You miss a shot. You're frustrated or angry. You've got about 6 to 8 seconds to assess what went wrong and get over it before the next point starts.
Instead of chasing ten different skills at once, Kyle Koszuta breaks down three core techniques that actually move the needle, including a mental checklist for pushing past a bad mistake (something we can all relate to).
If you're practicing hard but not seeing results, this is worth your time.
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- Don't Attack From a Disadvantage This is the foundational skill Koszuta emphasizes first. Most players, especially at lower levels, make the same mistake: they try to hit a winner when they're out of position.
The problem is obvious once you think about it, but easy to ignore in the moment.
Koszuta frames every rally in two phases.
There's neutral, where all four players are at the kitchen line and balanced. Then there's disadvantage, where one or more players are outstretched, off-balance, or off the line. When you're in that disadvantaged spot, your job isn't to attack. It's to neutralize.
He outlines three types of neutralizing shots:
Drive out of trouble to get a softer ball and reset the point. Hit a sky lob to buy time and reposition your team. Reset the ball back into the kitchen so you can move forward again. The key insight: if you're going to lose the point anyway, at least make your opponent w... FULL ARTICLE FOUND ON: https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/the-6-second-mental-reset-for-getting-past-a-bad-pickleball-mistake/
