26 things to level up your pickle in 2026!

If you’re reading this, I’m calling it now. 2026 is our year, ladies and gentlemen. 2026 is the year that the members of the Brighter Pickleball community take over and completely dominate. I mean, why not us? Let’s lock in, level up, and absolutely let loose on our pickleball nemeses.

These tips/recommendations are in no particular order, and I will write more extensively about some than others. Take what works for you, leave what doesn’t!

It’s kind of in the title. Make a list. What do you want to add or get better at? Here’s mine. Include all of it!

Which skills/shots are you going to work on adding first? I’d recommend focusing on skills that add to your FLOOR rather than your CEILING to most players - think consistency-based things rather than flashy new things that don’t come up as often. For me, my main priority is improving at off-speed speedups right now!

You may be thinking “Anna… I read your newsletter, of COURSE I watch a bunch of pickleball” to which I respond… but do you watch your own pickleball? You can learn a lot from watching yourself, and probably more than you can from watching me. Though I am, of course, forever flattered and thankful that you watch me😊. You know what they say… the camera never lies. Here’s the tripod I use (:

Calculate your Kitchen Arrival Percentage. Watch back 3 or so games of yourself playing. Every time you hit a third- tally it, and also tally if you and your partner either got to the kitchen OR won the point before arriving at the kitchen. This gives you a great baseline for a test you can come back to regularly (I’d even recommend monthly) to track your improvement. Kitchen arrival is a HUGE level differentiator!

I’m a big believer in measurable goals - and if in the first week of the new year you calculate things like: how long it takes you to get 30 dinks in a row each direction and/or how long it takes you to do 15 kitchen arrivals in each direction, you’ve not only given yourself a great, focused drill session, you also have a metric you can regularly return to.

Find them, and have them subscribe and join the club! It’s truly so special to have someone in your life who also wants to improve at the same things you do. Find a drilling buddy and/or someone you can unashamedly geek out about pickleball with!

The #1 most important thing you can do if you want to get better at pickleball is to get into a habit or routine of drilling at least once or twice a week. Drilling is where you add to, refine, and sharpen your existing skill set. You also hit 3x more balls than in a rec session in the same amount of time!

What are you focusing on each time you step on the court? Pick 1-3 things, being scatterbrained doesn’t benefit anyone. Building this habit will give every session a focus, a goal, a north star!

I see people who often seem to think that if they are not the one “active” in a drilling or warm-up session they can’t get much out of it. If your partner is hitting thirds or resets, work on your fourths! Getting more power on the ball, more wrist! Every ball you hit out there either makes you better or makes you worse. Choose to be active and get better!

Drilling with 3 people is honestly a cheat-code to improvement. If you’ve never done it before, it may seem daunting at first, but there are so many things that you can focus on and isolate with 3 people on a court. This is my favorite way to drill and a key part of my pipeline to implementing a new shot in a tournament. I can write more on this in the future if you guys are interested!

Practice is the time to try new things, make errors, and be okay with letting what doesn’t work go. Once you have a baseline level of consistency and a high floor, you have to start adding things, and if you’re too scared of losing in practice, you won’t be able to do that. Better to push through implementation dips in practice rather than in tournaments!!!

What is the reason you lose matches? Or the thing(s) that separate you from the people a little better than you? Is it your kitchen arrivals? Your errors at the line? Your counters? A shot you don’t have? Figuring this out and identifying weaknesses might be painful, but it’s a gift! You have something to work on! I like to think of improvement as an increasing, concave-down curve (can you tell I liked calculus). The more you improve, the harder it is to improve! Take advantage of your “easy” opportunities to get better!

I recently saw a quote that said we see “self-awareness” as a negative thing, as only being aware of our flaws. This really rang true for me… true self-awareness is being aware of both our flaws AND our strengths, and NOT being ashamed of those strengths. Watch yourself play and figure out what you are really good at. Do you have a speedup that people can’t read? Are your hands really good? Are you a reset machine? Give yourself kudos!!!

How can you create the patterns and situations more often that set you up for success? Do you need to add other shots in order to do this? To implement new strategies? The beautiful thing about pickleball is its dynamicism. Figure out how to make your strengths, stronger.

Decide what kind of player you are, today. This will inform the general macro framework from which you can evaluate your play. Are you someone who takes a lot of risk and is okay with more volatility? Or more of a grinder? Also describe the kind of player you want to be in a year from now.

Footwork errors, to me, are errors of laziness. We’ve all missed a third and been like “that was f****** lazy of me”. Get rid of those shots, and do not be complacent with making them. Your feet are a controllable!

Don’t beat yourself up over missing, or let a few errors ruin your session, but don’t ignore your errors either. They should bother you! You’re trying to get better, and an unforced error is a point your opponents did not earn against you. Notice them, learn from them, and do your best to not repeat them! Consistency is really king.

We all want that perfect partner, but try to be that person for your partners! I feel like as someone who has played the field a LOT this year, I can definitively say that playing with someone positive, confident, and intense is so important to me, and I try to embody that same energy myself! We can’t win alone out there!

A new paddle isn’t going to save you, I’m afraid. What’s the saying? It’s the archer, not the arrow. I’ve written before about how I’m a true believer in the wide-body shape for most players, and I am, but I’d recommend finding the shape that works best for you, picking a paddle in that shape you love, and riding with it until it’s done. Fiddling around is generally wasted and misplaced energy in my opinion.

If you’re trying to develop a flick (or improve yours), this is a MUST to me. Doing exercises regularly 2-3x a week yielded huge increases in strength that allowed me to completely add a shot to my game I was otherwise too weak to implement. Ladies in particular, men have a few (to put it lightly) more reps than us with this motion… get in the gym if you want a killer flick😉🤭😂

If you didn’t play any previous racket sport, I don’t think there’s any exercise or movement that can better help you increase your power/kinetic chain utilization for pickleball than throwing around some medicine balls. A lot of you are stronger than me, I shouldn’t be able to hit harder than you!!!

We all want to be playing pickleball for a long time. Developing your fitness (even spending a few minutes a day) can help you not only be better now, but better much later. Prevention is so key. The above things I referenced are great for niche concerns, but when I approach my fitness holistically and am consistent with my stretching, agility, and gym work, I feel like a far more complete player out there.

My bestie and trainer, Connor (@thatpickleballtrainer), would never lead you wrong if you’re curious about pickleball-specific training.

Match anxiety is a real thing. Nerves, anxiety, stress… we all deal with them. Sometimes people seem surprised to find out that I struggle with the same things on court as you do. But… I’m human! Of course I do! I’ve talked at length about how yoga has helped me, but I am impartial to both box breathing and NSDR meditations. Find what gets you into the right headspace and lean into it when you feel unwelcome thoughts/emotions rising to the surface.

A huge adjustment this year for me was becoming less outcome-oriented and more process-oriented. I feel this yielded major results for me and gave me much more of a sense of ease on the court. It may have even resulted in our MLP Cup title!

I’m a huge believer in trial by fire - but when the only fire you face is in a tournament, you might not be setting yourself up for success. I’m not encouraging you to regularly drop north of $200 on tournaments, but I’d recommend giving playing rec games for something on the line a try. It could be pushups, butts-up, or even $5. For me this really changes the energy of the games, and I think doing this is a great way to subject yourself to competition so when a match you really care about comes around, you’re more ready.

My last big tip is to really try to learn something from everyone. I’ve learned so much from all of you guys this year, and for that I’m forever thankful. I regularly see amateurs do things that I wish I knew how to do, and I’ve implemented a lot of these things into my own game. We are all learning, and we are blessed to be able to do it together.

And that’s all for now, folks! I’ll write soon on my personal goals for 2026. A lot of you asked though, and my word for 2026 is ✨intention✨. I want to be super intentional with my time, my energy, and my attention in 2026 as the busiest season of my life is only going to get busier. Excited to have all of you guys join me in that journey😊

Have a great New Year’s Eve everyone! I will see you all on the other side (:

xoxo, your internet bestie, Anna❤️