Rating Estimation

New  to playing competitive table tennis at a club, interested in knowing how to get started?

First understand that table tennis is the hardest of all the racket sports.  The spin is extreme, exponentially more compared to other racket sports.  As the speed increases at higher levels of play,  the reaction time required becomes smaller and smaller.  At the world class level, the average table tennis rally requires faster reaction times than any other racket sport.

Given the extreme spin and speed, temper your expectations.  There will be a steep learning curve at first.  To gauge your progress you want to play players within +/- 500 rating points.  If your opponent knows what their rating is, you can use the tools on this site to estimate your rating level for a given match.

Suggested estimation procedure:

• Go to a club and ask your opponent what there current rating  is, or what there current rating level is.  tell them you would like to play a match to estimate your rating, tell them not to take it easy on you.  Write down the rating number

• Play you match, write down the score after each game so you don't forget

• After the match, add up the scores, go to the David Marcus 51 calculator and enter the following

  • In both the P1 and P2 rating, enter your opponents rating (for example 1000)

  • Add up and enter the number of point you won and points your opponent won

    • For example if the game scores are 6 vs 11, 7 vs 11, and 8 vs 11, you will enter 21 and 33

  • The result will be that for that match, your calculated rating was 768.  Since your rating was unknown, your opponents match rating of 1232 is not valid

  • As a sanity check, go back and enter 768  for P1 rating, this will then calculate the match ratings for you and your opponent as 768 and 1000.  Given the actual points scored, the ratings were perfectly accurate for that match, no rating change for either player is suggested by the calculator.  Example screen shots below

• One match is not enough for an accurate estimate, play styles have a significant effect on the points exchanged, and unforced error rate can vary widely from match to match

• Play as many different players as you can and average the result for your rating estimate

For more detail on how the calculation is performed, take a look at the Home Page