Who Moved My Pickleball? What Your Response to Change Says About Your Pickleball Game
Many pickleball players know the feeling. You had a shot that worked. A strategy that clicked. A partner, a court, a routine — and then something changed. And suddenly, none of it works the way it used to.
Spencer Johnson wrote Who Moved My Cheese? in 1998. It sold 28 million copies. The book is a parable about four characters navigating a maze, searching for “cheese” — a metaphor for whatever you want in life. Two mice adapt quickly when the cheese moves. Two “little people” resist, complain, and struggle. It’s a simple story. But its insight into how humans respond to change is devastatingly accurate — and nowhere more so than on the pickleball court.
Why Pickleball is a Game of Constant Change
Pickleball rewards adaptability above almost everything else. Your opponent’s patterns shift. Your body changes with age. Your regular partner moves away. A new player joins your group who outpaces you. The strategies that got you to 3.5 stop working at 4.0.
The players who thrive long-term aren’t the most talented — they’re the most adaptable.
Johnson identified four characters in his maze parable, and they map almost perfectly onto pickleball player types you’ve almost certainly encountered — or been.
The Four Pickleball Personalities
Sniff — The Player Who Sees Change Coming
Sniff in the book detects that the cheese supply is dwindling before it disappears. On the pickleball court, this is the player who notices when a strategy is losing its edge before it completely falls apart.
They’re watching opponents adjust mid-game. They’re reading body language. They sense when the third shot drop that was working in the first game is being anticipated in the third. They don’t wait for a 0–7 run to realize something needs to change.
If you want to develop your “Sniff” instinct, start paying attention between rallies — not just during them. What is your opponent adjusting? Are they moving earlier? Are they poaching more? The pattern is always there before the crisis.
Scurry — The Player Who Acts Without Overthinking
Scurry doesn’t analyze. When the cheese moves, he simply starts running in a new direction. On the court, this is the player who switches tactics mid-game without needing to understand why — they just try something different.
This can be a strength or a weakness. Scurry-type players rarely get stuck in losing patterns, but they can also change too fast, abandoning what works before they’ve given it time.
The lesson: sometimes action beats analysis. If you’ve lost five points in a row, stop doing the same thing and try something — anything — different. Adjustment doesn’t have to be perfect to be useful.
Hem — The Player Who Refuses to Change
This is the hardest one to read about, because most of us have been Hem at some point.
Hem in the parable stays at the empty cheese station long after the cheese is gone, insisting it will come back, angry that it disappeared, looking for someone to blame. On the pickleball court, Hem is the player who:
- Insists their serve is fine when it’s being returned aggressively every time
- Won’t adjust their kitchen strategy even when opponents are reading it perfectly
- Blames their paddle, their partner, or the wind
The most common Hem behavior in pickleball? Refusing to acknowledge that a body that’s 60 plays differently than one that’s 45. Not worse — differently. Hem players don’t make that distinction. They just get frustrated and wonder why the cheese moved.
Haw — The Player Who Adapts and Grows
Haw is the hero of the parable. He resists change at first, but eventually laughs at himself, lets go, and goes looking for new cheese. He even writes lessons on the maze walls as he goes.
Haw-type pickleball players are the ones who get better with age rather than despite it. They replace power with placement. They replace speed with positioning. They lean into doubles strategy when singles becomes harder on their joints. They ask better questions: What can I do now, rather than what did I used to do?
They also share what they learn — which is why Haw players tend to be the best practice partners, the coaches people seek out, and the ones who still love the game twenty years in.
The Four Walls of the Pickleball Maze
Johnson’s characters write lessons on the maze walls. Here are four worth writing on yours.
“The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you find new cheese.” That strategy you’ve relied on for two years? It might be time. Not because it was bad — because your opponents have caught up to it. Letting go isn’t giving up. It’s making room.
“What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” This is the most powerful question in the book, and it hits differently in pickleball. Most players know what shot they should hit. Fear — of looking foolish, of missing, of trying something new — stops them. Ask yourself this question before you walk onto the court.
“Old beliefs do not lead you to new cheese.” The belief that your rating defines your ceiling. The belief that you’re too old to improve. The belief that pickleball strategy is about reflexes rather than positioning. These are walls, not facts. The players who break through are the ones willing to examine what they believe and ask if it’s still true.
“It is safer to search in the maze than to remain in a cheeseless situation.” Staying in a losing pattern because it’s familiar is not safe. It just feels safe. The risk of trying something new and failing is almost always smaller than the cost of grinding through a strategy that stopped working.
Where Most Players Get Stuck
The research on resistance to change is consistent: people don’t resist change itself — they resist loss. Giving up a familiar shot, a comfortable pattern, or a fixed identity (“I’m a power player”) feels like losing something.
Pickleball is particularly prone to this because so many players come to the sport after long careers where identity was fixed. You were the executive, the teacher, the athlete. Now you’re a beginner again, and that’s uncomfortable.
Johnson’s insight — and the reason 28 million people bought the book — is that the discomfort of change is always smaller in reality than it is in anticipation. The maze is never as frightening once you start moving.
A Simple Adaptation Checklist
Use this before your next session if something in your game isn’t working:
| Question | What to look for |
|---|---|
| What stopped working? | A specific shot, a strategy, a partnership dynamic |
| When did it stop working? | Did it happen suddenly or gradually? |
| What changed? | Opponent level, your physical condition, your court position habits |
| What’s one thing you could try differently? | Just one — don’t overhaul everything at once |
| What are you afraid of losing? | Name it. Then ask if the fear is proportionate. |
The Cheese Will Always Move
That’s the one truth Johnson is most insistent on, and it’s the one pickleball players most need to hear.
Your game will plateau. Your body will change. Your regular partners will move on. The strategies that work at one level will stop working at the next. None of this is a problem — it’s just the nature of the maze.
The players who enjoy pickleball for decades are the ones who stopped expecting the cheese to stay put, and started enjoying the search.
So the next time something stops working on the court, ask yourself: who moved my pickleball?
And then go find it.
Inspired by Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson — a parable about change that has sold over 28 million copies worldwide and is available on Amazon.