This CBS News Sunday Morning segment explores how 19-year-old Anna Leigh Waters, widely considered the greatest professional pickleball player of all time, has helped transform pickleball from a recreational pastime for retirees into a fast-paced, highly competitive sport.
Key highlights from the video:
- Challenging Perceptions: Waters has redefined the sport with her aggressive playing style. While traditional pickleball focused on "dinking" (playing softly), she is a "banger" who plays with intense speed and power, shifting the nature of professional competition (0:58 - 1:59).
- Rising to the Top: Anna Leigh, 10, and her mother Leigh were introduced to Pickleball by her grandfather. A year later Anna Leigh quickly began competing in adult tournaments alongside her mother. The two share a highly competitive relationship, with the video noting that Anna Leigh eventually began beating her mother in tournament play. She has since achieved remarkable success, winning 44 Triple Crowns and 194 gold medals, and has not lost a singles match in over two years (2:00 - 3:33).
- High-Level Professionalism: The sport's growth is evident in its increasing stakes, with professional tournaments and prize money in the millions. Waters has become the face of the sport, recently signing a multi-year sponsorship deal with Nike (4:32 - 5:08).
- Mental Game and Training: Despite her dominance, Waters maintains a rigorous training schedule of up to 5 hours a day. She also works with a mental coach to manage the pressures of competition, emphasizing the importance of staying focused on her own performance rather than her opponent (3:40 - 4:18, 5:09 - 6:00). For Anna Leigh, feeling nervous is actually a sign that she is ready to compete at her best. She explains that whenever she has gone into a match not feeling nervous, she has never played her best (5:18 - 5:27).
To manage these nerves and the high pressures of professional play, she works with a mental coach. Together, they have developed a focus-based approach, which she summarizes with the mantra: "Just be you." (5:29 - 5:43)
She notes that if she focuses too much on her opponent, things tend to go wrong. Instead, by focusing on herself, her own performance, and what she can control, she is able to play at her peak (5:43 - 5:59).
He career is managed as a family business. Her father oversees the management side of her career, while her mother is deeply involved in her training, practicing with her for up to 5 hours a day (4:06 - 4:22).
