Padel levels explained

When a padel player says they are a 3.0, they almost always mean the level shown in Playtomic, the booking app most clubs in the UK and Europe use. It runs from 0 to 7, higher is stronger, and it moves in steps of a quarter. A new player answers a few questions to get a starting number, and from then on the number moves with the results of matches recorded as competitive. A reliability percentage next to it shows how sure the app is, and the number settles down as that climbs.

It is not the only scale. Some coaching schemes and clubs use a 1 to 10 scale, the LTA, the body that runs tennis and padel in Britain, uses the same kind of decimal numbers in its coaching guide, and a few clubs grade players A to D. None of them convert exactly into each other, and none publishes an official line that says what a 3.5 can do. The descriptions below are the reading most coaches and players agree on, and they are a guide, not a rule.

Judge a level by what a player can repeat for a whole match, not by their best shot of the day. Read the bands with that in mind.

• 0 to 1.5: new to padel. Learning the serve, the scoring and which way the ball comes off the glass. Rallies are short.
• 1.5 to 2.5: learning the walls. Can rally with basic shots and is starting to let the ball come off the back wall instead of hitting it first. The glass still surprises them now and then.
• 2.5 to 3.5: a regular club player. Consistent at a medium pace, comfortable at the net, uses the back glass on purpose. Most adult players who play every week sit here.
• 3.5 to 4.5: a strong club player. Control and pace, covers the court well with a partner, has a lob and an overhead that work, and plays points with a plan.
• 4.5 to 5.5: a competitive amateur. Wins points on purpose rather than waiting for mistakes, reads the game, plays tournaments and club leagues and expects to do well.
• 5.5 to 7: county, national and professional level. Rare at any club. The top of the scale is reserved for the professional tour.

Three questions get most people to the right band. Can you keep a rally going at a steady pace without the walls beating you? If not, you are under 2.5. Do you use the back glass and the lob on purpose, and play comfortably at the net? That is 2.5 to 3.5. Do you win points by design against players who also do those things? That is 3.5 and up.

Experience from tennis, squash or badminton usually gives a quicker start, often landing a first-season player around 2.5 to 3.5 once the walls make sense, but it does not carry a level across on its own. A number from a sign-up questionnaire is a guess until matches move it, and the common mistake is to guess high. An honest number gets you fairer games, and a rating that starts low and climbs is a better feeling than one that starts high and falls.

A rating of any kind works the same way underneath. Each result is compared with what was expected from the two sides' numbers. Beat someone rated above you and your number rises more than it would for beating someone below you. Lose to someone rated below you and it drops more than losing to someone above you. A result that went as expected barely moves anything.

That is why a level is slow at first and quick to settle. Early results carry more weight because the system knows little about you, and once it has seen enough matches the number stops jumping. It is also why playing the same four people every week keeps a number still: nothing unexpected happens, so nothing moves it. A session against a different group, or a club night with a wider spread of levels, tells a rating much more.

FinalPoint rates padel with EVO, a 0 to 100 number per sport, so your padel EVO is separate from your tennis or badminton one. When you add padel the app asks one question, how well do you play, with five answers from "New to it" up to "Strong club or league", and that sets where your number starts. From then on only results move it: every confirmed match, singles or doubles, compared with the rating of the people across the net, and a win over someone rated above you counts for more.

The number stays hidden until your tenth padel match, so you are never judged on a guess, and the ring beside it shows how sure the rating is. Your EVO is the same in every group you belong to, so a 58 in your Tuesday group is a 58 everywhere. It sits in one of six named tiers, from Rookie to Legendary, and the tier's colour follows the number wherever it appears.

The two scales describe the same players, so the bands line up roughly, even though neither converts exactly into the other.

• Rookie, 0 to 34: new and learning, around 0 to 1.5.
• Contender, 35 to 49: casual, around 1.5 to 2.5.
• Regular, 50 to 61: a regular club player, around 2.5 to 3.5.
• Sharp, 62 to 71: strong club or league, around 3.5 to 4.5.
• Strong, 72 to 81: county level, around 4.5 to 5.5.
• Legendary, 82 to 100: national and professional, 5.5 and up.

A level answers one question: who is a fair game for me? A group ranking answers another: who is winning among the people I actually play? Both matter, and they often disagree. The highest-rated player in a group can sit mid-table after a bad month, and someone who only plays the group's weakest pair can top the table while their rating barely moves.

FinalPoint keeps both. Every group has its own rankings, built from the matches recorded in it, and every player has one padel EVO that travels with them. The table is for the argument on the court. The rating is for knowing where you really stand.