Changing the Grading

The overall mission of CHH is to provide competitive ‘advanced club’ players with regular competitive matches in the 3 sets singles format.

Before the 2020 Winter League, players were graded on past performances utilising the Challonge Rating system (https://canberraheavyhitters.challonge.com/leaderboards/players/37899/ranked_members).

This was to ensure that players had as many competitive matches as possible and avoid players getting bagels (0 games) often, either for or against them. Regular competitive matchplay, where you are up against someone slightly better or slightly not as good as you, is the best way to hone your own matchplay development.

However, with both 1st and 2nd Divisions being weighted equally towards the Leaderboard it started getting tricky. Also, some players who regularly played in 1st division may have a low rating but were consistently losing ‘well’, fighting hard, improving their game, playing well, but just not getting the games in the end.

Since 2020 Winter League players can now ‘request’ which division they want to play in. CHH will consider the request and allocated them the division based on each players drive and passion, competitiveness and past results. This allows 2nd division players who have been working hard to advance, but it helps 1st division players who may be struggling to identify that they might need to have a season in the 2nd division to get comfortable on court (aka ‘loose’) and rebuild skills and confidence.

New CHH Players who haven’t played CHH before will still use the NTRP rating system (https://heavyhitters.com.au/playerstandard) to declare their playing standard. However can elect to ‘play up’ in 1st division if they know they will be competitive, especially those who regularly hit with current Heavy Hitters outside of CHH events.

Canberra Heavy Hitters Coronavirus (COVID-19) Statement

Tennis Australia today announced that all TA events, comps and tournaments, from club pennant level to national level events, will be postponed until further notice. The ITF, WTA, ATP have also  announced a 6 week cancellation of all events. 

As we have less players involved in our organisation and are not 'team' based, Canberra Heavy Hitters will continue to finish the Summer League with the following advice: 

• Players can opt to avoid direct contact, instead of handshakes tap your racquets at the end of the match. 

• Players with flu-like symptoms shouldn't play, as per normal, and will withdraw from the league. 

• Players who have travelled overseas in the past month are advised to withdraw. 

• Players who have been in contact with anyone who has tested postitive for COVID-19 are to withdraw. 

• Players can choose to withdraw from any remaining round robin matches without a 'forfeit'. 

• Players can choose to withdraw form any finals matches with a 0-0 outcome but as a 'loss'.

Players are to contact the CHH via WhatsApp, SMS or Email if they choose to withdraw from the league.

The upcoming Autumn League runs from 13th April until 28th June. Registration opens on Monday for this league. 
At this stage players can register for the Autumn League as we monitor the progress of the COVID-19 outbreak. A decision will be made on Monday 6th April whether or not the Autumn League will be cancelled. If the Autumn League is cancelled, all registration payments will be refunded. 

You will have all seen them but I'll take this opportunity to repost the current WHO guidelines:
- Wash your hands frequently with an alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water
- Maintain social distancing with at least 1 meter (3 feet) between yourself and anyone who is coughing or sneezing
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth
- Practice respiratory hygiene by covering your nose and mouth with your bent elbow when coughing or sneezing, and immediately dispose of used tissues
- Seek medical attention if you have a fever, cough or difficulty breathing 
- Stay informed and follow advice given by your healthcare provider

Wishing all players and their families good health during this period.

Warm Regards
Nick Ilic

League Manager
Canberra Heavy Hitters
0474 228 745
canberra@heavyhitters.com.au 

Here Comes 2020!

WHAT A YEAR 2019 WAS!

Record player numbers, record prize money. We averaged 25 (TWENTY FIVE!!) players per league this year, a huge number of like-minded, focused, competitive players. Earning a total of almost $2000 in prizemoney.

This website had a big upgrade and is now looking schmick!

We also obtained our massive CHH Champions Trophy!

Canberra Heavy Hitters has now forked out $9,130 in prizemoney since 2016. Here are the top earners:

The 2020 Calendar is out, another 4 massive leagues coming your way.

No promises, but we’re hoping to run 3 one-day tournaments:

• 2020 Hard Court Championship (hopefully at Kaleen)

• 2020 Clay Court Championship (hopefully at Braddon)

• 2020 Syn Grass Championship (probably at Melba or Forrest)

We will keep running with two separate league divisions: Heavy Hitters League and Club League, see previous post for why it ticks many boxes in making Canberra Heavy Hitters great!

Due to the high level of Buzz about the next league, CHH is happy to now open registration for the 2020 CHH Summer League, select here to sign-up!

Membership Discontinued and Return of 2nd Division (Club League)

CHH Membership was designed to help the Heavy Hitters grow and reach consistent player participation in CHH leagues, we have achieved that goal.

In order to streamline CHH background admin and keep overall running costs low, CHH members were canvassed for their thoughts on keeping the Membership system or reverting to a Pay As You Go System, >2/3 of members were happy to revert to a Pay As You Go System.

CHH Membership will now be discontinued.

All current memberships will continue until expiry. Each member will receive an email shortly with their expiry date.

All players will now have a set fee for all events, currently $50/league, $25/tournament. Current members will continue to receive discounts until their membership expires.

The Facebook and WhatsApp members-only groups will now be open to all CHH players.

All CHH Players can use these groups to find casual hit-ups and practice matches with other players whenever they like.

You can join the facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CanberraHeavyHitters/

You can join the WhatsApp group on your mobile device here:

https://chat.whatsapp.com/IOGJX5TZHFhBrdEP2rig1j

For full details on where CHH is heading over the next year, read on.

More Competitive - CHH Leagues aim to be competitive, this will be monitored more closely in future leagues.

• A ‘2nd Division’ will make a return from 2019 Spring League (September 2019), called the ‘Club League’.

• ‘Player ratings’ will also make a return from the Spring League onwards. Players will initially be allocated to the CHH League or the Club League based on this rating. This is to ensure:

1. All Players find most CHH matches reasonably competitive regardless of what division they are in.

2. Players who wish to play the top division but aren't able to due to a low player rating have motivation to train and develop their game so that they improve their rating.

• In order to have a rating, players must have a Challonge login with the username: CHHFirstnameSurname.

• Players without a challonge login will not be eligible for the CHH League, but can play in the ‘Club League’. This is to encourage all players to have a challonge login.

• Upon registration, players can opt to play the ‘Club League’. Otherwise, players will be allocated to the CHH League or Club League based on their player rating.

• The top 2 players of the Club League Round Robin (based on matches won/sets won/games won/games difference) each season will receive an invitation to the CHH League for the next season.

• New CHH players will be assigned to a division based on their reported player standard, playing history (AMT tournaments, pennant) and/or current ratings (UTR), this decision be made by CHH on an adhoc basis.

• Current player ratings can be seen here: https://canberraheavyhitters.challonge.com/leaderboards/players/37899/ranked_members, player ratings are only valid for players with the format CHHFirstnameSurname.

More Rewarding – Prizemoney and Rating

• Prizemoney will continue as is, scaled to player numbers.

• The Club League will also have prizemoney however 50% of the CHH League and also scaled to player numbers.

• The Challonge Rating System will be utilised (https://challonge.com/docs/challonge_ratings).

• Players will be rewarded for good match performances (win or lose) using the rating system. Ratings will then be used to grade players during League Registration.

• Ratings are designed to encourage players to 'train' and always strive to work on their own development on the court. This is one of the key missions of Canberra Heavy Hitters (train, compete, repeat).

More Ambitious

There are long-term plans for CHH to develop their own online scoring system which will be as easy as Challogne to enter scores, however also keep all match stats and histories, including profiles for players which show their win/loss and match history.

If the CHH continues to grow, this will also allow for an automated payment system which takes away an extra step during registration and makes everything more convenient.

Stay tuned.