tournament recap - punta gorda : pickleball + food + expectation vs reality

[Music] will okay this is take one of first tournament of the year not necessarily a failure but definitely not a big success in my books um a lot of takeaways a lot to learn a lot of improvements and um I've decided I'm going to do a little tournament recap I'm just going to let L it all out there for the whole weekend the past 3 days if you can't see the bags like under my eyes right now I'm actually exhausted it's Saturday like 400 p.m. I literally just got back 2 hours ago showered did laundry cleaned got my nails done because I just I needed something to relax myself um so I'm going to go through I guess a little bit about being a professional pickleball player not being the best but working your way up and having to deal with emotions um rain delays early early early mornings late nights um all of it so okay guys let's get started so my whole weekend kind of started on Tuesday basically I had to pack everything up and there was like a flood outside my house and the water was out and I had no water so I couldn't do my launch laundry I couldn't finish cleaning all my dishes I like to leave my house super clean when I leave so when I come home it's nice I don't have to do anything well that's not the case that Saturday at 400 p.m. um because I had to leave everything go stay at a friend's house because my water was out which is fine on Wednesday morning I practiced before the tournament and then I drove to Naples so that's like 2 2 and 1/2 hours from dely Beach and I was staying at my grandparents and and the tournament was actually in Puna Gorda so it's about just over an hour commute to the event so I didn't play until Thursday luckily um the singles draw didn't start until about 11:00 so I wanted to be there at 9:45 10ish just to give myself an extra hour so I can warm up and um anyways but Wednesday I drive out to Naples um I have a nice little dinner with my grandparents I hadn't seen them in a while and they still live in Canada but they lived down here for about a couple months of the year so it's really nice when I get the chance to spend time with them and they were absolutely amazing I just want to tell you the one takeaway from this tournament um you learn a lot at each tournament and this one I really identified like one huge takeaway and that is how important it is to have a support team and people that love you and care for you and we go the distance to be there for you because they were incredible um shout out to my Nana and Grandpa I can't thank you enough for putting up with me for the last 3 days were long long long days so Thursday morning wake up early and um grabbed some coffee had a little breakfast went to the courts did a warmup I was actually feeling really good um so that was a relief because leading up to the tournament I just I was not feeling great in terms of like different shots I was going for and consistency um I had some self-doubt and so my first match I played well um I was nervous going in I'm always nervous because I find if I'm not nervous it might mean I don't care enough um that's just me and with all the competitive Sports I've done throughout my life and with squash especially like nerves almost fuel me they're adrenaline they like go through my body super quickly and before matches I've always got to go to the bathroom or you know um funny story but that's for another time I was definitely nervous it took me a couple points in the first match to settle in kind of relax myself go for shots be okay missing shots and once I I think I get about four or five points in I feel like I settle in the girl played very well so I was very happy to get that win and um second round in singles I got lucky with the number one SE um not that that matters but she's definitely the strongest player in that draw and um unfortunate that I had her for my round of 16 um she beat me 157 157 I didn't play my best um I definitely think if I had cut down a lot of my errors in that match it would have been a completely different match but I played um tight and hesitant I didn't like follow through on shots um so I was a little disappointed in my performance I definitely think I could have played better I was just mentally kind of checked out unfortunately after that one and it was hard to get myself to want to win the next couple there was another four matches I had to win in order to win like the little smaller draw I was in so that was unfortunate but I had a very very nice dinner with my grandparents that night um so that was very special now it's Friday morning and I have to play qualifying for mixed doubles which is supposed to start at 7:00 a.m. but everything from the day before was delayed because of rain and so they basically pushed all the delayed stuff to 7:00 a.m. the next day and my event wasn't until 9:00 a.m. so it's still about an hour drive from where we are and I still want to get there an hour before the start time just so I can warm up and do everything I need to do so we leave the house at 6:30 in the morning get to the venue around I don't know 7:45 8:00 a.m. and as I arrive at the venue I get a text from like the the league basically saying there's been a rain delay everything's delayed like 2 hours I'm like okay all right let's go let's hop back in the car go grab a coffee grab a bagle I don't know go explore just not sit around in the car whatever and it's me and my my nana and my grandpa and we go explore pun Gora and I get another text and it's like pouring there's no chance for playing within the next like 3 hours and and the division before me still has to play so we go back to the venue cuz I'm like well I don't want to get too far just in case you never know I just I like to be early and I literally we sat in the car from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. on Friday before I I got to play so that was just a lot mentally physically just exhausting and I felt bad that my grandparents were sitting there with me and we couldn't leave we couldn't go back to Naples and then drive all the way back so we sat there and then I play my first game and it was no good no good at all um we could not get in the groove the other team played great I mean hands down they didn't really make any errors didn't give us any opportunities and sometimes that's just that's that um but we didn't adjust we didn't change our game plan or strategy and I feel like we just got stuck and the game was over just like like this all done and the other thing too I forgot to mention is because of all these rain delays the main draw still had to play after the qualifying so main draw started like 8:00 p.m. the biggest thing that just bothered me I guess is normally it's best of three games to 11 but what they they did is they had to shorten everything which I understand but they had one game to 11 and that determines who moves on and who's out and I'm like I just paid $130 $150 for this event and I just like I lost within like 10 minutes and I was like that's insane I just paid $150 to sit in a car for 12 hours and then play one single match and be done yeah so um I was frustrated a little annoyed I mean there's only so much you can do and it's Sports at the end of the day you just got to push through that I mean if I'm in that boat everyone is so I can't be complaining um but it was just it was very very frustrating and annoying but whatever so then my grandparents had made this nice little reservation and they were so excited about their favorite restaurant and taking me there so we literally go from the venue which we've been at the venue since 700 a.m. we go from the venue in my pickle ball clothes to this nice little restaurant and um it it was amazing the restaurant but I didn't have my ID and all I wanted was a glass of wine by the end of this day I just wanted one glass of wine that's it but I have myid and she wouldn't give me a drink because I look under 30 which yes I am I'm 25 I'm definitely legal to drink I'm 25 but I look under 30 and so she has to ID me and I can't even get drink oh well we have some nice dinner we finally finally get home it's like 10:30 11:00 p.m. on Friday night and then I have to qualify the next morning Saturday morning for women's doubles which I never normally have to qualify so again I was frustrated that I had to do that um my partner didn't have any points and my original partner got injured and had to pull out and so I just kind of jammed up and had had to go with the flow and um so anyways qualifying is again 7:00 a.m. this time we wake up at 4:30 a.m. hop in the car by 5: latest and have a coffee have some like snacks and stuff and do a warm up it's pretty chilly at like 600 6:15 when there's no sun there's wind um so everyone's all bundled up qualifying starts at 7 so we get our first game definitely way closer than it should have been we actually went down 80 to start solid and uh something just switched in both of our heads and we're like nuh-uh we can't we can't let this happen so we won 1510 in our first one again one game for the qualifying one game to 15 then our next game it just wasn't there so we were both like done by 8:30 a.m. and I'm like all right well now we have all day all I wanted to do was go home at this point like it's just I think in my head I had expectations for results and I wanted a certain performance out of myself and it just wasn't there and if anything I was just very frustrated with myself this past weekend um I allowed like nerves and expectations um and like external forces to affect my performance the second biggest takeaway from the event is that you anybody doesn't matter who's on the other side of that Court you honestly need to focus on yourself play your game consistently throughout and not give up paron my language of who was on the other side of that court so that's my second biggest takeaway my first biggest takeaway is how grateful I am for my family my friends my support team I just like I I can't even thank everybody enough I would not be where I am today without them like my grandparents literally sat in the car for 10 hours we napped we talked we read a book my nana made snacks and stuff and then they drove me an hour there and an hour back incredible I'm just like I don't know I just feel so special and gifted and yeah so that's a positive I got to leave with a positive definitely have a lot to work on for the next tournament I want to do better I want to be better it's really hard putting in so much work and not seeing quick results and this is for everything you do it takes time you got to trust the process which I don't know how to do that but you got to trust the process keep doing what you're doing don't quit do not quit whatever you do don't quit just keep pushing try try try again um so I'm going to get back to training I have a couple things in my game I want to work on tweak um perfect I I guess and uh hopefully the next tournament I come out a little stronger fiercer super aggressive with shots cuz I just that's my game if you have any questions about tournaments pickle ball being an athlete it's not as luxurious as it seems sometimes I mean the last 3 days I literally was up at 4:30 a.m. sitting at a pickle ball court waiting to play not playing because rain delays only getting to play one single game and then I'm like knocked out and I can't play cuz there's no courts available and then driving hours and hours and flying hours and hours and yeah it's like a an emotional roller coaster I chose this so this is the path I want to take and just going to have to figure it out one step at a time don't leave just yet I'm going to clip a little Vlog of all my really good food my Adventures my stories while I was there I tried to capture little moments here and there just to put together something as a little reminder memory and um yeah I just blinked I'm so tired can you see the bags under my eyes maybe not I solve my problems and I See the Light we got a loving thing we got to feed it right there ain't no danger we can go too far we stop believing now that we can be what we are this is the [Music] world they think our love is just a grow in pain why don't they understand it's just a cry and shame their lips are lying only real is real we stop the fight right now we got to be what we feel Grace is the word is the word is the word that you heard it's got gr it's got me gra is the time is the place is the motion gra is the

Channel: Hannah Blatt

Views: 1,576

Keywords: pickleball, proffesionalpickleball, athlete, sports, lifestyle, food, home, vlog, dayinlife, fitness, travel, adventure, canada, usa, proathlete, dogs, life, routine, habits, recipes, #squash, athletes

Id: jFAVSsRtuH4

Length: 15min 16sec (916 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 21 2024