can also be used to make scheduling more concise. Adult softball leagues are often described only by the night on which they play. The Monday night men's competitive league says it all. Tools for the Competitive Format

4. Round Robins Round-Robin(RR) play is designed to ensure that each team or player plays every other team or player in the league once. A double round-robin ensures that each opponent is played twice.

5. Round Robins can be used alone or in conjunction with another format Most popular league format Can also be used as a tournament Use in combination to achieve certain goals (single round robin followed by upper and lower division round robin…or…single round robin, followed by bracket tournament)

6. Leagues are characterized by: teams seasons schedules (e.g. round-robin) Types of Leagues ◦Competitive ◦Church ◦open, industrial/corporate, coed ◦recreational, etc.

7. Steps in a Round Robin format Step #1 1-8 2-7 3-6 4-5

8. Steps in a Round Robin format Step # 2 rotate opponents counter-clockwise, keeping #1 in the same position WK 1 2 34 5 6 7 6:30pm 1-8 1-7 1-6 1-5 1-4 1-3 1-2 7:30pm 2-7 8-6 7-5 6-4 5-3 4-2 3-8 8:30pm 3-6 2-5 8-4 7-3 6-2 5-8 4-7 9:30pm 4-5 3-4 2-3 8-2 7-8 6-7 5-6

9. Round Robin Adjustments Step #3 Adjust team #1,because all of their games would be at 6:30 otherwise, and this team would always be home team if the 1st team listed is the home team. Week 6:30pm 3-6 7-1 7-5 5-1 1-4 4-2 5-6 7:30pm 2-7 8-6 1-6 6-4 5-3 1-3 3-8 8:30pm 8-1 2-5 8-4 7-3 6-2 5-8 4-7 9:30pm 4-5 3-4 2-3 8-2 7-8 6-7 2-1

10. BYES When an odd number of teams make up a league a bye must be used. In a round robin format, a bye simply means that the teams do not play, or have a rest break. In other tournament formats a bye means the team advances. In those situations a bye is treated as a win. No time is assigned to the bye as no game or match is played. In this league of 7 teams, three games will be played per night.

11. Odd number of teams require the use of BYES Round Robin Tournament/League format (illustrating use of byes) 7 TEAMS bye-7 bye-6 bye-5 bye-4 bye-3 bye-2 bye-1 6:30 1-6 7-5 6-4 5-3 4-2 3-1 2-7 7:30 2-5 1-4 7-3 6-2 5-1 4-7 3-6 8:30 3-4 2-3 1-2 7-1 6-7 5-6 4-5

12. Scheduling Software Scheduling Software Quick Scores illustrated……many versions, try out several