DO I PLAY EVERY SATURDAY?
It all depends how many people sign up for the ladder play. We have capacity for up to 30 players each week, so there may be some players who have to sit out a week if too many people sign up. Priority will be given to players who had to sit out the previous week.
Can't play every week? No problem! You opt-in each week to play and can easily miss weeks if you have another commitment.
HOW DO I SIGN UP?
Send an email to mapladder411@gmail.com to sign up to play in the ladder. Each week on Wednesday, you will get an email asking if you wish to play the upcoming Saturday to allow you to opt-in. You need to respond by the Thursday at 8PM.
If you've already opted-in on a given week, but are unable to play, please notify mapladder411 immediately so that a substitute can be found. Keep in mind that the play scoresheets have to be re-done whenever this happens, so the sooner we know the better. If you fail to show up without notifying, you may be excluded from future ladder play.
LADDER PLAY
JOIN FOR FUN - AND MAYBE FOR A LITTLE BIT OF COMPETITION!
WHO WILL END UP AT THE TOP OF THE LADDER?
FORMAT
We have 6 courts with 4 or 5 players per court and you play two "rounds".
It is mixed with men and women and the number of each per court will vary by who signed up at what rank on the ladder.
You will play doubles with each of the other players on the same assigned court, which will be three or four games, depending on whether there are 4 or 5 players on your court.
- Courts of 4 players play to 11 points, no 2 point difference
- Courts of 5 players play to 8 points, no 2 point difference
Once you have played with everyone else in your group for the round, you add up your individual scores.
- The player with the lowest total score in the group will go down a court
- The player with the highest total score will move up a court for the next round
STARTING RANKINGS
It can be very difficult to know where to start a player on the ladder. We generally know most of the players and have the previous year's ladder results that will help inform the initial ranking. However, it certainly isn't perfect and players may sometimes be placed much too high or much too low on the ladder to start. This is not a problem, as the numbers will fluctuate widely the first few weeks you play. Just know that if you were too high and lost all of your games one week, you'll start on a lower court the following week and will likely be able to win there and improve your score substantially. You may jump down, up, and back down again in the rankings many times, but over time your average will rank you in the right court with players of a similar skill level.
THE BASICS
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.
THE DETAILS
In the first Round, players will be placed on pre-assigned courts based on their current ranking in groups of 4 or 5, with Court 1 being the top of the Ladder and Court 6 the bottom. The court you're placed on is not related to what court you played on the previous week, instead just the ranking (your average score). All players will play doubles games in a round robin fashion with the other three or four players on their court, keeping track of their scores on a score sheet.
- Highest total score for the round will move up a court
- Lowest total score for the round will move down a court
- No player moves "up" from Court 1
- No player moves "down" from Court 6
Then a second Round will be held.
At the end of the day, the score sheets from both Rounds are submitted and we 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 using a formula and spreadsheet from one that has been used with success by other pickleball clubs.
The next Saturday, players will be assigned to each court based on the new Ladder standings and the available players. It is not related to what court you "finished" on the previous week, just your current ranking relative to the other players who signed up.
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 we're heeding the advice of others with Ladder experience.
CALCULATION
The majority of the score you get each week is based on the percentage of points you won vs the points that were available to be won. If you want to move up the ladder, the most important factor is to win as many points as you can in each game.
The second, much smaller part of the score is a bonus based on games won, with a small factor to reward people who win games on higher ranked courts.
Part one – the percentage of points won out of points available to be won
Your total score is calculated on a percentage basis for the week.
For example:
Round one, if you played 3 games and got 29 points out of a possible 33 and
Round two, if you played 3 games and got 24 points out of a possible 33
Then you would have 53/66 which equals 80.30 percent
Part two – the bonus
The additional bonus points are calculated as follows:
For every win on court #1, 3.00 points are awarded; 2.75 points for wins on court #2,......down to 1.75 points for wins on court #6.
This has the effect of giving greater value to players on the higher ranked courts, and over time accentuates the difference in the levels of play, meaning that over time people will end up having a better chance of playing with similarly skilled players.
So, for example, if a player won a total of 5 games on court 1, their bonus for that week would be 5 x 3 = 15.
If a player won 5 games on court 6, their bonus for the week would be 5 x 1.75 = 8.75.
There is a maximum 3 game bonus per round. If you win 4 games in a 5 player court, you will be given a bonus based on 3 games. This is so that players in a 5 player court do not get an extra advantage of being able to earn more bonus points.
Adding it all together
Our player in part one above (with a base percentage of 80.30) would get a different overall weekly score depending on which courts they played on, and how many games they won.
Examples:
Played all games on Court One and won 3 in the first round and 1 in the second round 80.30 + (3 x 3) + (1 x 3) = 92.30
Won 1 game on Court One and 3 games on Court Two 80.30 + (1 x 3) + (3 x 2.75) += 91.55
Won 4 games on Court Five and 2 games on Court Four 80.30 + (3 x 2.00) + (2 x 2.25) = 90.80
(remember you only get credit for a maximum of 3 wins per round)
The maximum possible score in a given week is 118 (if you won all of your games on Court One)
Averaging scores over the weeks
Every week you play, your score will be averaged with all of your previous weeks' scores to give you an overall cumulative ladder score. We anticipate that there will be a lot of volatility at the beginning of our ladder season, and that people will zip up and down the ladder, until things start to average out and we should end up with people playing in games where they are matched with players of a similar skill level.
WHEN & WHO
Saturdays from 7:00 to 9:30 PM
October through April
This is only for MAP members who signed up to participate in the ladder.
Saturday evenings is not available for drop-in play.
WHERE & HOW
The ladder is played at NSSRC (Rec Centre) in Midland.
Sign up for the ladder at any point during the season by emailing:
WHAT IS IT?
A pickleball ladder is a system for ranking players based on the matches they win or lose.
As members play each other, they receive points. The more points a player has, the higher up the ladder they will climb.