The Inner Neanderthal
How to tweak our game play so the DNA isn't ruling the day
In today’s Bite Size Pickleball newsletter:
The Inner Neanderthal: AKA: The Kill or Be Killed Mode
New Game You Can Play While You’re Playing a Game
Note to Bangers
Don’t look now, but that might just be one of your DNA relatives above. You do know that many of us actually have about up to 4% Neanderthal DNA in our genetic make-up? And I am going to save you the trouble of getting a DNA test. Here’s my test: Do you tend to over-swing in the heat of the battle? Does the ball slam into the net, or fly out of bounds? Do you then get super annoyed, and swing your club into the fencing? If you answered these questions with D) all the above, then we’ve got a match, ladies and gentlemen!
What’s that all about? I will tell you what it’s all about: The difference between you going from an intermediate level player, to a truly advanced level in pickleball. In order to do that, you need to develop the ability to curtail your Inner Neanderthal. That includes exemplifying more patience when you’re waiting for an attackable ball you can close on. Sometimes, that’s only a hit, or two, later.
But instead, you attack, whenever you think you can, or must.
However, that strategy is a full-on bust.
When you play from a KOBK mode (Kill or Be Killed), you are trying to kill your opponent before they kill you. Playing like this results in way too many unforced errors. BIG HINT: You need to be able to eliminate those errors on your path to playing better pickleball.
I like to use the analogy of someone trying to swat a fly. In order to squash the fly, you need to watch its flight pattern, and wait for the perfect moment for it to make a mistake. For example, it lands on a window. That’s when you pounce. In pickleball, too many players pounce too soon.
I’ve seen so many “good” players do this. But I haven’t seen too many great players do this. If you want to explore this topic further, I suggest listening to the episode in the Bite Size Pickleball podcast titled, “Wanna Be A 4.5 Player? You Need to Stop Playing Like This!” Here is a link to the podcast if you have an Apple device. If not, here it is on Spotify, and here it is on Amazon. Listen up, and you might see the light, and find a way out of the cave (man).
NEW GAME YOU CAN PLAY WHILE YOU’RE PLAYING A GAME!
Yup, that’s the name of the new game: Suck Less. I’m sure you’re really curious at this point what the heck I am talking about.
B.P. (Before Pandemic) I had a band called The Agreeables. When we were in rehearsal, and maybe not sounding so great, this cat who used to sit in with us, liked to say we all just needed to “suck less.” Basically, a light-hearted way to encourage us onward.
Last week I wove “suck less” into a couple of pickleball games! My partner and I kept “suck” points, i.e., we tallied our own unforced errors. Honestly? It was so much fun. My partner was fun, so that helps. You probably couldn’t ask Mr. or Mrs Serious to play this game. But it really served to focus us. Because not only did we want to beat our opponents, we wanted to beat each other! Double the competition. And we wouldn’t have had a chance at beating either our opponents or one another if we made too many unforced errors.
In the first game, I was having too much fun with it, and I sucked hard (not less). I made a bunch of errors, but luckily our opponents made more. On the second game, I began to take it more seriously, and I went from seven or eight “sucks” in the first game, to one. We easily took care of business in that second game. TCB, baby. Elvis style.
I think there is some value for you in trying this out with a friend. You don’t need to let your opponents know what you’re doing. And the only caution is getting mixed up trying to keep track of two scores. You might have one of you keep the real score, and the other keep the “suck less” score.
NOTE TO BANGERS
This post went off this week on the Bite Size Pickleball Facebook group.
The post came about because I played with a guy recently who just hasn’t gotten the memo, even though he’s played a couple of years. He has a really nice drive, but he drives it 99% of the time. On an advanced level, it’s extremely frustrating to play with someone like that, because you’re susceptible to losing points that could have been won if a drop shot was involved. The drop enables both partners to get up to the NVZ, WHERE THE GAME OF PICKLEBALL IS WON.
Note to bangers: Pickleball IS never won staying back and trying to do it all yourself by continually driving it— unless you’re playing your grandmother. And even she might dink you to death! In which case, you’d have to….suck less.