Ladder Play
Ladder Information, Rules, and Procedures
Fall 2025
Fall Session: The Fall Session began Friday, October 17th and run every Friday (with a few exceptions) until January 16th, ladies will be starting at 11:30AM and the men will be starting at 1:00PM.
Opt-in: Unlike round robins, you must register on Court Reserve for the entire ladder season and once a week you need to “opt-in” for that week’s games. You don’t have to play every week, but you do need to register for the season. Each week you want to play in the ladder, opt-in … if you don’t opt-in, you won’t be able to play. The Opt-in windows opens 7 days prior to the game day. For women the window opens Friday at 6:30pm and for men at 7:00pm. If after opting in, you will not be able to play, you can opt-out up to 24 hours prior to the scheduled start of games. Within 24 hours, email ladders@pcpickleball.org. If opt-ins are full, send an email to ladders@pcpickleball.org, currently Court Reserve does not provide an automated handling of an opt-in waitlist. The waitlist will be cleared by Thursday afternoon. (See appendix A on how to Opt-in)
What is a Ladder: A ladder is a form of organized play where players are dynamically ranked based on their performance, their position changing over time based on match results. Unlike a round-robin, a ladder is conducted as a series of individual game days within a league. In Court Reserve, a ladder is found in leagues, not events.
​
Key Features of Ladder Play
Dynamic ranking. Unlike a round robin or fixed league, a player’s position, or ranking, will change over time based on their results. For fall 2025 only, each player will be assigned an initial rank (or seed) based on some established metric (such as a players club rating). For all subsequent ladders, the initial rank will be based on the previous ladder’s final result.
Performance-based results. Winning matches will move a player up the ladder (higher rank), losing matches will move a player down the ladder (lower rank).
Rotation and court movement. Players typically stay on the same court during a match, rotating within their group.
Inactive Players: Inactive players will only go down in rank. This deliberately encourages participation and penalizes inactivity, (see moving up and down in rank, below).
Inactive Players: Inactive players will only go down in rank. This deliberately encourages participation and penalizes inactivity, (see moving up and down in rank, below).
Club rating and DUPR: Ladder performance will have no effect on either your club rating or DUPR.
Players should note that ladder rankings will be updated after each game day, so it's important to consistently participate if you wish to maintain or improve your standing. The system ensures fair matchups and encourages healthy competition, making each week a new opportunity to move up the ladder.
Game Day
Bring your phone to game day with the Court Reserve app downloaded prior to arriving. Matches (indicating court assignment, partner paring and serving order) will be available on your phones after all players have checked in. You will enter the score of each game on your phone.
​
All players must check in 15-30 minutes before the start of play with the on-site coordinator.
The on-site coordinator(s) will check in players and start the game day, then the system will create the groups and matches. If you have not checked in15 minutes prior to your start time, you will not play.
​
Who Plays Whom: Participating players are placed into Groups of four or five according to ranking. The top four players who opted-in are in Group 1, the next four are in Group 2, and so on. The system determines groups of 4 or 5 depending on the number of players and available courts.
​
Match Format: Each groups of 4 plays three games to 15 points, win by 1 point. You play one game with each of the other players as your partner. Groups of five will play 4 games to 11 points, win by 1 point.
​
Match Outcomes: Match outcomes are determined by each player's percentage of points won (points scored in all games/available points). A perfect score is 45 or 44 depending on the size of your group.
​
Switching Sides: Teams switch sides EVERY GAME after one team reaches eight points (or 6 points if playing to 11).
​
Bad Weather: Due to the possibility of injury, ladder play will be cancelled when the courts are wet. Wind will generally not result in cancellation of play. An email will be sent to you prior to the start of the match.
​
No Shows: If you have opted-in, SHOW UP! If you do not show up and have not opted-out or sent an email to ladders@pcpickleball.org ahead of time, you may be removed from the ladder for the remainder of the season.
Ladders Rules
​
Inactivity: Means that a player is not playing that week.
​
Injuries or Out of Town: If a player will miss more than 2 consecutive weeks, the player may be frozen by sending an email to ladders@pcpickleball.org. They will be moved to the bottom of the ladder, and when they return will assume a spot as close as possible to their previous ranking.
​
Rank: Each player has a "rank" which is his or her relative position to all other players participating in the Ladder. There are no ties. If a player has a rank of #5, it means four players are ranked higher and all the rest are ranked lower.
​
Start of Session: Rank is determined by club rating and a system random sort within club rank for the fall 2025 session only. Initial rank will be set the week of the first game, depending on the stability of players registering, withdrawing, and clearing the waitlist. Before the initial rank, there is just a listing of the players in the order of registration.
New participants, joining ladders after the start of the session, will be placed near the bottom of the cluster of their club rating.
Moving Up & Down in Rank: Players are re-ranked each week according to match outcomes using these rules:
Rule 1: In your group, if you outscore a higher ranked player, you move ahead of that player in rank.
Rule 2: If you finish first in your Group, you move ahead of the player finishing last in the Group just above your Group.
Rule 3: If you finish last in your group, you move down one group.
Rule 4: The 1 ranked player must play or be bumped to #2.
Rule 5: No inactive player can move above an active player.
Explanation of Rule 5: When active players lose and go down in rank, inactive players below them get pushed down as well. This rule deliberately encourages participation and penalizes inactivity. ACTIVE players are assured that no INACTIVE player can move from below them to above them in rank regardless of what the active player does. At the same time, INACTIVE players must realize there is nowhere to go but down. Notice how the three inactive players in the example below all fall between one and four spots in rank.
Example of Ranking Procedures:
Rank Player Result New Rank Explanation
Group 1
1 Jim Inactive 2 #1 Ranked player must play or be dropped to #2
2 Bob 2nd 3 Falls below Rod and stays below Jim
3 Rod 1st 1 Group 1 winner moves to #1
4 Dan 4th 6 Falls below Tom and also Group 2 winner Lee
5 Pat Inactive 7 Must drop two spots to stay below Dan
6 Tom 3rd 4 Moves above 4th place finisher Dan
Group 2
7 Jon 4th 11 Drops below Group 3 winner
8 Cal Inactive 12 Must drop four spots to stay below Jon
9 Sam 3rd 9 Two players move ahead of Sam, but two fall below
10 Lee 1st 5 Moves ahead of 4th place finisher Dan in Group 1
11 Wes 2nd 8 Moves ahead of 3rd place finisher Sam
Group 3
12 Dixie 1st 10 Group 3 winner moves ahead of 4th place in Group 2
Ladders Committee
Bob Brewin
John Pihl
Deenie Clinton
Tammy Dana-Bashin
Bob Rasins
Bill Saunders
​
Appendix A – How to opt-in
In leagues (ladders) you registered for the “season” (fall 2025 is October through January). When you register for the season, you are NOT signing up for any specific game day (this is the “opt-in” step).
Opt-ins are opened on Friday at 6:30pm for women and 7:00pm for men, and close at noon on Thursday. In this window, you will have a chance to “opt-in” for the next matches (by default, you are “out”, not playing). After you have opted-in, if you are unable to play, you can “opt-out” prior to 24 hours before game time.
​
​
​
​
​
​The easiest way to opt-in is the Court Reserve app on your phone.
Login to Court Reserve and verify the league game day showing
is your desired day and time. If not correct, use the pull-down arrow under “My Leagues (In this example “Pilot 2 Men”), to display other options.
When the opt-in window is open, just click the “Opt-in” button. If you are opted-in, the button changes to Opt-out, which you can use up to 24 hours before your start time.
Check Date/Time
The easiest way to opt-in is the Court Reserve app on your phone.
Login to Court Reserve and verify the league game day showing
is your desired day and time. If not correct, use the pull-down arrow under “My Leagues (In this example “Pilot 2 Men”), to display other options.
When the opt-in window is open, just click the “Opt-in” button. If you are opted-in, the button changes to Opt-out, which you can use up to 24 hours before your start time.
