One and done and its in the books. I have now officially played my first “outside” pickleball tournament and it was an interesting experience to say the least. Lot of great observations from playing it. So…..where to begin. When I say first outside event, I mean that its the first event not played at the club where I am a member. One that would involve playing people you have never played against.

One of the people I play with at the Jar is MD who is super keen and is getting better almost on a daily basis. She is younger than me (who isn’t it) and is very athletic and is quickly picking up the court sense and strategy needed in pickleball. Anyways, she asked me whether I was interested in playing in a tournament at SMASH SPORTS in Mississauga. In pickleball the tournaments are built around the various events - mens, women’s and mixed doubles. Sometimes there are also singles events. Within these events you might have different age groups along with “level’s of play. The levels of play are where people have to decide where they fit in. If you are playing at the 3.0 level you are likely a low intermediate while if you are over 4.0 you would be more of an advanced player.

MD asked whether I would play in the Mixed Doubles Split Age 3.5 and Above category and I decided I was ready for it. When it says split that means one player has to be above a certain age and one has to be below.

We practiced a few times prior to the event at our club however these tournaments often bring a lot of unknowns. You are playing people you have not played before so you have no idea of what the patterns are within their games. The facility, the ball and other factors can also weigh in. Games are often over very quickly so you have time to ease into a match. Every point counts so smart decisions are needed.

The ratings that people apply to themselves can be a bit of a mystery. Once you finish the tournament you end up with a DUPR rating which stands for Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating, a rating system that assessed a players skill level. It is used to rank players in tournaments, seed matches and help players find opponents of similar skills. I’m not actually sure how it really works but I sense it is using an algorithm that will give you a “moving” number based on who you play and how you do against them. If you beat players with a higher DUPR rating that benefits you and if you lose to people with a lower DUPR rating your number goes down.

The tournament was being held at a place in Mississauga called Smash Sports. I had not been there before and the Google search indicated that it might be a mult-sport facility. And I was correct. They have 4 pickleball courts, along with badminton, cricket and a baseball hitting zone. When I arrived, I checked in and noticed that the balls they were using for the tournament were orange and I knew I was in trouble. I have a color vision deficiency in which you don’t see colours in the traditional way. In my case its red/green. I struggle to see types of red and of green so in the case of pickleball, I don’t see the orange ball in it’s entirety. (It falls within the red issue). My eye can track it for a few moments but if it is coming quickly, I will lose it. And yes, I can tell the difference between traffic lights. If you play pickleball in the City Community Centres the ball of choice is often red/orange, and I have tried to stay away from these places simply because of not being able to see the ball. If you don’t see 100% of it you lose your confidence to interject into the game. I actually was hit 4 times during the night - once in the face and the other times in the body, simply because I didn’t see the ball when it was coming at me. Nothing I could do about it so you simply have to suck it up.

There were 8 teams registered for the tournament category so they split the teams into two groups. In our first match we lost by the score of 15-9 to a team that had a DUPR rating of 4.6 and 3.8 (Male/Female). Overall it was not a bad start. The male player was very aggressive as they often are in mixed doubles and generally they will hit a lot of balls to the female player. I didn’t came away thinking we should have won but maybe we could have made it a bit closer.

One of the pickleball strategies we tried to use is what is known as stacking. This is when you put usually the strongest players on the left side so that they have the forehand down the middle. I think it worked but you do need to figure out where to go at certain times and MD had to keep telling me to go here and or go there. I imagine she must have thought I was clueless. .

Our second match was our first win 15-10. This team had a DUPR of 4.0/3.4 and although the score was close we kind of let them back into the match with some very loose points at the end. But we managed to right size the ship to get the win.

Our last match within our pool was also a win against a team with a DUPR of 3.9/3.9 and it was another match that was closer than needed to be with a final score of 15-13. We would get a strong lead and see it slip away with some loose points.

We finished with a 2-1 record in the pool which meant we moved on to the medal round. We played the winner of the other group and they were very, very good. They had a DUPR of 4.5/4.4 and we lost 15-5. It was a good experience but we were overmatched in firepower and consistency. With that loss we moved to the final match which was for the bronze medal.

Unfortunately we lost that match 15-11 to a team of 3.8/3.9. The score was 15-11 and I think this was a winnable match. I made too many basic errors which simply comes from inexperience. The female player had a very good drop which I tried to hit too hard and I should have taken my time. Oh well. I was getting a bit tired but they won and they deserved the victory. The end result is I now have a DUPR rating of 3.6.

Aside from the vision issue it was a positive experience. It was good to get out of the comfort zone of playing the same people every week, and attempt to adapt to new game styles and the fast speed of a tournament. As a match can end quickly every point is important and you have to learn to slow down and take your time. The feeling of having to rush and finish off points quickly can lead to bad decisions. It was fun to play with MD and I felt it was a supportative partnership. And to my surprise I wasn’t nervous at all.

What’s next? We signed up for another event in May together and I’m playing a men’s double event with MD’s husband in April.