Interesting data. So you have almost 400 3.0 players in your area? Are the 2.5 players getting played in 3.0 leagues or in mixed doubles or some other combos. Almost half stopped playing altogether. I’m sure the guys the 12 play with and are competitive with, are not inclined to join usta.
The active 2.5's are nearly all playing in 3.0 men's leagues, including 40+ and 18+. A couple play some mixed or 55+ / 65+ 6.0 combo.
A bottom level 2.5 doubles pair would be expected to lose to a *bottom* 3.0 pair 6-0 6-0. So yes of course some of the 2.5 men will get crushed by mid level 3.0. Just like some 3.5 players will get crushed by some mid level 4.0 players. I’m curious, have you ever played in a men’s 3.0 league?
Yes I agree, for the 2.5 men who are not even close to the 2.5/3.0 border, it is tough to expect them to have a good experience playing in 3.0 leagues. It would be great if they had a league to play in. But those men seem to be quite rare from what I'm seeing. If there were truly hordes of them out there wanting to play in leagues, then we would see more 2.5 men's leagues.
I have not played 3.0, but my experience a borderline 3.5/4.0 guy who plays 4.0 seems to be quite similar to the 2.5C guys who are active in 3.0: I lose a lot but have mostly competitive matches and get some wins here and there, and have no problem getting playing time on (usually bad) teams.
So you look at 28 players who played last year. 12 are not on any teams now - perhaps they weren’t asked but who knows. Right there is that a typical drop rate? Do 3/7s of players usually not play the next year after they played the current year?
That would be a good analysis to do but beyond my scope right now. Could be some of the 12 would not be playing this year even if there was a 2.5 league.
But *one* of the 28 played 23 league matches. So you conclude based on that one guy that they all have no problem getting playing time? 23 matches is a decent number but it is also not huge. If someone at the upper end of their rating level wanted to have double that number of matches in an area like yours they pretty easily could. I live in a area where all but one 3.0 over 40 within 1.5 hours is on my team (12 total) and we played one other 3.0 40 and over team which is 2.5 hours away. And I played 30 matches this year.
Yeah that was just an example to show what is possible for a 2.5C player who is motivated to join multiple teams. He could be playing even more if he chose to play mixed as well, which he has not. Other active 2.5C players have played in 18, 14, 13, 13, 11, etc. matches this year, so the 23 was not a huge outlier. When I look at their individual leagues, they are getting just as much playing time as the 3.0 guys on their team. These are non-competitive teams that are looking to fill their roster and don't mind having a few below-level guys. They rotate through the whole roster for their weekly lineups, which is pretty common for many captains at all levels.
Being an upper level 2.5 can be helpful for mixed doubles 6.0 team. Some guys sandbag their adult rating just so they can lock in mixed doubles for a few years.
Yes, an upper 2.5C guy will have a tough time getting wins in 3.0, but can be an asset in 6.0 mixed and perhaps also 6.0 men's combo. My section even goes down to 5.5 mixed and has a sectional championship for that. But I'm only finding one 2.5 guy in my area who might be taking advantage of the opportunity to play on teams with championship aspirations. To me, this adds support to the idea that a) 2.5-level league guys are rare in general, and b) the rare ones who do exist don't really care much about being on competitve teams.
