Ratings are a sensitive topic for some so I want to preface this with a personal note: I am 100% against “rating bullies”. If I show up to a 4.0+ game and there are 3.0 players, I am going to play with you and I’m not going to coach you, snub you, roll my eyes or tell you that you don’t belong. I will also compliment your good shots and tell you “good try” on your misses. I try to look at playing with a weaker player as a challenge, and I hope others extend me the same courtesy when I am the weaker player.
All that being said, ratings are something we use to try to create a competitive, fun atmosphere for all players. So while we shouldn’t bully others, it’s a good idea to know our true rating: we’ll have more fun and so will everyone else!
The Self Rating Problem
Many people rely on self ratings and may feel offended if you suggest their rating is lower than they have self rated. A lot of the time this happens with they play with another player that rates the same as them and they are a similar skill level, so they rate the same as that player – a player who may have over rated themselves. Similarly someone who knows that same player may rate higher because they feel they are a better player, but again, if the player people are comparing to rated high in the first place, a cascade of incorrect self ratings ensues.
You might say to yourself – it doesn’t matter, I play in the group I like and that’s that, and that is your right to do so, but a few problems arise from that for other players.
Imagine a scenario where there’s a session made for 3.5 – 4.0 players. This is a very competitive skill bracket.
Now imagine, someone who either correctly self rates or has a DUPR rating of 3.5 decides to attend this session.
That person may be surprised to find out that range is much wider and players attending are actually anywhere from an under 3.0 rating to a max of 3.5, instead of 3.5 – 4.0 bracket they were expecting.
Several things can happen here from here:
- That player may feel they are under rated because they win most or all games and change their rating, incorrectly, to 4.0 based on their performance at this “3.5 – 4.0” session
- That player may decide this group is not for them and attend a 4.0+ group. Unfortunately since most locations are not offering any higher brackets, there’s then a 3.5 player playing against other 3.5 layers that had the same experience, but also against actual 4.0+ players.
- The result is diminished competitiveness at every level, but especially at the 4.0+ level.
While you personally may not care about having competitive (close) games and say “this is just for fun”, remember that people are different and competitive people are not having fun if they’re beating people 11-0, 11,-1, 11-2, etc.
Why is self rating so unreliable?
It’s my personal opinion that since pickleball gained popularity in our area that anyone that was perceived as “very good” was automatically assumed to be a 4.0 player because that’s “advanced”. The problem is, it’s very likely ANYONE in our area just started playing pickleball and were quickly a true 4.0 player. True 4.0 players are not just good, they’re very good and no one is going to start out at this level even the very athletic as strategy is even more important and strategy takes time to learn.
So my theory holds that people thought 3.0 was just above beginner, 3.5 was intermediate and 4.0 was advanced and we all self rated based on the people playing in our small circles.
The fact is, it’s very wrong. Many beginners or even recreational players are more accurately 2.5-3.0, intermediate likely ranges 3.0 to 3.5 and advanced is more like 3.5-4.5. Above 4.5 is getting close to low level pro ratings.
In fact, if you’ve signed up on Pickleheads you may have noticed they call 3.5+ “Advanced”.
But DUPR is so unreliable!
I hear people say this all the time and while I agree it can be, let’s ask what’s more likely to be a reliable rating? An impartial algorithm based on data or your personal feelings?
It does seem your DUPR can swing one way or the other based on a number of factors but there’s ways to make it more accurate.
If you mostly play fixed partners rated games, I can almost guarantee your rating will be wrong. If your partner is better than you, you will likely have an inflated DUPR rating, if your partner is not as good as you, you will most likely have a deflated DUPR rating.
The best way to combat that is to play rotating partners rated games. I exclusively organize rotating partners and an even number of matches so that everyone plays with everyone twice. That means you will play with the worst player twice and the best player twice. Even if the ratings are fairly spread out, if you’re a good player, your DUPR will improve even if you lose a few games where you were matched with a lower rated player.
Another way to get a reliable DUPR is to ensure you are playing with and against players of a similar rating. The closer, the better.
If you feel like your DUPR is too low, then play against higher rated players and WIN to increase your score faster. But remember, if you go down, you’re likely not as highly rated as you think and should adjust your expectations and work up from there!
I try to think of my DUPR score not as going up or down, but as becoming more accurate.
But I don’t want to play DUPR Games!
Fair enough, not everyone wants to, but for the sake of the people you are playing with, you should try and accurately self rate.
For starters, you can take the Pickleheads Quiz here: https://www.pickleheads.com/guides/pickleball-rating
This quiz seems to provide a much more accurate rating.
You can also trying watching this Youtube video and see what kind of gameplay you should expect at certain levels and be honest to yourself about where you fall in, though on a personal note, this video seems to me to be a bit generous. In my opinion the 4.0 play is closer to 3.5 or 3.75 based on playing with DUPR rated players in that range (and my own DUPR rating).
Lastly, if you don’t want to do rated play but know some people who are DUPR rated around the level you think you are, try to organize some games with them and see how you stack up! If you lose every game you’re likely half to a full point below their rating. If you lose 3/4 of your games, you’re like at least half a point lower than you though. If you lose half of your games, you’re probably a quarter to a half point lower. If you win half, you’re probably around their level, and so on and so on.
If you can’t specifically organize play with those people, you can always look people up on DUPR after you play with them at a Rec game (if they have an account). DUPR is easy to search as it lists people closest to you geographically when searching.
So you might play with someone at a 3.5 – 4.0 session who whollops you and think “they must be a 4.0” only to find out their DUPR is 3.5, the low end of the session rating.
Have fun!
In the end, we’re mostly just trying to have fun and exercise, just remember that some people who are naturally competitive are not having fun if they’re not having fun games with many good rallies each game. So try to be considerate of others and then we all get to enjoy this sport we love as much as possible!
Happy Dinking!
