Get Your Shake n' Bake On

Tips for cookin’ up a pickleball storm

In this week’s Bite Size Pickleball newsletter:

1. Tournament Temperament

2. Get Your Shake n’ Bake On

3. This week in the Bite Size Pickleball podcast

4. T-Shirt of the Week

Tournament Temperament

This past weekend I was fortunate to witness a ton of USA Pickleball sanctioned tournament matches (sans the new Joola paddles, of course). I was set up in Santa Barbara at a booth with my pickleball swag (more on that below). And my main takeaway, which affirms my general pickleball takeaway, is that players don’t do enough work on their mind game.

I witnessed so many errors, and moments of frustration from players, mostly because they were too amped up on competition, and not relaxed enough in the competitive storm. In other words, they weren’t tucked nicely within the “eye of the storm.” They were the chaos surrounding it.

First off, I saw so many rushed moments which translated into missed serves, slams into the net, etc., followed by the usual pirate exclamations of “Arrgghhhh.” Those are precious points in tournaments that you just can’t be giving away. An example of a simple solution, on the serve, for instance, is to take your time. It seems like, every court I turned to, I watched a server call out the score before rushing their serve—right into the net, or out of bounds. Again, I have covered this a lot on the Bite Size Pickleball Facebook group, and in detail in my book How to Play Better Pickleball.

But I will summarize if you didn’t get the memo from above: TAKE YOUR FRIGGIN’ TIME. You have 10 seconds to serve the ball, don’t be scared to use it. Develop a service routine, just like a basketball player does with a free throw, or a baseball pitcher does with a pitch, and stick to it! You may want to vary it on occasion, just to keep your opponents on guard, and not able to read your rhythms, but we have a tendency to be in our analytical brain when we call the score, and if we don’t take a moment to shift into the instinctual mode, before serving, right into…the…net.

The other thing I witnessed, which I have also discussed a gazillion times, is the lack of breathing going on. Meaning, the majority of players were holding their breaths, to a certain extent. If you’re not breathing properly, you’re going to be compounding the mind/body tension you have. Where is a good place to practice intentional breathing? How about in all that time you have between serves? Yes! Use the moments between the points to consciously take calming breaths. Even in rec play!

Honestly, I sat there and watched pickleball for hours, and sometimes I just had to turn away. Why? Because of all the tension inherent in the play. Simple point: When you’re tense, you’re not going to be playing at your maximum level. You’re going to be “clutching,” in your mind, in your body, right down to the way you are strangling your paddle.

Breathe. And then breathe again, and keep reminding yourself of that! And don’t give yourself a metaphorical paper cut after every point you mess up. It does not help you. Again, it adds to the tension, the clutching. You need to get to a place of accepting ALL when you play; the good, the bad, the ugly. The more you can accept, the more you can flow. Flow is that special ingredient that leads to greatness. You ARE capable of that!

Something else I witnessed was players standing around in the waiting area making excuses before even playing one match. Why? Because those excuses give them an out if, and when, they lose. That’s all nerves, and yes, nerves are natural. But YOU CAN temper them. Again, you need to recognize, and catch yourself if you are making excuses before you even play, and give yourself a mantra to help you let the FEAR OF LOSING go. You’re there. You signed up for the tourney. Give it your all, and don’t judge it before, or when the tourney is going on. You’re basically taking your metaphorical gun out and shooting yourself in the foot.

And, specifically, after the tourney, or during, please refrain from the very common excuse, “Oh, well, they hit my partner.” Of course they did! It’s pickleball. What can you do about it? I like to call it “controlled chaos.” Make sh*t happen. Don’t just stand there and witness your partner getting picked on. Poach, stack, fake, whatever it takes, mix it up so your opponents don’t have easy access to your partner, and they have no idea where you’ll be. And if your partner is telling you to stay on your side of the court, while THEY’RE getting pummeled? Find a new partner next time.

I could go on for days on what I witnessed in this one tourney alone, but I won’t, not days at least. Just know that if you truly want to be great, and play at a competitive level, there are VERY IMPORTANT things to work on other than your dinks, drives, drops, etc. And those intangibles, are all rooted in mindfulness. Once you become a practiced player, mindfulness will be the true key to your success.

A few other tourney notes:

1. Court etiquette! I can’t tell you how many times I saw players entering a court, to get to another court, right in the middle of a point, even during medal matches. Please remember: It isn’t just about you! Practice awareness.

2. Don’t recruit another partner while you’re still playing with your current partner! I had two separate women try to recruit me for a future tourney between their matches. Not cool.

3. Do have a plan going into every individual match. You don’t always have to stick with the plan, but you definitely need one. And, when I say “plan,” I mean strategy. It is not enough to say, “I just want to play.” Maybe that would work if you and your partner have played together for a couple of years, otherwise NO. Do you think there is one pro team who says to each other before a match: “Let’s just play.” Maybe one! Ben and Anna Leigh, but my guess is even the GOATs make a plan, even when they could probably get away without one.

   
   Make a plan. Stick to it until something changes that plan.
   
   I played in the city league playoffs this past week, and I made a plan based on weeks of watching our opponents. Did my partner stick to it? No. Would we have won if he did? Probably, yes. As is, we lost 12-10, 11-7, played pretty well, but my plan was to “short game” the weaker player. My partner got caught up in a mano-y-mano frame of mind, and it didn’t work out for us in the end. Make a plan.

SHAKE N’ BAKE TIPS

1. Know who your partner is. That means, you need a sense of when they are going to drive the 3rd shot so you can start your flight pattern to the NVZ, ready to put away the 5th shot. You can even talk to them about it beforehand. “Hey, let’s drive everything short, drop everything deep.” So, you’ll know, if it is a short ball, they will be driving (the shake), and you will be flying in for the “bake.”

2. Don’t necessarily run all the way in to the NVZ, full speed, on your attempt for the bake, because you want to give yourself a little room to gauge the trajectory of your opponent’s return.

3. However, sometimes bum-rushing the net will intimidate your opponents into a mistake. It’s a riskier move than giving yourself a little room, but it can work depending on the situation, and how good you are.

4. If you’re the one driving/shaking, try to keep it low and hard.

In the video below, I was playing with a young dude who typically drives it extremely hard. I have a lot of confidence getting my bake on with a player like that. His first shake is moderately paced, but the second shake is where he is usually at. Pound for pound, he is one of the hardest hitters I have ever seen.

THIS WEEK IN THE BITE SIZE PICKLEBALL PODCAST

I narrate a chapter from my How to Play Better Pickleball book on how the martial arts are inherent in pickleball, and describe how you can use them to YOUR advantage. The podcast is available on every podcast server, from Apple, and Amazon, to Spotify, and directly on the Bite Size Pickleball website.

T-SHIRT OF THE WEEK

If you weren’t aware, Bite Size Pickleball has a full-on swag store with hundreds of tees, hats, hoodies, and cool gifts like pickleball mugs, and even pickleball puzzles. Use the discount code VIPcustomer10 for 10% off at check out. Click the link above to access the store, and register to vote in 2024!

LAST NOTE ON TOURNAMENT

The USA Pickleball tourney here in Santa Barbara was dominated by one thing over the weekend. A 13-year-old girl named Aline Morales. Aline won the women’s 5.0, and the mixed 5.0, and then, for good measure, she bageled me in a game the next day! I sat down and spoke to Aline and her father about her future and I will share it with you in a newsletter soon! I will also be writing a feature for Pickleball Magazine on her.