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DUPR (Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating) is thrilled to announce a groundbreaking partnership with the Asia Federation of Pickleball (AFP). AFP has adopted DUPR as its official ranking platform for the 2023 Asia Pickleball Games, which will take place October 6-9 in Taichung City, Taiwan.

The first ever Asia Pickleball Games are representative of the sport's growth in the Asian market. Open to players of all skill levels, the event will showcase the passion, camaraderie, and athleticism that define pickleball. DUPR and AFP are excited about the potential this partnership holds to introduce pickleball to new audiences, promote level-based play through the sport’s most accurate rating system, and foster a sense of unity.

“I am honored to be a part of this pivotal moment in pickleball history. Our commitment to an accurate rating and innovation aligns seamlessly with the Asia Federation of Pickleball's vision, and together, we are dedicated to providing players and fans with an unforgettable experience. We envision the Asia Pickleball Games as a platform for cultural exchange, athleticism, and sportsmanship, and we are eager to contribute to the growth of pickleball not only as a sport but as a global phenomenon,” said Ryan Maher, Head of Commercial at DUPR.

“We are excited about the collaboration with DUPR. Their innovative ranking solution aligns perfectly with our mission to provide 44 Asia nations with a seamless, transparent, efficient and user-friendly ranking experience. DUPR is the appointed ranking platform for the 2023 Asia Pickleball Games and we look forward to leveraging the DUPR platform for future Asian tournaments,” said Jimmy Tan, CEO of Asia Federation of Pickleball.

The Asia Pickleball Games is open exclusively to DUPR Users from Asian countries. To register for the event, a DUPR user must join the club via this link. All event details are in the player handbook published on the Asia Federation of Pickleball website.

About DUPR

DUPR is the gold standard in Pickleball ratings and event management, and is the official ratings system for MLP and PPA. In November of 2022, DUPR successfully launched a collegiate Pickleball national championship in which 16 co-ed teams participated using the same unique team format used in MLP.

For more information on DUPR, visit the official website and follow DUPR on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

About Asia Federation of Pickleball

Established in 2020 and headquartered in Singapore, Asia Federation of Pickleball (AFP) is a not-for-profit organization and missioned to work collaboratively with 45 countries/states to participate in the Asian Games. On another scale level, AFP is working with 11 countries in hope to participate in Southeast Asia (SEA) Games 2025/2027/2029 in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore respectively.

Through tournaments, coaching, and partnerships, AFP aims to expand the sport's reach and create a vibrant pickleball community. In emphasizing fair play and integrity, AFP would enforce standardized rules and ethical practices. AFP strives to make pickleball accessible to all individuals and aims to play a pivotal role in advancing pickleball across Asia.
www.afpickleball.org

facebook.com/AFPickleball/

instagram.com/afpickleball/

Leading club management platform CourtReserve is extending its offerings and elevating players’ pickleball experience thanks to a new strategic partnership with DUPR (Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating) - pickleball’s most accurate global rating system that is trusted by pro leagues, clubs, and players around the world.

The partnership will see a seamless integration directly into CourtReserve’s advanced reservation system, allowing clubs and players to better match skills and experience.

From the end of September, club accounts on CourtReserve will be able to automatically sync all player ratings straight from DUPR. Clubs can manage players and events based on specific DUPR ranges, create leagues based on ratings, and foster stronger communities with players of the same ability.

Speaking on the partnership, Tim Owens, CourtReserve Co-Founder said: “Pairing Pickleball’s leading club management system with the number one rating system is an absolute no-brainer. Not only does it give all our clubs access to the most accurate, most comprehensive pickleball player ratings, it makes it easier than ever for the entire pickleball community to join in with matches and tournaments tailored to their skill level.”

Tito Machado, DUPR Head of Operations added: “We’re really excited to announce this strategic partnership between two of pickleball’s key players. It allows us to add even more value to the community and foster a more fun, more competitive player experience across the board.”

The partnership with DUPR is part of CourtReserve’s mission to drive innovation and elevate pickleball clubs worldwide. It’s another clear step in the organization’s efforts to deliver best-in-class technology and software that elevates the player experience. It will also support additional new features within CourtReserve’s platform - such as advanced League and Organized Play.

The DUPR integration will be available for clubs to activate within their existing CourtReserve account by the end of September.

About CourtReserve

CourtReserve is the leading all-in-one court reservation & club management platform that helps tennis and pickleball clubs run their business with ease and confidence. It provides a flexible, configurable set up for clubs to manage players, staff, events, court bookings, lessons and much more. With an online scheduler and customized member portal, players can easily see court availability and sign-up for events right from their computer or mobile device.

Learn more at https://courtreserve.com.

About DUPR

DUPR is the gold standard in Pickleball ratings and event management, and is the official ratings system for MLP and PPA. In November of 2022, DUPR successfully launched a collegiate Pickleball national championship in which 16 co-ed teams participated using the same unique team format used in MLP.

For more information on DUPR, visit theofficial website and follow DUPR onFacebook, Twitter,Instagram, andTikTok.‍

For further details, contact: CourtReserve, via: support@courtreserve.com

Collegiate picklers, listen up: this fall semester, collegiate pickleball is coming to you!

So if this summer you’ve been practicing your dink shots, lobs, and overhead slams, why not sign up for a DUPR Collegiate Pickleball event in your area and take a shot at gaining eternal glory and winning some bonus scholarship money?

We are excited to kick off the fall semester at DUPR, and put on five more Regionals and the 2nd Collegiate National Championship (CNC)! Detailed in this article is updated information about bids, CNC registration, our new club guide, and the remaining Regionals.

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As of October 17th, 2023: These are the 36 schools that have obtained a bid to CNC:

- Clemson

- JMU

- Utah Tech

- GCU

- Michigan

- UW-W

- UNC

- TCU

- Florida

- UVA

- NC State

- Maryland

- Ohio State

- MS State

- Texas A&M

- Utah State

- CU-Boulder

- Utah Valley

- UofU

- FSU

- UT Austin

- FAU

- Georiga

- Miami (FL)

- UNF

- Auburn

- Indiana

- Miami (OH)

- Virginia Tech

- Villanova

- GCSU

- Arizona St.

- Iowa

- Duke

- KSU

- UConn

In order to participate in the Team Bracket in the Collegiate National Championship on November 17-19, 2023 a program must meet these two requirements:

1. Obtain a bid
2. Attend at least one Collegiate Regional

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Your school can bring players to participate in the Challenger Bracket without having a bid. A bid is only required to play in the Team Bracket. All players in all brackets must be taking at least 6 credit hours at the school they are representing.

As a reminder, there are 36 bids to be given out. 10 more bids will be given out at the remaining Regionals (2 at each Regional). The remaining 9 bids will be decided by the DUPR Collegiate Advisory Committee.

Here main the factors we are considering for these bids (this is not an exhaustive list):

• How many collegiate regionals a program has attended
• How many events a program has run on their DUPR Digital Club
• How many dual matches against other schools a program has played
• How many members are in their DUPR Digital Club
  

Collegiate Pickleball National Championship Registration

Registration for the CNC is now live! Here is the link to the event on DUPR.

In order to make registration as smooth as possible, here is the link to the CNC Registration Guide outlining all of the necessary information.

Listed below are the high-level bullet points from the guide:

• Dates: November 17-November 19, 2023
• Registration Deadline: October 17, midnight EDT
• Address: 6350 Courtside Dr NW, Peachtree Corners, GA 30092
• Entry Fee: $75 per player for the Team Bracket, $25 per player for the Challenger Bracket

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Collegiate National Championship Scholarship Money

For the team bracket, money is awarded based on how far your team advances.

Play-ins $500 (x4) $2000

Quarterfinals $1000 (x4) $4000

Semifinals $2500 (x2) $5000

Runner-Up $5000 (x1) $5000

Champion $15,000 (x1) $15,000

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Total $31,000

This year, there will also be prizes for the challenger bracket!

• $1000 will go to the college that brings the most challenger bracket teams
• $1000 will go to the college that wins the most challenger bracket games
• Prizes for the winning team of each bracket

Club Guide

DUPR is committed to supporting the growth and development of pickleball programs at colleges across the country. In order to help these clubs, we have created the DUPR Collegiate Pickleball Club Guide, which is a 15+ page document on everything you need to know to run a pickleball club. Here is the link to the club guide. If you have any questions about the contents of the club guide, or about starting a pickleball club at your school, you can email us at college@mydupr.com.

Fall Semester Regionals

Here are the remaining Regionals for 2023:

Utah Regional - September 9-10

10996 S River Front Pkwy, South Jordan, UT 84095

Texas Regional - September 16-17

13600 Will Clayton Pkwy, Humble, TX 77346

Florida Regional - September 23-24

1499 Yamato Rd, Boca Raton, FL 33431

Michigan Regional - September 30-October 1

200 W Avon Rd, Rochester Hills, MI 48307

Nevada Regional - October 7-8

121 Carnegie St, Henderson, NV 89052

Schools can attend any regional they want, and can bring as many players as they want!

Email us at college@mydupr.com if you’re interested in bringing a team to a regional.

This month we’re shining the spotlight on our friends at PALA Pickleball, the largest indoor pickleball club in Texas and a DUPR Platinum Club member!

PALA Pickleball has something for everyone, offering leagues, open play, clinics, drills, pickleball tournaments, and special events. With 11 indoor state-of-the-art courts with fixed (permanent) professional nets, and 8 outdoor courts for sunny days, suffice it to say players are able to get plenty of pickle time.

A club by and for the community

Besides state-of-the-art facilities, PALA prides itself on having a vibrant community of players of all ages and walks of life. The club’s founders understand what pickleball is all about: community.

As club founder Kaitlyn Myers says: “One of the great things about pickleball is that it brings people together from all different walks of life. Our goal is to provide a space where everyone is welcomed, and we will make sure everyone feels like they have a place here.”

That’s also why Kaitlyn and her friend and co-founder Gabby Angulo decided to establish a restaurant-bar at the core of the club. “You need food and drinks. Nothing starts a good conversation better than great food, delicious drinks,” she says.

PALA’s Impressive Growth

Under the leadership of senior partnerships manager Luke Williams, PALA Pickleball Club has seen some impressive growth in recent months, signing sponsorships with Michelob Ultra, Houston Methodist Hospital, and BMW.

The club now has a new full-time head of coaching and four new pro instructors, as well as a PPA and APP player (Ryan Skufca) to rank and continue building the community of pickleball in Houston.

As a DUPR-affiliated club, PALA has organized 500+ tournaments and over 2,000 matches, with ten new Waterfall fight clubs and over $25,000 in cash given away, turning them into the organizer of the largest pickleball tournaments in Houston, Texas!

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Crazy but totally rewarding

Still, starting a pickleball club from scratch is no walk in the park. From finding and purchasing the right land, to running logistics and growing the business, Kaitlyn and Gabby have had several ups and downs along their business journey.

“Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport, and to be part of that journey is crazy but totally rewarding. The hardest part is trying to meet everyone’s needs. We want to cater for everyone, and doing so can be sometimes challenging at times.”

As pickleball continues on its upward journey, clubs like PALA are helping to spread the popularity of the sport while making sure it stays true to its community roots.

To view PALA Pickleball Fight Club events with cash prizes, visit: DUPR Events

More information

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Pricing:

$60 early Membership (yearly)

$80 Month to Month

$20 Open play for 3 hours +

$40 Court Rental

$0 court rental for members

Contact Info:

Website: palapickleball.com

Instagram: @Palapickleball

Facebook: @Palapickleball

Interested in joining Pala Pickleball Club? Check out their website for further information.

DUPR Club Information

In order to become an official DUPR Platinum Club, your club must already be an existing club on our platform.

If you would like to become a club, please reach out to: support@mydupr.com

We caught up with Chris Olson from Pickleball Studio to talk about how pickleball changed his life, why he loves playing at Life Time facilities in winter, and what he thinks of his DUPR rating.

How has the pickleball space evolved since you came into it?



One of the biggest changes is that the age demographic lowered drastically. Before, when I showed up to my local courts, I was the youngest one by about 10, 15 years, and I'm 27. Now when I go to the courts, there's a bunch of people younger than me. There are these two kids that are probably about nine and ten that are always there, and there's a lot more college kids and whatnot.

The second change would probably be seeing how much more attention pickleball gets and how much the media presence has grown. Now, you always see pickleball, it's always in the news somewhere. I swear, every one of my friends knows what it is now. Even within pickleball, the production quality of events or channels has gotten so much better than when I first got into it. Coming from a video background, the commercials felt like they were something from the early 2000s. Social media felt nonexistent. Stuff like that was baffling to me. And now we've just seen all of the numbers go way up in terms of follower count. But also, people have just gotten smarter about how they produce content.

How important is your DUPR rating to you?



For me, it's a good ballpark to check whether I'm generally trending in the right direction. I'm probably not going down, but I don't agonize over it or anything. I just look at the big picture: is it going up over time, or am I going down over time? I don't want to go down, that would bother me.

What are your thoughts on Life Time facilities for Pickleball?

Life Time is huge in my area because the founder actually lives in Minnesota, so I see him pretty regularly and we’ll have a conversation. In Minnesota, it gets so cold in the winter that you can't play outside for at least six or seven months of the year. So for me, I always end up going to a Life Time in the winter because they have a bunch of different venues in my area and they keep expanding them. So in the winter, it's huge for me. And then, as a content creator, being able to bring my laptop and camera, get my stuff done on the court, and then get off, get some food, and work in a lounge is really nice for me. That way, if I want to work a little bit before I play pickleball, I can do that, pack up my stuff, get on the court, and then do a little bit after. So there's a lot of flexibility and then obviously having a gym is really nice.

What is your favorite paddle at the moment?

Right now, I keep going back to the Six Zero Double Black Diamond. If I use a paddle for probably three-plus months, that's probably a good sign because I hit every single paddle that comes out. Prototypes are constantly coming through my doorway, so if something lasts me that long, it's probably a pretty good paddle.

What is your favorite venue?



Indian Wells, it’s such an iconic tennis center; it was just amazing out there. You've got mountains in the background. It's hard to beat that.

What got you into pickleball, and how did it become a core part of your life and career?

My friend and I went to play pickleball one day, and he had no racquet sports background. He's never played tennis, he's never played ping pong, nothing. And he smoked me. I'm pretty sure I got pickled 11 to 1. It was so embarrassing to me how badly I got beat, especially as a former tennis player. So after that, I decided to buy a paddle and play until I could beat him. I got hooked and immediately went and told my wife and my siblings, and they got into it too.

How was the Pickleball Studio channel born?



I was looking at all the videos on pickleball at the time and thought that I could probably make videos that people find more beneficial. I started by making some commercials and social media stuff for some local companies here in Minnesota. Then, I remembered that I had an extensive bunch of background on YouTube and thought I could try making some videos about pickleball, now that I kind of knew the game.

My first video had about 40,000 views within two weeks, which surprised me. People clearly liked this content. That's when I thought, I should figure out how to make this my full-time thing. That didn't happen for many more months. But I was playing so much pickleball, and it was so hard to focus on my actual client work that I realized that if I didn’t make this my job, I’m going to drop the ball on my real work and that was going to be a problem!  

Special thanks to Chris Olson for taking the time to catch up with DUPR and stay tuned for more stories like this soon!

Chris Olson

Instagram: @thepickleballstudio

YouTube: @PickleballStudio

Website: pickleballstudio.com

My Pickleball Coach provides players a DUPR driven 1-1 coaching experience right through their phone anytime and anywhere

DUPR has partnered with MyJourney Technologies which provides elite, one-on-one Pickleball coaching to anyone, anywhere right on their phone. The mobile phone app called My Pickleball Coach provides customized 1-1 coaching based on best-proven methodologies so players improve fast.

Tito Machado, CEO of DUPR, “Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the US with players expected to surpass 10 million by 2024. The growth is fantastic but we’re at an inflection point and the sport needs some organizing principles. The first step was creating a consistent rating system to provide a foundation for the most competitive and fun play. Step two is ensuring player improvement. Connecting My Pickleball Coach to DUPR provides players with a personal coach to grow their skills”

Martina Kochli, CEO of MyJourney and a world-class coach says, “My Pickleball Coach provides the world's best Pickleball coaches to players to improve their skills and measure their DUPR progress. When players get better, they play more pickleball, they influence their friends to play, and the sport grows. The “DUPR challenge” is built inside of My Pickleball Coach  and enables players to work on skills that grow their skills and their DUPR.”

Pickleball players from beginners to advanced can download the My Pickleball coach app and run the DUPR Challenge to receive a custom report on their game. They then can activate personalized 1-1 coaching via their phones from top-ranked professional players and coaches like: Collin Johns, Martina Kochli, Jordan Briones, Zane Navratil, and John Cincolaright.

Pickleball players from beginners to advanced can download the My Pickleball coach app now:

• IOS/Apple Download
• Google Play Download
  

About DUPR

DUPR is the gold standard in Pickleball ratings and event management and is the official rating system for MLP and PPA. In November of 2022, DUPR successfully launched a collegiate pickleball national championship in which 16 co-ed teams participated using the same unique team format used in MLP.

For more information on DUPR, visit the official website and follow DUPR on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

About My Journey

MyJourney is the developer of My Pickleball Coach and is the inventor of Coaching as-a-service technology that provides one-on-one and scalable coaching. Their technology powers the digital coaching platform with TaylorMade and Alex Morgan’s MyJourney Soccer.

Pickleball with a Heart began as a tiny tournament to raise enough money to make 40 generous candy bags for underprivileged kids in our community.

Since that first event in October 2021, they hosted various fundraising tournaments and ladder leagues and raised over $10,000 for small local charities.

They became interested in DUPR because they wanted their events to be competitive and fair, encouraging new players to enter competitions and have a positive tournament experience.

Their club is "virtual," meaning they play at various local courts. Most events are played on six courts at the Greentree Sportsplex, though they have hosted events at Glen Creek Tennis Club, Peters Township Tennis Center, and South Park Tennis Courts.

Their club has grown to over 520 members! They are proud to be making a difference in these small charities with little to no dedicated fundraising volunteers and are thrilled that DUPR is a part of their journey.

To find out more about Pickleball with a Heart, visit their club page: HERE

_{Provided By: Laurie Lawrence, Founder of Pickleball with a Heart}

In a monumental stride for pickleball enthusiasts across Europe, the recent English Open witnessed the remarkable influence of DUPR. The event unfolded as a pivotal platform for pickleball's growth on the continent, and DUPR couldn't be prouder to be a part of it.

DUPR's presence at the English Open was a testament to its status as the world's most accurate rating system. With an unwavering commitment to user input, transparency and precision, DUPR showcased its undeniable role in shaping the global future of the sport.

Not only did it educate existing players and clubs about the nuances of its rating system, but it also warmly embraced newcomers to the pickleball community, introducing them to the intricacies of accurate player ratings.

Alvaro Menendez, Senior Product Manager of DUPR, describes the event as the "Best European pickleball event so far!"

The English Open brought into focus the pivotal role that rating systems play in fostering fair competition and enhancing player experience. The event marked a watershed moment for both the sport and DUPR, by highlighting the importance of relying on an accurate rating system for the broader growth of pickleball on a worldwide scale.

"I was thrilled to see the massive number of athletes playing at such an elevated level at the English Open in Telford. Even more exciting was confirming that what we largely consider 4.5 DUPR level of play in The United States was right on par with 4.5 level play in Britain," said Dave McCune, Director of Activation.  

As the crowd's cheers during the English Open continue to reverberate, it is abundantly clear that DUPR's positive influence has left its mark on the pickleball landscape in Europe. The event represents a gateway to an exciting future - one where precision, transparency, and the passion for pickleball converge to elevate the sport to new heights.

_{Recap provided by: Ryan Maher, Head of Commercial at DUPR}