Overcoming the Yips in Pickleball

I was in California staying with a friend, and she asked if I wanted to play a few games with her and two friends. For context, all three were in their 50s, solid 4.0–4.5 players.

“Absolutely,” I said.

The moment we show up, the first woman (let’s call her Cindy) says,

“Hey everyone, I played this morning and I have the yips—big time—on my serve. I missed about 20 serves into the net.”

Naturally, the other two women jump in with,

“Whoa, no worries, let’s just have fun today.”

But as I’m standing there, something hits me.

By announcing that she has the yips and missed 20 serves, Cindy’s already set an expectation for herself—and everyone else.

If she suddenly starts making all her serves, it might look like she exaggerated earlier. So now she’s under pressure to keep missing, just to stay consistent with her story.

I brought this up to the group, and Cindy nodded.

“That’s a good point,” she said.

So we made a quick rule: for the rest of the session, she wasn’t allowed to talk about her serve negatively.

And I kid you not…

She didn’t miss a single serve the rest of the day.

I couldn’t believe it. I hear people talk about the yips all the time, but this was the clearest, real-world example of how powerful our language and expectations can be.

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First, let’s clear something up—the yips aren’t a disease.

They’re more like a glitch in your brain-body connection, usually triggered by overthinking, anxiety, or a string of bad misses.

Your brain starts treating the serve like a threat.

Your heart rate spikes. Your breathing shortens. Your muscles tighten.

The motion that used to feel smooth and automatic suddenly turns stiff and robotic.

And the harder you try to control it, the worse it gets.

So… how do you fix them?

Not by trying harder—but by resetting your system.

When the yips hit, your nervous system goes into fight-or-flight mode.

That’s why your toss feels off and your swing feels tight.

Try this before every serve:

This tells your body, “You’re safe.”

In my years playing competitively, that one breath has done more for my serve than a hundred panicked reps trying to “work myself out of it.”

Avoid saying the word don’t.

If I tell you, “Don’t think about a pink horse,” what happens?

Exactly. You just thought about a pink horse.

Your brain skips over the word don’t and locks onto the image that follows.

So when you say, “Don’t miss this serve,” your brain pictures… missing the serve.

Instead, give yourself short, positive, action-based cues:

These phrases aim your focus at what you want to do—not what you fear.

The yips show up when your brain stops trusting your motion.

You don’t need to grind through 500 serves—you need to rewire under calm, focused conditions.

Here’s how:

Over time, these small, intentional reps rebuild trust.

Your body learns to relax and let the motion flow again.

Cindy didn’t magically “cure” her yips that day—she just stopped feeding them.

She broke the loop by changing her language, her breath, and her presence.

That’s all the yips really are: a loop.

 And loops can be broken.

You just have to be the one to break them. 🙂

-Kyle

P.S. One of the most popular videos we have inside ThatPickleballSchool is Serve Openings.

If you’re serious about getting a world-class serve, you can join ThatPickleballSchool for Free (for 7 days) and check those videos out.

Be sure to let me know how it goes.