I have been playing every day for a little over two months.

It started as fun. I made a few new friends. I got better at the basics. One day a friend who also coaches watched me for a minute and said my grip was wrong.

This post is about that moment.

Not the idea, but the pain. Relearning looks simple when you read it. In reality it feels like hell.

Changing a small thing made everything feel worse. Easy shots went bad. My timing felt off. I looked clumsy. I wanted to switch back because the old way felt smooth, even if it kept me average.

I already knew that relearning is how you improve. But knowing didn’t help when it was my turn. I still had to earn it.

That is how relearning works. You find a habit that “works” and still blocks the next level. You change it. Your results dip. Your ego gets loud.

You think, “I hit the right shot. Why does it hurt?” It hurts because the body is writing a new pattern. Reading shows the path. Pain does the writing.

We all know the lesson. Persistence matters. Follow-through is what counts. The hard part is doing it when it stings a little. Even the correct next step asks for effort. It asks for a small hit to pride. It asks you to slow down when you want to speed up. Most people stop there. Relearning is choosing not to.

It’s not easy to relearn, though.

There is a reason we avoid this. It looks like failure in public. People who saw you last week think you got worse. You feel you wasted all those earlier reps. Basics are boring.

All of that is true.

It is also the toll for a better base. You can skip the pain and keep your current level. That is a valid choice. If you only want a pleasant hour, there's no need to rebuild.

But if you are like me and care about growth, you will meet this same struggle again and again. The price is small, daily, and paid in attention.

Anything worth learning asks for a hint of pain to be retained. Not injury. Not drama. Just the steady ache of doing the right thing when no one claps.

I am still working on it. Some days I still suck. Some days it clicks. Most days sit in the middle. That is fine. I can feel the ceiling move a little.

Knowing the right thing is cheap. Following through is paid in pain.