Why Pickleball Doubles Is More About Psychology Than Power

If pickleball doubles were about power, the biggest person on the court would win every time.

They don’t.

You can smash a ball 60 miles per hour and still lose 11 - 4 to two people who barely look like they’re trying. Why? Because doubles isn’t a power contest. It’s a psychological chess match disguised as a backyard sport.

Power feels impressive.
Psychology wins games.

Let’s start with the obvious. In tennis, power often ends points. In pickleball doubles, power often starts problems. The court is smaller. The reaction time is shorter. The margins are tighter. If you blast everything, you’re not intimidating anyone — you’re just speeding up the rally before you’re ready.

The real battlefield in doubles is between the ears.

First - patience.
Can you dink 12 shots in a row without getting bored? Most players can’t. They speed up because they’re uncomfortable. They attack because they’re impatient. They try to “win” instead of waiting for the other team to blink first. The team that controls its emotions controls the rally.

Second - targeting.
You’re not just hitting a ball. You’re probing weaknesses. Who gets nervous on backhands? Who overreaches in the middle? Who panics under pressure at 9 - 9 - 2? Smart teams don’t overpower opponents — they expose them.

Third - communication.
Doubles is relational. If you and your partner aren’t in sync, it doesn’t matter how athletic you are. You can feel it when a team is aligned — small nods, subtle shifts, quiet encouragement. You can also feel when partners are silently blaming each other. Guess which team wins long term?

Fourth - emotional control.
Body language tells the whole story. Drop your shoulders after one missed volley and the other team smells it. Stay steady, even after a bad bounce or questionable call, and you send a different message entirely.

The best doubles teams don’t look frantic. They look calm. Boring, even. They don’t rush. They don’t force. They let the game come to them and then apply pressure at exactly the right moment.

That’s psychology.

And here’s the twist — the longer a match goes, the less it becomes about skill and the more it becomes about decision-making under fatigue. Can you choose the high-percentage shot at 10 - 10 instead of the hero shot? Can you trust your partner instead of taking over?

The funny thing is, the players who chase power usually get frustrated with pickleball. The players who embrace the mental side fall in love with it. Because once you realize the real weapon isn’t your forehand — it’s your composure — the game opens up in a whole new way.

And honestly, these little psychological battles — the subtle tension, the overconfidence, the accidental mind games at the kitchen line — are exactly why I wrote Who Just Served?. The book isn’t about technique; it’s about the people and personalities that make doubles so entertaining. If you’ve ever watched a team unravel over one bad call or win a match simply because they stayed steady, you’ll recognize the humor and humanity in its pages. Pickleball may look simple on the surface — but between partners, between points, and between the ears, there’s always more going on than meets the eye.