Mental Strength & Game Strategy in Tournament Play (Part One)
Release Date: 05/06/2025
Meet Karen Mitchell, Co-Founder and Chair of Pickleball England
Senior Pickleball Tips
Karen Mitchell is an absolute star in regard to pickleball in England, and indeed throughout the UK. After starting to play the sport (beware putting your bins out in sleepy Sussex villages!!) she saw the need, together with Frank Arico, to organise pickleball in the country. So they started Pickleball England in 2018 to promote the sport, organised a tournament (with about 320 players) and, as they say, the rest is history. The last English Open (largest tournament outside North America) had 2,350 players - with senior categories in 5-year cohorts from 60+ upwards (Paddy played in the 65+...
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Advanced Beginners - 10 Essential Shots with Coach Jeff
Senior Pickleball Tips
If you're an advanced beginner (2.5) this is 38 minutes of pure gold. You're probably thinking "Whaaaat? THIRTY EIGHT minutes???" ... then remember you are a senior and (unlike many of our younger generation) you have the patience to do this...!!! Paddy and Coach Jeff (Limitless Pickleball) take advanced beginners through the 10 essential shots they need to know about - from the serve, return, third shot, through to the forehand and backhand drives, and then the dick, lob, smash and the (all important) re-set shot. All from the perspective of the Advanced Beginner. We know this is a long...
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Beginners - 10 Essential Shots with Coach Jeff
Senior Pickleball Tips
This is the episode for all beginners - especially those who are new to the sport. Paddy & Coach Jeff Gehm (Limitless Pickleball) systematically go through each of the 10 essential shots in pickleball, aimed specifically for new beginners. Starting with the serve, return of serve and the third shot, then moving on to the forehand and backhand drives, then the dink, the lob and the smash and ending with the tricky re-set shot. It's all here in one episode! So grab the dog for 'walkies' or maybe listen on your way to play - this will give new beginners the confidence to just give it a go! Oh...
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Interview with Karen Thomas, Marketing Director, US Senior Pickleball
Senior Pickleball Tips
In this episode Paddy meets Karen Thomas from Seattle, who came to the sport 10 years ago (through her mother!), was the head of marketing at Pickleball Central for some time and is now the Marketing Director at US Senior Pickleball. They chat about everything pickleball - including the growth of indoor facilities in the States, the costs of membership and playing, the continual growth still of seniors playing the sport and the importance of spreading the message to as many seniors as possible to consider pickleball as part of their own on-going health and wellbeing. Paddy even mentions...
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Singles - How Seniors can Compete & Win - Part 4 - Mental Edge & Matchplay
Senior Pickleball Tips
In this last episode in the 'Singles Series', Paddy goes through the importance of having a 'mental edge' - having those steely nerves when the chips are down. The importance of the mental side of singles matchplay cannot be overemphasised. It is SO important. If you can become mentally strong in singles (and doubles!), you can win more competitative matches and maybe even tournaments as well. Most pickleball players are not mentally strong and this will definitely give you that 'edge'. Paddy explains techniques to help get mentally stronger - like breathing techniques and tricks to avoid...
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Singles - How Seniors can Compete & Win - Part 3 - Your Shot Arsenal
Senior Pickleball Tips
In part 3 of this 4-part series, Paddy explores the arsenal of shots that you need to focus on to win at singles. Surprisingly you don't need a whole aray of different fancy shots - but you do need some of the basics and you need to get them right technically. And you need to know when to play them. Serve, return, volley, 3rd/5th shot, lob, smash, re-set - all the usual suspects are there - but for singles it's about placement (even more so than for doubles!). Paddy goes through each one and explains their importance in the singles game - especially from a seniors' point of view!
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Singles - How Seniors can compete and win - Part 2 - The return & court positioning
Senior Pickleball Tips
In the second part of this 4-part series, Paddy explains why the return of serve is (in his opinion) THE most important shot in singles pickleball - especially if you're a senior. He goes through all the options for the return of serve, including what to do and what NOT to do! Then Paddy talks about court positioning and the importance of predicting where your opponent's shot is going to go - and how to do this. He explains how, as seniors, we do NOT have to running around like complete idiots - how we use our experience of sport and life to enable us to be in the right place at the...
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Paddy & Gustavo - Road to the Final - Part 2
Senior Pickleball Tips
How on earth did they do it? How did they get to the 3.5 (65+) English Open final? The largest pickleball tournament outside USA! And did they win? Listen to this episode and find out! And also discover how they both helped each other through it, how they communicated and how they changed tactics suddenly when they needed to. Go through their trials and triumphs on that day last summer. You might learn something. You might take something away that helps YOU in your next tournament - or just to improve your game.
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Paddy & Gustavo - Road to the final - Part 1
Senior Pickleball Tips
In this episode we meet Gustavo Alonso Gonzalez who was (un)lucky enough to be paired up with Paddy for the English Open 2025 3.5, 65+ doubles tournament. Having never met each other, they met one minute before their first match!!! Bearing in mind that the English Open is the largest tournament outside USA, this is quite a big deal! In this two-part podcast describing their journey in that tournament, we first meet Gustavo and get to know him a bit. He is the founder of Senior European Pickleball Players, plays as many tournaments as he can, is a qualified tournament referee and is basically...
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Singles - How Seniors can Compete & Win - Part 1 - Introduction & Serving
Senior Pickleball Tips
Paddy starts his deep dive into pickleball singles. This is the first of four episodes to help YOU not just compete in singles, but to WIN in singles. Many seniors shy away from singles, but for many of us we love the independence of doing things for ourselves and the friendly competition with other similar 'singletons'. There is no doubt that singles attracts the more competitative player, so these episodes focus on strategy, tactics and especially the mental aspects of the game in regard to playing in competitions (for example, breathing techniques, how to avoid distratctions etc.). Paddy...
info_outlineIn this episode Paddy talks through his experience of how (for some crazy reason) he managed to win an English National Singles Championships title (3.0, 65+). He talks through his preparation, his game strategy and his mental strength (basically how he kept his sh*t together!).
He talks through the six games he had to play in the round-robin to get to the semi-finals - what he did right and what he did wrong. Why and how he changed his tactics mid-game sometimes, what he did between points and how he kept motivated.
Paddy never says that everyone has to do what he does - he just shares his highs and lows, his tactics and decisions - in case the listener may be able to take away a few good pointers. He hopes that he doesn't come across as 'braggy' - just someone sharing their story.
He ends by summarising his strategies and tactics, which he hopes may be helpful for others.
In Part Two he continues this story into the semi-finals and final. Hear how he VERY nearly went home early (how he got lucky), but somehow hung on and managed to get that gold medal! So watch this space!
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