May 27, 2025 • 45 mins
Join us for a transformative conversation with Sara Weiss, a two-time bestselling author, high-performance success coach, and international motivational speaker. In this episode, Sara shares her remarkable journey from network marketing leader and life coach to becoming a sponsored amateur pickleball champion. She delves into how burnout from her coaching career led her to discover pickleball, a sport that reignited her passion and brought balance to her life. Sara discusses the importance of mindset, embracing failure for growth, and how pickleball offers both physical and psychological liberation. She also shares insightful advice for couples and teammates on the court, emphasizing the power of surrender, avoiding judgment, and staying curious. Whether you're a pickleball enthusiast or looking to be inspired, Sara's story and wisdom will leave you energized and motivated. Tune in to explore the intersections of personal development, sports, and joy.
00:00 Introduction to Sara Weiss: Leadership and Personal Development
00:43 Balancing Professional Achievements and Motherhood
01:53 Sara's Personal Journey and the Adventurous Spirit
03:07 Discovering Pickleball: From Burnout to Passion
05:53 The Joy and Challenges of Pickleball
08:04 The Social and Physical Aspects of Pickleball
18:29 Commitment to Pickleball and Professional Growth
23:24 Mindset in Pickleball
24:25 Growth is Not Linear
25:17 Overcoming Plateaus
26:26 Embracing Failure
29:26 Practical Tips for Improvement
31:06 Winning Mindset and Positive Distraction
36:01 Advice for Couples and Teammates
42:11 Connect with Sara Weiss"
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Pickleball & Partnership Email cejukes@gmail.com
Music: Purple Planet Music
Thanks to Purple Planet Music for Pickleball & Partnership Intro and Outro music Purple Planet Music is a collection of music written and performed by Chris Martyn and Geoff Harvey.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker (00:00):
Are you feeling burnt out, stuck in survival mode, or
like you've lost your spark?
You're not alone, and thisepisode is for you.
Sarah Weiss went from highachieving coach on the brink of
burnout to finding joy andpurpose again through the most
unexpected path.
Pickleball.
(00:20):
If you are craving more balance,more passion, and a reason to
play again in life or in love,don't miss this conversation.
Here we go.
Charlotte Jukes (00:42):
This the pickleball and partnership
podcast, the place to talk.
Talk about building betterconnections with your partner.
Learning how to communicate witheach other and how to inject
fun.
Into your relationship allthrough the game of pickleball.
If that sounds like your cup oftea.
Pull up a chair grab your paddleand join me.
(01:05):
Your host, Charlotte Jukes.
For pickleball and partnership.
Charlotte J (01:16):
I am so excited to be joined today by Sara Weiss,
who is a dynamic force inleadership and personal
development.
Recognized as a two time numberone bestselling author in
leadership education, highperformance success coach and
international motivationalspeaker.
(01:37):
As a top leader in the networkmarketing industry, she has
built global teams of.
Thousands and mentorsindividuals to achieve six
figure incomes, A sponsoredamateur pickleball champion and
dedicated coach.
Sara is also a serialentrepreneur, a wealth coach,
and passionate agent of change.
(01:59):
Balancing her professionalachievements with her role as a
devoted mother of two, sheinspires and empowers others to
unlock their potential andachieve extraordinary success on
or off the pickleball court.
Wow.
And welcome, Sara.
Sara (02:19):
Oh, thank you so much for having me.
You know, you list off all thosethings and honestly, my favorite
thing on there is.
Being the mother of my two kids,they're my favorite.
They're always so consistentlygiving me smiles more than
anything in the world.
So of all those things, thatwould be my favorite.
Charlotte J (02:36):
As a mother of three, I completely resonate
with that.
Those relationships, they justwarm the heart, don't they?
Absolutely.
So, oh my gosh, I felt exhaustedreading that list.
Of accomplishments.
That's absolutely incredible.
You wear so many hats.
Bestselling author, highperformance coach, entrepreneur,
(02:59):
and mom of course.
And now a sponsored amateurpickleball champion.
I've taken some left turns.
I guess Left turns are good.
Can you take us back and justshare a bit about your personal
journey, who you are off thecourt and how pickleball found
(03:20):
its way into your life?
Sara (03:22):
Oh my, where do I begin?
There's so many things.
I'm someone who's always beenvery adventurous in life, and
I've tried so many differentthings just to make sure that
I'm getting the experience outof life.
So, naturally I would trysomething like pickleball, but,
yeah, I've, been, aninternational speaker, so I've
spoken publicly around.
(03:43):
Mainly North America.
I'm from Canada.
I'm living in Minnesota rightnow.
So again, the adventurecontinues, but I've always loved
helping people have aha moments.
I've learned a lot in all thesemany different experiences, so I
love to share.
I love to yap people's ears offand listen as well.
I loved, the fact that's reallycool about pickleball is you
(04:05):
never know who you're on thecourt with.
So I love asking questions.
I love learning from people'sdifferent perspectives and then
sharing those perspectives andmy perspectives with other
people.
So, that's led me to becoming alife coach and I've coached many
people again around the worldliving on Zoom and what led me
to pickleball was.
The burnout from living on Zoom.
(04:27):
Giving my energy to a lot ofpeople, and I'll tell you, it
was it was amazing to live in mypurpose and I still coach people
remotely, whether it'spickleball or life coaching, but
I was helping a lot of peoplewhile my kids' lives were
happening behind me.
I set up my computer and mymicrophone and everything in my
dining room so that I wasn'taway from everyone.
I still wanted to be, active,even though I was glued to the
(04:50):
computer screen, living on Zoom,doing private coaching, group
coaching, doing podcasts, andall the stuff that, life
coaches, especially over socialmedia and stuff do.
And I got to this point where Iwas, I was making tons of money
and I was helping tons of peopleand I was very like, fulfilling
in the fact that, I find that mypurpose in life is to share what
I know, give my secrets andenrich people's lives.
(05:12):
So I felt great in that, but Inoticed that I was starting to
get burnt out doing it and thatkind of, that was a conflicting
thing for me.
'cause I had always wanted tolive in purpose and I had been
thriving in my purpose andmaking good money doing it,
having good, positive impact,changing people's lives, getting
me aha moments and stuff.
But I would get this typicalthing where I would be.
(05:34):
Not doing anything and feel thisanxiety, like, I need to be
productive right now.
I can't be sitting down on thecouch.
I can't relax.
I've gotta go help more people.
I've gotta do more marketing.
I've gotta build my courses out.
I've gotta blah, blah, blah,blah, blah.
I gotta do all this stuff.
And one day I was sitting down,I'm watching Netflix in the
middle of the day'cause I wantedto, and all of a sudden my mind
(05:54):
goes, you can't be watchingNetflix.
And I'm like, I'm 33 at thispoint.
I'm 37 now, so this is fouryears ago and I'm like getting
this production anxiety and I'mlike, why am I feeling this way?
I shouldn't be feeling this way.
If I wanna relax, I should beable to relax.
Sara, stop.
And I'm like.
Why do I feel this way?
I had to do this likeintrospection.
(06:16):
If I can't allow myself to justrelax, what's the whole point of
doing all of this?
I'm doing this so that I canhave options and choices and be
able to relax if I want to.
And I did this introspection.
I was like, what am I missing?
If I'm living in my purpose,what am I missing?
And the thing that came to myheart was like an instant
download.
It was like fun.
Where's the fun?
I mean, I do have fun conversingand networking and connecting
(06:40):
and talking and yapping andblah, blah, blah, but I, I
wasn't doing any like physicalfun.
Of course I would meet withfriends once in a while.
I.
Amongst our busy lives andstuff, but I had this big thing
hit me.
It was like, you're not havingenough fun as an adventurer.
There's not much adventuringhappening right now, aside from
taking my kids to Disney Worldand it was amazing and we would
(07:01):
do, little outings and stuff.
And of course I loved that.
I lived for it.
It wasn't hitting the buttonthat I needed to hit for fun.
And I was married to this guy atthe time, so this is my
ex-husband now, but he was like,why don't we go and I'll teach
you tennis and I don't come fromsports.
I never really played sportsother than like middle school
(07:22):
volleyball.
And I did enjoy volleyball, butI never got into sports.
So I was like, okay, whatever.
This was during Covid and wewere, stuck in the house.
I'm stuck on Zoom.
And he knew of this littlepublic court back home in Ottawa
that we would drive by, and wenever really thought too much of
it, but we're like, why don't wego to that court and I'll hit
you some balls and you can tryit and see if you like it and we
(07:43):
get to the court and he steps onthe court and he's like.
Um, I don't think this is atennis court.
I don't know what it is, butthis is not a tennis court so he
hits me some balls and he keeps,like scratching his head.
He is like, something's notright.
I don't get it.
I don't know what this is or whyit's even here, so we're
giggling.
And he's like, I gotta figureout what this is.
(08:05):
So as we're leaving, we saw likewhere you would hang your
racket, and then there's thispicture of a racket and a
picture of a.
Paddle of some sort.
We don't know what that is.
We're like, okay, we gottafigure out what this means.
As we went home, we Googled,found out it was pickleball, and
we're like, what kind of sportis called pickleball?
Like what?
What?
(08:26):
We looked it up.
We found out at the time, therewas this.
14-year-old phenom, Anna LeighWaters is like top female pro
and Simone Jardim and Ben Johns.
And we're like, okay, this islike a serious thing.
There's like a pro league andstuff like that.
So we went and bought some cheapbeginner panels in the old
beginner white ball and westarted hitting and it was cool.
(08:47):
And he would beat me up aroundthe court, it made himself feel
good, but me not so much.
I'm like, can you like just hitme the ball so I can actually
experience what this is like.
Something about the sound of itand just hitting the ball over
the net got me like instantlyfeeling an addiction to it.
Like, every time I hit the ballover the net, it was like this,
like dopamine went on.
(09:07):
Like, ooh, that was cool.
Look what I did.
And eventually we're like, well,we gotta try doubles, right?
Because we can't just be you andI hitting the ball back and
forth.
So one morning we starteddriving around to local parks
and can we find pickleballcourts?
Will we find other people doingthis weird thing.
And we found this senior citizengroup, like old Tommys and Jills
(09:30):
just playing and they're like,Hey, come on over.
Come try playing with us.
And we're like, oh my God.
Okay, cool.
And they just whooped our butts.
They just whooped us around thecourts and we loved it.
We loved it.
We were addicted already.
And we decided we would wake up.
Crack of dawn to go and meetthese people.
They played like 7:00 AM to 9:00AM or even earlier.
(09:52):
It was like 6:00 AM or somethinglike that.
And we started to play withthem, and then eventually we're
like, okay, all right.
We're starting to hang withthese old timers who, used to
kick our butts, four weeks ago.
And we're like, let's look for aclub.
Let's see how.
Serious, this gets, and we founda club pretty local, and we just
drove there and we watched andwas like, oh, there's some
younger people, there's some 30year olds.
I think we saw like a teenagerand we're like, how do we join
(10:14):
this?
Found out, went there and thenall once again had our butts
handed to us by people who'vebeen playing for four years and
whatnot.
And eventually we got invitedinto groups where we were at the
bottom of the.
King's Court for at least amonth to two months.
And they were really nice tohave us,'cause obviously playing
with us as their partner sucked,but they gave us a lot of
(10:35):
patience and grace andeventually, I was like I wanna
do this instead of coaching.
It was such a weird thing to hitme.
I'm having so much fun, I feelso free.
I don't feel the pressure ofhaving to, give to others to, to
impact them.
I don't have to do anything, butjust almost be like an animal on
the court.
Not like a scary animal, butlike in the sense that I didn't
(10:58):
have to think about everything Iwas doing.
It was instinctive and I waslike, for the first time,'cause
I, again, I don't come fromsports.
I got to experience thisinstinctive, intuitive action
where I was just like acting outof whatever happens in the
moment, rah.
You know?
And.
It felt so freeing andliberating, and I was like, the
(11:19):
business entrepreneur in me waslike, well, this is clearly a
blue ocean.
And if you don't know what ablue ocean is, it means there's
so much opportunity and not manypeople are in it.
Red ocean means it's full.
There's a bunch of people doingthe same thing.
So you're in competition.
But here I'm like, this is ablue ocean.
There's gotta be some businesshere.
I could coach people, I couldcreate products, I could find
(11:39):
ways to turn this into a livingwhile still doing what my
purpose in life is, which is,helping positively impact
people's lives.
Whether it's by giving back to acommunity, whether it's coaching
people, teaching them my secretsfor on and off the court, and as
someone who doesn't come fromsports.
But I do come from a mindsetbackground.
I took what I would teach peoplefrom mindset, whether it's from,
(12:02):
running businesses,relationships, creating better
wealth scenarios.
I took that stuff onto the courtand it helped me become pretty
good at it pretty quickly.
And I started to teach people,'cause everyone in the community
was watching me get.
Get better and better and betterfrom like completely
uncoordinated and getting mybutt handed to me by everyone
getting stuck on the bottomcourt to like recording all of
(12:24):
my games, analyzing all of mygames, getting to know who the
top players were, watching themand analyzing them, comparing
them to how I look and I wouldnotice certain things about how
they played and I would adoptit.
And then I started hiring allthe coaches and it was like I
was moving up and moving up andit just, I.
I guess I could say the rest ishistory.
It's gotten me to this pointwhere I now play pro events.
(12:46):
Me and my boyfriend play in theUS Open.
We travel for APP and like wejust had a tournament this past
weekend here in Minnesota, localtournament, got a gold medal in
the Open Pro division and itjust, I love it so much.
I just I'm living my dream rightnow.
It's amazing.
Charlotte J (13:03):
I can feel the energy of the passion you have
for the sport is, it's palpable.
It's incredible.
There is so much to unpackthere.
Sara, I loved every piece ofthat.
Congratulations on your goldfirst of all.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you.
That's fantastic.
Interesting that you weresitting on the couch in the
(13:27):
middle of the day and there'sthis voice, and I think lots of
us can relate to that, and Ipersonally can relate to that
too.
My upbringing was, and it soundslike yours was also in some
respect, if you are not doing,you are not achieving and
(13:47):
therefore you are being lazy ifyou to attach that word to it.
And you are so lazy, right?
So lazy and not moving forward.
And how dare you.
Gosh, we.
Would never allowed to watchtelevision in the middle of the
day.
Why shouldn't we?
But how interesting that, thatwas the voice that told you not
(14:11):
to do that.
Sara (14:12):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And when, when it was like, whatam I missing that is really
making this such a terribleexperience, such a lazy
experience.
When I work my tail off, I ammaking a great living, having
great impact.
Why can't I relax or dosomething in the middle of the
day that is not being productiveand that comes off as lazy?
The question, that, is burninginside me.
(14:34):
Why, why is this a problem?
What am I missing?
And, fun being the answer.
Uh, it's.
Awesome that it led me tolooking for something different
and still being productive,still doing my thing, but like
having this open mind to seewhat's out there that could
maybe I don't wanna say fillthis void, but satiate this need
for a little bit of adventureand fun.
(14:54):
And then, I think it was twomonths later, I found pickleball
and it was like.
Ah, this is what I was lookingfor.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And I'm like, I'm not religious,but I do believe in some sort of
higher power God source energy.
I don't know what to label itas, but I did.
Thank it.
Whatever it is.
I was like, thank you.
This is amazing.
Charlotte J (15:13):
I say that every morning, every day when I step
on the court.
Thank you to the universe, thedivine whatever is orchestrating
this and you can't describe itto somebody else who is not a
addicted.
And you use the word addictedand a hundred percent I am
addicted too.
And it's interesting, isn't it?
(15:34):
Because okay, your Ex-husband,your husband at the time was a
tennis player and you didn'tcome from any sport background
at all.
What was it then, do you thinkabout pickleball?
That one got him to playpickleball and not tennis and be
(15:55):
excited by that.
And two, for you to absolutelylove and find the fun in this
sport.
Sara (16:03):
Well, it's beautiful that we're at this this point of the
conversation where we cancompare tennis and pickleball
it, it always comes to that.
Always, always.
And I love it.
Actually, we were just having aconversation literally 15
minutes ago with.
My boyfriend and his dad, who isa tennis player, he loves tennis
and he's like anti pickleball.
(16:25):
Blasphemous.
Oh yeah, yeah.
But he'll play it because everySunday we go out with the
family, we pick a court, my twokids, JJ's cousin and his dad,
and we just, we hit the ballaround just for fun.
And he does enjoy that, but hewill not.
Convert from tennis topickleball.
And he was talking about why helikes tennis and why pickleball
(16:46):
is trash compared to tennis,which has this rich history and
where there's, solid rules andyou've gotta be a certain type
of person to fit into thecommunity of tennis.
It's got this sense of class toit, whereas pickleball just.
Anybody, just any random schmuckoff the street can grab a
(17:06):
pickleball, paddle and play andthey're playing their loud music
and laughing too loud and havingso much fun.
It's distracting us and ourtennis and it's honestly, that's
what it sounded like and wegiggled and that pretty much is
it, a lot of the tennis people,they find it's just, it's not as
fancy.
It's not as fancy as theirtennis.
Right.
(17:27):
But like for me and myex-husband, he wasn't like a
tennis player.
He liked tennis.
He played it fairly often, butnot like seriously.
And I'll tell you, a lot oftennis players that I meet, they
convert, they're hesitant, butthey convert.
If I could sum it up in twowords, it's easier on their body
and they have more fun.
They have more fun becausethere's more people, it's much
(17:47):
more social, it's much moreconnected.
It's even just as far as thesize of the courts.
It brings the people closer toeach other.
You're playing at the net andyou're like in each other's
faces trying to smash the ballat each other, laughing at the
same time while you do it andgetting a sweat on your.
Like feeling good about theactivity you're doing without
breaking your body completely.
(18:07):
I actually don't even playsingles in pickleball because I
think that's just too muchmoving and I'm, you know what,
let's, I'll admit it, I'm alittle lazy here.
I like my little rectangle.
I'll cover my ground.
But my boyfriend, who is atennis player, he played
collegiate tennis he lovesplaying singles, but he won't go
back to tennis.
He loves pickleball Way more.
Charlotte J (18:28):
That's so interesting, isn't it?
I come from a tennis background,so I don't feel like I want to
go back to tennis now.
As listeners will know, and I'vetalked about it in previous
episodes, I was.
Cajoled into playing pickleball.
It wasn't something I wanted todo because I was hardcore
tennis.
(18:48):
Welcome to the dark side.
Right.
But it was one, I'm not old.
Like maybe I'll play pickleballwhen I'm 80 years old.
Oh
Sara (18:57):
yeah.
That's a classic.
But
Charlotte J (18:58):
another, I love also that you say, that you went
and you drove around in Ottawaand you right.
Found other people playingpickleball and they were old
people.
Mm-hmm.
But they whooped your ass and itisn't, how did they ever
Interesting, because I havewalked on the court and I think
most people have walked on thecourt so many times and we sum
(19:22):
up our opponents and we arelike, Hmm.
Oh goodness.
So.
beat you and maybe they have acouple of knee braces on.
They have the looking bionic.
Yeah.
Overweight and it's like, Ugh,this is going to be a walk in
the park.
And then yes, so I love thatpickleball is so accessible and
(19:42):
Yes, social totally.
Because the court is smaller sotake us back to the moment where
you decided to go full in and itsounds like you tour with
pickleball and you go to lots ofdifferent tournaments tell us
about that part.
I.
Sara (20:00):
I think one of the biggest there were a couple little
moments that really made me go,I could do this.
I could make this my life.
But one of the big ones was whenI got Ernied for the first time,
I was like, what was that?
Charlotte J (20:13):
So explain for listeners who don't know what an
Ernie is.
Sara (20:18):
So, and Ernie is, so like when you're playing at the net,
there's the kitchen.
You stay outta the kitchenunless it bounces.
Then you can go in the kitchen.
You can get it off the bounceWell, someone dinked the ball to
me and then jumped off the sideof the court, and as I.
dinked back.
They just smacked it from besidethe court.
I was like, what was that?
Is that legal?
It's very legal, and it lookedreally cool.
(20:40):
I love when I get my butt handedto me, I'm like, okay.
I wanna do that to you nexttime.
So I researched it.
I found out how am I gonna dothis?
And I tried to do it like Icommitted to learning this move.
I committed to it.
It was like such a big thing forme.
I was fascinated by it.
This was like my first bigpickleball commitment.
(21:00):
I'm committing to doing this,and when I recognized how
committed I was to it and howgood it felt to commit to it.
I was like, there's something tothis game that could light me
up.
I think in a long-term way, ifthere's constantly something
that I can do to challenge andgrow myself and be a better
player, a better partner,there's so much to pickleball
that's more than just thetechnical and mechanical things,
(21:23):
especially as someone whoteaches mindset.
There's so much psychologybehind it.
There's the chess of it all thestrategy, there's the learning
how to regulate your emotions,especially if you're playing
tournaments.
And especially if you wanna getbetter and you're challenging
yourself and you're, losing to ateam that you think you can beat
when you're judging the book byits cover.
And I loved and was fascinatedby all of that.
(21:45):
And when I got ernied I waslike, there is more to this than
just hitting a ball over the netand.
I found myself saying if I'mcommitting to, to learning
something as crazy and silly asan Ernie, I think I am silly and
crazy enough to commit myself tothis sport.
And, I continued to coach mylife coach clients, and I was
actually,, I was, about, I.
(22:06):
Six months into designing awhole program, I was certifying
other life coaches in mytechniques and I was designing a
program for people who wanted topay a membership and to get
coached by multiple differenttypes of coaches, real estate
coaches, financial coaches, lifecoaches.
And I had this website developerand I was getting such a big
(22:27):
headache from it because therewas unmet promises and they were
constantly asking for more moneyand all this stuff, and I just
stopped.
I was like, you know what?
I'm giving up on it, and I hatethe sound that, that sounds like
I'm giving up on it.
I took a massive left turn.
I said, this is not bringing mejoy.
And not to say that, if youcommit to something in the long
(22:47):
term that yeah, it's gonna betough sometimes you're gonna
have a tough road and challengesand stuff, but my heart was so
already all in on creating alife around pickleball because I
could fulfill my purpose ofteaching, giving, impacting
while also.
Incorporating this amazing fun Iwas having, I was like, I'm
done, I'm done, I'm done, I'mdone, I'm done, I'm done.
(23:09):
I'm done.
I'm done.
And I did the done dance and I,I committed to pickleball.
That's when I started to recordmyself to see what am I doing
wrong?
What am I doing right?
I started creating highlightreels and posting content on it.
I was active and engaged in thepickleball forum to a point
where a company reached out andthey're like, I know you guys,
you just started, but you'recontent's great and we'd like to
(23:32):
sponsor you.
I'm like.
A sponsorship.
I could be a sponsored athlete.
I'm like 33.
And I just started playing thisweird game and someone wanted to
sponsor me and I'm like, okay,yeah, this is real.
This is real.
Charlotte J (23:45):
That's amazing.
And from you putting yourselfout there and recording
yourself.
Honestly, Sara, what I get fromthis is that when you decide to
do something, you go all in.
It's very well
Sara (23:59):
known about me,
Charlotte J (24:00):
yeah, and there's something in that.
But I think, you brought upanother great point.
I think there is great wisdomalso in knowing when not to
quit, but when to pivot.
And it sounds like, you reallypivoted, you really, tapped into
that inner wisdom and said,okay.
(24:20):
This isn't working.
What I'm trying to build with mycoaching is not working for me
on so many different levels.
Mm-hmm.
And fun is not a key word, whichyou wanted Not
Sara (24:33):
at all.
No.
Charlotte J (24:33):
In your life.
So I think, there's great wisdomin being able to pivot.
And you mentioned mindset too.
And again, I have spoken in.
Many previous episodes, butthere was one particular episode
of this podcast where I did talkabout preparing for a tournament
that I was playing in and aboutmindset and how important that
(24:59):
is.
I think for any sport.
I also think for anything thatwe do in life.
But can you talk a little bitabout mindset and pickleball?
No, I can't
Sara (25:11):
talk a little bit.
I could talk for hours and days.
It about mindset.
I can't just talk a little,there's so much I can share on
mindset.
Charlotte J (25:18):
We could sit here for hours and have this
conversation.
Sara (25:21):
It's honestly my favorite part about this.
Aside from the people, I wouldsay the people in the social
part is like probably myfavorite.
But the second biggest thingthat I love about pickleball is
the mindset of it.
And there's so many things Icould touch on, especially when
preparing for tournaments or,growing.
You know what?
That's what I'll talk about ifyou wanna grow in this sport or
in anything.
(25:42):
Growth is not a linear curve.
And I think a lot of people wantit to be, want it to look like
it's just going straight up.
I'm getting better and better,and better, better, better.
The higher you go and this iswhat happens in the beginning.
It is pretty easy to learn andgrow.
I know I suck, I know I need tolearn certain things and I'm
open-minded to the coaching andthe people and the feedback and
all this stuff.
(26:02):
And of course, when you playpickleball in the beginning.
Everyone's gonna tell you, youshouldn't do that and you should
do this.
And it, gets to a point whereit's annoying, especially if
you're the girl.
'cause the guys have all theanswers and they're gonna tell
you every single thing you dowrong and everything you don't
do, right?
So there's that.
But once you get to this pointwhere you're like 3.5, 4.0, now
your ego starts.
(26:23):
To kick in.
This is where it's like, oh, Igot some experience and I'm all
right.
So now you can't tell me what todo.
I know what to do.
This is where the challenge ofgrowing starts happening.
This is why you see so manypeople plateau at 3.5 and 4.0
because it.
Sucks to suck and to get betteryou gotta suck a bit.
(26:44):
You have got to get to thispoint where it's like, okay,
what got me here from brand new,fresh off the street onto the
pickleball court and learningwhat got me from here to there
is not what's gonna get me from3.5 to 4.0.
And what gets me from three fiveto 4.0 is not gonna be what gets
me to four, five.
You've gotta change things up.
(27:06):
When you start to change whatyou feel like you worked so hard
to earn, to get good at thedinking in the third shot drop
and stuff.
And now to get better, I gottaadd top spin.
That's different.
So I'm gonna start doing sometop spin and I'm gonna hit the
net a bunch.
Oh no, maybe I'll go back to theway I am comfortable.
And this is what happens.
People go back to the waythey're comfortable and they
don't, test themselves.
(27:28):
Because they'd rather win.
They don't wanna feel like theirvalue is being questioned
because they lost a match ofpickleball, and that is such an
immature way to think, but it ishow so many players think.
For me, one of my biggestadvantages, because I understand
mindset, was.
I knew I had to fail a ton if Iwanted to get good, and that
never ends.
I'm telling you, Ben Johns andAnna Leigh Waters, the reason
(27:51):
why they get better and bettercontinuously still to this day
is because they're not afraid tofail.
They don't like losing, butthey're out there drilling
nonstop and trust me, they'retesting the waters with new
strategies, new tools.
As paddles change and evolve asstrategies and techniques change
and evolve, as people arehitting the ball harder, they're
doing different things andyou've got to fail a bunch to
(28:12):
get better, and that's whypeople plateau because they're
so afraid to fail.
For me, I have had this such arocky growth.
It's like I get good and it'sokay, now I'm adding a new tool.
Now I'm trying a two-handbackhand and I start to go down
a little bit, or at least itfeels like I'm going down
because now I'm playing recgames knowing I'm gonna suck and
(28:33):
knowing I'm gonna lose.
And I'll even warn my partner.
I'm working on a couple things,so you know, gimme some grace,
gimme some patience.
So.
I've had to have this reallysolid mindset, knowing I'm not
gonna win for a little while asI'm practicing this.
Either that or.
I go backwards and I do what'scomfortable and I get stuck
where I'm at there and not grow,which would be better for my ego
(28:54):
and my pride.
But I don't care about thatstuff.
'cause what I care about isgetting better and challenging
myself.
And because I've done that, I'vegotten to add so many different
tools to my tool belt and thethings I can do the backhand
flicks and the rolls and thepunches and the drives and the.
Two hand backhand and two handdinks and one hand dinks and
slices and top spins.
(29:14):
And all these little things thatI've taught myself that caused
me to do the rocky growth, whereit's like I'm up and then I go
back down a little bit and then,oh, I've mastered a skill.
I go up and then guess what?
New skill time, new strategytime.
Now I'm aiming for the shoulderinstead of just at the body.
Now I'm aiming for the hip.
Now I'm watching certainmovements on the court and I'm
trying to.
Put them, put it to theirbackhand, put them off balance
(29:36):
instead of just getting the ballover the net, which is so much
easier.
Yeah, that's what helps peoplegrow.
Being okay with making thosemistakes so that you learn, so
that you grow and get better.
That would be what my biggestthing.
I love to give to people andhope that they embody and
embrace it's okay to fail.
In fact, it's not just okay, ifyou wanna get good, you gotta
(29:56):
fail a ton.
The more you fail, the bettersuccess you will eventually
have.
Charlotte J (30:00):
I think, the ego definitely gets in the way.
I think we've all experiencedthat.
Whether we are playingpickleball or.
We are trying something new forthe first time or whatever that
might be, and it has me curioustoo, because why is it that we
are brought up without thatmindset?
(30:20):
Because we are told the completeopposite.
We are told we need to dobetter, do better, get
Sara (30:27):
good grades, or you're grounded,
Charlotte J (30:29):
Exactly.
But at no point.
Was I ever taught that?
Do it over and over and make themistakes.
Because the more opportunity youhave to make the mistakes, the
better you're going to get.
And
Sara (30:43):
especially if you're okay with it, if you're frustrated
about it, that distraction's notgonna help you grow any faster.
But if you're okay, just goingon repeat, and I tell people
when I'm coaching you're gonnamake mistakes.
I'm teaching you something new.
Don't think about it.
Don't grunt and groan andwhatever.
Just repeat.
I'm just gonna feed you balls.
All you're gonna do is repeat.
I challenge you to make 50failures and 50 mistakes.
(31:06):
Do it with a smile and you'll befine.
Trust me, it's like walking whenyou're a baby.
They're not crying'cause theyfell, they, they get up and they
do it again and again, and allof a sudden we're walking.
It's the same thing.
Charlotte J (31:17):
Exactly, and that's a great analogy.
Babies, toddlers, they only gotto walk because they practiced
and they fell down and they gotup again.
And I think, people may bethinking, oh, that's easier said
than done.
And it is said than done.
Perhaps you have a couple ofpractical tips.
I heard you say.
(31:38):
Put a smile on your face.
And I'm a firm believer in youhave to feel like you are the
part, I walk onto the court andI put on that identity of, Hey,
I'm a pickleball player and I'mgoing to have fun, and it
doesn't matter what I look likebecause.
I'm going out there with thatpositive mindset of having fun,
(32:02):
of connecting with people, oftaking shots and practicing and
doing better than I didyesterday and doing it with a
smile on my face.
But do you have a couple ofother tips that you could got?
So many, so many, so many you.
I teach a lot about positivedistraction.
(32:22):
Let's think about a winningmindset.
What is a winning mindset?
And people will instantly jumpto I'm gonna win.
I'm the best telling yourselfI'm the best.
And that's not what it is.
It's recognizing that you'realready winning.
So when I talk to people attournaments that are feeling the
stress and the pressure, I askthem, why do you play this game?
(32:42):
Why do you play this?
They'll, most of the time theysay, well, it's a good
challenge, or it's, I get toplay with my friends and stuff
like that.
I'm like, whether you win orlose, do you get those things?
Whether you win or lose, do youget those things right now?
Are you getting that as wespeak?
Are you off your butt aroundgood people?
Yes.
(33:03):
Guess what?
You just won and every time youstep on that court, are you
challenging yourself?
Yeah.
You're winning.
Recognizing all these things.
And like for me, sometimes if Inotice myself getting in my head
and getting frustrated about,making a few mistakes in a row,
take a deep breath and I'll lookaround.
How many things can I pick outthat I'm grateful for right in
front of me?
(33:23):
And this is a great practice foreveryone to ground themselves
and get back into a winningmindset.
You look around, you go, wow,look at all these people.
I'm making new friends, I've gotcurrent friends.
I've got this partner who maybeI just met as a blind aid, or
who I've been developing a teamwith.
I'm so grateful that, I waspicked or that I picked them, or
that we're building afriendship.
(33:43):
I'm so grateful that I'm staringacross people who I looked up to
before I had the skill tocompete with them.
I'm so grateful.
It's a beautiful day.
I'm so grateful that the sun isshining on me and I'm not
sitting at home not doinganything.
I'm doing something productivethat.
Feels good.
All of a sudden, you'll catchfive to 10 things that you're
grateful for and get back intothat winning mindset.
It's like whether I win a medal,a$5 medal or not, I'm such a
(34:07):
winner right now.
Such a winner.
So getting that winning mindset.
Is so huge.
And when I say the positivedistraction thing I'll give you
an actual example and you guyscan all use this however you
want, but I had a client theother day and he, I would say is
about a 4.0, and we're workingon transition zone.
So he had to reset each ball Igave him, and I would increase
(34:29):
speed and power and placement athis feet and see what he could
do.
And then we started talkingabout split step, how to move in
the transition instead of justshuffling your way up.
You take a step and you split.
You take a step and you split.
And he's someone who gets in hishead and he overthinks his shot.
It's like.
Dude, you already know how toshoot.
(34:50):
You don't have to think aboutit.
You don't have to think aboutresetting that ball because your
body already instinctively knowsit.
You've done it thousands oftimes.
Why do you think you need tocalculate it?
Why do you think you need tooverthink it?
Stop thinking about the shot.
And of course that sounds easiersaid than done.
So here's the trick.
You use positive distraction.
And I do this with my kids allthe time.
If they're like whining orcrying, I'll be like, you don't
(35:12):
want to eat your food.
Why don't you eat your food?
And I'll give you, an ice cream.
And on the weekend, all of asudden they'll eat their food.
It's a positive distraction.
Or if they're, they hurtthemselves and I'll just say
something funny and poke at themand I love you and you got this
and whatever.
I just, positive distraction.
But on the court I said, okay,we're gonna work on your
footwork.
I.
And that's all I want you tofocus on.
Don't even look at where theball goes.
(35:33):
Okay?
You're gonna go to the back ofthe court, I'm gonna hit you a
ball and you're gonna hit athird shot drop.
But I don't even want you tothink about the third shot drop.
Here's what you're focused on.
You hit that ball, you stepforward and you split.
I don't care if the ball hitsthe net.
I don't care if you hit the ballout.
I don't care what the ball does,'cause that's not what we're
focused on.
You are gonna hit that ball.
As soon as that ball comes offyour paddle, you split step and
(35:54):
he took a step back, goes to thebaseline.
I'm like, what are you focusedon right now?
He said split step.
I hit him the ball.
He does his perfect third shot,takes a split, then we started
playing slinky.
So he would do that, I would hitit back and he'd work his way up
to the front, to the kitchen andthen work his way back doing the
same thing over and over.
And the change was so instant.
His thirds, his resets at thenet, they were like near perfect
(36:19):
almost every single time.
I just kept saying, what are youfocused on?
Split step.
What are you focused on?
Split step.
He hyper-focused on the splitstep and all of a sudden his
instincts just did what his bodyhas been trained to do over
thousands of hits of the balland it just did it
instinctively, animalistically.
'cause he was focused onsomething different, his
(36:39):
footwork.
Hmm.
It's really connecting to thatinner intelligence and whether
you're playing pickleball oryou're doing anything in life,
it's instinctually knowing weknow what to do.
We know what we want.
Yes, we know what lights us up,but we get in our heads and the.
Story takes over and it reallysounds like what you're saying
(37:02):
is drop the story and justconnect to that animal instinct.
You said right at the beginning,it's that animal type of energy
on the court,
Sara (37:14):
yeah.
They're not thinking aboutnothing.
They're just being animals.
Charlotte J (37:17):
Love that.
If you could give one piece ofadvice to couples or teammates.
'cause I like to always relatethis back to playing with your
partner, and whether that'syou're playing with your partner
on the pickleball court, or youare navigating family life or
kids at home with your.
(37:38):
Partner but if you could justgive one piece of advice to any
couples or teammates who arestepping onto the pickleball
court together for the firsttime, what would that be?
Sara (37:51):
Yeah.
As someone who plays with myboyfriend in the pro division
and has had, both sides of thecoin of the experience, it being
really great and connecting andit not being so much, and the
clash and the frustration andthe arguing it would be to
surrender.
I.
I don't mean white flagsurrender, I mean let things be
without needing it to bedifferent.
(38:12):
Especially when you're playingwith a partner who you've
developed with, whether it's anen court or off-court partner.
We get these, I.
Expectations and we start totake things personal.
We read into things too much.
We don't treat them like they'rea pickleball partner.
We treat them, they're like alife partner.
And it's like we read into everysingle thing they do.
And guess what?
We're both going throughdifferent emotions and pressures
(38:34):
in the middle of especially attournaments and it's like just
let.
Your partner do what they do.
Now, if they're offensive andstuff like that, you talk to
them, you say, this made me feelthis way.
But instead of allowing twoemotions, just cause chaos
within each other, you surrenderto the process.
My, my big word for you all toexplore in your own way what
(38:57):
that means to you.
So I don't get too involved intrying to tell you what it means
to me and what it should mean toyou.
Surrender.
Don't have big expectations'cause.
When you express and spew youremotions, you're causing chaos,
even if it's just an eye roll.
And we all know that.
We all know that on thepickleball court.
(39:18):
We see it.
We see the vibe.
We feel the vibe.
We see the eye rolls, we see thehuffs and puffs.
We feel the tension.
If you, I.
Let go of that and justsurrender to the moment, which
again, if you recognize you're awinner by seeing the beautiful
sun, seeing the fact that you'reout with your significant other,
you're around friends, and youjust surrender to that and just
go, wow, this is amazing.
(39:39):
No matter what.
It becomes a lot easier to letthem do their thing.
Let them express how theyexpress.
Let them get frustrated.
Let them feel their feelings.
Nothing wrong with feelingfeelings.
There's nothing wrong with it.
We don't need to take apersonal, so when you go on with
your significant other, let thembe who they are without it being
a personal thing.
Now, if they say something thatreally hurts you, bring it up.
(40:03):
Try to avoid it being, smotheredin your emotion and you're
taking it personal.
Just say, Hey, maybe next timeif you have a certain feeling, I
don't know just go err.
But try not to direct it on me.
There's ways to havecommunication and you're
actually gonna, I find it's areally good bonding experience
'cause it's a great way tocommunicate and set boundaries
(40:25):
and really.
Sometimes it's trauma showingup, like literal childhood
trauma showing up on the court.
Let me add this.
'cause this is very important.
Instead of being judgmental, becurious.
If you watch Ted Lasso, you'llknow what I'm talking about.
Be curious instead of judgmentalif your male partner is like a
(40:45):
super aggressive and you cantell the frustration and the ego
and the pride instead of takingit personal and judging it as a
bad thing or an aggressivething.
Get curious, ask questions afterthe game.
Hey, what were you feelingthere?
It seemed very intense.
Were you mad at me?
Ask questions'cause I speak fromexperience.
Sometimes I feel like he's madat me.
(41:06):
You mad at me.
Am I feel like I'm not doinggood enough for you and all this
stuff.
And it's not necessarily that.
Sometimes it is, sometimes it'snot.
But just the fact that you'reshowing this curiosity, it lets
the guard down.
If you start saying judgments,the guard goes up, it becomes an
argument.
Then you've gotta really healfrom some stuff.
But if after the game you askquestions, you get.
Curious about the behaviors thewords, the actions, and you
(41:29):
actually ask and you get to, youlearn more about your partner.
It can actually make you closer,and you, it can be turned into a
positive bonding experiencewhere you learn more about each
other.
You set certain boundaries.
You also get a chance to sharehow you feel about something.
And then he can know, hey.
Maybe that behavior, that thosewords I should do something
different.
'cause I don't wanna hurt mygirl.
(41:50):
I don't wanna hurt my partner.
I don't wanna hurt my man.
It's not always the guy who'sbeing aggressive, trust me.
It's, it's a two-way street forsure.
But yeah get curious.
Don't be judgmental and justsurrender to the process.
Let your partner be who theyare.
And sometimes it's not gonnaclick and sometimes you gotta
find a different partner andthat's okay too.
But when you're playingsurrender, surrender, get in
your winning mindset and thenget curious instead of
(42:12):
judgmental.
Charlotte J (42:13):
Hmm.
I'm hearing three superimportant things there, Sara.
Love that.
One surrender.
Yes.
And like you say, that's notgiving up or giving away our
power.
It's actually very empoweringwhen we do surrender.
And then don't take itpersonally.
And actually it's synchronicitybecause in last week's episode,
(42:37):
Carrie Sans, who's a.
Licensed marriage therapist cameon.
And that was one of her bigpoints too, was don't take it
personally.
Whatever your partner or whoeveryou're interacting with is
saying, it's about them, notabout you.
And then thirdly, get curious.
And I think when we can come inwith that childlike curiosity
(43:02):
that we all had once, and then Ithink we lost.
along the way, then yeah, we canreally take every moment as a
learning opportunity andTotally.
Yeah.
I love that.
And oh my gosh, I could talk toyou, like you say, for hours.
You have so much knowledge andenergy and passion for the game,
(43:25):
and passion for life.
Love that.
Sara, where can people find you?
Sara (43:31):
Social media, YouTube.
So if you look me up on, onFacebook or Instagram, I'm Sara
Weiss.
My handle is heck yeah,pickleball.
You can find that on YouTube.
I upload my games.
I have an Ernie tutorial.
'cause as I said at thebeginning, I became so obsessed.
I'm actually known in Ottawa asan Ernie Queen and like I get
Ernie all the time.
I'm like really good at settingit up.
So I created a tutorial video.
(43:52):
So if you really wanna learn howto do it.
As a beginner, because when Ilearned it, I was a beginner, so
I wasn't super coordinated.
Go to heck yeah.
Pickleball.
That's H-E-C-K-Y-E-A-H,pickleball.
And the first video you'll seethere is my Ernie tutorial.
And yeah, you can just connectwith me there.
I'm happy to chat with anybody.
I love this community so much.
(44:13):
If you wanna talk pickleball,trust me, I could go on for
days.
Well, I'll chat with you.
Charlotte J (44:17):
And we will put those links in the show notes
too, so that people can findyou.
But heck yeah.
Pickleball.
It's been a a pleasure.
Sara, thank you so much forjoining us.
Thank you so much for having me,Charlotte.
Speaker (44:30):
Thanks so much for listening today.
I hope you enjoyed thatconversation as much as I did.
Anything mentioned, includinglinks, notes, and a full episode
list, will be over on ourwebsite at
pickleballandpartnership.
buzzsprout.
com.
Com.
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(44:52):
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(45:14):
This will help more peopleaccess these real conversations.
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Thanks again for listening.
Please tune in next week foranother exciting episode of
Pickleball and partnership.
(45:36):
Remember, we're all learning,growing, and showing up in our
own ways.
And that's what matters most.
Are you feeling burnt out, stuck in survival mode, or
like you've lost your spark?
You're not alone, and thisepisode is for you.
Sarah Weiss went from highachieving coach on the brink of
burnout to finding joy andpurpose again through the most
unexpected path.
Pickleball.
(00:20):
If you are craving more balance,more passion, and a reason to
play again in life or in love,don't miss this conversation.
Here we go.
Charlotte Jukes (00:42):
This the pickleball and partnership
podcast, the place to talk.
Talk about building betterconnections with your partner.
Learning how to communicate witheach other and how to inject
fun.
Into your relationship allthrough the game of pickleball.
If that sounds like your cup oftea.
Pull up a chair grab your paddleand join me.
(01:05):
Your host, Charlotte Jukes.
For pickleball and partnership.
Charlotte J (01:16):
I am so excited to be joined today by Sara Weiss,
who is a dynamic force inleadership and personal
development.
Recognized as a two time numberone bestselling author in
leadership education, highperformance success coach and
international motivationalspeaker.
(01:37):
As a top leader in the networkmarketing industry, she has
built global teams of.
Thousands and mentorsindividuals to achieve six
figure incomes, A sponsoredamateur pickleball champion and
dedicated coach.
Sara is also a serialentrepreneur, a wealth coach,
and passionate agent of change.
(01:59):
Balancing her professionalachievements with her role as a
devoted mother of two, sheinspires and empowers others to
unlock their potential andachieve extraordinary success on
or off the pickleball court.
Wow.
And welcome, Sara.
Sara (02:19):
Oh, thank you so much for having me.
You know, you list off all thosethings and honestly, my favorite
thing on there is.
Being the mother of my two kids,they're my favorite.
They're always so consistentlygiving me smiles more than
anything in the world.
So of all those things, thatwould be my favorite.
Charlotte J (02:36):
As a mother of three, I completely resonate
with that.
Those relationships, they justwarm the heart, don't they?
Absolutely.
So, oh my gosh, I felt exhaustedreading that list.
Of accomplishments.
That's absolutely incredible.
You wear so many hats.
Bestselling author, highperformance coach, entrepreneur,
(02:59):
and mom of course.
And now a sponsored amateurpickleball champion.
I've taken some left turns.
I guess Left turns are good.
Can you take us back and justshare a bit about your personal
journey, who you are off thecourt and how pickleball found
(03:20):
its way into your life?
Sara (03:22):
Oh my, where do I begin?
There's so many things.
I'm someone who's always beenvery adventurous in life, and
I've tried so many differentthings just to make sure that
I'm getting the experience outof life.
So, naturally I would trysomething like pickleball, but,
yeah, I've, been, aninternational speaker, so I've
spoken publicly around.
(03:43):
Mainly North America.
I'm from Canada.
I'm living in Minnesota rightnow.
So again, the adventurecontinues, but I've always loved
helping people have aha moments.
I've learned a lot in all thesemany different experiences, so I
love to share.
I love to yap people's ears offand listen as well.
I loved, the fact that's reallycool about pickleball is you
(04:05):
never know who you're on thecourt with.
So I love asking questions.
I love learning from people'sdifferent perspectives and then
sharing those perspectives andmy perspectives with other
people.
So, that's led me to becoming alife coach and I've coached many
people again around the worldliving on Zoom and what led me
to pickleball was.
The burnout from living on Zoom.
(04:27):
Giving my energy to a lot ofpeople, and I'll tell you, it
was it was amazing to live in mypurpose and I still coach people
remotely, whether it'spickleball or life coaching, but
I was helping a lot of peoplewhile my kids' lives were
happening behind me.
I set up my computer and mymicrophone and everything in my
dining room so that I wasn'taway from everyone.
I still wanted to be, active,even though I was glued to the
(04:50):
computer screen, living on Zoom,doing private coaching, group
coaching, doing podcasts, andall the stuff that, life
coaches, especially over socialmedia and stuff do.
And I got to this point where Iwas, I was making tons of money
and I was helping tons of peopleand I was very like, fulfilling
in the fact that, I find that mypurpose in life is to share what
I know, give my secrets andenrich people's lives.
(05:12):
So I felt great in that, but Inoticed that I was starting to
get burnt out doing it and thatkind of, that was a conflicting
thing for me.
'cause I had always wanted tolive in purpose and I had been
thriving in my purpose andmaking good money doing it,
having good, positive impact,changing people's lives, getting
me aha moments and stuff.
But I would get this typicalthing where I would be.
(05:34):
Not doing anything and feel thisanxiety, like, I need to be
productive right now.
I can't be sitting down on thecouch.
I can't relax.
I've gotta go help more people.
I've gotta do more marketing.
I've gotta build my courses out.
I've gotta blah, blah, blah,blah, blah.
I gotta do all this stuff.
And one day I was sitting down,I'm watching Netflix in the
middle of the day'cause I wantedto, and all of a sudden my mind
(05:54):
goes, you can't be watchingNetflix.
And I'm like, I'm 33 at thispoint.
I'm 37 now, so this is fouryears ago and I'm like getting
this production anxiety and I'mlike, why am I feeling this way?
I shouldn't be feeling this way.
If I wanna relax, I should beable to relax.
Sara, stop.
And I'm like.
Why do I feel this way?
I had to do this likeintrospection.
(06:16):
If I can't allow myself to justrelax, what's the whole point of
doing all of this?
I'm doing this so that I canhave options and choices and be
able to relax if I want to.
And I did this introspection.
I was like, what am I missing?
If I'm living in my purpose,what am I missing?
And the thing that came to myheart was like an instant
download.
It was like fun.
Where's the fun?
I mean, I do have fun conversingand networking and connecting
(06:40):
and talking and yapping andblah, blah, blah, but I, I
wasn't doing any like physicalfun.
Of course I would meet withfriends once in a while.
I.
Amongst our busy lives andstuff, but I had this big thing
hit me.
It was like, you're not havingenough fun as an adventurer.
There's not much adventuringhappening right now, aside from
taking my kids to Disney Worldand it was amazing and we would
(07:01):
do, little outings and stuff.
And of course I loved that.
I lived for it.
It wasn't hitting the buttonthat I needed to hit for fun.
And I was married to this guy atthe time, so this is my
ex-husband now, but he was like,why don't we go and I'll teach
you tennis and I don't come fromsports.
I never really played sportsother than like middle school
(07:22):
volleyball.
And I did enjoy volleyball, butI never got into sports.
So I was like, okay, whatever.
This was during Covid and wewere, stuck in the house.
I'm stuck on Zoom.
And he knew of this littlepublic court back home in Ottawa
that we would drive by, and wenever really thought too much of
it, but we're like, why don't wego to that court and I'll hit
you some balls and you can tryit and see if you like it and we
(07:43):
get to the court and he steps onthe court and he's like.
Um, I don't think this is atennis court.
I don't know what it is, butthis is not a tennis court so he
hits me some balls and he keeps,like scratching his head.
He is like, something's notright.
I don't get it.
I don't know what this is or whyit's even here, so we're
giggling.
And he's like, I gotta figureout what this is.
(08:05):
So as we're leaving, we saw likewhere you would hang your
racket, and then there's thispicture of a racket and a
picture of a.
Paddle of some sort.
We don't know what that is.
We're like, okay, we gottafigure out what this means.
As we went home, we Googled,found out it was pickleball, and
we're like, what kind of sportis called pickleball?
Like what?
What?
(08:26):
We looked it up.
We found out at the time, therewas this.
14-year-old phenom, Anna LeighWaters is like top female pro
and Simone Jardim and Ben Johns.
And we're like, okay, this islike a serious thing.
There's like a pro league andstuff like that.
So we went and bought some cheapbeginner panels in the old
beginner white ball and westarted hitting and it was cool.
(08:47):
And he would beat me up aroundthe court, it made himself feel
good, but me not so much.
I'm like, can you like just hitme the ball so I can actually
experience what this is like.
Something about the sound of itand just hitting the ball over
the net got me like instantlyfeeling an addiction to it.
Like, every time I hit the ballover the net, it was like this,
like dopamine went on.
(09:07):
Like, ooh, that was cool.
Look what I did.
And eventually we're like, well,we gotta try doubles, right?
Because we can't just be you andI hitting the ball back and
forth.
So one morning we starteddriving around to local parks
and can we find pickleballcourts?
Will we find other people doingthis weird thing.
And we found this senior citizengroup, like old Tommys and Jills
(09:30):
just playing and they're like,Hey, come on over.
Come try playing with us.
And we're like, oh my God.
Okay, cool.
And they just whooped our butts.
They just whooped us around thecourts and we loved it.
We loved it.
We were addicted already.
And we decided we would wake up.
Crack of dawn to go and meetthese people.
They played like 7:00 AM to 9:00AM or even earlier.
(09:52):
It was like 6:00 AM or somethinglike that.
And we started to play withthem, and then eventually we're
like, okay, all right.
We're starting to hang withthese old timers who, used to
kick our butts, four weeks ago.
And we're like, let's look for aclub.
Let's see how.
Serious, this gets, and we founda club pretty local, and we just
drove there and we watched andwas like, oh, there's some
younger people, there's some 30year olds.
I think we saw like a teenagerand we're like, how do we join
(10:14):
this?
Found out, went there and thenall once again had our butts
handed to us by people who'vebeen playing for four years and
whatnot.
And eventually we got invitedinto groups where we were at the
bottom of the.
King's Court for at least amonth to two months.
And they were really nice tohave us,'cause obviously playing
with us as their partner sucked,but they gave us a lot of
(10:35):
patience and grace andeventually, I was like I wanna
do this instead of coaching.
It was such a weird thing to hitme.
I'm having so much fun, I feelso free.
I don't feel the pressure ofhaving to, give to others to, to
impact them.
I don't have to do anything, butjust almost be like an animal on
the court.
Not like a scary animal, butlike in the sense that I didn't
(10:58):
have to think about everything Iwas doing.
It was instinctive and I waslike, for the first time,'cause
I, again, I don't come fromsports.
I got to experience thisinstinctive, intuitive action
where I was just like acting outof whatever happens in the
moment, rah.
You know?
And.
It felt so freeing andliberating, and I was like, the
(11:19):
business entrepreneur in me waslike, well, this is clearly a
blue ocean.
And if you don't know what ablue ocean is, it means there's
so much opportunity and not manypeople are in it.
Red ocean means it's full.
There's a bunch of people doingthe same thing.
So you're in competition.
But here I'm like, this is ablue ocean.
There's gotta be some businesshere.
I could coach people, I couldcreate products, I could find
(11:39):
ways to turn this into a livingwhile still doing what my
purpose in life is, which is,helping positively impact
people's lives.
Whether it's by giving back to acommunity, whether it's coaching
people, teaching them my secretsfor on and off the court, and as
someone who doesn't come fromsports.
But I do come from a mindsetbackground.
I took what I would teach peoplefrom mindset, whether it's from,
(12:02):
running businesses,relationships, creating better
wealth scenarios.
I took that stuff onto the courtand it helped me become pretty
good at it pretty quickly.
And I started to teach people,'cause everyone in the community
was watching me get.
Get better and better and betterfrom like completely
uncoordinated and getting mybutt handed to me by everyone
getting stuck on the bottomcourt to like recording all of
(12:24):
my games, analyzing all of mygames, getting to know who the
top players were, watching themand analyzing them, comparing
them to how I look and I wouldnotice certain things about how
they played and I would adoptit.
And then I started hiring allthe coaches and it was like I
was moving up and moving up andit just, I.
I guess I could say the rest ishistory.
It's gotten me to this pointwhere I now play pro events.
(12:46):
Me and my boyfriend play in theUS Open.
We travel for APP and like wejust had a tournament this past
weekend here in Minnesota, localtournament, got a gold medal in
the Open Pro division and itjust, I love it so much.
I just I'm living my dream rightnow.
It's amazing.
Charlotte J (13:03):
I can feel the energy of the passion you have
for the sport is, it's palpable.
It's incredible.
There is so much to unpackthere.
Sara, I loved every piece ofthat.
Congratulations on your goldfirst of all.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you.
That's fantastic.
Interesting that you weresitting on the couch in the
(13:27):
middle of the day and there'sthis voice, and I think lots of
us can relate to that, and Ipersonally can relate to that
too.
My upbringing was, and it soundslike yours was also in some
respect, if you are not doing,you are not achieving and
(13:47):
therefore you are being lazy ifyou to attach that word to it.
And you are so lazy, right?
So lazy and not moving forward.
And how dare you.
Gosh, we.
Would never allowed to watchtelevision in the middle of the
day.
Why shouldn't we?
But how interesting that, thatwas the voice that told you not
(14:11):
to do that.
Sara (14:12):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And when, when it was like, whatam I missing that is really
making this such a terribleexperience, such a lazy
experience.
When I work my tail off, I ammaking a great living, having
great impact.
Why can't I relax or dosomething in the middle of the
day that is not being productiveand that comes off as lazy?
The question, that, is burninginside me.
(14:34):
Why, why is this a problem?
What am I missing?
And, fun being the answer.
Uh, it's.
Awesome that it led me tolooking for something different
and still being productive,still doing my thing, but like
having this open mind to seewhat's out there that could
maybe I don't wanna say fillthis void, but satiate this need
for a little bit of adventureand fun.
(14:54):
And then, I think it was twomonths later, I found pickleball
and it was like.
Ah, this is what I was lookingfor.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And I'm like, I'm not religious,but I do believe in some sort of
higher power God source energy.
I don't know what to label itas, but I did.
Thank it.
Whatever it is.
I was like, thank you.
This is amazing.
Charlotte J (15:13):
I say that every morning, every day when I step
on the court.
Thank you to the universe, thedivine whatever is orchestrating
this and you can't describe itto somebody else who is not a
addicted.
And you use the word addictedand a hundred percent I am
addicted too.
And it's interesting, isn't it?
(15:34):
Because okay, your Ex-husband,your husband at the time was a
tennis player and you didn'tcome from any sport background
at all.
What was it then, do you thinkabout pickleball?
That one got him to playpickleball and not tennis and be
(15:55):
excited by that.
And two, for you to absolutelylove and find the fun in this
sport.
Sara (16:03):
Well, it's beautiful that we're at this this point of the
conversation where we cancompare tennis and pickleball
it, it always comes to that.
Always, always.
And I love it.
Actually, we were just having aconversation literally 15
minutes ago with.
My boyfriend and his dad, who isa tennis player, he loves tennis
and he's like anti pickleball.
(16:25):
Blasphemous.
Oh yeah, yeah.
But he'll play it because everySunday we go out with the
family, we pick a court, my twokids, JJ's cousin and his dad,
and we just, we hit the ballaround just for fun.
And he does enjoy that, but hewill not.
Convert from tennis topickleball.
And he was talking about why helikes tennis and why pickleball
(16:46):
is trash compared to tennis,which has this rich history and
where there's, solid rules andyou've gotta be a certain type
of person to fit into thecommunity of tennis.
It's got this sense of class toit, whereas pickleball just.
Anybody, just any random schmuckoff the street can grab a
(17:06):
pickleball, paddle and play andthey're playing their loud music
and laughing too loud and havingso much fun.
It's distracting us and ourtennis and it's honestly, that's
what it sounded like and wegiggled and that pretty much is
it, a lot of the tennis people,they find it's just, it's not as
fancy.
It's not as fancy as theirtennis.
Right.
(17:27):
But like for me and myex-husband, he wasn't like a
tennis player.
He liked tennis.
He played it fairly often, butnot like seriously.
And I'll tell you, a lot oftennis players that I meet, they
convert, they're hesitant, butthey convert.
If I could sum it up in twowords, it's easier on their body
and they have more fun.
They have more fun becausethere's more people, it's much
(17:47):
more social, it's much moreconnected.
It's even just as far as thesize of the courts.
It brings the people closer toeach other.
You're playing at the net andyou're like in each other's
faces trying to smash the ballat each other, laughing at the
same time while you do it andgetting a sweat on your.
Like feeling good about theactivity you're doing without
breaking your body completely.
(18:07):
I actually don't even playsingles in pickleball because I
think that's just too muchmoving and I'm, you know what,
let's, I'll admit it, I'm alittle lazy here.
I like my little rectangle.
I'll cover my ground.
But my boyfriend, who is atennis player, he played
collegiate tennis he lovesplaying singles, but he won't go
back to tennis.
He loves pickleball Way more.
Charlotte J (18:28):
That's so interesting, isn't it?
I come from a tennis background,so I don't feel like I want to
go back to tennis now.
As listeners will know, and I'vetalked about it in previous
episodes, I was.
Cajoled into playing pickleball.
It wasn't something I wanted todo because I was hardcore
tennis.
(18:48):
Welcome to the dark side.
Right.
But it was one, I'm not old.
Like maybe I'll play pickleballwhen I'm 80 years old.
Oh
Sara (18:57):
yeah.
That's a classic.
But
Charlotte J (18:58):
another, I love also that you say, that you went
and you drove around in Ottawaand you right.
Found other people playingpickleball and they were old
people.
Mm-hmm.
But they whooped your ass and itisn't, how did they ever
Interesting, because I havewalked on the court and I think
most people have walked on thecourt so many times and we sum
(19:22):
up our opponents and we arelike, Hmm.
Oh goodness.
So.
beat you and maybe they have acouple of knee braces on.
They have the looking bionic.
Yeah.
Overweight and it's like, Ugh,this is going to be a walk in
the park.
And then yes, so I love thatpickleball is so accessible and
(19:42):
Yes, social totally.
Because the court is smaller sotake us back to the moment where
you decided to go full in and itsounds like you tour with
pickleball and you go to lots ofdifferent tournaments tell us
about that part.
I.
Sara (20:00):
I think one of the biggest there were a couple little
moments that really made me go,I could do this.
I could make this my life.
But one of the big ones was whenI got Ernied for the first time,
I was like, what was that?
Charlotte J (20:13):
So explain for listeners who don't know what an
Ernie is.
Sara (20:18):
So, and Ernie is, so like when you're playing at the net,
there's the kitchen.
You stay outta the kitchenunless it bounces.
Then you can go in the kitchen.
You can get it off the bounceWell, someone dinked the ball to
me and then jumped off the sideof the court, and as I.
dinked back.
They just smacked it from besidethe court.
I was like, what was that?
Is that legal?
It's very legal, and it lookedreally cool.
(20:40):
I love when I get my butt handedto me, I'm like, okay.
I wanna do that to you nexttime.
So I researched it.
I found out how am I gonna dothis?
And I tried to do it like Icommitted to learning this move.
I committed to it.
It was like such a big thing forme.
I was fascinated by it.
This was like my first bigpickleball commitment.
(21:00):
I'm committing to doing this,and when I recognized how
committed I was to it and howgood it felt to commit to it.
I was like, there's something tothis game that could light me
up.
I think in a long-term way, ifthere's constantly something
that I can do to challenge andgrow myself and be a better
player, a better partner,there's so much to pickleball
that's more than just thetechnical and mechanical things,
(21:23):
especially as someone whoteaches mindset.
There's so much psychologybehind it.
There's the chess of it all thestrategy, there's the learning
how to regulate your emotions,especially if you're playing
tournaments.
And especially if you wanna getbetter and you're challenging
yourself and you're, losing to ateam that you think you can beat
when you're judging the book byits cover.
And I loved and was fascinatedby all of that.
(21:45):
And when I got ernied I waslike, there is more to this than
just hitting a ball over the netand.
I found myself saying if I'mcommitting to, to learning
something as crazy and silly asan Ernie, I think I am silly and
crazy enough to commit myself tothis sport.
And, I continued to coach mylife coach clients, and I was
actually,, I was, about, I.
(22:06):
Six months into designing awhole program, I was certifying
other life coaches in mytechniques and I was designing a
program for people who wanted topay a membership and to get
coached by multiple differenttypes of coaches, real estate
coaches, financial coaches, lifecoaches.
And I had this website developerand I was getting such a big
(22:27):
headache from it because therewas unmet promises and they were
constantly asking for more moneyand all this stuff, and I just
stopped.
I was like, you know what?
I'm giving up on it, and I hatethe sound that, that sounds like
I'm giving up on it.
I took a massive left turn.
I said, this is not bringing mejoy.
And not to say that, if youcommit to something in the long
(22:47):
term that yeah, it's gonna betough sometimes you're gonna
have a tough road and challengesand stuff, but my heart was so
already all in on creating alife around pickleball because I
could fulfill my purpose ofteaching, giving, impacting
while also.
Incorporating this amazing fun Iwas having, I was like, I'm
done, I'm done, I'm done, I'mdone, I'm done, I'm done.
(23:09):
I'm done.
I'm done.
And I did the done dance and I,I committed to pickleball.
That's when I started to recordmyself to see what am I doing
wrong?
What am I doing right?
I started creating highlightreels and posting content on it.
I was active and engaged in thepickleball forum to a point
where a company reached out andthey're like, I know you guys,
you just started, but you'recontent's great and we'd like to
(23:32):
sponsor you.
I'm like.
A sponsorship.
I could be a sponsored athlete.
I'm like 33.
And I just started playing thisweird game and someone wanted to
sponsor me and I'm like, okay,yeah, this is real.
This is real.
Charlotte J (23:45):
That's amazing.
And from you putting yourselfout there and recording
yourself.
Honestly, Sara, what I get fromthis is that when you decide to
do something, you go all in.
It's very well
Sara (23:59):
known about me,
Charlotte J (24:00):
yeah, and there's something in that.
But I think, you brought upanother great point.
I think there is great wisdomalso in knowing when not to
quit, but when to pivot.
And it sounds like, you reallypivoted, you really, tapped into
that inner wisdom and said,okay.
(24:20):
This isn't working.
What I'm trying to build with mycoaching is not working for me
on so many different levels.
Mm-hmm.
And fun is not a key word, whichyou wanted Not
Sara (24:33):
at all.
No.
Charlotte J (24:33):
In your life.
So I think, there's great wisdomin being able to pivot.
And you mentioned mindset too.
And again, I have spoken in.
Many previous episodes, butthere was one particular episode
of this podcast where I did talkabout preparing for a tournament
that I was playing in and aboutmindset and how important that
(24:59):
is.
I think for any sport.
I also think for anything thatwe do in life.
But can you talk a little bitabout mindset and pickleball?
No, I can't
Sara (25:11):
talk a little bit.
I could talk for hours and days.
It about mindset.
I can't just talk a little,there's so much I can share on
mindset.
Charlotte J (25:18):
We could sit here for hours and have this
conversation.
Sara (25:21):
It's honestly my favorite part about this.
Aside from the people, I wouldsay the people in the social
part is like probably myfavorite.
But the second biggest thingthat I love about pickleball is
the mindset of it.
And there's so many things Icould touch on, especially when
preparing for tournaments or,growing.
You know what?
That's what I'll talk about ifyou wanna grow in this sport or
in anything.
(25:42):
Growth is not a linear curve.
And I think a lot of people wantit to be, want it to look like
it's just going straight up.
I'm getting better and better,and better, better, better.
The higher you go and this iswhat happens in the beginning.
It is pretty easy to learn andgrow.
I know I suck, I know I need tolearn certain things and I'm
open-minded to the coaching andthe people and the feedback and
all this stuff.
(26:02):
And of course, when you playpickleball in the beginning.
Everyone's gonna tell you, youshouldn't do that and you should
do this.
And it, gets to a point whereit's annoying, especially if
you're the girl.
'cause the guys have all theanswers and they're gonna tell
you every single thing you dowrong and everything you don't
do, right?
So there's that.
But once you get to this pointwhere you're like 3.5, 4.0, now
your ego starts.
(26:23):
To kick in.
This is where it's like, oh, Igot some experience and I'm all
right.
So now you can't tell me what todo.
I know what to do.
This is where the challenge ofgrowing starts happening.
This is why you see so manypeople plateau at 3.5 and 4.0
because it.
Sucks to suck and to get betteryou gotta suck a bit.
(26:44):
You have got to get to thispoint where it's like, okay,
what got me here from brand new,fresh off the street onto the
pickleball court and learningwhat got me from here to there
is not what's gonna get me from3.5 to 4.0.
And what gets me from three fiveto 4.0 is not gonna be what gets
me to four, five.
You've gotta change things up.
(27:06):
When you start to change whatyou feel like you worked so hard
to earn, to get good at thedinking in the third shot drop
and stuff.
And now to get better, I gottaadd top spin.
That's different.
So I'm gonna start doing sometop spin and I'm gonna hit the
net a bunch.
Oh no, maybe I'll go back to theway I am comfortable.
And this is what happens.
People go back to the waythey're comfortable and they
don't, test themselves.
(27:28):
Because they'd rather win.
They don't wanna feel like theirvalue is being questioned
because they lost a match ofpickleball, and that is such an
immature way to think, but it ishow so many players think.
For me, one of my biggestadvantages, because I understand
mindset, was.
I knew I had to fail a ton if Iwanted to get good, and that
never ends.
I'm telling you, Ben Johns andAnna Leigh Waters, the reason
(27:51):
why they get better and bettercontinuously still to this day
is because they're not afraid tofail.
They don't like losing, butthey're out there drilling
nonstop and trust me, they'retesting the waters with new
strategies, new tools.
As paddles change and evolve asstrategies and techniques change
and evolve, as people arehitting the ball harder, they're
doing different things andyou've got to fail a bunch to
(28:12):
get better, and that's whypeople plateau because they're
so afraid to fail.
For me, I have had this such arocky growth.
It's like I get good and it'sokay, now I'm adding a new tool.
Now I'm trying a two-handbackhand and I start to go down
a little bit, or at least itfeels like I'm going down
because now I'm playing recgames knowing I'm gonna suck and
(28:33):
knowing I'm gonna lose.
And I'll even warn my partner.
I'm working on a couple things,so you know, gimme some grace,
gimme some patience.
So.
I've had to have this reallysolid mindset, knowing I'm not
gonna win for a little while asI'm practicing this.
Either that or.
I go backwards and I do what'scomfortable and I get stuck
where I'm at there and not grow,which would be better for my ego
(28:54):
and my pride.
But I don't care about thatstuff.
'cause what I care about isgetting better and challenging
myself.
And because I've done that, I'vegotten to add so many different
tools to my tool belt and thethings I can do the backhand
flicks and the rolls and thepunches and the drives and the.
Two hand backhand and two handdinks and one hand dinks and
slices and top spins.
(29:14):
And all these little things thatI've taught myself that caused
me to do the rocky growth, whereit's like I'm up and then I go
back down a little bit and then,oh, I've mastered a skill.
I go up and then guess what?
New skill time, new strategytime.
Now I'm aiming for the shoulderinstead of just at the body.
Now I'm aiming for the hip.
Now I'm watching certainmovements on the court and I'm
trying to.
Put them, put it to theirbackhand, put them off balance
(29:36):
instead of just getting the ballover the net, which is so much
easier.
Yeah, that's what helps peoplegrow.
Being okay with making thosemistakes so that you learn, so
that you grow and get better.
That would be what my biggestthing.
I love to give to people andhope that they embody and
embrace it's okay to fail.
In fact, it's not just okay, ifyou wanna get good, you gotta
(29:56):
fail a ton.
The more you fail, the bettersuccess you will eventually
have.
Charlotte J (30:00):
I think, the ego definitely gets in the way.
I think we've all experiencedthat.
Whether we are playingpickleball or.
We are trying something new forthe first time or whatever that
might be, and it has me curioustoo, because why is it that we
are brought up without thatmindset?
(30:20):
Because we are told the completeopposite.
We are told we need to dobetter, do better, get
Sara (30:27):
good grades, or you're grounded,
Charlotte J (30:29):
Exactly.
But at no point.
Was I ever taught that?
Do it over and over and make themistakes.
Because the more opportunity youhave to make the mistakes, the
better you're going to get.
And
Sara (30:43):
especially if you're okay with it, if you're frustrated
about it, that distraction's notgonna help you grow any faster.
But if you're okay, just goingon repeat, and I tell people
when I'm coaching you're gonnamake mistakes.
I'm teaching you something new.
Don't think about it.
Don't grunt and groan andwhatever.
Just repeat.
I'm just gonna feed you balls.
All you're gonna do is repeat.
I challenge you to make 50failures and 50 mistakes.
(31:06):
Do it with a smile and you'll befine.
Trust me, it's like walking whenyou're a baby.
They're not crying'cause theyfell, they, they get up and they
do it again and again, and allof a sudden we're walking.
It's the same thing.
Charlotte J (31:17):
Exactly, and that's a great analogy.
Babies, toddlers, they only gotto walk because they practiced
and they fell down and they gotup again.
And I think, people may bethinking, oh, that's easier said
than done.
And it is said than done.
Perhaps you have a couple ofpractical tips.
I heard you say.
(31:38):
Put a smile on your face.
And I'm a firm believer in youhave to feel like you are the
part, I walk onto the court andI put on that identity of, Hey,
I'm a pickleball player and I'mgoing to have fun, and it
doesn't matter what I look likebecause.
I'm going out there with thatpositive mindset of having fun,
(32:02):
of connecting with people, oftaking shots and practicing and
doing better than I didyesterday and doing it with a
smile on my face.
But do you have a couple ofother tips that you could got?
So many, so many, so many you.
I teach a lot about positivedistraction.
(32:22):
Let's think about a winningmindset.
What is a winning mindset?
And people will instantly jumpto I'm gonna win.
I'm the best telling yourselfI'm the best.
And that's not what it is.
It's recognizing that you'realready winning.
So when I talk to people attournaments that are feeling the
stress and the pressure, I askthem, why do you play this game?
(32:42):
Why do you play this?
They'll, most of the time theysay, well, it's a good
challenge, or it's, I get toplay with my friends and stuff
like that.
I'm like, whether you win orlose, do you get those things?
Whether you win or lose, do youget those things right now?
Are you getting that as wespeak?
Are you off your butt aroundgood people?
Yes.
(33:03):
Guess what?
You just won and every time youstep on that court, are you
challenging yourself?
Yeah.
You're winning.
Recognizing all these things.
And like for me, sometimes if Inotice myself getting in my head
and getting frustrated about,making a few mistakes in a row,
take a deep breath and I'll lookaround.
How many things can I pick outthat I'm grateful for right in
front of me?
(33:23):
And this is a great practice foreveryone to ground themselves
and get back into a winningmindset.
You look around, you go, wow,look at all these people.
I'm making new friends, I've gotcurrent friends.
I've got this partner who maybeI just met as a blind aid, or
who I've been developing a teamwith.
I'm so grateful that, I waspicked or that I picked them, or
that we're building afriendship.
(33:43):
I'm so grateful that I'm staringacross people who I looked up to
before I had the skill tocompete with them.
I'm so grateful.
It's a beautiful day.
I'm so grateful that the sun isshining on me and I'm not
sitting at home not doinganything.
I'm doing something productivethat.
Feels good.
All of a sudden, you'll catchfive to 10 things that you're
grateful for and get back intothat winning mindset.
It's like whether I win a medal,a$5 medal or not, I'm such a
(34:07):
winner right now.
Such a winner.
So getting that winning mindset.
Is so huge.
And when I say the positivedistraction thing I'll give you
an actual example and you guyscan all use this however you
want, but I had a client theother day and he, I would say is
about a 4.0, and we're workingon transition zone.
So he had to reset each ball Igave him, and I would increase
(34:29):
speed and power and placement athis feet and see what he could
do.
And then we started talkingabout split step, how to move in
the transition instead of justshuffling your way up.
You take a step and you split.
You take a step and you split.
And he's someone who gets in hishead and he overthinks his shot.
It's like.
Dude, you already know how toshoot.
(34:50):
You don't have to think aboutit.
You don't have to think aboutresetting that ball because your
body already instinctively knowsit.
You've done it thousands oftimes.
Why do you think you need tocalculate it?
Why do you think you need tooverthink it?
Stop thinking about the shot.
And of course that sounds easiersaid than done.
So here's the trick.
You use positive distraction.
And I do this with my kids allthe time.
If they're like whining orcrying, I'll be like, you don't
(35:12):
want to eat your food.
Why don't you eat your food?
And I'll give you, an ice cream.
And on the weekend, all of asudden they'll eat their food.
It's a positive distraction.
Or if they're, they hurtthemselves and I'll just say
something funny and poke at themand I love you and you got this
and whatever.
I just, positive distraction.
But on the court I said, okay,we're gonna work on your
footwork.
I.
And that's all I want you tofocus on.
Don't even look at where theball goes.
(35:33):
Okay?
You're gonna go to the back ofthe court, I'm gonna hit you a
ball and you're gonna hit athird shot drop.
But I don't even want you tothink about the third shot drop.
Here's what you're focused on.
You hit that ball, you stepforward and you split.
I don't care if the ball hitsthe net.
I don't care if you hit the ballout.
I don't care what the ball does,'cause that's not what we're
focused on.
You are gonna hit that ball.
As soon as that ball comes offyour paddle, you split step and
(35:54):
he took a step back, goes to thebaseline.
I'm like, what are you focusedon right now?
He said split step.
I hit him the ball.
He does his perfect third shot,takes a split, then we started
playing slinky.
So he would do that, I would hitit back and he'd work his way up
to the front, to the kitchen andthen work his way back doing the
same thing over and over.
And the change was so instant.
His thirds, his resets at thenet, they were like near perfect
(36:19):
almost every single time.
I just kept saying, what are youfocused on?
Split step.
What are you focused on?
Split step.
He hyper-focused on the splitstep and all of a sudden his
instincts just did what his bodyhas been trained to do over
thousands of hits of the balland it just did it
instinctively, animalistically.
'cause he was focused onsomething different, his
(36:39):
footwork.
Hmm.
It's really connecting to thatinner intelligence and whether
you're playing pickleball oryou're doing anything in life,
it's instinctually knowing weknow what to do.
We know what we want.
Yes, we know what lights us up,but we get in our heads and the.
Story takes over and it reallysounds like what you're saying
(37:02):
is drop the story and justconnect to that animal instinct.
You said right at the beginning,it's that animal type of energy
on the court,
Sara (37:14):
yeah.
They're not thinking aboutnothing.
They're just being animals.
Charlotte J (37:17):
Love that.
If you could give one piece ofadvice to couples or teammates.
'cause I like to always relatethis back to playing with your
partner, and whether that'syou're playing with your partner
on the pickleball court, or youare navigating family life or
kids at home with your.
(37:38):
Partner but if you could justgive one piece of advice to any
couples or teammates who arestepping onto the pickleball
court together for the firsttime, what would that be?
Sara (37:51):
Yeah.
As someone who plays with myboyfriend in the pro division
and has had, both sides of thecoin of the experience, it being
really great and connecting andit not being so much, and the
clash and the frustration andthe arguing it would be to
surrender.
I.
I don't mean white flagsurrender, I mean let things be
without needing it to bedifferent.
(38:12):
Especially when you're playingwith a partner who you've
developed with, whether it's anen court or off-court partner.
We get these, I.
Expectations and we start totake things personal.
We read into things too much.
We don't treat them like they'rea pickleball partner.
We treat them, they're like alife partner.
And it's like we read into everysingle thing they do.
And guess what?
We're both going throughdifferent emotions and pressures
(38:34):
in the middle of especially attournaments and it's like just
let.
Your partner do what they do.
Now, if they're offensive andstuff like that, you talk to
them, you say, this made me feelthis way.
But instead of allowing twoemotions, just cause chaos
within each other, you surrenderto the process.
My, my big word for you all toexplore in your own way what
(38:57):
that means to you.
So I don't get too involved intrying to tell you what it means
to me and what it should mean toyou.
Surrender.
Don't have big expectations'cause.
When you express and spew youremotions, you're causing chaos,
even if it's just an eye roll.
And we all know that.
We all know that on thepickleball court.
(39:18):
We see it.
We see the vibe.
We feel the vibe.
We see the eye rolls, we see thehuffs and puffs.
We feel the tension.
If you, I.
Let go of that and justsurrender to the moment, which
again, if you recognize you're awinner by seeing the beautiful
sun, seeing the fact that you'reout with your significant other,
you're around friends, and youjust surrender to that and just
go, wow, this is amazing.
(39:39):
No matter what.
It becomes a lot easier to letthem do their thing.
Let them express how theyexpress.
Let them get frustrated.
Let them feel their feelings.
Nothing wrong with feelingfeelings.
There's nothing wrong with it.
We don't need to take apersonal, so when you go on with
your significant other, let thembe who they are without it being
a personal thing.
Now, if they say something thatreally hurts you, bring it up.
(40:03):
Try to avoid it being, smotheredin your emotion and you're
taking it personal.
Just say, Hey, maybe next timeif you have a certain feeling, I
don't know just go err.
But try not to direct it on me.
There's ways to havecommunication and you're
actually gonna, I find it's areally good bonding experience
'cause it's a great way tocommunicate and set boundaries
(40:25):
and really.
Sometimes it's trauma showingup, like literal childhood
trauma showing up on the court.
Let me add this.
'cause this is very important.
Instead of being judgmental, becurious.
If you watch Ted Lasso, you'llknow what I'm talking about.
Be curious instead of judgmentalif your male partner is like a
(40:45):
super aggressive and you cantell the frustration and the ego
and the pride instead of takingit personal and judging it as a
bad thing or an aggressivething.
Get curious, ask questions afterthe game.
Hey, what were you feelingthere?
It seemed very intense.
Were you mad at me?
Ask questions'cause I speak fromexperience.
Sometimes I feel like he's madat me.
(41:06):
You mad at me.
Am I feel like I'm not doinggood enough for you and all this
stuff.
And it's not necessarily that.
Sometimes it is, sometimes it'snot.
But just the fact that you'reshowing this curiosity, it lets
the guard down.
If you start saying judgments,the guard goes up, it becomes an
argument.
Then you've gotta really healfrom some stuff.
But if after the game you askquestions, you get.
Curious about the behaviors thewords, the actions, and you
(41:29):
actually ask and you get to, youlearn more about your partner.
It can actually make you closer,and you, it can be turned into a
positive bonding experiencewhere you learn more about each
other.
You set certain boundaries.
You also get a chance to sharehow you feel about something.
And then he can know, hey.
Maybe that behavior, that thosewords I should do something
different.
'cause I don't wanna hurt mygirl.
(41:50):
I don't wanna hurt my partner.
I don't wanna hurt my man.
It's not always the guy who'sbeing aggressive, trust me.
It's, it's a two-way street forsure.
But yeah get curious.
Don't be judgmental and justsurrender to the process.
Let your partner be who theyare.
And sometimes it's not gonnaclick and sometimes you gotta
find a different partner andthat's okay too.
But when you're playingsurrender, surrender, get in
your winning mindset and thenget curious instead of
(42:12):
judgmental.
Charlotte J (42:13):
Hmm.
I'm hearing three superimportant things there, Sara.
Love that.
One surrender.
Yes.
And like you say, that's notgiving up or giving away our
power.
It's actually very empoweringwhen we do surrender.
And then don't take itpersonally.
And actually it's synchronicitybecause in last week's episode,
(42:37):
Carrie Sans, who's a.
Licensed marriage therapist cameon.
And that was one of her bigpoints too, was don't take it
personally.
Whatever your partner or whoeveryou're interacting with is
saying, it's about them, notabout you.
And then thirdly, get curious.
And I think when we can come inwith that childlike curiosity
(43:02):
that we all had once, and then Ithink we lost.
along the way, then yeah, we canreally take every moment as a
learning opportunity andTotally.
Yeah.
I love that.
And oh my gosh, I could talk toyou, like you say, for hours.
You have so much knowledge andenergy and passion for the game,
(43:25):
and passion for life.
Love that.
Sara, where can people find you?
Sara (43:31):
Social media, YouTube.
So if you look me up on, onFacebook or Instagram, I'm Sara
Weiss.
My handle is heck yeah,pickleball.
You can find that on YouTube.
I upload my games.
I have an Ernie tutorial.
'cause as I said at thebeginning, I became so obsessed.
I'm actually known in Ottawa asan Ernie Queen and like I get
Ernie all the time.
I'm like really good at settingit up.
So I created a tutorial video.
(43:52):
So if you really wanna learn howto do it.
As a beginner, because when Ilearned it, I was a beginner, so
I wasn't super coordinated.
Go to heck yeah.
Pickleball.
That's H-E-C-K-Y-E-A-H,pickleball.
And the first video you'll seethere is my Ernie tutorial.
And yeah, you can just connectwith me there.
I'm happy to chat with anybody.
I love this community so much.
(44:13):
If you wanna talk pickleball,trust me, I could go on for
days.
Well, I'll chat with you.
Charlotte J (44:17):
And we will put those links in the show notes
too, so that people can findyou.
But heck yeah.
Pickleball.
It's been a a pleasure.
Sara, thank you so much forjoining us.
Thank you so much for having me,Charlotte.
Speaker (44:30):
Thanks so much for listening today.
I hope you enjoyed thatconversation as much as I did.
Anything mentioned, includinglinks, notes, and a full episode
list, will be over on ourwebsite at
pickleballandpartnership.
buzzsprout.
com.
Com.
If you got something outta thisepisode, be sure to follow or
(44:52):
subscribe to Pickleball andPartnership on Apple Podcasts,
Spotify, or wherever you listenso that you are notified of new
and upcoming episodes.
And if you're finding value inthis podcast, a free way to
support us is to leave a five.
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(45:14):
This will help more peopleaccess these real conversations.
And if you haven't connectedwith myself or Neil personally,
we would love to meet you andsay hi over on our Facebook
page.
Thanks again for listening.
Please tune in next week foranother exciting episode of
Pickleball and partnership.
(45:36):
Remember, we're all learning,growing, and showing up in our
own ways.
And that's what matters most.
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