Volleyball Doubles and Triples

[ndodge]

10 rounds is actually perfect.

[Ian Wakeling]

Here is the balanced schedule:

   (4  6  1 v 3  5  2)
   (2  1  6 v 4  5  3)
   (3  6  2 v 5  1  4)
   (6  5  4 v 2  3  1)
   (4  2  3 v 6  5  1)
   (1  3  5 v 6  2  4)
   (2  6  5 v 1  3  4)
   (3  6  4 v 1  5  2)
   (6  5  3 v 1  4  2)
   (4  2  5 v 6  1  3)

[ndodge]

Hi.  Me again.  I have decent designs for most possible combinations.  However, we've found that having events that have fewer rounds are easier to manage.  For doubles, I have ok solutions for most counts except for 6.  I'd like a reasonably balanced schedule for 6 players that lasts from 6 to 9 rounds.  If there are multiple solutions for around 6 rounds and around 9 rounds, I'd be interested in that.  If 10 or 11 rounds works much better, I'd consider that as a last option.

Thanks,
Nathan

By the way, I tried some tennis doubles software for 6 players and I thought it would be able to do a 9 round schedule pretty easily since I figured every round you have 2 sitting, so every 3 rounds on average everyone would sit, so repeating that pattern 3 times would yield 9 rounds, but the patterns produced did not look balanced (a player had 4 byes, for example).  Maybe I didn't do it right.  Tried double happy and a couple others.  Any recommendations for tennis doubles software ? (since I can use that for volleyball doubles)

[Ian Wakeling]

Hi Nathan,

With the small number of rounds, I don't think there will be any good doubles schedules for 6 players. But I am surprised that the software gave different players different numbers of games. I haven't used any of these packages for real, so am unable to make recommendations.  What happens if you enter parameters that correspond to a known schedule, for example 12 players, 11 rounds of 3 doubles matches each?

I have the following suggestion for your 6 player problem.


   2  3 v 1  4    56
   6  5 v 2  3    14
   1  4 v 5  6    23

   3  1 v 2  5    46
   2  5 v 6  4    13
   4  6 v 3  1    25

   5  4 v 1  2    36
   3  6 v 4  5    12
   1  2 v 3  6    45

All pairs of players play together (as partners or opponents) either 3 or 4 times each.  Opponent balance is good too - either two or three times each. Partner balance has been sacrificed, 9 pairs play together twice each, while 6 pairs never meet, it is also arranged so that the repeated partnerships are always played together.  Would you use that?  If not you could give total priority to the partnerships. The problem is small enough to do by hand, simply write down the 15 possible partner pairs, add 3 more pairs (say the first block of 3 byes above), finally try to assign the 18 pairs to 9 matches to give reasonable opponent balance.

Ian.

[ndodge]

Thanks, I think I'll try a by-hand solution, as partner balance is important.

[ndodge]

Hello, resurrecting an old thread.  We've used volleyball triples formats a lot, thank you again for helping with those.  I have a new situation, where I have a court rental for a longer period than we are used to, and I am hoping to extend the formats I use to go a little longer.  This would be 3v3, 1 court, 6 to 9 players.  I think that with 12 rounds, 6, 8, and 9 players would play the same number of games, but with 7 players, I'd need to go to 14 rounds?  That is ok if so.  Would you be able to help with formats that are at least mostly balanced for these player counts, with those desired number of rounds?  I tried adding some rounds by hand but it keeps getting out of balance.  Thanks, Nathan

[Ian Wakeling]

Hi Nathan,

Welcome back. 9 players and 12 rounds works best.  Below all pairs partner twice and oppose three times.  Also each pair of players has a bye together exactly once with

   (6  2  5  v  7  4  1)    (9  8  3)
   (6  7  5  v  9  3  8)    (4  1  2)
   (3  8  1  v  2  9  4)    (6  7  5)

   (1  5  3  v  8  4  7)    (2  6  9)
   (2  6  1  v  9  5  8)    (3  4  7)
   (3  4  2  v  7  6  9)    (1  5  8)

   (4  8  6  v  7  1  9)    (5  2  3)
   (1  9  2  v  3  7  5)    (4  8  6)
   (4  3  6  v  8  5  2)    (7  9  1)

   (5  9  4  v  8  2  7)    (6  3  1)
   (5  1  4  v  9  6  3)    (8  7  2)
   (2  7  3  v  1  8  6)    (5  9  4)

7 players and 14 rounds also works with partners twice and opponents six times.

   (5  3  2  v  6  7  4)    (1)
   (6  4  3  v  7  1  5)    (2)
   (7  5  4  v  1  2  6)    (3)
   (1  6  5  v  2  3  7)    (4)
   (2  7  6  v  3  4  1)    (5)
   (3  1  7  v  4  5  2)    (6)
   (4  2  1  v  5  6  3)    (7)

   (3  5  2  v  7  6  4)    (1)
   (4  6  3  v  1  7  5)    (2)
   (5  7  4  v  2  1  6)    (3)
   (6  1  5  v  3  2  7)    (4)
   (7  2  6  v  4  3  1)    (5)
   (1  3  7  v  5  4  2)    (6)
   (2  4  1  v  6  5  3)    (7)

So far I am not finding any useful schedules for 6 or 8 players.

[Ian Wakeling]

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