FROM THE USAPA
USAPA BOARD MEMBER PROFILE
Chris
Thomas
Chris Thomas has one of those jobs that most would not want to
touch – he is in his second two-year term as the USAPA’s Ratings
Chair. With more than two million pickleball players and nearly 14,000
USAPA members, ratings is always a topic of discussion.
As with most players, the first time Chris played pickleball he was
hooked. After nine years of playing, he’s still in love with the sport. He
even recently moved from Palm Desert to the largest senior pickleball
community in the south – The Villages.
“This move was perfect for me,” Chris noted. “Not only are there so
many pickleball courts (over 100), but there are so many other activities
to get involved with; there are more than 2,400 different recreation
clubs that a person can join.”
So how did Chris go from casually picking up the game in Palm
Desert to becoming the Ratings Chair for the USAPA? For seven years
he was the tournament director for the Palm Desert Senior Games and
saw how accurate ratings were necessary to run a strong tournament.
He became a USAPA Ambassador and would eventually become the
West Regional Director. While he supports the 5-point rating system,
Chris believed it could be improved.
“One of the things that interested me was a vision of change,” he
said. “With so many players getting better, the tournaments themselves
needed a better way of ranking players. My idea would be a new system
based on real match results. I saw this on the horizon and I wanted to
see it through to its fruition.”
Chris also added that because of the popularity of the sport, players
often don’t understand the ratings or don’t know where to get the
information. He points out that unless players actually get into a skillbased tournament, they have a hard time really knowing their true
rating.
As noted in the last USAPA Member newsletter, the Board has agreed
to develop a new ratings system. While Chris is hesitant to actually lay
down an exact timeline, it is in the works.
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JULY/AUGUST 2016 |
MAGAZINE
7