November 15, 2024 • 12 mins
I got to play in one event at the USA Pickleball Nationals in Mesa, Arizona, that I'm going to be using as the centerpiece for today's conversation- How do we play better pickleball?
It was a mixed doubles match where me and my partner, Ken, got to play hybrid which is one standing player and one player in a wheelchair.
We were going to play Troy and Ryan in that Bronze Metal match where they won the first and second game. In the third game, we're getting hammered but we put on a run and beat them in the last match.
So what changed between when we were getting hammered and when we ended up winning? Here are the tips for success based on that game;
i) Play at a tempo that makes sense for you, slow yourself down, and you're going to play better.
ii) Smile. I know that sounds so simple that it can't possibly work but smiling gives you additional calmness leading to better play.
There's a lot of things you need to improve your play and that's fine. But all things being equal and having done the other stuff to the best of your ability, consider taking your time and consider smiling to enjoy the situation more.
Be part of our email list; https://betterpickleball.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy, the
podcast dedicated to yourpickleball improvement.
Hope you're having a great week.
I'm the host of thisweekly podcast, Tony Roig.
I am actually at Nationalsright now here in Arizona.
So USA Pickleball Nationals inMesa, Arizona, specifically.
Got to play in one event, which I'm goingto be using as the centerpiece
(00:25):
for today's conversation.
And today we're going to be talkingabout a secret to winning more games.
And I'm going to use a match that I playedin on Monday, or a couple of matches,
to compare them.
But one of the match in particular that Iplayed in on Monday here at Nationals, to
help you understand, or to help explain toyou, I should say,
(00:49):
a way of playing that gives you a muchhigher chance of success
than you may currently have basedon how you're approaching the games.
Before we get into that, acouple of notes of housekeeping.
We are in the midst of oursubscription launch for our academy.
So if you want to take advantage ofthat, make sure you check that out.
(01:12):
If you're on email list, you're probablygetting that already in your email.
So take advantage of that if you'reinterested in
that model or in that ecosystem, it's anacademy where we basically have a bunch of
courses that cover different parts of thegame, whether it's lobbying, bangers,
partner play on forced errors.
We have some really good guest pro coachcourses as well that are in there,
(01:37):
so make sure you check that out.
All right, so let's dive into the subjectthat I want to talk about, which is this
idea of How do we play better pickleball?
Everything else being equal, meaning youhave your strategy, you have the way you
hit the balls, you haveyour approach to the game.
What can you do thatyou're going to see how simple this is.
(01:58):
That's very, very simple that willgreatly improve your chances for success.
And what I'm going to use is acouple of matches that I played
here on Monday in a hybrid division.
I'll explain that in a second.
That really illustrate how you can up yourgame, staying within the confines
of everything else being the same.
(02:19):
In other words, without radically changingwhere you're hitting the balls and things
like that, you can do a couple of thingsthat will really radically
improve your chances for success.
So on Monday, I got to play hybrid, whichis one standing player,
one player in a wheelchair.
So it's a mixed an event,mixed doubles, if you will.
So one standing player, one seated player.
(02:42):
And I had played with my partner Kenbefore at the US Open, he asked
me to join him at Nationals.I was happy to do so.
So we come out and we play our first matchagainst a very good team, against
Troy and Ryan, and a solid team like us.
It could look very similar usin terms of their abilities.
And we won the first game against them.
(03:05):
Then we were up 10-5 in thesecond game against them.
They ended up coming back and beating us12-10 in that game, and they
beat us in the third game.
So that So this is the first match of theday that knocks us down to the
bottom bracket, which isthe Bronze Metal bracket.
And so we go down to that bracket, we winthe next two games, and then we're in the
(03:26):
Bronze Metal match, me and my partner Ken.
And we're playing theexact same team again.
So we're going to play Troy and Ryanagain in the Bronze Metal match.
So in that match, Ryan and Troy comeout and they win the first game.
Then we win the second game,and then we're in the third
game, and we're getting hammered.
We're getting destroyedby Troy and by Ryan.
(03:49):
And so we do this...
In case you don't play tournaments,you don't know this, I'll explain.
So basically, at six, you change sides,change ends in a tournament
in the third game.
So we change ends in thethird game, 6-1, down 6-1.
Then we were down 7-1, we were down 9-4,ultimately ended up being down 10-4.
(04:12):
So Ryan and Troy have us 10-4-2.
We get a side out.
We go to work.
So I'm serving at the side out.
We get that point, serve again, getthat point, serve again, get that point.
Now we're at 7, 10.
They get a half a sideout, so now it's 7, 10, 2.
(04:33):
My partner Ken takes over serving, andthis will become particularly relevant in
a minute, but my partner Kentakes over serving at 7, 10, 2.
We score a point at 8, 10, 2.
They call a time out,and then come back, and we score at nine,
we score at 10, we score at11, and we score it at 12.
(04:54):
So we came back from 4-10 down in thethird game to win
12-10 and get the Bronze medal.
So the reason I told you the first matchwas because I thought it was interesting
that we had basically the exact samesituation earlier, meaning we had been up
really big in a 10-5, I think it was thatgame, in the first match, And they were
(05:15):
able to come back and beat us that game.
This time, we were the ones who were ableto come back from being down significantly
4-10 and put on a run and beat themin the last game, in the last match.
So what changedbetween when we were getting hammered and
when we ended up winning?
A couple of things Iwant to focus on here.
(05:36):
One is I mentioned Ken serve.
So Ken serve earlier on in that matchhad been a little bit erratic.
Ken had been missing some serves.
And during the day, hemissed a few serves.
So what we've been working on when he'smissing his serves was for him
to take more time to serve.
(05:59):
And It's a tempo concept.
It's an idea of when you're playingpickleball, trying to play the game
at your tempo, trying to play the game inthe way that makes the most sense for you.
And oftentimes, I would suggest you thatyou're rushing more than you should be.
And if you slow yourself down and giveyourself the time you need,
(06:19):
your shots will improve.
Your mechanics will improve because you'regiving your brain time to
get rid of whatever it's thinking about.
And from the prior rally, get itself readyfor the next rally, take a moment to
acquire the new situation.
I'm serving from the left or I'm servingfrom the right, and then acquire your
target and then execute the shot.
(06:41):
So when you think about Whenyou think about your game, consider
controlling the tempo better of theway that you're playing the game.
And completing the story on Ken serve.
So we had Ken serving a little bit erraticearlier, missing some
serves here and there.
(07:02):
Starts to slow down, starts to take morecontrol over his time, and then is able to
start to piece together his serve in amore constructive way,
including at the end, because as Imentioned, we were down When I told you
the story, we were down 7,10,2 becausethey had gotten a half-side out at 7,10,1.
(07:23):
So now Ken has to serve at 7,10,2.
And Ken is able to rattle off fivestraight service points, meaning no miss
serves, and also serves that areputting pressure on our opponents.
As I recall, I think they missed onereturn of serve during that sequence
based on Ken's quality of Ken serve.
And we also got a couple of short returnsof serve that we were able to attack.
(07:43):
So by taking his time, he changes fromerratic missing serve to having
the wherewithal or the confidence and theability to then rattle off the five points
we needed at the end in order tocomplete the and get the bronze medal.
So tip number one step forsuccess is going to be tempo.
(08:05):
Play at a tempo that makes sense foryou and just getting your job done.
Not, I need to rush around, I need to gorun and get the ball, I
need to hurry up and serve.None of that.
You play at your tempo, slow yourselfdown, and you're going to play better.
The second piece of advice that I wouldgive you in terms of improving your
(08:28):
success relatively easily is smile.
Now, I know that soundsso simple that it can't possibly work.
Absolutely works.
And I would say smile was actually abigger factor in our comeback than even
the time that Ken was taking on a serve.
The time was super important because itgot Ken more comfortable with his serving,
(08:49):
and he got more reliable with his serving.
But smiling is key.
So what happened there waswe were at 10:41, and I looked
I looked at Ken and I said...
And it had been a nice day.
The sun was setting.
It was the evening.
All the other players from the bracketwere watching because we were the last
(09:10):
match in our division for the day.
And we were It was justday of pick-up, right?
And so I look over at Ken and I said, Ken,don't forget, you're playing in the Bronze
medal match at the Nationals, right?So it's pretty cool.
And so I said, we should probablysmile smile about that, right?
Smile about that.
(09:31):
So Ken breaks out a smile, andwe win that point.
So then we win that point.
I looked at Ken and I said, Ken, yousmile the last one, and we won the point.
I mean, might want to smile again.
Smiles again.We win that point.
Every time that we want to point, Ireminded Ken of the fact that
he had smiled the one before.
So obviously, now you don'twant to break the rhythm, right?
(09:53):
Or you don't want to jinks it, right?
You've been smiling andwinning, smiling and winning.
You don't want to stop smiling.
So Ken starts to smile between rallies.
We start, Ken and myenergy gets more positive.
We're more relaxed on our side.
And that little thing, that smiling,takes us from down 10-4.
(10:17):
Okay, we're going to lose in the bronzebattle match, and that's it, right?
We're done.To, okay, let's keep battling.
Let's keep doing this thing.
Let's keep playing one rally at a time andcontinuing to battle back
with the understanding understanding thatpickle ball is a
game of swings and can be messy game.
Sometimes it's justwe'll be messy for a while and they get up
(10:39):
big and then they get messy for a while,and then we were able to come back and
tie up and ultimately win the game.
But in the middle, it's this idea ofsmiling as we're playing and just enjoying
each moment,taking a second to smile, taking a second
to be grateful for the situation thatyou're in getting to play the sport.
(10:59):
That act of smiling is going to then giveyou additional calmness, and that
calmness leads to better play.
What I haven't said happened because itdidn't, was
in terms of understanding the change inour results between getting killed
(11:21):
and then ultimately winning the game, iswe did not change anything strategically.
So we did not.
The The turnaround between4:10 down to 12:10 winning
wasn't something like, Okay, we'restacking, and then we didn't stack, or we
started stacking, or we started hitting tothe player on the left side's right foot,
(11:43):
and whatever, and all that stuff, right?Nothing wrong with that stuff.
That's fine, right?
Everything was the same.
We were playing the same, the sameapproach we've been using the whole time.
The differences wereKen taking time on his serve so that he
was more comfortable and reliablewith it, and the smiling.
The smiling is what took usfrom fourth place to third place, and a
(12:08):
spot on the podium at Nationals on Monday.
So if you want to improve your play,There's a lot of things you
need to improve your play.
So don't think there's nota lot of things you can do.
That's fine.
But all things being equal, meaning you'vealready done the other stuff to the best
of your ability, consider taking your timeand consider smiling, considering
enjoying the situation more.
(12:30):
You're going to play better.
By definition, you're going to enjoyyourself more while you're
playing this beautiful sport.
So hopefully you enjoyedthis week's podcast.
If you did, considerrating and reviewing it.
As always, that helps us reachother players just like you.
And share with your friends.
Remember, if you enjoy thepodcast, they probably will, too.
I hope to be in the studio next week foranother regular episode
(12:52):
of Pickleball Therapy.
Until then, be well.
Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy, the
podcast dedicated to yourpickleball improvement.
Hope you're having a great week.
I'm the host of thisweekly podcast, Tony Roig.
I am actually at Nationalsright now here in Arizona.
So USA Pickleball Nationals inMesa, Arizona, specifically.
Got to play in one event, which I'm goingto be using as the centerpiece
(00:25):
for today's conversation.
And today we're going to be talkingabout a secret to winning more games.
And I'm going to use a match that I playedin on Monday, or a couple of matches,
to compare them.
But one of the match in particular that Iplayed in on Monday here at Nationals, to
help you understand, or to help explain toyou, I should say,
(00:49):
a way of playing that gives you a muchhigher chance of success
than you may currently have basedon how you're approaching the games.
Before we get into that, acouple of notes of housekeeping.
We are in the midst of oursubscription launch for our academy.
So if you want to take advantage ofthat, make sure you check that out.
(01:12):
If you're on email list, you're probablygetting that already in your email.
So take advantage of that if you'reinterested in
that model or in that ecosystem, it's anacademy where we basically have a bunch of
courses that cover different parts of thegame, whether it's lobbying, bangers,
partner play on forced errors.
We have some really good guest pro coachcourses as well that are in there,
(01:37):
so make sure you check that out.
All right, so let's dive into the subjectthat I want to talk about, which is this
idea of How do we play better pickleball?
Everything else being equal, meaning youhave your strategy, you have the way you
hit the balls, you haveyour approach to the game.
What can you do thatyou're going to see how simple this is.
(01:58):
That's very, very simple that willgreatly improve your chances for success.
And what I'm going to use is acouple of matches that I played
here on Monday in a hybrid division.
I'll explain that in a second.
That really illustrate how you can up yourgame, staying within the confines
of everything else being the same.
(02:19):
In other words, without radically changingwhere you're hitting the balls and things
like that, you can do a couple of thingsthat will really radically
improve your chances for success.
So on Monday, I got to play hybrid, whichis one standing player,
one player in a wheelchair.
So it's a mixed an event,mixed doubles, if you will.
So one standing player, one seated player.
(02:42):
And I had played with my partner Kenbefore at the US Open, he asked
me to join him at Nationals.I was happy to do so.
So we come out and we play our first matchagainst a very good team, against
Troy and Ryan, and a solid team like us.
It could look very similar usin terms of their abilities.
And we won the first game against them.
(03:05):
Then we were up 10-5 in thesecond game against them.
They ended up coming back and beating us12-10 in that game, and they
beat us in the third game.
So that So this is the first match of theday that knocks us down to the
bottom bracket, which isthe Bronze Metal bracket.
And so we go down to that bracket, we winthe next two games, and then we're in the
(03:26):
Bronze Metal match, me and my partner Ken.
And we're playing theexact same team again.
So we're going to play Troy and Ryanagain in the Bronze Metal match.
So in that match, Ryan and Troy comeout and they win the first game.
Then we win the second game,and then we're in the third
game, and we're getting hammered.
We're getting destroyedby Troy and by Ryan.
(03:49):
And so we do this...
In case you don't play tournaments,you don't know this, I'll explain.
So basically, at six, you change sides,change ends in a tournament
in the third game.
So we change ends in thethird game, 6-1, down 6-1.
Then we were down 7-1, we were down 9-4,ultimately ended up being down 10-4.
(04:12):
So Ryan and Troy have us 10-4-2.
We get a side out.
We go to work.
So I'm serving at the side out.
We get that point, serve again, getthat point, serve again, get that point.
Now we're at 7, 10.
They get a half a sideout, so now it's 7, 10, 2.
(04:33):
My partner Ken takes over serving, andthis will become particularly relevant in
a minute, but my partner Kentakes over serving at 7, 10, 2.
We score a point at 8, 10, 2.
They call a time out,and then come back, and we score at nine,
we score at 10, we score at11, and we score it at 12.
(04:54):
So we came back from 4-10 down in thethird game to win
12-10 and get the Bronze medal.
So the reason I told you the first matchwas because I thought it was interesting
that we had basically the exact samesituation earlier, meaning we had been up
really big in a 10-5, I think it was thatgame, in the first match, And they were
(05:15):
able to come back and beat us that game.
This time, we were the ones who were ableto come back from being down significantly
4-10 and put on a run and beat themin the last game, in the last match.
So what changedbetween when we were getting hammered and
when we ended up winning?
A couple of things Iwant to focus on here.
(05:36):
One is I mentioned Ken serve.
So Ken serve earlier on in that matchhad been a little bit erratic.
Ken had been missing some serves.
And during the day, hemissed a few serves.
So what we've been working on when he'smissing his serves was for him
to take more time to serve.
(05:59):
And It's a tempo concept.
It's an idea of when you're playingpickleball, trying to play the game
at your tempo, trying to play the game inthe way that makes the most sense for you.
And oftentimes, I would suggest you thatyou're rushing more than you should be.
And if you slow yourself down and giveyourself the time you need,
(06:19):
your shots will improve.
Your mechanics will improve because you'regiving your brain time to
get rid of whatever it's thinking about.
And from the prior rally, get itself readyfor the next rally, take a moment to
acquire the new situation.
I'm serving from the left or I'm servingfrom the right, and then acquire your
target and then execute the shot.
(06:41):
So when you think about Whenyou think about your game, consider
controlling the tempo better of theway that you're playing the game.
And completing the story on Ken serve.
So we had Ken serving a little bit erraticearlier, missing some
serves here and there.
(07:02):
Starts to slow down, starts to take morecontrol over his time, and then is able to
start to piece together his serve in amore constructive way,
including at the end, because as Imentioned, we were down When I told you
the story, we were down 7,10,2 becausethey had gotten a half-side out at 7,10,1.
(07:23):
So now Ken has to serve at 7,10,2.
And Ken is able to rattle off fivestraight service points, meaning no miss
serves, and also serves that areputting pressure on our opponents.
As I recall, I think they missed onereturn of serve during that sequence
based on Ken's quality of Ken serve.
And we also got a couple of short returnsof serve that we were able to attack.
(07:43):
So by taking his time, he changes fromerratic missing serve to having
the wherewithal or the confidence and theability to then rattle off the five points
we needed at the end in order tocomplete the and get the bronze medal.
So tip number one step forsuccess is going to be tempo.
(08:05):
Play at a tempo that makes sense foryou and just getting your job done.
Not, I need to rush around, I need to gorun and get the ball, I
need to hurry up and serve.None of that.
You play at your tempo, slow yourselfdown, and you're going to play better.
The second piece of advice that I wouldgive you in terms of improving your
(08:28):
success relatively easily is smile.
Now, I know that soundsso simple that it can't possibly work.
Absolutely works.
And I would say smile was actually abigger factor in our comeback than even
the time that Ken was taking on a serve.
The time was super important because itgot Ken more comfortable with his serving,
(08:49):
and he got more reliable with his serving.
But smiling is key.
So what happened there waswe were at 10:41, and I looked
I looked at Ken and I said...
And it had been a nice day.
The sun was setting.
It was the evening.
All the other players from the bracketwere watching because we were the last
(09:10):
match in our division for the day.
And we were It was justday of pick-up, right?
And so I look over at Ken and I said, Ken,don't forget, you're playing in the Bronze
medal match at the Nationals, right?So it's pretty cool.
And so I said, we should probablysmile smile about that, right?
Smile about that.
(09:31):
So Ken breaks out a smile, andwe win that point.
So then we win that point.
I looked at Ken and I said, Ken, yousmile the last one, and we won the point.
I mean, might want to smile again.
Smiles again.We win that point.
Every time that we want to point, Ireminded Ken of the fact that
he had smiled the one before.
So obviously, now you don'twant to break the rhythm, right?
(09:53):
Or you don't want to jinks it, right?
You've been smiling andwinning, smiling and winning.
You don't want to stop smiling.
So Ken starts to smile between rallies.
We start, Ken and myenergy gets more positive.
We're more relaxed on our side.
And that little thing, that smiling,takes us from down 10-4.
(10:17):
Okay, we're going to lose in the bronzebattle match, and that's it, right?
We're done.To, okay, let's keep battling.
Let's keep doing this thing.
Let's keep playing one rally at a time andcontinuing to battle back
with the understanding understanding thatpickle ball is a
game of swings and can be messy game.
Sometimes it's justwe'll be messy for a while and they get up
(10:39):
big and then they get messy for a while,and then we were able to come back and
tie up and ultimately win the game.
But in the middle, it's this idea ofsmiling as we're playing and just enjoying
each moment,taking a second to smile, taking a second
to be grateful for the situation thatyou're in getting to play the sport.
(10:59):
That act of smiling is going to then giveyou additional calmness, and that
calmness leads to better play.
What I haven't said happened because itdidn't, was
in terms of understanding the change inour results between getting killed
(11:21):
and then ultimately winning the game, iswe did not change anything strategically.
So we did not.
The The turnaround between4:10 down to 12:10 winning
wasn't something like, Okay, we'restacking, and then we didn't stack, or we
started stacking, or we started hitting tothe player on the left side's right foot,
(11:43):
and whatever, and all that stuff, right?Nothing wrong with that stuff.
That's fine, right?
Everything was the same.
We were playing the same, the sameapproach we've been using the whole time.
The differences wereKen taking time on his serve so that he
was more comfortable and reliablewith it, and the smiling.
The smiling is what took usfrom fourth place to third place, and a
(12:08):
spot on the podium at Nationals on Monday.
So if you want to improve your play,There's a lot of things you
need to improve your play.
So don't think there's nota lot of things you can do.
That's fine.
But all things being equal, meaning you'vealready done the other stuff to the best
of your ability, consider taking your timeand consider smiling, considering
enjoying the situation more.
(12:30):
You're going to play better.
By definition, you're going to enjoyyourself more while you're
playing this beautiful sport.
So hopefully you enjoyedthis week's podcast.
If you did, considerrating and reviewing it.
As always, that helps us reachother players just like you.
And share with your friends.
Remember, if you enjoy thepodcast, they probably will, too.
I hope to be in the studio next week foranother regular episode
(12:52):
of Pickleball Therapy.
Until then, be well.
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