Changes to the Initial Prior (The first rating set for a player)
Gerard McCarthy (Ratings Central Australian Coordinator) and Kameron Chan, in consultation with David Marcus of Ratings Central, have been developing a script to make changes to the initial prior of Australian players. This script will be run on the 1st January 2021.

This change has been mooted for some time and is being done to bring all the States together and better aligns them.   Also, many initial priors of players were set below the new floor of 500.  In South Australia players with a low prior are predominately juniors being the players who play in our 'Smash Hit' and other lower divisions of the TTSA Winter Pennant Competition.  Also, juniors within our affiliates who play in competitions. At the time a floor limit of 300 was appropriate for these players but under the new floor limit rules is no longer appropriate.

When initial priors are set too low, this brings down the average rating, it also does not allow for movements in the rating, and can cause some disparity across the States.

Going forward Ratings Central Directors should not set an initial rating for a player new to Ratings Central below the new floor rule  of 500.

Minimum Initial Prior – the 500 Floor Rule
This means that the ‘floor’ as a result of the new player's initial mean minus 2 standard deviations must be greater than or equal to 500. The floor of the lowest band of 800 (+/-150) is 500, calculated  as:  800 − 2 × 150 = 500.

Further information will later be provided on this website for the guidance of Ratings Central Directors in SA for setting the initial prior for players new to Ratings Central