Grid Pickleball

What is DUPR?

DUPR stands for Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating and it scores you anywhere from 2.0 to 8.0 in terms of rankings. Ben Johns for example is currently 7.3 and ALW is currently 6.6. In our group at the moment, we’re ranging from 2.0 up to about 4.6! Generally, it is seen that 2.0 to 3.0 is beginner, 3.0 to 3.5 is intermediate, 3.5 to 4.0 is advanced intermediate, 4.0 to 4.5 is a competitive level, 4.5 to 5.0 is advanced competitive, and then 5.0+ is professional, and to be honest 6.0+ is some form of world class!

How does DUPR work?

So what is the basic premise of DUPR. How does it work? DUPR is a ranking system that tells you where you stand as a player against others in the club, country or world. In every game you play, DUPR will come up with an expectation of what you and your partner should get against your opponents. So for example, if you’re expected to win and you don’t, then it’d move you down enough so you’re at the appropriate level. Likewise, if you win when you’re not expected to, you’ll also go up a number of levels until you’re at what it deems the appropriate level. It will change it almost instantly when the results are in!

It can also get more complicated than that. Let’s say that you’re expected to lose 7-11 but you actually lose 8-11, then you’ll also go up in level because you’ve exceeded expectations. So every point counts when it comes to your games, whether its a win or a loss. You’re trying to exceed it’s expectations. Likewise, if a lower ranked player beats a higher ranked player, they’ll go up more than if you play a lower ranked player or a player of the same level as you.

What does DUPR factor in?

DUPR actually factors in very little when it comes to your level. It does not take into account age or gender in any way. A 4.0 for a man should be the same as a 4.0 for a woman. Likewise, it also doesn’t take into account whether matches are mixed doubles, or gender doubles. It also doesn’t factor in whether one pair is mixed and the other is gender and so on. All it cares about is your ranking currently, your partners and opponents ranks, your expected score and your final score.

DUPR does care however who is putting the results in. So for example, the results of sanctioned tournaments like the nationals or open will count more than the results of the league or our Wednesday and Monday sessions. Likewise you as an individual are able to put results in but it counts for less than the club or a sanctioned tournament.

DUPR also factors in recency of results. If you’re putting results in that are 3 months old, it won’t make an awful lot of difference to your rankings, but if you put results in from yesterday it’ll make a lot more of an impact.

Finally, frequency of results is important. Keep putting results in regularly to improve your DUPR. The more results, the more your DUPR will improve as a result!

What is half life?

When you look at your DUPR you have a section on it called ‘half life’. This is how quickly your rating decays. The lower your half life, the quicker it will decay which means you need to put more results in. It is recommended to keep your half life above 9-10. For example, my singles half life is 5 so I know my score is decaying there, but because our sessions are regular and all put into DUPR my doubles half life is in the 90s. You can improve half life by playing regularly and consistently.

What is reliability?

This rating (which is in the circle next to your ranking) tells you simply how reliable your ranking is. It factors in how recently you’ve played, the variety of players you’ve played against and how often you play. Generally once again, if you’re regularly at sessions you’ll find your reliability is very high as you’ll be playing against a variety of players with a lot of scores going in to the system. You can improve reliability by simply playing more against a variety of people and playing with players who have high reliability.

What about unranked players?

All you need to get a DUPR ranking is an account and your first result. It will be able to put an idea of what your ranking could roughly be based on one game. However, it clearly will not be reliable at all. The more the unranked player plays, the more reliable their ranking is. Sadly, you can’t leave a space blank for an unranked player who doesn’t want to sign up to DUPR, hence when results are not but up, it’s because there is somebody who is not on DUPR.

How does Grid Pickleball help your DUPR to change?

Grid Pickleball has a whole variety of sessions and leagues to keep your DUPR strong. Just by turning up regularly to the Monday and Wednesday sessions, your reliability and half life will be absolutely fine. The 10 minute games and 6 people per court means that you get a good variety of games on each court, you also get to play people of somewhat different levels on a regular basis while still being part of the same general ranking.

The doubles leagues will also help push your DUPR even higher as you compete for the very top of the league! The games to 15 are a reliable metric for the rankings to work from and when we have best of 3 finals, that also puts in great data for the system.

Every couple of weeks, we have a half a session mix up where players from different courts play with each other. This helps to move rankings quite substantially as I often find that more than anything it helps those improving players increase their rankings by getting good results working with players on different courts.

How do I maximise my DUPR?

The absolute key to improving your DUPR is consistency. Your DUPR is your ranking, not yours and who you play with. The best way to do it is to keep your wins big and your losses small. If you’re playing with a lower ranked player, work with them, get them playing their best, and try and grab that win. It’ll move your partners ranking up but also yours as well! You’re trying to beat the expected score, that doesn’t mean you have to win all the games, it may simply mean you just don’t lose massively.

The leagues will help your DUPR, playing with better players allows you to improve your ranking massively! The singles league will actually allow a lot of players to start to develop a singles level as well.

However equally, you can only improve your DUPR by improving your game. As well as drilling more and playing more, try and learn more about the game. Go to some coaching sessions which we also offer! One of our most improved players has regularly been going to coaching!