State titles in soccer; two world championships in ultimate (frisbee); A South Carolina state singles title in pickleball… and then I flew home from PPA Worlds early because my mind quit before my body did. By Dr. Gordon Jones,  DHA, MHSA, PPR Certified Coach

People underestimate pickleball because it's social, accessible, and wildly fun, so much so that 10s of millions of people around the world are playing it.

All true. 

But it is also fast, strategic, reactive, precise, emotional, and incredibly mind-state dependent. A tiny mental lapse costs you a point immediately and then, once that starts, it compounds.

• Get anxious and you speed up.
• Speed up and you rush.
• Rush and your mechanics shorten.
• Your decision-making gets impulsive.
• Your soft game gets harder than it should.
• Frustration rises.
• One mistake becomes three.

I lived there at PPA Worlds in 2024. A rainstorm blew up the schedule and our matches not only moved to the next day, but ran late and long. The gaps between rounds stretched to an hour or more. And somewhere in the waiting, with one eye on the clock and a flight I wasn't willing to miss, the anxiety crept in. 

Not pressure from the competition — I put that on myself. I knew I couldn't stay for the finals even if I made it. And yet the closer it got to 3pm, the tighter I wound myself. By the third round, I was out.

It wasn't an equipment problem, nor was it a preparation problem. At that level, we were all basically equal in talent and readiness. It was a mind-state problem. And the honest truth is that I knew it while it was happening. I just didn't have the tools to do anything about it.

"There was no real pressure on me. It was entirely what I made it to be."

As a former state and world champion in team sports, I was able to lean on the mental energy of my teammates when mine was reeling. But in singles pickleball, it is all on me. I knew what happened and I wanted to fix that.

As kind-of an obsessive guy, that sent me searching. With a career in healthcare and an interest in longevity, I was already looking at how to extend the arc of any future issue with memory loss. So, I dug a little deeper and I found brainwave entrainment. 

Entrainment is an audio-based process that produces precise sound frequencies to guide our brains into specific mental states. Focus. Calm. Relaxation. Recovery. Readiness. I learned that these tools are not just some concept or theory, it is well researched and clinical.

The good news, I found it quite accessible and a practice anyone can do in 15 to 20 minutes.

The difference it has made is hard to describe in a single word. "Calming" is too small. What it really offers is mind-state preparation. A way for you to become more accessible to your own best game.

The problem I found is that no one has built brainwave entrainment with guided visualization for specific purposes inside sports, and in particular, pickleball. Yes, there are programs to get your mind in a specific state that can be beneficial to an athlete, but not one that is designed for a specific skill development.

So, I built my own! (Did I mention my healthcare career was in technology development?)

Since building my own program, I see and sense more on the court. I'm patient. I trust my abilities instead of overriding them. I choose cleaner shots. I recover faster between rallies. I communicate better with my partner. And I stop trying to win every single point with one swing of righteousness.

That last one, that was me at PPA, and I knew it in real time and couldn't stop it.

Recently, I told Tito Machado, CEO of DUPR, about my findings and that I was planning to build a program that any player can use. He recognized the benefit immediately and saw that this is an area lacking within the pickleball world.

Imagine, what if we could accelerate the learning of pickleball (already provided by coaches, partners, and video clinics) and help players to move consistently up the DUPR scale. Of course, the process can help everyone, from the 2.5 player all the way up to the MLP Pro. No matter who you are, your mental state is part of your game whether you're training it or not. 

So, I have partnered with DUPR to produce The DUPR Brain Fitness Series. The program is designed to give you a way to actually train your brain with protocols and guided visualizations built specifically for pickleball performance, from just getting your mind right for the day, to embedding the skills you wish to master, to match-day prep, and recovery, and everything for life in between.

All you need is a set of headphones and no more than 20 minutes.

We are providing this program under my non-profit foundation, Dr. Gordon Jones’ Missions and Ministries, to benefit our mission to spread the benefits of pickleball to the world. We have priced it at only 10 dollars so anything above that you believe the program is worth to you, you may donate and receive a tax credit for this year.

Here is the link: BrainFit.GordonJones.Org 

Once you have paid, you will receive an email with a link to the series on Substack where you will benefit from the Field Guide you can use when you need a quick reference to what you have learned during the series. 

More good news for your mindstate!

I have recently partnered with Dr. Patrick Porter, Neuroscientist and Inventor of the BrainTap System. It is a highly advanced neuro-performance  system that serves people in all ways of life. We are producing an additional series that will help your pickleball mindfulness and performance even greater. So, standby for that coming soon. If you’d like to see what BrainTap is all about now, go to:

BrainTapSports

For all those that have engaged with the DUPR Brain Fitness Series, we will have special pricing on the BrainTap system for you.

Feel free to reach out to me via the Substack!

DrJ