January 3, 2025 • 20 mins
Happy 2025! Let's think about our progress journey through pickleball as worth experiencing and enjoying to see the game better. Because here's the fact, there's really nowhere to arrive at and there's no magic place to get to.
Embrace the infinity of your journey and try and avoid pestering yourself with the, 'Are we there yet?' question.
Take a minute to imagine yourself as the player you want to be in the future. It could be a six months from now player, six years from now, however long you want to do it, and however much you want to add to yourself as a player. Picture that player for a moment. What does that player look like?
Placing yourself in the future you and who you want to be or grow helps us avoid being dissatisfied with where we are now because we want something more in the future.
You are in charge of how much you want to grow as a pickleball player and the game will always have something to teach you.
Now to the soft game- it's valuable and useful as a tool when you're playing. Consider adding it into your game or working on it more. It's the central feature of our game and continues to be the most reductive form of our game.
Check out our upcoming live events; https://betterpickleball.com/events/
Get you paddles from Pickleball Central. Use code BetterPB0125 for 10% off qualifying items; https://betterpickleball.com/resources/
Our Pickleball system course; https://betterpickleball.com/system/
Better Pickleball Academy; https://betterpickleball.com/academy/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy,the podcast dedicated to
your pickleball improvement.A happy 2025 to you.
I hope you enjoyed 2024.
Not everything can be perfect all thetime, but I hope you had a
generally good 2024 or at least aperspective on 2024 that
makes you appreciate just having it.
(00:26):
There is something to be said forjust enjoying the ability to
be here, the ability toexperience, the ability to have it.
That's a deeper conversation thandirectly deeper, I guess.
We do approach that in this podcast,incidentally, from time to time, these
ideas, but that may be for another podcastwhere we get into the depth of that thing.
(00:52):
But in any event, I hope that you had agood 2024 and are looking forward to a
2025, which is the year we will bepassing through, coming up.
Actually, we're alreadypassing through, right?
We already started.So by the time you listen to this podcast.
Anyway, so I hope you had a nice oneand I hope you have a good year in 2025.
(01:15):
This podcast, I want to talk aboutyour journey.
The folks at the Better PickleballCoaching team said, Hey, we
need a piece on the journey.
I said, All right, let's do it.
I prepared a written piece,and then I said, You know what?
Let's have that as part of the podcast.
I think it's helpful tohow we approach our steps along the way
(01:37):
and how we deal withmaybe the frustration that sets in
sometimes when we're not getting to wherewe want to get to as fast
as we'd like to get there.
Then in the Riff, I'm going to talk abouta piece of the game that I think merits
your attention in 2025 if you want tocontinue to grow as a pickleball player
and play pickleball at itshighest level possible.
(02:02):
When I say highest level, it doesn't meannecessarily pro-level, even though
if you want to do that, that's fine.
But it just means thatyou're playing it in the way that
is the highest way of playing our sportbased on how the sport is constructed
or based on its framework.
As we get into the podcast, I want tomention to you that we have an
event coming up on January 16th.
(02:23):
That's going to be areally fun live event.
We're going to give you things that youcan do right now, including off-court.
That's an important detail,meaning if you're somewhere in the north
or you just don't have access to courtsright now for whatever reason,
these activities that we're going to sharewith your activity, you can do off-court.
Then when you get on-court, you'regoing to be like, What happened?
(02:44):
How did I get so much better off-court?
You'll be surprisedat how much you can actually do.
But it's this idea of 10 minutes aday to a better pickleball player.
We're going to work on that on January16th at our live event, so
make sure you join us for that.
Then the live event also includes accessto materials post-event
that you'll be able to accessto put in the work
(03:07):
so that you get the benefits of theknowledge that you gain on January 16th.
So make sure you're onthe look out for that.
All right, let's dive intothe main subject of today.
What I want to talk aboutis your pickleball journey.
The piece that I wrote, Ientitled it, Are We There Yet?
Now, hearing those words, probablyjust hearing, Are We There Yet?
(03:29):
Causes blood pressure to go up a little.
It's basically like, Oh, no.What do you mean, are we there yet?
I'm already stressing about it.
It's the commontrope, if you will, of kids asking their
parents on a road trip, Are we there yet?
The thing about asking, Are we there yet?
Is that it undermines our ability toenjoy and have a more positive experience
(03:57):
with the process of goingto where we're going.
There's basically three things about it.
One, it undermines our abilityto enjoy the growth process.
Two, it places undue pressure onus, this idea of, Are we there yet?
Because we believe we're notgetting it quickly enough.
We're not getting there quickly enough.
In any event, it's a flawed premise, asyou're going to see, because
(04:17):
where exactly are you going?
What we want to do is, as we think aboutour progress journey, our
traveling through pickleball as players,and
hopefully seeing the game better, playinga little better each day,
each month, each year.
Avoiding this potentially being held backby this are we there yet mentality
(04:41):
that can definitely creep in.
It's very natural as humans, Wewant the end result.
But understanding that the end resultreally isn't a thing will help us avoid
it, avoid the downsidesof asking this question.
When you think about it, it's basically...
When you think about your journey throughpickleball,
(05:07):
it's not like there's these waypointsalong the way
that will be these repositories ofhappiness for you, and then between the
waypoints, you should be unhappy orfrustrated or upset with improvement
because you're not yet at these waypoints.
Better to think about the journey itselfas worth experiencing and enjoying.
(05:29):
And Similar to what I said about 2024 atthe beginning of this podcast,
your journey through pickleballis something to be savored, right?
It's something toenjoy not just this, okay, now I'm hitting
this particular shot a little bit betterthan I was six months ago,
it's the first time you do it.
(05:50):
It's even hitting itthe wrong way, but realizing, Oh,
now I see what's happening, right?
That little moment of clarity that you getthat's the building
block for the next block.
Then maybe making contact with the ball alittle differently than you had before and
going, wow, that feels a littledifferent, but I see what's happening.
I feel better about it.
(06:10):
Those little moments as we journey downthis path towards growth,
or not towards growth.
Even when I say it, I just said,journey down the path towards growth.
That's not correct.
It's we're journeyingdown the path of growth.
It's not toward something, it's of.
(06:31):
It's the process itself thatwe want to be able to enjoy.
We want to be able to enjoy...
I would say it's a morefulfilling experience
to be in a position to enjoy those stepsalong the way and not just
waiting for the magic line to be crossedso that we can then at that point
(06:58):
go, Oh, okay, now I've gotten there.
Now I have my five minutes of happiness.
Because here's the thing.
There really is nowhere to arrive at.
Here's the best way toreally hone this in for you.
I would take it to towrap your arms around it.
(07:18):
You are currently at acertain place as a player.
Just take a minute to imagine yourselfas the player who you want to be.
Picture this player in the future.
It could be a six months from now player,it could be a six year from now player,
however long you want to do it, andhowever much you want to
add to yourself as a player.
(07:40):
Picture that player for a moment.
What does that player look like?
How does that player hit the ball?
How does that playermake decisions on the court?
How does that playeranticipate, see the opposition?
All the characteristics that you want toimpart to that future you
that is the idealized version of you.
(08:01):
I'm going to have a sip of coffee whileyou're thinking about it,
because I think it's...Take a minute to think about it.
Place yourself in the future you andwho you want to be as a big of a player.
Okay.
Now, we have your future you.
Let's fast forward to future you.
(08:24):
Do you think future you is going to besitting there going like, Okay, I've
arrived everything's fantastic, and I canbe happy now for the rest of my pickleball
career, for the rest ofmy pickleball journey?
Probably not, right?
Don't you think future you is goingto think about a future player again?
Or He's like, Okay, I'm hitting the ball.Fantastic.
(08:47):
I get this shot in an 80% consistency.
I understand what to doin all these situations.
I understand I'm playing amazing.
Don't you know that it's goingto be something else after that?
There's going to be 85% consistencyor 90% consistency on that one shot.
There's still going to be anothersituation that's risen that you're not
(09:08):
really sure how to handle thatnow you have to figure out.
And that's the beauty of pickleball.
There's always something new.
Even the best players in the world,the pro players, they're never done.
So if we know that thatfuture us, the one that we think right
now, if I can just get there,then I'll be satisfied.
(09:32):
That player, too, will have a futureplayer that they will want to get to.
And then that future, future player willwant a future, future, future player.
It just keeps going.
And it's infinite.
If you can understand that today,you can avoid the trap of
(09:53):
just hoping to become that future playerand then expecting to
be happy at that point.
Be happy now.
Be happy with your current player.
Because here's the otherthing, go backward now.
Perhaps you're not satisfied withwhere you're at right now as a player.
And there's nothing wrong with...
Let's change the wordsatisfied in a second.
There's nothing wrong with wanting tocontinue to grow, to knowing that there's
(10:17):
more, and I would liketo continue to grow.
That's fantastic.
That's what keeps us going.
That's perhaps the reason why we evenexist on the planet, arguably,
is just to do that.
And so There's nothing wrong wantingto grow, and wanting to grow is great.
But the thing we want to avoid is beingdissatisfied with where we are now because
(10:40):
we want something more in the future.
It's the same way if you look backward.
My guess is either...
One of these things is true.
Either you hit the ball better than youdid a year ago,
you understand the game better than youdid a year ago, you can compete at a
higher place than you could a year ago.
Pick a thing, any of those things, you canalways say there's something you do now
(11:02):
that you do better thanyou did a year ago.
But if you're currently dissatisfied withwhere you are,
then that proves the point, doesn't it?
Because a year ago, you wanted to be whereyou are now, and then you'd be happy.
But you're where you are now, and you'restill waiting for the next
iteration of yourself to be happy.Well, that doesn't make any sense.
(11:22):
And it robs you of the joy.
It robs you of the happiness you can gainfrom those moments as
you go along, from those smallexperiences that you have, some good,
some not great, as you go along.
It robs you of the ability to just laughat yourself when you go out there and
(11:46):
you're working on something and you'rejust like, Oh, my God,
I can't get this serve in.
No matter what I'mdoing, I can't get it in.
That's going to happen sometimes.
You got to be able to laugh at it andjust go, Oh, my God, that's just...
Okay, that's silly, but that'sjust part of being a human being.
And just enjoying those momentsthat pickleball has, that pickleball
gifts you, that pickleball has for you.
(12:08):
It's a shame not to be ableto miss out on those moments.
The metaphor/analogy that I use in thepiece I wrote is you're in the car with...
You're the adults in the car withchildren, and the children
keep asking, Are we there yet?Every two minutes.
(12:30):
Are we there yet?Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?Again and again and again.
You're driving through beautiful lands inyour countryside, beautiful landscapes and
barns, and just picture whatever you likeoutside the window of the car, and you
can't see it because you're just like,Are we there yet?
And you're just stressed outabout the, are we there yet?
So don't be that little kid to yourself.
(12:52):
Don't be in the back of your braingoing like, How come I can't get there?
Why am I not there yet?What's going on?
I need to get there.
This is not a race.
There's no Timer, and there's no magicplace to get to, because when you get
there, there's going to be another magicplace to get to and another
magic place to get to.
So once you understandthat, you go, You know what?
It doesn't make sense for meto ask myself, Am I there yet?
(13:12):
For me to stress myself outabout something that I should otherwise be
enjoying about somethingthat I love to do, i.
E.
Play pickleball, hit balls, enjoy thegame, grow as a player, all those things.
Embrace those and enjoy those andunderstand that your journey as a
pickleball playeris as long as you choose it to be.
(13:36):
You are in charge of how much you want togrow as a pickleball player, because
pickleball will always,always have something to teach you.
You will never exhaust it.
I mentioned this earlier,not even the pros exhausted.
The best players on the planethave not exhausted pickleball.
Nobody has.
And that's a beauty of sport, of anysport, is we can always continue to grow,
(14:01):
always continue to push ourselves and ourunderstanding and our ability to perform
in the sport of our choosing,which in our case is pickleball.
So in the back of your mind
again and again and again.
Infinite, embrace it,and enjoy every moment.
(14:25):
In the RIF, I'm going to give you an areaof the game that I highly recommend
that If you spend some time on in 2025.
You don't have to do it allthe time if you don't want to.
It's your choice, but I can tell youthat it's from a playing pickle ball.
I'm going to use the term IQ here, butyeah, I'm not even going to use it.
But From playing pickleball at a highpickleball IQ level, it is
(14:48):
going to pay huge dividends for you if youdecide to add that to your
repertoire in 2025 as your focus.
As we dive into the RIF,please consider
your paddle and equipment and pickleballitem using Pickleball Central as your
primary resource for those items.
(15:09):
We have partnered up withP pickleball Central.
We've known P pickleballCentral for years.
They're a fantastic provider.
They're number one for a reason.
And you also get to support this podcastas well as our other content efforts to
share with your knowledgeabout P pickleball.
So if you go to betterpickleball.
Com and just click on the Resources tab,you'll get the most The recent code that
(15:30):
we have, and if there's anapplicable discount, you'll get it.
There's no reason not to type it in.
So you type it in, get your discount if itapplies, and by using the link, pickleball
Central will know thatwe sent you to them.
So appreciate you doing that.
All right, now that we're in the RIF, Iwant to talk to you about one area of the
game that you should at least consideradding to your
(15:53):
work or to your improvement processin 2025, and that is the soft game.
I mentioned itin a couple of things that I've written
recently, but basically,there's a lot of noise out there.
You can't get away fromthis idea that the soft game is dead.
(16:16):
That's what you keep on hearing.
Frankly, to be fair, we do expect that thegame will continue to get harder,
meaning there's going to be players tryingto do more with hard shots because of
paddle technology and things likeThat's going to happen.
That does not translate tothe soft game is dead.
(16:37):
They're two entirely different...
Not entirely different, but they'retwo sides of the coin, if you will.
There's the hard game.
The hard game is going tocontinue to get harder.
That does not mean the soft game is notvaluable and useful as a
tool when you're playing.
When you think about pickleball,I've been watching some Padel lately.
Padel is the sport where you play insidethe four glass walls, like a
(17:02):
tennis with four glass walls.
This ball is a little bit mushier.
But they have a strategythey use for lobbying.
They use a lot of lobbying in Padel.
And the reason they use lobbying isthey don't have a non-volley zone.
So The players can stand right at the net.
Their belly buttons can bealmost like touching the net.
They're just standing therewaiting to smash balls.
So they use lobs to push those playersback, and then they come in, and it's the
(17:26):
sea salt, back and forth tosee who can control the front.
A dinkable, however, hasa non-volley zone, right?
And that is the most relevant featureof the construction of our game.
It's the non-volley zone.
If we did not have a non-volley zone, wewould play an entirely different game.
We would never talk about dinking.
Third shot is a dink, right?It's just a long dink.
(17:47):
But we would never talk about thoseshots because they'd be nonsense, right?
How are you going to dink a ball when yougot a player standing at the net, they can
just smash it or drop it ordo whatever they want, right?
He'll drop it or angle it.
You can never hit a ball like that.
But we do have a non-volley zone.
So the idea that we're going to play agame that does not use a non-volley
zone makes absolutely no sense.
(18:09):
So in 2025, I highly encourage you to lookat the
soft game, part of youroverall game, and consider adding that
into your game or working on it moreif you haven't worked on it in a while.
It's nice to have roll volleys and sexyshots and hard shots and all that stuff.
(18:29):
That This is not going to let you play thebest pickleball you can within the
framework of the sport of pickleball.
If you want to get more advice in thisarea, you can join us inside
our Pickleball System course.We have a class opening up in March.
I know it's a couple of months away, butit's nothing in real-time.
If you're as old as I am, you knowthat two months will be tomorrow.
(18:52):
So be on the lookout forour system course in March.
And then in the meantime, the BetterPickleball Academy will get you started
down that path as I'llbe it without the depth of the system.
It's just a different type of experience.
The system being a year-longcourse, like for reels, reels, reels, and
the academy being more like a do ityourself, but knowing that the content
(19:13):
that you're getting is the highest qualitycontent you can get online for your
pickleball knowledge.
You can check those outat betterpickleball.
Com.
Whatever you do, do not sleep on thesoft game in 2025, would be my advice.
The more that I study the game, the morethat I think about the game, and the more
I teach the game, the more apparent it isto me that the soft game is the central
(19:35):
feature of our game and continues tobe the most reductive form of our game.
If you were going to play any part of ourgame at its highest level,
it would be the soft game.Just watch the pros.
That's what they do.
All right, that is this week'spodcast and the first podcast of 2025.
I hope you enjoyed it.
If you enjoyed it, as always, considerrating and reviewing it
(19:58):
and share it with your friends.
Remember, if you enjoyed thispodcast, they probably will, too.
To a great 2025, because it will be.Why?
Because we'll be in itjust experiencing it.
Be well, and I'll see you next week.
Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy,the podcast dedicated to
your pickleball improvement.A happy 2025 to you.
I hope you enjoyed 2024.
Not everything can be perfect all thetime, but I hope you had a
generally good 2024 or at least aperspective on 2024 that
makes you appreciate just having it.
(00:26):
There is something to be said forjust enjoying the ability to
be here, the ability toexperience, the ability to have it.
That's a deeper conversation thandirectly deeper, I guess.
We do approach that in this podcast,incidentally, from time to time, these
ideas, but that may be for another podcastwhere we get into the depth of that thing.
(00:52):
But in any event, I hope that you had agood 2024 and are looking forward to a
2025, which is the year we will bepassing through, coming up.
Actually, we're alreadypassing through, right?
We already started.So by the time you listen to this podcast.
Anyway, so I hope you had a nice oneand I hope you have a good year in 2025.
(01:15):
This podcast, I want to talk aboutyour journey.
The folks at the Better PickleballCoaching team said, Hey, we
need a piece on the journey.
I said, All right, let's do it.
I prepared a written piece,and then I said, You know what?
Let's have that as part of the podcast.
I think it's helpful tohow we approach our steps along the way
(01:37):
and how we deal withmaybe the frustration that sets in
sometimes when we're not getting to wherewe want to get to as fast
as we'd like to get there.
Then in the Riff, I'm going to talk abouta piece of the game that I think merits
your attention in 2025 if you want tocontinue to grow as a pickleball player
and play pickleball at itshighest level possible.
(02:02):
When I say highest level, it doesn't meannecessarily pro-level, even though
if you want to do that, that's fine.
But it just means thatyou're playing it in the way that
is the highest way of playing our sportbased on how the sport is constructed
or based on its framework.
As we get into the podcast, I want tomention to you that we have an
event coming up on January 16th.
(02:23):
That's going to be areally fun live event.
We're going to give you things that youcan do right now, including off-court.
That's an important detail,meaning if you're somewhere in the north
or you just don't have access to courtsright now for whatever reason,
these activities that we're going to sharewith your activity, you can do off-court.
Then when you get on-court, you'regoing to be like, What happened?
(02:44):
How did I get so much better off-court?
You'll be surprisedat how much you can actually do.
But it's this idea of 10 minutes aday to a better pickleball player.
We're going to work on that on January16th at our live event, so
make sure you join us for that.
Then the live event also includes accessto materials post-event
that you'll be able to accessto put in the work
(03:07):
so that you get the benefits of theknowledge that you gain on January 16th.
So make sure you're onthe look out for that.
All right, let's dive intothe main subject of today.
What I want to talk aboutis your pickleball journey.
The piece that I wrote, Ientitled it, Are We There Yet?
Now, hearing those words, probablyjust hearing, Are We There Yet?
(03:29):
Causes blood pressure to go up a little.
It's basically like, Oh, no.What do you mean, are we there yet?
I'm already stressing about it.
It's the commontrope, if you will, of kids asking their
parents on a road trip, Are we there yet?
The thing about asking, Are we there yet?
Is that it undermines our ability toenjoy and have a more positive experience
(03:57):
with the process of goingto where we're going.
There's basically three things about it.
One, it undermines our abilityto enjoy the growth process.
Two, it places undue pressure onus, this idea of, Are we there yet?
Because we believe we're notgetting it quickly enough.
We're not getting there quickly enough.
In any event, it's a flawed premise, asyou're going to see, because
(04:17):
where exactly are you going?
What we want to do is, as we think aboutour progress journey, our
traveling through pickleball as players,and
hopefully seeing the game better, playinga little better each day,
each month, each year.
Avoiding this potentially being held backby this are we there yet mentality
(04:41):
that can definitely creep in.
It's very natural as humans, Wewant the end result.
But understanding that the end resultreally isn't a thing will help us avoid
it, avoid the downsidesof asking this question.
When you think about it, it's basically...
When you think about your journey throughpickleball,
(05:07):
it's not like there's these waypointsalong the way
that will be these repositories ofhappiness for you, and then between the
waypoints, you should be unhappy orfrustrated or upset with improvement
because you're not yet at these waypoints.
Better to think about the journey itselfas worth experiencing and enjoying.
(05:29):
And Similar to what I said about 2024 atthe beginning of this podcast,
your journey through pickleballis something to be savored, right?
It's something toenjoy not just this, okay, now I'm hitting
this particular shot a little bit betterthan I was six months ago,
it's the first time you do it.
(05:50):
It's even hitting itthe wrong way, but realizing, Oh,
now I see what's happening, right?
That little moment of clarity that you getthat's the building
block for the next block.
Then maybe making contact with the ball alittle differently than you had before and
going, wow, that feels a littledifferent, but I see what's happening.
I feel better about it.
(06:10):
Those little moments as we journey downthis path towards growth,
or not towards growth.
Even when I say it, I just said,journey down the path towards growth.
That's not correct.
It's we're journeyingdown the path of growth.
It's not toward something, it's of.
(06:31):
It's the process itself thatwe want to be able to enjoy.
We want to be able to enjoy...
I would say it's a morefulfilling experience
to be in a position to enjoy those stepsalong the way and not just
waiting for the magic line to be crossedso that we can then at that point
(06:58):
go, Oh, okay, now I've gotten there.
Now I have my five minutes of happiness.
Because here's the thing.
There really is nowhere to arrive at.
Here's the best way toreally hone this in for you.
I would take it to towrap your arms around it.
(07:18):
You are currently at acertain place as a player.
Just take a minute to imagine yourselfas the player who you want to be.
Picture this player in the future.
It could be a six months from now player,it could be a six year from now player,
however long you want to do it, andhowever much you want to
add to yourself as a player.
(07:40):
Picture that player for a moment.
What does that player look like?
How does that player hit the ball?
How does that playermake decisions on the court?
How does that playeranticipate, see the opposition?
All the characteristics that you want toimpart to that future you
that is the idealized version of you.
(08:01):
I'm going to have a sip of coffee whileyou're thinking about it,
because I think it's...Take a minute to think about it.
Place yourself in the future you andwho you want to be as a big of a player.
Okay.
Now, we have your future you.
Let's fast forward to future you.
(08:24):
Do you think future you is going to besitting there going like, Okay, I've
arrived everything's fantastic, and I canbe happy now for the rest of my pickleball
career, for the rest ofmy pickleball journey?
Probably not, right?
Don't you think future you is goingto think about a future player again?
Or He's like, Okay, I'm hitting the ball.Fantastic.
(08:47):
I get this shot in an 80% consistency.
I understand what to doin all these situations.
I understand I'm playing amazing.
Don't you know that it's goingto be something else after that?
There's going to be 85% consistencyor 90% consistency on that one shot.
There's still going to be anothersituation that's risen that you're not
(09:08):
really sure how to handle thatnow you have to figure out.
And that's the beauty of pickleball.
There's always something new.
Even the best players in the world,the pro players, they're never done.
So if we know that thatfuture us, the one that we think right
now, if I can just get there,then I'll be satisfied.
(09:32):
That player, too, will have a futureplayer that they will want to get to.
And then that future, future player willwant a future, future, future player.
It just keeps going.
And it's infinite.
If you can understand that today,you can avoid the trap of
(09:53):
just hoping to become that future playerand then expecting to
be happy at that point.
Be happy now.
Be happy with your current player.
Because here's the otherthing, go backward now.
Perhaps you're not satisfied withwhere you're at right now as a player.
And there's nothing wrong with...
Let's change the wordsatisfied in a second.
There's nothing wrong with wanting tocontinue to grow, to knowing that there's
(10:17):
more, and I would liketo continue to grow.
That's fantastic.
That's what keeps us going.
That's perhaps the reason why we evenexist on the planet, arguably,
is just to do that.
And so There's nothing wrong wantingto grow, and wanting to grow is great.
But the thing we want to avoid is beingdissatisfied with where we are now because
(10:40):
we want something more in the future.
It's the same way if you look backward.
My guess is either...
One of these things is true.
Either you hit the ball better than youdid a year ago,
you understand the game better than youdid a year ago, you can compete at a
higher place than you could a year ago.
Pick a thing, any of those things, you canalways say there's something you do now
(11:02):
that you do better thanyou did a year ago.
But if you're currently dissatisfied withwhere you are,
then that proves the point, doesn't it?
Because a year ago, you wanted to be whereyou are now, and then you'd be happy.
But you're where you are now, and you'restill waiting for the next
iteration of yourself to be happy.Well, that doesn't make any sense.
(11:22):
And it robs you of the joy.
It robs you of the happiness you can gainfrom those moments as
you go along, from those smallexperiences that you have, some good,
some not great, as you go along.
It robs you of the ability to just laughat yourself when you go out there and
(11:46):
you're working on something and you'rejust like, Oh, my God,
I can't get this serve in.
No matter what I'mdoing, I can't get it in.
That's going to happen sometimes.
You got to be able to laugh at it andjust go, Oh, my God, that's just...
Okay, that's silly, but that'sjust part of being a human being.
And just enjoying those momentsthat pickleball has, that pickleball
gifts you, that pickleball has for you.
(12:08):
It's a shame not to be ableto miss out on those moments.
The metaphor/analogy that I use in thepiece I wrote is you're in the car with...
You're the adults in the car withchildren, and the children
keep asking, Are we there yet?Every two minutes.
(12:30):
Are we there yet?Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?Again and again and again.
You're driving through beautiful lands inyour countryside, beautiful landscapes and
barns, and just picture whatever you likeoutside the window of the car, and you
can't see it because you're just like,Are we there yet?
And you're just stressed outabout the, are we there yet?
So don't be that little kid to yourself.
(12:52):
Don't be in the back of your braingoing like, How come I can't get there?
Why am I not there yet?What's going on?
I need to get there.
This is not a race.
There's no Timer, and there's no magicplace to get to, because when you get
there, there's going to be another magicplace to get to and another
magic place to get to.
So once you understandthat, you go, You know what?
It doesn't make sense for meto ask myself, Am I there yet?
(13:12):
For me to stress myself outabout something that I should otherwise be
enjoying about somethingthat I love to do, i.
E.
Play pickleball, hit balls, enjoy thegame, grow as a player, all those things.
Embrace those and enjoy those andunderstand that your journey as a
pickleball playeris as long as you choose it to be.
(13:36):
You are in charge of how much you want togrow as a pickleball player, because
pickleball will always,always have something to teach you.
You will never exhaust it.
I mentioned this earlier,not even the pros exhausted.
The best players on the planethave not exhausted pickleball.
Nobody has.
And that's a beauty of sport, of anysport, is we can always continue to grow,
(14:01):
always continue to push ourselves and ourunderstanding and our ability to perform
in the sport of our choosing,which in our case is pickleball.
So in the back of your mind
again and again and again.
Infinite, embrace it,and enjoy every moment.
(14:25):
In the RIF, I'm going to give you an areaof the game that I highly recommend
that If you spend some time on in 2025.
You don't have to do it allthe time if you don't want to.
It's your choice, but I can tell youthat it's from a playing pickle ball.
I'm going to use the term IQ here, butyeah, I'm not even going to use it.
But From playing pickleball at a highpickleball IQ level, it is
(14:48):
going to pay huge dividends for you if youdecide to add that to your
repertoire in 2025 as your focus.
As we dive into the RIF,please consider
your paddle and equipment and pickleballitem using Pickleball Central as your
primary resource for those items.
(15:09):
We have partnered up withP pickleball Central.
We've known P pickleballCentral for years.
They're a fantastic provider.
They're number one for a reason.
And you also get to support this podcastas well as our other content efforts to
share with your knowledgeabout P pickleball.
So if you go to betterpickleball.
Com and just click on the Resources tab,you'll get the most The recent code that
(15:30):
we have, and if there's anapplicable discount, you'll get it.
There's no reason not to type it in.
So you type it in, get your discount if itapplies, and by using the link, pickleball
Central will know thatwe sent you to them.
So appreciate you doing that.
All right, now that we're in the RIF, Iwant to talk to you about one area of the
game that you should at least consideradding to your
(15:53):
work or to your improvement processin 2025, and that is the soft game.
I mentioned itin a couple of things that I've written
recently, but basically,there's a lot of noise out there.
You can't get away fromthis idea that the soft game is dead.
(16:16):
That's what you keep on hearing.
Frankly, to be fair, we do expect that thegame will continue to get harder,
meaning there's going to be players tryingto do more with hard shots because of
paddle technology and things likeThat's going to happen.
That does not translate tothe soft game is dead.
(16:37):
They're two entirely different...
Not entirely different, but they'retwo sides of the coin, if you will.
There's the hard game.
The hard game is going tocontinue to get harder.
That does not mean the soft game is notvaluable and useful as a
tool when you're playing.
When you think about pickleball,I've been watching some Padel lately.
Padel is the sport where you play insidethe four glass walls, like a
(17:02):
tennis with four glass walls.
This ball is a little bit mushier.
But they have a strategythey use for lobbying.
They use a lot of lobbying in Padel.
And the reason they use lobbying isthey don't have a non-volley zone.
So The players can stand right at the net.
Their belly buttons can bealmost like touching the net.
They're just standing therewaiting to smash balls.
So they use lobs to push those playersback, and then they come in, and it's the
(17:26):
sea salt, back and forth tosee who can control the front.
A dinkable, however, hasa non-volley zone, right?
And that is the most relevant featureof the construction of our game.
It's the non-volley zone.
If we did not have a non-volley zone, wewould play an entirely different game.
We would never talk about dinking.
Third shot is a dink, right?It's just a long dink.
(17:47):
But we would never talk about thoseshots because they'd be nonsense, right?
How are you going to dink a ball when yougot a player standing at the net, they can
just smash it or drop it ordo whatever they want, right?
He'll drop it or angle it.
You can never hit a ball like that.
But we do have a non-volley zone.
So the idea that we're going to play agame that does not use a non-volley
zone makes absolutely no sense.
(18:09):
So in 2025, I highly encourage you to lookat the
soft game, part of youroverall game, and consider adding that
into your game or working on it moreif you haven't worked on it in a while.
It's nice to have roll volleys and sexyshots and hard shots and all that stuff.
(18:29):
That This is not going to let you play thebest pickleball you can within the
framework of the sport of pickleball.
If you want to get more advice in thisarea, you can join us inside
our Pickleball System course.We have a class opening up in March.
I know it's a couple of months away, butit's nothing in real-time.
If you're as old as I am, you knowthat two months will be tomorrow.
(18:52):
So be on the lookout forour system course in March.
And then in the meantime, the BetterPickleball Academy will get you started
down that path as I'llbe it without the depth of the system.
It's just a different type of experience.
The system being a year-longcourse, like for reels, reels, reels, and
the academy being more like a do ityourself, but knowing that the content
(19:13):
that you're getting is the highest qualitycontent you can get online for your
pickleball knowledge.
You can check those outat betterpickleball.
Com.
Whatever you do, do not sleep on thesoft game in 2025, would be my advice.
The more that I study the game, the morethat I think about the game, and the more
I teach the game, the more apparent it isto me that the soft game is the central
(19:35):
feature of our game and continues tobe the most reductive form of our game.
If you were going to play any part of ourgame at its highest level,
it would be the soft game.Just watch the pros.
That's what they do.
All right, that is this week'spodcast and the first podcast of 2025.
I hope you enjoyed it.
If you enjoyed it, as always, considerrating and reviewing it
(19:58):
and share it with your friends.
Remember, if you enjoyed thispodcast, they probably will, too.
To a great 2025, because it will be.Why?
Because we'll be in itjust experiencing it.
Be well, and I'll see you next week.
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