Re: Can we keep experimenting with scoring changes please?

On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 15:21:25 -0600, Bruno Wolff III <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:

>In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, John McCabe wrote:
>> 
>> Not exactly. The incentive is to get the ball in play or lose service
>> *and* lose a point. In the old scoring system the incentive was get
>> the ball in play or lose service.
>
>The best strategy in either case is to maximize your chance of winning the
>rally (ignoring things like players getting exhausted). So in either
>case you should make the serve that gives you the best chance to win the
>rally.

True of course, but what exactly *is* the serve that gives you the
best chance to win a rally? You obviously have a better chance of
winning a rally if you get the service in play rather than out of
play, so ...

While jump serves are an exciting part of the modern game, to be
honest too many of them go in the net and out of the back of the
court, and teams are so used to them at the top level, that can they
really be considered that effective any more? At a lower level, i.e.
the level I play, they obviously are effective if you can reliably get
them in court but at the top level you have to bring out a very
impressive serve to make it count, and that generally means taking the
risk of seriously screwing it up!



Best Regards
John McCabe

To reply by email replace 'nospam' with 'assen'