Hello Members,

This email will contain the details and timings on how to sign up for the first ladder of the 2025 season, as well as rules, conduct, communications, etc.

SIGNING UP

In order to handle sign-ups in the fairest way possible, I have to time-gate it. So anyone who has already sent me messages asking to join, you will all have to sign up in this way, for fairness. 

Signups will open Sunday May 4th at 6pm.

To sign-up, you, or someone acting on your behalf must message me on WhatsApp (905-926-4199) stating the name of who would like to join the ladder. One person may sign up multiple people/family members. I will then use these messages as a time-stamp in order to determine who gets a spot as it fills to capacity (90 players). Any players who sign up after the first 90 spots are gone, will be put (in chronological order of their message) into a sub list. 

I recommend people add me as soon as possible, well in advance of the signup date, just to make sure you have my number correct, I can add you as a contact, etc.

COMMUNICATIONS

I will then invite players to a new Ladder group on WhatsApp. All communications will be done through this channel. I highly recommend everyone involved in the ladder is able to join this. If you absolutely cannot, you MUST have someone (family or close friend) who is able to join the whatsapp group, as again, all communications will be done there.

COST / PAYMENT

Once the ladder has been filled, I will compile the ladder list and sub list and post it into the whatsapp chat. At this point, ladder-players will have 1 week to pay for their spot. Payments will be done via e-transfer to  treasurer@cobourgpickleballclub.ca.The ladder will be $10 to join (no cost for subs, but subs must be a member of the club). 

Players who do not make the payment in time will be moved to the top of the sub list, and the top player from the sub list will then have a chance to make a payment and join the ladder.

Once all payments have been received, the ladder will be locked. Players on the sub list will be asked if they want to be a sub or not. They will be free to leave and not sub, and try to join the next ladder. My plan at the moment is to run at least 2 ladders, for 8 weeks each, then see how timing goes for if we can squeeze in a 3rd or not.

LADDER DETAILS

The ladder will be capped at 90 members. It will be run over two days, Mondays and Wednesdays, however it is one ladder. We are doing it this way for a few reasons, firstly, to give more players an opportunity to play (which also helps balance games, as more players means a more distributed skill-spread and fairer games). Secondly, this, in effect, allows half the ladder to be available to sub for the other half. For example, courts 1, 3, 5, 7, etc will run on Monday, and Courts 2, 4, 6, 8, etc will run on Wednesday. This means that as you move up/down the ladder, one week you may have your games on a Wednesday, and one week you may have your games on a Monday. Currently the plan is using 8 courts on Monday (leaving 2 open for open-play) and using all 10 courts on Wednesday.

I do realize this will cause additional challenges, but I’m hoping that the benefits this provides more than offsets the downsides. Please make sure you could be available to make either day. Some potential downsides to this:

– Long weekend Mondays, or bad weather pushing only 1 of the days for a given week. If/when this happens, we can try to play some of the matches on the other club days, provided we don’t interfere with club open-play. For example, if a given Monday rains-out, the players in each court will attempt to get together and find a time to replay their games. This could be during a Saturday morning club time, a Tuesday club time, etc. Again, provided there are extra courts available.

– Players who can only make one of the days in a regular way. These players may want to consider just being a sub. More details in the Sub section below.

SUBSTITUTIONS

Players may elect to join the sub list instead of the main ladder. When signups open up, please make it clear you want to only be a sub.

At the end of each week, typically by Wednesday night, I will resolve the past week’s play and issue out the next week’s ladder courts. At this point you will know if you are playing Monday or Wednesday the following week. Please assess as early as possible if you are unable to play in your slot. 

Players are responsible for finding their own subs. I am not responsible for finding you a sub. Players unable to find a sub for their week will automatically move down a court. A player doing this 3 times (3 strikes you are out) will be removed from the ladder and their spot offered to the top player on the sub list (which is based on the chronological order of when their message-to-join was received).

Priority for substitutions are in the following order of priority:

1 – Ensuring a fair game. This means that priority should be made to get a player whose skill level is at the same level as the court they are substituting in. I reserve the right to decline any substitution and request the player find a different one. This goes for both putting a player into a court that is well above or below their level, as both scenarios ruin the week’s experience for the other 4 players on the court. Thankfully, this shouldn’t be an issue this year, as one of the greatest benefits of running the ladder over 2 days is having a massive pool of players to act as potential subs.

2 – Players on the sub list. If you require a sub, you should look to messaging players on the sub list FIRST, before contacting people on the other half of the ladder. These are players who maybe missed their spot in the ladder just barely, so lets do our best to get them some ladder-play if possible. Again, priority 1, always, is having balanced games.

3 – I am personally okay if a non-club member, who has previously been a part of the club wishes to join the sub list. However, they will be put on a separate list of non-club subs, and will only be able to sub if it wasn’t possible to get someone from the sub list and also from the other half of the ladder.

It should be noted that any player on the sub list can/should be contacted and not just the players at the top of the list. Lets do our best to try to give everyone a chance to sub in. If you yourself are a sub, each week, feel free to message your desire/availability to act as a sub in the whatsapp chat for the coming week.

INITIAL SORTING OF LADDER

This year this will be done at my sole discretion. The goal will be to have the ladder pre-sorted to enable balanced play starting week 1. Last season it took us a solid 5-6 weeks to get balanced play, and I hope to speed this process up. The consequence was that when there was a perceived skill difference, players would get completely ganged up on and other players completely iced-out (see code of conduct below), and this caused several players to have very negative experiences and leave the ladder prior to the ladder sorting itself out. So while this won’t be perfect, it’s being done for a good reason.

How I will actually perform this is to put players in blocks of skill using past ladder performance, my own player knowledge, DUPR rating, etc. None of these will be used exclusively because none of them are without their flaws, but together they help paint a general picture – at least for sorting into blocks.

I will then order those “blocks” from top to bottom, and will then randomize the players inside each of those blocks for their position inside their block. I will then order them from 1-90 using this, and release the starting ladder for week 1. This will all be done behind the scenes, I’m just posting it here for transparency. 

If you are lower than you think you should be, understand you may have just been unlucky in the random sorting of your block (which could be 30+ players deep). 

If I don’t know a player and have no prior experience playing with them, I will reach out to you and may ask you some questions so I can better place you at the start of the ladder. 

HOW A LADDER WORKS (FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE NEVER PLAYED A LADDER)

Returning players can skip this section. I will try to be brief.

A ladder is a method of semi-competitive play where players, over the course of the ladder, can move up/down the ladder depending on how they perform. 

Each week players are sorted into courts of 5 players. You will play 4 matches, once with each of the other 4 players as your teammate. Games are to 15, win by 1. Switch sides at 8. Two 30 second time outs per game. Scores after each game are recorded, and then your total points gained in all 4 of your matches are added up. Players are then sorted by their scores.

After all matches for the week are completed, the bottom 2 players of each court will move down a court, and the top 2 players of each court move up a court. In this way, the more you win, the harder competition you will face. 

The ladder is a self-sorting method of play, which quickly gets players into groups of fair and balanced play of similar skill levels. In this way, ladder play tends to create a fair and fun playing experience.

How subs work: if a player subs for you, they will not be able to move you up, but they may move you down. Your sub must be roughly the same skill level as your court level, so if someone is in court 13, they should not be seeking subs from court 1, even if they think they are a court 1 skill-level player themselves. You aren’t seeking a sub you feel is your level, you are seeking a sub you feel is an appropriate-level for the other 4 players in that court for that week. 

LADDER CODE OF CONDUCT

The priority of the ladder is FUN FIRST. Please understand that there are no sponsorships on the line here. There’s no cash prizes. 

While everyone does want to win, please play in a manner that prioritizes the fun of all players involved. This means that if a team perceives that there is a much stronger player on the other side of the court, please play in a way that fosters inclusivity. That doesn’t mean that you give each player 50% of all balls you hit to them, but it DOES mean that you don’t completely ice-out a player. Nobody likes to show up to play pickleball and have ZERO balls hit to them. Also, nobody likes to show up and feel like they are ganged up on. Please try to balance “playing to win” and being a good human bean. We have several players who I know will not be joining this ladder this year because of this, so lets try to be inclusive and keep it fun.

If you yourself feel like you are being targeted, tell your partner that you are going to take a little less of the court and they should try to “get bigger”. Maybe give your partner 60 or even 70% of the court. Force your opponents to hit into a smaller window if they want to target you. They may miss wide more often. Even if you are taking less of the court (say 30% of the court), you may still be playing 70% of the balls! This is the best method of countering “targeting” and should be used by all players when this happens, but it revolves on the targeted player understanding that they aren’t “giving up their balls”, they are still getting their lion-share of play. I recommend people read and understand that, and use it in their games where targeting gets out of hand, in a way to balance it back out.

I will not be policing this (targeting), as everyone is free to play in whatever manner they want, just be aware that there are social perceptions that get made and these are very difficult to shake. If you are a player who feels they may already be seen as someone who targets ruthlessly to win at all costs, then this is your opportunity to show people that you have changed. Make sure you are known as a player who tries to win, but understands that this isn’t the PPA Pro Tour and keeps it fun for everyone.

Additionally, please learn how to lose. It’s easy to be a good/fun partner when you are winning a game. Please be the same player when losing as you are when winning a game. We all make mistakes, we all have strings of mistakes that line up in a row. A player who motivates their partner to play at their best will have the best chance of winning a game. 

Rolling your eyes when your partner makes a mistake, or pointing out your partners mistakes, giving coaching and tips (especially excessively) during game-play is only going to make your partner play uptight, afraid of making mistakes, and when we play like that, we make more mistakes. So be that positive influence on the court, and praise your partners good shots, and make sure they know you don’t care about their mistakes, since we all make them. “Nice try, keep playing your game”, “that’s your best shot, just missed it”, etc. The time for advice/tips is well after a game is over, not during play.

If you want the most points each week, you want your partner at the top of their game. Players play at the top of their game when they think they are valued, respected, and their partner has confidence in them.

Line-calls: please understand that everyone is doing their best, and I truly think nobody is trying to cheat at Sinclair ladder play. The defending team makes the call, it’s their call to make, if you don’t agree with the call, it doesn’t matter. Repeat, it doesn’t matter what you think. It’s their call. 

Give them the benefit of the doubt and, although you thought they got the call wrong, in our head believe that they didn’t do it out of maliciousness. Shrug it off and move on and keep having fun. It’s GOING to happen, so learn how to deal with it in a mature way using good sportsmanship.

Scoring: Please call out all scoring LOUDLY and CLEARLY before serving. If the serving team does not call the score out, you have two options. The best is to simply catch the ball, throw it back and ask them politely to loudly call the score out prior to serving. The other is to play the rally out, then afterwards politely ask that the score be called louder, to avoid potential disagreements on score. If they refuse to do this, simply use option 1, over and over and over until they do, and point them to the following:

It’s the expectation of each server that you call the score prior to serving (ideally prior to performing any motion of serve at all). Don’t whisper it to yourself, the other team can’t hear you, call it loudly. If you cannot, ask your teammate to. Most of the nastiest “fights” revolve around disagreements in the score, so try to eliminate the possibility of that happening by doing this.

When you switch sides at 8, you get a free 30 second time out. You also get 2 free time outs to use during each match. The moment a time out is called (and when you switch at 8) it is best-practice to call out the score to the other team to ensure there’s no disagreements (after 30 seconds of time-out) if it’s first serve or second serve, etc. Clear that up right away and avoid those conflicts.

Conduct that pushes beyond any simple disagreements such as any abuse (physical, sexual, gender, etc, any), harassment, aggressive behaviour, toxic attitudes towards partners or opponents, will simply not be tolerated. Offending players will be spoken to, and if necessary removed from the ladder.

Thanks for your attention, and I wish everyone a happy 2025 Pickleball season!

Keith