During a timeout of a tournament match, Bodhi looks at me and goes,

“Kyle, why aren’t you hitting your hard serves?” 

I paused, and then said, ‘fear.”

And without missing a beat, he goes, “About what, though?”

Ahhhh, the innocence of a 9-year-old boy cutting straight to the heart of something most of us spend years avoiding. 

See the interaction here :)

Now, I’ve watched Bodhi play a lot of pickleball, and the kid is fearless. He goes for his shots, tries new things, and when he misses, he just tries again. And that’s a big part of the reason he’s gotten so good so fast.

All this got me thinking about you. And me.

How often do we let fear drive our decisions? How often do we play scared because we “might miss”? I think the short answer is, A LOT

But the thing is, we do our best NOT to miss, and we end up missing anyway.

So, I’m sure if we asked Bodhi what he thinks about this, he’d say something like, “You should probably just go for it, Kyle. Don’t be scared.”

See, fear is an interesting thing. Because if you care about the thing you’re doing, or you’re new to a group and want to play well, or you're trying something new on court, there will be some level of fear.

And it’s not something you ever completely eliminate; it’s something you learn how to handle.

Recently, I watched the documentary Free Solo on Netflix (great doc btw), and the climber Alex Honnold said he still gets scared while climbing mountains. BUT, he’s just exposed himself to more scary situations than most people in the world. So he doesn’t get as scared as he once did.

And to me, that’s the biggest takeaway for today. We have to get better at putting ourselves in situations that scare us a little, because that’s when you grow the most.

This could mean signing up for that tournament, knowing you’ll be terrified and will likely fail. Or this could mean hitting your serve bigger because you know when it goes in, it sets up the rest of the point better.

And I think Bodhi would say all this really comes down to one word, courage.

The ability to try things in the face of fear. The willingness to give it your very best effort, knowing you still might fail.

And listen, I know this is hard.

It's actually really hard for me, and I’m writing this as a reminder for me just as much as I’m hoping it inspires you.

In fact, these thoughts Bodhi revealed for me are actually a big part of the reason we created the 21-day Mindset Reset Challenge inside ThatPIckleballSchool.

To help us all get out of our own way. To help us be more confident in the face of fear. And to help us stop overthinking every little thing on court.

The challenge starts on April 13, and it’s FREE if you’re a member of ThatPickleballSchool.

If you’re not a member, it’s only $49 to join for the month and participate with hundreds of other players supporting each other for 21 straight days.

(And you can start with a 7-Day free trial before committing).

I’ll share more details on this soon, but I’d love for you to join if you’re ready to work on the one part of your game most ignore. . .

Your mind.

🙂

Talk next week,
Kyle

PS: Sign-up officially begins next week, but if you’re curious and interested in what you’ll actually do each day of the challenge, you can check this out:

👉 21-Day Mindset Reset Lessons (feel free to share this with a playing partner :)