The Pickleball Cowboy on Competing When the Stakes are High You’re in a tournament. The match matters. Maybe it’s for the gold medal, maybe it’s to avoid a drop in your rating, maybe it’s just a game against a rival you’ve never beaten. You’ve been playing solidly all day—clean serves, consistent dinks, effortless resets. Then the score hits 8-all. And something shifts. Your paddle feels heavier. Your feet slow down. You float a serve long. You pop up an easy third-shot drop.

You are better off going into a match with a plan. You need a baseline to be able to change a plan if it is not working. Good players will adjust, so you must be able to adjust as well. You certainly need to know yourself, what you can and cannot do. Good players have a weapon, and they know how to maximize that weapon. You need to be able to size up your opponents from the get-go. Where are they most consistent and where do they make errors? Do they like pace? Spin? Is their