Getting better
Playing Up: How to Handle Better Opponents
Getting beaten is not the same as learning, and most people do the first without the second.
6 min read · Updated 2026-08-11
Everyone says play with better players. It is good advice and it is incomplete, because playing up badly makes you worse, not better.
The difference is entirely about what you walk on court trying to do.
What playing up does to you if you are not careful
You start rushing. Better players give you less time, and the instinct is to speed everything up to match, including the shots that should stay slow.
You start going for too much. When patient play is not working because they are better at patient play, low-percentage shots start looking reasonable.
You stop resetting, because resetting against a better team means they will just keep coming, so you try to end points early.
All three are habits, and habits do not stay in the game where you learned them. That is how a month of playing up can leave you worse against your own level.
Go in with a process target
Never go in trying to win. You might, but as an objective it produces exactly the rushed, low-percentage play above.
Pick one thing instead. Get to the kitchen every point. Reset every drive rather than countering. Keep every third shot low even if it costs points.
Then judge the session on that, not on the score. You can lose 11-2 and have had an excellent session if the one thing improved, and you can win a game while reinforcing three bad habits.
What to actually watch
Better players are a free lesson if you look at the right things, and most people look at the wrong ones. Do not watch their hands. Watch their decisions.
When do they attack? Almost certainly less often than you expect, and only off genuinely high balls.
Where do they stand between shots? Usually further forward and more balanced.
What do they do when they are in trouble? This is the big one. The gap between a 3.5 and a 4.5 is mostly what happens on the balls that are difficult, not on the balls that are easy.
Afterwards
Ask one question and make it specific. Not "any tips," which gets you a polite nothing. "What were you doing to my backhand in the second game?" gets you a real answer, because you have made it easy to give.
Then write down one thing. One. A list of nine observations from a session you lost 11-2 is not a plan, it is a way of feeling thorough.
And expect it to feel bad for a while. Playing up means losing regularly, and there is a version of this where the constant losing quietly erodes your confidence rather than building your game. Mix it. Play up, play across, play down. You need all three, and the ones against your own level are where you get to find out whether any of it stuck.
Takeaways
- Playing up badly builds habits: rushing, going for too much, and refusing to reset. They follow you back down.
- Never go in trying to win. Pick one process target and judge the session on that.
- Watch their decisions, not their hands. Especially what they do when they are in trouble.
- Ask one specific question afterwards. "Any tips" gets a polite nothing.
- Mix playing up, across and down. Playing up exclusively erodes confidence and hides whether anything stuck.
Common questions
Does playing with better players make you better at pickleball?
Only if you go in with a process target. Playing up without one tends to build rushing, low-percentage shot selection and a refusal to reset, and those habits follow you back to your own level.
What should I focus on when playing up?
One thing, chosen before you start: get to the kitchen every point, reset every drive rather than countering, or keep every third shot low. Then judge the session on that rather than on the score. Losing 11-2 while the one thing improved is a good session.
What should I watch better players do?
Their decisions rather than their hands. When they attack, which is usually less often than you expect and only off high balls, where they stand between shots, and above all what they do when they are in trouble. The gap between levels shows up on difficult balls, not easy ones.
Can playing up too much be bad?
Yes. Constant losing can erode confidence and it hides whether your work is transferring. Mix playing up, across and down, because games against your own level are where you find out whether anything stuck.
Train the decision, not just the read
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