e ntal Game
succeeding and I got curious about what differentiated them from those who were stalled out.”
Gingrich turned to coaching juniors tennis at a private club. After a while, he realized something was missing.“ My students struggled to execute in competition and weren’ t progressing at the rate I knew they could. I began to see that their technical skills weren’ t holding them back— their mindset was.
“ I changed my entire teaching model. The power of their minds was going to be the driver of their performance, not their racket angle at contact.
“ The difference in my athletes’ performance was immediate: the stress of trying to be mechanically perfect disappeared as if a huge weight had been lifted. Instead, they came to the court driven to find the emotional clarity that would allow them to perform to their fullest.”
Gingrich switched from playing tennis to pickleball in 2018. He became a seven-time national champion, seven-time U. S. champion, and won more than 40 gold medals as a senior pro.
“ Long before I played pickleball, I had become interested in [ a game’ s mental aspects ] and started honing those skills while playing semiprofessional poker,” Gingrich says.“ Importing those skills to the pickleball court immediately provided an advantage, and fed my love for pattern recognition and putting the competitive puzzle together before my opponents.”
Gingrich met Martin in 2021 when she was a student in one of his clinics. Martin is an attorney, personal trainer, yoga instructor and pickleball fanatic.
“ Pickleball players from 3.0 to pro struggle with the mental performance aspect of the game, but it’ s not talked about much,” she says.“ One day they are playing lights out and nothing can stop them. The next, it’ s as if they were just handed a pickleball paddle. Nothing has changed about their skills, only what’ s going on between their ears.
Coach Dayne Gingrich gives instruction in San Diego.
“ Because it’ s a leisure activity for your typical 3.5 rec player, it can feel crazy to struggle with mindset. So I hope that reading our book normalizes how hard the mindset piece can be, and how huge the dividends can be on and off the court to learn strategies to harness the power of your mind.”
Gingrich agrees,“ Winning at any sport isn’ t only about being the most physically skilled.”
His coaching philosophy can be summed up in his email signature:“ Goals, you do. Visions, you become. Become someone.” •
Matthew Schwartz spent 40 years in television news and won more than 200 awards, including four Emmys and four Edward R. Murrow awards for investigative reporting. His 2020 memoir,“ Confessions of an Investigative Reporter,” was an Amazon # 1 bestseller. He writes a weekly blog for Hudef Sport and plays pickleball every day.
JULY / AUGUST 2025 | MAGAZINE 37