Question

Dear Judy,
 
My youngest sister is 14, currently has a rating of 8.2 and is ranked 11th in the county at under 16 level. She is a very keen player, who is eager to improve her rating and ranking.

She trains for about 10-12 hours a week at the local David Lloyd club, at which she is a member of the Performance Squad.
 
Recently, she has been entered into several grade 4 Winter County events only to find herself as a reserve and not able to play because there have been large numbers of entrants with higher ratings.

She has started to get annoyed as she feels she's training lots and not getting to play matches, and ultimately not being able to improve her rating.

Judy says

That must be very frustrating for her. Unfortunately most winter junior tournaments have to place restrictions on the draw size because they have limited indoor courts available.

It sounds like your sister needs to move her rating up a notch or two in order to ensure she gets into the under 16 events and obviously she will need to play and win some matches against similarly or higher rated players to make that happen.

If she is in a Performance Club, I suggest you speak with the Coach (or junior coordinator) and raise this issue. Clearly she needs some help to create match play opportunities if she can't get into her age group events.

You could ask the Coach if he could arrange some matches for her within, say a club "box league" of players with similar/higher ratings, so that these results could be sent to the ratings dept. for inclusion in the next ratings run.

Do a little homework first. Find out:

• When does the current ratings run end?
• How many points does she need to move up to an 8.1 and a 7.2 (the ratings she would need to guarantee entry into under 16 events)?
• How many matches against 8.2 8.1 or 7.2 rated players would she need to win to mass the points required?
• Which players in your club have these ratings?
• How can matches against these players be created for her (i.e. club “box leagues” or friendly matches v. other Performance Clubs)?
• How do tie results get recorded and submitted to the ratings department?

That way you can create an action plan!

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