Who do I play best with?
One player asked exactly that in a review of a pickleball scoring app, and added: the data is there. But it’s not being used.
The answer is in your record with each partner, but only once there’s enough of it, and only if you read it the right way. Here’s how.
Ten games tell you almost nothing
A record is a small sample of a much longer run of games you haven’t played yet. Here’s how wide the range of your real win rate could still be after a few records (95% of the time it’s inside these ranges):
| Record together | Win rate | Real win rate could be |
|---|---|---|
| 7–3 | 70% | 40% to 89% |
| 14–6 | 70% | 48% to 85% |
| 28–12 | 70% | 55% to 82% |
| 70–30 | 70% | 60% to 78% |
Another way to see it: take two partners you’re exactly as good with, a true 50% each. After 10 games with each, chance alone puts their records 20 points or more apart about half the time. After 20 games each it’s about one time in four, after 40 about one in eleven, and after 80 almost never.
So a hot start with someone new is mostly luck. Give a partnership 20 games before you trust its record, and 40 before you rank it against another.
Check who you played
A record only compares fairly against the same kind of opponents. If you play with one partner in the evening open play and another in a stronger group on Saturdays, the Saturday record will look worse even if that partnership is better. Before you compare two partners, look at who you played with each, and if you can, compare records against the same opponents.
Look past wins and losses
With a few dozen games together, a few other numbers show what kind of partnership you have:
- Average margin: winning 11–9 and losing 9–11 averages out to an even partnership. Winning 11–4 and losing 9–11 doesn’t.
- Comebacks: how often you win from three or more points down together.
- Points per serve turn: how many points your team scores, on average, each time it gets the serve. It’s the closest single number to how well you play together on your serve.
- Win rate by month: whether the partnership is getting better or has settled.
Who you win against matters too
The same counting works for opponents. A record against each opponent tells you which pairs you have the measure of and which ones you should study, and the same caution applies: a 3–1 record against someone is a story, not a fact.
Seeing it in your own games
In Rally Trace, every partner gets a page, built from the score you keep on your Apple Watch: your record together, your average margin, comebacks, your best and worst game, and every game you’ve played side by side. Today shows your top partners this month, and History’s Partner and Opponent filters show your record with anyone, or against them. Rally Trace Pro adds your win rate by month with each partner and your points per serve turn together.