2022 Southern Arizona Senior Games
Pickleball Tournament Information
With the pandemic twice denying us the opportunity to host our first pickleball tournament at the Kent J. Blumenthal Pickleball Complex, the Southern Arizona Senior Games Pickleball Pickleblast December 2021 Tournament has been scheduled for March 18-20, 2022. Registration begins Sunday, January 2, 6:00 PM via pickleballtournaments.com. That day, those needing help to register are invited to come to the East Center Lounge 6-7:30 p.m. Members of the tournament committee will be available to offer hands-on assistance. No advanced registration for this is necessary.
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All Green Valley Pickleball Club members with a club rating of 3.0 or higher are encouraged to play in this tournament. Your participation is the
number one thing that you can do to make this tournament a success. In 2019, 70 GV picklers played in our Senior Games. As our club approaches 1,000 members, we can blow that number of 70 out of the water in 2022.
What Rating to Use
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We just received notification that pickleballtournaments.com will be using a new World Pickleball Ratings (WPR) system in place of self-ratings for non-sanctioned tournaments. For many it looks like UTPR ratings. If you have a WPR and it is lower than your club rating, choose to “play up” by selecting your club rating from the dropdown menu at the top of the second registration page.
Remember, we are going to have you play at your club skill level as it is on March 1. If you believe that you have a good chance of moving up a skill level before that time, please register at the higher level. We can always adjust later. You always play in the bracket of the partner with the higher skill rating and the age bracket of
the younger player.
Why non-sanctioned?
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The scheduling of a USAPA regional tournament caused us to move our tournament date, and made getting enough USAPA registered players and referees impossible to run a sanctioned event. UTPRs will not be affected by participating and we will have referees for medal matches.
Green Valley Pickleball club members will be required to play at their club rating. We know that UTPRs do not always accurately reflect your actual skill level. We would hope that all players make an honest assessment of their current abilities and play at an appropriate skill level. For non-sanctioned tournaments, the software program will register you at the player profile skill level that is on file on your pickleballtournaments.com account. If your UTPR rating is lower than your club rating please edit the rating on your current player profile on pickleballtournaments.com to match your club rating for this tournament. The other choice would be to leave your PT.com profile as is and opt to “play up” to your club level during the registration process. Remember when you register you can always play up in skill and down in age. You and your partner must also play at the highest skill level and lowest age between the two of you.
Never played in a pickleball tournament before?
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This is the best time to give it a try. You do not have to travel, it is reasonably priced, you can stop beating up on your friends, and it will give you an idea how your game measures up against others in our area who are of similar age and skill.