Ep. 268 - Are You Tethered in Your Pickleball?

Are you anchored to a clear, guiding framework—or drifting from one random tip to another? In this episode I share with you why a tethered approach brings deeper understanding, steadier growth, and greater fulfillment on the court. Tune in to learn how to anchor your learning and mindset for lasting improvement in your pickleball game. 

Show Notes: https://betterpickleball.com/268-are-you-tethered-in-your-pickleball

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy,the podcast dedicated to your pickleball
improvement with a focuson the pickleball mind.
I'm the host of yourweekly podcast, Tony Roig.
It's a pleasure to be with you this week.
This week, we're going to cover a topicthat I think you find really interesting.
It has to do with having a tethered oruntethered approach to
your pickleball journey.

(00:25):
I think you'll see by the end that havinga tethered approach is
much more productive as well asfulfilling way of engaging with the sport.
And it also avoids some of the commonpitfalls that we see players
fall into frequently.
And the idea for this week's podcast camefrom some comments that were to a video on

(00:50):
the In2Pickle YouTube channel that I haddone a video on rushing and
how it affects your play.
There's some exchange of comments in thereby players, and it made me really think
aboutwhy are players having difficulty with
these concepts in terms of beingable to navigate them productively.
That's where I came up with this idea ofTethered Untethered, which I think you

(01:11):
really enjoy, and it'll help youIt'll help you process...
It'll help you not just processinformation, it'll help you do that, but
it'll also help you navigate, if you will,your path as you work on your pickleball
self, pickleball game.
So we'll get into that.
As we dive into it, a coupleof housekeeping notes.

(01:37):
I've been getting some questionsabout the paddle I use.
I've been using the PaddleTec 14.
3 millimeter paddle fora little bit of time now.
I think it's an amazingpaddle all the way around.
I was using the ALW-C 14.
3 millimeter.
I think it's an amazing paddle for prettymuch any player can use that paddle.
I have gravitated towardsthe GTO-C, same 14.

(01:59):
3 basic paddle, just a different shape.
I just like the way that it swings better.
I came from tennis, and so it just swingsmore like a tennis bracket to me, which I
appreciate, even though I'm playingpickleball now, pretty much 99.
9 % of the time.
But I just like the way that it swings.
I like the way it engages with the ball.
If you're interested in checking out thatpaddle, we do have a

(02:23):
relationship with PadlTech.
We'll put a link in the show notes.
You can also go to betterpickleball.Com.
You can either Buy it directly fromPadelTech or through Pickable Central.
If you want to get the customer service atPickable Central, both links will give you
a discount through our affiliaterelationship with both of those entities.
You get a discount, we get some creditbecause we sent you,

(02:44):
and it helps everybody.It doesn't affect your price.
If you can do that, that'd be fantastic.
If you're interested in that paddle,I cannot recommend it enough to you.
If you're not sure which shape, the LWCis still a fantastic paddle to go with.
The other point of housekeeping is that wehave now had well over players who have
purchased the Pickleball Therapy book.

(03:04):
So thank you very much for doing that.
It really helps promote the book withother players, reach other players.
It also lets us know that we're connectingwith you, so we really appreciate that.
We'll probably be asking you guys who havepurchased an early copy of the book to
help us out when it goes on Amazonto put some reviews on

(03:25):
there in the next few weeks.
So I'll let you know aboutthat as soon as that occurs.
And Again, reallyappreciate you doing that.
If you haven't gotten a copyof the book yet, you can.
It's betterpickleball.com.
Get your early copy of the book.
All right, let me dive into this tetheringconcept, and let me set it up for you.
I did a video about rushing and someof the errors that occur from rushing.

(03:45):
One of the errors that was discussed, andthere has to do with the return to serve,
and it has to do with too much energy intothe ball from running through the shot.
Losing control of it,primarily energy, is the issue.
It can have trajectory problems as well.
If you're one of our students, you'reprobably familiar with
energy and trajectory.
If you're not one of our students, itbasically just means too
much power into the ball.
Also, trajectory, how you controlthe direction of the shot.

(04:06):
Anyway, so that was one ofthe errors that was discussed.
There was a commentmade, which was about a video that Zane
Navertil, a pro player andfellow coach had done recently.
So it says, They ain't just dida video on return of serves.
That says the exact opposite.
His method is to treat the returndifferent from a drive and move forward
through the ball with a shorter stroke,which puts you at the kitchen quicker.

(04:27):
So which is a correct, better method?
That question, fantastic question.
Great question.Super.
I understand that theremay be a disagreement between these two
ideas, which there is not, asI'll explain, but it sets up...
It's a perfectly fine question to ask.
The thing that The thing that got methinking was a couple of comments to that

(04:48):
comment, a couple ofreplies to that comment.
One was, I would listen to the pros.
I saw that Zane video, too, and my mixedpartner insists that you should always
never be moving whilehitting your return, L-O-L.
Also, this guy'stechnique isn't very good.
I guess he's talking about me.
His serve is all arm and alsostands straight after dinking.
His breakdown videos are good, though.

(05:09):
So I guess my breakdown videos are good,but I was like, Do I hit
the ball, which is...
It is what it is.
It's fine, but It shows a lack ofdepth, perhaps, and understanding.
And then there's another one that thisguy is mostly for the 50 plus crowd.
Zane is not.
And so I started thinking about what'slimiting these players' understanding that

(05:30):
these two concepts,the one that's explained in my video on
rushing, which is a different idea, andZane's video on getting to the line
quicker, which is a different idea, on howthose two ideas, those two approaches to
the return, can coexist in the sameuniverse without contradicting each other.

(05:51):
And so I'm going to explain that to you,and then I'll explain why those
two concepts can work together.
And then I'll explain to you why I believethat the issue that these players are
having is that they're following anuntethered approach to their pickle ball,
which is going to limit them and limittheir understanding, and that if you have
a tethered approach, it's much fuller.
So first, let me explain to you whythe two concepts can live together.

(06:13):
What I'm dealing with is are errors onreturns of serve when you're missing
returns of serve long, when youdon't have control over your shot.
Oftentimes, that's becauseyou're rushing through the ball.
And if you just take a...
It's a really quick set.
You quickly set yourself.
As you're hitting, you're going to havemore control over your shot
and make less mistakes.

(06:34):
Now, what Zane is saying...
Now, I got to be honest with you, Ihaven't seen the video, but I
know enough about pickleball.
I know enough about Zaneas a player and as a coach.
He's a very good player, very goodcoach, good thinker of the game.
What he's talking about is if youbasically hit as you're moving, so you
don't get completely setlike you would in a drive.
That's what one of the players didn'treally, I guess,

(06:56):
grasp, is that when you're driving theball, so you want to hit an all-out drive
winner, whether it's singles or indoubles, you're getting
set up for a big shot.
Yeah, you want to be fully, fully set.
There's gradations of set.
So there's the fully, fully set, feetgrounded, body turned, I'm just
going to really wail on this ball.
And then there's the, okay, micro-setwhile I'm hitting a return of serve.

(07:21):
In theory, you could go all the waythrough just running through the ball.
And if you have the control ofa Zane Navertil, that's fine.
Zane Navertil played a lot of tennis.
I believe he played college tennis.
He's an excellent athlete, great player.
So, yeah, he can probably hitwhile doing a cartwheel, right?
Most of us can't.
And Zane would agree, I'm sure, that firstorder priority is get your

(07:42):
return to serve in play.
The next order priority would thenbe to get to the non-buy zone.
There's a step in the middle about deep,but that's for another conversation, but
get to the line.
So if you have complete control over yourreturns of serve and you want to get a
step on getting up tothe line, yeah, sure.
Then reduce the amount ofyour stop as you hit the ball.

(08:03):
Now, I can tell you that most pro players,when you watch them hit returns of serve,
they're set when they're hitting it.
They get set, then they hit.
It's a very quick set, but they're set.
They're set, they hit, they move.
When they're stacking, their returnchanges a little bit because
now they have to go farther.
So you'll see them,it's a much quicker stop, if you will.

(08:24):
It's a very quick pause,hit, and then keep moving.
Different different than when they're justhaving to move straight forward
into the non-volley zone.
But even the pros like to get set becauseset gives you a better, more
consistent shot, more reliable shot.
So these two concepts live together.
They're not opposite.

(08:47):
It's not that...
If you're making mistakes with your returnto serve, oftentimes it's
because you're rushing.
The solution is, get set whileyou're hitting the return to serve.
Once you've mastered the shot to a levelwhere you're never missing returns to
serve, almost never, and you want to get aquicker jump on getting to
the non-body zone line, sure.
Then shortening the amount of your set oreliminating it if you want to go that far,

(09:10):
will get you to thenon-body zone line quicker.
Those two concepts live together.
Now, what makes it difficult forplayers like the ones who are in...
Not the first question, or Ithink that was a fine question.
I think they're two male players.
Basically, the two guys that are justgoing back and forth on
getting off topic about whether I stand upin my dink or how I serve and

(09:32):
what's that got to do with this?
And then the other one about like, Well,pros do it this way, do it that way.
What's happening here is the approachis an untethered approach to pickleball.
Untethered basically meansthere's no central theme,
there's no anchor to whichthese players are tethered.

(09:55):
And what happens is when you're untetheredas a player, you end up I was thinking
about a way of picturing it, right?
And one way of picturing it is imaginethat you're standing
out in a Plaza, right?
Back in the day, in thetown square, if you will.
And there's different fliers, differentpieces of paper flying through the air.

(10:15):
The wind is carrying fliersin different directions.
And each one has a different pick-up alltip from a different player,
different coach, different whatever.
And they're just flying around,whatever the wind carries.
And so you're just standing there andyou're just like, whatever
comes your way, you'll take.
So the wind pushes one tip in yourdirection, you grab it, you're
like, Okay, this is great.I'm going to do this.

(10:35):
Or if it happens to swirl the other wayand there's another tip, that's
the one you're going to do.
Or you have one in your hand, then you getanother one, you're like, Now, okay,
well, forget about the first one.I'm going to do the second one.
It's very fluid and loosey-goosy.
And this idea of these flyers flyingthrough the wind
and just falling into your handis exactly what's happening in

(10:56):
social media to you right now.
It's exactly what's happening withYouTube, with Instagram, with Facebook,
wherever you get TikTok, whatever,wherever you're getting your
social media feed, if you will.
That's exactly how that works.
That is a world of wind blowingin different directions.
You're getting a tip fromhere and a tip from there.
I actually had a conversationwith the team a few days ago.

(11:19):
I don't really go into Instagram too muchmyself, but I happened to be in there
because I needed to post something, andI just said, Let me scroll a little bit.
So I scroll a little bit, and Idon't I don't know how anybody who's on
Instagram navigates that interms of pickleball content.
And listen, I'm chuckling not as acriticism of any content creators.

(11:40):
Everybody's trying to do their best.That's all great.
I just don't know how youdo it as a player, right?
As a player sitting there,there's content creators on there.
I've never heard of before.
It doesn't mean they might bethe best thing since Slice Bread.
I have no idea, but Idon't know who they are.
The tips are all over the place.
You can find a tip for anything, again,depending on which way
the wind is blowing.

(12:01):
If you have an untethered interaction withwhat's happening, I don't
know how you navigate that.
I honestly don't know how you can navigatethat sea of information out there,
the pamphlets flying through the air.
I know I mixed themetaphor analogies there.
But basically,just the things that are floating around,

(12:21):
how you navigate it, I don't know.
Now, a tethered approach iswhere you have an anchor.
You have a thing that anchorsyour pickleball journey.
It gives you direction.
It gives you a sense of what's correct andincorrect based on this
tethering to an anchor.

(12:42):
And that way, when you get a thing thatcomes across your feet or somebody at the
court says something to you that is thelatest thing they've heard or whatever,
you don'thave to just follow it because you don't
know better or because you're untethered.
Not because you don't know better,it's just you're untethered.
You're just whatever.Okay, great.
I'll take it.
And so then tethered allows you,again, more control over your journey.

(13:05):
It gives you more directionalong the way you're headed.
It allows for a quicker improvementbecause you're not jumping
all over the place.
And it's actually more fulfillingbecause you're building.
And we've used this before in ourconversations, but it's this idea
of you have a puzzle box cover.
A puzzle box cover gives you a pictureof the puzzle you're trying to build.

(13:25):
Now, it doesn't mean thatyou can build it right away just
because you saw the puzzle box cover.
You still have to put all the pieces inorder and organize them if
you're building a puzzle.
And the anchor or your tether to a covergives you that sense of
where you're going, sense of what it lookslike, what's the picture look

(13:47):
like as you work to build it.
Whereas, again, a none-tether approach isthere's pieces, and you
don't know where they go.
You'll get a tips video, and maybe it hasyou put the pieces You think it's having
you put the pieces on the upper leftcorner, but they actually go in the lower
right corner, so you're puttingthem in the wrong place.
Similar to the conversation that we justhad about this idea of getting set or not

(14:08):
getting set when you'rehitting returns of serve.
If you don't understandhow these different pieces, one is a
purely mechanical piece on how tohit more reliable, consistent shots.
Again, I'm pretty confident.
I've spoken with Zane before.
I've interviewed him a couple of times.
We're cordial with each other.

(14:29):
I actually got against him onetime at the US Open and split.
He's just all over the place too much.
But he's an amazing player, andagain, a great thinker of the game.
But I'm confident that Zane would agreethat the more controlled your body is
while you're hitting, the higher thechances you're going to
hit a successful shot.
What he's doing is he's trading off alittle bit of that for quicker

(14:50):
time to the non- Volley zoneline, which is a strategic issue.
So he's trading off a little mechanicsfor strategic, which is fine.
I'm not criticizing.
I think it's a fine wayof thinking about it.
It just depends on where you as a playerare in the game right now, which one of
those makes you, which oneyou should lean towards.
Anyway, but if you don't have abetter understanding of the...

(15:12):
If you don't have an understanding of apuzzle box cover, understanding how the
game put together, you can't reconcilethose two ideas and understand that
they're fine together or thatthey live in the same universe.
Anyway, so how do you tether?
You can tether a couple ofA couple of different ways.
The long term tether isyou understand the game.

(15:36):
That's the long term tether.
That's basically I know...
I'm tethered.I'm so tethered in this game.
It's just crazy.
I feel crazy about it sometimes, butI am totally tethered in this game.
That's why I don't haveto watch Zane's video.
I can tell you,I have enough information to know, okay,
this is what Zane is getting at, and itmakes sense in that context,

(15:59):
and I have no problem with it.
In that context, it's fine.
Just like the video that I did onrushing makes sense in my context.
And again, I'm confident that if I washaving a conversation with Zane, we would
see eye to eye on these twovideos because he's tethered, too.
He's tethered.He has a clear understanding of the game.
I have a clear understanding of the game.So that's one way to tether.
Now, I've been playingpickleball for 10 years.

(16:21):
I've been coaching it for seven plus.
I am a full-time student of the game.
And I think about it very, logically,in a very progressive manner.
I've developed a curriculum calledthe Pickable System, all these things.
So with my coaches, a better pickle ball.
Anyway, but I've beena part of that process.

(16:43):
You respect the X,whatever, all these things.
So that's one way to get tethered.
The other way to get tetheredis you find an anchor.
And I just mentioned the pickleball systemthat we developed a better pickleball.
That's a tether.
That's an anchor that you can tether to.
Because the pickleball system has what arethe most important shots, why they're the

(17:04):
most important shots, energy andtrajectory that I mentioned earlier,
all these concepts that are veryfoundational and very clear.
And so you have a thing like the system,and you go, Okay, that's my anchor.
You tether yourself to it.
And now you're not justflying around in the wind with all these
things coming at you, and you don't knowwhat to take in and what not to take in.

(17:28):
Another way to tether would be if you havea coach in your area who
has a curriculum, has a philosophy, has away of approaching the game that's big
picture and not justhapazard, not just slap-dash.
I'm not suggesting that allcoaches are slap-dash or hapazard.
Let me be clear about that.
There are some verygood coaches out there.
If you happen to have one of those coachesand you can work with that coach, and that

(17:51):
coach can be your anchor,that's perfectly fine.
That's great.
But that's the anchorthat you're looking for.
In order to tether yourself.
There may also be other onlinematerials that provide a tether.
The ones that are an anchor, the ones thatI've seen, no offense to them, they're
fine, but they don't provide an anchorbecause they basically end up being

(18:15):
like an organized YouTube, if you will.
So like a behind the scenes YouTube,if you want to think about it that way.
So they're basically like tips, videosthat are just organized in a place.
That's not going to be an anchor unless ithas a framework or a
unifying theory, if you will, of the gamethat you're learning
throughout that process.

(18:36):
That's how you anchor yourself long term,and that's how you anchor yourself short
term by using the resource,like the pickable system.
So they may exist out there.
I'm just not familiar with those.
The ones I'm familiar with do not have acurriculum that would allow
you to anchor yourself there.
If they exist, then you can use them.That's great.
But that's how you tether yourself, right?
Having some an anchor that gives you aunifying theory, a unifying idea this

(19:00):
puzzle box cover thathelps you visualize it.
And then you use that to tether yourselfto it and avoid the distractions that are
not just out there, they're going tocontinue and they're going to increase as
the sport continues to increasein popularity and growth.
I fully expect more content creators tocome into the space, and

(19:21):
I don't begrudge them.
I think it's great.
I think for them, it's great.
The difficulty it presents for youas a player is to navigate that.
And tethering, I think, is agood way I love doing that.
All right, let me dive into the RIF.
The RIF is basically...
I want to talk aboutthe mental impact of...
Or the impact of working on yourmental game on your results.

(19:44):
I have this last week, and I was watchingthe Las Vegas, I think it was the Rate
Las Vegas Cup, the PPA event in Las Vegas.
It was a fantastic eventall the way around.
The men's doubles final wasabsolutely out of control.
It was two and a half hours ofpickle ball, went five games.

Game five was decided 12 (20:05):
10.
So you can't...

I guess you could have gotten 13 (20:11):
11 or 14
like the I don't know if you watchbaseball, but it's like the baseball game
with the Blue Jays and the Dodgers thatwent into 18 innings and was one
run in the end there.Same thing.
It's like just this monster battle.
And what stuck out to mewas, the play was amazing.

(20:32):
I did a video on...
I'm recording a video today that's goingto be on the IntiPickle
channel this week or next week.
You can check that out if you want to lookat some of the strategic
and mechanical parts.
But from a mental aspect of it,these players just did not break down.
The two that I want to focus on are...
So Andre Dascu is 37.

(20:53):
He's the elder statesmanof the top players.
He's not going to break down.
He's a rock.
Ben Jones on the other side ofthe court, same thing, rock.
He's not going to break down.He's going to do this thing.
So the two players that you'relooking at, you're looking at Chr.
Alshon, who's Andre's partner, andGabe Tardieu, who is Ben's partner.
Christian Alshon, fantasticathlete, amazing player.

(21:15):
I got to tell you, I don't know thedetails of his maturation
as a player, but I can tell you can see itin his demeanor, in his play.
Hats off to him.
He used to be a little bit of a mentalcase when he was out there.

(21:35):
The old Chr.
Alshon, I don't know if he navigatesthis game the way this Chr.
Alshon did.So again, hats off.
And you can see it.You can see it in his demeanor.
You can see it in his play.
His play did not lit up.
And I'll tell you guys, onerally in particular that sticks, well,
two, that I use in the videocoming out in to Picle.

One is at 8 (21:55):
09 or something like that, he missed a routine dink, routine Clean
little reset dink in the transition zone.
No big deal for him.
Makes it probably 95 %of the time, missed it.
Critical moment.
It's easy to get upset there, right?With yourself.
He didn't.He went back.
He spoke to André a second.

(22:15):
I think that's also really important.
André is helping Christiandevelop, which is really good.
And he's very supportive.
André has always been avery supportive partner.
That's a really importantpart of the game as well.
So Christian talks to André for a second.
He He goes back, he towels off, which is areally good technique just
to take a moment to yourself.
And then he comes out, and he basicallygets ready for the next rally, where he

(22:37):
does a couple of jump things, whatever,just gets himself ready to go.
The other one was even more dramatic,if you want to think about it that way.
So Ben and Gabe were servingat 9: 10, game five, 9: 10.
And Ben drives a ball at Christian on thethird shot, third shot drive at Christian,
and the ball clips the tape, pops up.

(22:58):
Christian can't quite geta paddle on and misses it.

So now it's 10 (23:01):
10.

It went from 9 (23:01):
10 to 10
Again, what do players do often there?
They get frustrated, they get upset, theyget like, Woe is me, the universe
is against me, ' whatever.Christian did not do that.
He stayed in the game.

They ended up losing the game 12 (23:15):
10, but it wasn't because he had a mental...
He checked out.
It was just really good rallies, and thechips fell in, or the cookie crumbled away
of Ben and Gabe in that particular moment.
But it wasn't because of a mentalbreakdown, and that was phenomenal.
And the other side of the court, youhave Gabe Tardieu, who's 20 years old.
And a couple of ralliesthat I'll mention to you.

One was at around 8 (23:36):
9 in game five.
He had an ATP opportunity.
He went for it, and he missed it.
And I believe that actually gave a point.

It might have been 8 (23:45):
08, that might have been an 8, 9.
I can't remember exactly what was a sideout or a point, but still, it was a big
moment, and he misses the ATP,and he was okay with it.
He wasn't upset about it.
And then the other one was even a biggerone, if you will, for them,
which was there was a...
Gabe had a ball that came through themiddle, and it

(24:07):
wasn't an easy put away shot, but athis level and his ability, it was his.
It was there.
He put the paddle on it.
He attacked it with a two-ended backhandand ended up going into the net.
Now, what's interesting about this one isyou saw him, he looked
up like, Oh, I missed it.
And then he took his paddle and heput it on his head, tapping his head.

(24:28):
And you know how sometimes playerswould do that, beating themselves up.
But what was cool is yousaw him catch himself.
So he did that once, and then hestopped doing it, realizing,
okay, got to get ready.
Then he ran hishand through his hair, which at my level
of hair, I'm like, oh, look atthat hair he's running it through.

(24:49):
And then he's ready to go.
And so the ability to navigatehigh pressure situations from a mental
standpoint, the The work you can putin, again, I want to focus on Chr.
Alshon, who before did nothave this mental fortitude.
He's been working on it.
Again, I don't know the details of whathe's doing, but whatever he's

(25:09):
doing, it's working great.
You can see it in hisdemeanor and his play.
Gabe Tardieu, young player at 20years old, can navigate these.
If these two players can navigate thehighest stress situations of finals at a

PPA in a 12 (25:21):
10, finally, but just stressful situation,
I'm pretty confident We can learn how tohandle our rec games or open play
or league, whatever we're doing.
We can learn how tonavigate that successfully.
And if you navigate it successfully,putting some time in your mental game,

(25:41):
you're going to reap the benefits, notjust in how you feel,
but also in how you play.
I'm going to plug thebook one more time here.
A little log rolling.
The book that we put out, we're reallyhappy with that because
it's a perspective book.
It'll give you a better perspective.
That'll avoid these spirals that canhappen whenever
we feel We'll start feeling bad aboutourselves and our play out on the court.

(26:03):
All right, that was apretty jam-packed episode.
I hope you enjoyed it.
If you enjoyed the podcast, even if youdidn't enjoy it, rate and review it.
Appreciate it.Put a rating in there.
If I did a one-starjob, give me a one-star.
Whatever you want to do on therating and the reviews, I accept it.
I take all feedback.
If you believe this podcast will helpone of your friends, whether there...

(26:25):
Maybe you have a friend out there who'suntethered, just following
the tip of the moment.
Maybe the idea of being tethered versusuntethered might be the message that lands
and resonates and allows them to startanchoring their journey in a way that's
more productive and more fulfillingbecause you have the fuller
relationship with the sport.

(26:46):
And that's it, again,for this week's podcast.
I already told you to share it with yourfriends, so I don't think I
have anything else to say today.
So hope you have a great week, and I'llsee you at the next episode
of Pickleball Therapy.Oh, yeah, one more thing.
So we're going to be at the Major LeaguePickleball and PPA, both in Dallas,
these next two weekends coming up.
So if you're in the area,please come say hello.
Kylene will be there.I'll be there.

(27:07):
I'll be sporting the orange caps,so it should be easy to identify.
Please come, say hello.
Let us take a picture with you.
Let us know how you knowus, things like that.
We'll have a then.
If not, I'll see you on the nextepisode of Pickleball Therapy.
Be well.