Ladder Play
Who Can Play: Mixed ladder is for men and women pickleball players of any ability who are members of the Invermere Pickleball Club (IPB) or pay the drop in fee and sign up on sign up genius.
How to Sign up: After having logged into Sign Up Genius go to one of the Ladder sessions and register for that week’s ladder session. You can only register one week at a time. If you change your mind before the schedule is created you can unregister. We will be using the Pickleheads app for making up the draws and keeping track of scoring so downloading this app is recommended.
If you have to cancel after the schedule is created: It is your responsibility to find a replacement.
How will you know when you are playing and with whom: Before the session the schedule will be posted at the courts and on the app showing the court you will be playing on and who the other players are that you will be playing with.
How the Game will be Played: Players will be assigned to a court for a 2 hour period. Do not be late and limit your 15 Min warm up time. During that time you will play games to to a predefined number of points win by one point. When the game is done players mark down the scores on the score sheets provided. In a round-robin session with 5 players, each player will face off against every other player exactly once. Groups of 5 play games to 12, groups of 4 play games to 16, both win by 1. Follow the chart on the schedule to create your team for each game.
Here’s an example of a match schedule for a group of 5:
- Round 1: Player 1 with Player 2 vs Player 3 with Player 4, Player 5 has a bye (meaning they don’t play in this round)
- Round 2: Player 1 with Player 3 vs Player 2 with Player 5, Player 4 has a bye
- Round 3: Player 1 with Player 4 vs Player 5 with Player 3, Player 2 has a bye
- Round 4: Player 1 with Player 5 vs Player 2 with Player 4, Player 3 has a bye
- Round 5: Player 2 with Player 3 vs Player 4 with Player 5, Player 1 has a bye
In this schedule, each player competes in 4 matches, and each player faces every other player once. The byes are used to ensure that each player gets a break in one of the rounds.
The next game is played but this time with different partners. When this set is finished then sets continue to be played until you have partnered with all players in your group. Your scores over the games are totaled and that are used to determine your rank within the group.
The aim is to make the top players move up the ladder and the bottom players move down. Players who have no score for a week move down the ladder. Remaining players are then allocated ranks based on their scores that week. How you finish one week determines your location the following week
Who you play the following week: Who you play each week will depend on where you are on the ladder and who signed up for that week. New players are inserted in the ladder at approximate places depending on their reported and perceived skill levels. If it turns out that these new players are much better or not as good as expected the next cycle of schedules is used to correct their position on the ladder manually.
Time of Play each Week: Wednesday 6:30 to 8:30 and Sunday 10:00 am to noon.
How will the Groups Be Made Up: The schedule is calculated to make each player play with players that are similar in ability to themselves. It will not matter if it is a man or woman playing. Groups are made up sequentially by player rank.
You only have one hour and 45 minutes to complete your games.
Scores that are not entered will be considered as players who did not play that week.
The number of players signing up must fill a group: Groups of 4 or 5 can always be calculated in the schedule. Players who sign up after the maximum cap go on a waiting list. The number of players accommodated each week depends on the number of courts and times available. Sign up early. The first players to sign up will be playing. First come, first served!
Check the schedule! The schedule can change until hours before court time. This is to take into consideration cancellations, the waiting list and changes in rankings. We aim to be as flexible as possible to ensure everyone has a pleasant experience with players at their skill level.
Hope you have fun playing Mixed Ladder Pickleball