Plan players, courts and session time
Choose the courts you actually have, then work backward from your session time. A rotation can share limited space fairly, but it cannot create more playing slots.
Four playing slots per court
One doubles court fits four players; two fit eight; three fit 12; four fit 16. DinkCircle allows up to four courts and requires four players for every court you select. A roster can contain 4–24 players; extra players rest.
| Players | Courts | Play / round | Rest / round |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| 9 | 2 | 8 | 1 |
| 12 | 2 | 8 | 4 |
| 12 | 3 | 12 | 0 |
For 12 people with only two courts, four wait each round. Six rounds contain 48 playing slots, enough for four games each in a balanced plan. The same 12 people on three courts can all play every round. Those are capacity calculations; inspect the generated player totals for your chosen settings.
Fit rounds into a time window
Planned duration = preparation + playing time + transitions + buffer
Playing time is rounds × round length. Transitions are (rounds − 1) × transition time. All lengths are assumptions chosen by the group, not predictions made by the app.
This example totals 90 minutes. A 10-minute round is a planning assumption, not an official game length. If your rounds end after completed games, use a flexible plan: game lengths, breaks and courts finishing at different times can change the total.
Choose the tradeoff
- More courts: more people play simultaneously, if the space is available.
- More rounds: more opportunities to balance game counts and rotate partners, but a longer session.
- Shorter time slots: a more predictable timetable if everyone agrees on that format.
- A smaller confirmed roster: fewer resting slots, without exceeding your available court space.
DinkCircle does not book courts, predict skill or game duration, or run a timer. It generates 1–32 rounds and lets your group choose how to use them.
Start with a verified example
The four-player swap, five-player rotation and nine-player, two-court plan include the actual schedule and checked player totals. The fairness guide explains why some player/round combinations cannot have exactly equal games.