The Floor vs Ceiling Debate

Hey besties! I love talking about this topic, and am excited to be talking to some of you about it a looooot more in the near future😉 Stay tuned for some very big announcements that will change… everything👀‼️ If you want a behind-the-scenes look at what my team and I (I have a team now?) have been working INSANELY hard on, check out my latest vlog!

But without further ado, let’s get into it! Your floor, your ceiling, and why it is so dang important that I could talk about this ad nauseam.

Think of your floor as your lowest possible level. The worst you can play. What you look like when it feels like pretty much nothing is going your way. How good are you when this is happening? What does your game look like? What do you have to fall back on? A lot of us like to consciously separate ourselves from this version of ourselves as it’s often not the prettiest.

Your ceiling, on the other hand, is your highest level. What you look like when you’re in flow, everything is going your way, an error? Never heard of her. Playing at or near your ceiling is a glorious feeling, and one that a lot of us hold onto. When you’re playing this well, you’re probably deploying a wide range of shots, more than you usually would even.

So now that we are working with shared definitions, I ask you a very, very important question:

Assuming their average level was the same, would you rather have a partner with a high floor or high ceiling?

Think about this and come up with your own answer before you continue reading.

Volatility is defined as “a tendency to change quickly and unpredictably” according to the Merriam Webster dictionary. In sports, or in pickleball specifically, I like to think about it as the difference between your ceiling and your floor. The more volatile you are, the bigger this gap. The less volatile, the smaller it is.

Now - another question for you: is volatility good or bad?

You’re probably guessing I will say it’s not ideal, that you should work on having less of it, and to an extent, you’re right. But, I would not say that volatility is inherently bad. There are times to embrace volatility. Say you’re a heavy underdog. Say you’re grossly outmatched, say playing “conventionally” against a certain team won’t get you anywhere. These are all situations in which embracing volatility is actually the correct thing to do (I chose to do this in partnering with Hayden rather than Andrei or Federico).

But, from an overall level perspective, it is generally better to have less volatility. Why? Well, what was your answer to my question earlier? Would you rather have a partner with a high floor or a high ceiling?

My guess is that most of you said you’d rather a partner with a high floor. Someone whose floor and ceiling are closer together is generally more dependable across multiple matches. They’re like a reliable boyfriend - maybe not the most exciting relationship of your life, but they’re not toxic. They’ll do what they say they’re going to do, show up when they’re supposed to, and keep their word. The toxic guy, you don’t know what you’re going to get. The highs are high, the lows are low… you might question your reality… Do I have personal experience with this? Of course not!!!

Ok, hahaha, we’re back. Being high volatility is a common problem for people who say they can “hang with the better players one day but not the next”, or for people who can get one good win but struggle to string together multiple. This person might beat people they’re not supposed to, and lose to people they should beat. Their results are all over the place.

What makes the people you see again and again on PickleballTV Saturday and Sunday is less so the repertoire of shots in their arsenal, but moreso the consistency they bring match to match and the efficacy of their floor. Anna Leigh and I can beat a lot of teams even when everything is going wrong. And Ben and Anna Leigh? That’s the highest floor in pickleball by a LOT.

For the vast majority of pickleball players, I would recommend prioritizing floor development. It’s normal to cycle between phases of floor and ceiling prioritization- but generally everyone can work on making less errors, getting to the kitchen line more frequently, and countering better. Adding weapons is moreso in where your ceiling lies, but making 5% less errors will usually have a bigger impact than getting 10 or 15% better at a niche shot that doesn’t come up that often.

If you’re interested in an even deeper discussion of this topic and all my thoughts on floor, ceiling, prioritization, and how to develop your game, stay tuned, very big announcements are coming very, very soon♥️

I’m super thankful for all of you, always. I just hit a major milestone on my Instagram account- 100K followers! Whoa! To celebrate, I want to do a post highlighting some of the amazing members of my community, and you guys are, of course, my favorites. If we have any photos together, please share them to this Google Drive!

The photos in there already bring me so much joy and I would love to see ours together<3

As always, dink big, dream bigger - your internet bestie, Anna ♥️✨🫦