May 2, 2025 • 21 mins
Many players search for a “secret” to improve their pickleball game—but there's none. Improvement comes not from tips or tricks, but from understanding how the game works. In this episode, I'll explain why structured learning, clear decision-making, and consistent execution are the real keys to growth—and how seeing the full picture of the game can move you forward.
Show Notes: https://betterpickleball.com/242-whats-the-secret-sauce-psst-its-in-this-podcast/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello andwelcome to Pickleball Therapy, the podcast
dedicated to your pickleball improvement.
Is the podcast with you in mind.
It's all about the mentalpart of pickleball, right?
I am your host of thisweekly podcast, Tony Roig.
I hope you're having a great week.
I had the opportunity last week ofparticipating in some work with the
(00:24):
MLP with Major League Pickleball.
We're doing some collaborative work withthem, helping them spread the word about
their league and get players interested inthe storylines of MLP this
season, which are plenty.
If you haven't checked them out,you can check them out this week.
This weekend, when this episode drops,I'll be in Columbus, so you can check out
(00:47):
that action on Friday andthe weekend on Pickleball tv.
If you're in the Columbus area, you canprobably still get some tickets
to go and check it out live.
If you decide to go checkout the MLP BP Academy.
So better pickleball BPbetter be pickleball.
B Academy at checkout will get you adiscount and also lets them know
that you heard from us, which is.
(01:09):
Helps us.
And then, you know, they're, they're,they're going to be traveling throughout
the country, so if their schedule, youknow, corresponds with where you're going
to be or where you wantto go, check them out.
I mean, it's a lot of fun.
The, it's a different, a different pace.
It's just a differentdynamic in that arena.
They play as a team, which is very cool.
(01:31):
There are some aspects of it that areperhaps not as clean, if you will, as a
PPA event because some of theseplayers haven't played with each other.
So you get some like, middle coverage.No, no.
What's going on?
So, you know, if you want to think oflike, what would pros look like if they
went to open play andplay with other pros?
You get to see some of that at the mlp,but the team aspect of it is phenomenal.
(01:52):
So again, highly recommend it.
And, and you know, part of our podcasttoday, the rift today actually comes from
the MLP and from,you know, watching the action there and
seeing, you know, some ofthese issues that we deal with.
Some of this, this,the, you know, the mental side of
pickleball actuallyaffects the pros as well.
(02:17):
You know, it's not just amateur playerswho are affected by
mental trip ups, mental, youknow, things that happen to us.
On the mental side, it is the,the pros as well, and it
significantly impacts their game.
But before we get into that, I want to getinto a real big picture item that I think
(02:39):
affects a lot of us as players, which isthis idea of, of, you know,
finding a secret, right?
We all want to know.
We're humans, right?We think, you know, we, it's just natural.
That's why you see so many YouTube videosthat say the secret to this, you know, I'm
going to, I'm going to share somethingwith you that's, you know,
a little secret for you.
And, you know, having that kind ofthinking about pickleball or looking for
(03:03):
that, and pickleball canend up holding you back.
And what I'm going to do is I'm going toshare a comment that's on our In2Pickle
channel, the YouTube channel.
And, and in case you don't know,pickleball therapy is part of a
much bigger pickleball project.
It's part of Better Pickleball,which is our, our parent company.
And then we have a couple of YouTubechannels, actually three YouTube channels
(03:24):
if you count the one for pickleballtherapy, as well as other types of
coaching that we do inside our ecosystem.
Which reminds me, if you haven'tsubscribed to our channel on YouTube and
you're happy to be on YouTube, if you canlook at pickleball therapy on there and
just click subscribe, that helps us withthe algorithm there to
reach additional players.
But basically I done a video on intopickle about five things to
(03:48):
avoid for 50 plus players, right?
So these are ideas that can help you ifyou're 50 plus, continue to be competitive
and play better and things like that.
So one of the comments and, and justto be clear, this is a public comment.
That's why I don't mind reading it.
You know, John, I believe is hisname because of his, his user handle.
But John posted this on the comments,so he's fine sharing it publicly.
(04:11):
So I'm going to share it with you here.
And I'm not trying to criticize John.
I've already replied to himin the, in the comment chain.
But, but I think it's indicative.
His comment is indicative of howwe think sometimes about the sport.
And so I want to use that as anopportunity to
explore this idea of, you know, what's thesecret to pickleball so that we can, um,
(04:34):
so we can collectivelywork on this project.
That is, how do we get better atpickleball without losing
our minds in the process.
So, John, so the video was, was fivetips, but it's five areas to like be, be.
Be cognizant of right.
For instance, like you know, you can addspins to your game if you want to, but
you know, think about it before you do.
(04:54):
And I show, I demonstrate inthere some different dinks.
So like a dink that doesn't havespin and a dink that has spin.
And when you're 50, right,you know, it's not going to be as easy for
your body to get down low to hit that,get under the ball to hit topspin.
So I demonstrate that we talk about, youknow, using the kitchen more, for
instance, the non volley zone, more thanperhaps you would if you were a younger
(05:15):
player and just blastingthe ball around, right?
So especially if you're playing as youngerplayers, how are you going to compete with
a player, you know, who's 30 or 40 yearsyounger than you and can hit the ball, you
know, potentially harder and, and is fast,quicker and all those types of things.
One thing is to use a higher IQ strategy,right, with more, more non volley zone
using the, the court to your advantage.
(05:37):
So basically those were the tips in there.
And so this was John's comment, he saidsorry, but none of these tips
are specific to older players.
Every quote tip unquote is generalpickleball play that everyone,
regardless of age should do.Don't hit.
This is where I think John went alittle bit overboard on his comment.
But it's fine.
He's entitled to express himself howeverhe wants, just like I'm entitled
(05:58):
to react to it the way I want.
Don't hit open quote out balls.Duh.
Use the kitchen.You think?
Don't use a 5.0 pro level ready position.Brilliant.
To tell you the truth, I washoping for something better.
And so here's the thing, right.
And my response to John actually I guessI've been read it, my response to
John was appreciate the feedback John.
We all play the same game so 50plus ideas are what to focus on.
(06:23):
It is not like there's a shotthat is exclusive 50 plus.
One way to approach it is to think aboutthe game in a way that works best
for us of longer in the tooth, right?
Trying to be, trying to be a little bit,you know, be a little lighter than John
was perhaps in his, in his comment.
But basically, you know, the, the, thethinking is
(06:43):
that if that there, there you're going tocome across a video that's going to
have like the secret sauce, right?
The, the magic formula.
But listen, pickleball is pickleball.
I know it sounds reductive andit's, you know, it's circular Right.
To just say pickleball is pickleball, butit is, you know, whether, let's say you're
(07:03):
a 2.5 player, a 3.0 player,a 3.5 player, 4.0 player, whatever level
you are, you're playing the exactsame game that the pros play.
You're playing the exactsame game that I play.
We're playing the exact samegame that a 20 year old plays.
It's the same court, the samerules, the same basic ideas.
The difference iswhere, where it gets interesting for us in
(07:25):
our development as players isfocusing on what makes the
most sense for us right now.
And so it's really a mindset and afocus and that's what I told John.
Right.
It's basically it's a mindset and focusand also how important is it to us?
You know, if you were 25 years old and youplayed college tennis and you want to come
(07:46):
into pickleball and just blast balls allover the place, then I guess, I mean
that's, that's nothing wrong with that.
Fine, you know, do it rightbecause you have the skill set, the age,
whatever, and you just, youcan play that way for a while.
Until later on maybe you figure you needto add the non volley zone because now
you're facing other players like you thatare there, have the same skill set than
(08:07):
you do, plus the non volley zone,you're going to be in trouble.
But if you're a, you know, 55, 60, 65 yearold player and you're out there playing an
open play with a bunch of 30 year olds, 40year olds, 20 year olds, and you're just
trying to, you know, gomano emano with that group.
I don't know, I mean, that'sprobably not the best idea.
(08:28):
Same thing with the ready position.
You know, you can use, there's, there'snothing wrong with using the
more pro level ready position.
But the reality is when, when we get openage, you know, reflexes are
a tad bit slower, right?
So like, you know the time it's going totake me to recognize the ball coming, you
know, towards my chest and be able to getthe paddle to where I want to block and
(08:51):
things like that is goingto be a little bit slower.
So maybe I err on the side of having thepaddle a little bit higher than I would if
I was 25 years old and it'sthe same thing.
Meaning like they're both ready positionsand they're both fine ready positions.
But the decision I makeis based on my Age.
The, the thing that I want to, I reallywant to lean in on here is there's no
(09:16):
like absolute magic ready position.
There's no absolute magic shot.
You know, even like you take like thethird shot drop, you
know, how do you drop it?
Players drop it differently.
Some players drop it higherarc, some players drop it lower.
You know, the key I think, in terms ofyour growth as a player and your
understanding of the game and just how youinteract with the sport is the better you
(09:39):
understand the, the variables, right, thatgo into your decision making and,
and how they impact your shot.
So I'm, I'll play with thethird shot in a second.
But, but the better that you understandhow those things all work with
each other, then the better able.You're.
You can make decisions for yourselfabout how you want to approach it.
So going back to the third shot drop,there are different philosophies
(10:03):
on the third shot drop.
What doesn't change, regardless of whatyour philosophy is, is that There's a
roughly 34 inch, depending onwhere you're getting, right?
Roughly 34 inch or so netthat's blocking your way.
So how do you want to deal with that?
You know, do you want to tryand go low and skim the net?
(10:25):
Now?I'll tell you one thing.
If I was a robot and I could, I could,you know, accurately hit my third over,
you know, like quarter inch over the netevery time I, I would do that,
because that'd be awesome, right?
Quarter inch over the net.Amazing.
The best.
And if I get the 8th inchover the net, I do that.
(10:47):
But what do I know about myself?
At least as far as I can tell, I'mnot a robot and neither are you.
And so we got to thinklike humans, basically.
We got to accept that wehave a margin for error.
We have, there's more, there's more spreadto our shot than, you know, warranted
by a quarter inch over the net.
So how do I, how highover the net should I aim?
(11:08):
My third kind of depends on a few factors.
It depends on my skill level.
It depends on how closeto the net I am, right?
The farther back I am, the higherI'm going to hit it, because I have.
It's farther away, it's more risk andI want to give myself more margin.
The, you know, how, howwell I'm playing that day.
(11:29):
I, I'm.
Sometimes I'm playing and Ican, you know, I'm dialed in.
I'm almost robot, right?
And I can, I can hit my thirds.
However, I want other days, you know, Ihit a couple of thirds into the net
and I say, well that's not fun, right?
That ends the rally too soon.
So what do I do then, right?
I make an adjustment and that'sjust understanding the game.
But the shot doesn't change.
(11:49):
Meaning what I mean bythe shot doesn't change.
The details change.I get that.
Right.But the shot itself doesn't change.
The non volley zone is still seven foot.
The net's still 34ft.
I'm 34, 34 inches or so.
You know, my paddle still my paddle.
My body's still my body.
And you know, the, the how I decide tointeract with the shot is, is
(12:11):
the beautiful part of the sport.
It's what makes, allows allof us to play our own games.
We don't all have to play like somecookie cutter, one, one size fits all.
Also, you know, we avoid this idea of liketrying to find a secret whatever it is.
And if you're listening to this and you'rea system, either a current or former
system student of ours, you've been to oneof our camps or you've, you've studied
(12:34):
with us some, you know, this is exactlyhow we coach because this is the most
meaningful way for you to grow as a playerand also to interact with
this beautiful sport.
It's by your growthin your knowledge of the game and
how the pieces all fit together.
You know, we, we use, you know, when we'reexplaining it to, to players who don't
(12:55):
really understand what we're talkingabout in terms of how we structure things.
We use a puzzle box cover often as our, asour analogy slash metaphor, you know, and
the idea is that, you know, pickleballhas a bunch of pieces to it.
Third shot, you know, volley, reset,block, volley, you know, return of serve,
positioning on the court, angles,all those things are all pieces.
(13:17):
And the better that you're able tounderstand not just the pieces, but how
the pieces fit together with other piecesto make larger segments of the puzzle.
So for instance, like you take your thirdshot, drop, you look at the mechanics of
it has different subpieces in there, right?
And then from there you look at, forinstance, Androgene trajectory
is a, is a part of that.
And then you look at strategically whereyou're going to hit it, how you're going
(13:38):
to move all those pieces together,form, you know, serve, side play.
You start building that and then you buildyour return side, then you build your
non volley zone play and thedifferent parts of the game.
How do you Deal with lobs, how do you dealwith bangers, right, all those
different parts of pickleball.
And at the end of the day, right, I mean,you know, in a perfect world, like in a,
in a, in a world without time limits and,you know, and, and all that, I mean, in
(14:01):
theory you could like learn the entiregame of pickleball, all of it, you know,
on a, on a puzzle box cover,and see the entire thing.
But the reality is that for most of us, I,I say all of us, we're going to get to a
point where like, you know, we're seeinga good amount of the puzzle, right?
We see a lot of the puzzle, but there'sstill some pieces that, you know, we don't
really, haven't really factored into thegame because that's the nature
(14:27):
of this beautiful sport.It always has something to teach us.
But if you can walk away with one ideahere, it's that don't look for the secret
sauce, don't look for the magic bullet.
If you will approach your pickleball as aslow and steady learning process for you,
(14:47):
where you start to, you accumulateknowledge about this sport and you
understand that at the end of the day,what's going to, what's going to make you
a better player is going to beyour ability to more consistently execute.
What, at the end, I'm saying, at the endof the day, a lot I know, but what you're,
you're able to more consistently execute,what are really at their core,
(15:13):
fairly basic things, you know, and, and I,I, I recommend you watch the pros and
watch the, how many times thepros hit very basic shots.
Serve, return or serve, third shot, dropsome of the volleys, some of, yes, you'll
see an Ernie, you'll see,you know, crazy defense.
Yes, you will see that.
(15:34):
But look at like 70, 80%of the shots they hit.
Look at their defensive shots are justsetting their paddle right, just trying to
get in a good position, set the paddlenice and relaxed, nothing fancy.
Look at how many times they hit.
They hit non fancy, quoteunquote basic shots.
They can just hit them again and again andagain and again and again and more than we
(15:54):
can, as well as the otherelements of their game.
But those basic shots are reallythe foundation of their play.
Because if you think about it, let's givethem all the fancy shots and take away the
fundamentals, take awaythe foundational shots.
And those players are not pros anymore.
And the pros that win the most are theones that have the best
(16:16):
Foundational or fundamental shots.
That's really the key topickleball, not secret stuff.
Fundamentals done betterthan you did yesterday.
All right, so that'sthe main subject today.
Let me dive into the riffas I do real quick.
Side note here.I mentioned watching pros mlp.
(16:36):
Great place to do that.So check that out.
This story actually comes from the mlp andI'm watching two pro players and
their names are not really relevant.So.
Because they don't really add to thestory, but basically two, two pro
players and they're in a good fight.Now this is a.
They're.They're the underdogs.
The team I'm talking abouthere are the underdogs.
But at that stage, I think the,the game was either 4, 4 or 5, 5.
(16:59):
They're using traditional scoringnow, so it's just the normal 211.
So it's 4, 4, 5, 5.
So nice, nice little gamegoing on there, right?
And then there's a serve and the playerthat the, the, the player I'm talking
about, for some reason, it was really.
It didn't call it out and thenhit it and then missed the return.
(17:20):
And then look to the ref and was like, sirwas out and the ref was
like, you didn't call it.
Ball was dead when you hit the netand there was no attempt to call it.
It wasn't like he, you know, he just.
And it was his mistake.And that's.
Listen, that's fine.The mistake isn't the problem.
Mistake is fine.
I mean, sort of sucks thatit happened, but it's fine.
(17:42):
The problem is how he reacted to it.
All of a sudden he now is arrest fault.It wasn't his fault.
It was rest fault.
Ref did something wrongapparently or something.
And, and I gotta tell you, fromthat point on, game was over.
You know, one, you know, onedifficult call or, you know, distracting
(18:04):
situation or something and we're done.That.
I mean, after that it was like a miss.
They switched sides of six because it'sone game to 11, so they switched sides of
six and then it was another silly miss andit was just basically
checked out at that stage.
And so, you know, it reminded me of thefact that, that, you know,
we're all human, obviously.
(18:25):
I guess that should be thetitle of today's podcast.
We're all human.
But, you know, we're all human and sowe're all going to be subject to
potential distractions.
The, the thing is, how do we, how do wereact to those distractions when they
occur and I think having preloadingyourself with tools that will
help you avoid the distractions.
(18:46):
For instance, we have awhole episode about outballs.
If I can find the episode before this onedrops, I'll put it in
the show notes for you.
But there's a whole episode we did onoutballs and how to deal with outball
calls that you don't like,that you disagree with.
You know, you can take the approach of,you know, that ball was, assuming they
called it out and you think it was, andthat ball was in, and so therefore I'm
right, they're wrong, and all thatprobably going to end up distracting you.
(19:09):
There's no real money in doing that.
There's no benefit in doing that.
You're going to end up picking afight, which is not pleasant anyway.
You know, creating discord and on apickleball court with,
I assume, most of your.
Most of them, most of the timeit's your friends for no gain.
And risking this potential distraction,right now you've got the carryover about
the call and now next threerallies, you're a mess.
(19:33):
Instead, you go into the, into the game,preload it with your tools from
listening to this podcast, right?
Or studying the mentalgame and things like that.
So you go in, preload it with these tools,and when something like that
happens, no big deal, right?
Because you know how to handle it, youjust go, okay, you know, I hit the ball
close to the line, theysaw it out, not to be done.
(19:53):
Let's move on, let's.
And then your brain isn't preoccupied orlike, you know, you're trying to think of
the score was called wrongor something like that.
It's just preoccupied your mind.
And your mind is not then focused onpickleball, which is exactly what
happened to this player and doing mlp.
So be on the lookout for thosedistractions and if you are susceptible to
them, tools to deal with distractionsbefore you step out on the court.
(20:14):
All right.I hope you enjoyed this week's podcast.
As always, if you have a minute torate and review it, appreciate it.
Several of you went into theseveral of you went into the
Apple and reviewed it recently.Really appreciate that.
In fact, there was one in there that I'llpoint out and I'll read
a couple next episode.
But there was one of them that talkedabout having Tony isms
(20:36):
in your mind to help you.
So that was awesome.
I'm glad to give you some Tonyismsthat you can that help you.
And if it helps you alongyour way, that's awesome.
That's what this podcastis almost all about.
Because remember, this podcast is alsoabout for me and my mental
journey and my process.
So quick shout out to everybody who saidhello during the MLP this
(20:59):
last week in Orlando.
Really appreciate youcoming up and saying hello.
Plans are to be at the PPA event inAtlanta and so if you see me walking
around, please do nothesitate to say hello to me.
One last thing.
As always, if you enjoyed the podcast andit helps you out, please
share with your friends.
Because if it helped youout, probably help them too.
(21:20):
I hope you have a great week and I willsee you in the next episode
of Pickleball Therapy.
Hello andwelcome to Pickleball Therapy, the podcast
dedicated to your pickleball improvement.
Is the podcast with you in mind.
It's all about the mentalpart of pickleball, right?
I am your host of thisweekly podcast, Tony Roig.
I hope you're having a great week.
I had the opportunity last week ofparticipating in some work with the
(00:24):
MLP with Major League Pickleball.
We're doing some collaborative work withthem, helping them spread the word about
their league and get players interested inthe storylines of MLP this
season, which are plenty.
If you haven't checked them out,you can check them out this week.
This weekend, when this episode drops,I'll be in Columbus, so you can check out
(00:47):
that action on Friday andthe weekend on Pickleball tv.
If you're in the Columbus area, you canprobably still get some tickets
to go and check it out live.
If you decide to go checkout the MLP BP Academy.
So better pickleball BPbetter be pickleball.
B Academy at checkout will get you adiscount and also lets them know
that you heard from us, which is.
(01:09):
Helps us.
And then, you know, they're, they're,they're going to be traveling throughout
the country, so if their schedule, youknow, corresponds with where you're going
to be or where you wantto go, check them out.
I mean, it's a lot of fun.
The, it's a different, a different pace.
It's just a differentdynamic in that arena.
They play as a team, which is very cool.
(01:31):
There are some aspects of it that areperhaps not as clean, if you will, as a
PPA event because some of theseplayers haven't played with each other.
So you get some like, middle coverage.No, no.
What's going on?
So, you know, if you want to think oflike, what would pros look like if they
went to open play andplay with other pros?
You get to see some of that at the mlp,but the team aspect of it is phenomenal.
(01:52):
So again, highly recommend it.
And, and you know, part of our podcasttoday, the rift today actually comes from
the MLP and from,you know, watching the action there and
seeing, you know, some ofthese issues that we deal with.
Some of this, this,the, you know, the mental side of
pickleball actuallyaffects the pros as well.
(02:17):
You know, it's not just amateur playerswho are affected by
mental trip ups, mental, youknow, things that happen to us.
On the mental side, it is the,the pros as well, and it
significantly impacts their game.
But before we get into that, I want to getinto a real big picture item that I think
(02:39):
affects a lot of us as players, which isthis idea of, of, you know,
finding a secret, right?
We all want to know.
We're humans, right?We think, you know, we, it's just natural.
That's why you see so many YouTube videosthat say the secret to this, you know, I'm
going to, I'm going to share somethingwith you that's, you know,
a little secret for you.
And, you know, having that kind ofthinking about pickleball or looking for
(03:03):
that, and pickleball canend up holding you back.
And what I'm going to do is I'm going toshare a comment that's on our In2Pickle
channel, the YouTube channel.
And, and in case you don't know,pickleball therapy is part of a
much bigger pickleball project.
It's part of Better Pickleball,which is our, our parent company.
And then we have a couple of YouTubechannels, actually three YouTube channels
(03:24):
if you count the one for pickleballtherapy, as well as other types of
coaching that we do inside our ecosystem.
Which reminds me, if you haven'tsubscribed to our channel on YouTube and
you're happy to be on YouTube, if you canlook at pickleball therapy on there and
just click subscribe, that helps us withthe algorithm there to
reach additional players.
But basically I done a video on intopickle about five things to
(03:48):
avoid for 50 plus players, right?
So these are ideas that can help you ifyou're 50 plus, continue to be competitive
and play better and things like that.
So one of the comments and, and justto be clear, this is a public comment.
That's why I don't mind reading it.
You know, John, I believe is hisname because of his, his user handle.
But John posted this on the comments,so he's fine sharing it publicly.
(04:11):
So I'm going to share it with you here.
And I'm not trying to criticize John.
I've already replied to himin the, in the comment chain.
But, but I think it's indicative.
His comment is indicative of howwe think sometimes about the sport.
And so I want to use that as anopportunity to
explore this idea of, you know, what's thesecret to pickleball so that we can, um,
(04:34):
so we can collectivelywork on this project.
That is, how do we get better atpickleball without losing
our minds in the process.
So, John, so the video was, was fivetips, but it's five areas to like be, be.
Be cognizant of right.
For instance, like you know, you can addspins to your game if you want to, but
you know, think about it before you do.
(04:54):
And I show, I demonstrate inthere some different dinks.
So like a dink that doesn't havespin and a dink that has spin.
And when you're 50, right,you know, it's not going to be as easy for
your body to get down low to hit that,get under the ball to hit topspin.
So I demonstrate that we talk about, youknow, using the kitchen more, for
instance, the non volley zone, more thanperhaps you would if you were a younger
(05:15):
player and just blastingthe ball around, right?
So especially if you're playing as youngerplayers, how are you going to compete with
a player, you know, who's 30 or 40 yearsyounger than you and can hit the ball, you
know, potentially harder and, and is fast,quicker and all those types of things.
One thing is to use a higher IQ strategy,right, with more, more non volley zone
using the, the court to your advantage.
(05:37):
So basically those were the tips in there.
And so this was John's comment, he saidsorry, but none of these tips
are specific to older players.
Every quote tip unquote is generalpickleball play that everyone,
regardless of age should do.Don't hit.
This is where I think John went alittle bit overboard on his comment.
But it's fine.
He's entitled to express himself howeverhe wants, just like I'm entitled
(05:58):
to react to it the way I want.
Don't hit open quote out balls.Duh.
Use the kitchen.You think?
Don't use a 5.0 pro level ready position.Brilliant.
To tell you the truth, I washoping for something better.
And so here's the thing, right.
And my response to John actually I guessI've been read it, my response to
John was appreciate the feedback John.
We all play the same game so 50plus ideas are what to focus on.
(06:23):
It is not like there's a shotthat is exclusive 50 plus.
One way to approach it is to think aboutthe game in a way that works best
for us of longer in the tooth, right?
Trying to be, trying to be a little bit,you know, be a little lighter than John
was perhaps in his, in his comment.
But basically, you know, the, the, thethinking is
(06:43):
that if that there, there you're going tocome across a video that's going to
have like the secret sauce, right?
The, the magic formula.
But listen, pickleball is pickleball.
I know it sounds reductive andit's, you know, it's circular Right.
To just say pickleball is pickleball, butit is, you know, whether, let's say you're
(07:03):
a 2.5 player, a 3.0 player,a 3.5 player, 4.0 player, whatever level
you are, you're playing the exactsame game that the pros play.
You're playing the exactsame game that I play.
We're playing the exact samegame that a 20 year old plays.
It's the same court, the samerules, the same basic ideas.
The difference iswhere, where it gets interesting for us in
(07:25):
our development as players isfocusing on what makes the
most sense for us right now.
And so it's really a mindset and afocus and that's what I told John.
Right.
It's basically it's a mindset and focusand also how important is it to us?
You know, if you were 25 years old and youplayed college tennis and you want to come
(07:46):
into pickleball and just blast balls allover the place, then I guess, I mean
that's, that's nothing wrong with that.
Fine, you know, do it rightbecause you have the skill set, the age,
whatever, and you just, youcan play that way for a while.
Until later on maybe you figure you needto add the non volley zone because now
you're facing other players like you thatare there, have the same skill set than
(08:07):
you do, plus the non volley zone,you're going to be in trouble.
But if you're a, you know, 55, 60, 65 yearold player and you're out there playing an
open play with a bunch of 30 year olds, 40year olds, 20 year olds, and you're just
trying to, you know, gomano emano with that group.
I don't know, I mean, that'sprobably not the best idea.
(08:28):
Same thing with the ready position.
You know, you can use, there's, there'snothing wrong with using the
more pro level ready position.
But the reality is when, when we get openage, you know, reflexes are
a tad bit slower, right?
So like, you know the time it's going totake me to recognize the ball coming, you
know, towards my chest and be able to getthe paddle to where I want to block and
(08:51):
things like that is goingto be a little bit slower.
So maybe I err on the side of having thepaddle a little bit higher than I would if
I was 25 years old and it'sthe same thing.
Meaning like they're both ready positionsand they're both fine ready positions.
But the decision I makeis based on my Age.
The, the thing that I want to, I reallywant to lean in on here is there's no
(09:16):
like absolute magic ready position.
There's no absolute magic shot.
You know, even like you take like thethird shot drop, you
know, how do you drop it?
Players drop it differently.
Some players drop it higherarc, some players drop it lower.
You know, the key I think, in terms ofyour growth as a player and your
understanding of the game and just how youinteract with the sport is the better you
(09:39):
understand the, the variables, right, thatgo into your decision making and,
and how they impact your shot.
So I'm, I'll play with thethird shot in a second.
But, but the better that you understandhow those things all work with
each other, then the better able.You're.
You can make decisions for yourselfabout how you want to approach it.
So going back to the third shot drop,there are different philosophies
(10:03):
on the third shot drop.
What doesn't change, regardless of whatyour philosophy is, is that There's a
roughly 34 inch, depending onwhere you're getting, right?
Roughly 34 inch or so netthat's blocking your way.
So how do you want to deal with that?
You know, do you want to tryand go low and skim the net?
(10:25):
Now?I'll tell you one thing.
If I was a robot and I could, I could,you know, accurately hit my third over,
you know, like quarter inch over the netevery time I, I would do that,
because that'd be awesome, right?
Quarter inch over the net.Amazing.
The best.
And if I get the 8th inchover the net, I do that.
(10:47):
But what do I know about myself?
At least as far as I can tell, I'mnot a robot and neither are you.
And so we got to thinklike humans, basically.
We got to accept that wehave a margin for error.
We have, there's more, there's more spreadto our shot than, you know, warranted
by a quarter inch over the net.
So how do I, how highover the net should I aim?
(11:08):
My third kind of depends on a few factors.
It depends on my skill level.
It depends on how closeto the net I am, right?
The farther back I am, the higherI'm going to hit it, because I have.
It's farther away, it's more risk andI want to give myself more margin.
The, you know, how, howwell I'm playing that day.
(11:29):
I, I'm.
Sometimes I'm playing and Ican, you know, I'm dialed in.
I'm almost robot, right?
And I can, I can hit my thirds.
However, I want other days, you know, Ihit a couple of thirds into the net
and I say, well that's not fun, right?
That ends the rally too soon.
So what do I do then, right?
I make an adjustment and that'sjust understanding the game.
But the shot doesn't change.
(11:49):
Meaning what I mean bythe shot doesn't change.
The details change.I get that.
Right.But the shot itself doesn't change.
The non volley zone is still seven foot.
The net's still 34ft.
I'm 34, 34 inches or so.
You know, my paddle still my paddle.
My body's still my body.
And you know, the, the how I decide tointeract with the shot is, is
(12:11):
the beautiful part of the sport.
It's what makes, allows allof us to play our own games.
We don't all have to play like somecookie cutter, one, one size fits all.
Also, you know, we avoid this idea of liketrying to find a secret whatever it is.
And if you're listening to this and you'rea system, either a current or former
system student of ours, you've been to oneof our camps or you've, you've studied
(12:34):
with us some, you know, this is exactlyhow we coach because this is the most
meaningful way for you to grow as a playerand also to interact with
this beautiful sport.
It's by your growthin your knowledge of the game and
how the pieces all fit together.
You know, we, we use, you know, when we'reexplaining it to, to players who don't
(12:55):
really understand what we're talkingabout in terms of how we structure things.
We use a puzzle box cover often as our, asour analogy slash metaphor, you know, and
the idea is that, you know, pickleballhas a bunch of pieces to it.
Third shot, you know, volley, reset,block, volley, you know, return of serve,
positioning on the court, angles,all those things are all pieces.
(13:17):
And the better that you're able tounderstand not just the pieces, but how
the pieces fit together with other piecesto make larger segments of the puzzle.
So for instance, like you take your thirdshot, drop, you look at the mechanics of
it has different subpieces in there, right?
And then from there you look at, forinstance, Androgene trajectory
is a, is a part of that.
And then you look at strategically whereyou're going to hit it, how you're going
(13:38):
to move all those pieces together,form, you know, serve, side play.
You start building that and then you buildyour return side, then you build your
non volley zone play and thedifferent parts of the game.
How do you Deal with lobs, how do you dealwith bangers, right, all those
different parts of pickleball.
And at the end of the day, right, I mean,you know, in a perfect world, like in a,
in a, in a world without time limits and,you know, and, and all that, I mean, in
(14:01):
theory you could like learn the entiregame of pickleball, all of it, you know,
on a, on a puzzle box cover,and see the entire thing.
But the reality is that for most of us, I,I say all of us, we're going to get to a
point where like, you know, we're seeinga good amount of the puzzle, right?
We see a lot of the puzzle, but there'sstill some pieces that, you know, we don't
really, haven't really factored into thegame because that's the nature
(14:27):
of this beautiful sport.It always has something to teach us.
But if you can walk away with one ideahere, it's that don't look for the secret
sauce, don't look for the magic bullet.
If you will approach your pickleball as aslow and steady learning process for you,
(14:47):
where you start to, you accumulateknowledge about this sport and you
understand that at the end of the day,what's going to, what's going to make you
a better player is going to beyour ability to more consistently execute.
What, at the end, I'm saying, at the endof the day, a lot I know, but what you're,
you're able to more consistently execute,what are really at their core,
(15:13):
fairly basic things, you know, and, and I,I, I recommend you watch the pros and
watch the, how many times thepros hit very basic shots.
Serve, return or serve, third shot, dropsome of the volleys, some of, yes, you'll
see an Ernie, you'll see,you know, crazy defense.
Yes, you will see that.
(15:34):
But look at like 70, 80%of the shots they hit.
Look at their defensive shots are justsetting their paddle right, just trying to
get in a good position, set the paddlenice and relaxed, nothing fancy.
Look at how many times they hit.
They hit non fancy, quoteunquote basic shots.
They can just hit them again and again andagain and again and again and more than we
(15:54):
can, as well as the otherelements of their game.
But those basic shots are reallythe foundation of their play.
Because if you think about it, let's givethem all the fancy shots and take away the
fundamentals, take awaythe foundational shots.
And those players are not pros anymore.
And the pros that win the most are theones that have the best
(16:16):
Foundational or fundamental shots.
That's really the key topickleball, not secret stuff.
Fundamentals done betterthan you did yesterday.
All right, so that'sthe main subject today.
Let me dive into the riffas I do real quick.
Side note here.I mentioned watching pros mlp.
(16:36):
Great place to do that.So check that out.
This story actually comes from the mlp andI'm watching two pro players and
their names are not really relevant.So.
Because they don't really add to thestory, but basically two, two pro
players and they're in a good fight.Now this is a.
They're.They're the underdogs.
The team I'm talking abouthere are the underdogs.
But at that stage, I think the,the game was either 4, 4 or 5, 5.
(16:59):
They're using traditional scoringnow, so it's just the normal 211.
So it's 4, 4, 5, 5.
So nice, nice little gamegoing on there, right?
And then there's a serve and the playerthat the, the, the player I'm talking
about, for some reason, it was really.
It didn't call it out and thenhit it and then missed the return.
(17:20):
And then look to the ref and was like, sirwas out and the ref was
like, you didn't call it.
Ball was dead when you hit the netand there was no attempt to call it.
It wasn't like he, you know, he just.
And it was his mistake.And that's.
Listen, that's fine.The mistake isn't the problem.
Mistake is fine.
I mean, sort of sucks thatit happened, but it's fine.
(17:42):
The problem is how he reacted to it.
All of a sudden he now is arrest fault.It wasn't his fault.
It was rest fault.
Ref did something wrongapparently or something.
And, and I gotta tell you, fromthat point on, game was over.
You know, one, you know, onedifficult call or, you know, distracting
(18:04):
situation or something and we're done.That.
I mean, after that it was like a miss.
They switched sides of six because it'sone game to 11, so they switched sides of
six and then it was another silly miss andit was just basically
checked out at that stage.
And so, you know, it reminded me of thefact that, that, you know,
we're all human, obviously.
(18:25):
I guess that should be thetitle of today's podcast.
We're all human.
But, you know, we're all human and sowe're all going to be subject to
potential distractions.
The, the thing is, how do we, how do wereact to those distractions when they
occur and I think having preloadingyourself with tools that will
help you avoid the distractions.
(18:46):
For instance, we have awhole episode about outballs.
If I can find the episode before this onedrops, I'll put it in
the show notes for you.
But there's a whole episode we did onoutballs and how to deal with outball
calls that you don't like,that you disagree with.
You know, you can take the approach of,you know, that ball was, assuming they
called it out and you think it was, andthat ball was in, and so therefore I'm
right, they're wrong, and all thatprobably going to end up distracting you.
(19:09):
There's no real money in doing that.
There's no benefit in doing that.
You're going to end up picking afight, which is not pleasant anyway.
You know, creating discord and on apickleball court with,
I assume, most of your.
Most of them, most of the timeit's your friends for no gain.
And risking this potential distraction,right now you've got the carryover about
the call and now next threerallies, you're a mess.
(19:33):
Instead, you go into the, into the game,preload it with your tools from
listening to this podcast, right?
Or studying the mentalgame and things like that.
So you go in, preload it with these tools,and when something like that
happens, no big deal, right?
Because you know how to handle it, youjust go, okay, you know, I hit the ball
close to the line, theysaw it out, not to be done.
(19:53):
Let's move on, let's.
And then your brain isn't preoccupied orlike, you know, you're trying to think of
the score was called wrongor something like that.
It's just preoccupied your mind.
And your mind is not then focused onpickleball, which is exactly what
happened to this player and doing mlp.
So be on the lookout for thosedistractions and if you are susceptible to
them, tools to deal with distractionsbefore you step out on the court.
(20:14):
All right.I hope you enjoyed this week's podcast.
As always, if you have a minute torate and review it, appreciate it.
Several of you went into theseveral of you went into the
Apple and reviewed it recently.Really appreciate that.
In fact, there was one in there that I'llpoint out and I'll read
a couple next episode.
But there was one of them that talkedabout having Tony isms
(20:36):
in your mind to help you.
So that was awesome.
I'm glad to give you some Tonyismsthat you can that help you.
And if it helps you alongyour way, that's awesome.
That's what this podcastis almost all about.
Because remember, this podcast is alsoabout for me and my mental
journey and my process.
So quick shout out to everybody who saidhello during the MLP this
(20:59):
last week in Orlando.
Really appreciate youcoming up and saying hello.
Plans are to be at the PPA event inAtlanta and so if you see me walking
around, please do nothesitate to say hello to me.
One last thing.
As always, if you enjoyed the podcast andit helps you out, please
share with your friends.
Because if it helped youout, probably help them too.
(21:20):
I hope you have a great week and I willsee you in the next episode
of Pickleball Therapy.
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