The Smash Feels Great But Loses You the Game

A couple of months back, I walked onto the Pickleball court at my local YMCA ready for a competitive game. To my disappointment, I got paired with a mother, easily past sixty-five and her tall and lanky daughter. Neither of them looked like they were athletes.

I have always seen myself as athletic. I have played different sports – judo, BJJ and badminton. I thought this game with the mother and daughter was going to be a complete waste of my time.

To my horror, the mother and daughter beat me and my partner 11-5. At one point in the game, I was scared we could have lost 11-0. When we got our first point, I was quite relieved.

Anybody who looks at pickleball from the outside likely feels like it is nothing. It looks like a sport invented for people who used to play tennis and can't anymore. I felt this way when I first saw a couple of people playing pickleball at the YMCA a year ago. This looks like a game for seniors – there is no rush. This isn’t true.

I have been playing for a year now. The shot I love is the smash. This is a shot when the ball is at shoulder height and you hit it hard at the opponent. The smash is the shot that feels like the sport rewarding you for being athletic. It has the same feel of a good punch in boxing.

The mother and the daughter let me hit smashes that evening. And I kept missing those smashes. It was almost like they were making fun of me. Giving me the easier blocks to make me hit the smashes and then they just reset those shots.

The mother was the scarier of the two. At the outset, she looked like she wouldn’t be able to move much. And, she didn’t actually move much. But, her hand-eye coordination was so good. She didn’t miss any shot. And, she seemed quite calm.

I was fuming. After that game, I couldn’t sleep at night. Why had I lost so badly? Why had my favorite shot not worked?

Over the next few weeks of thinking and staying awake at night, I came to realize that I didn’t fail because my smashes were not good. I failed because I was trying too hard and too frequently. I had lost because I was trying to hit a smash on every ball that even looked like a smash. The mother knew this. I'm sure of it now. She was feeding me the shots that looked smashable, and waiting for me to overplay them. She did it again and again and I never caught on.

Had I chosen my smashes for the right balls, I am sure the results would have been different. I find this true in my everyday life also. Choosing how and when I direct my efforts has a huge impact on the results.

I met the mother and daughter again after a few weeks. We didn’t get to play a game but the mother smiled and told me that I had a great smash. I just needed to wait for the right ball.

The smash is still my favorite shot. In my games now, I choose when I hit smashes. I play the soft game for the most part but when I get the right ball, then I pounce on it.

So, what is your smash?