Our Story

Welcome to Pickleball Collections! 

When I first started playing pickleball, I was known as a road warrior.  I was traveling around the world every other week for professional coaching engagements, in-house corporate training programs and facilitating public 6-day accredited coach training programs filled with professional development, personal development and business development concepts and competencies.

At first, I didn't think pickleball was for me as I had no paddle/racquet sports background whatsoever.  And, with flying over 130k air miles each year, the only physical activity I was involved in happened to be related to my fire and ems volunteer work.

Soon, I started finding myself packing my paddle...  Then attending conferences in pickleball hotspots.  Then signing hotel event contracts near pickleball courts and facilities so I could play either before or after training.  Yep - I was hooked on pickleball! 

But, here's the funny thing...  I was REALLY bad at pickleball.  (Remember - good at flying and staying in wonderful hotels to coach and train others, but no tennis, badminton, table tennis or racquetball background...)   I was an absolute trainwreck on the court.  So I took some lessons - and was told that I would NEVER get better.  

My pickleball instructor, who was a former tennis pro, said this.  Not kidding.  

But, here's the good thing.  He said it to me and I really, really hope not to/about someone else...  Some people choose to have a "fixed" mindset and some people choose to have a "growth" mindset. A statement like that to me serves as a challenge, not a deterrent.  (As does a team intentionally making bad line calls, the switch gets flipped and things change....) 

LOL - I digress...

Three things happened because of the challenges along the way in my pickleball journey...

1) I became a USAP Ambassador to do my part in helping new players to have entirely positive experiences (instead of some of the ones that I had).  

2)  Since I was the absolute worst player on the court -- anywhere -- I happened to play, I decided I would at least look good losing badly. 

THAT decision started my evolution into accidentally designing my own pickleball clothing line.  I designed coordinated clothing for myself - that I could layer to wear during very cold mornings to very warm afternoons as I could be on the court all day long, especially during large tournaments. 

I love bright colors and bold designs so that's what I created for myself.  And, then I created coordinated versions for my male partner, too. 

What I didn't anticipate was that wherever I went, whether I was playing pickleball or not, people would stop and ask me where they could buy what I was wearing. 

After maybe the hundredth time, I finally decided to make them available and am still figuring out this brand new world...

3)  After a loonnnggg history in professional coaching and training to support others in realizing their full potential and helping them to get out of their way, I realized I needed pickleball tools to track my progress, reflect on my game and my opponents' games, and determine specifically what I needed to address soon to improve incrementally. So, I created the resources in the Pickleball Primers collection for myself... 

And, along the way, I realized that when I was attentive to using these tools, I progressed incrementally.  Then whenever I noticed that I was experiencing a lull in my game or my game became stagnant, I would realize that I had stopped mindfully documenting and reflecting on a regular basis. 

So, first, I would immediately go back to the 100-point Pickleball Self-Assessment to shine a spotlight on what’s so RIGHT NOW. (In less than 5 minutes, I could figure out what was going on.)  Then back to the Pickleball Game Log, Drilling Journal, etc.    

Pickleball progress seems to be based on the same successful principles used, let's say, in weight loss and fitness: 

• writing things down
• drilling with deliberation
• maintaining an open and positive mindset (to learn and grow)
• staying present to habits

The Game Changers!

Since these Pickleball Primers accelerate my pickleball journey, I decided to make them available to other dedicated improving pickleball players.

To Your Continued Success,

Jennifer
The Pickleball Life & Business Coach(tm)