Most people who play padel regularly at a club have a rough sense that a competitive scene exists. They have seen the LTA mentioned on noticeboards, heard someone mention they played a “graded event,” or noticed the rankings page when looking up something else. But how the system fits together – what the grades mean, what a ranking number represents, how you get from social padel to competitive padel – is rarely explained in one place.
This guide does that. It is aimed at the recreational player who has been playing for a few months and is curious about competing, but finds the LTA’s own pages easier to navigate once you understand the framework. If you want a step-by-step walkthrough of the entry process itself, our guide to entering a padel tournament covers that in detail. This article is the bigger picture.
Two systems: rating and ranking
Before anything else, it is worth separating two things that often get conflated: ratings and rankings.
Your rating is a number on a scale from 1.0 to 7.0 that reflects your skill level as a player. It is qualitative – assessed by a coach, assigned through a benchmark session, or inferred from your playing history. A rating is used to group players appropriately in social sessions, coaching groups, and some entry-level competitions. You can have a rating without ever entering a formal tournament.
Your ranking is a different thing entirely. It is calculated from your results in LTA-sanctioned tournaments, expressed as a points total, and it determines where you sit on the national leaderboard. Ranking points expire after 12 months. If you stop competing, your ranking falls. If you compete more, it rises.
Both are managed through your LTA Advantage account – which is free to create and takes a few minutes to set up. Without it, you cannot enter LTA competitions.
The distinction matters because people sometimes arrive at their first tournament expecting their rating to place them in a category, and discover the competitive system operates on a separate axis. Once you have entered a tournament and earned points, your ranking becomes the relevant number. Until then, new competitors start without ranking points and enter at Grade 5.
How the grade ladder works
LTA padel competitions are organised into five grades – with Grade 5 being the most accessible and Grade 1 being the most elite. The numbering is counterintuitive if you expect higher numbers to mean harder, so hold that in mind: Grade 5 is where you start. Grade 1 is where the best domestic players compete.
Grade 5 – Local Tour. These are the events designed for new competitors. Entry is first-come, first-served – no existing ranking required. Fields of 8 to 16 pairs play in a compass draw format, which guarantees every pair at least three matches regardless of results. Most areas run Grade 5 events regularly through spring and summer. This is where the vast majority of recreational players who enter competitive padel for the first time begin.
Grade 4 – Local Tour. A step up in standard. At Grade 4, acceptance is based on your LTA Padel ranking – you need to have accumulated some points from Grade 5 events before you can enter. Still local in scope, compass draw format. This is the natural second step after a season of Grade 5 competition.
Grade 3 – Regional. Draws expand, the standard rises further, and the travel requirement increases. Grade 3 events cover a region, not a county – you may need to travel further to compete.
Grades 2 and 1 – British Tour. These are the top tier of domestic competition. Entry requires existing ranking points – often referred to as “passport” points – which act as a qualification threshold. Grade 1 winners earn approximately 4,000 ranking points. Grade 1 events attract the best domestic players and are where the national picture is shaped.
In practice, most recreational players who start competing will spend their first year at Grades 5 and 4. The jump to Grade 3 is meaningful. Grades 2 and 1 are a separate world for serious competitors.
How ranking points work
Your ranking is calculated from your best six results in the previous 52 weeks. Rolling window means it is always the last 12 months – not a fixed calendar year.
A few practical implications:
Points expire. A result you posted 13 months ago no longer counts. To hold your ranking position, you need to keep competing and refreshing your best six results with current ones.
Only your best six results count. If you enter ten tournaments in a year and four of them go badly, those four are dropped. The system rewards consistency and quality of performance over volume of entries.
Points scale with grade. Grade 5 winners earn a relatively modest return; Grade 1 winners earn significantly more. The further up the grade ladder you compete, the more leverage each good result carries.
The LTA publishes current points tables at ltapadel.org.uk – these are the authoritative source and can be updated between seasons, so it is worth checking for current figures before planning your competition calendar.
Rankings update on a regular schedule (check the LTA site for the current update frequency). There is a lag between competing and seeing results reflected, so do not expect instant changes after an event.
What does a ranking number mean in practice? Being ranked in the national top 200 for your category is a meaningful achievement for a recreational player. But for most people starting out, the ranking number matters less than the experience of competing regularly and tracking progress over time.
Entering your first tournament
The entry process is straightforward once you have the account set up. You need an LTA Advantage account – free to create at lta.org.uk. This gives you an LTA membership number, which is required to enter any LTA competition.
From there, you search for events at competitions.lta.org.uk, filter by location, date, and grade, and register online. For Grade 5 events, entry is first-come, first-served – popular local events can fill quickly, especially in spring and summer.
Padel is a doubles sport, so you need to enter with a partner. If you do not have an obvious tournament partner, most clubs have WhatsApp groups or noticeboards where players looking for competitive partners connect. Some events also have a partner-matching facility. For a full walkthrough of the entry mechanics and what to expect on the day, see how to enter a padel tournament.
The compass draw format
Grade 5 and Grade 4 events use a compass draw – a format designed specifically to guarantee every pair meaningful match time regardless of early results.
In a compass draw, pairs are not eliminated after a loss. Instead, losing pairs are routed into parallel draws (the south, east, west draws – hence the compass naming) where they continue competing against others at the same result level. Every pair plays at least three matches across the day.
This matters for first-time competitors. You do not arrive, lose your first match, and go home. You play out the full day, get competitive experience against players at your level, and leave with a realistic sense of how you compare. The format is designed to be educational and encouraging.
The seniors tour and youth tour
The LTA runs separate competitive structures for two groups:
The LTA Padel Senior Tour is for players aged 40 and over. Events on the Senior Tour count for ranking purposes at Grade 2 level. If you are over 40 and want to compete, the Senior Tour is a natural entry point – it offers structured competition in an age-appropriate field, with the same ranking system and the same competitive progression available.
The Youth Tour runs across age groups: 11U, 12U, 14U, 16U, and 18U. Junior padel in the UK has grown substantially over the past two years, and the Youth Tour provides the competitive pathway from club-level junior sessions through to regional and national selection. Junior players can also compete in open-age events with some restrictions.
What progression looks like
A rough picture of how a recreational player might move through the competitive system over 12 to 18 months:
First season: Enter two or three Grade 5 events. Get comfortable with the format, the compass draw, the level of play. Win some matches, lose some. Earn your first ranking points.
Six to nine months in: Ranking points accumulate from best results. Grade 4 events become accessible. The standard is higher – expect to work harder for each point. Continue attending Grade 5 events for volume and experience.
12 to 18 months in: A player with consistent results at Grade 4 will appear in the national ranking list for their category. Depending on results, Grade 3 may be within reach. At this stage, competitive padel becomes a separate, satisfying track alongside social padel – a different kind of game, and a different kind of satisfaction.
The pace of this progression depends entirely on how often you compete and how seriously you train. Some players get to Grade 3 faster; others stay happily at Grade 5 for years because they enjoy the format and the social aspect. The grade ladder is a structure, not a pressure.
Where to find events
The LTA’s competition finder at competitions.lta.org.uk is the authoritative source for current events. Filter by county, grade, and date. New events are added throughout the season.
If you want to brush up on the rules before competing, the padel rules guide covers everything relevant for match play. If scoring still feels uncertain – particularly how deuce and tiebreaks work in tournament conditions – the padel scoring guide has the detail. And if you are preparing to improve your game ahead of competing, the guide to improving at padel covers the fundamentals worth working on.
The gap between playing socially and entering a tournament is smaller than most people assume. Most Grade 5 events are friendly, well-managed, and full of players who were in the same position when they entered their first one.