Let's Talk Squash - SUSPENDED

can_squasher · Prolific Contributor Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Posts: 56

Our club is trying to organize a handicap tournament with about 20-25 people. We are trying to think up some good methods for handicapping players. There will be players ranging from fairly high level to near-beginners. Last year when we had this tournament, the two strongest players in the club were the finalists, and this year we are looking for a little more parity so that a weaker player has just as good a chance of winning when he steps on court. Are there any good methods/systems/ratios that you guys know about which can help us out? Thanks

Adam Hildred · Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 11:30 pm Post subject:

What we do every year is this:

1) PAR scoring
2) Players on court for 20 straight minutes
3) One player starts with a lead of xx points determined by the handicappers (eg 0-39)
4) Whoever has the most points at the end wins.
5) Call "5 minutes" when that's what's left.

It works really well for us, but it may take you a few matches to get the hang of getting the handicaps right.
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stevecubs · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:12 am Post subject:

I like the fixed time matches - so often with handicaps it becomes obvious quite early who's going to win and you end up going through the motions towards the end.

I prefer the 'factor' though. 20 mins play, and at the end your score is multiplied by your factor. Eg, club champion has a factor of 0.2 and a rank beginner has a factor of 4.7.

Yes' you have to work out the factors for your players, but as a rough guide, in american scoring it's quite hard to score twice as fast as someone, very hard to score thee times, etc ..

It's important not to use round numbers like 1.0 plays 2.0 - non-round numbers like 0.9 plays 2.1 make it harder to work out if you're actually winning or not so you're more likely to keep trying to the end ...

Adam Hildred · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:30 am Post subject:

We can't do multiplication in Boston, though. Very Happy

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