This article is a follow up to the “player lookup” article that I posted a while back. Typically, I’m looking someone up because they’ve asked me to partner with them or they’ve sent me a “friend request” on Facebook and I’m trying to figure out who they are and how we know each other, etc.
In addition, “player lookup” through PickleballTournaments.com and USA Pickleball are also useful if you are looking for a potential tournament partner for yourself. However, since I’ve been using DUPR I’ve found an even better way to search for “age-appropriate” partners that might be helpful to everyone.
SIDE NOTE: I say “age-appropriate” because I’m always looking for someone in the 35-49 age range so I can play in the 35+ age divisions instead of having to play down in age to 19+ brackets.
Your first step is go to http://www.mydupr.com and then click on the “Dashboard” link at the top. Next, click on “Players” from the navigation pane on the left and then click on the “Filters” button to refine your search.
You can search a specific location (you can put no limit on the distance — search the entire player population — or refine your search to a smaller area using the Distance parameter), search within in a specific range of skill levels, search doubles or singles (or both), search by gender (if you’re looking for a gender doubles partner vs. a mixed doubles partner), and search within a specific age range. Age range is the parameter I use to find players within the 35-49 age range.
You can use any combination of parameters to filter your search. In the example below, I looked for females between 35-49 in the 4.00 to 5.00 doubles skill range within 75 miles of Wichita, Kansas.
This next search example is using the exact same search parameters but filtering for males only. I think the results are listed in the order of those closest to me first because I activated the “Find Players Near Me” toggle. Therefore, Zach Nguyen is showing at the top of the search results.
Within a player’s DUPR profile, there’s a quadrant that displays their “average partner DUPR” and that’s something worth noting. If your DUPR is below this number, proceed at your own risk. Some people can be a little particular about who they team up with.
Most people have higher DUPR ratings than I do, so I’m not generally concerned with that number when I’m looking for a partner (chances are, the other player’s DUPR will be higher than mine — they’re probably more concerned about me not being up to par rather than the other way around) but I do prefer to play with people first when I can to determine if we have on-court chemistry. Believe it or not, there are players that I mesh very well with and there are players I don’t. Some people can bring out the best/worst in you and you really won’t know this until you’ve tried playing together. But then sometimes, you can’t find someone local and have to settle for a “blind date,” in which case, you just have to roll dice and hope for the best. LOL.
SIDE NOTE: The Seeking Pickleball Tourney Partner(s) Facebook group is a great place to find a “blind date” if you’re traveling to a tournament and don’t have a partner.
Anyway, I hope you find this article helpful when searching for a potential partner. Best of luck and see you out on the pickleball courts!