Team Danea on the DUPR ratings. I am 5'3, 59 yrs old. I have won in 4.0 singles against my own age group, but playing a 20 or 30 year olds in 4.0 is not the same. They are quicker, and many times have a longer reach (so do the males at 4.0). DUPR is better than others, but saying age and gender don't matter is crazy. Way to go Danea :) My husband and I are different skill levels, so we play together in rec play and with other partners in tournaments. We tried playing 1 tournament together and found it's best if we don't. (we have been married 36 years and want to keep it going) :)

I team with my wife, and we have a 20 yr age difference (63-44)! It's been good for us. We talk a lot about the game when not playing, and drill together. But we also do quite a bit of open play where we play with other people, and she does like to slip off and partner with her female friends for tournaments that are female specific. It's all good!

You two are the best! And love having these now on Apple Podcast. Listen to these now while hiking or walking my dog. And please: keep up the bantering….loved you both “arguing” with each other over DUPR ratings. Classic.

I agree with Danea regarding the DUPR ratings, especially about the age. I'm 65 and playing the young guys and gals is definitely harder on me and they have the advantage. I don't move like I used to. As far as playing with my wife, well I learned to not give her any pointers. Other than that, we've been together for 43 years (40 of those married) and she hasn't dumped me yet. I do stupid stuff, according to her, and I don't think pickleball issues will be a deal breaker.

The whole DUPR thing boils down to who you play AGAINST not who you are. If the 60yo and the 25yo are playing vs the same people and have the same number of matches and the same DUPR rating then they would be evenly matched. But if the 60yo is only playing vs 60 yos and the 25yo is only playing vs 25yo then they COULD be different even with the same DUPR rating. Same goes with male vs females.

An output of an algorithm is only as good as what factors were considered/written into it. I 100% agree that both age and gender are factors that should be factors in the algorithm.

I agree on DUPR ratings and even comment here about “touches”. On couples - my wife and I play together, but as I progress our DUPR’s will probably not allow that. I just balance out my FIX for highly competitive play, by playing a higher level in men’s dbls. Danea - I took a note on your comment about critiquing during play because my wife and I are great together, but I can be too direct and I can see how that would be a “distraction” during play. 😮

I definitely have a difficult time playing with my spouse of 48 years. I play a lot better when we are not on the same court … on the same side or opposite sides.

DUPR only sucks that there's no way around if a partner is targeted and you end with a low score. It'd be great to have some kind of metric like 'touches' that indicate how involved a player was in the game to factor into the rank. if I had 5-10% of touches and lost badly, my DUPR shouldn't lower as much as my partner's. Same goes for if we won amazingly, my rank shouldn't go up as much

Here’s the deal on teaming up with your life partner: don’t say smack to your partner that you would never dare say to some you’re not involved with. And this rule definitely covers eye rolls and dirty looks. I routinely partner with my husband. He thinks he has “special privileges” to get annoyed, jet judgy and criticize. It’s getting me tense. But when I watch him partner with another player who makes mistakes, he NEVER does that. I routinely tell him “nice try” on errors and compliment him on amazing gets and strategies. I know he thinks highly of my skills and athleticism. So here’s the question: is he trying to make me a better player by being hard on me or is he simply an asshole on the court? PS: we’ve been married for 35 wonderful years but I’m realizing that I am starting to dread partnering on the pickleball court.

Ben and Colin are brothers and they clearly like playing together. I think for Ben, he knows he has 10+ years of strong PB in his future but CJ doesn't have nearly that much so he's enjoying the time while it lasts and then ben can find another strong partner and destroy in mens doubles. I don't think Ben cares as much about winning gold with CJ as he does just enjoying the experiences they're having. It seems extremely unlikely he'd ditch CJ just because they stop winning golds as often(or ever). I'd guarantee that Ben won't leave CJ until CJ retires

Division entered matters

Even though the INTENT behind the DUPR rating system is to have ratings that reflect similar skill levels regardless of age/gender, I'd have to agree with Danea's take on this. I'll cite one personal example-a number of years ago I played in a 4.5 Mixed Doubles Mixer event which had 4 men and 4 women participating. The guys rotated mixed doubles partners throughout the competition, partnering with each of the ladies three times (one time with each woman against each of the other men). At one point during the event, 2 of the ladies challenged me and one of the other guys to a game--a game we won pretty handily, 15-6. Also, I believe that both of those ladies' ratings were actually a little higher than either of our ratings. (By the way, I was 56 years old at the time and all the other participants were under 50). Fast forward to today when I usually play 4.0 events in tournaments with my brother (who is 56 years old, I am now 62 years old). I think it would be safe to say that we would probably beat most 4.5 Women's Doubles teams and would blow most 4.0 Women's Doubles teams off the court. I say this simply based on results during recreational play when we have played against 4.0 and 4.5-Women's Doubles teams. As a caveat, I DO think the DUPR system may actually be pretty accurate across gender lines at the very highest professional levels; however, at levels 5.0 and below I question whether that is really the case.

I can tell you gender and age make a large difference. I run 2 DUPR based leagues and a year long weekly DUPR based ladder group. Age and gender make a large difference. DUPR is good if the director compensates for age and gender. Without doing that, the games in general are not competitive or fun.

Hardly any 60 year olds have over than a 5.0. I think a Senior Pro 5.2 absolutely is equivalent to a younger 5.2. But a male 5.2 crushes a woman 5.2. Much harder to get a higher DUPR at higher age. Age DUPR is comparable. Gender no

PPA will force Colin to "retire", leaving him on salary to coach. Optics are bad for PPA if Ben just drops Colin.

Dude, she OWNED you on the same DUPR conversation. Your logic was completely whacked and she understood the question. You didn't. We all know DUPR intended it to be the same....but the question is whether it really is.