Pickleball Magazine 3-4 Courtesy of Pickleball Guru | Page 34

PICKLEBALL INSTRUCTION
T
his is an unforgiving
description of having “closing”
or “finishing” problems.
Closing problems are defined
as “not being able to get the
final points to win a game (or match),
after having momentum.”
How or why this happens is often
circumstantial (who you’re playing
against or with, what you ate for
breakfast, a wind picks up, the sun
comes out, fatigue, etc.). It’s really
anyone’s guess, but let’s explore a few
possible scenarios.
How to be a
CLOSER
BY ROB DAVIDSON
Have you ever had a strong lead, o nly to have
your momentum stop just short of finishing
the game? Your stomach is in knots as your
opponents get point after point, clawing their
way back into the game and, before you know
it, you’ve not only lost the lead, but the game.
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1. Premature Celebration
Syndrome (PCS): You’re
more than doubling your
opponents’ score and you start getting
excited about your imminent win, or you
start thinking about who you’ll play next.
Fatal mistake!
2. Partner Blame Folly (PBF): Your
partner makes a couple of unforced
errors, and suddenly you
don’t trust him or her. Your
partner senses this and
the partnership unravels before your
eyes.
3. Complete Collapse of
Confidence (CCC): You’re
playing a team that you’ve
never beaten, and the victory is within
your grasp! But, you’ve never beaten
them before, and they just got a side
out. Uh-oh, they just got a point. Ah!
They just poached my favorite volley
shot for a winner. How can we beat
this team? We’ve never beaten them
before. (I doubt Henry Ford ever played
pickleball, but if he had, he might say,
“Whether you think you can or whether
you think you can’t, you’re right.”)
4. Beating a Dead Horse
(BDH): You have a strong
lead, and you must have
done something right to get that lead.
Maybe your strategy was hitting two
to opponent A then one to opponent B,
and that rhythm caused them to make
an error every time. But suddenly they
stop making the error, and now they’re
forcing errors on you. Two points go
by. You call a time out and confer with