I never expected a sport I love to flip a hidden switch inside me. One moment, I was warming up for a tournament I had signed up for, genuinely excited. Next, it felt as if someone had unplugged my brain.
Not metaphorically. Literally.
Everything I had practiced, hours of drills, footwork patterns, third-shot drops, resets, vanished. Gone. My mind moved through fog, my body through syrup. I could see the court, the ball, the opponents, but it was as if my frontal cortex had quietly stepped out for tea and crumpets and had forgotten to return. I wasn’t thinking. I wasn’t choosing. I wasn’t even playing. I was doing my best not to flatline.
It was a stunning, humbling reminder of how fast anxiety can hijack a nervous system… and how quickly a beloved passion can become the stage for our deepest fears to reveal themselves.
How Stress and Anxiety Affect Pickleball Performance
What I learned, reading after the tournament ended, is that nothing was wrong with me. My brain was doing precisely what a human brain does when it feels threatened.
