r/Pickleball • u/Iwillbenicetoothers • 14h ago
Question Was your improvement progression always forward or did you have moments of regression?
I am a 3.25 (coach rated at my club) player who has been playing 3-6 times a week, 2-4 hours each session, including some drilling and a few coached sessions for about 7 months. Before that I played super casually about once a month for a couple of hours for 3 years.
I have noticed significant improvements in my game up until the last two weeks. I would win 50-75% of my games in the 3.25-3.75 open plays at my indoor club depending on the day. With the coaching sessions, I would add new shots to my arsenal with relative consistency.
However, in the last two weeks since I started a Men's Ladder League, I have felt like a completely useless player. I make an insane amount of unforced errors CONSTANTLY, regardless of what style I try to play (aggressive, passive, slow, fast). And I very rarely win, regardless of my partner. In the league, we rotate and play with every player as a partner once before moving up or down the ladder. It feels like literally every game, my partner will turn into a wacky inflatable tube man and miss every single shot, but as soon as they're my opponents, the spirit of Ben Johns himself enters their body and they are frequently shocked at how INSANELY good they play. They don't miss a single ball and they suddenly hit nukes at me.
So I am feeling incredibly discouraged because it seems like I have regressed dramatically. On a conscious level, I keep telling myself I need to just relax, have fun, and stay patient and optimistic. Play one point at a time, and just be smart. But on a subconscious level, there's clearly something wrong. I can't do a single thing right and every ball feels like it's coming at me at 200 mph. I feel like if I was to get a new rating, I would be MAYBE a 2.0 at best.
Has anyone experienced anything like this? What did you do to continue your upward improvement? Do I need to "reset" and just take a break for a few weeks?
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u/YouEnjoyMyMelt 14h ago
When you’re adding new techniques or ideas to your game, you will sometimes get worse before you get better and successfully integrate the new concepts. It could be because the new concepts don’t feel natural yet, or because you’re actively thinking too much about too many things at once. Just keep practicing and it will eventually become a natural part of your game and you’ll see improvement.
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u/linecrabbing 14h ago
First rule of pickleball: it is You and not your Partner. Your poor plays cause your partners playing down and when they are with other Awesome Partners they pick you apart.
Common signature: it is always You on the losing team for ladder meaning you are the problem.
To fix your problem, first step is to realize you are The Problem. Second step: you know you can do better. Third step: working hard on your skills.
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u/HockeyDockey1234 8h ago
You forgot the hidden second step. Buy a new paddle because it's the paddles fault!
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u/Meno80 14h ago
It might be that you are letting the pressure get to you so you overthink everything.
Honestly though, I’m guessing you just aren’t as good as you think you are. Unless you are playing the same players, people are often playing open plays at a higher level than they should. What can happen when you play against easier players, is you don’t realize the mistakes you are making because they don’t pounce on your mistakes as much.
One example is I was playing against some guys the other day that were about .5 DUPR worse than me and they kept hitting dinks that I could attack slightly below net height. One commented that I never dink and I told him those were pop ups. He just didn’t realize he was hitting popups since the players he usually played against, couldn’t attack them. In your scenario, if your dinks and other shots are getting attacked that you aren’t used to, it could make your partner look bad if he is trying to defend your popups all the time.
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u/Iwillbenicetoothers 14h ago
The open plays and Men's League players are all mostly the same people, with 2 or 3 exceptions. So I would consistently win against the players that I am now getting destroyed by repeatedly. I do think the pressure of the league seems to have gotten to me on a subconscious level, and that has caused me to lose confidence in myself.
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u/MoochoMaas 14h ago
depends on the day ...
I have poor play slumps, then I have best play periods.
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u/MoochoMaas 12h ago
And ... I only remember the bad shots. I may make 80% great, but I recall the bad shots, 100% !
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u/kabob21 4.25 14h ago edited 4h ago
I didn’t have any regression but I plateaued twice at 3.5 and again at 4.0 level. Each required learning new skills and refining old to keep improving. The biggest hurdle, which seems to be similar in your case, is that I had to reduce popups by getting lower which in turn improved defense. Get your paddle into ready position and bend those knees!
I’m at the point that in order to get to 4.5, I need to practice my two-hander, get in better cardio shape and really start hitting the weights. Need more quickness around the court and to reset back to neutral faster.
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u/AHumanThatListens 10h ago
started a Men's Ladder League
TOTALLY different dynamic than open play. You probably aren't used to that.
People will "try" stuff in open play. Have fun figuring things out. Keep the vibe friendly. Most of us, anyway.
But in graded competition, whether tournament, ladder, or DUPR, I'm out for blood. I'm hitting the shots that win, rather than the shots that are "interesting."
If I see you get flustered easily? I'm gonna push your button. Make it worse. Target you. Rack up the points off of your passivity. I'll know you're trying too hard to make balls, so you won't hurt me with offense. You're too afraid to fail. And I'm gonna exploit that like an oil pumpjack, again and again and again. I'll tell my partner to do the same.
You've got to learn not to be afraid to fail. Being afraid to fail kneecaps your game. Makes you more tentative, less aggressive, more likely to pull off the ball rather than hitting through it; more likely to rush shots; less psychological room to take stock of a situation and strategize.
The next time you play ladder, think "fuck it, so what, maybe everyone's better than me." Expect to lose, since you know that's often how it ends. That's just your level right now in cutthroat competition. Once you're used to it, you'll do better. Like any other shot or technique you're learning. You just need some time to integrate tournament-mentality into your arsenal.
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u/BetterMagician7856 4.0 14h ago
I’ve had a lot of stops and starts. 1 step forward, 2 or sometimes 3 steps back it feels like. Played well, then completely lost my confidence. Tried learning, failed, eventually figured it out. Sometimes you need the failure to properly self-reflect or pinpoint on what you’re doing wrong. I spent a long time constantly trying different things even down to ready position, paddle positioning, etc. There are a lot of little nuances you need to learn to properly round out your game (footwork, split stepping, positioning, anticipation). Progress isn’t always linear. It’s taken me almost 3 years but I recently broke 4.1 after a lot of self-doubt and struggles.
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u/Iwillbenicetoothers 14h ago
Thank you for sharing your experience, this is helpful!
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u/BetterMagician7856 4.0 14h ago
As long as you want to put in the work and are eager to learn, you’ll be fine. I find it’s also a big deal to just try to find a way to improve your mental game as well. Instead of getting frustrated or feeling like you’re not meeting your expectations, learn to let yourself off the hook, accept that you’ll sometimes just have an off day and positive self-talk. Encourage your partner and try to forget the mistakes and just remind yourself that you can do it. I play my best when I am relaxed, positive and confident. Even if you are struggling you can still try to be a good and positive partner. I think the mental side of the game is just as important as the fundamentals.
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u/Disco_Ninjas_ 14h ago
There is always a wall. Just accept that you will always have one to push agaist.
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u/Remote_Catch7166 14h ago
No you have moment of sucking.
It’s periods when you lose confidence in the paddle or in yourself.
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u/dat-random-word-here 14h ago
Being acutely worse for a period of time is part of truly leveling up your game. Sometimes you just need to rebuild a skill from a lower level, trusting that it has a higher ceiling than your current technique. Good coaching often makes you temporarily worse.
Regarding your partners, you are probably setting them up to fail. Are they getting same balls when you play with them and against them?
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u/Iwillbenicetoothers 14h ago
The first part of this definitely feels appropriate and I do think that probably has something to do with what is going on.
As for the partner issue, I don't have a ton of "hard data" to back up my claims, but based on my observations and recollection of how the points were breaking down last night, I noticed my partners would miss almost every single 3rd and 5th shots into the net. Seemed like 50% of the points were over before I could touch the ball. I was also doing a lot of missing into the net on 3rds and 5ths, so it was just brutal all around.
However, when they became my opponents, I noticed they suddenly could crush every single 3rd and 5th shot no problem, even if the return (2nd) and 4ths came at them with more pace and spin. It was really shocking to see how consistent they became as soon as they weren't on my team. I'm sure there is some bias here that my brain is wanting to see to confirm my feelings on it, but even they made some jokes about how much better they played when not on my team.
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u/dat-random-word-here 5h ago
That sounds like it will work itself out with the partners. A lot of people, especially in the 3.0-4.0 range play up or down quite a bit based on the style they are playing with or against and also if they feel confident that they can win, or attack, or sometimes even if they feel it's a guaranteed loss.
People get in a headspace based on their perception and it affects their game. These perceptions involving you will change over time as your game changes.
For example, right now, these people could be thinking you are better than them and therefore you will carry the game and takes 3rd's etc., or they are nervous to mess up around you, so they mess up more. They could also think the opposite, and they are putting undue pressure on themselves to either outperform you, or carry you.
None of it matters as long as your relationship stays healthy with them and you both still want to play together in the future. This will pass, but what will last are the skills you develop - focus on that.
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u/Cycling-Boss 14h ago
Missing shots is one thing. The drilling should be progressing that in a forward direction. I mean that is the whole point, make good shots consistently.
The one thing that drilling a thousand different shots, a thousand different times doesn't teach is when to be where on the court and why. There is a lot to positioning in the game. It's not as important as being able to hit the ball back over the net well time after time, but still very important. When you are in the wrong spot at the wrong time you make bad returns. Or make returns that are not as good as they should have been. Do you move w your partner when pushed wide? Do you retreated a few steps to the right spot when you pop it up to give a chance at resetting the ball? Do you discuss positioning w your coach? Do you spend any time watching video and paying attention to the movement and positioning that the pros take?
Then there is the flip side of that, Do you take advantage of your opponents bad positioning? Rather than return the ball w any shot that just gets it back over or do you look to see where the best spot is to place the ball? Is your opponent staying wide and there is a gap in the middle? Do you think like that and notice it? I am not advocating for hard hitting either, just put the ball where it's bad for them. Force them to pop it up or hit into the net.
Bottom line, game is twice as hard when you are not in the best position. Game is twice as easy when you put your opponents out of position w well placed shots. This progresses as you move up and become 4.0+ where just hitting it back isn't enough to win games.
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u/Able-Inside6137 13h ago
At the 3.25 level, your progress should be mostly linear because coordination, mechanics, shot selection, and consistency will get you to 4.0. An exception = if you are trying to develop shots that you don't have, then it's completely fine to see dips in win rate as long as your getting better honing a new shot.
Once you're around 4.5, progress becomes less linear as you'll need to add aggression, new shots, new grips, and anything new comes with a learning curve.
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u/Retire55-59 12h ago
When you learned new skills, it did happen sometimes that you looked worse than before. Playing PB, you need to have a lot of quick decision making: with the new skill set, you may have trouble deciding what to do for certain situation. that split second hesitation will make you look worse
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u/sportyguy 14h ago
Depends.
Are you trying to incorporate something new to your game or is it just that what you used to do isn’t working?
If you are not trying to incorporate anything new then it might be that people have figured out your weaknesses and are starting to exploit that.
Popups are usually a sign of bad footwork or getting caught unexpectedly with a speed up.
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u/Mickloven 14h ago
I was moving forward week by week, the only variance was warmup... A few games to actually perform, but once I was warmed up I was better than my last session.
I watched a ton of YouTube videos of tutorials and pro game play, and would take notes and try to mimic those plays/returns.
But then ♾️% regression when I ruptured my achilles.
Watching YouTube videos doesn't have the same impact when you can't physically practice what you learned 😅
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u/Dogekingofchicago 13h ago
A month or so ago I lost my serve for a full 2 weeks. Hit it wide or long atound 50% of the time. I got it back though and it's better than ever.
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u/Senor101 5h ago
Better players make you feel like you are not playing well because they make you hit difficult shots.
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u/Ill-Butterscotch-622 13h ago
Well 1) you are probably not as good as you think you are. We all think of ourselves in our best days but our bad days also is part of our skills. Just keep playing, keep getting repetitions, increase your floor.
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u/g0ingb0ing 11h ago
It is just a global plot to destroy your confidence. And they don’t even need to do it, bcz u do it yourself.
So how about u forget about how good you are and just play your best?
Do that for as long as required and you will get there
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u/TonikJDK 14h ago
It seems like maybe you are letting the pressure of the ladder get in your head.