Another team report customer is headed to Nationals

While the 18 & over and 40 & over Nationals for 2013 are complete, there are a few divisions that have their 2013 Nationals occur in early 2014.  As such the playoffs and Sectionals for these divisions can happen at odd times of the year, and in one section they recently held their Sectionals and another of my team report customers pulled out a 2-1 win in the final and will be headed to Nationals in the Spring.  Congratulations and good luck!

The USTA League year is over, now we wait for 2013 year-end NTRP ratings

All indications are that all the matches that will be used to calculate 2013 year-end NTRP ratings are now complete, and now we wait for the year-end ratings to be published in 4 weeks or so.

I actually believe the "USTA year" ended a week ago Sunday with the completion of the last 40 & over and 18 & over Nationals.  But any fall leagues or early start leagues that played matches on or before October 28th should also have those matches included in year-end calculations.  See this write-up for a little more detail on how I understand the whole process to work.

But if you are impatient (I know I am) and don't want to wait for the USTA, let me know if you'd like to get an Estimated Dynamic NTRP Rating Report that tells you what your rating will likely be.

Note: I have subsequently confirmed that October 27th was the end of the 2013 USTA year.

Interesting USTA League Stats - Histogram of NTRP ratings down to the tenth

Next in my series of posts on interesting stats from the data I collect for the Estimated Dynamic NTRP Rating reports I generate, I took a look at how many players are at each rating level down to the tenth.

Why down to the tenth?  There was a discussion on Talk Tennis about the issues with the new "plus" leagues where it was hypothesized that there were clusters of players in certain ranges and how, naturally or otherwise, a slight movement of the range for each NTRP level might result in better alignment with those groups of players.  With my ratings, we should be able to chart the ratings rounded to the tenth and clearly see if and where there are any clusters.

Here is the chart:

From this, it doesn't appear there are any abnormal peaks or valleys that would indicate such clusters exist.  There is a peak at 3.2 a slight dip at 3.4, then another peak at 3.5, but this could potentially be explained by the fact that this chart includes both men and women, and perhaps women have their peak at 3.2 and men at 3.5 and when put together, you get the chart above.

So we don't see any odd clusters.  It could be that my ratings aren't accurate and so don't show them, but given my accuracy in predicting DQs and bumps, I think it is more likely that my ratings are pretty accurate and there aren't any significant clusters of players around a particular rating other than the normal large group of players at the NTRP 3.5 and 4.0 levels.

A team report customer wins USTA League Nationals

I had a number of teams that purchased reports from me to aid them in scouting opponents as well as their own teams, several advanced in the playoffs, a few made it to Nationals, and today one of them won it all.  They've made nice comments about how much the reports helped them scout and plan, and I appreciate them, but the players still had to go out and win the matches and that is what they did, so kudos to the whole team!

The last 2013 USTA League Nationals are going on now

Ok, it isn't really the last, as there are some mixed and perhaps other leagues that have their Nationals in November, but for the 18 & over and 40 & over leagues, this is the last weekend of Nationals in what has been an October (and bit of September) packed with play.  With the introduction of the 40 & over league this year, there was a bunch more play.

In Tucson this weekend is the 18 & over 3.5 Nationals.  I have a team I've helped with reports playing there so will be following it closely.

Then in Indian Wells is the 40 & over 4.5+ Nationals.  I also have a team I've helped playing there so will follow as well.

Stay tuned for updates as I'll likely take a look at how my ratings do prediction matches.

Another Estimated Dynamic NTRP Rating Report Customer Reaches USTA League Nationals Semis

Several more USTA League Nationals are taking place this weekend and I was pleased to see another one of my customers having made the semis.  Good luck guys!

Now available, Mixed Exclusive Estimated Dynamic NTRP Rating Reports for USTA League

Most people that play USTA League plan in a men's/women's league, but many also play in a mixed doubles league.   There are some that only play mixed though, and for these, the NTRP ratings are calculated a little differently.

If you play in at least three men's/women's matches, your rating will be calculated based on only those and your mixed results aren't factored in.  However, if you only play mixed, you will be given a Mixed Exclusive (M) rating.

A mixed exclusive rating is used only for mixed leagues, and if you have one and decide to play a men's/women's league, you have to self-rate for that league.

So, these M ratings are a bit unique as they would seemingly have to be calculated for everyone who plays mixed in case they don't play men's/women's, but then they aren't used.  In theory, a player could be a 4.0C (men's/women's rating) but a 3.5M based on their mixed matches if they hadn't  played men's/women's.

I've toyed with calculating M ratings for awhile now, but believe I have something working reasonably well now, so if you only play mixed, or play both mixed and men's/women's and just want to know what your M rating would be, I can now calculate these as part of my Estimated Dynamic NTRP Rating Reports.  If you are interested in a report, contact me.