At Jamboree, every game begins with rock paper scissor — reveal on shoot, the 4th beat.
Some teams still treat this like a formality. The same as flipping a coin to determine who serves or which team sends out their first pair.
Rock-paper-scissors is the mother of all hands battles. Versions of the game have existed for centuries, originating in China before spreading through Japan and beyond. It’s simple enough for a child to understand, yet sophisticated enough that mathematicians, psychologists, economists, and poker players have all studied it seriously.
Why?
Because it sits in that strange territory between randomness and human behaviour.
If two people play once, the outcome may be random. Play half a dozen times and patterns begin to emerge.
Some players always lead with rock. Some refuse to lead with rock because they assume everyone else will. Others will remember they beat you with scissors when you played them six months ago.
If your troop leader handed you a scouting report on a player, could you predict what they’d throw? Does a banger lead with rock? Does a counter-attacker choose scissors?Does cloudmaker rely on paper?
Who is trying too hard to be unpredictable? Who is overthinking it? Who is not thinking at all? There is reverse psychology and reverse reverse psychology.
And then there are those who can just straight up read your hand and your eyes — they can read your mind — in that blink of an eye before you throw.
Or is there some little thing they say or do beforehand that makes you throw what they want?
Some teams spark momentum just by winning that throw. Some can't stand the loss and they take it into the game.
Before anyone touches a pickleball, people are already revealing themselves. The first battle has already begun.
Remember: Winner gets to choose which team sends out their first pair. The other teams gets to choose between side/serve. (We’ll dig into this choice in a future post.)