About Coach Thomas Yelloweyes
Most coaches teach you the game.
I teach you how to stop losing it.
You have been playing for over a year. You train with intention. You do not just show up for rec play. And you are still stuck at the same level, no matter how much work you put in.
You already believe coaching is the answer. You just have not found the right system yet. This page is where that changes.
The Origin Story
I lost everything before I found this game.
I played Ultimate Frisbee for fifteen years at the professional level. It was my identity and it was the thing I had built my whole life around. Then in one year I broke my ankle twice. The doctor released me knowing I would likely break it again. That was the end of the only life I knew.
So I closed my personal training studios. I lost everything. For a stretch I lived out of my car. I moved to Redding, California for a sabbatical and I made a decision that felt final. I was done with sports. Done with competition. Forever.
One afternoon I was walking through a park and I stopped to watch three people playing pickleball. I stood there for forty five minutes trying not to make eye contact. They needed a fourth. I set down my coffee cup and I made myself one promise. If it ever stopped being fun, I would walk away.
I won my first game eleven to one after a five minute rules explanation. Two hours later I was asking where this sport had been my whole life. The community cured a loneliness I had carried for years.
That afternoon in the park is the reason the Yelloweyes Method exists.
I know exactly what it costs when your foundation is not strong enough to hold the game up under you, physically and mentally. I have lived the version where it all comes apart. So I built a pickleball training program around one idea. Raise your floor before you chase your ceiling. Train what does not break. That is the standard behind every piece of high performance pickleball coaching I do today.
From the Top of the Sport
You do not have to take my word for it.
Validation from players and pros who compete at the level most people only watch.
Dominic Catalano
Suzanne Barr
The Pros Behind the Method
The Yelloweyes Method was built from direct access to the best in the game.
This is not name dropping. It is lineage. I did not learn this sport from videos and hope. I trained directly with the people who shape the top of it, and I carried what they taught me into a system a serious player can actually follow.
My Philosophy
I plan to die empty. Everything I learned from these pros belongs to my students, not to a vault I sit on to protect my edge. Most coaches hoard the good stuff. I hand it over. The Yelloweyes Method exists to pour every read, every pattern, and every hard lesson into the players serious enough to use it.
Years Coaching Pickleball
Certified Pickleball Coach
Tournament Competitor
Players Trained
Your Next Step
If you’re serious about breaking through your plateau, start here.
The Free Find Your Floor assessment shows you exactly where your game holds up and where it breaks. It is the first thing every player does before we build a plan, whether you train with me in person or through online pickleball coaching.