Monday(ish) Minute 9/9/25

Jill Braverman
Sep 9, 2025
3 min read

Hello all my Pickleball Joy Riders!

Welcome to the Monday Minute (ok, I know, it's Tuesday) a 60-second list of what I’m exploring and thinking about. Feel free to forward along if the pickleball spirit moves you!

In my practice… Show me your returns & 4ths and I’ll tell you how good you are at pickleball!

In my mind… What winning actually looks like vs what you think it looks like

On my schedule… Last camps of 2025! + vote on where I should teach next year!

In my practice… Show me your returns & fourths and I’ll tell you how good you are at pickleball!

The return of serve (and its mate, the 4th shot) are the two most important shots in pickleball because they prevent points from being earned against you. Really think about that for a second. If you do NOTHING but hit excellent returns and fourths the best your opponents can do is…well, nothing. The score will be 0-0. ! If you and your partner miss 3 returns per game, that’s 27.5% of all the available points in a game to 11—that’s wild!

One thing I’m personally working on, is stopping short of the kitchen line after I’ve hit the return. I have a tendency to overrun the fourth shot—meaning I’m still moving to the kitchen line when my opponents make contact (because I’m anxious to get to the line!!!)

We’re all taught to "return & burn" and dash as fast as we can to the kitchen line--which is correct...but with that comes the dire need to STOP and split step as soon as the opponent makes contact with their 3rd shot—even if that means we are 3 feet behind the line.

In my mind… What winning actually looks like vs what you think it looks like.

I keep a list of the most painful tournaments in my career. Last month’s APP Michigan inserted itself into the top 3. Sometimes this is what winning looks like:

Spending an hour in the porta-potty because it’s the only air-conditioned spot at the venue.
Getting a medal and then breaking up with your new mixed partner 19 minutes later because it’s such a bad fit.
Getting fully warmed (including drinking caffeine at 4 PM) for a semi-finals that gets postponed at the last second due to lightning strikes in the area.
Then, in the semis, overheating so intensely that you forget to switch sides at 8-8 in the 2nd game, potentially costing you the game and a gold medal.
Pain, pretty much everywhere all at once.
12 hour days with 8 hours physically on court and 5 hours of so-so sleep per night.
2,000+ calorie deficit for the 3 days.

Weekends like this remind me of a few things:

There is no progress without struggle.
There is no effort without error.
You never rise to the occasion; you simply fall to the level of your mental and physical training.
Your biggest enemy is almost never the opponent, rather yourself. Control yourself before trying to control anyone or anything else.
Life (and pickleball) is not about what happens to you, it’s about how you react.
You can try and control the weather, or you can learn to dance in the rain.

Burnout, drama, injury, competition, regret, hunger…there is an underbelly to the beast that is winning. I know, I know…not my normal Monday Minute. But I want to share with you what life on tour is really like. It’s not always pretty, but I wouldn’t change it. The comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there—Morgan Evans taught me that.

On my schedule… Last camps of 2025! + Vote on where I should teach next year!