Petanque Tip Playing as a squad of 4Disadvantages

Playing as a squad of 4

Disadvantages

It can disrupt the team having someone very keen to play pacing up and down the side of the piste. Observing they would have out pointed that boule or they would have hit the target boule. Tutting can be heard over a long distance! 

The swapping of the players can disrupt the flow of a team just when they have got in their stride. Winning a superb game and then sitting on the side lines can be really hard.  Even harder if your team lose. 

If the team have any disputes they can fester in a four player team and this is why switching during a game can be very difficult to achieve without upsetting the dropped player.

Some players can turn their game around during play, if dropped they do not get this opportunity to shine as they know they can, one or two bad boule will see you replaced. Tough decisions are needed.

To sum up and advise, we played a rolling player drop out at the Home Nations and Inter regional. It worked really well but then we played during the week in two leagues teams together. The team walking out on the piste knew they were the team, no swapping during games and we supported our players as we would normally do. We knew how we can play and if we did not reach those levels we knew we need to help the player concerned, not drop them after two bad boule. It was difficult to win and then watch the team lose but as a first trial the system worked really well for us. Other teams may want a different system. It needs a discussion between the players to be honest with each other and most of all play to a system that is enjoyable, after all that is what we all want from the game.