Grief Is Part of the Game: Why Losing a Pickleball Partner Hurts and How Healthy Competition Can Help You Keep Growing with Dr. Amanda Sovik Johnston

Nobody warns you about this part of pickleball.

Your favorite doubles partner moves away, levels up, or… stops putting you on the calendar. Suddenly, “it’s just pickleball” doesn’t come close to describing what’s happening.

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Amanda Sovik-Johnston, founder of The Connected Competitor and the sports psychologist behind the blog post “Pickleball Will Break Your Heart”. We talk about the mental game behind partner breakups, changing groups, and the real grief pickleball players can experience when relationships on the court shift.

Amanda explains why losing a pickleball partner can hit so hard, why being left out can trigger more than disappointment, and how ratings, skill gaps, and changing friendships can turn a game you love into an emotional minefield.

In this episode, we talk about:

Why losing a doubles partner can feel like a real breakup

What to do when your pickleball partner starts fading out without saying why

Why pickleball players can take partner changes so personally

How Amanda handled her own partner moving away, including the goodbye letter and the "auditions on the off days"

How performance anxiety can actually come from worrying about whether you belong

Why anxiety in sports often has a social side

What DUPR rating conversations miss about ratings, access, and friendships