I Love Pickleball

There’s no perfect sport, but there is pickleball. The mix of fast and slow, touch and technique, the low barrier to entry along with the immense depth of skill progression. It is an awesome social activity, physical exercise, and practice in emotion management and communication -especially when you’re playing doubles. I experienced all of these while playing at the Newport Beach APP 3.0 Men’s Doubles Tournament this past weekend.

Weekend Tournament Emotions

My first doubles match was a barn burner, a super tight 15 point match, where my partner and I started down 8-11. I missed a shot at 8-11, and I called a timeout. We did not talk strategy, I just said, “I need to breathe.” I took a couple deep breaths to regulate my breathing, took in the scenery around me, and enjoyed the moment. I felt a little less anxious about losing but still felt determined to win. We went on to win 7 points in a row, and won the final point with a sweet “shake and bake.” My partner and I felt proud, excited to share our first victory with friends and family.

Throughout the tournament, I felt a range of emotions: fear, exhaustion, excitement, joy, frustration, pride, and anger. I can’t say I handled them all perfectly well, but I allowed myself to feel them and move through me. I even swore aloud a couple times, and apologized immediately afterwards. I communicated with my partner the things I wanted to do, the things he did well, and things both he and I could do better.

Even in sports, I realized I cannot ignore or pretend that these emotions don’t exist inside of me. Like I said in my previous post, they are all part of my team. Sometimes my emotions need me to manage them, sometimes they help me. Trust me, after 6 hours of pickleball, I really needed anxiety to help me focus, anger to want to win after a bad “out” call, and joy to enjoy the whole experience regardless.

If you don’t want to take it from me, listen to what the GOAT has to say about emotional management below.

Either way, I’m super grateful at the end of the tournament that I stayed injury free, enjoyed competitive pickleball with my partner, and honestly learned a lot. I’m also feeling determined to do even better next time.

My work

Yoojin Nam LMFT is the author of Thinking to Feel. He has been providing psychotherapy for 7 years and is licensed to practice in CA & TX.

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Disclaimer: These posts are not a replacement for therapy. The information contained within is for educational purposes only and is not intended to be therapeutic advice.