Growing clubs often have more new members than rating sessions to go around.

The Indianapolis Pickleball Club (IPC) rated 249 members in just seven days by adding Volley's DUPR assessment alongside its coach-led sessions. Here's how it worked across three facilities, what members thought, and what it could mean for your club.

The Rating Bottleneck Every Busy Club Knows

Rated open play works. When players are matched by skill, games stay competitive and members keep showing up. IPC knew that. The challenge was getting more players rated as the club kept growing.

Coach-led ratings are a key part of the IPC player experience, offering hands-on evaluation and expert insight. But as IPC expanded to three facilities, scheduled rating sessions alone couldn't keep pace with the number of players who needed an initial rating.

IPC wanted a scalable option to work alongside its coaches, help more players establish a rating, and get them into skill-matched play faster at every location.

One Week, Three Facilities, 249 Members Rated

IPC put Volley's new DUPR assessment to the test across all three facilities for one week, and members got another way to establish an initial rating.

Here's what that week produced:

• 249 unique members rated
• 366 assessments completed
• Under 10 minutes per assessment
• Available at all three IPC facilities
• More players moving quickly into rated open play

In one week, 249 players established an initial DUPR rating. Adding Volley gave members another path to establishing a rating, while giving coaches the flexibility to focus more of their time on instruction and player development when preferred.

Why the Indianapolis Pickleball Club Approach Worked

Volume without the scheduling puzzle

With Volley as another option, members could get rated on their own schedule. That meant more players rated in a single week, without pulling coaches away from lessons and clinics.

Almost no lift for staff

Staff didn't schedule sessions, supervise assessments, or write up results afterward. The only real effort on the club's end was promoting rating week. 

The same test at every location

Every player got the same assessment with the same ball feeds. That gave IPC one consistent benchmark across all three facilities, which mattered as the club grew.

What members thought

The feedback from the courts was clear. Chris Sears, IPC's founder, put it this way:

"People have really enjoyed the experience overall. They've all commented on how much more challenging it was than they expected."