Pickleball Therapy

This episode holds a special place. It distills three foundational mental pillars—Play, Perspective, and Progress—that have resonated deeply with players around the world. These are not just abstract concepts but practical tools that will help you not only play better, but also enjoy the game more fully and consistently.

Pillar 1: Play – Embrace the Oops Bucket

Mistakes are inevitable. Even the best players miss easy sho...

Today we dive into a topic that resonates deeply with many of us: the journey over the destination,  and how our approach to it can significantly impact our enjoyment of the game.

Join the Better Pickleball Academy for the competitive play series.

In our quest for improvement, there's a pervasive trend: rapid progression promises. We've all seen them—programs promising to elevate your rating from 3.5 to 4.0 in just 30 days. ...

When we think about pickleball, there are three pillars that comes to mind which we developed a few years back; the mechanical, the strategic, and the athletic pillar. 

The mechanical and strategic pillars focus on how and when to hit the ball and the athletic pillar emphasizes the synergy between body and mind. The mind is super important, but it's one-a-half of the athletic pillar, there's the other part of the athletic p...

You can't control every event in your journey, but you can control how you respond. And control goes beyond the physical aspect to include a mental dimension too. 

Sometimes when things happen to us in pickleball, we tend to externalize them by blaming external factors. The idea is, you can control how you react to those events to dictate the pace and outcome of the game. 

Just like holding the reins of a wagon; it's up to y...

Pickleball System Spring Boot Camp starting on March 27th; https://betterpickleball.com/march-bootcamp/

Will a smile help your pickleball game? While there might not be specific studies on the effect of smiling in sports, research shows that smiling can positively affect our attitude, calm our nerves, and enhance our overall well-being.

On this episode CJ Johnson shares a story from her visit to the BNP Paribas Open in Palm ...

We had the pleasure of featuring a pro pickleball player, Richard Livornese Jr., in this special episode. It will be interesting to listen to the discussion, not just about the mechanics of the sport, but the mental journey that accompanies it.

Richard shares insights about his pickleball journey which began four years ago during the COVID pandemic. Despite his achievements, Richard, like many of us, faced moments of doubt...

Join us for the March Bootcamp; https://betterpickleball.com/spring-bootcamp/

This week, let's dive into a concept I stumbled upon through an insightful video featuring a psychologist from Duke University. She introduces the idea of the "learning space"—the journey from not knowing to knowing. 

Picture two dots on a board, one representing ignorance and the other knowledge, connected by a squiggly line. This "learning space...

Open play can be interesting with players of varying skill levels playing and enjoying the game together. But that's not always the case when dynamics of it set in and players advance in skill; exclusivity sneaks in and can lead to less inclusive play. 

In this episode we discuss the state of play in terms of how players at different levels interact with each other. This arose from our state of play event that we had a coup...

'The good thing about pressure is that it lets you know that you care.' Billy Jean King. The difficulty comes in when you let the pressure build up too much that it spills over into our hobbies and sports, including pickleball.

It's perfectly normal for players to start feeling pressure in terms of their performance but not to the point where you're not having fun or can't function anymore.

Here are three ways to release p...

In this special episode of Pickleball Therapy we sit down for an insightful and fun conversation with Shelley and Sher, the duo behind Life Lessons from Pickleball.

We discuss the genesis of their podcast, their relationship with pickleball,  eye-opening moments from their mental side of playing pickleball and much more!

Listen to the full episode as the duo shares with us how they deal with competitive partners, the pressur...

In doing some video review for a project I was working on, I came across some really good interview answer by Anna Bright, a top pickleball player in the world right now.

When asked about what happened and despite losing the gold medals match, Anna expressed some thoughts that just reminded me of how we can have a better, a more constructive interaction with the sport that we play.

She focused on the bigger picture of enjo...

At first glance, pickleball might seem simple—just a paddle, a plastic ball, and a court. But as you play more, you'll realize the sport's complexity. It's a puzzle that challenges you, both as a player and as a person, and that's what keeps us coming back. 

Think of pickleball as an onion, used for many purposes, it's delicious, complex, deep, but can also lead to crying. The onion layers represent various aspects of the s...

Whenever you're getting ready to play, you want a little bit more focus, framing for yourself and perspective. This special bookmark style episode of the podcast is designed to help you before you go out for recreational or social pickleball play.

Here are four different areas to ensure you get the most out of your play on the courts;

i) Perspective Part One: Understand Your Relationship with Pickleball

How woul...

 In this weeks podcast we talk about different strokes for different folks. 

We got a couple of reviews I'm going to read to you here because I thought it was interesting. I'll start with a shout out that's a five-star game-changing review which says 'the podcast really helped me,' and explains why. The second review is one-star, and it's entitled 'Hot Air Nonsense.' 

Both people listened to the same podcast, yet their takea...

Strength training and proper exercise are essential for improving pickleball performance and should be a regular part of training, it's part of the athletic pillar that we talk about at Better Pickleball. 

In this special episode we feature Ty Woody, a sports performance coach. Ty specializes in preparing pickleball players, both pros and amateurs, for optimal performance and injury prevention. 

He shares with us why we shou...

How can we gatekeep information and use that to best enjoy our pickleball journey? 

A lot of times when we're exposed to information in an area we're not sure what the right answer is, like pickleball, we're likely to err on the side of letting the information in. 

This happens because we're just curious or we heard something and we're not sure how to discern that it's not correct for us.

The algorithm dictates for you inform...

What Does it Mean to Perform?

How many games do you expect to win the next time you play pickleball? All of them? Most of them? Half?

Extend that out: what win percentage would you be satisfied with over your pickleball playing career? Would you be happy with winning about 50% of the time?

It is common to react with a “No” here. After all, why should 50% be an acceptable result.

But reflect on that for a moment. If your wi...

In 2025, the rules change has a little bit of impact on the non-volley zone when the volley starts. Basically the volley included the swing of the paddle before the ball was struck. 

Rules change in pickleball can rob us in different ways leading to unnecessary stress, conflicts on the court or detract us from the enjoyment of the game. 

In this episode we also discuss how to deal with criticism and how we determine, at the ...

Imagine having the same stats about your game like the pros. 

Things like:

1. How fast is my serve? 
2. How accurate is my forehand? 
3. Am I making more mistakes on my backhand? 

In this podcast episode podcast we feature Swupnil Sahai, co-founder and CEO of Swingvision. SwingVision is an app that provides such stats by offering AI-assisted game analysis.

The app provides real-time stats, tracking elements like ball speed and t...