Taking a Closer Look at Your DUPR Stats
This is the second in a series of articles about the Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating system (DUPR). See the previous post for an introduction to DUPR and instructions for creating your own DUPR account.
If you’ve watched any of the professional pickleball matches on TV or YouTube, you’ve probably seen one of several DUPR ads. In one ad, Brookfield native Zane Navratil has his DUPR rating tattooed on his arm only to learn that DUPR ratings change after every match. Oops! If you look closely at the 0:09 mark, it appears Zane’s rating in the video is 6.67. (Zane is on the left.) Well, as of this writing, Zane is #4 in the world of men’s singles with a DUPR score of 6.98. Nice work Zane! Next time use erasable ink!! Check it out at the top 50 DUPR pros here. Keep in mind…the ratings change after every match!
In this article, I’ll cover three things you can explore with the DUPR app and one bonus item that only requires your DUPR ID and a web browser. Assuming you’ve recorded a few DUPR matches in the app, open it up on your phone or log in at https://mydupr.com so you can follow along with your stats.
OVERALL RATING
First up, is the Overall Rating on the dashboard.
As you see in the picture, I’m currently rated 3.72 in doubles and NR in singles. NR means not rated since I don’t have any singles matches in the system. I do have 100 doubles matches in the system, however. If you’ve just started with DUPR, you might have a big asterisk (*) next to your rating. This indicates a provisional rating. Essentially, it means that you haven’t played enough ratings against other DUPR rated players for the rating to be reliable. It usually disappears after 7-10 matches or sooner if you’ve played against players with established DUPR ratings. The graphic shows I win more matches than I lose. This is an improvement since last year though without DUPR I probably wouldn’t know that.
I don’t have any pending matches. Matches that you enter are pending until one opponent approves the score of that match. Matches entered by a club or tournament don’t require approval. Note that all matches show up in the app but may not count towards your rating right away. Ratings are typically updated on Tuesdays. Scroll down a little and you’ll see some other stats including average points won, half-life, and the average DUPR rating of your partners and opponents. More on those in a future article.
PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
Let’s look at my favorite part of the app, Performance Analysis. Scroll down a bit to find the chart.
This chart is a scatter plot. It shows individual match results over time. The line splitting the chart in half is your current DUPR rating. Since DUPR uses your last 60 doubles matches to calculate the rating, it is helpful to compare those matches to the current rating. Based on the current ratings of the four people involved in the match, DUPR predicts match performance. The light blue dots indicated matches where my partner and I were the favorite to win. Dark blue diamonds are matches where we were the underdogs. Tap on dot in your app and you’ll see the results for that specific match. (That’s easier to do on a computer or tablet than on the small phone but it can be done!)
For instance, that lone light blue dot at the bottom of the chart was a sad match for my partner and me. We were expected to win that game by a large margin but we lost 11-0. Ouch! The dot is way below the line because it pulled down my DUPR rating. On that same day, though, I had several matches that pulled up the rating. See the dark blue diamond matches that are close the 4.0 level. My partner and I performed better than the projection, so my DUPR score improved as a result. In fact, I lost the match represented by the second diamond from the right side of the chart. We lost but beat the projection so our DUPR scores went up! (Note: Some matches aren’t included in the analysis if there’s a large gap in rating between the teams or some other reason. Tap the “i” next to “Performance Analysis” for details.)
PLAYER SEARCH
Be sure to explore the other things you can do on this screen. For instance, you can view past matches, enter new matches, and sign up for DUPR clubs and Events. The player search feature is handy for find future partners.
First tap the player search button at the bottom of the screen, next slide the Find players near me slider, then scroll away! You can also search by name and use filters to find players at certain skill levels.
BONUS – FOR THE SUPER DUPR GEEKY:
This final tip requires a web browser since it isn’t available in the app. On a tablet, laptop or desktop computer, head over to https://dupr.shinyapps.io/Chart/. For just a minute, we’ll pretend we’re Zane, one of the top players in the world. His stats will be preloaded for this demonstration. (To view your own stats, you’ll need your DUPR ID. You can find that in the app. Tap your photo at the top of the app, tap Edit Profile, the scroll to DUPR ID.)
There are four tabs available here – two charts and two tables. These are highlighted in the image below. First up is Doubles Performance Chart. This is what we saw in the app earlier but on a bigger screen. Here you can hover over the dots to view specific matches. Cool, though I think the real gold is in the Results Table tab.
Click or tap on Doubles Results Table to see the details for all of Zane’s matches. It may take a few moments to load as it retrieves the information. Note the date of the match, the players, and various metrics. The DUPR Diffis the difference between the average DUPR ratings of the two teams. (Note to Data Nerds: There’s some rounding going on so if you pulled out a calculator, the DUPR Diff might be a little off. Who would do such a thing? 😳Ok, ok. I did.)
For the Feb 18 match, Zane and Rafa played Federico and Pablo. The DUPR differential is only 0.04 which means these two teams were very evenly matched. Zane and Rafa won the match but Zane’s DUPR rating only went up a smidge since he was expected to win and the game was close.
Check out the match against the Johns brothers on that same day. Ben Johns and brother Collin were rated #1 and #4 in men’s doubles when I wrote this article. Collin’s DUPR rating is similar to Zane’s and Rafa’s. Ben’s, however, was over 7 so his team was expected to win. Zane and Rafa put up a good fight but in the end lost 7-11 and 8-11. Since they were underdogs but played well, Zane’s DUPR rating barely changed.
Try this with your stats. What will you learn about your play? Are there certain partners with whom you consistently lose but are predicted win? Maybe you need to work on partner communication? Or, are there times that you seem to sneak out a victory when you are the underdog? What can you learn about those matches that can be applied to your overall strategy?
Next time, I’ll answer your top DUPR questions. If you have a question, send it to DUPR@johnmichl.com. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll ask the DUPR folks.
I hope you learned a little more about your game by examining your DUPR performance.
A version of this article appeared in the Greater Waukesha Area Pickleball eNewsletter. Subscribe here.