WHO you train yourself to BE versus WHAT you train yourself to DO determines what shows up when the pressure and stakes are high.
“… I hate losing. I’m extremely competitive. I love discipline. I expect more from myself… and I can do this all day long.”
— Anna Bright, #2 Ranked Pickleball Player in the World
That’s not a complaint.
That’s an identity.
And it’s one of the most powerful competitive identities I’ve ever seen in action—because Anna doesn’t just say it. She’s trained it. She’s built the mental infrastructure around it so that it fuels her instead of hijacking her.
But here’s the question that matters for you:
Most players have never been asked that question. And that gap—between doing and being—is one of the most fundamental and overlooked drivers of performance I’ve seen in 50 years of coaching.
Most Players Focus on WHAT. Elite Players Train WHO.
Ask most players what they want to improve, and they’ll tell you:
- My third-shot drop
- My dinking consistency
- My composure at 9-9
All valid. All worth training. But here’s what I notice: every one of those answers is about WHAT—a skill, a result, a score.
Nobody says: “I want to be the player whose hands never shake at 9-9—whose body stays calm and available no matter what the scoreboard says.”
Nobody says: “I want to be a calm and methodical terminator—someone whose nervous system doesn’t hijack their game when it counts most—someone who moves through the match like a surgeon. Efficient. Precise. Quietly dismantling their opponent one point at a time.”
Nobody says: “I want to train the identity of a relentless recoverer—the player who just made the worst error of the match and somehow looks completely unbothered walking back to the baseline, already locked in on the next point.”
And yet—that’s exactly what elite players do. They don’t just train their shots. They train WHO they are the moment the pressure hits.
What Is Identity—and Why Does It Drive Performance?
Identity isn’t a label. It’s not something you’re born with.
Identity is a trained pattern of being.
It’s the answer your nervous system gives automatically when pressure asks: Who’s here right now?
When your identity is trained—when you’ve rehearsed WHO you want to be with the same consistency you’ve rehearsed your ATP, your backhand flick, or your pinpoint lob—your brain has a reference point to return to, even when everything is going sideways.
When it isn’t trained, pressure fills the gap. And pressure, left to its own devices, defaults to your Saboteurs—your inner critic, your fear of losing, your self-judgment.
That’s not weakness. That’s an untrained identity. And like every untrained skill, it’s trainable.
Five Pickleball Identities Worth Training
All five of these identities can work. But only one of them is authentically yours. And the only way to know which one that is is to try it on, train it, and notice whether it fuels you or sabotages you under pressure.
That’s the real work.
1. THE FIERCE & FIERY COMPETITOR
“I hate losing. I’m extremely competitive. I love discipline. I expect more from myself… and I can do this all day long.”
— Anna Bright
WHO: A player whose competitive fire sharpens focus instead of creating fear.
Read that quote again. That’s not one identity trait. That’s a complete architecture:
- Fierce — I hate losing
- Disciplined — I love discipline
- High standards — I expect more from myself
- Relentless — I can do this all day long
Anna Bright isn’t alone in this identity. Anna Leigh Waters—arguably the greatest pickleball player in the world—owns it too. And when two Fierce & Fiery Competitors share the same side of the net, that’s what makes them one of the most formidable teams the sport has ever seen. They don’t just want to win. They expect to. And they’ve both built the mental infrastructure to back that expectation up—point after point, match after match.
That’s not arrogance. That’s a trained identity.
Anna Bright didn’t stumble into that identity. She built it—mental rep by mental rep, long before I worked with her.
But when she began my program, Mental Edge: The X Factor™, anchored in Positive Intelligence©, she was honest about where she started:
“When I began Dotti’s program… I truly didn’t know what I was getting myself into. In fact, I initially resisted teachings and core tenets of Positive Intelligence at the start. How could this help me? Did I really need help? I’m one of the best players in the world. What will stopping, pausing, and being curious do for me?
I was so resistant, reluctant, and even afraid of stopping and sitting in my own behavior that I failed to consider that—even if I was already good, how much better could I be?”
Notice that last question: How much better could I be?
That’s the moment the Fierce & Fiery Competitor identity stopped being raw fire and started becoming trained fuel. By opening herself to the work and learning to intercept her Saboteurs before they hijack her game, Anna’s fierce competitive drive became rocket fuel.
If this identity ignites something in you—if “I hate losing” sharpens your focus rather than tightening your chest—drill into it more deeply. Train it. Let it fuel you.
But if it’s not authentically yours, attempting to be Anna Bright when you’re not will not end well. Borrowed identities don’t hold under pressure. Only trained ones do.
2. THE METHODICAL & CALM TERMINATOR
WHO: A player whose quiet precision is the most unnerving weapon on the court.
If you’ve ever watched Ben Johns, you’ve seen this identity in action. No celebration, no reaction, no signal. Just quiet, relentless execution, point after point after point.
This player doesn’t holler. They don’t get up in their opponent’s face or stare them down across the net.
They simply execute.
After every point—win or lose—they slowly walk back to the baseline to serve or calmly take their position as the receiving team. No drama. No signal. Just presence and precision, ready to slice and dice with their game and take out their opponent.
This is the identity that unnerves other players the most because they can’t read you. They don’t know if their shots are working. They don’t know if you’re rattled. And that uncertainty? That’s your competitive edge.
The Methodical & Calm Terminator has trained their nervous system to stay regulated regardless of the score. Calm isn’t the absence of intensity. It’s intensity with complete direction and zero waste.
3. THE LOOSE & LOCKED-IN COMPETITOR
WHO: A player who uses laughter and lightness as a deliberate on-ramp to peak performance—not as a distraction from it.
If you’ve watched Hayden Patriquin play, you’ve seen this identity in action. The energy, the expressiveness, the lightness between points—it’s not a lack of focus. It’s a sophisticated nervous system regulation strategy that elite players use, often without even knowing the science behind why it works.
Here’s what’s actually happening: When you laugh, stay loose, and keep things light between points, you activate your parasympathetic nervous system—the calm, creative state where your brain executes at its highest level. Your body is relaxed. Your focus is available. Your game is accessible.
The moment you tighten up, grip your paddle harder, and start pressing, you’ve triggered the sympathetic nervous system—fight, flight, or freeze. From that state, your shot-making, decision-making, and composure all take a hit.
This player has learned—whether consciously or through experience—that staying loose is the performance strategy. The laughter isn’t a break from competing. It’s the regulation tool that keeps them relaxed long enough to lock in when the point demands it.
The danger is when the looseness becomes avoidance—a way to stay comfortable instead of staying present. That’s the Saboteur version of this identity. That’s when the laughter stops being fuel and starts being a wall between you and the work.
4. THE RELENTLESS RECOVERER
WHO: A player who treats every error as data—not as evidence of failure.
It’s data about their shot selection, positioning, and mental state in that moment. Information they can integrate into their physical training and their mental reps. Not evidence that they’re failing. Evidence of what to build next.
As I shared in a recent column, most players don’t lose the match because of one mistake. They lose because they carry the mistake into the next five points. The Relentless Recoverer has trained the mental speed to interrupt that spiral and return to full capability faster than the average player.
5. THE PRESENT POINT PLAYER
WHO: A player who lives in the only point that exists—this one.
This player has an uncanny ability to fool you. You think you have them down at 10-1 and you’re already celebrating in your head. Then something shifts. They win a point. Then another. Then another.
Before you know it, it’s 10-10. Then 12-10—and they’ve beaten you.
They never thought the game was over. Not at 1-10. Not at 5-10. Not at 9-10. Because for the Present Point Player, the score isn’t the story. This point is the only story that exists.
They don’t play the scoreboard. They play the point in front of them—with relentless, one-point-at-a-time focus that compounds into something their opponents never saw coming.
This player has trained their attention the way other players train their backhand. They know the past point is gone and the future score doesn’t exist yet. The only place their game lives—and the only place yours does too—is right here.
The Coach B MindShift Solution™: From Doing to Being
Most players step onto the court asking: what do I need to do to win?
A player who trains identity steps onto the court asking: WHO do I need to BE to play my best?
That’s a different question. And it produces a different nervous system. A different presence. A different game.
Because when you know WHO you are—when that identity has been trained through daily mental reps—pressure stops being a threat. It becomes a confirmation.
Pressure reveals what you’ve built.
And if you’ve built an identity—fierce & fiery, methodical, loose and locked in, relentless, or present—that’s exactly what pressure will reveal.
That’s Mental Edge: The X Factor™ in action.
That’s Re-Train Your Brain™ at its deepest level.
That’s Intention + Infrastructure = Impact™.
Your Identity Assignment Before Your Next Match
Before you step on the court for your next match or practice session, answer this question—out loud or in writing:
WHO do I want to BE today on the pickleball court?
Choose one identity. Try it on. Train it for one full match.
Then notice: did it fuel you—or did it fight you?
That noticing? That’s your first mental rep toward building the identity that is authentically, powerfully yours.
That question is more important than any shot you could drill today.
Because your shots will only perform as well as the identity behind them.
Anna Bright knows who she is on the court.
The question is—do you?
You don’t find your identity under pressure.
You build it—mental rep by mental rep, point by point—long before the score ever gets to 10-9.
That’s Mental Edge: The X Factor™.
And the X Factor?
It’s always been YOU.
Coach B is the creator of Mental Edge: The X Factor™, a proprietary peak performance system that helps everyday and elite competitors—including world No. 2 pickleball player Anna Bright—Re-Train Your Brain™ and build the mental infrastructure needed to Master Your Mind. Master Your Game.™
If you’d like a deeper look at how to build mental infrastructure that holds up under pressure, your first step is to access your complimentary mental fitness assessment (the same one Anna Bright took). You will then have a complimentary Discovery Session with Coach B unpack your results.
Pickleball Escapades By Women. For Women.™ Retreat in the Pacific NW August 27-30, 2026. 3.5-4.5 Level 3.0-3.49 Level
