In association with HITCH
I play pickleball, but I am also a psychologist, and I find the dynamics between doubles partners fascinating. What actually makes two people compatible on court? Is it having similar abilities? Complementary playing styles? Compatible personalities?
In the film Miracle, hockey coach Herb Brooks makes a powerful distinction: “I’m not looking for the best players, Craig. I’m looking for the right ones.”
Research into team synergy supports that distinction. Individual performance statistics do not tell the whole story. How players interact and complement one another can contribute to team success beyond their individual abilities (Brave et al., 2019). In pickleball doubles, that distinction matters.
Do opposites make better doubles partners?
The banger and the dinker. One wants to attack every opportunity. The other is perfectly happy to slow things down, control the ball and wait for the right moment. Different instincts. Different strengths. And potentially a very effective doubles partnership. Two players do not need to play the same way to play well together.
Pairing players with complementary strengths, rather than simply matching similar abilities, offers a different approach to building effective doubles partnerships (Sobko et al., 2020). An aggressive player brings power, pace and the ability to finish points. A patient player brings control, placement and the ability to create those opportunities.
But the real advantage is not simply having a wider range of shots between them. It is how those shots work together. A controlled dink creates an opening. The attacking partner recognises it and accelerates. One player’s shot sets up the next player’s shot. The partnership becomes more than two individual performances.
Great doubles are not necessarily about two players doing the same thing. They are about two players contributing to the same outcome in different ways.
And while ratings tell us something about individual performance, they do not necessarily tell us how effectively two players will combine. The goal is not simply to find the strongest available player. It is to find the strongest combination.
Complementary skills are only part of the equation. Two players can be perfectly matched on paper and still struggle to perform together. There is another dimension to compatibility that deserves just as much attention.
The psychology of playing together
The way two players perform together when they are comfortable can be very different from how they play when they are under pressure. Anxiety can make a player overly cautious, while frustration can lead to impulsive decisions and unnecessary risks. In doubles, those emotions do not exist in isolation. They can spread between partners, influencing each other’s confidence, concentration and decision-making.
A recent study involving 60 pickleball players and eight coaches explored how emotions influence performance, decision-making and the dynamics between doubles partners. Players described how a partner’s frustration, nervousness or anger could affect their own emotional state and performance, while encouragement and constructive support helped them remain composed and recover from mistakes (Marcos-Rivero et al., 2026).
A frustrated partner who criticises mistakes can create additional pressure, while a calm, supportive partner can help restore confidence and focus.
The consequences can be immediate. You can play confidently with one partner and become hesitant and self-conscious with another. Your technical ability has not changed. But your attention has. Instead of responding to the ball, you are worrying about mistakes and anticipating your partner’s reaction. You have not lost your ability. You are finding it harder to access it.
Compatibility also comes down to what two players want from the game. Research into pairs working together found that shared motivations, particularly around achievement and positive relationships, were associated with better coordination and performance (Hüttner et al., 2023).
Two players can have completely different playing styles but work well together because they share the same goals and expectations. Equally, a highly competitive player and someone playing primarily for enjoyment can find themselves frustrated by very different ideas of what matters on court.
Communication is another part of the equation. Research into team sports shows how athletes influence and help regulate their teammates’ emotions (Tamminen & Crocker, 2013; Campo et al., 2017). In doubles, those interactions happen constantly. A frustrated look, an unsolicited instruction or a critical comment can increase pressure. Encouragement, reassurance or simply moving on to the next point can help a partner regain focus.
Finding the right partner
We have become very good at measuring individual players. Ratings tell us about performance, while playing styles tell us something about the strengths each player brings to the court. Neither tells us the whole story of what happens when two people play together.
Understanding competitive goals, communication preferences and responses to pressure can help identify partnerships that work psychologically as well as tactically. Ultimately, the best doubles partnerships are not simply about individual ability. They are about how two players combine their strengths, communicate and bring out the best in one another. The best partner is not necessarily the highest-rated player. It is the person you play your best pickleball with.
In association with HITCH
HITCH is an app designed to help players find compatible partners. It explores how contrasting playing styles can complement one another, recognising that an aggressive player and a more patient, controlled player can bring different strengths to the same partnership.
References
Brave, S. A., Butters, R. A., & Roberts, K. A. (2019). Uncovering the sources of team synergy: Player complementarities in the production of wins. Journal of Sports Analytics, 5(4), 247–279. https://doi.org/10.3233/JSA-190248
Campo, M., Sanchez, X., Ferrand, C., Rosnet, E., Friesen, A., & Lane, A. M. (2017). Interpersonal emotion regulation in team sport: Mechanisms and reasons to regulate teammates’ emotions examined. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 15(4), 379–394. https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2015.1114501
Hüttner, N., Müller, F., & Cañal-Bruland, R. (2023). Motor performance in joint action tasks: The impact of dyadic motive fit. Human Movement Science, 90, 103100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2023.103100
Marcos-Rivero, B., Becerril-Atxikallende, I., Barrenetxea-García, J., & Yanci, J. (2026). “When emotions take over, everything changes”: An exploration of emotional regulation and competitive performance in pickleball: Perspectives of players and coaches. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/17479541261444715
Sobko, I., Zharkova, Y., Vitsko, S., Zhukov, V., & Tsapko, A. (2020). Formation of doubles and mixed categories in badminton using multivariate analysis methods. Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 20(Supplement issue 6), 3138–3145. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2020.s6425
Tamminen, K. A., & Crocker, P. R. E. (2013). “I control my own emotions for the sake of the team”: Emotional self-regulation and interpersonal emotion regulation among female high-performance curlers. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 14(5), 737–747. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2013.05.002
About the author
Dr Deirdre Timlin is a registered psychologist with a PhD in Health Psychology and a background in behavioural science. She is the founder of The Pickleball Psychologist, where she explores the psychology of confidence, attention, pressure and performance, translating psychological research into insights for everyday pickleball players.
https://www.instagram.com/thepickleballpsychologist/
