Tips for better pickleball in 2026

Tip of the day

Professional player Anna Bright shares a detailed list of strategies to help players of all levels reach their goals in 2026.

Her first recommendation is to perform a complete brain dump of every skill you want to improve before prioritizing the most impactful items.

Monitoring your kitchen arrival percentage is a critical metric for understanding how well you transition from defense to offense.

Regular drilling is essential because it allows you to hit significantly more balls than you would during standard recreational play.

Training with three people is a highly effective way to simulate realistic game scenarios that two-person drills often lack.

Players should focus on eliminating footwork errors caused by laziness and develop a strong dislike for making unforced errors.

Finding a consistent paddle and sticking with it is more important for progress than constantly switching to the newest equipment.

Physical training such as wrist strengthening and medicine ball exercises can help generate the power needed for advanced shots.

Mental tools like box breathing and meditation are suggested to help manage the anxiety that often occurs during competitive matches.

Key Points:

Prioritize your improvement list ruthlessly to avoid becoming overwhelmed by too many goals at once.
Aim for high kitchen arrival percentages to ensure you are playing points from a structured position.
Seek out drilling partners who are equally committed to the nitty-gritty work required for improvement.
Focus on your strengths just as much as your weaknesses to maximize your competitive advantage.
Create high-pressure environments in practice by playing for small stakes like push-ups or local money matches.

Winter struggles 🤣

That’s it for today! As always, thank you for reading. 🙏

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Happy pickling,

Paul