What I've come up with is something like the below. This happens to be for the Mid-Atlantic section, specially looking at the average rating of the 4.0s that played in each area.
Now it is important to note that in the Mid-Atlantic section, a lot of players will play in multiple areas. So those players are being counted in the average for multiple areas.
I don't know if this confirms or goes against the conventional wisdom or perception, perhaps folks will comment on that. But I think it is interesting how much variation there is, from 3.63 in Forty West to 3.78 in Talbot County. Is this much difference just what you'd normally see given enough areas? Do better players seek each other out in Talbot but shy away from Forty West?
It would be interesting to see if the same areas are stronger/weaker at the adjacent NTRP levels too and if so, to think about why that might be. Stay tuned.
Update: Post on Mid-Atlantic 3.5s now available.
I play in the Mid-Atlantic and can speak to this a little bit. I think the areas that have the least number of league players are showing higher NTRP levels. A possible reason for this is that they would also have to help out and play at the higher level i.e. 4.5 which would more often help their rating. The Counties with the most league players all appear to be relatively even - Montgomery, Howard, & Anne Arundel. NOVA seems to be a little stronger, but it does get the best players from MD and DC to play there also. For the Virginia leagues it also follows that pattern with the smaller league areas having higher rated players and the areas with decent sized programs near parity.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. I'm sure there are lots of dynamic involved and you point out some very pertinent ones. Players playing up to help fill out teams is a good way to help raise their rating a bit, but it might also lower the higher rated players they play against. Perhaps that is why an area like Forty West has strong pretty strong 3.5s but weaker 4.0s?
Delete40 West is an indoor tennis club that mostly has weekday female leagues. Many of the players have played for years and have maxed out their abilities at the 3.5 level. The younger ones do get bumped to 4.0 as they are a little better but they don't do so well against the regular Howard County teams. (Usually for the Women's leagues there is a playoff between 40 West and Howard county for the second or sometimes third team to go to districts)
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