Thursday, March 31, 2022 (Court Day #482)

A post was made online by Jim Kloss today at 2 p.m. pacific time:

NEW AND IMPROVED UTPR IS ON THE WAY!
As many of you know, the serious defects with the UTPR have been discussed, at length. After a long delay, USAP finally decided to take action and get it fixed. To that end, a committee was formed to review all available information and to recommend a fix. The committee was made up of 7 people; 3 from USAP, 3 people who had a data/math/IT focus, and me. I considered my job was to represent players — pros, and tournament players, but mainly the vast majority of players who care about ratings, i.e., club players.

We met by zoom call over the course of several months. Reviewed data and information on ratings in other sports and other pickleball ratings. We found the UTPR was not alone is having what we considered serious defects. The committee believed that equally there were problems with the WPR and DUPR.
What we came up with will hopefully be well accepted. Some of the features we want to add:

  1. A more stable algorithm. As many of us had suspected the current UTPR is subject to wild swings. The more results you have the more stable your rating.
  2. A rating algorithm that takes into account score. Losing 11-9, 11-9 is just not the same as losing 11-0, 11-0.
  3. Preserving separate ratings for men and women. Unlike tennis, pickleball events are uniformly separated by age and gender. We do not believe pickleball players want ageless/genderless events to dominate. We found a pickleball algorithm that lumps men and women of all ages together is an inaccurate system. For example, one of our data guys found that the DUPR universal system is even LESS accurate than the current UTPR.
  4. In an effort to cut down on sandbagging, the algorithm would not have new players affect the ratings of other players in the system until they have played 5+ matches. In other words, if a sandbagger signs up for 3.5 and wins easily, it would not affect their opponents’ ratings. Obviously, the preferred method would be for people not to sandbag, but at least this way, it will not harm others’ ratings. To my knowledge, no other rating system offers anything to help with sandbagging.
  5. A rating system that takes into account the ball is usually hit to the weaker player. Again, I don’t believe any other rating system has this feature, even though we all know this is how the game is played.
  6. No use of non-tournament results. I love rec/club/league play; but it isn’t tournament play and is not reliable data.
  7. A separate non-tournament skill rating that people can obtain who do not regularly play tournaments. They can take this rating and be accurately placed in their local club or league, or they can use it when they travel — you show up at the local club/park to play, you can fit right in to the correct group. This is the feature I am most proud of. 90% of players who want a rating are not regular tournament players. We need a system that fits their needs.

There are some other features but those are the highlights. The committee recommendations now go to the USAP board. The board will hopefully have the good sense not to mess with a good thing and let the new and improved UTPR go forward. Also, I think it will get renamed, as “UTPR” is not exactly popular. I wanted to call it the Statistically Uniform Pickleball Rating Definitely Unique Pickleball Rating, or SUPR DUPR. But I don’t think it will be adopted. Oh well, can’t win them all. I hope everyone gives the new system, whenever it comes out, a fair shot. I welcome all comments and suggestions on what should be the best pickleball rating system out there.

Good news for us pickleball players!

Skypark

I arrived at Skypark at 6:45 p.m. It’s light much later now after the time change, so I had a number of games before it got dark.

I was in a game against much weaker players. Casey, standing on the other side of the court next to my game, called over, ”Andrew! What’s your score?” The game was in was nearing the end. Casey waited and I was shorty in a game against Casey and his dad Tim. Casey is playing very well. Tim is not flashy but is very consistent. Where Tim lacks speed and length compared to a quite tall Casey, Casey doesn’t! Casey is getting very good very fast. He’s a natural athlete, a reason why he got drafted into Major League Baseball. Tim’s consistency and Casey’s reach make for a formidable pair. They play well. A good team to play against and hone skills—I lost every game I played against them tonight… that said, I wasn’t playing solo, but my partners were in the mix.

Lights clicked off at 9:30 p.m.

Friday, April 1, 2022 (No Play)

How could I let April Fool’s Day pass without posting something in the Pickleball Forum group?


Number of days on a court: 482
Number of total hours: 2,277.5

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