Even if you have never heard the term “yips,” there is a chance you have experienced them while playing pickleball. Yips, or the “service yips,” are a sudden inability to complete a task you do all the time: like serving. So what are the pickleball yips, what causes them, and how can you overcome them?
What causes the yips in pickleball?
Pickleball yips can happen for a number of reasons, but they are mostly associated with performance anxiety: Suddenly getting nervous you will do something wrong. Yips can appear out of the blue with no explanation, but it causes a cycle that makes it hard to get out of. The yips are so frustrating because they can cause a bad serve, and then the bad serve can cause more anxiety, and that anxiety can cause more bad serves, etc.
While most people can shake themselves out of the yips in the next game, some people experience them for weeks or even months.
How to overcome the service yips?
Once the yips start, most people assume they will have the yips for that entire game. But there are actual ways you can calm your nerves and potentially overcome the yips.
Change your strategy & get back to basics
If you are the type of person who has a really powerful, strategic, or tricky serve, remove those expectations. For this specific game where you are having troubles, you should try, above all else, to simplify your strategy and simply serve the ball into the right zone. Remove all special moves, and just focus on simplicity.
The more you miss serving into the correct zone, the longer the yips will probably last. But if you regain your confidence by just landing a serve inbounds, then the service yips have less of a chance of remaining.
Once you feel your more simple serve is landing in-bounds on a regular basis, you can start to add more difficult elements in.
Another recommendation is to focus on one thing during each game. This can be anything from a small detail to an entire change in your strategy, and includes things like:
- Where on your paddle are you hitting the ball?
- The height of the ball when it crosses the net.
- Where your feet land during your serve.
- Switching from a bounce serve to a drop serve (or vice versa).
You may not be improving these things, but just focusing on one thing will help you focus less on your anxiety and any mistakes you are making.
Look at your court location & body positioning
If you suddenly have the pickleball yips, a great tip is to look at your court location and body positioning on that court. Some questions to ask yourself:
- Am I only having the yips on one side of the court?
- Am I only having yips when serving from the left (or right) side?
- Am I facing at the same angle every single time I serve?
- Is there anything I am doing differently this game vs. past games?
- Am I tossing or dropping the ball in the same place each time I serve?
If you notice your anxiety is only appearing during certain circumstances, focus on improving during those specific moments.
Settle down
When you begin missing serve after serve, the body’s first response is usually to get worked up — which will cause you to continue making mistakes. Some tips for calming your body down:
- Don’t rush your serve: Take some time (even if it’s a few seconds) between rallies to close your eyes and focus.
- On the contrary, do not utilize your entire 10 seconds after you call the score. The longer you think about your serve, the more likely you are to make a mistake.
- Breathe: Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth, until you feel calmer.
Practice
If you are experiencing the yips during a game and have the opportunity for some time between this game and the next — take some time to practice your serve by yourself. This will help remove any performance anxiety and allow you to figure out what you were doing wrong. Hopefully it will shake out any remaining yips from your last game.
You should also be practicing your serve between every pickleball session. The more muscle memory you have for your serve, the less likely anxiety will be able to control you when you are in an actual game.
Don’t worry about it
Easier said than done, but the root of yips is performance anxiety. So, if you go into each game understanding it’s truly a *game* then you will be less likely to take it seriously enough to have that anxiety.
If you miss a serve, don’t stress out: don’t worry about your partner judging you, don’t worry about your opponent judging you, and understand that this is temporary and not your fault. It’s so common, it even has an actual name!
Pickleball serving yips
The pickleball yips can be a frustrating experience, whether it’s during your serve or any other time in the game. But there are solid moves you can make to recover from the yips. Have the mindset that this is a common occurrence and it is something you can overcome.