Hey!

Happy belated mothers day to all the moms out there! In fact, my mom is one of those awesome ones and turns out, she's an amazing writer. Check out this awesome piece she did about Lawrence Brownlee — a famous opera singer turned pickleball addict! You can read it here :)

Before we keep going, welcome back to another edition of the blog. If you’re new to the blog and want to go back and check out past editions, go here!

Today’s edition has two parts:

1. Details of The Game (Video) – Improve your overhead angles.

2. Update on My Journey Playing Pro – Recap from 2 tournaments.

Details of The Game (Video):

Over the last two weeks, I've been on the road playing the APP Cincinnati, then the PPA Atlanta.

It's been awesome being back at tournaments competing, getting a good gauge on where I stand against tournament competition.

Below, I'll share my results and learning I had from both tournaments.

APP CINCINNATI:

I played the qualifier in all three events because I don't have many points after being out so long with the injury.

Pro Mens Singles: 1 win. 1 loss.

Recap: 

Another word for singles is “suffering.” HA! But seriously. It’s tough out there when you don’t have much of a tennis background going against these former college tennis players. 

SO, why am I playing you ask? The truth is, I’ve (surprisingly) had fun spending some time at the end of my training sessions playing singles games. AND honestly, singles REALLY helps you work on (1) Bigger Serves (2) Deeper returns and (3) Dipping 3rd shot drives. Which are 3 shots that really help in doubles.  

Pro Mixed Doubles: 4 wins. 2 losses.

Recap:

I played with Cade (below) for the first time. And anytime you play with someone new, you have the challenge of (1) figuring out how to play against your opponents AND figuring out how to best play with each other. I thought we did a great job of both! We won 3 qualifying matches to get into the main draw (which was great). In the main draw, we won our first round match against a good team (also great). THEN, we lost to the #1 seed and then one more time in the backdraw. 

Mens Doubles: 2 wins. 1 loss.

Recap:

This was a tough one. We breezed through our first two rounds, then lost our third qualifier match to get into the main draw. In watching the match back on film, I realized we played the wrong strategy. 

We had a few pre - match thoughts on how to play, and then didn’t adjust when it wasn’t working. This is tough, and a skill I'm still working hard to get better at — in game adjustments. It’s easy to play and have no clue what’s going on out there. Points move fast and you can get up or down in a hurry and not realize why. 

I will make a video on “in game adjustments” in the future, but right now, I need to figure it out a bit more myself :) 

PPA ATLANTA:

Mens Singles: 0 wins. 1 loss. 

Recap:

Down 6-14, I brought it back to 13-14. A 7-0 run. 

The truth is, the guy wanted me to win and he gave me a lot of chances when it was 13-14. But I didn’t capitalize. Then I missed a return to lose the match. But gosh, I tell ya what, there’s something about getting to match point that changes people. And boy did this guy play differently at match point. And so did I. I just said, Screw it, and started hitting every serve as hard as I could. I need to bring that mentality to every point of the match. Not just when I’m down and have nothing to lose. 

Mixed Doubles:  1 win. 1 loss. 

Learning: We breezed through our first round match, then played against my training partner from phoenix in the 2nd round. He took us down and ended our day. One big learnings I have for mixed doubles (and it’s why I’m practicing more singles), is I need a 3rd shot drive that can do damage in mixed doubles. The best guys in mixed apply so much pressure with their drive and earn some easy points because of it. Right now, me and my partners have to work hard on every possession to earn points. 

Mens Doubles: 3 wins. 1 loss.

We made it through three qualifier matches and made our way into the main draw. In these qualifier matches, we did a much better job of making adjustments. Then we lost to Quang Dong and Chuck Taylor in a tough one a couple days ago. 

BIG LEARNING: 

Tournament play (or league play) is about strategy and execution. In some of the matches above, we found a weak spot in the opponent and then exploited it.

Two examples. In Cincinnati, we were down 0-7 in our second qualifier, then we made an adjustment, got it back to 8-12. THEN, made one more adjustment, and went on to win 15-12. And the adjustment was pretty simple. Hit every drop to one location, and dink to that same location, and boom. Points started coming our way and we won. 

One final example, to wrap up this piece. In another match we were up 12-8. Our strategy was working. THEN, a return was hit to me and I decided to “change it up” and hit to a different spot just to see if it would work.

Spoiler: It didn’t work.

Not even close. Then they got a side out and went on a run, We ended up getting down 14-13 (match point). We saved the match point and came back to win 16-14. BUT, point is, if I don’t make that dumb decision, we (most likely) win the next point, keep momentum in our favor and win that match 15 - 10. 

All in all, this game is amazing. It’s a puzzle we’re all trying to figure out. And I'm on a mission to do just that!

In closing, this was a much longer breakdown than I’ve done in the past, so if you enjoyed it, hit reply and let me know. If you thought it was too much, let me know that as well :)

See ya next week,

Kyle 

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