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March 21, 2025 18 mins

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 Springs, where she observed a match between Frances Tiafoe, the 17th ranked tennis player in the world, and Yosuke Watanuki, ranked 349th. 

Despite the significant ranking gap and missing some shots, Watanuki's demeanor while playing was remarkable. The key highlights being;

  1. Staying Positive: Watanuki entered the match with a big smile. Even when he missed a shot, he didn’t let it get to him. Instead, he kept that positive energy flowing, which helped him stay focused.
  2. Engaging the Crowd: Normally, Tiafoe is the crowd favorite, but Watanuki’s genuine enjoyment of the game drew some of the crowd to his side. His smile made people appreciate his performance, showing how a good attitude can shift the atmosphere.
  3. Enjoying the Game: Watanuki celebrated both his good shots and the ones he missed. This attitude allowed him to stay in the moment, which is crucial in a match.

In sports, maintaining a positive mindset can allow players to stay in the present moment, relaxed and focused.

Try to smile during your pickleball games, regardless of whether you make or miss a shot. Observe how this affects your mindset, you might find that it helps calm your nerves, improve your focus, and ultimately enhance your performance.

Learn about SwingVision App and track progress with automated start, scoring and line calling; https://swing.vision/r/betterpickleball

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to the Pickleball Therapy podcast.
It is the podcast dedicated to yourpickleball mind, and it's the only
podcast dedicated to your pickleball mind.
This is not the familiar voice that youhear each week of my co-coach
at Better Pickleball, Tony Roig.
This is CJ Johnson.
And every once in a while, Tony lets mehijack the mic to talk about all things

(00:25):
mental and how they canimprove our pickleball.
And this week,I I want to explore this question,
Will a smile help your pickle ball game?
I have a story about an event that I wantto tell you where I do believe a smile

(00:45):
helped this player toplay their absolute best.
That's what I'm going to be talkingabout in the podcast this week.
But before we get into that, if you arelistening to this about the time that the
podcast drops, we have the PickleballSystem Spring Boot camp coming up
on March 27th is the first day.
That's the kickoff day.

(01:06):
And then the boot campis over the weekend.
It is a fantastic wayto tune up your pickleball game.
We are going to be talking about yournumber one complaint,
which is consistency.
We're going to help youto become a more consistent player.
And the best part about thistraining is it's 100 % online.

(01:27):
You do not have to have a course And it isdefinitely going to help your improvement.
So you can check out all the detailsin the show notes below.
So just simply go aheadand click on that link.
All right.
So the question is, does a smile helpyou to play your best pickle ball?

(01:53):
This past week, I was down in PalmSprings, and I had a chance
to attend the BNP Paribas.
I'm not sure that's how you say itcorrectly, but
the BNP open in Indian Wells.
I was down in Palm Springs.
I was shooting some videowith the Swingvision app.

(02:14):
It's a AI AI-related coaching app.
And I got a chance to pop over and watchthe BMP, and it was a wonderful event.
And even though I played a little tennisin high I never played tennis
as an adult, but I love sports.I love athletes.

(02:36):
I love sports.I am a big tennis fan.
So it was quite thetreat to go over there.
And I happened to see Francise Tiafoe.
And if you're not familiar with tennis.
He is the 17th ranked player in the world.
I happened to see him, and I think itwas his first round match, and it was...
He didn't play his best, buthe eked it out in two sets.

(02:57):
And I like Francise Tiafoe.
He is really a showman.
He's an American player.
When he is at his best, heis performing for the crowd.
He gets them excited.
He involves them.He smiles.
He's very animated.
He is just...
It has a real outgoing aura, Iguess, is how I would put it.

(03:25):
Pulls the crowd in, gets the crowdto cheer for him very easily.
So in his next match, he was put upagainst a young Japanese gentleman, and
I'm probably going tosay his name incorrectly.
I'm going to give it mybest shot, Yosuke Watanuki.

(03:45):
I'm sure I slaughtered that.
And this young man has beenon quite the winning streak.
Now, he is, I think, the 340...
Let me see, I wrote it down.
349th ranked player in the world.
So there's really, obviously, asubstantial difference in ranking

(04:06):
between Francise Tiafoe and Wata Nuka.
And he got into this, though.
He is on quite the role.
He has won his last, I believe it was, Ithink it was his last four events
prior to coming to the tournament.

(04:28):
And for those of you who may notknow tennis or follow tennis?
Tennis, this is a fairly big tournament.
A lot of players say that if there were afifth major, this would be it because
it draws that strong of a field.
So for the 349th ranked player in theworld, it really is just a feat
even to get into the tournament.

(04:49):
So here he comes in.
He's facing Tiafoe,certainly a fan favorite.
As I said, he's quite the showman.
But from the very beginning of thismatch, Wata Nuki came in and
he had this smile on his face.
He's looking around.

(05:09):
They were on stadium two, and Ihappened to see a match there.
It's quite a beautiful stadium.
And he's looking around and you can seehim taking in the wonder,
taking in the experience.
And he has a smile that's ear to ear.
That's how he comes in, and that'show he is starting the match.

(05:34):
So he serves first.
And typically, you have a fewnerves when you serve first.
And he serves three aces right in a row.
So for those of you who aren't tennisfans, an ace is the serve, the returner,
either hits it into the net or hits itout, and it is a point for the server.

(05:55):
So he serves three aces right in a row.
Let's pretty interestingto start out that way.
So as he's about to serve for the game, ifhe wins one more point, he's
going to win that very first game.
He gets up there and hemisses the fourth ace.
And he makes an extremely cutegesture of like, Oh, dang.

(06:20):
I missed it.
And he got the crowd to gigglebecause the crowd was wondering, Are we
going to get a fourth ace hereto start off the match.
So he misses that fourth ace, butthen he does win the first game.
Throughout the whole entire first set,he takes that same wonder

(06:47):
that he had when he walked out onto thecourt, that same, almost, I would say,
childlike curiosity, the smile on hisface, certainly enjoying the experience
and is applying that to the rallies thathe's experiencing while he's out there.

(07:10):
This young man was playing some incredibletennis, and I would dare to say that
if you're firing on a 10 out of 10 level,for the majority of the match, he
was firing at a 10 out of 10 level.
There were some shots that he hitthat were They're unbelievable.

(07:31):
There were some shots where he'ssliding to get to the ball,
so he's reaching for it.
The ball is under the netas pickleball players.
We all know how cumbersomethe net is, right?
You got to get it over the net.
And he hits the perfect shot.
But his reactionsafter the shots, good shots

(07:56):
or not so good shots,were So ultimately, what I think may
have turned the match in his favor.
It certainly got the crowd in his favor.
It may have thrown Tiafoe off his gamejust a little bit because normally, he's
the one who has the crowd in his favor.
But I think those reactionshelped him to stay in the moment

(08:19):
and to really perform his best.
He would hit a shot,one of these great, spectacular,
crazy, once-in-a-lifetime shot.
It's like hitting He was gettinga great, absolutely awesome ATP.
And he would look at the shot and have bigwide eyes and this huge smile on

(08:41):
his face like, Did I just do that?Really?
For real?I just pulled that shot off.
And it wasn't just the good shots, though.
He had a similar smile on his facewhen he hit poor shots.
In fact, Sam Query, andas you know, Sam has been a tennis

(09:04):
professional his whole entire life.
He plays pro-pickleball now,was commentating on this
match for this tennis channel.
And Sam made the comment,I have never seen a player
smile so much at missed shots.
Now, not only did he smile at his goodshots, at his missed shots,

(09:25):
when Tiafa, who is unbelievably athleticplayer in his own right,
a great player, like you said,he's number 17 in the world.
When Tiafoe hitgreat shots, he applied that same
smile and that same wonder and reallyadmiration for the shot

(09:48):
that his opponent hit.
In fact, there was one shotthat Tiafoe returned, Watanuki serve
at a very sharp angle tough shot.He was off the court.
He clipped the line.
I mean, it was a greatshot on Tiafoe's spot.
Watanuki looked at it with big wide eyes,and he literally looked down at the line,

(10:12):
and then he looked back at Tiafoe like,Oh, my God, I can't believe that was in.
That was so good.
Almost a thumbs up.
Now, I think what that demeanordid is it did two things.
So The first thing it did isit impacted the crowd.

(10:34):
Because generally,Francise Tiafoe, he's a crowd pleaser.
As I said, he's a showman.He gets the crowd on his side.
And I think for him as a player, that'ssome of when he plays his best.
When the crowd's on his side and he'splaying to the crowd, he plays his best.
You can see him lifting his hands up,trying to get the

(10:58):
crowd involved, And I thinkhe lives for that as an athlete, and he
performs well under those circumstances.
And in this instance, it's an Americancrowd, and Francise is American, and
Watenuki is a Japanese, andcertainly, they would lean

(11:19):
towards the American player.
But Watenuki's actions, just like that
smile and that wonder, And that being in
the moment, I can't believe I'm here,brought a large portion of
the crowd over onto his side.

(11:40):
And I wouldn't say it was like theywere cheering for him over Tiafil.
I don't think that was the case,but it certainly wasn't
lopsided in the other direction.
They were appreciating his performance,and they were appreciating the fact that
he was in wonder, and he was smiling atboth his performance as well as Tiafoes.

(12:02):
So I think that was thefirst thing that it did.
But I believe the second thing that it didis that wonder, that smile,
that helped him, Watanuki, to be inthe present, to be in that present moment.
I mean, think of it this way.

(12:23):
How many times have you smiledafter you hit a poor shot?
After you hit a shot that you think youcould make, how many times
have you actually smile?
And there is something about smiling.
There's been some scientific studies onwhat smiling actually does to our bodies.

(12:47):
And I don't know if there's ever been onethat's been done about what
smiling does in sports.
But there have been these studies aboutwhat smiling does to our attitude and how
how it calms us and the differentthings that smiling can do for us.
And I know for myself, I probablyhave never hit a shot that I think I

(13:14):
should make and then smiled afterwards.
I'm going to guess I've always hadsomewhat of a negative reaction.
In fact, I was telling Tony this earliertoday when I was getting
ready to record this.
On Sunday, I was watching the...
I think they were in Coral Gables, the PPACoral Gables final, and

(13:39):
Anna Bright was playing.
And respect Anna Bright as a player.
She is a great player.
She missed a very easy forehand dink,down the line, forehand dink.
Easy forehand dink, one that she'sgoing to make 99 out of 100 times.
And she took the paddle andshe smashed she asked herself, she hit

(14:02):
the paddle to her head.
And it wasn't just a littlelight tap to her head.
It was with a similar force that I'veseen players slap a paddle to their leg.
And I got to thinking to myself, I'm like,wow, those are just two such very

(14:25):
different reactions to a missed shot.
What's the internal impactto our psyche when we do that?
And unlike all players, I've been guiltyof thinking at times that, wow,
how could I have missed that shot?
In fact, Tony did a podcast several weeksago, about a month ago, where he talked

(14:49):
about we are going to miss apercentage of shots, right?
We all know we're not perfect.
So why do we beat ourselvesup when we miss a shot?
Because that's just onepart of the percentage that we will miss.
It's silly to beat ourselves up.
And I never thought about it thatway until he framed it out that way.

(15:09):
I'm the player that when I miss a shot, Ithink I should, let's put it
that way, that I should make.
I have more of a AnnaBright style reaction.
I don't know that I've ever hit myself inthe head, but I have more of that beat
yourself up type of reactionversus to put a smile on my face.

(15:32):
Now, I don't know that the smileimpacted his win.
I think, personally, I think it did.
Now, first of all, he was just playinggreat tennis, and he pretty much played
great tennis through the entire match.
He did go through a little lull where hisplay dropped, but his demeanor

(15:55):
didn't change.
And in the end, he beats Tiafoe.
And I'm going to guesson any given day, right?
I mean, he's the 349thranked player in the world.
Tiafoe is number 17.
I'm going to guess on any given day,Tiafoe could beat him as a player.
I mean, that's what the rankings say.

(16:15):
But in that one particular match,I really do think Watanuki's demeanor
changed the match in his favor.
He was playing great.
He kept smiling.
He took the pressure off.
He took any pressure off himselfbecause here he is, he's the underdog.

(16:36):
He's not expected to beat Schiaffo.
And he took the pressureoff and was able to perform.
So maybe, just maybe,the next time you're out on the court, I
know I'm going to try this, the next timeI'm out on the court, I'm going to smile

(16:58):
after I make the shot, no matter ifit's a good shot or a not so good shot.
I'm going to smile, and I'm going toobserve, what does that do to my mindset?
I'm going to guess it slows me down.
I'm going to guess it calms my body.
I'm going to guess it calms my breathing.

(17:19):
But I'm going to observe what it does forme, and if truly a smile can
help me to play better pickleball.
That's what I've got for you this week.
Don't forget, we've got that March bootcamp coming up, and your regular podcast
host, Tony Roig, will be back next week.

(17:41):
Until then, have fun.
And hey, let us know if anemail, cj@betterpickleball.
Com.Let me know.
I want to know.
Until then, have fun out there.
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