April 29, 2026
Your unforced errors on the pickleball court are all in your head.
Well, maybe not all of them, but 80 percent of them. That’s according to the woman who coaches Anna Bright, one of the world’s top female players.
“The biggest mistake is not yet understanding how their mental game empowers their physical game,” Coach Dotti Berry says of the typical 3.5 rec player. “All things being fairly equal skill-wise, the person who can activate mindshifts in the moment, because they have trained their neural pathways and circuitry through micro daily habits, will more quickly elevate their game past their counterparts.
“The second biggest mistake is living exclusively in what we call the Data Channel, obsessing over mechanics, shot selection, and strategy, while completely ignoring the Energy Channel: their emotional state, their presence, their ability to reset. This distinction comes directly from “Positive Intelligence” coaching, which I integrate into all of my work. You can know exactly where to hit the ball and still miss it. That’s not technique. That’s an energy breakdown.”
Berry, 72, is known as, “Coach B,” and has helped thousands of pickleball players improve their game.
Bright is ranked tied for first in women’s doubles and 2nd in mixed doubles. She says, “Dotti is able to coach in a way that allows you to almost learn from yourself. It makes sense. She says her coaching style is, ‘I’m a mirror for what you already know,’ and, ‘The X Factor is YOU.’”
Berry says, “You can have the best mechanics, the sharpest strategy, the strongest serve in the room and the best return-and still fall apart at 9-9. That’s not a technique problem. That’s a mental infrastructure problem.
“The physical game gets you to the court. The mental game determines what happens when you get there. After nearly 60 years of coaching, I can say with certainty: the mental game isn’t a “nice to have” skill. It’s what separates players who perform from players who have potential. And the X Factor? That’s you.”
Berry says most players have never embarked on a course of daily mental training.
“A simple way to begin is with what I call the three N’s: Notice It, Name It, Neutralize It. Before your next serve, pause. Take one breath. Ask yourself: where’s my energy right now? (Notice It). Then choose-calm, clear, curious, committed (Name it.) No overthinking. No fixing. Just one mental rep. This neutralizes it. Because every single rep you take is laying a brick in your mental infrastructure. And that infrastructure is what holds when everything else is on the line.”
Berry’s tagline is “Born to Coach.” She started in her hometown of East Point, GA, outside Atlanta, at age 15, coaching a 10 and under basketball team to a city championship. She played high school basketball and eventually would be an assistant coach for the women’s hoops team at the University of Kentucky.
Berry was a successful entrepreneur until discovering pickleball in 2018. She has a Master’s Degree in Education and coaches elite athletes in all sports and executives in business.
“I’m not here to give athletes my power,” Berry says. “I’m here to help them find their own. When a player stops collapsing under pressure and starts performing from a place of self-confidence, there is nothing like that moment. That moment is why I coach.”
Berry is all over the pickleball space. She conducts clinics, leads pickleball retreats for women, and has an e-book coming out soon called, Mental Edge: The X-Factor. She co-authored the book EmPOWER: Pickleball Stories That Inspire, a collection that celebrates women who found strength, community, and growth through the game. She even has her own paddle, which has a bold “We Can Do It!” Rosie design.
Berry started and runs “Pickleball Unites,” which she calls, “A global movement for transcending differences — one dink at a time. We believe in the power of pickleball to bridge divides and bring people together across cultures, communities, and continents.”
Berry has traveled to South Africa, Ghana and Malawi to develop youth pickleball programs, lead efforts to have new courts installed and to certify referees. She received the Professional Pickleball Registry’s 2026 Humanitarian of the Year Award for her contributions to the game.
Berry says improving your mental game cannot be done overnight. “I always say: under pressure, you don’t rise to your intentions-you default to what you’ve trained. That means the work has to be done before the pressure arrives. The players who show up differently in big moments aren’t the ones who tried harder in that moment. They’re the ones who put in the mental reps long before they got there.
“Most people have a clear intention-and then a result they want, an impact they want to create. What they’re missing, because they haven’t trained it daily the way they train their physical game, is infrastructure. Mental infrastructure. That’s the bridge. That’s the magic key for the three I’s: Intention+Infrastructure-Impact.”
I asked Berry for her thoughts on the trend towards more bangers coming into pickleball.
“Bangers can only get away with banging if their opponents don’t know how to block the shot or take advantage of their banging. If you can reset on a banger, you neutralize them.
“People new to the game find it easier to hit it harder than to hit it soft.”
“I see more banging at the lower levels because people have not yet developed the complete array of skills…drives, drop shots, drip drops, volleys, dinking (with topspin and with slice), strong and deep serves, deep returns, etc.
“So the question becomes should a player quit banging because their opponent hasn’t taken the time to develop the skills to slow them down? If players only know how to drive, they will not move up in skill level. They will plateau and believe that is the way the game is played.”
For banger, dinkers and everyone else, Berry provides a complimentary mental fitness assessment. The short form you need to fill out to begin can be accessed here.
Berry is clearly a ball of energy and shows no signs of slowing down. She turns 73 in September, and as it has been said often, you’re only as old as you feel. Age, like pickleball, can be all in your head.
Thoughts of the week, not all pickleball
· The city of Tucson wants to charge $3.50 per 90 minutes to play pickleball at a public park. Don’t taxes go to the city’s public parks? This is outrageous and Tucson’s pickleball community is justifiably outraged. City Council is scheduled to vote on the proposed fee on June 9th.
· When it comes to stacking paddles at pickleball courts, I sometimes see a player putting his or her paddle in the wrong place. I like to think it’s an innocent mistake, that the player isn’t trying to cut in line. That aside, I often see so many players confused about what seems to be a pretty easy and obvious process. Why do you think that is?
· The owner of the NBA’s New York Knicks is notoriously thin-skinned. Several years ago, James Dolan admitted he relies on facial recognition technology to identify ticket-holding lawyers from firms suing him and to have them removed from venues owned by Madison Square Garden. Journalist Pablo Torre recently reported that Dolan uses facial recognition technology to detect fans who were critical of him on social media. Similarly, if a “sell the team” chant is heard, MSG security is dispatched. And because his hypersensitivity to “sell the team” chants is prompting MSG personnel to stalk fans, sportscaster Max Kellerman believes Dolan might have to sell the team.
On a recent episode of his “Game Over” podcast, Kellerman said, “I’m surprised that people aren’t more outraged by this. And I understand [former LA Clippers owner] Donald Sterling lost his team because he was caught on audio saying explicitly racist things, but the point is the precedent was set, and I think it was a good one. ‘We don’t want that in the NBA.’ Adam Silver treated the players like real partners in that case.”
Kellerman noted he never expected Silver and the league to actually remove the longtime Clippers owner, believing a hefty fine was more likely. But now that the precedent has been set, Kellerman thinks Dolan might have to be the next owner to go. I don’t know if Silver can legally boot Dolan, but I do think he needs to tell Dolan to stop with the Gestapo-like tactics being used on his paying customers. It’s called free speech. You can’t legally kick fans out of your venue because they criticized you.
Mickey Collins is one of countless pickleball players who has given back to the community. He turns 79 next month.
· Happy 79th birthday on May 10th to a guy who’s done a lot for pickleball. His name is Mickey Collins and he was one of the first organizers and promoters of pickleball festivals and tournaments, primarily in the Midwest. Mickey, a Louisville native, is a big fan of Hudef paddles. “The latest Hudef paddles that have been coming out have been great,” he says. I’m currently playing with the Viva SCF 1 Supercritical Foam. I also like some of the earlier models.”
· Two streaming series that I thoroughly enjoy: Hacks on HBO Max and Running Point on Netflix. Jean Smart is brilliant in the former and Kate Hudson and a large supporting cast (including Ray Romano) are terrific in the latter. The writing on both shows is smart, too, with one-liners that have me laughing out loud.
· The NHL playoffs are always riveting and the early rounds may be the best this year, because I don’t see anyone challenging the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference. Ditto the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA. OKC is just much stronger than any other team.
· Let’s just say my Mets are having a disappointing season thus far. I blame the GM, not the manager. I don’t think the manager, Mendoza, has made bad moves. I think Stearns, the GM, didn’t give him enough good players and underestimated the losses of Alonso and Nimmo.
Hudef has several new foam paddles on sale, with the price being $119.00 instead of $169.99. Use my discount code, MS10, to knock the price down to $107.10.
