Monday Kickoff (Week 5 of 2025)

As I progress in my journey, I've been thinking of better ways to track my progress, so this borrows from a workflow I used to use with a mastermind group I was a part of. Let's see how it goes!

📜 Context

• Background: Started playing pickleball in July 2024 and quickly fell down the rabbit hole of gear and wanting to improve. My athletic experience primarily consists of ping pong in the basement with my little brother, messing around on the tennis courts on occasion, but no formal training.
• Current Rating: 3.600 (Low Reliability: 9)

🎨 Theme: Drops & Resets

I've been very frustrated with my inability to control the pace of the game. Recently I've found that any attempt to execute a drop shot often results in something way too high and would just get demolished by any intermediate player. I know this is going to be one of the biggest blockers right now.

🎯 Goals

• Spend at least three hours on drills.
• Play at least three hours.

📋 Tasks

• Drills
  • Drops
    • Toss and drop: From the baseline, Toss the ball in the air and then execute a proper drop (one-handed forehand and backhand).
  • Serves
    • Top-spin: Practice adding shape to my serves while targeting the back of the court.
    • Banana (slice): Get more comfortable with the slice serve because mine is unpredictable and it still feels really weird to me.
  • Drives
    • Forehand: Start practicing with the Spiderman grip that I learned from Ed Ju to see how it feels.
    • 2 hand backhand: Just get more reps with this so it feels more comfortable
  • Footwork
    • Practice drills from Tennis Fitness: Get Fit, Faster And Stronger On The Tennis court
    • Kinetic chain of energy with medicine ball for getting a better feeling on weight transfer
• Gameplay
  • Footwork: Be in the right position so I can hit my shot properly.
  • Mentality: Be like water. Minimize twitchy movements and take your time.
  • Readiness: When I'm at the kitchen, ensure my paddle is always pointing at where the ball is in while also being light on my feet.

💭 Closing Thoughts

Alright. That's my plan for the week. Seems a little ambitious, but as the cliche quote goes:

Shoot for the moon, because even if you miss, at least you'll land amongst the stars.