Successful Pickleball - Your Way

You can be successful as a pickleball player with different types of approaches, both hard and soft game strategies, and being a proponent of the soft game, doesn't mean that I'm an opponent of the hard game.

Most pros have both a good soft game and a good hard game, because they'll mix the two depending on what's working in that moment and their overall strategy. 

The analogy/metaphore I like to think about in terms of the approach to pickleball is mixed martial arts or MMA which is a format of fight where you can almost do whatever you want.  
 
Each player has their own strategy, their own way of coming at the fight, and their own approach to how they want to fight the other fighter in that match. Pickleball is the same way, it's multidisciplinarity, meaning jiu-jitsu, boxing, wrestling.

You can win as a good jiu-jitsu practitioner with a soft game, or you can win as a good hard game practitioner in the boxing. 

Find the approach that allows you to customize the game to your particular style, personality or how you like to play the game. Get really good at that. Understand that you can win a ton of games from that solid foundation. 

From there you can grow, expand, maybe add a little boxing, wrestling or even a little judo into your game.