USAPA MAKES CHANGES TO
TOURNAMENT SANCTIONING AND TIER
STRUCTURING POLICIES
USAPA RECREATIONAL
PROGRAM
T
he USAPA visited the Boys and
Girls Club of Palm Springs,
California, during the
Margaritaville USA Pickleball
National Championships that were held
in Indian Wells, California. The USAPA was
able to introduce the sport of pickleball to
students ages 8 to 14. The USAPA staff and
volunteers led the kids through skills and
activities. Within an hour, the students were
able to rally using the “rally right away”
progression that is included in the new
“Let’s Play Youth Pickleball Playbook.”
The response from the Boys and Girls
Club was overwhelming. Given everyone’s
enthusiasm and excitement, the USAPA
left behind three nets that fit perfectly in
the gym as well as enough paddles and
pickleballs to start a program. Each student
who participated in the event was also given
a personal pickleball paddle, pickleball and
a drawstring backpack filled with fun prizes.
The kids and staff were very appreciative
and thankful to the USAPA for the visit and
for also introducing pickleball to their club.
Kids were excitedly asking their counselors
when the next opportunity to play pickleball
would be. The Boys and Girls staff was also
eager to start including pickleball as part of
their regular after-school programming.
The USAPA would like to thank Pickleball
Central for its generous donation of the
paddles and pickleballs. Also, thanks to
HEAD Racquet Sports for donating nets,
teaching aids and drawstring bags. The
USAPA appreciates Pickleball Central and
HEAD Racquet Sports for their support
of community programs.
T
he USAPA recently announced changes to tournament
sanctioning qualifications and tier structuring for its
events. Changes went into effect on January 1.
Formerly known as Medal Match Only (MMO), the
new updated policy will now be referred to as Medal Match Plus
(MMP) and will allow USAPA sanctioning for new tournaments
or for those events previously not sanctioned. All MMP Nationals
qualifying tournaments must meet specific criteria, including
the listing of all referee training sessions prior to their first two
MMP-sanctioned events, having referees for all winners bracket
matches at the 4.0 level and above, and after the event’s second
year, the Tournament Director must apply for full sanctioning to be
considered a national qualifying event.
Additionally, the word “Tier” will no longer be used for the USAPA
sanctioning process. Instead, the following references will be used:
• Tier 1 will now be known as USAPA Nationals
• Tier 2 = USAPA Regionals and USAPA National Qualifier
($200 fee)
• Tier 3 = USAPA Sanctioned Tournament ($100 fee)
“The new adopted policy changes will enable the USAPA to
maintain consistency throughout our tournament structure and
better align our new levels of competition as we move forward into
the new year,” said Karen Parrish, USAPA Managing Director of
Competition.
There will also be new MMP guidelines for matches and they will
include the following:
• Referees are required for medal matches in single or double
elimination brackets.
• Referees are required for the two matches leading up to medal
matches, which, for single or double elimination formats, is the
final match in the winners bracket and the match preceding
the bronze medal match in the consolation bracket.
• Tournament Director must submit written proof of the
aforementioned referee matches in a referee report to
pickleballtournaments.com within one week after the
conclusion of play.
For more information on the
new competitive-level structure and
sanctioning policies, visit Tournament
and Ratings at www.usapa.org.
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