PICKLEBALL
ISN’ T JUST ONE PLAYER HITTING A GREAT SHOT AND WINNING A POINT.
IT’ S TWO PLAYERS
SYNCHRONIZING,
PLAYING AS
ONE.
I’ ve watched the reverse play out too— a top player switches partners, and the new pairing doesn’ t try to copy the old chemistry. They spend real time figuring out who attacks off which shots, who covers when the other commits, where their patterns overlap instead of collide. That adjustment period is real, even at the highest level. It doesn’ t happen by accident.
The lesson for the rest of us: Stop assuming your partner should play like you would. Find out what they’ re good at, build your patterns around it, and get out of the way. If your partner has heavy hands and loves attacking out of the air, feed them into that position instead of trying to end the point yourself every time. Teams win more points when both players play to their strength than when both play to their ego.
““ It’ s a communication gap wearing a footwork costume.”
— KYLE McMAKIN
Consistency is a Teammate’ s Gift
Nothing tests a partnership faster than playing with someone who won’ t keep the ball in play. I’ ve been on the wrong end of this myself— paired with a talented player who had every shot in the bag but we lost a match we should have won because he kept driving balls into the net instead of giving the point a chance to develop.
Here’ s the thing that gets lost: A drive doesn’ t have to be a kill shot every time. It can be a setup shot. If your partner is charging the net behind you, the job of your drive might not be to win the point outright— it might be to put the ball in a spot that keeps the point alive and lets your partner arrive in position to finish it. That means taking something off the shot on purpose.
Ninety-percent pace with a little more shape or spin, aimed to draw a weak return, will win you more points as a team than a full-power drive that’ s in the net one time out of three.
This is shot selection discipline, not a talent gap. Before you go for the low-percentage power shot, ask what your partner needs from this ball to be in position for the next
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SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2026 | MAGAZINE 23