It’s the most exciting day of the year (or the worst)! This week, the 2021 NTRP ratings were released. Is your phone blowing up with requests to be on teams or are you hearing crickets? Have you been checking to see if your phone and email are still working? We have been!
In this episode, Carolyn and Erin discuss the 2021 NTRP ratings bump and whether they were surprised by who was bumped up, bumped down or stayed the same.
Other episodes of interest:
If you want to read the long-version recap of the show, read on…
2021 NTRP Ratings Released – ‘Bump Day’ podcast episode by Second Serve
It’s the most exciting day of the year for adult recreational tennis players — or it could be the worst!
The NTRP ratings were released so we thought it would be a great idea to record a special edition podcast. We talked about who was bumped up to a higher NTRP rating, who stayed the same, and who bumped down in their rating.
After being up at midnight to obsessively check the USTA app, we thought there were very few surprises in our local area. Many people stayed the same rating and those that were bumped up to a higher rating, we felt like should have been bumped in 2020. They didn’t bump up in 2020 because there was a freeze on ratings that year.
A lot of competitive USTA players obsess about ratings. The day that NTRP ratings are released, people start going crazy forming teams. They try to find players, analyzing what the new ratings mean for them and their teammates, and phones start blowing up with calls and text messages. Unless, of course, you fall into the “average player” area.
Hot Commodity (or Not)
When you’re at the top of your ratings bracket, it seems like people are excited to have you on their team and will fight to get you to play for them. For instance, if you are a someone who was on the cusp of getting bumped up to the next rating but didn’t, you will be a hot commodity. On the flip side, if you fall in the middle of your ratings group, your phone might be pretty quiet (crickets!).
Carolyn and Erin were bumped up to 4.0s just before the Spring season in 2020 (pandemic year!). They are now on the bottom to low side of the 4.0 rankings. Their phones were very quiet on NTRP Ratings 2021 day!
Carolyn and Erin have a friend that was bumped up from a 3.0 to a 3.5 rating. This friend told them that she was going to quit playing tennis now. She feels like she reached the pinnacle of her “tennis career” (we say that in quotes because, of course, we are just adult recreational tennis players not making a career out of playing!). The fact is, this friend should have been bumped up the year before. She has been player in high demand for teams the past several years because she was such a strong 3.0 player. Now that she’s a 3.5, she’s in the same boat with us — she’s back to being average and will have to figure out how to win at her new level.
Carolyn’s husband, Mike, is a strong 4.0 player who was high on the depth chart of his ranking and could have easily been bumped up to 4.5. When ratings were released, he was very happy to find out that he stayed a 4.0 and now is an extremely valuable player on his 4.0 team.
Mike was also happy he didn’t get bumped to a 4.5 because, at our tennis club, we don’t have any other 4.5 men to play with so he would have had to find another place to play. Now he doesn’t have to worry about that for another year.
We talked about a few players from our club that we were surprised didn’t get bumped up to the 4.0 rating. They have both played on multiple 3.5 and 4.0 teams over the years and won a lot of their matches. They are also both singles players and won a lot. It’s still a mystery to us how ratings really work. I guess if USTA let everyone in on their algorithm secret, we wouldn’t have much to talk about or debate!
Control Your Rating
We we do understand about NTRP ratings is that it’s not based on wins and losses. It’s about your rating and your partner’s rating (if you are playing doubles). It also factors in your opponent’s ratings and how many games you win or lose. There are a lot of confusing factors. If you want to get bumped up to a higher rating, you need to play with high-rated players, play against strong players and win most of the games (don’t make it a close match!). That may actually be the only way to control your rating. Who knows?
On the flip side, if you do not want to get bumped up (some call this “managing your rating”), you can lose matches you are expected to win or throw some games. We have heard this isn’t uncommon, unfortunately.
We’re Not Algorithm Experts and We Aren’t Good at Math
We know for sure that we’re not skilled enough to control our ratings. We feel like if we are beating a player rated higher than us, the tide can (and probably will) turn at any moment. If we start giving up games, we’ll probably lose all together and get bumped down eventually. We think people should play the opponent that is in front of them and not try to control the outcome other than to play their best tennis.
The year that we both got bumped, we were playing a lot of singles and winning a lot of those matches. It seems like people that play singles have a better chance of getting bumped. Or maybe it just seems that way because there are less “factors” to consider (there are only two players vs. four).
Appeal or Not to Appeal — That is the Question
Carolyn has tried to appeal her 4.0 NTRP ratings bump several times. Erin, however, hasn’t tried because she feels like people should play at the level they are assigned even if it means losing. How else will people get better if they don’t play harder matches and stronger opponents. We think it’s funny that Carolyn keeps hitting that “appeal” button though — she says she’s doing it for “podcast research”.
Many people try to appeal their rating and are denied. Erin once call USTA to find out why a woman that had 58 wins and 4 losses in one year was allowed to appeal from her newly assigned 4.0 computer rating back to being a 3.5. Erin was told that the player was right on the cusp of both ratings and had the right to appeal.
We know many people that have tried to appeal for medical reasons and that doesn’t often work either. USTA and the NTRP ratings seem to adjust their system over time. We remember when there used to be a “benchmark” player. NTRP has since taken that away because people were trying to control their rating based on benchmark players wins and losses. It seems to be an ever-evolving process!
We wonder what the percentage of players are that try to appeal their ratings each year. It’s frustrating to play and lose badly but each rating group has a wide range of different types of players. And often, winning or losing a tennis match comes down to match up and the type of opponent you are facing.
Benefits of Getting Bumped Up (or the Downside)
One of the best things about getting bumped to a higher rating is that all the hard work that people have put in taking lessons, playing matches, practicing tennis with friends or family, paying coaches, etc. has paid off. They can expect better tennis at their new rating.
However, getting bumped and playing at a higher level can also be frustrating. They may have gotten used to winning most of their matches and that’s what makes tennis fun for them — winning. At their new rating, they most likely will start to lose again and it may take a few years to figure out how to win consistently again.
Sometimes, people wrap their self-worth around winning and feel bad about themselves when they lose. In fact, we recorded an episode about losing sleep over matches called “Are You Afraid to Lose or Have You Ever Lost Sleep Over an Adult Recreational Tennis Match?” Click here to listen.
The other downside to getting bumped to a higher rating is that it may limit the number of teams you can play on. Every area of the country is different, but some clubs or regions limit how many players at a certain level can be on a team. You may find that you can’t play with your friends anymore if your friends don’t move to the same level.
The Sweet Spot
The best thing, in our opinion, is to play at a level where you are challenged but still winning and playing with your friends. What is better than that in adult recreational tennis?
Is Your Phone Working?
Don’t be surprised if, on “bump day” you get bumped to a higher level, but your phone doesn’t seem to be working. Captains are trying to figure out who should play on their teams and, if someone gets bumped up or down that they weren’t expecting, that can change the whole dynamic of the team.
NTRP Ratings System Is a Good System
Unlike other sports (basketball for example), there are levels like beginner, intermediate, or advanced. In tennis, you are rated which means you most likely won’t ever play someone that is much worse than your or so far out of your league better that you have no chance of winning at all. In that sense, the system works.
We hope to have Heather Hawkes on our show to go over all our ratings questions. Heather is USTA’s NTRP ratings expert. She recorded a wonderful seminar explaining a lot of the mysteries of ratings that we all think about. If you’d like to watch it, it can be found here:
Congratulations to everyone who got bumped and we’ll see you on the courts soon!