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The Potential
Something big is about to happen.
The Potential loses 6-2, but inside that 6-2 there were three shots none of the other six players on court could produce. That's what makes it impossible to stop watching.
How they play
Pure alternation. One game unreadable, the next irresistible. They have natural hands and a sense of timing that can't be taught, but everything else is still missing: positioning, reading the play, shot selection, managing the score. They play every ball as if it were the first, with an enthusiasm that is both their limitation and the reason they'll improve.
Strengths
Learning speed. What you tell them today they're doing next week, and inside a month their game is different. They're also unpredictable for experienced opponents, who brace for the beginner's error and get a shot from an advanced player instead.
The weak side
Consistency, and the head. A couple of errors in a row can sink them, because they don't yet have the experience that says it happens, move on. They tend to overreach when they should simplify, and lose heart when all that's needed is repeating the shot that worked two points ago.
The ideal partner
Works best with The Coach. It's the pairing with the steepest growth curve in the whole ArcheDEX: one knows what to say, the other is still at the stage where listening genuinely changes things.
"I don't know how I did that, but I did it."
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