Halloween is the art of becoming something else.
A few years ago, at a pickleball clinic, we asked players to become the opponents they couldn't stand.
Those who despised chronic lobbers had to lob. Those who hated playing against bangers had to bang. Shy players had to talk trash. Low-percentage players had to go patiently up the middle. Some had to thump their chest and scream "LET'S GO!" every time they won a rally.
For some, it was an existentially difficult experience. Others were transformed.
Some found voices they didn't know they had on a pickleball court. Some weaponized a drive for the first time. Some stopped taking themselves so seriously and rediscovered their joy for the game. Several stopped apologizing when they miss.
By dressing up in a costume for a night — trying on new alter egos and identities — we can discover something about who we have the capacity to become.
Uma Thurman as Beatrix Kiddo, codename Black Mamba, in Kill Bill. Your pickleball alter ego starts here.
ACT I: ALTER EGO
Some of us are still figuring out who we are on the pickleball court. Some have developed a fairly recognizable pickleball identity.
We have our favourite shots, our habits, our little rituals. We have a reputation among our friends and rivals. Some of us are patient. Some are reckless. Some play with enormous confidence until the score reaches 10–10. Others become different people when the game is on the line.
Over time, we start believing these characteristics are permanent.
We tell ourselves we're not aggressive enough to attack that ball. We're not athletic enough to try an Erne. We're not the kind of person who talks during a rally. We don't have the hands, the nerve, the patience, the touch.
And so we keep playing the game we already know how to play.
But what if some of these limitations are simply stories we've been telling ourselves?
Kobe Bryant spent years studying Michael Jordan. His footwork, his post moves, his mannerisms, even the way he carried himself between plays. He borrowed so much from Jordan that, for a time, he seemed determined to become him.
Eventually, Kobe needed an identity of his own. He found one in an unlikely place: Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill.
In the films, Uma Thurman plays Beatrix Kiddo, a highly trained assassin whose codename is Black Mamba. Betrayed by her former colleagues, shot in the head and left for dead, she awakens from a four-year coma. What follows is an extraordinary story of reinvention. She must recover her strength, reclaim her skills and become dangerous again.
Kobe was fascinated by the black mamba's speed, precision and lethal efficiency. He borrowed the name and constructed a new character he could inhabit on the basketball court. The Black Mamba was disciplined, calculating, relentless. Whatever else was happening in his life, he could step onto the court and become this other thing.
Over time, the character became inseparable from the athlete. What began as an invented persona evolved into an entire philosophy: Mamba Mentality.
Think about that progression. A fictional assassin borrows the name of a deadly snake. A basketball player borrows the name of the fictional assassin. He rehearses its qualities until millions of people recognize the character as part of who he really is. Black Mamba is now a persona that young basketball players try to step into themselves as they seek to define their own unique identities on the court.
Artists famously steal. Musicians learn other people's songs before writing their own. They borrow, imitate, experiment, discard things, and gradually assemble a style that belongs to them.
When you discovered pickleball, you got something rare: a chance to build a new identity, almost from scratch.
So let's be intentional about it tonight.
What have you unconsciously become?
And what haven't you tried yet?
ACT II: COME AS YOU WANT TO PLAY
It's Halloween. Costumes are welcome. Dress as your favourite shot, your alter ego, or some version of yourself that hasn't quite emerged yet.
Summon Cloudmaker or Reset Banger, conjure Les Deux or the new Erne merit badge you've always wanted to earn. You can wear a costume, invent a name, or show up in your regular pickleball clothes and build the character from the inside.
Give that character one quality you don't normally bring to the court. Then, for at least one game tonight, play as that character.
The costume is optional. The experiment is the point.
Pay attention to what changes. How your partner responds. How your opponents adjust. How it feels to make decisions you wouldn't ordinarily make. Keep what felt authentic. Discard the rest.
You might discover that the alter ego you invented for Halloween is someone you'd like to keep around.
The Original Pickleball Jamboree at Fairgrounds Capilano.
Jamboree Legend Rebecca Parry with last year’s winning Pickleball Halloween Costume.