Deaf Pickleball USA

Hello. My name is Farley Warshaw, and I am the DPUSA National Tournament Director.  Welcome!  I am excited to share updates with you this coming Fall’s tournament (October 8 to 11, 2026) in Fresno, California.

I have a list of items to discuss, which will be posted on www.deafpickleballusa.com.  I plan to explain in depth on that website.  The list of  summarized items I will discuss there are: 

1. The location and its attractions nearby
2. Hotel options
3. Where the event will be hosted and what it offers/looks like
4. The tentative schedule for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
5. The committees set up and their roles/functions
6. Registration and what is up with registration
7. Airport information (Many people ask about airport information. All this will be available on the website).

Updates will be posted on our Social Media platforms, but details about the updates will always be posted on the website for easier access.

We are making a lot of progress.  I am looking forward to seeing you all next Fall! It should be a fun tournament. We will have many new events. Information about those events will also be available on the website.

Hello. I am here to talk about the pickleball courts at the Sierra  Sports and Racquet Club (SSRC). I visited the club last October to play in a pickleball tournament and to view the location. I am very impressed with the facilities. SSRC has up to 40 courts, but not all are permanent courts.   The central location has an impressive tennis arena with a large capacity for 500 people to sit comfortably.   The SSRC has a restaurant, a swimming pool, a small area for kids to play at, plenty of space for vendors,  

This location is very deaf friendly. As you know, deaf folks like to socialize and mingle in open spaces.   This is a first-class facility in an upscale neighborhood with beautiful homes surrounding it. It is not far from anywhere.   It is 7 miles from hotels, 18 18-minute drive from the airport, plenty of restaurants close to the hotels nearby. 

People thought that Fresno does not offer much, but that is incorrect. It is the 5th largest city in California, so it offers a lot.

I want to share with you what is new for this Fall.  DPUSA is excited to add some new events.

First, we will add “entry-level” players who are 2.0 to 2.9 players. This is a non-medal event.  This event is for players who have never played in a tournament or just started playing pickleball and are learning the rules and basic plays, so they can enjoy playing and have fun.  This is an opportunity for new players to learn about the various things in a tournament before they actually play in a real tournament.  I want to be able to serve all different levels of players.

Major League Pickleball (MLP) is a very popular format in the US now.   Two men and two women teams challenge the other two men and two women teams. Each team will play in a round robin format against other teams. This is new to the DPUSA Tournament. It will be called the “demo event,” which means we are trying it out at this tournament.  If it is popular or successful, we will expand it more for the future DPUSA tournaments. 

Another new event is the Cash Prize. This will be available for three events: singles, doubles for both men and women teams, and mixed doubles. This will be available in open divisions, which means higher-level players. These players can play for cash prizes. This is also new, and we will see if this is successful.  If it goes well, we will offer it again and expand it more in next year’s DPUSA tournament.

The last new addition is what is called a “showcase” event. Fresno has a pro player who plays in PPA events (woman). She will team with a male  5.5 player.   They will play against our best DPUSA players (men’s and women’s teams or mixed teams), and we can watch to see if we can beat them. It will be fun to watch on Friday night at the arena there. 

These are the new events. DPUSA is very excited to give you more experiences with pickleball tournaments.

Hello all. Now I will talk about the schedule for the tournament from Thursday to Sunday. 

Thursday, we will start with the 2.0 to 2.9 players new to tournaments. We will have clinics for them at 8 am. We will also have the scramble event, which will start at 8 am. 

At 10 am, after the clinics for the new players, they will start playing in their own recreational tournament. 

At 11 am, we will have the MLP event start. The reason why we are starting the MLP at 11 am is so that they can play each other, and then at 2 pm, the playoffs will begin for this event.  The other event players from the recreational tournament and scramble events can watch the MLP playoffs and get an idea of what MLP events look like. It will probably end between 4:00 pm and 5:00 pm. 

After that, dinner is on your own, then a reception will be held before the general DPUSA meeting takes place at 7 pm.

Friday, we have our check-ins at 7 am. At 8 am, the opening ceremony will take place, and we will take our group picture. At 8:30, we will start our singles and doubles events. The men’s singles will happen at the same time as the women’s doubles. During the women’s singles events, the men’s doubles events will take place. The reason for this is to make good use of the courts.  These events will start at 8:30 am. The first group of events will be all morning, then the second group of events will follow. The new players (2.0 to 2.9) will play recreationally from 10 am to 12 pm.    Everything should conclude between 4 pm and 5 pm. Dinner will be on your own, then maybe at 6 pm or 7 pm (not sure yet), we will have showcases.

For Saturday morning, at 8 am, we will have skinny singles, singles, and doubles events, switching with Friday’s schedule. I forgot to mention the skinny’s singles, which also happens on Friday.  From 10 am to 12 pm,  for the new players (2.0 to 2.9), they can play recreationally. We should be finished before 5 pm. We plan to have a program on Saturday night. Details are not final yet.

For Sunday, only mixed doubles events will occur all day, starting at 8 am until 3 pm or before. We should be done by then so that people can go home. 

This is our tentative schedule for the DPUSA tournament event.

Hello. I want to take the time to explain about airports. People have been asking, “Does Fresno have an airport? Where are the airports?”  Yes!  I want to show this video showing what the airport looks like.  I went there myself to check it out. It is a large airport and has several airline carriers. It offers many car rental options. It is a large international airport, and people do not realize it is there.  Fresno is the 5th largest city in California. Unfortunately, the most populous cities are in the corridor of San Diego, LA, SF, and Sacramento because they are on or close to the coast. Fresno is a big city with over 500 thousand people living there. I assure you, wherever you fly in from, you can get to Fresno.

Hello. I want to explain about hotels. In that area, there are many hotels in that area. You can drive directly and easily to the pickleball courts from there. There are 5 popular hotels (there are many more), including Holiday Inn Express, Hampton Inn, Fairfield Inn, Home Suites by Wyndham Hotels, and  Comfort Inn. I already got one of these hotels on the other side for a good rate, and I am working with other hotels to try to get better rates and discounts for the players.  That area has many restaurants and even has a Costco there. Everything is very close to each other. I tried to secure a hotel but could not. Most hotels only allow for a certain number of blocked rooms for discounts, so I will work on getting a few hotels to give players discounts. Of course, some of you may prefer renting an Airbnb, which is fine,  but I wanted to give you options.

Hello.  I want to explain about communication with you. So far, we have about 500 members who paid membership fees when they signed up for last year’s tournament.  Our secretary, Barbara White, will email to the members any updates that are being shared.  We will also post on Social Media and our Website, but will always email to you directly if you are a member. 

Regarding Social Media, including Facebook and Instagram, we will post there on our pages, but will provide summaries there. It will provide summaries of what I will explain in detail on the DPUSA website. There, postings can be longer and more detailed with more specific information.  On Instagram and Facebook, we will make announcements that a new update is being posted on our website about the tournament. We will send emails to the members to keep you in the loop.

Farley Warshaw: Hello.  Today, I want to talk about DUPR’s reliability scores.  A few of you already asked, “Why am I not in the ranking list?” or “How do I join the DPUSA Club?”  I have Sulghi Hong explaining in the next part of this video.

Sulghi Hong: Hello! I am Sulghi Hong, the Tournament Operations Chair for the National Deaf Tournament coming up in Fresno. DPUSA is excited about becoming an official member of the DUPR Club. This video is to clarify for those who recently joined the club and had questions, and for those who want to join in the future. 

On the DPUR app, you will see our club ID (Deaf Pickleball USA). When new players  join the club, you will see  the following:

1. Ranking
2. Members
3. Matches
4. Events

When you join, you will see yourself as a member of this club.  Some of you became confused when you saw that you were not in the ranking list..  You may see the message, “You must have a reliability score of 60 or higher in the club rankings”. If you see a circle with a red partial line, it means your ranking is not high enough. If it is 60 or more, then your score will show up in the rankings. What does this mean, and how do you get this?  Let me show you.

See the red rectangle outside of the 5.324 score? That is your rating level.   See the reliability score with the green circle around the 76?  That is what we are talking about today. This applies to both doubles and singles ratings.  Next, you will see why some do not appear in the ranking list. 

DUPR rating identifies the skill levels.  The higher the reliability score is, the more confident DPUR is in your skill level measurement. If the reliability score is high, then that means there is strong evidence of your skill level. If the reliability level is low, then that shows the data is not strong.

If the reliability score is 0 to 30 percent (low), it is not strong enough to show true reliability. There is limited data. If you play matches going forward, your score will fluctuate up and down significantly because the DUPR is being figured out. 

If you have 30 to 70 percent reliability (medium), it means you have some data, but it is still being figured out as you continue to play DUPR matches. 

Who has of 70 to 100 percent on the reliability scale means there is high reliability, as there is enough data to show your true and accurate skill level.   That level gives confidence and trust in the rating shown. 

If you are wondering how you can increase your reliability rating, document more matches played. Some of you play in recreational matches for fun. Those do not count.  You need to play in leagues or in tournaments that are monitored and have approved matches to document and upload to DUPR. Often, you can play with other players who have established good DUPR levels and can play matches with them.  It is important to be consistent in your playing. If your scoring is consistent with certain players, then your rating is more reliable. If you play the same people but have erratic scoring, then DUPR can’t really decide your reliability level. Also, DUPR looks at more recent matches that you have played, not those that were played long ago.  The games need to be more recent for DUPR to be able to figure out your accurate level. It is important to play with different players. If you play with the same partners over and over, then DUPR can’t figure out which player is the one who is getting the scores consistently. If you have different partners, then your DUPR will be more accurate. 

What limits/lower reliability?   Not enough documented matches.  It is important to participate in leagues or tournaments that document your matches.  

If you play with the same partners and the same opponents repeatedly, that will lower your reliability due to not enough data. Try to play with as many different players as you can. 

If your partner or opponents have a much higher DUPR than yours, the reliability is not strong.  Try to play with those who have DUPR ratings close to your rating.  If you have not played for a while or you have not documented your scores for a while, that impacts the reliability rate. 

So, to increase your reliability scores faster, play in more sanctioned leagues or tournaments that will record and upload your DUPR.   

Play in authentic matches and be truthful in documenting the scores so they are accurately uploaded to DUPR and show your true levels.  Try to play with people close to your skill level and not significantly higher or lower than your skill level.   Play with different partners and rotate partners so that the data imputed creates an accurate rating.  Stay active by playing in matches. Avoid playing only one time a year, like only doing DPUSA tournaments. This approach will not help with DUPR reliability scoring. 

So in summary, come and join the DPUSA’s DUPR Club. We want to see your name on our members’ list. The goal is to make this list available for all Deaf Pickleball clubs and local deaf tournaments. If you play enough games, your reliability scores will show up. It will show how your rating compares with other deaf players in the ranking list. 

Keep playing pickleball!   We will see you there at the DPUSA National Deaf Tournament!

Farley Warshaw: Sulghi explained clearly…If you want to see your scores in the club, you must have a reliability score of at least 60 or higher for it to be displayed. Sulghi explained how you can get your reliability scores to get to 60 and up.  You can join to be in the DPUSA’s DUPR Club anytime by clicking on the club.  But for your name to show up in the ranking list, your reliability needs to hit 60 percent or above. 

Hello. I’m Farley Warshaw, Director of the National Deaf Tournament. 

I want to talk about DUPR. For those who already have a DUPR account, maybe you don’t need to see this video message.  For those who do not have a DUPR or never used it before, I want to explain more about it. 

I received a few email messages from some of you asking, “Must we have a DUPR account?” There seems to be some confusion about it.  So I am here to explain.

First, DPUR is free. FREE! When you sign up, there is no cost.  Yes, you must sign up for different reasons.  It is not “must” just for the National Tournament rating needs.

When you register for the National Tournament, you will be asked to “self-rate” and you decide what your rating is.  For example, you can think to yourself, “I know I have been playing for a while so I am about a 3.5. (or 3.0 or 4.0)…”  You know yourself where your skills are from your experience in playing.  Self-rating is the primary method that DPUSA follows. 

Now…where is DUPR involved in the picture?  Do we use DUPR to determine your rating? No, we do not. We use it for verification purposes. We are aware that about 75  to 80 percent of players have been playing in various matches  and tournaments the last few years and we are familiar with their playing levels.   About 20 percent of the players, however, are new or never played in tournaments or matches outside of DPUSA. Their ratings are not developed yet, so when they sign up for DUPR, For those who have been playing in tournaments and other DUPR matches, we can compare self rating and your DUPR rate and make a good determination of your skill level.  If you never had DUPR and we see that, we will reach out to you to find out more about your playing experiences to make sure your self rating score is that right tournament level placement.  The  reason we need your DUPR is to verify your self rating and make sure it is balanced out well.  

Another reason for signing up for the DUPR is to be able to sign up for the DPUSA Club Rating. We are able to keep your ratings under the DPUSA  Club rating which makes it easier for us to track you for future tournaments and for different clubs to be able to look at your ratings for their tournaments.  They can check to make sure you are correctly placed in their event groupings. It is difficult to track you when you play in the various events. DPUR helps us keep better track.  

It is not a mandated requirement to have DPUR determine what level event you will play in. Self rating determines where you will be placed, but DPUR helps us do check and balances. 

So to answer your question: YES, YOU NEED TO SIGN UP FOR DUPR.  There is no charge.  Once you sign up for your DUPR, then you can sign up to join the DPUSA Club with DUPR.  I hope that answers your question.

Any further questions? Please contact me at dpusatournamentdirector@gmail.com. Thank you.