Things were going so well with my partner. We were happily watching Pickleballtv together and drilling like Catherine Parenteau and Athena Trouillot in perfect harmony.

Then, things took a turn for the worse after we joined forced in mixed doubles. 

We bickered constantly and our relationship on the court went to shambles.

So, what the heck happened? 

I called authors Dr. Stormy Hill and Terri Citterman, who wrote the book In A Pickle: How to Master Love and Pickleball and Not Kill Each Other, to help figure out why the situation went downhill so quickly.

Citterman is an executive coach, writer, and ghostwriter, and Hill is a mental health therapist, occupational therapist, and a relationship coach for men, women, and couples. These two combined their expertise to create a helpful guide for those of us who want to play pickleball with our partners, but can’t seem to do it easily on the court. 

“My long-term partner and I have a really solid, fabulous relationship. And then we hit the pickleball court and it really fell apart,” shared Hill.

Citterman and her husband ran into the same issue. 

“My husband and I were playing pickleball together and we played a few tournaments and it was rough. We got to the point where we needed to decide whether or not we were going to go through a pickleball divorce,” she said. 

Hill and her partner also contemplated giving up on playing pickleball together because they simply couldn’t make it work. 

“It made me really sad to not play with him because he’s my favorite person on the planet and I want to play with him more than anyone,” she said. “I felt a little bit like a hypocrite because I’m a therapist and relationship coach and I’m not practicing what I preach.”

Citterman and Hill witnessed this tension within their relationships on the court, but they also saw it on the court with friends, fellow players, and at tournaments.

This is clearly a universal experience, so they devised a way to help. 

“I wanted to take the skills from my life and my profession and apply them to the pickleball court,” mentioned Hill.

And as friends, women’s doubles partners, and writers, Citterman and Hill teamed up to co-write this book.

“The pickleball court is a microcosm of your relationship. It gives you a relationship and communication workshop out there,” shared Citterman.

“This is a book for people who are like, ‘I have a great relationship. What the hell happens when I get on the court?’” added Hill.

Inside the book, they cover topics like emotional intelligence, court dynamics, love languages, and communication, all through bursts of humor and genuinely good advice.

I can’t wait to dive in and read.

The book really wants to help people learn how to kindly and effectively play pickleball with your romantic partner.

“We all want to play pickleball for the rest of our lives and we want to play with our partners, but we have to learn how to do that better or that wasn’t going to be the case,” noted Hill. “We wanted to take our experience and what we’ve seen on the court that other people have expressed to us, give people a playbook, and help everybody because we want everyone to enjoy pickleball as much as possible, and be able to play with your partner because it’s really fun.”

In A Pickle was released on Amazon in a beautiful shiny red hardback book for pickleball players everywhere.

Check it out and start building a stronger relationship on and off the court.