Stop Attacking The Wrong Balls

It's not instinct. It's a skill you can actually train.

Author

Empower Pickleball
May 26, 2026

What are the chances?

Every week we encourage you to share your pickleball stories with us, and the latest one is one of the strangest yet.

Sports fans of a certain age will never forget the moment Randy Johnson's fastball took out a bird mid-flight. It's one of those "you had to see it to believe it" moments. Well, Marsha accidentally recreated it during a drill session when her return collided mid-air with an unsuspecting bird.

We did not see that coming. Neither did the bird. Got a pickleball story of your own? Share it below—bonus points if it's more uplifting than Marsha's.

Inside:

  • How to know if a ball is actually attackable (most players get this wrong)

  • What you need before your first pickleball game

  • The mental edge: why "staying positive" isn't the mental game

🏆 MLP Dallas: Mad Drops Win the First Event of 2026

Photo credit: @CP_Pickleball

The LA Mad Drops came into the 2026 season opener and made absolutely no mistakes. Ben Johns, Jade Kawamoto, Catherine Parenteau, and company went a perfect 5-0 through group play at Pickler Universe.

Then they closed out the Columbus Sliders 3-1 in the championship match to claim the event title belt and 25 standings points. The Dreambreaker tiebreak was a recurring storyline all weekend, with singles specialists proving their worth in multiple tight matches. A few highlights:

  • The Mad Drops themselves showed serious resilience during group play—digging out from 0-2 against St. Louis to win a Dreambreaker 21-15 with the help of Gabriel Joseph

  • Siblings JW and Jorja Johnson headlined the FS1 matchup where Jorja’s new squad, The 5s, came away with the win

The Mad Drops leave Dallas in first place overall and look like the team to beat to start the MLP season. A new batch of teams will take the courts this week at MLP Columbus.

👉 Get up to speed on the MLP season here.

🌎 Around the Picklesphere

🍧 The perfect pick for summer play
🧑‍🍳 Kitchen drills that will make you a better player in no time
🧠 The dopamine effect that keeps players coming back
🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Be a part of the Empower Pickleball Fam and save 30% with code EMPOWER30

🎯 How to Tell When a Pickleball Is Attackable

Photo credit: The APP

Most players know the feeling—the ball comes up a little high and something inside says go. But knowing when to actually pull the trigger is a skill, not instinct. Swinging at the wrong ball hands your opponent the point.

Here's what makes a ball attackable:

  • Height at contact—if you're hitting below net height, that's a reset, not an attack

  • The bounce—a high, soft bounce means the ball is sitting up; a flat skidding bounce means you're on defense

  • Your feet—stretched or off-balance? Wait. The best attacks come when you're planted and stepping into the shot

  • Your opponent's position—the real green light is when the ball is up and they're scrambling

Patience and timing beat reckless aggression every time. Pick your moment—when all four line up, go.

👉 Find the full guide to play more aggressively here.

Stop Sliding Inside Your Shoes

Pickleball demands quick movement. Hard stops, lateral cuts, fast push-offs.

But there’s a small problem many players overlook: your foot sliding inside your shoe.

Even with good court shoes, internal movement can lead to toe jams, blisters, slower reactions, and wasted energy during push-off. A lot of players assume it’s the shoe, when the missing piece is often the sock.

Squid Socks are designed with grip zones that stabilize your foot inside the shoe so your movement stays more connected to the court.

More stability.
More control.
Less sliding around mid-rally.

👉 Play locked in and save 20% on Squid Socks with code EMPOWER20.

🥒 What You Need Before Your First Pickleball Game

Starting pickleball doesn't require an expensive equipment haul—it just takes a few basics and the right mindset. Here's what actually matters before your first time on the court:

  • A beginner-friendly paddle (borrowing one for your first few sessions is completely fine)

  • Court shoes with lateral support—not running shoes, which leave you vulnerable to rolled ankles on quick side-to-side cuts

  • The right ball for your surface (indoor balls have larger holes and are lighter; outdoor balls are harder and built for wind and rough courts)

  • A water bottle—one game turns into five faster than you think

  • Comfortable athletic clothes you already own; the pickleball apparel rabbit hole can wait

A basic grasp of scoring, the kitchen rule, and the two-bounce rule will keep you from feeling totally lost—but most open play communities are extremely welcoming to beginners. The real secret to getting better fast? Show up, ask questions, laugh at your mistakes, and keep coming back. Because that's the part of pickleball you can't buy.

👉 Invite your friends out for their first game and share this guide to make sure they’re ready for their first dink.

🧠 Mental Edge: Stop Training the Wrong Skill

The mistake didn't lose you the point. What happened in your head after it did. Every player makes errors—what separates elite competitors from everyone else isn't fewer mistakes—it's how fast they recover from them.

Coach B, creator of the Mental Edge: The X Factor™ system, calls this mental recovery speed—and she teaches it with a three-step tool called the 3 N's:

  • Notice it—catch the inner critic before it spirals: the tightness, the self-judgment, the "how could you miss that?" spiral

  • Name it—put language to what's happening ("that's my Judge showing up"); neuroscience confirms that labeling it interrupts the automatic reaction

  • Neutralize it—fire your trained reset: a breath, a phrase, a physical anchor that brings you back to clarity and composure

Rep this consistently and your recovery gets faster point by point. You don't have to play a perfect match. You just have to recover a little faster than you did before.

👉 Take the same complimentary mental fitness assessment Anna Bright took.

Interested in having your event listed? Reach out to us and let’s chat!

Have a pickleball story you would like to share?

Tell us what’s happening at your local courts—the wins, the debates, and the moments everyone’s talking about.

We might feature your story in an upcoming newsletter.

Partner With Us?

Every week, our newsletter lands in inboxes of players who live and breathe pickleball. They come to us for the latest news, gear, drills, and stories that celebrate the people behind the sport.

Does your brand believe in growing the game and supporting the people who play it? Let’s make something happen.