Mastering the Mental Game of Pickleball: Developing a Winning Mindset and Overcoming Mental Mistakes

This book provides a detailed analysis of pickleball mental mistakes and the practices that can prevent them. Hello, my name is Joe Baker. I’m known as “Video Joe” due to my analysis of thousands of hours of game videos to determine the root causes of rally losses. I’ve found that for most players, half or more of rallies end due to unforced errors. About half of these errors stem from mental mistakes and from “bad thinking.” In this book I address these mistakes and provide concrete steps to prevent them. However, eliminating mental mistakes and bad thinking mistakes is only part of the goal of this book. The other goal is to help you develop “peak performance” mental practices that allow you to play to your full potential.In this book, all of the topics below will be Low self confidenceNervousnessIndecision, ConfusionComplacency, Lost focus, Mental lapsesRushingFrustrationMis-beliefsOvercoming deficitsGetting “in the zone”Drills and Skills for SuccessPlease don’t expect a simple “pep talk.” I believe that “mental game” and “inner game” advice should not be generic (such as, “be confident and believe in yourself”) but should instead be 1) specific to the activities and needs of the game of pickleball, and 2) based on bona-fide evidence that the practices reduce mental mistakes and create better, smarter playing performance.The goal of this book is to help you recognize and reduce your mental mistakes and to help you develop your thinking so that you will maximize your chances of winning pickleball games. The advice and information provided comes from a deep, shot-by-shot analysis of thousands of pickleball rallies, from an academic analysis of peak performance science, and from the collective knowledge of tournament players.Where you are going to end up on the spectrum that ranges from bad player to top professional player is going to depend to a large extent on your thinking, such as your beliefs, attitudes, and choices.