Ratings

All players with an account who enter matches on their Club Locker profile – whether through tournament, league, or friendly play – receive a player rating. Player ratings are a numerical representation of each player’s ability, measured on a scale of roughly 1.0 to roughly 7.0.

Ratings provide a long-term measure of a player’s ability, and can be used to identify hitting partners of similar abilities, to determine best group for a clinic or league, and to track player improvement over time. In many cases, player ratings are also used to determine player rankings in age divisions or by skill level.

Learn about Junior ratings based rankings
 

Rating Updates

US Squash to Release Enhancements to Ratings Algorithm

Adult
US Squash has announced that it will incorporate enhancements into its player rating algorithm this month. Already among the...
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About the Ratings Algorithm

The US Squash rating algorithm uses all matches from the previous 45 months in the US Squash database to calculate a relative measure of each player’s ability. Your rating is a great way to compare your level against friends and competitors, find a match against some of similar level, or track your improvement over time!

The algorithm was developed between 2012-2014 by Elder Research, a data mining and predictive analytics firm based in Charlottesville, VA known for their work in sports data analytics.

The rating scale begins at 0 and top rating around roughly 7.5 mark for the top world professionals. The majority of club-level squash players are in the 3.0-4.5 range, levels which would coincide to what were formerly referred to as “C” or “B” level club players. Professional players play at a 6.0+ level.

Ratings are calculated in one pool, for all players including juniors and adults, men and women, and also across all leagues, tournaments, and friendly matches. Generally, the more matches a player enters in the US Squash system, the more accurate his or her rating will be.

Please see the below tabs for additional information on how ratings work:

The Math Behind The Rating Algorithm

The US Squash algorithm builds connections between players as they compete against each other, and adjusts ratings due to wins and losses. The strength of a match result is taken into account (whether the match was 3, 4, or 5 games), and matches played more recently have more weight than those played further in the past. Matches affect a player’s rating for up to 45 months, or until 50 newer matches have been played. Players in the system who have more results in the system will have more stable ratings, whereas those with fewer matches will adjust more quickly as the system gains new information on them.

The algorithm is iterative, and runs until player ratings converge onto stable values for each player. This allows the system to look at all players in complete relation to all others in the US Squash database.

Click here to view the basics of the final algorithm

Descriptions of the terms involved:

Min_rating: Creates a floor of the minimum rating for players in the system. The minimum rating moves everyone below to that number after all ratings have converged. It does not shift the distribution curve.​

Mean_rating: The overall mean rating will be set to match this value

Spread: This adjusts the standard deviation of the distribution. If you increase the spread, the range will increase, and if you decrease it the range will decrease. For example, if the spread is set to .7, if a players beats 5.0 player infinity times she can move up only .7.


 

Ratings Frequently Asked Questions

Players can find answers to many questions about the rating algorithm through FAQ’s in our online knowledge base.

RATINGS FAQ’S

Answers are available to questions including but not limited to:

  • Which matches affect my rating?
  • What level of player should I play?
  • What happens if I have taken a break or am coming back from injury?
  • How do I increase my rating?
  • Do I need to play in tournaments for matches to count towards rating?
  • How often are updates made to my rating?
  • Are ratings the same across the country or ages?
  • Can my rating change if I don’t play?
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