Should I Enter a Tournament?

Any time is a good time in your pickleball journey to enter a tournament.  Tournaments have a variety of brackets based on age and skill level and can be a lot of fun.  However, I know many advanced players who have never played a tournament and never plan to.  The sport has plenty of fun and competition without spending a dime on an entry fee.  That said, tournaments can accelerate your development as a player, and I encourage you to consider them.

Why Play a Tournament?

Spoiler alert: it is not to win medals (though that’s a nice bonus).  The reason to play a tournament, especially at the beginning of your journey, is to have fun, test your game physically and mentally, and, most importantly, meet new local players in your area to add to your pickleball Rolodex.  As you get deeper into your pickleball addiction, you will soon ask, “How can I find better games?”  The answer to that question is to meet better players, and there are certainly better players at a tournament.  You will compete against them and potentially warm up with them on open courts.  A tournament is the quickest way to build a network of local players with a similar interest in getting better at the game.

Which Tournament Should I Enter?

Initially, I recommend entering a local tournament vs. one of the larger PPA or APP type tournaments. Local tournaments are cheaper, and many benefit local charities, so it’s money well spent.  They also offer a variety of formats that provide the potential for many more games.  Prioritize the number of guaranteed games and tournament reputation for efficiency over swag or brand name.  You don’t want to come away from the experience with, “We spent all day and were two and out, and all I have to show for it is this lousy T-shirt.”  In addition, a primary goal of playing a tournament is meeting potential drilling and playing partners.  You’ll likely meet new friends who live only a short drive away at local tournaments. 

Who do I Play With?

The local court is great for finding people to play with and determining your competition level.  Ask your friends if they have ever competed and what bracket they entered.  You will get a good sense of what level to enter based on research at your next open play.  In addition, if an experienced player is at your level, invite them to compete with you.  Even if they compete with another regular partner, they may agree to play a local charity event and show you the ropes.  If you can’t find a partner at your home court, most tournaments have a “player needing partner” process.  If the tournaments use PickleballBrackets.com or PickleballTournaments.com to manage the tournament process, each platform has a way of contacting players who need partners.  Have a quick chat with them, and see if they could be a good fit with your personality and respective playing styles.  This is how I found my first tournament partner.  He was from out of town and needed a partner, and he carried us to a bronze medal in a local 4.0 tournament.  He is now a senior pro and is one of the kindest ambassadors for the sport one could ever know.

How to Keep a Partner?

I could write an entire article on how to be a good partner, but for the sake of brevity, the central tenets are to harness positivity and confidence.  Tournament play is a lot more mental than rec play.  The nerves and stress go up fivefold, and positive and negative momentum is amplified.  The more you play tournaments, the more confident you become as you trust your training.  That said, everyone will have some lapses in play, and you will want a partner who picks you up when you are down and helps you maintain a confident focus when you are up. You should be kind and supportive in turn.  Rolling your eyes or turning your back on your partner after they miss a shot will not help them make their next dink any softer and most likely will result in more errors, not less.  One of the best and most positive mixed doubles teams in the game, Thomas Wilson and Vivian David, have noted that they feel like they are playing a rec game together as they compete at pro tournaments.  They are loose and confident, and it shows in their results.

What Does Winning Look Like?

It’s about more than medals.  A gold medal at a level well beneath you, played in a way that garnered no new friends and did not test your mental or physical resolve, should be considered a loss.  Achieving a hard-fought middle-of-the-pack finish with many lessons learned and solid playing contacts is far more rewarding!  Chances are, during the heat of the tournament, you found areas in your game that did not hold up under pressure, and hopefully, you also found some like-minded new friends that you can employ to work on them.  In the long term, you will find these new relationships worth more than their weight in gold.

John is a PPR Certified Instructor, a professional rec player known by his pickleball friends as “The Professor.”  He aims to help players navigate their pickleball addiction with weekly tips from etiquette to technique to injury prevention.  He can be reached at ThePickleProf.com.