LADDER PLAY
No drop-ins the day of.The Basics
This play is for members and their guests (guests must sign a waiver and pay a $10 fee, their member must put their name into "holdmycourt"). All members, regardless of skill level, are welcome to join the ladder. You do not have to commit to playing every time, but it is not a drop-in style of play. Players will be asked to commit to playing in any individual week, by signing up in holdmycourt no later than 3pm Thursday. Of course, we understand that emergencies may arise. Players will be expected to show up 15 minutes early to allow for the organization of the courts, so that we can use our court time for actual play. Court time is Fridays at 11:00 for now and if we get a great turnout we will add Mondays at the same time.
The point of the ladder is to have an organized way to have players matched mostly with others of similar skill levels, while still mixing things up so you don’t always play with the same people. Your ranking on a ladder is based mainly upon your winning percentage (essentially, the ratio of points won to total points possible). This format of play is suitable for all skill levels, but the spirit of play may be a bit more “competitive” as players vie to move up the ladder. Play is still intended to be fun and conducted with good-sportsmanship and appropriate pickleball etiquette.
For those interested in the nitty-gritty, there is more detail in the attachment below. The system may sound complicated, (we have nuclear physicist/engineers to do the math) but the bottom line is that:
You just have to sign up, show up by 10:45, play on your assigned court and write down your scores. We take care of the rest.
More Details on How the Ladder Works
For 8 courts, the ideal number of players on each day is between 20 and 32 divisible by 4 but leave your name in so others may enter and if there are extra people we will keep them on a waitlist in case someone has to cancel or we will attempt to find people. If more than 32 players want to play, we will have to limit the numbers by first come first served i.e. first 32 that sign up play each week.
Each week, players will be placed on pre-assigned courts in groups of 4 in the order of their ranking on the ladder or last result, with Court 1 being the top of the ladder and Court 8 the bottom. All players will play doubles games with the other three or four players on their court, keeping track of their scores on a score sheet provided. Then, on each court, the top player will switch “up a court” and the bottom player “down a court”. This means that in the second round robin (on the same day), each court will lose two players and gain two new players. But because Court 1 can only move down, and Court 8 can only move up, those courts will only lose and gain one player.
Then a second round robin will be held.
At the end of the day, the score sheets are submitted to the coordinator, who will recalculate the ladder standings, based on the day's results. Over the weeks, your scores from each week are averaged to give you a cumulative ladder score. The actual formula to create the ladder is built into a spreadsheet, which essentially assigns scores to people based on how many points they won out of the available number of points available, so a player who loses every game by 9 to 11 will be scored higher than a player who consistently loses 2 to 11. There are also small bonuses built in for winning games and for playing on higher ranked courts. We are borrowing the formula and spreadsheet from one that has been used with success by other pickleball clubs.
The next time, players will be assigned to each court based on the new ladder standings and the available players.
Once a few weeks have been played and the ladder sorts itself out, regardless of which court you are playing on, you should end up playing with players at roughly the same level as yourself.
Our research has revealed that the ladder play starts to work more quickly and efficiently if you begin the ladder by roughly sorting the more advanced players at the top of the ladder. We do not want to get into the business of subjectively ranking players, but heeding the advice of others with ladder experience, we will seed the ladder the best we can to start.
Contact me (Dan McKinney at [email protected] ) if you want to play on the ladder and go into holdmycourt and add your name to Friday morning 11:000 to 1:00pm. The email will enable me to add you to the master spreadsheet and signing into holdmycourt will let me know you are available to play on Friday so I can assign courts Thursday evening so everything runs smoothly in the morning.
Please note, that once the ladder gets started, only players who have expressed an interest in the ladder will get regular communications about the ladder, so if you are interested in playing the ladder, or if you have any feedback, questions, concerns or suggestions, please contact the coordinator, Dan McKinney, at [email protected]
SOME IMPORTANT REMINDERS:
No drop-ins the day of.The Basics
This play is for members and their guests (guests must sign a waiver and pay a $10 fee, their member must put their name into "holdmycourt"). All members, regardless of skill level, are welcome to join the ladder. You do not have to commit to playing every time, but it is not a drop-in style of play. Players will be asked to commit to playing in any individual week, by signing up in holdmycourt no later than 3pm Thursday. Of course, we understand that emergencies may arise. Players will be expected to show up 15 minutes early to allow for the organization of the courts, so that we can use our court time for actual play. Court time is Fridays at 11:00 for now and if we get a great turnout we will add Mondays at the same time.
The point of the ladder is to have an organized way to have players matched mostly with others of similar skill levels, while still mixing things up so you don’t always play with the same people. Your ranking on a ladder is based mainly upon your winning percentage (essentially, the ratio of points won to total points possible). This format of play is suitable for all skill levels, but the spirit of play may be a bit more “competitive” as players vie to move up the ladder. Play is still intended to be fun and conducted with good-sportsmanship and appropriate pickleball etiquette.
For those interested in the nitty-gritty, there is more detail in the attachment below. The system may sound complicated, (we have nuclear physicist/engineers to do the math) but the bottom line is that:
You just have to sign up, show up by 10:45, play on your assigned court and write down your scores. We take care of the rest.
More Details on How the Ladder Works
For 8 courts, the ideal number of players on each day is between 20 and 32 divisible by 4 but leave your name in so others may enter and if there are extra people we will keep them on a waitlist in case someone has to cancel or we will attempt to find people. If more than 32 players want to play, we will have to limit the numbers by first come first served i.e. first 32 that sign up play each week.
Each week, players will be placed on pre-assigned courts in groups of 4 in the order of their ranking on the ladder or last result, with Court 1 being the top of the ladder and Court 8 the bottom. All players will play doubles games with the other three or four players on their court, keeping track of their scores on a score sheet provided. Then, on each court, the top player will switch “up a court” and the bottom player “down a court”. This means that in the second round robin (on the same day), each court will lose two players and gain two new players. But because Court 1 can only move down, and Court 8 can only move up, those courts will only lose and gain one player.
Then a second round robin will be held.
At the end of the day, the score sheets are submitted to the coordinator, who will recalculate the ladder standings, based on the day's results. Over the weeks, your scores from each week are averaged to give you a cumulative ladder score. The actual formula to create the ladder is built into a spreadsheet, which essentially assigns scores to people based on how many points they won out of the available number of points available, so a player who loses every game by 9 to 11 will be scored higher than a player who consistently loses 2 to 11. There are also small bonuses built in for winning games and for playing on higher ranked courts. We are borrowing the formula and spreadsheet from one that has been used with success by other pickleball clubs.
The next time, players will be assigned to each court based on the new ladder standings and the available players.
Once a few weeks have been played and the ladder sorts itself out, regardless of which court you are playing on, you should end up playing with players at roughly the same level as yourself.
Our research has revealed that the ladder play starts to work more quickly and efficiently if you begin the ladder by roughly sorting the more advanced players at the top of the ladder. We do not want to get into the business of subjectively ranking players, but heeding the advice of others with ladder experience, we will seed the ladder the best we can to start.
Contact me (Dan McKinney at [email protected] ) if you want to play on the ladder and go into holdmycourt and add your name to Friday morning 11:000 to 1:00pm. The email will enable me to add you to the master spreadsheet and signing into holdmycourt will let me know you are available to play on Friday so I can assign courts Thursday evening so everything runs smoothly in the morning.
Please note, that once the ladder gets started, only players who have expressed an interest in the ladder will get regular communications about the ladder, so if you are interested in playing the ladder, or if you have any feedback, questions, concerns or suggestions, please contact the coordinator, Dan McKinney, at [email protected]
SOME IMPORTANT REMINDERS:
- Remember, the ladder is NOT drop in. If you want to sign up for the ladder and have not yet done so, please contact Dan at [email protected]- please use this email for ladder communications rather than our personal emails.
- Make sure you sign up in holdmycourt no later than 3 pm Thursday for Friday 11:00 to 1:00 (be there by 10:45)
- Players asked to show up 15 minutes early so we can organize the ladder without using valuable court time.
- Please be aware that the ladder standings will be shown to whoever asks for them. They will be available at every session.
- Details on how the ladder works are contained in the section below. You don’t need to know all the details unless you like that kind of stuff: just sign up, show up, play on your assigned court ,record your scores and have some fun
- From now on we will send communications that deal specifically with the ladder only to people who sign up for the ladder. If you change your mind later, let us know.
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