January 14th, 2025
What do a Brit, an Italian, and two Americans have in common? One super duper fun and fulfilling early morning drill session. I made sure to get to the courts early enough to prep properly with bands and a dynamic warm-up. We spent the first hour actually drilling. Has anyone ever seen four pros playing the same kind of drill games we do in clinics? Well, we do. Because it doesn’t matter your level, we all have to drill the same shots and skills. The biggest difference is we just do it a little better and with a little more consistency.
I have a new favorite drill game that I shared with the group. I’m not quite ready to release it to the public. But let’s say it's challenging me to stay with the pace of the game and I like it. I want my partners to be free to play their games and for me to be an asset instead of a liability.
We finished the session with some solid mixed doubles practice. Brandon will be happy to know I won every Erne I attempted. And yes, that number is greater than one. Came home and went through my stretching routine, though Johnny definitely didn’t help. Johnny is my English bull terrier. Think the Target dog or, for those of us that remember the 80s, Spud Makenzie. He’s pretty special in that he mostly just sleeps all day long, except when I decide to stretch. Or when he gets the zoomies.
Finished up the afternoon with a couple of lessons and a short drill session of my own. It's the Tuesday of the tournament, so I don’t want to overdo it, but I still want to get my touches in. My main goals the week of a tournament are getting up to the pro pace (fast) and dialing in my drops and dinks. No more time to learn anything new at this stage. The skills are there, and now it's time to visualize my strategies and shots and have a clear plan for contingencies that can happen during the tournament.
One more day at home and then a very early flight to get to Florida. Getting excited to see everyone and dig into those competitive juices.
January 13th, 2025
Started the morning off playing in a cash game with a 15-year-old superstar. We didn’t do as well as we’d like, and I’d say I failed in my mental game…guess it's a process and it won’t be perfect. We had a lot of fun, but I allowed external factors to distract from my focus. And distractions are the number one killer to finding your flow state. When we play, the only real thing we need to focus on is that little plastic ball and what we are going to do with it.
It also made me think about my pre-match routine. That was taken away from me (the first of the external distractions) because at the last minute they started the games earlier than we had planned. Now, this was a local game for fun, but for the tournament, I need to stay much more routine and deliberate with my time before and between matches. This includes healthy snacks, stretching, a true warm-up, listening to music, and finding some zen.
Luckily, it was a cold but beautiful day in Boise, and I was able to get outside and recalibrate. Because that brings up two more goals (I’m starting to feel like I barely have my act together with all these New Year goals…). But they are to spend more time in nature and to bounce back quicker after challenges. Really, I’m getting too old to waste too much time being down. We’ve got to make the most of our lives.
Ended the day watching a reality game show with Porter called Beast Games. What a crazy show. The contestants are constantly forced to make decisions in no-win situations. Makes you think how you would do if you had to make a choice between bad and worse. But, as I often do, it made me think about pickleball and how that’s exactly what I want my opponents to have to do. We are always making a choice in pickleball with pretty much every shot we get. I want to put my opponents in pressure positions where they only have bad choices to choose between. My pickleball flow state is 100% when I’m the one dictating the course of the game. Now it's the constant search for that perfect state that keeps us coming back for more.
January 11th, 2025
Recovery Day. Started the morning off with putting cumin in my oatmeal instead of cinnamon. Yeah, not what I meant to do. Guess it can only get better. Today’s focus is on rest, recovery, and reflection. This starts with a 25 minute mobility and stretching session, which is something I’m trying to incorporate more of into my routines.
Need the day to take care of things around the house and catch up on some of the business side of being a pro pickleball player. This includes bookkeeping, communication for clinics, lessons, etc, booking travel, social media obligations, plus some other business ventures I’m currently working on. There is rarely a dull moment. I had a couple of lessons scheduled as well. Love to see the excitement and improvements on my players’ faces. And got the best compliment when one of my students said she hit a two-handed backhand winner down the line and her opponent said she looked just like Susannah.
Now for some reflection - heading into the new season I want to have some clear and obtainable goals.
- Increase my fitness including off-court endurance (my favorite is cycling but I’ve started adding some rowing in as well).
- Spend more time on stretching and mobility and injury prevention.
- Eat more quality protein and less sugar.
- Master my mental game and ideal playing energy. This one is not easy…
- Play for myself and my partners. I’m playing with people I enjoy, so enjoy the time on the court with them.
- Be gracious in my losses.
- Be more free. Give more but care less what others’ think or do.
- Find at least one cool, non-tournament experience for each location we visit.
Okay, that feels like a lot, but I think they are all realistic as well. Good to have them written down. Some I know how to do already. Some I need to spend some time with people and books wiser than me to get some help. And of course, have a solid team around me of people who support and believe in me through thick and thin.
Speaking of that team - finished the night off first teaching and then proceeding to lose horribly to Porter at cribbage. What did I say about being a gracious loser?
January 8th, 2025
Slept really well and ready to hit the courts running after my normal breakfast of oatmeal, blueberries, and coffee. I definitely waver between boring consistencies and needing change. Maybe that’s part of why I find pickleball so appealing - the long dink rallies and the constant search for the moment to change it all up with a well-placed speed up.
So three more hours of drilling down. Spent a lot of focus on drops, drives, and getting up to the kitchen. Hoping to be a poaching machine this year! Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but I’d still like to put a little more pressure on my opponents as I move through the transition zone. Super fun having Alexa here to work with. She has an incredible focus and is going to be someone to watch out for this year.
After drilling, we went to lunch at a local favorite, Boise Fry Co. Got to try some potatoes while in Idaho. And then relaxed until putting on an exhibition/practice match this evening at the club with some of the best players in town. Brandon Lane (my mixed partner) will be happy to know I got a clean Erne tonight! Our 2025 motto is Erne More - hahaha. Overall, happy with my play, though my legs are feeling it. Stay low, move those feet, and hunt for attacks. Three days of serious drilling and playing a week before the tourney is just what I needed to get my blood going. It’s on now. Going to be fun! Erne More!
January 6th, 2025
Where to even begin…heading into my 4th year of playing full-time professional pickleball and only 23 days away from my 47th birthday. There’s a lot of feelings associated with that. Goals, hopes, and some nasty fears as well. But my core philosophy going into this year is I am exactly who I need to be and that person is good enough. That doesn’t mean I won’t continue to work hard and evolve my game, diet, routine, and all those other goodies that go into making a strong player, but my self-worth needs to be less reliant on my results and more on being me and performing to my best.
So T-minus-10 days to the APP Fort Lauderdale Open. Super fortunate that fellow pro, Alexa Schull, flew into Boise late last night to train with me and Dominic Catalano for four days. So we are hitting the road running. Three hours of drilling and two hours of playing down. I’m coming off the end of a cold, so I wasn't at full strength, but that actually allowed me to focus more on my goals of consistency and deliberate shot making. My real goal this year is to have the footwork of a ballerina and then freeze into slow motion when I’m actually hitting the ball. And if any of you know my game, you know grace isn’t usually what first comes to mind… That’s okay. It’s all about embracing your own strengths and then sneakily adding more and more tools to your arsenal.
But the best thing was, I actually felt I got better as the day went on…sweating out that lingering cold. So that’s a positive as well. Tomorrow I plan to do some light lifting in the gym as well and continue to up my protein and build strength. You all know I like my sweets, but I’m really trying to limit them and stick to a more anti-inflammatory diet. These are the things that we must do to stay competitive, and frankly, just to feel better regardless of what level of pickleball you play.
Shower…squeezy legs…high protein dinner…a cup of tea… and maybe I can convince Alexa and Dominic to play a game of Ticket to Ride with me. See, we have to be ourselves, and at heart I’ve always been a bit of a geek who loves me some competition.
