Meet Anna Leigh Waters: The 16-Year-Old Pickleball Prodigy Dominating the Sport and Overcoming Mental Hurdles with Self-Talk and Coaching

Anna Leigh Waters is a 16-year-old athlete who holds the number one title in pickleball worldwide in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. Waters turned professional in pickleball at age 12, becoming the youngest pro player in the sport. She quickly climbed up the ranks, having since racked up 10 triple crowns and six gold medals from the USA Pickleball Nationals. Waters' mental strength and competitive edge helped launch her to the top of her game. When she feels the pressure inching closer on the court and needs to climb out of the hole, she calls a timeout and talks to herself. Taking a deep breath, analyzing her strategy, and focusing on her mindset centers her above all else, often snapping her back into the game to make a comeback.

Waters often turns to her mom, an expert player herself in pickleball who left her lawyer job to coach and travel with her daughter, on the sidelines for a “tune-up session.” Waters attributes her ability to crush self-doubt and stay positive in moments of high stress to her mother’s words of wisdom and the mental coach she has had on her side for the last year. The more times Waters practices talking kindly about herself, the more she has shown up on and off the court and been able to “tune-up” without the help of her coaches.

Waters' daily routine typically begins in the morning with two hours of drill sessions with her mom or a local hitting partner. After doing her school work, she heads back to the gym around 3 p.m. for another two hours with her trainer. She’s been traveling for tournaments every other week from Thursday to Sunday. In these instances, she will take Monday as a recovery day and return to the court by Tuesday.

Waters’ dedication and love for the sport mirrors the slew of people trading in their tennis rackets for paddles. The rise of the pickleballer is evident in more people at local parks playing the game, and newly installed pickleball courts are replacing tennis courts overhead when she’s flying across the country. “The only good thing that came out of COVID was that people started to know what pickleball was,” Waters says.

As Waters competes, she is known for being feisty, an absolute beast on the court. She credits her mom for giving the game a more fast-paced competitive edge, using harder-hitting shots instead of softer ones. She and her mom have a mother-daughter intuition where they know where the other one is going to be on the court.

Giving yourself grace is tough, Waters says, especially because the brain generates thousands of often unhelpful and negative thoughts each day. But actively switching gears has helped Waters succeed. “Pressure is a privilege.” That burning, heart racing feeling means she cares and has already accomplished something worthwhile in the past.

“The sport of pickleball unassumingly fosters a childlike wonder in play and movement, while naturally highlighting the human need for community and fun,” says David Dutrieuille, the national pickleball director at Life Time. Much as pickleball serves the I-play-for-fun amateur, its place as a professional sport skyrocketed too. Pickleball professional leagues sprung up along with a pickleball draft—last year CBS televised the game for the first time on a major broadcast network, which featured a match with Waters and her mom.

https://fortune.com/well/2023/04/09/teen-worlds-number-one-pickleball-player-mental-toughness/