Why It Matters

My daily journal is supposed to be a recap of my day with pickleball. Today, my journal will likely read more like a diary so I apologize in advance. I could write a recap of my play but it is easy to be quick with it. I played super early, which I love to do, and I feel like I should have won at least 6 games today. I think I left with 2 wins. So, not my best performance. I don’t know what I did wrong. I missed a few returns and a serve, both of which I typically don’t do, and I had some drops that missed but nothing dramatic. I tried to use my roll shot a few times that probably wasn’t the smartest timing to try but for the most part, I just got beat.

My mind started to wander after several losses, starting with trying to figure out how I could adapt and do better and eventually ending up with sadness and jealousy that I don’t get to see that top tier play on a regular basis. I tried to stay in the moment but all I could think was if I saw this often, I’d likely do a lot better. But I don’t.

Research has shown that you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals if they are written down. Additionally, you are 76% more likely to achieve your goals if you write action commitments and share weekly progress reports.

I don’t write down what I need to work on each week but I do give a daily report of my progress. I put it out for the whole world to see, if they choose. I’m probably much harder on myself than I need to be but we are all our own worst critics. I don’t want to do well just to be a better player, I want to play senior pro pickleball.

When I turned 50 I thought I was close to maybe being able to give it a shot but I didn’t have a partner to take that challenge with me. Now, nearly 51,I still don’t have a partner and no real clear path to reach that goal.

Along comes The National Pickleball League. This league is essentially the 50+ version of Major League Pickleball and they announced they are having a Combine for, well, people like me. People who think they might be good enough but don’t have a partner, don’t live somewhere to meet others who play at that level and essentially are an unknown in the sport.

I thought about it hard. I asked myself, what makes you think you can do that? You can’t even get invited to play with the highest level players in town. Then I told myself, if you play anywhere but where you live, you get those “high level” invites. What’s the worst that can happen?

I decided the worst thing that could happen is my dreams of playing senior pro will be shot. The second worst thing is living with embarrassing myself for trying something prematurely. The positives were:

• The Combine cost the same as a tournament and guarantees play for 2 days with other players who think they can play at that level
• Entering the Combine means I can enter the Draft
• Even if I don’t get drafted, maybe I will meet some people who would want to keep working to reach that level and try it with me