Stuck in the OH, FUDGE Zone: Learning to Shake Off Pickleball Dysfunction

Why am I getting worse at pickleball?

You’re getting better, improving steadily at the game, and then – smack – you stubbornly fail to return balls inbounds, you flub once-easy overhead smashes, and shots you do return are often too high, or too poorly placed to be anything but gifts to the opposing side.

You compensate by hitting with less confidence. You go to a drop serve just to cut down on the suddenly increasing number of service faults you’re making. You make fruitless explorations of YouTube videos in search of magic answers that don’t materialize.

We here at Murmurs from the Losers’ Bracket call this sorry state of affairs the OH, FUDGE Zone.

We here at Murmurs from the Losers’ Bracket have reason to believe that the proficiency curve of pickleball arrives at a cliff at some point.

Once you get to OH, FUDGE – Often Having Failing Underperforming Depressing Game Experiences – it’s hard to dig yourself out.

Rick Reilly, the venerable sports writer, put it best when he called pickleball, “a game you could take up at breakfast and be pretty good by noon.”

But what he didn’t say is that, for some people, if you play long enough, you start reverting to breakfast form.

At least that’s the opinion here..

We seem to be mired so much in mediocrity that it appears we are moving backwards, not forwards. How does this happen?

My DUPR score, once at a 3.9 is down to 3.6 and falling. People I used to beat regularly seem to have gotten much, much better.

What’s going on?

I’ve been doing some reading on the subject, and there’s some solace in knowing that I’m not alone.

Some people suggest that this phenomenon of feeling backward motion is nothing more than what comes with a greater understanding of the game.

That with more awareness of the various techniques of the game comes a deeper realization of how much you’ve yet to learn.

Think of it like learning to play the piano without listening much to recordings of piano players. At first, you might feel good about your own skills as a pianist if you don’t expose yourself to much listening.

But once you explore the wide world of piano playing and sample the proficiency of gifted players, you suddenly come to grips with just how much you’ve yet to learn.

You might even think you’re getting worse at the piano.

Here’s another way of looking at it: That there are three stages of pickleball.

Stage One Pickleball is typically the first few months. It’s the stage when you learn the game and experience so much joy in discovering just how fun it is to play as you meet new people who are also learning and loving the game.

Part of the reason you’re so enamored by pickleball is that you have no idea just how bad of a player you really are.

That comes next when you gradually get to Stage Two Pickleball.

This is an amorphous longer stage where the vast number of intermediate players are and never leave. It’s the stage where you learn frustration about your backhand, your inability to reliably make third-shot drops or your failure to deal effectively with bangers.

It’s the stage where you come to grips with your station in the pickleball world. You start noticing the people who will play with you, and more tellingly, the people who won’t.

What do you do?

Do you keep looking to play with players who are better than you in hopes of improving? Do you take clinics or lessons while also drilling particular skills you need to add to your game?

Or do you remain haphazardly mediocre, content to enjoy playing a game without feeling the need to correct or dwell on your shortcomings?

For some players, Stage Two Pickleball is as far as they’ll get. But for others who are more competitive, and want something more from the game than some new contacts on their phone lists, Stage Three Pickleball awaits.

Pickleball is serious for Stage Three players. They seek tournaments, play with a small set of players who are athletically worthy and seek out private and backyard courts, rather than mix with the hoi polloi at public open-play courts.

Here’s something else to throw in the mix.

My problem, in part, is I’m wallowing in Stage Two Pickleball – playing but not drilling – as more and more younger players discover the game.

As pickleball grows in popularity, its exploding growth is attracting younger players who learn the game quickly and flood the ranks of Stage Two Pickleball players with a more energetic, athletic style of play.

Or to put it another way. It’s not that I’m getting worse. It’s that the average pickleball player is getting better as the pool of players swell.

But maybe I’m just overthinking it.

It just might be that this performance doldrum is just the natural progression of things. That everybody eventually finds their game entering the OH, FUDGE Zone.

Deal with it, I should be telling myself. It doesn’t have to be permanent.

The key is to keep smiling and take constructive steps – like drilling, lessons or observing better players – to get to the other side.

And most of all, be patient. Reconnect with the joy. Keep reminding myself that playing pickleball, regardless of the final score, is winning.

Zero, zero, two.

MURMURS FROM THE LOSERS’ BRACKET

Read past editions of Murmurs from the Losers’ Bracket, including:

Frank Cerabino is a long-time columnist for the Palm Beach Post in Florida, a pickleball addict like the rest of us, and a newly published author. Check out Frank’s newly released book, I Dink, Therefore I Am: Coming to Grips with My Pickleball Addiction (available on Amazon and a great read (or gift!) for any pickleball player), for pickleball tips and laughs!

Stuck in the OH, FUDGE Zone: Learning to Shake Off Pickleball Dysfunction

MURMURS FROM THE LOSERS’ BRACKET

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