Tessa’s letter

Here's the picture of what you're building this season.

You have hands that a lot of players spend years trying to build. When the ball speeds up at the kitchen line, you're not scared of it; you want it. That's real, and it's the fun part of pickleball. So let's be clear about what this season is actually about: it isn't your hands, and it isn't your drive. Those are good. It's the soft part of the game that gets you to the spot where your hands win points.

• Your hands are fast. In a quick exchange at the net, you win a lot more than you lose, against kids and adults alike.
• You have a real drive, and you're learning to use it on purpose instead of every time.
• You compete. Adults don't rattle you, and you want to play people who push you.
• Your third-shot drop is coming along, and it's getting your team to the kitchen line instead of leaving you stuck at the baseline.

Be patient at the line. This is the hard one, because your hands are so quick that every ball looks like one you could attack. But a ball below the net isn't a chance, it's a trap: attack it and it goes into the net or pops up for them. Dink it back and wait. The ball you're waiting for, the one that sits up above the net, is coming, and when it does, your hands are faster than theirs. Patient players don't hit fewer winners. They hit them at the right time.

The drops from the baseline, the split steps, dinking cross-court until your count gets long: none of it is flashy. It won't feel like it's adding up. It is. The player who's winning the close brackets next season is the one who learned the soft game this year. You already have the hands. This season is about getting them to the line. Keep going.