Hi Sam - it's really tough to tell, because as SuperSage says, it varies from club to club.  Where I live, there is also a provincial league (comprised of club players)- which uses the same rankings as clubs  - A,B,C,D, and E. Sanctioned tournaments in the province use the same rankings too. 

The provincial league and tourney ratings are roughly the same, meaning if you compete in the C level of the district (provincial) league, you'll probably face the same competition in a tournament.  

From my experience, the provincial levels have become much harder over the last decade. In the early 90's I was playing fairly comfortably in the provincial B league.  I'm a much better player now,  and I have difficulty against B players, I play in the C league.  This is due to the fact that the A league has no players in it.  I've been told that if you're good enough for A - you would be a professional. So it seems the levels all dropped down.

For comparison, the pro at our club is about 50th in the WISPA rankings. She plays in the provincial C league (it's co-ed but mostly male) in the number 1 spot and wins about 75% of her games.  And she's a touring pro.

Really, the best way to find out is to play against graded players and see who wins.  You should get a pretty good idea from that.  You could also say that if you're in the top 1/4 of players at a club, you would most likely be a C or B.  Middle of the pack would be D or E and if you're in the bottom third, not ranked at all. 

 

Hope this helps

 

Back to top

Hi,

I find grades differ, depending on the particular club.   Here we have state grading levels.  State-1 players nearly always play at the Open level in large tournaments, these are state and national championship players.  State-2 players will either play 'Open' at lower tournaments or A-Grade in national tournaments.  State-3 players will usually play one lower that State-2 and so-on, depending on how confident they feel.    Most State-1 players had an early start, like in their teens or early twenties and high level coaching.   I only ever made State-4 level as I only played for 1 year as a teenager and didn't start back until age 27 (when most State-1 players reach their peak) and playing three times a week.  I thought I did fairly well, since  I never had any real coaching until I reached 45.   Just a little late, aye.

As far as club grades go.  I was an 'A-Grade' player at my local club and now I've dropped back to 'B-Grade' due to now only being able to afford to play once a week, getting quite unfit.

Though at another club I occasionally hit at, I'm the top player there.  If I played at the Melbourne club where my daughter plays, I would probably only be a C-Grade or even D-Grade player, as a lot of ex state champions play there.  Sarah Fitz-Gerald (ex World No. 1) played in their pennant for a little while.

So it is extremely hard to judge on this site, how good a player is by the levels they quote.

Sagey,

 

 

 

Back to top

this is the rating system i'm familiar with, which is why i was confused by someone's F-rating. i think you have to have nearly all the qualities or better to fall into specific ranking.

http://www.us-squash.org/rbl.html

I'm probably a 4.5 club player, and the college varsity guys are around 5.0-5.5 for the most part

Back to top

Sam - grading is a bit hard to predict when, from my experience, a club usually says the top team is A (irrespective of standard), and then they just break them off into a new division every 20/30/40 players down the line (depending if it is teams or individual comp)  and that becomes B grade, etc.  The more players in the club, the higher the standard, hence the grading problem.

I would try to play as a reserve in a D or C grade team to start to see how you go.
If you are under-graded the Grading Committee will soon get complaints and you will be shuffled into your correct spot, for sure.  Also there is often quite a difference between the No. 1 spot in a team and the No. 4 spot.  Often Grading Committees have a list of No. 1's, 2's, 3's and 4's otherwise these burglars appear!!!

The club must have a Challenge Ladder, or Play-off or Tournament, so you can get an idea where you fit in.  .

One day, but don't hold your breath, we will have a Levels Guide - just another thing to be tidied up and presented.

Sam - have a go, it will be a learning curve.   Good luck.

Back to top