Playing standards
Choose your initial playing standardPlaying standard assessment
Playing tennis should be fun! Part of this is playing against people of a similar standard to you.
When you sign up we want to get you started in the most suitable division for you. To help us do this, we ask you to pick one of the below playing standards when creating your profile. Picking an accurate standard will ensure you play against others of a similar ability to you and get you the best possible matches.
All you need to do is have a read through and decide which description matches your game best.
| Category | Playing description |
|---|---|
| 1 - Just starting out | You are primarily working on getting the ball into play. |
| 2 - Beginner | You can rally and hit a little, but don't have much experience of playing tennis. You've never played any / many matches but would love to give it a go and are keen to improve your game. |
| 3 - Recreational | You can sustain a rally of slow pace with other players of similar ability and are beginning to develop strokes. Your serve is inconsistent and you tend to just concentrate on getting it in. You are familiar with the basic positions for singles tennis. |
| 4 - Improver | You are fairly consistent when hitting medium-paced shots, but are not yet comfortable with all strokes and lack execution when trying for directional control, depth, pace or altering distance of shots. You can approach the net and play volleys, but quite often it doesn't quite work out as you'd hope. |
| 5 - Intermediate | You have improved stroke dependability with directional control on moderate shots, but still lack depth, variety and the ability to alter distance of shots. You can lob, play overheads, approach shots and volleys but could do with a bit more confidence. You are comfortable at the net, and have good court awareness. |
| 6 - Confident | You have dependable strokes, including directional control, depth and the ability to alter distance of shots on both forehand and backhand sides during moderately paced play. You are confident to use lobs, overheads, approach shots, and volleys with some success. Your serve occasionally wins you points, but you also lose rallies due to impatience. |
| 7 - Club | You can vary your shots with pace and spin. You have good movement and can control distance and depth of shots. You can develop game plans according to strengths and weaknesses of your opponents. You can hit first serves with power and accuracy and can place the second serve. You can attack opponents, but still occasionally overhit on difficult shots. |
| 8 - Competitor | You have good shot anticipation and have an outstanding shot or attribute around which your game is structured. You have the confidence to hit winners or force errors off of short balls. You can put away volleys, can successfully execute lobs, drop shots, half volleys, overheads, and can hit a second serve with depth and spin. |
| 9 - Serious competitor | You have developed pace and consistency as major weapons. You can vary strategies and styles of play in competitive situations and hit dependable shots (as above) in pressurised situations. |
| 10 - Novak / Serena | You are Novak Djokovic or Serena Williams. |
