Cold Lake Pickleball Club

Rating/Skill Assessment

Revised November 1, 2012

The IFP Rating System has been created to help describe differences in the various skill levels.

Rating

Rating Description

1.0

  • New and have only minimal knowledge of the game and the rules.

1.5

  • Limited to some rallies.
  • Learning how to serve.
  • Developing a forehand.
  • Fails to return easy balls frequently and occasionally misses the ball entirely.
  • Played a few games and is learning the court lines, scoring, and some basic rules of the game.

2.0

  • Sustains a short rally with players of equal ability.
  • Demonstrating the basic shot strokes – forehand, backhand, volley, overhead and the serve, but has obvious weaknesses in most strokes.
  • Familiar with court positioning in doubles play.

2.5

  • Makes longer lasting slow-paced rallies.
  • Makes most easy volleys and uses some backhands, but needs more work on developing shot strokes.
  • Beginning to approach the non-volley zone to hit volleys.
  • Aware of the “soft game.”
  • Knowledge of the rules has improved.
  • Court coverage is weak but improving.

3.0

  • More consistent on the serve and service return and when returning medium-paced balls.
  • Demonstrates improved skills with all the basic shot strokes and shot placement but lacks control when trying for direction, depth, or power on their shots.
  • Beginning to attempt lobs and dinks with little success and doesn’t fully understand when and why they should be used.

3.5

  • Demonstrates improved stroke dependability with directional control on most medium-paced balls and some faster-paced balls.
  • Demonstrates improved control when trying for direction, depth and power on their shots.
  • Needs to develop variety with their shots.
  • Exhibits some aggressive net play.
  • Beginning to anticipate opponent’s shots.
  • Learning about the importance of strategy and teamwork in doubles.

4.0

  • Consistent and dependable strokes, including directional control and depth on both forehand and backhand shots.
  • Reliable serves, lobs, overheads, approach shots and volleys and can use spin shots with some success.
  • Occasionally can force errors when serving.
  • Rallies may be lost due to impatience.
  • Uses the dink shot and drop shots to slow down or change the pace of the game.
  • Demonstrates 3rd shot strategies – drop shots, lobs, and fast-paced ground strokes.
  • Aggressive net play and teamwork in doubles is evident.
  • Fully understands the rules of the game and can play by them.

4.5

  • Beginning to master the use of power and spin, can successfully execute all shots, can control the depth of their shots, and can handle pace.
  • Beginning to master the dink shots and drop shots and their importance to the game.
  • Beginning to master 3rd shot choices.
  • Displays sound footwork and moves well enough to get to the non-volley zone whenever required.
  • Understands strategy and can adjust style of play and game plan according to the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses and court position.
  • Serves with power and accuracy and can also vary the speed and spin of the serve.
  • Understands the importance of “keeping the ball in play” and the effect of making errors.
  • Making good choices in shot selection.
  • Anticipates the opponent’s shots resulting in good court positioning.

5.0

  • Mastered all the skills – all shot types, touch, spin, serves, with control and can use them as weapons.
  • Excellent shot anticipation, extremely accurate shot placement and regularly hit winning shots.
  • Forces opponents into making errors by “keeping the ball in play.”
  • Mastered the dink and drop shots.
  • Mastered the 3rd shot choices and strategies.
  • Uses soft shots, dinks and lobs to set up offensive situations.
  • Mastered pickleball strategies and can vary strategies and styles of play in competitive or tournament matches.
  • Dependable in stressful situations as in tournament match play.
  • Athletic ability, quickness, agility, and raw athleticism are also qualities that are sometimes what separates the top players from those near the top.

New Ratings Announced for Pickleball

PickleballTournaments.com is proud to announce the creation of new ratings system called the World Pickleball Ratings. This new system will provide the most accurate pickleball rating by using tournament match results (sanctioned and non-sanctioned) as well as recreation match results from leagues, team pickleball, and pick-up matches.

The World Pickleball Rating has been designed from the ground up to accurately place new players into the ratings system and to adjust existing rated players based on their match results. An important component of the new system will address “sandbagging” by players new to the ratings system.

The World Pickleball Ratings will include the following capabilities:

Use of the Glicko 2 rating system

Several controls will be implemented to control sandbagging

4-digit ratings will be calculated for singles, doubles and mixed doubles across men and women.

2-digit ratings will be calculated at the end of each calendar quarter based on the level of a player’s 4-digit ratings. These ratings will be used for tournament entry into non-sanctioned tournaments. T

The World Pickleball Ratings will:

Automatically include match results from sanctioned and non-sanctioned tournaments run on pickleballtournaments.com. Tournament directors will have the option to exclude match results from their tournament in WPR calculations. No need to upload results through an app after each match.

Generate graphs of each player’s ratings changes on a match-by-match basis.

Incorporate league and team pickleball matches

Ratings based on historical matches will be calculated and posted to player's pickleballtournaments.com profiles within 60 days with integration into tournament registration and play to follow shortly thereafter.

World Pickleball Rankings Update

Six tournaments are now complete, including the major Delray Beach Open and the just completed US OPEN Pickleball Championships.

The World Pickleball Rankings encompasses 30 tournaments over the course of the year. Open and Senior Open players earn points based on tournament placement and number of wins. Major tournaments provide bonus points. The top 10 tournament results will be factored for each player. Watch the excitement build in 2021!

Next tournament up is the Cincinnati Open.

Here are the current divisional leaders:

New Features

We are pleased to introduce two new features designed to enhance the tournament experience:

Player App

The initial phase of the PT Player App has been released. The app will initially allow remote check-in for all PT.com tournaments. In person check in will be required for player's first event but events on following days can be done remotely on the day of play.

Download the PT Player App from the Google Play Store or the Apple Store.

Look for additional features to be added to the app throughout 2021.

Enhanced Find Player Functionality

The Find Player feature, available on the tournaments information page on PickleballTournaments.com has been enhanced to include:

player events listed chronologically by day for all events

results of matches already played

status of player during current day - event not started, waiting for opponent to be assigned, court assignment

schedule for following days

This enhancement will allow the player or spectator to monitor player status on one screen in real time. Look for this change on current tournaments.

Click for video explainer for Find Player feature