The Mental Side of Pickleball

In every sport, there are skills to learn and techniques to master, but there is also the mental discipline you must practice.

Pickleball is no different.

It has been shown over and over that most often the losing team in pickleball just made more unforced errors. 

And the winning team just made fewer errors rather than forcing so many errors from their opponents.

Most often, the biggest factors leading to unforced errors are the mental aspects of the game.

Here are some ways mental issues affect your play:

 1.  Self-doubt.  Not believing you are good enough to win the match.  A few months ago I was playing a rec game with a partner I hadn't played with for several months. We were playing a team I play against regularly, which is a very good team.  We got up 8-0-2 before a side-out gave them the serve. My partner turned to me and said, "this is where they throttle us."  I couldn't believe it. She didn't believe we could win, even with such a big lead.  I said, "no, we're good and we can win this."  But, it didn't matter.  She was defeated mentally, and nothing I said changed her view.  And we lost.  Her desire to win was not greater than her expectation of losing to this team.  In business, some people call this "Imposter Syndrome" where a person believes he is not really qualified to be in his position. Believe in yourself.  You are not perfect. You haven't mastered all the skills, but no one else is perfect or has mastered them all either!  

 2. Negative self-talk.  Telling yourself how bad you are or how bad that shot was is not helpful. It doesn't help you regroup for the next shot or the next game. You are basically setting your expectations for losing. Bruce Lee famously said, "Don't speak negatively about yourself, even as a joke.  Your body doesn't know the difference.  Words are energy, and they cast spells.  That's why it's called spelling.  Change the way you speak about yourself, and you can change your life."  Those are good words to live by, and certainly true in pickleball.

 3.  Bad mental replays.  Replaying your poor shot in your head often leads to making a poor shot on the very next shot. You need to "flush" that last shot and move on. Everyone fails to execute shots perfectly at times. The pros miss shots too. Just watch some pro matches. Why are you expecting that you should be better than they are?  You aren't.  No one is.  And it's okay!  Flush it, and move on to the next shot. You need to practice what is known as "point amnesia" where you quickly forget the previous point.  Michael Jordan of all people said, "I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost more than 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed.  I've failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed."  If Michael Jordan missed crucial shots in basketball, why do you think you shouldn't miss any in pickleball?

 4.  Poor body language.  Often when players get frustrated with their play, you can see it written all over them.  Their shoulders slump. They no longer move with determination and positive expectations. They get tense. When that happens, their opponents preferentially target them.  And usually, the whole problem gets further compounded. You need to develop a "poker face."  Don't let you inner frustrations be evident to others. Then, it will not be so evident to you either.

 5.  Not visualizing a path to victory.  If you lose focus and no longer see a way you can win, you are defeated before the match even ends.  What do you think about if you are down 2-9-2 and you just surrendered the serve?  Do you think, "We'll never win now?"  Or do you think, "Just 2 stops!"  Those are very different points of view.  In a recent pro singles match, Connor Garnett was down 2-9 in the first game to Jack Sock. He then scored 9 straight points and won 11-9.  Then, in the second game, he was down 0-10. He then scored 12 straight points and won, 12-10.  He never gave up.  Even though the path to victory looked tough, he still could visualize the possibility.  He was mentally strong.  That's what we all need!

Myron Golden is a business mentor of mine. Here is a quote of his:

"If your desires and your expectations are pulling in opposite directions, your expectations will always win." 

Now, he said that about business, but it is just as true about pickleball.

If your expectation is that you will lose, there is no amount of your desire to win that will propel you to victory. 

Myron also said that, anything you tell yourself about a future outcome, you have made up, because it hasn't happened yet.

Therefore, why not make up the outcome you desire?

So, instead of worrying and not believing you can win, why not envision yourself as the winner?  And why not do so frequently?

I've been reading a book lately you may have heard of.  It was written in the 1960's.  

It is called, Psycho-Cybernetics.

It was written by a Plastic Surgeon.  He wrote it because he noticed a subset of his patients who, even though he surgically removed their traumatic or congenital disfigurement, they never could see themselves as not disfigured.  

He would take a patient with an ugly scar across the face from some injury, remove the scar such that it was no longer visible, yet the patient could only see themselves as scarred. 

He would show them before and after photos, but they couldn't see themselves differently.

And no amount of positive self-talk alone could overcome their poor self-image. 

​The book is mostly about how he helped many of these patients overcome the mental scars their injuries left them which could not be surgically removed. 
​
​That book is a classic in the "Self-Help" genre of topics.

I had heard about it for years but had never read it.

Then recently, when I realized I was having some issues sabotaging my own pickleball success by my own mental attitude, I decided to read it and see if I could apply some principles to myself and help my game.

I haven't finished the book, but it has already helped. 

I am working on believing in myself.  Trusting my abilities.  Visualizing success.  Displaying a poker face.

I'm not there yet, but I'm getting better!

Are you mentally strong?

If not, what do you need to do to get better?

Work on it consistently.

It will help you win more and enjoy the game more!

Good luck!!

Ben Holt
CEO, Pickleball Living