Are You a Tournament Virgin?

#1026: Coach Veronica Alteri just started playing pro pickleball herself, but she remembers the mental challenges of the first time she played in a tournament. She and Tracie talk about the thrills and chills of playing competitively and how to deal with the way things change (for you and for your partner) when the score actually counts.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Pickleball Obsession. This is the first podcast created just for recreational picklers with quick useful advice for amateur players from a variety of certified pickleball coaches. Whether you're a social player out there just to have fun or a competitive one trying to sharpen your skills and win more, the more you know, the better you'll play. I hope this show will get you up to the kitchen faster, dink with a purpose, and help you win paddle battles. I'm your host, Tracy Hotner. You might know me as the pet wellness expert on NPR Sirius and my own pet podcast network, but here I'm no expert, just another admittedly obsessed player picking the brains of top coaches for advice we can all use. This show is brought to you in partnership with the IPTPA, the International Pickleball Teachers Professional Association, and the Association of Pickleball Players, the APP Tournaments. Sign up at pickleballobsession.net for the weekly episodes of the podcast, along with bonus content. Embrace the obsession. It is so great to be back with Veronica Alteri, one of my coaches, a great coach at True Pickleball, but most importantly, a hugely successful tournament competitor who is now on her way to becoming a professional pickleball player, she hopes. But that's that's a long way down the road. In the meantime, she's getting her physical therapy degree down in Florida where she competes outdoors, and where she teaches and plays at True Pickleball in Latham, New York, which is where I get the privilege of your company, Veronica. One of the things I think it'd be great for us both to talk about from our two different perspectives is tournaments. There are so many people who've never been in a tournament, and I think they're either intimidated or fill in the blank. I don't know. And they might enjoy it, or they've been to one that maybe was local and smaller, maybe well run, maybe not, and they're like, I'm never doing that again. Or I've got the bug, I've got to do it. So I for two years was a complete tournament rat from Florida to Maine, back and forth and back and forth. I live in the Northeast, so that was my corridor, if you will. And I was in a lot of tournaments, as you can see behind me. I won a lot of tournaments, but what does that really mean? I mean, uh kind of nothing in a way. It's a little cheap little metal disc on a little piece of ribbon. And it, you know, were there a hundred people in your division or were there four? So it it it's it's not like all tournament medals are equal. What would you say to somebody, either just a buddy that you play rec very high rec tennis with, uh pickleball, sorry, used to be a serious tennis player, um, or somebody who's a student, what would you say about a tournament? Do you think it's good for them to take to go in one? You think it helps us be better players and enjoy it more?

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Um, I definitely think so. Um I run the pickleball club. I help out with my pickleball club. We're just getting started at my school, so a lot of people, I get a lot of questions like, oh, when should I do a tournament? And what level should I do? So I always tell you.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

So you're used to this question. Yeah, good.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Yeah. I always just tell them, like, I think I did this myself. I didn't like pickleball at first, so I kind of just did like a joke around like fundraiser tournament. And I actually did figure out I really liked it and I liked the competition because I I kind of was just taking pickleball as a non-serious thing because I was really into tennis at this point.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

Um, but I definitely think like trying to figure out if you want to be as competitive, because I know some people don't like being super competitive and trying to test your skills and they just want to take pickleball as a leisure thing, which is completely understandable.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Um, but just do like a fun tournament like locally. It might be like small, but it's still just to learn raising something usually for a good cause, but it's just to like see if you like the atmosphere, because it is a lot of pressure. Um and you are testing your skills, your mostly your mentality skills.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

That's right. Which is another episode we'll do about the mental game, which is all inside your head. Yeah. It's not how to outfox the people on the other side of the net, it's how to manage your own mind. But I think that the idea of doing a local tournament is fun, and you're right, they're almost always fundraisers. So you think, oh, well, I'll just go with my three friends that I play rec with, and we'll go and oh, I think I know some of the other people from some other rec facility where I've played. And yet when you get on the court and the score matters, it raises your heart rate. And you think, wait, I'm just here, you know, in my local community with a lot of people I know and a few strangers. What is it, since you competed also at a high level at tennis, what is it about that competition that makes people like you and me like the elevated heart rate, like the flood of adrenaline, embrace it, and to other people it's like they're frozen. They actually physically freeze. It's so overwhelming. That feeling of, oh my god, this counts. What is that?

SPEAKER_00 5:10

I think I I mean I adj I enjoy the adrenaline rushes. I also enjoy testing my skills and seeing if I can actually like if they are actually our my true skills and to see like play other people that like I think I can use those skills on to outbeat them or just advance to them.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

Um, and I think a lot of people don't like the pressure, which is completely understandable because every point matters. And if you're not in the right headspace, that's a big thing.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

It's awful. It's it's a terrible feeling when you're there and you think I'm not I'm not mentally where I should be for this. I mean, it happened to me once when I flew from Vermont where I live to Naples, where you go to school and compete a lot in that giant place that has, I don't know, a hundred courts, some insane number of courts. And I'd been playing indoors. It was the winter, and I looked up to go for an overhead and I paralyzed. I was like, the sky, the sun, clouds. Oh my God. I've been in an indoor, basically a large garage space all this time. It's funny what can make you freeze. And then you immediately start to say, Well, I'm an idiot. I mean, you've seen the sky before. But once you get in that downward spiral of, oh, I'm this is too scary, this matters, I'm gonna let down my partner. People are watching, what about the people on the other court? It's important to start small and get comfortable with the idea that every point does matter, and you can fall on your bupkus from missing two or three critical points. But you don't die, you do live afterwards. I mean, is what have you done? Have you ever tanked early on? Did you ever tank or just have a bad day or you weren't communicating well with a partner? And did you think, oh, this sport's not even for me?

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Yeah, actually, the last tournament that I won, it was the last round of our around Robin. It was against two people I knew. And um I I completely fell on court. I just, I just like I just ragged all backwards right outside of the kitchen. I sat there the entire point, and my partner looked at me like, are you gonna get up? Like she kept playing out the point, and I I'm like, I just clocked out. I was just like, um, I'm in the kitchen, they're just gonna hit me, they're gonna end the point. I just gave up that point. That was like one point. I was just like, that game, that entire game, we end up losing. But I think we were both just out of our mentality. It was a really awkward game with wind. It was on the court that we haven't played on yet, and it was also the last we knew we made it into the like the finals because we were the we were the top team. So we're like, oh, this this game is this like like it's like against friends, and we're like, okay, like it'll be fun, and we end up kind of just losing our mentality and getting out.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

And then you get down on yourself, and then you still have to play in the challenge match, or whatever they they call the last one, which in the end you did wind up winning. But it doesn't take much to discourage you. So if people have never been in a tournament and they think, well, I do just like social play. I don't like when it's that competitive. I don't like when people hit hard at me. Well, that's gonna be a real problem in pickleball going forward, I think. Because the games become more aggressive and faster, not meaner, just faster and more aggressive. People are hitting the ball harder, they're hitting the ball down in a way, and sometimes being amateurs, they miss and they hit people on their face or body. So if you if you like the fact that it's getting a little tougher, go in a tournament. And if you go in a tournament the first time, you can't there's there's sort of two ways to get around the duper thing, I think. One of them is to overrate yourself because you don't tech and you didn't used to technically have a duper score until you were in a tournament. Now you play with your friends, rec play outdoors, call it duper, you play against each other, you all just uh have whatever scores you have, and now suddenly you have a duper score. I personally think that's bogus. We can discuss this completely at another time. But if you've never been in a tournament or any place where a duper score was counted, put yourself in at 3-0. Put yourself in low. I mean, unless you're incredibly good already, then that's that's sandbagging. But if you're good, you're an intermediate and you're good, go in at 3-0. I'm this is my thought. You tell me if you think it's wrong. That means you can play at any level. You can go into a 3-5 or a 4-0 match, because you've called yourself 3-0, because technically you're not anything yet. Then, depending on the outcome, now you get a real duper. The other thing is there's people who know they're very good. They put themselves in at a 4-0, which means you can only play at 4-0 or above. Now they might get trounced if there are people in there that are veterans of tournaments. For a tournament version, what would you recommend if they don't have an existing duper score?

SPEAKER_00 10:06

I would say that, like I would I would also agree go in the 3-0 level. Um, especially if it's your first tournament and you're just kind of learning out the basics because um it's a very different experience other than rec play. Um you'll see way more, you'll see way more people, like it's not just your casual players that you see every week. That's right. It's brand new players, they have different playstyles. Um and I think 3-0 would be just a great level to go in if especially if you don't have like a tennis background. Um, because tennis usually if you have a decent level of tennis background, you're usually like pretty high, like a 3-5 or 4-0 coming in. But if you don't have anything and you just put playing for a couple months, learning the basics can consistently be consistent and everything, just go in a 3-0 level. And then if you win it, if you win the 3-0 level, that means maybe you're above a 3-0. Yes. And you can challenge yourself to like a 3.5 tournament or something.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

But if you don't win and you think, wait a minute, I I'm not playing how I usually play. I'm not playing as well. Oh, I must be tense, darn. Or the people on the other side of the net don't seem that great. How come they just beat me? Well, maybe they've been in a lot of tournaments and they know how to stay steady and just do their game, whatever it is. Something consistent that has less errors, because in the end of the day, the errors or the lack of them tends to be what helps you to win or lose. At a certainly at a lower level of tournament, maybe at an upper level, you need a lot more winners, but that's a separate story. We're talking about versions who've never been in. There was a guy the other day, very, very aggressive guy, very hard hitter that I played with, and somebody was talking about duper scores. He said, I don't know, I guess I'm a 1.7 because I don't have a duper score. I said, Oh, give me a break. He could have been a pick a number. A 4.7, I don't know. He'd never been in a tournament. So if you're a tournament version and you're really a strong, good, athletic, very competitive rec player, don't go in at 3-0. Yeah. That's gonna, that's gonna sort of offend people who at the 3-0 level, even if they're veterans, they're hitting more softly. They're hitting less aggressively. I mean, they've got the shots down, but the shots might be a lot of lobs, they might be a lot of soft inks, things that a better player can take advantage of, but at the 3-0 level, those could win you points. So be as realistic as possible, but give yourself a chance to win. I think winning a few and putting a few wins under your belt tells you I can do this. It's not really about the winning, it's whether you can handle competition. Yeah. Right? I agree, yeah. And then when you play at your level, in many places, you have a referee. So I think we'll we'll do us, we'll do an episode later for for people playing at a higher level in tournaments, how to handle the mental stress, because it is stressful, having a referee. The whole way you play, the whole dynamic of when you serve, how you serve, and the calling of footfaults and kitchen lines, it's like, well, wait a minute, no one's ever called me on that before. You know, you can ask anybody at at True Pickleball Club, Veronica. I'm saying to someone, that was a foot fault at the serve. They're like, what are you talking about? Well, because I played in enough tournaments to know you can't put your toe on that on that back line at all in any way until the ball has left your paddle. When we play in rec play, nobody calls each other on that. There's also a lot of stepping in the kitchen, and I don't mean in the big fat kitchen, just on the line. Nobody sees it or calls each other. So that's something to look forward to or not in a tournament. If the people on the other side have played a lot, they're calling you on those, yeah, those faults. And has that happened to you at all in tournament play, or you guys are way more disciplined?

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Um I have my partner just recently got called on a footfall um by the ref in our like in our gold match. Um, so I have had that. I it's just very strange to have um another set of eyes. Yes. Um, but it's also really strange that a ref can't help you if you call the ball and you question it, they're supposed to have a say, but like sometimes they don't, they're like, oh, we didn't see the ball. And it's a little weird because you are like supposed to be another set of eyes, in my opinion. So it's very, it's uh it's very weird. And also it's hard, um, it's hard because like if the ref does call you on something and like you question it, it kind of like you have to show your honest honesty. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Yeah, that yeah, yeah. The gray the gray area in rec play between in and out, we we all are told if you aren't a hundred percent sure then the ball is good. It's in. It must go in the favor of the person who hit the ball. But either legitimately or illegitimately, it's easy to call it out in rec play because sometimes that ball is that close. But in tournament play, it's not gonna be no one's gonna be that forgiving because it does because every point matters. So my I think what we're saying is that if you like the idea of competition, you want to test yourself, you even want to find out where are you in the scale of things, a local small tournament is a good place to start. And then, as in the name of this podcast, Pickleball Obsession, you will probably get bitten by the tournament bug and like me, have a lot of Hampton in points because you gotta drive if you're in the Northeast many, many hours and stay in hotels and sit around all morning, and then it's time for your matches. And somehow it's all okay because when you're on the court, there's a level of kind of tunnel vision. Do you find that? One of the beauties of playing in a tournament is because it matters, you do start to ignore everything else and you just focus on what you're doing. And that is very empowering. As opposed to noticing everything else and being distracted and and saying good shot to the people on the other side of the net. Just in conclusion, what about that in a tournament? What about people who, when they're playing in a tournament, which is not really the kind of competition you expect, competitive attitude you expect in any competitive sport, when people say to someone who gets a point against you, oh, that was a great shot. We do that a lot in rec play. Should we learn to not do that in tournament play?

SPEAKER_00 16:30

I mean, I I'm pretty polite on the court. I try to not make enemies on court, so I always I do like complimenting my opponents. Um, I say thank you if they hand me the ball. Um, because I I I like being known and like the court. It is a tournament and I do take it fairly seriously, and I am locked in usually, but I if they do hit a good shot, I want them to know it was a good shot.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Good. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Um and sometimes like I make my I make great friends through pickleball. So like my my woman's partner who I just won the tournament with, she was actually my opponent. And then we actually just started like talking because we're the same age, and um I like complimented her on a shot. She complimented me, and then we kind of got talking. We did the tournament together, and now we're like really good friends.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

And great tournament partners. Yeah. So I guess that the the moral of the story is don't compliment your opponents on every single thing they do well, or say to them, oh, good try. In rec play, we often say good try. But do tell them when they've done something great, because it might turn out to be great for you. Just um if you don't mind telling everybody, because I think many of us are quite a bit older, how old are you and your new partner?

SPEAKER_00 17:40

I'm 20, and um my doubles partner is 22.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

So there you go. You see, there's a long way for you to go to to reach our age, but a long way for us to go to reach the kind of skills you guys have. Thank you for helping us, and thank you for encouraging everyone to play more pickleball and play it better and have more fun. Thanks, Veronica Elteri. Of course. Thanks for listening. I hope you've enjoyed it, and I'm proud of our partnership with the APP, the Association of Pickleball Players, which provides world-class pickleball competitions for professionals and recreational players. I'm also grateful for our partnership with the IPTPA, which is the world leader in developing standards and certifying coaches across the world. If you subscribe on Apple or Spotify, please also sign up at pickleballobsession.net to get the weekly email with the podcast and bonus content. Embrace the obsession.