Monday Minute 4/14/24
- Jill Braverman
- Apr 14
- 4 min read
Hello all my Pickleball Joy Riders!
Welcome to the Monday Minute, a 60-second list of what I’m exploring and thinking about. Feel free to forward along if the pickleball spirit moves you!
We just released pod #60 featuring Brad Tuckman, owner of the FORT (pickleball's first real stadium!) One hot take from the pod: Did Anna Bright make a mistake?
She could have beaten AL but instead chose to join her. If she wanted to swap partners to more consistently beat AL, she could have chosen Jorja Johnson. It begs the question: Would the de facto #2 and #3 players (Jorja and AB) beat #1 Anna Leigh and whoever is #4 (Catherine, Etta, Tyra, Rachel, Jackie et al)?
We sure think so. What do you think?
In my practice...where do you keep your eyes when poaching?
I’m absurdly fascinated by this. If you watch players like Christian Alshon, they poach by charging to the net with their eyes focused forward, never looking back at their partner to watch the ball. Woah woah woah!
We’re taught that’s WRONG, right? Seems to be working out pretty well for Christian! And it makes sense, too. So long as you can time your split step to right before your opponents make contact, it feels like the “eyes forward” could be the way to go on the poach.
Often I see students who never watch their partners third shot (at all)—this is definitely wrong! You want to gauge the 3rd (and the 5th, 7th etc.) but there are definitely more and more players rolling the dice, charging the net, and taking their chances.
Is this fearlessness the future? Check out my match-point bronze medal poach below (I literally told myself right before this point "pretend you're Anna Leigh and just go for it!")
In my mind...what is consciousness?!
This podcast has changed my life.
Imagine a NDE (near death experience) life review: you see your entire life not just through your eyes but through the eyes of everyone you ever affected. If you were rude to the grocery store clerk, you'll see how they went on and were rude to their family when they got home, or the next customer in line. You'll see this for every single interaction in your entire life.
This NDE phenomena has been catalogued too many times by legitimate researchers, I promise after this pod, you'll come away a believer. Mark Gober, the podcast host and former Silicon Valley venture capitalist turned mystic researcher, answers the two greatest questions still plaguing scientists all over the world:
1.) What is the universe made out of?
2.) From where does consciousness arise?
My big takeaway? What if we aren't human beings having a spiritual experience, rather we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Essentially, we are conciseness having a human experience and we are all one - from the same universal pool of consciousness... 🤯
On my body: HEALTH=WEALTH
As soon as I got a clear bill of health on my knee (it was/is IT band tendonitis) I got a WILD eye infection called “eye lid cellulitis” (like a stye, but 10x worse). When my eye doctor said “go to the hospital right now” (after I played 3 hours of pickleball) I thought he was totally kidding. Turns out, he wasn’t!
If your infection spreads from your upper lid to your lower you often need to get IV antibiotics which are only available at the hospital. Once in the ER, they gave me a CAT scan to assure that it was still surface level and not affecting my eye-cavity.
The ER doc gave me a choice: Stay on the IV for 24 hours or stay on it for 2 hours and change my oral antibiotics.
I chose the latter and am grateful for the clean bill of health! It's amazing what a health scare can do in terms of a mental reset. I've spent the past three weeks feeling like "nothing matters. Literally nothing. Just our health and the health of our family and loved ones..." This was a very "eye opening" moment to say the least!
Another sold-out Reign Storm Jilly B Fantasy Camp!
We had a BLAST last week in Newport Beach for our 4.5+ Reign Storm ladies camp!
Day 1 focused on being more aggressive (R.I.P dinking!). Don't think about "red yellow green" in terms of if you should speed something up. You can speed up anything with the proper technique. Make your opponents EARN slowing down the game. Stay aggressive until they can prove that isn't working!
Day 2 we focused on the soft stuff (old school pickleball, lol). Resets from the mid-court. What are they all about? Being still and meeting the ball way in front of you.
The theme of the camp was all about playing the game out in front of you--as if you were a dog that just had a surgery so the veterinarian gives you one of those cones around your neck--it sounds silly, but I think it's a powerful image because the game should be played "out there" inside the cone. Don't let your paddle get to your side or behind you. Think: "Meet the ball". Early doesn't miss. Remember that.
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Don't miss NY and Colorado camps!
OPENS SOON 6/5 & 6/6 Boulder, CO
OPENS SOON 6/7 & 6/11 Aspen, CO
OPEN NOW 6/30-7/1 Newport Beach, CA
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That's it for the Monday Minute. I love feedback and if you have any for me please tweet me @jillybpb or find me on Threads, too (@jillybpickleball). You can always email us at jillybcamps@gmail.com.
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