Dear Diary, I'm Nervous

Hey besties, writing this from a coffee shop. Like all of you, I pretty much have a long to-do list I try to work my way through every day. On match days, I try my best to keep the list shorter and be realistic with myself. But today, my list was short. Very short. The main thing to do was WATCH THE TEXAS RANCHERS PLAY PICKLEBALL. Today, my MLP Playoff campaign begins, and let’s talk about it (briefly, because I have to start getting ready lol).

You guys have heard me preach that watching pickleball is the key to improvement, and I believe that wholeheartedly. It’s a cheat code- you can improve without putting strain on your body, you can train your pickleball IQ, you can study both yourself and specific opponents. The beauty of the MLP Playoffs is that you know exactly who you will play, and you will even get to play them more than once in consecutive matches. I’ve talked about the chess match it is to play against Ben/AL repeatedly, but this chess match happens over the course of 1-2 days, not weeks, and it’s really something so fun to be apart of.

This morning, I’ve watched back the Ranchers pretty extensively, and I’m basically looking for patterns. It’s hard to really describe or conceptualize exactly what I’m looking for, but basically, you’re looking for anything that worked (or didn’t), twice or more for either team. You should also, of course, make note of anything new from anyone on the court.

I know multiple members of the Ranchers read this (HI CALEB), so I will not be sharing any of the things I saw obviously, but I watched a lot of Lea/Kaitlyn, Lea/Eric (I will play them today), and both Kaitlyn and Lea play singles.

The ability to choose your opponent is such an interesting dynamic in MLP, and I fully agree with NML and other pickleball influencers that MLP should milk and promote this more. Unsurprisingly, the 5s chose the Royals- the Royals’ best line is women’s doubles, and Jorja/AL are still heavily favored against them, and the Royals are probably the worst remaining dreambreaker team by far.

That left my team with three choices: the Ranchers, Brooklyn, or the Flash. It’s never easy having to choose, there’s simply so much potential for future regret and to be wrong. The Sliders had the luxury of always playing with a chip on their shoulder as the “chosen ones” last year, and this year, they don’t have the luxury not of being chosen, but do have the gift of not having to choose. I wonder, will LA regret their choice of the Flash? That choice was surprising to a lot of the pros (I do think it was valid though), and only time will tell. The Flash will play LA with a chip on their shoulder, an energy of “you really chose us?!”, while Brooklyn will not have that same chip against Columbus. It’s very interesting.

I was not really involved in the choice of the Ranchers, but it was probably the right choice for us on paper. We went to a dreambreaker in our only match against Brooklyn, and we’ve never played Dallas. Choose the devil you know, I guess?

I get nervous, just like you. Everyone does, being better at pickleball does not erase humanity or the same emotions around competition that everyone has. I care, deeply, but am trying to care a bit less in all honesty (not going great). What I will be telling myself today is that I’ve been here many of times, and regardless of the result today, I will be here many more times.

I’ll be focusing on my breathing, moving my feet, and on 2-3 things that will help me contribute to winning the matches I’m a part of. I’ll try to be brave if we go to a Dreambreaker, there’s NOTHING worse than feeling like you played scared in a DB. I hope you never have that feeling.

Should it go to a dreambreaker, I’ll be very curious who I will play. Both Kaitlyn and Lea are ELITE, and they have switched up their order based on matchup. Yesterday we practiced with the Sliders and Tyra and I played against each other in one DB and joked that this was a preview of the PPA finals. So funny, with the new WPR, I would be playing singles in the PPA Finals and both Lea and Kaitlyn wouldn’t be, which feels a bit ridiculous, but that’s a piece for another time.

If there’s grammar errors, I’M SORRY. This was basically a stream of consciousness and I have to meet my team ready to go in 30 minutes. Much love, love you all, see you on Pickleball TV (:

XOXO, your internet bestie, Anna🫦❤️✨