We have some important Regulation changes to announce which will now be adopted at all FIR Tournaments with immediate effect.
The FIR Regulations Working Group have been looking at a number of different regulation changes and have consulted widely in order to get a broad spectrum of opinions and viewpoints.
At an FIR Council Meeting held on Sunday 21st January some important new changes were proposed by the Regulations Group to be voted on by the FIR Council.
Below are all the changes which have now been officially approved and will come into effect immediately.
Junior Age Group Categories
Official Junior Age Group Categories
To be offered at all world championships and selected world tour tournaments – for girls and boys in singles, doubles, mixed and teams:
- u12
- u14
- u16
- u18
- u21
All the above age groups will play all normal Racketlon rules on full courts with standard approved balls (with only the u12 category playing squash with single yellow squash balls and tennis with ITF green balls)
Un-Official Age Group Categories:
- u8
- u10
No rankings for these unofficial categories and the rules and regulations can be decided by the local federations and/or Tournament Directors in order to best maximise participation and enjoyment.
Gummiarm Play-Offs for Round Robin Groups in Singles & Doubles
After receiving feedback from players during the period of time that Gummiarm play-offs have been used to decide the medal placings of round robin groups – in order to avoid all round robin group matches having to play out full sets of tennis even after the match has been won (in case a points count back was needed)…these are the new regulations which have been decided:
Gummiarm Play Offs should remain for all round robin groups for Singles & Doubles (so matches will not have to play full sets of tennis after the match is complete)…
…however the Gummiarm Play Off will now consist of 4 points played for each of the 4 sports (as opposed to the previous system when only 1 point was played per sport).
It was felt important not to return to having to play out a full set of tennis even after the match had been completed for every round robin match – as this causes huge problems for the tournament schedule which can then negatively effect all players…but it was also felt necessary to make the actual Gummiarm Play-Off fairer and less of a lottery.
Gummiarm Play-Offs for Round Robin Groups at Team Events
Gummiarm Play Offs will no longer be used for Round Robin Groups at Team events. Each Round Robin match will instead play out the full sets of tennis and a points count back system will be used where necessary to decide the final medal placings.
It was felt using a Gummiarm Play Off within a Team setting had proven to be too problematic to organise efficiently and also not a fairly representative method to decide the outcome of a Team competition.
