Pickleball Rating for those who are interested

Ways To Get a USAPA Skill Rating…
By Chris Thomas, USAPA Ratings Chair
 
I've recently received emails from players asking how they get an official USAPA skill rating. There are basically two methods. One is to receive a recommendation from a Tournament Director (TD), usually of a sanctioned USAPA tournament at which the TD and others have viewed the player. Based on the TD’s observations and the player’s results in the tournament, the TD sends an e-mail to me at ratingschair@usapa.org. If there is no further research to be conducted the player will be informed via e-mail of either his or her initial rating or a rating change. The rating will then be entered as a “T” fortournament rating, in the USAPA.org player rating file.
The second method is for the player to review the skill level definitions at USAPA.org to determine what his skill level may be. The player then e-mails the ratings chair (ratingschair@usapa.org) with a request to be self-rated, and includes any supporting data such as recent tournament results, etc. The ratings chair reviews the request and informs the player of the decision. Such a rating would be an “S” type for self-rated in the USAPA ratings file.
Both “S” and “T” are official USAPA skill ratings. Unrated players, those that have no official USAPA rating, will often rate themselves to enter a tournament. It’s important to understand that this is the player’s self-assessment for a particular tournament, not an official USAPA rating. In fact, TDs of sanctioned USAPA tournaments have the authority and flexibility to assign a tournament rating to any unrated player for that tournament, based on the TD’s knowledge and observations of the player. It is only after the tournament is completed and the TD sends in a recommendation to the ratings chair that the player would subsequently be assigned an official USAPA rating.
There are a limited number of individuals and rating committees who have the authority to assign ratings. These rating committees have a more comprehensive knowledge of the individual player, and these committees efficiently distribute the ratings workload with regard to the explosive growth of this sport. In these situations, the individuals or rating committees who update the ratings file need to inform the player via e-mail of a rating change.
You can review more information on skill ratings at: http://www.usapa.org/ratings-usapa/.