What is a good LK?

The honest answer first: the DTB publishes no distribution of how many players stand in which LK. Every percentage figure you read about it is an estimate. We invent none. What can be derived from the rules themselves is still a good deal.

The steps, read practically

• LK 24 to 25 is the entry. Here a single win against an equal opponent brings a whole class, because the hurdle is only 50 to 60 points. Anyone who wins Medenspiele regularly leaves this range within a season.
• LK 15 to 20 is the breadth of club tennis. A win against an equal opponent is worth a third to half a step here, and the drift of 1.3 a year becomes noticeable: anyone taking fewer than about three such wins a year slowly gets worse without playing worse.
• LK 10 is the threshold at which the hurdle stops growing linearly. From here every step takes considerably more, and wins against weaker opponents barely bring anything.
• Below LK 5 you are playing for Verband and ranking places. The rating through the German ranking list runs from LK 1.0 for first place to about 4.5 for 700th among the men (2.5 at 500th among the women); the top 100 carry a fixed LK below 1.5, which moves only with the quarterly ranking.

Why the number alone is not enough

The LK measures wins, not playing strength. Three things move it independently of ability: the age class (a win in age class 60 counts 60 per cent of a win in the open class), how often you play (the drift runs whatever you do) and the region, because you can only beat the opponents within reach. The LK 12 of a 58-year-old playing age class 55 and the LK 12 of a 24-year-old out of the Verbandsliga are not the same quantity.

A good LK is therefore one that holds against the drift or sinks. The LK calculator shows, for any LK, which win brings half a step and which one a whole one.

Source: appendices A.2 and A.5 and §5 and §10 of the DTB's implementing rules (tennis.de).