Road To Pro Week 1

Author

Shea Underwood
February 02, 2024

WEEK 1

Welcome to Week 1 on the Road to Pro. This week, I'm thrilled to announce our first giveaway: a FREE paddle! Simply by being one of the initial 537 subscribers, you're in the running. Your support means the world to me—thank you, truly.

✅These are my goals ✅

There are five ambitious goals on this journey, and I'm committed to documenting every step—triumphs, setbacks, all of it. These goals are lofty, but we’ll tackle them bit by bit. I played football in college, not tennis, so there is A LOT of catching up to do. I'm aware the road ahead is steep but it’s going to make for a great story.

  1. Win a 5.0 singles gold medal

  2. Qualify for a pro singles main draw

  3. Win a pro singles main draw match

  4. Make it to a pro singles quarterfinal

  5. Medal in pro singles

📈We’re making progress📈

The first step is figuring out our tournament schedule. I’ll keep you updated as this gets more refined. As of now my plan is to do 1 tournament a month.

💪This week’s training💪

I'm in Hawaii this week, so my training is a bit different. Being a pickleball content creator, I'm often busy recording and watching my play. Watching footage of myself playing helps me get better and will continue to be a big part of this journey.

🧠Tip of the week🧠

FINISH YOUR STROKES! I learned a lot from drilling with Zane a few months ago. One of the key things I took away from that session was to keep my eyes on the ball all the way through contact and not to pull out of the stroke until it's complete. I still have to constantly remind myself of this, but it's a simple yet impactful tip. We all become better pickleball players when we finish our strokes.

🙋Q&A🙋

I’ve been taking Q/A requests through my Instagram. Here is something a reader asked:

I’m currently competing at the 4.0 level and i’m actively drilling and playing to improve my game. I’m interested in becoming affiliated with brands. how can i go about this?

Answer: Several paddle companies are willing to sponsor players based off their performance but that’s not a very reliable strategy. The main thing that most pickleball brands are looking for is simple. Sales. The main way that you can help a brand sell something is simple. Content. If you’re looking to become a sponsored player, the best and most reliable route I can think of is to produce engaging and value-driven content.

🎥Content I’ve enjoyed🎥