FAQ
Most frequent questions and answers
The National Flex Pickleball League is a “league” of pickleball clubs, associations, and players that play Flex Leagues, Flex Tournaments, and Flex Matches. Flex is short for flexible, meaning that participants play when and where they want. The NFPL partners with Clubs to coordinate groups of similar skill level players. The NFPL connects these clubs, associations, and players so that players can play competitive pickleball against similar skill level players outside of their own circle of players. It is similar to playing in a regular tournament but gives players the opportunity to meet and play on their own schedule. The NFPL provides a simple solution for adding results of matches for all members and then adds these results to DUPR. These results are more heavily weighted and do not need to be “verified” by other players.
Flex Pickleball refers to pickleball leagues, tournaments, and matches that are played when and where you want. Of course, some courts are for members only and some public courts may prohibit “league” play. We leave it up to the players to decide when and where they play their matches. For leagues and tournaments, we typically provide several weeks to get your matches in.
DUPR is the Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating system. DUPR is gender and age neutral meaning that your DUPR number is based solely on your performance. We believe that DUPR will become the standard for pickleball ratings. We use it – along with player evaluations and other rating systems – to determine which “group” is the best fit for you and the other players. Our goal is to simply help facilitate competitive, diverse, and fun matches.
If you do not feel your DUPR rating is accurate, we can provide a player evaluation or seed you based on past performance. Our goal is to help coordinate competitive and diverse matches. This is not always easy but worth the effort to get right.
For players who do not yet have a DUPR rating, the NFPL is the perfect place to play a series of matches that will help you establish your rating. For your first NFPL “league” we will work with you and your club leader to determine the right skill level and division for your play.
We provide a variety of formats including round-robin tournaments that do not require a partner. We also provide leagues and tournaments that require a partner. For players that do not have an established partner, we help match them with a partner of similar skill level.
A “round robin” is a structured form of play organized by skill levels and divisions. In NFPL, round-robins typically consist of seven players. Each player plays a total of six matches over a period of six weeks. Each match is played with a different partner and against different opponents. Matches consist of the best of three games to eleven. Round-robins are designed so that all players are playing against people of roughly equal ability, which makes play the most fun and competitive for most players.
Pool Play – Pickleball tournaments may also use pool plays. Pool plays would be treated as a round robin, where each player/team in the pool plays one another. Then, based on the results of the pool play, teams would be seeded in either a single elimination or double elimination bracket.
The cost to play varies. Our standard format and price, however, is $37 to play 8 matches over 8 weeks and qualify for your City’s Championship. We currently have a special for the Greensboro Flex Championship that costs $15 to play. This includes the ability to play in several divisions including Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles, and Mixed Doubles.