Hey!

Let’s get right to it…

For the first time, we won our first round “main draw” mens doubles match. And by golly, it was a marathon. 

18-16, 11-8. 

Yeah, you read that right. 18-16 in game one. 

I’ll tell you more about it in the bottom section of today’s newsletter.  

Welcome back to another edition. 

Today’s edition has three parts: 

1. A Helpful Tip – How To Be An Exceptional Doubles Partner.

2. An Entertaining Video – I Went On My 1st Pickleball Podcast.

3. My Journey Playing Pro Pickleball – The Marathon Match At Legacy Sports Complex. 

A Helpful Tip:

Entertaining Video:  

In last week’s newsletter, I wrote…

“On any journey of improvement, you have breakthrough moments along the way. And no one really knows when they’re going to come. But the good news is, with intentional practice and a long enough time on the horizon, they definitely will come.”

Well, how about that. Just two days after writing that — at last weekend’s Carvana PPA Mesa Grand Slam, Michael and I experienced two “firsts.” 

1. We automatically qualified for the main draw and didn’t have to show up at 7am to play the qualifier. We won out of the last two qualifiers we played together, so that gave us enough points to get right into the main draw. Let's go!

2. We won our first round match against Ben Newell and Zach Taylor. Two really good players. Michael and I had won matches in the pro division losers bracket before, but had never won a “main draw” match.

So to go out and win our first round together was an awesome moment for us. But it wasn’t easy. 

To start, the weather was wild all weekend. The temperatures were in the 50’s (which is fine, but different for PHX)  and the winds were 20 mph plus. And you have to remember, this is a wiffle ball we’re playing with. Wind affects the ball big time. 

Before the match, Michael and I chose to complain about the wind for a few minutes during warmups. Then we said, “enough.” Everyones playing the same conditions, let’s embrace it.. 

For anyone ever playing in non-ideal weather conditions, this is a good method to adopt.

Because the easy route is to complain during the match. 

But the truth is, both teams are playing in it, and one team will win, regardless of the external environment! So, choose to be the team that focuses on what you can control to give yourself a better chance to get the win.

Now, back to the match. 

We were playing on court 26, kinda out in the boonies of the facility. But after the match got to around 10-9 in the first game, what started as a few people watching quickly turned to a bigger crowd. 

By the time the score was 15-14, the crowd was around 50-60 people watching. That was pretty neat. They had game points. Then we had game points. Then they had game points, then we had game points. It was insane.

When Michael hit an overhead to win that game, we had what may have been our biggest celebration and embrace to date!

That felt good. 

Then we switched sides and while it wasn’t easy by any stretch, we were able to win 11-8 in the second game. 

After winning, we went on to play the #2 team in the world Riley Newman and Matt Wright again. It’s the second time in the last three tournaments we’ve faced off. 

They crushed us. I think it was 11-1 , 11-4.

In the losers bracket, we then went up against Erik Lange and Wes Burrows. Both guys Michael and I know fairly well. 

We really didn’t play well in that one, losing 15-8. 

Honestly, we only lost because of the wind. 

jk. Haha. Just seeing if you were still paying attention. 😉

Michael and I had three learnings walking away from this tournament. 

1. I love playing with that guy. He competes hard and I always feel like we have each other's back.
2. What works against really good players doesn’t always work against the BEST players in the world. So, we need to keep improving our skills, consistency, and decision making if we’re going to compete against the best in the world. I need to write a more in depth article about what separates the best in the world from all other pro’s. I’m starting to see it more clearly after competing against these players so much more.
3. Celebrate the breakthroughs. After losing, Michael and I were frustrated. We knew we could have played better.

BUT, and it’s a big but here… We got placed in the main draw for the first time and won our first main draw match!

CMON! We gotta celebrate that. Of course, I want to be playing on championship sunday right now!

But in life, typically, you can’t skip steps. You don’t just go from 4.0 to consistently beating the best in the world quickly. It takes time.

I’m continuing to love the process and enjoy the heck out of playing this game! 

Thanks for hanging around with me on this crazy journey!

That’s all for now! 

Hitting send to you, then headed out to the airport for a late flight to Minnesota to play the PPA indoor championships!

I’ll share more of how that goes next week!

Until then, 

Kyle  

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