Pickleball fans often forget that Leigh Waters has another star pupil under her tutelage aside from her daughter Anna Leigh Waters.

That just happens to be Christian Alshon. 

Leigh met Alshon at a local moneyball pickleball tournament and immediately saw his potential. After Alshon decided to quit his college tennis career and go all-in on pickleball, he asked Leigh if he could hire her to be his coach.

In a recent interview on the Pickleballers podcast, co-host Roscoe Bellamy asked Leigh the burning question: “Who’s easier to coach? Anna Leigh or Christian?”

Anna Leigh immediately raised her hand as Leigh pointed to her daughter.

Leigh has balanced the coach and parent role with Anna Leigh and makes it look effortless.

“Christian is moodier than I am,” said Anna Leigh.

Leigh shared some of her coaching insight with respect to Alshon.  

“He was very forthcoming when he asked me to coach him,” said Leigh. “He never really had a coach in tennis, and it was because he didn’t want somebody telling him what to do or what he was doing wrong or right.”

Alshon is currently ranked No. 6 in singles and men’s doubles, and No. 3 in mixed doubles.

While his talent, drive, and power are clear, he’s also known to be rather emotional on the court. According to Leigh, it appears as though managing Alshon’s emotions is a real challenge coaching-wise, not his dinks, drives, and drills. 

Bellamy, however, has seen Alshon use his emotions for good on the court. 

“The mentality of Christian now in pickleball is completely different. He clearly has matured, and you can tell he wants this so much more,” said Bellamy. “Yes, he shows a lot of emotion on the court, but I think it’s actually nice for the fans to see people showing who they are, showing their emotion, and how badly they want it.”   

“I think he’s trying to figure all that out, honestly,” agreed Leigh. “I’ve seen different stages of how he shows his emotions in the past two years. But, he definitely wants it.” 

“There might be people out there that want it as much as him, but there isn’t anyone who wants it more,” added Jared Paul, podcast co-host. “I think he wants to be the best in the world, and he will do whatever it takes.” 

Leigh also shared additional insight to coaching Alshon’s emotions on the Talk Pickle to Me podcast. 

“He wears his emotions on his sleeve a bit, so for him it’s about reigning it in or using it, and being able to get rid of it right away. You can show the emotion, but you have to be able to switch it off and reset,” continued Leigh. “He’s really been working on the mental side and we’ve seen improvement. If he can figure out how to reign it in, the ceiling is so high. I’ve been working with Anna Leigh for eight years. I haven’t even scratched the surface with Christian. The sky’s the limit for that guy.”

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