When my friends and I were looking for something to do one Sunday night before the school week, we decided to go and play pickleball at Lee Park near our houses. This was all to get out of the house and have some fun together over a game that not a lot of us have played too many times in our lives.
Most of my exposure to pickleball was from school in our unit on the game in Move P.E. but now a lot more pressure was on my shoulders to perform with the little experience I had. In most of the matches I played, I was pretty rubbish compared to my friends, but I came to realize that I was there to have fun with friends rather than being good at something I had never really played before. As the matches ticked by I became more and more competitive within myself because I wanted to become better at this skill because I was pretty bad as I came to realise. This may be a total shift in mentality, but realistically those are the moods that I went through that night.
Stepping out of my comfort zone to play a new game is something I rarely tend to do because I often keep things simple. After I played that Sunday night, I left the court with a realization that I had fun trying something different for a change and that I should try to replicate that feeling more often.
The pressures that come from having to be able to return a serve for your team are important because as the game progresses, it is crucial to be consistent and not throw away any points as a result of a mistake. “It's alright, your improving” is an encouraging phrase that your teammate can give you when learning the flow of pickleball and how you should recover from tough runs.
The struggles of this activity are real and often pass through my head when things aren't going the best at times. But getting back to the game and getting more practice builds confidence and ability from the mistakes that are made. Learning and improving at something like pickleball can translate to different activities in everyday life and the ability to grow as an individual.