APP UTR Sports Pickleball Leagues
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‍Winter/Spring Season

January - May 2025

‍Summer Season

June to August 2025

‍Fall Season

October - December 2025

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Three leagues to choose from:

• Women's
• Men's
• Mixed each week 3 females and 3 male players will form a mixed team to compete against the opposing teams mixed team

Coed teams are not offered at this time.  

Anyone can play.

No minimum age level.

Players' age at the end of the year (12/31/2024), will be used to determine their age eligible to participate during the year of the league season. Divisions within each league feature competitions for men’s, women’s, and mixed doubles teams among three age groups (ages 39 and below, 40-59, and 60 and older) and three skill levels using the UTR Pickleball Rating: recreational, intermediate, and advanced.

• 39 and below - player can not be older than age 39 by December 31, 2024
• 40-59 - player must be age 40 by December 31, 2024 but not older than age 59 by December 31, 2024
• 60 and above - player must be age 60 or older by December 31, 2024

The following skill levels allow a pathway to success for an individual player to grow their game with a group of players. There will be three skill levels using the UTR Pickleball Rating: recreational, intermediate, and advanced.

Players transitioning between 3.5 and 4.0 have two leagues to participate.

• Recreational (2.5 to 3.8)​
• Intermediate (3.5 to 4.4)​
• Advanced (4.5 to 5.4)

Each team will require 6 players to compete each week with a minimum of 8 players per team and maximum of 16 to complete the roster.

Each team will elect a team captain, who will be responsible for organizing their team roster, securing their team’s venue for home matches, and coordinating with the District Coordinator on scheduling.

The APP understands the rating discussion is broad. We have partnered with UTR Sports to use their proven rating system in tennis to develop the UTR-P for pickleball.
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If you have participated in a previous APP Tour event, then a UTR-P rating has been determined based on your tournament results and you will verify during the registration process. View a players rating at this time or create a UTR player profile to start a UTR-P rating.
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If you have not participated in a previous APP Tour event, then if you do not yet have a UTR-P Rating, you will complete a short questionnaire on UTR Sports to receive a preliminary rating. This rating will start with a “P” designation to represent a “Preliminary” rating. Once 4-6 matches have been recorded, you will receive a UTR-P rating.
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Click here to find out how a UTR-P rating is determined. Click here for a comparison chart.
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Your rating at the time of registration will be reviewed to ensure you are eligible to participate in the specified division.

The UTR-P uses a 10 point rating system.

All match results will be captured in real-time and contribute to an accurate UTR-P Rating for seeding in future leagues.

Each team will secure a home venue of their choosing for their matches. These can include park districts, country clubs, indoor tennis clubs, private courts, or any other local area approved by APP UTR Sports Pickleball Leagues District Coordinators.

This will vary depending on the number of teams participating in your skill bracket type (type, age, skill level).  
Ideally, 8 teams would participate in each bracket type.  
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There are typically 7 to 8 matches per season.
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Winning team(s) have the opportunity to advance through to the APP UTR Sports Pickleball Leagues National Championships at The Fort in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., December 7-10, 2024.

Each matchup between teams has a two-hour time limit to complete their matches for the day.  

Each team captain will provide 6 players each week to participate forming 3 doubles teams.  Prior to the match, each team captain will exchange the team line-up for the scoresheet.  Once submitted, it can not be changed.  Team captains or designated team members are required to stay on-site for the duration of the match.

• Each team brings 6 players each week to fill roster
• Each captain declares and shares the 3 teams to compete for the day
• May designate one sub each week  
• Subs declared at start of the match
• Must be player on team's roster
• Each player plays 6 games (two games against each opponent)
• First team to 11 wins game and game stops
• Play one full game each side of the net
• Visiting team chooses serve, side or receive against each new opponent
• Home captain responsible for recording and reporting weekly match scores
• Visiting captain encouraged to retain a record and agree before leaving the court
• 2 points earned for each game won during the match (max 36 points for the match)

TBD

While the APP and UTR Sports supports pickleball globally, right now teams will compete across the United States with the opportunity for international countries to participate in the future. Within each region, teams are organized within cities and counties in their corresponding states.  As pickleball leagues grow, the regional boundaries will change to develop more local competition.

To be determined based on league registrations for the 2024 year and projected growth patterns for 2025.

Three leagues to choose from

• Women’s
• Men's
• Mixed - each week 3 females and 3 male players will form a mixed team to compete against the opposing teams mixed team

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*Coed teams are not offered at this time.  

No Regionals will be held in 2024. In 2025, we will gauge the growth of APP UTR Sports Pickleball Leagues to offer Regional competition.