December 26, 2025 • 21 mins
In this year-end episode of Pickleball Therapy, I invite you to think differently about your game by using pickleball as a canvas for growth in 2026. Beyond wins and losses, pickleball can challenge your mind, strengthen your body, and support personal development on and off the court. Listen in as you prepare to step into the new year with intention and purpose.
Show Notes: https://betterpickleball.com/276-your-2026-pickleball-canvas/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy,the podcast dedicated to
your pickleball improvement.
I am Tony Roig, the hostof this weekly podcast.
I hope you're doing well.
We're right in the middle here of theholiday season, actually getting
towards the end of December.
This will be our last episode of 2025.
I'm going to take advantage of today'sepisode and give you some conversation
(00:28):
to help you get ready for 2026.
Next week, I believe Friday falls on thesecond of January or something like that.
So we're going to take next week off.
So there'll be no podcast next week, butwe'll be back on the ninth
with another episode.
So this episode will beour year-end episode.
If you miss us next week, please listen tothis episode again because the idea is in
this episode help you get set up for 2026.
(00:51):
Every year, I think it's important tothink about our
movement forward as human beings, aspickleball players, specifically
because of the topic of this podcast.
But the idea is to just continue togrow, enjoy our lives, grow as humans.
And that's what we'regoing to talk about today.
(01:12):
Before we dive into the substance of thepodcast, I do want to ask you guys
for a year-end favor, if I can.
Call it a holiday gift if youfeel like that sounds good.
We published the book, Pickleball Therapy.
You don't have to buy the book.
That's not what I'm asking.
What I am asking, though, is that if youdid buy the book or if you're reading the
(01:37):
book, whatever, if you've read the book,basically, can you please
leave us a review on Amazon?
I know it takes a minute to do.
Also, I was talking to amember of the team, and they mentioned
that perhapsit seems like a little bit daunting,
meaning maybe you think that youhave to write something really long.
You don't.
You can go on there and write somethingvery short about, I enjoyed the
(01:59):
book or didn't enjoy the book.
I mean, I've always said, whateveryou feel about it, you say it.
You don't haveto coddle me or a candy coat.
But if you read the book, shareyour experience with the book.
Maybe there was one sectionin the book you liked.
You can share I'm happy with that.
Whatever you want to say about it.It really helps us.
(02:20):
It helps the book gain traction.
That's just the world that we live in.
And it's something that I can'tdo anything about it other
than ask you to do it.
So I'm asking I'm going to click on the Nhere to see if I can get more
of you to leave a review.
It's not like a secret information.
You can go to Amazon, you can see there'sonly eight reviews on there right now.
And I know that there's probably400 or 500 players who have read the book.
(02:48):
And here's the thing.
If the book sucked, write it.
Give it a one star.
One star, this book sucks.Fine.
But please let me knowwhat you think about.
Hopefully, that's not the case.
But if it is, But just let us knowwhat you think about the book.
And it could just be something like, readthe book and liked it, read the
(03:08):
book, thought it was okay, whatever.
Whatever you think, give it the rightnumber of stars that you're comfortable
with, and that'll help usreach other players, also to help other
players understand what the book...
That the book is something worththeir time or not worth their time.
All right, let's dive into thesubstance of this year and podcast.
What I want to talk about is I want totalk about using pickleball as a canvas.
(03:31):
I think it's such a powerful...
I mean, you know, obviously, thatI'm a big proponent of pickleball.
I think it's a fantastic activity.
I think it's a great addition to anybody'slife who's able to play pickleball.
I think pickleball is available to almostanybody who cares to do it, and it
(03:52):
can be such a positive to your life.
But I think beyond that, I think we canthink about pickleball
the other a way as well, meaning we canuse pickleball as a way
to add to our lives.
So like, pickleball, standingalone, right, is good.
(04:12):
For us, it's helpful.
For us, it's a It's good for us.It's helpful for us, is a positive for us.
But beyond that, think about usingpickleball as a way to improve you, so to
improve us, right, to improve ourselves.
And there's three areasthat I'm going to touch on.
But the idea is that basically, pickleballends up being this canvas where
(04:32):
we can basically use it to exerciseourselves, and not just physical exercise,
that's one of them, but it's to workon ourselves, it's to paint ourselves.
It's to experiment with different ways ofapproaching things
that I think is really helpful.
And I'll share the RIF a story thathappened to me this week in
(04:54):
playing pickleball.
It was a session where, I don't know, Iwasn't feeling myself, and I got I got
down on myself about some of my playbecause this is a process for
me, too, a project for me, too.
So I'll share that in the RIF.
But the idea is that I've been able to usepickleball, right, personally as a canvas
for myself in this particular instance,dealing with how I navigate
(05:20):
mental adversity that I'm creating formyself based on how
I'm doing on the court.And again, I'll share that in the RIF.
But let's go throughthree different areas.
And I'm going to challenge you here inthis podcast is to
take some time and think about how you canuse 2026 and your interaction with
pickleball to continueto further yourself.
(05:40):
And so I'm going to start with theeasiest one, if you will,
which is just your pickleball.
And when you think about pickleball, youcan think about pickleball in terms of
a game or a sport that we play,but perhaps maybe give some
thought to it being a puzzle.
It's like a constantly evolvingpuzzle that challenges you to
(06:05):
perform certain physical activitiesto try and solve that puzzle
in the best way you can.
And if you think about just a standardrally, let's take the side of the serve.
So you're serving.
Think of the steps that you're tryingto do to prevail in that rally.
First thing is you have to mechanicallyexecute a shot, call the serve, put it
(06:26):
into play, and then hopefully youropponents are able to execute shot, the
return of serve, and put it into play.
Then you're going to execute a third shot.
It could be a third shot drop, it could bea third shot drive, a third shot lob, a
third shot anything, but you'regoing to execute some shot.
When you start thinking about, Okay,well, where am I hitting the third shot?
What type of shot am I hitting?
Who am I hitting it to?
All these types of things.
(06:47):
Then that's solving the puzzle.
That's a step in solving this puzzle.
Then after you hit that shot, thenyou're going to move somewhere on
the court or stay where you're at.
You're going to do something physical interms of your movement around the
court, and so is your partner.
And then hopefully, you're going to hitanother shot, the fifth shot, and then
you're going to move some more or staywhere you're at or move left,
(07:08):
move right, move forward.
And then you're going to hit another shot,hopefully, maybe a dink at that point.
If you're up at the non-body zone line,maybe an attack shot, maybe a volley.
It could be a number of different things.
And then every time you have, whereare you going to hit the shot?
What type of shot are you going to hit?
If you're one of our students, then whattype of energy and trajectory
(07:31):
will your shot have?
All those are thesedetails of building a puzzle.
I've only described one rally.
That's just one rally.
Then you have the next rally.
Let's say you're serving again.
Well, maybe the last rally, you did acertain thing and you
got some information.
So now you know, okay, this player likestheir backhand more than their forehand.
So maybe I'll stay away from theirbackhand and go to their forehand.
(07:52):
And so you can add that level ofcomplexity to your puzzle solving.
Now, let me take a quick detour I don'twant to bog you down with this, meaning I
don't want you to think that in order toplay pickleball, you need
to do all of these things.
I'm just showing you a sneak peek, if youwill, of how far you can go
with your thinking over time.
Not saying you got to do itthe next time you play, okay?
(08:14):
Because I I don't want you to not enjoyplaying because now you're trying to
think of too many things, potentially.
But there is a world inwhich you can do that.
That's the world in which I live.
But I've been playing for 10 years.
I play at senior pro level.
I do pick a ball full-time.
I think a lot about it.
I was studying video early today, and Istudied some video yesterday in some pro
matches, pros that we're working with.
(08:34):
Anyway, but basically, that's how deepyou can go in this if you choose to.
No matter how deep you're going,you're still solving a puzzle.
You still have a bunch of thingsto do in that puzzle solving.
So this puzzle solving is like a game thatyou're playing that allows your brain,
feeds your brain, right?
It's like doing a crossword puzzle.
(08:56):
I love crossword puzzles.I do them.
I do Sudoku.
I like doing those things for my mind.
I'm going to sneeze in asecond, so I'm apologizing.
I'm not interrupting thepodcast, but I will sneeze.
So I'll pause in a second.Apologies for the sneezing.
I'm going to guess there'sanother one coming behind it.
I'm basically crossword puzzles,Sudoku's, those are all great.
(09:17):
Jogging is great.
All these things you cando, lifting weights, great.
Pickleball is one of those things whereyou basically get to do all of it
at the same time.
You're You're doing a crosswordpuzzle, and here it comes.
I got apologies.I don't know why.
Maybe there's something in the airin the studio that I'm seeing today.
(09:38):
But basically, you'redoing both simultaneously.
You're engaging in physical activity,running around,
as well as mental activity, solving thepuzzle, solving the strategy, figuring
out what's going on in real-time.
That is extremely powerful stuff.
Extremely powerful for your mind, keepingyour mind vibrant, you're firing those
(10:00):
neurons out there, keeping your body well.
And so you can use pickleball as thiscanvas to challenge yourself, to go
deeper into the sport, if you so choose.
And what I mean by that is understandingmore about what's happening
in the game as you play it.
The challenge for you here is, can youcontinue to grow your
(10:24):
knowledge of the sport?
And the reason that's, I believe,important, and I want to suggest to you
that you should put that on your list ofideas of how to use pickleball as a canvas
for yourself in 2026, is becauseas you grow as a player, you're going to
be able to do the things that youalready do repetitively, right?
(10:45):
So if you already know how to do steps onethrough four at a certain level of play,
and that's all you keep doing, no harm.
Okay, I want to be no harm.That's fine.
Keep doing it.Enjoy it.
Have a good time.But you're not challenging up here.
And if you're watching thevideo, I'm popping my head.
That's what I'm popping.I'm challenging my mind.
You're not challenging it anymore.You're not testing it.
(11:05):
You're not stressing it.
And the stressing of it, the stressing ofyour mind, the stressing of your body is
what keeps you growing,is what keeps you going.
It's what avoids atrophy ofthe mind and of the body.
So in this particular sense, what you canuse pickleball for is
to keep on pushing yourself, right?
Keep curious, right?
Stay curious, stay growing, stay learning.
(11:26):
I would be remiss here if I did not pointout some ways you can do that with us.
And the reason I do that isbecause I love doing this podcast.
I will continue doing this podcast,probably as long as I'm doing
this, anything with pickleball.
But at the same time, we also coach.
Our main focus is coachingand growth for players.
(11:48):
So for instance, if you wanted to workwith us, we have online options with
our academy, also the Pickleballsystem when that is available.
That's the best programWe're not there, bar none.
We also have camps.
Right now, we have severalcamps available coming up.
Is it an investment?
Sure, it's an investment.
(12:09):
I understand that.
But if you do want to, in fact, continueto grow and learn, it's
a great way to do it.
And then we also have a direct coachingprogram, which is the most intensive
program that we've offered in terms ofjust continuous feedback loop and learning
and going deep and deep and deep on thesport specific to you is
our direct coaching program.
So if you're interested in coaching, Youcan always send us an email
(12:31):
at any of our email addresses and askabout our coaching opportunities,
and we will provide them to you.
But that's one way to use pickleball as acanvas for yourself to continue to
challenge yourself and stressyourself with this sport.
So that's one thing you can do.
One way you can take advantage, I shouldsay, of pickleball in 2026 more fully.
(12:51):
The other two areas that I want to touchon, one has to do with the body
and one has to do with the mind.
This is what we refer to inside of all ofour coaching as the athletic pillar,
one of the three pillars of pickleball.
And this is where you basicallyuse pickle, if
you will, between the activity that youlove to do, the sport you go play,
(13:12):
and the life that you lead.
AndI'll give you a couple of simpler ideas,
and then you can go further with it ifthere's other areas that
you want to focus on.But let's start with the body, right?
That athletic pillar's body and mind.
So let's start with the body.
So let's say that you wantto play better pickleball.
One of the things that is really importantto playing better
(13:33):
pickleball is leg strength.You need leg strength.
The stronger that your quads, hamstrings,and glutes are,
your upper legs and your butt are, thebetter you're going to play pickleball.
Okay, because you can getdown more for your dinks.
And I can tell you, I experienced that,and I'll share it in the RIF in a second,
but I experienced that a couple of daysago when I played, or yesterday when I
played, I couldn't really get down for theshots as well because I tweaked my back,
(13:58):
as I think I mentioned acouple of weeks in the podcast.
So it's just a little bit ofdifficulty in getting down low.
Shots don't work as well, right?A lot of shots in the net.
I can't get under the shots enough.
A little frustration that I had.
But it comes from, at least in part,and I'm not excusing it, right?
But it stems from havinglimitations with my body.
In this case, they're injurylimitations, so maybe they're not as...
(14:21):
They're less preventable.
But for instance, if you can't get down todink because you lack leg strength, that's
something that you can address in 2026.
One way to address your leg strengthwould be body weight squats.
Before you do any of these suggestions, ifyou're not sure what you're doing,
check with your health care provider.
You can find more informationon other resources.
(14:44):
If you're inside the Biggerball system,you do have some resources in there inside
the athletic pillar that will helpyou with working on your body.
But body weight squats were great tostrengthen your glutes
and also your upper legs.
It's going to help you dink better.
But guess what else it's going to do?
It's going to also helpyou get around better.
Getting out of the chair, moving aroundwhen you have to get up and get down,
(15:08):
having stronger legs,you're going to walk better.
You're just going to feel better, right?
You're probably going to Are you goingto reduce chance of injury in your life?
So you have this straddle, right?
Between like, okay, this thing that I'mworking on, which is squats,
helps my pickle ball.
That's my canvas thatI'm really focused on.
I want to dink better.So I'm going to work on my legs' strength.
It also helps my life.
(15:30):
You can also think of things like,for instance, balance.
Having better balance will allow you toplay better pickleball because you're able
to move with more security on the court.
You're able to stand with morebalance as you hit your shots.
Balance will also help youavoid falls as you get older.
So these are things that have overlapped.
They have real, quote unquote, real worldapplication, real life application,
(15:51):
as well as pickleball application.
So that's a couple of examples of howyou can use pickleball as your canvas.
Now, notice, I didn't saySay, play pickleball, get the excess
from pickleball, and that's good enough.That's great.
Listen, I'm not talking that down.
That's a fantastic thing thatpickleball offers you is exercise.
But there's more exercise available to youthat will help you play better pickleball
(16:13):
inside the canvas of the pickleball,as well as improve your life.
So don't sleep on that.
And then the other part is your mind.
Now, I give you credit for listening.
Listening to this podcast is agreat way of working on your mind.
You get these ideas ideas.
We have conversations.
We talk about bowls of ice cream.
(16:33):
We do things like thatthroughout the year.
And that helps you frame out betterhow you're going to approach the game.
What you're doing there is you'relistening to a podcast called Pickleball
Therapy because you're usingpickleball as your canvas here.
But you're learning techniques, you'relearning ideas that can help in any
situation that you're in in life.
So there's that straddle betweenpickleball and your life.
(16:54):
I would also recommendin 2026, add a book.
It can be our book.It It doesn't have to be our book.
There's plenty of good books.
We have several books on betterpickerball.
com that we recommend.
But pick a book, right?
Start in the first quarter, 2026.
Say, I'm going to read a book to help mymind because I'm going to play
betterpickerball, but I'm also going tolive better because my mind is growing.
(17:16):
Those are three ways that you can usepickleball as a canvas in 2026, using
pickleball itself as this puzzle, thisvery complex mental, physical puzzle
that you're playing in real-time.
Continue to go deeper with it.Challenge yourself.
Can I Can I go deeper in myunderstanding of the sport?
Can I go deeper in these rallies?
Meaning I see more in the rally so I canplay with more variables
(17:37):
in my mind as I'm playing.
That'll challenge you more.
That's like doing the...
I forget the days, but I think there's theMonday crossword puzzle on New York Times
is, I've heard it said, the MondayNew York, I think it's a Monday one.
The Monday, you can do an inkbecause it's pretty simple.
Then you get to the Sunday one,and that one's like, oh, my God.
There's differences in terms of how muchyou challenge yourself with those things.
(17:58):
Same thing as shidoku,easy, medium, or difficult.
Pickleball, you can use the same way.
The deeper you go into the sport, the morecomplex the game playing becomes and
the more challenging it is to your mind.
Then you can also use 2026 in pickleballfor your body, to improve your
body and to improve your mind.
Take advantage of the New Year's stuffwhere we're all focused,
we're all doing our thing.Kick off 2026.
(18:20):
Well, we have an eight-weekfitness challenge.
I forgot to mention earlier for the bodythat we're doing inside Better Pickleball.
I highly recommend you check that out.C.
J.Johnson put that together.
I know that several members of the teamuse it religiously every year at the
beginning of the year, and itreally helps them with their body.
I've used it in the past as well.
I can tell you that you use it and it'sreally going to help you with your
(18:41):
pickleball as well as with your life.
That's that straddle concept.So check that out.
If you're on our email list,you're getting notifications of it.
So just click on one of thosenotifications and you'll
find out more about it.
So take advantage of that and takeadvantage of this Canvas idea to
use pickleball to its fullest for you as ahuman being and improving your
travel through the universe.
(19:03):
Now, let me jump into the RIF, and I'mgoing to share really briefly this thing
that happened, and thenwe'll wrap for this episode.
So playing wasn't playing theway that I want to play, right?
And that happens.We've talked about it before.
You go into it.
You need to be able to accept that somedays are going to be
better than other days.
I played a day before, and I played out ofmy mind well, and then I played,
(19:25):
and I didn't play as well on Monday.
So then I started getting down onmyself a little bit while I was playing.
I I actually reached out to myfriends and I told them that I was...
Apologies for...
Because I was getting on myself.
I'm not going to say anything to anybodyelse about their stuff,
but I was on myself.
My friends shouldn't have to deal withthat when I'm just being
a Debbie Downer on myself.
So I reached out to them to apologize.
(19:46):
But the good news is, A, recognitionof your student, how powerful that is.
So recognition was pretty quick.
And then, B, I was able toget past it, move past it pretty quickly
by understanding understanding thatthat's just a part of how life is, right?
And now I'm still a work in process, justlike probably everybody listened to this.
(20:07):
If you weren't a work in process, I guessyou probably wouldn't be
listening to this podcast.So we're all works in process.
And it allowed me to then move past thatmore easily than I probably could have a
few years ago before I had the tools thatwe've worked on throughout the five years
that we've been on theair on this podcast.
So my plans for 2026 is to continue to dowhat I have been doing, which is
(20:27):
pickleball as a canvas for myself,for my body, for my mind, as well as
for my understanding of pickleball.
Even though I've been doing it for a longtime, doing this coaching for
a long time, I still learn.
I still have differentways of looking at things.
Just today, I was coming up with a new wayof slicing up a match to see what the
deciding factors wereinside of a pro match.
(20:50):
Because I've said this before, and I'llcontinue to say it,
you cannot exhaust this sport.
This sport will always have something toteach you as long as you remain curious.
And I hope 2026, for you,is as curious a year as ever.
That's the podcast for this week.I hope you enjoyed it.
If you enjoyed it, pleaseconsider sharing it with a friend.
Remember, if you enjoyed thepodcast, they probably will, too.
(21:12):
I hope you have enjoyed and continue toholiday season in 2025, and
I will see you all in 2026.
Be well.
Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy,the podcast dedicated to
your pickleball improvement.
I am Tony Roig, the hostof this weekly podcast.
I hope you're doing well.
We're right in the middle here of theholiday season, actually getting
towards the end of December.
This will be our last episode of 2025.
I'm going to take advantage of today'sepisode and give you some conversation
(00:28):
to help you get ready for 2026.
Next week, I believe Friday falls on thesecond of January or something like that.
So we're going to take next week off.
So there'll be no podcast next week, butwe'll be back on the ninth
with another episode.
So this episode will beour year-end episode.
If you miss us next week, please listen tothis episode again because the idea is in
this episode help you get set up for 2026.
(00:51):
Every year, I think it's important tothink about our
movement forward as human beings, aspickleball players, specifically
because of the topic of this podcast.
But the idea is to just continue togrow, enjoy our lives, grow as humans.
And that's what we'regoing to talk about today.
(01:12):
Before we dive into the substance of thepodcast, I do want to ask you guys
for a year-end favor, if I can.
Call it a holiday gift if youfeel like that sounds good.
We published the book, Pickleball Therapy.
You don't have to buy the book.
That's not what I'm asking.
What I am asking, though, is that if youdid buy the book or if you're reading the
(01:37):
book, whatever, if you've read the book,basically, can you please
leave us a review on Amazon?
I know it takes a minute to do.
Also, I was talking to amember of the team, and they mentioned
that perhapsit seems like a little bit daunting,
meaning maybe you think that youhave to write something really long.
You don't.
You can go on there and write somethingvery short about, I enjoyed the
(01:59):
book or didn't enjoy the book.
I mean, I've always said, whateveryou feel about it, you say it.
You don't haveto coddle me or a candy coat.
But if you read the book, shareyour experience with the book.
Maybe there was one sectionin the book you liked.
You can share I'm happy with that.
Whatever you want to say about it.It really helps us.
(02:20):
It helps the book gain traction.
That's just the world that we live in.
And it's something that I can'tdo anything about it other
than ask you to do it.
So I'm asking I'm going to click on the Nhere to see if I can get more
of you to leave a review.
It's not like a secret information.
You can go to Amazon, you can see there'sonly eight reviews on there right now.
And I know that there's probably400 or 500 players who have read the book.
(02:48):
And here's the thing.
If the book sucked, write it.
Give it a one star.
One star, this book sucks.Fine.
But please let me knowwhat you think about.
Hopefully, that's not the case.
But if it is, But just let us knowwhat you think about the book.
And it could just be something like, readthe book and liked it, read the
(03:08):
book, thought it was okay, whatever.
Whatever you think, give it the rightnumber of stars that you're comfortable
with, and that'll help usreach other players, also to help other
players understand what the book...
That the book is something worththeir time or not worth their time.
All right, let's dive into thesubstance of this year and podcast.
What I want to talk about is I want totalk about using pickleball as a canvas.
(03:31):
I think it's such a powerful...
I mean, you know, obviously, thatI'm a big proponent of pickleball.
I think it's a fantastic activity.
I think it's a great addition to anybody'slife who's able to play pickleball.
I think pickleball is available to almostanybody who cares to do it, and it
(03:52):
can be such a positive to your life.
But I think beyond that, I think we canthink about pickleball
the other a way as well, meaning we canuse pickleball as a way
to add to our lives.
So like, pickleball, standingalone, right, is good.
(04:12):
For us, it's helpful.
For us, it's a It's good for us.It's helpful for us, is a positive for us.
But beyond that, think about usingpickleball as a way to improve you, so to
improve us, right, to improve ourselves.
And there's three areasthat I'm going to touch on.
But the idea is that basically, pickleballends up being this canvas where
(04:32):
we can basically use it to exerciseourselves, and not just physical exercise,
that's one of them, but it's to workon ourselves, it's to paint ourselves.
It's to experiment with different ways ofapproaching things
that I think is really helpful.
And I'll share the RIF a story thathappened to me this week in
(04:54):
playing pickleball.
It was a session where, I don't know, Iwasn't feeling myself, and I got I got
down on myself about some of my playbecause this is a process for
me, too, a project for me, too.
So I'll share that in the RIF.
But the idea is that I've been able to usepickleball, right, personally as a canvas
for myself in this particular instance,dealing with how I navigate
(05:20):
mental adversity that I'm creating formyself based on how
I'm doing on the court.And again, I'll share that in the RIF.
But let's go throughthree different areas.
And I'm going to challenge you here inthis podcast is to
take some time and think about how you canuse 2026 and your interaction with
pickleball to continueto further yourself.
(05:40):
And so I'm going to start with theeasiest one, if you will,
which is just your pickleball.
And when you think about pickleball, youcan think about pickleball in terms of
a game or a sport that we play,but perhaps maybe give some
thought to it being a puzzle.
It's like a constantly evolvingpuzzle that challenges you to
(06:05):
perform certain physical activitiesto try and solve that puzzle
in the best way you can.
And if you think about just a standardrally, let's take the side of the serve.
So you're serving.
Think of the steps that you're tryingto do to prevail in that rally.
First thing is you have to mechanicallyexecute a shot, call the serve, put it
(06:26):
into play, and then hopefully youropponents are able to execute shot, the
return of serve, and put it into play.
Then you're going to execute a third shot.
It could be a third shot drop, it could bea third shot drive, a third shot lob, a
third shot anything, but you'regoing to execute some shot.
When you start thinking about, Okay,well, where am I hitting the third shot?
What type of shot am I hitting?
Who am I hitting it to?
All these types of things.
(06:47):
Then that's solving the puzzle.
That's a step in solving this puzzle.
Then after you hit that shot, thenyou're going to move somewhere on
the court or stay where you're at.
You're going to do something physical interms of your movement around the
court, and so is your partner.
And then hopefully, you're going to hitanother shot, the fifth shot, and then
you're going to move some more or staywhere you're at or move left,
(07:08):
move right, move forward.
And then you're going to hit another shot,hopefully, maybe a dink at that point.
If you're up at the non-body zone line,maybe an attack shot, maybe a volley.
It could be a number of different things.
And then every time you have, whereare you going to hit the shot?
What type of shot are you going to hit?
If you're one of our students, then whattype of energy and trajectory
(07:31):
will your shot have?
All those are thesedetails of building a puzzle.
I've only described one rally.
That's just one rally.
Then you have the next rally.
Let's say you're serving again.
Well, maybe the last rally, you did acertain thing and you
got some information.
So now you know, okay, this player likestheir backhand more than their forehand.
So maybe I'll stay away from theirbackhand and go to their forehand.
(07:52):
And so you can add that level ofcomplexity to your puzzle solving.
Now, let me take a quick detour I don'twant to bog you down with this, meaning I
don't want you to think that in order toplay pickleball, you need
to do all of these things.
I'm just showing you a sneak peek, if youwill, of how far you can go
with your thinking over time.
Not saying you got to do itthe next time you play, okay?
(08:14):
Because I I don't want you to not enjoyplaying because now you're trying to
think of too many things, potentially.
But there is a world inwhich you can do that.
That's the world in which I live.
But I've been playing for 10 years.
I play at senior pro level.
I do pick a ball full-time.
I think a lot about it.
I was studying video early today, and Istudied some video yesterday in some pro
matches, pros that we're working with.
(08:34):
Anyway, but basically, that's how deepyou can go in this if you choose to.
No matter how deep you're going,you're still solving a puzzle.
You still have a bunch of thingsto do in that puzzle solving.
So this puzzle solving is like a game thatyou're playing that allows your brain,
feeds your brain, right?
It's like doing a crossword puzzle.
(08:56):
I love crossword puzzles.I do them.
I do Sudoku.
I like doing those things for my mind.
I'm going to sneeze in asecond, so I'm apologizing.
I'm not interrupting thepodcast, but I will sneeze.
So I'll pause in a second.Apologies for the sneezing.
I'm going to guess there'sanother one coming behind it.
I'm basically crossword puzzles,Sudoku's, those are all great.
(09:17):
Jogging is great.
All these things you cando, lifting weights, great.
Pickleball is one of those things whereyou basically get to do all of it
at the same time.
You're You're doing a crosswordpuzzle, and here it comes.
I got apologies.I don't know why.
Maybe there's something in the airin the studio that I'm seeing today.
(09:38):
But basically, you'redoing both simultaneously.
You're engaging in physical activity,running around,
as well as mental activity, solving thepuzzle, solving the strategy, figuring
out what's going on in real-time.
That is extremely powerful stuff.
Extremely powerful for your mind, keepingyour mind vibrant, you're firing those
(10:00):
neurons out there, keeping your body well.
And so you can use pickleball as thiscanvas to challenge yourself, to go
deeper into the sport, if you so choose.
And what I mean by that is understandingmore about what's happening
in the game as you play it.
The challenge for you here is, can youcontinue to grow your
(10:24):
knowledge of the sport?
And the reason that's, I believe,important, and I want to suggest to you
that you should put that on your list ofideas of how to use pickleball as a canvas
for yourself in 2026, is becauseas you grow as a player, you're going to
be able to do the things that youalready do repetitively, right?
(10:45):
So if you already know how to do steps onethrough four at a certain level of play,
and that's all you keep doing, no harm.
Okay, I want to be no harm.That's fine.
Keep doing it.Enjoy it.
Have a good time.But you're not challenging up here.
And if you're watching thevideo, I'm popping my head.
That's what I'm popping.I'm challenging my mind.
You're not challenging it anymore.You're not testing it.
(11:05):
You're not stressing it.
And the stressing of it, the stressing ofyour mind, the stressing of your body is
what keeps you growing,is what keeps you going.
It's what avoids atrophy ofthe mind and of the body.
So in this particular sense, what you canuse pickleball for is
to keep on pushing yourself, right?
Keep curious, right?
Stay curious, stay growing, stay learning.
(11:26):
I would be remiss here if I did not pointout some ways you can do that with us.
And the reason I do that isbecause I love doing this podcast.
I will continue doing this podcast,probably as long as I'm doing
this, anything with pickleball.
But at the same time, we also coach.
Our main focus is coachingand growth for players.
(11:48):
So for instance, if you wanted to workwith us, we have online options with
our academy, also the Pickleballsystem when that is available.
That's the best programWe're not there, bar none.
We also have camps.
Right now, we have severalcamps available coming up.
Is it an investment?
Sure, it's an investment.
(12:09):
I understand that.
But if you do want to, in fact, continueto grow and learn, it's
a great way to do it.
And then we also have a direct coachingprogram, which is the most intensive
program that we've offered in terms ofjust continuous feedback loop and learning
and going deep and deep and deep on thesport specific to you is
our direct coaching program.
So if you're interested in coaching, Youcan always send us an email
(12:31):
at any of our email addresses and askabout our coaching opportunities,
and we will provide them to you.
But that's one way to use pickleball as acanvas for yourself to continue to
challenge yourself and stressyourself with this sport.
So that's one thing you can do.
One way you can take advantage, I shouldsay, of pickleball in 2026 more fully.
(12:51):
The other two areas that I want to touchon, one has to do with the body
and one has to do with the mind.
This is what we refer to inside of all ofour coaching as the athletic pillar,
one of the three pillars of pickleball.
And this is where you basicallyuse pickle, if
you will, between the activity that youlove to do, the sport you go play,
(13:12):
and the life that you lead.
AndI'll give you a couple of simpler ideas,
and then you can go further with it ifthere's other areas that
you want to focus on.But let's start with the body, right?
That athletic pillar's body and mind.
So let's start with the body.
So let's say that you wantto play better pickleball.
One of the things that is really importantto playing better
(13:33):
pickleball is leg strength.You need leg strength.
The stronger that your quads, hamstrings,and glutes are,
your upper legs and your butt are, thebetter you're going to play pickleball.
Okay, because you can getdown more for your dinks.
And I can tell you, I experienced that,and I'll share it in the RIF in a second,
but I experienced that a couple of daysago when I played, or yesterday when I
played, I couldn't really get down for theshots as well because I tweaked my back,
(13:58):
as I think I mentioned acouple of weeks in the podcast.
So it's just a little bit ofdifficulty in getting down low.
Shots don't work as well, right?A lot of shots in the net.
I can't get under the shots enough.
A little frustration that I had.
But it comes from, at least in part,and I'm not excusing it, right?
But it stems from havinglimitations with my body.
In this case, they're injurylimitations, so maybe they're not as...
(14:21):
They're less preventable.
But for instance, if you can't get down todink because you lack leg strength, that's
something that you can address in 2026.
One way to address your leg strengthwould be body weight squats.
Before you do any of these suggestions, ifyou're not sure what you're doing,
check with your health care provider.
You can find more informationon other resources.
(14:44):
If you're inside the Biggerball system,you do have some resources in there inside
the athletic pillar that will helpyou with working on your body.
But body weight squats were great tostrengthen your glutes
and also your upper legs.
It's going to help you dink better.
But guess what else it's going to do?
It's going to also helpyou get around better.
Getting out of the chair, moving aroundwhen you have to get up and get down,
(15:08):
having stronger legs,you're going to walk better.
You're just going to feel better, right?
You're probably going to Are you goingto reduce chance of injury in your life?
So you have this straddle, right?
Between like, okay, this thing that I'mworking on, which is squats,
helps my pickle ball.
That's my canvas thatI'm really focused on.
I want to dink better.So I'm going to work on my legs' strength.
It also helps my life.
(15:30):
You can also think of things like,for instance, balance.
Having better balance will allow you toplay better pickleball because you're able
to move with more security on the court.
You're able to stand with morebalance as you hit your shots.
Balance will also help youavoid falls as you get older.
So these are things that have overlapped.
They have real, quote unquote, real worldapplication, real life application,
(15:51):
as well as pickleball application.
So that's a couple of examples of howyou can use pickleball as your canvas.
Now, notice, I didn't saySay, play pickleball, get the excess
from pickleball, and that's good enough.That's great.
Listen, I'm not talking that down.
That's a fantastic thing thatpickleball offers you is exercise.
But there's more exercise available to youthat will help you play better pickleball
(16:13):
inside the canvas of the pickleball,as well as improve your life.
So don't sleep on that.
And then the other part is your mind.
Now, I give you credit for listening.
Listening to this podcast is agreat way of working on your mind.
You get these ideas ideas.
We have conversations.
We talk about bowls of ice cream.
(16:33):
We do things like thatthroughout the year.
And that helps you frame out betterhow you're going to approach the game.
What you're doing there is you'relistening to a podcast called Pickleball
Therapy because you're usingpickleball as your canvas here.
But you're learning techniques, you'relearning ideas that can help in any
situation that you're in in life.
So there's that straddle betweenpickleball and your life.
(16:54):
I would also recommendin 2026, add a book.
It can be our book.It It doesn't have to be our book.
There's plenty of good books.
We have several books on betterpickerball.
com that we recommend.
But pick a book, right?
Start in the first quarter, 2026.
Say, I'm going to read a book to help mymind because I'm going to play
betterpickerball, but I'm also going tolive better because my mind is growing.
(17:16):
Those are three ways that you can usepickleball as a canvas in 2026, using
pickleball itself as this puzzle, thisvery complex mental, physical puzzle
that you're playing in real-time.
Continue to go deeper with it.Challenge yourself.
Can I Can I go deeper in myunderstanding of the sport?
Can I go deeper in these rallies?
Meaning I see more in the rally so I canplay with more variables
(17:37):
in my mind as I'm playing.
That'll challenge you more.
That's like doing the...
I forget the days, but I think there's theMonday crossword puzzle on New York Times
is, I've heard it said, the MondayNew York, I think it's a Monday one.
The Monday, you can do an inkbecause it's pretty simple.
Then you get to the Sunday one,and that one's like, oh, my God.
There's differences in terms of how muchyou challenge yourself with those things.
(17:58):
Same thing as shidoku,easy, medium, or difficult.
Pickleball, you can use the same way.
The deeper you go into the sport, the morecomplex the game playing becomes and
the more challenging it is to your mind.
Then you can also use 2026 in pickleballfor your body, to improve your
body and to improve your mind.
Take advantage of the New Year's stuffwhere we're all focused,
we're all doing our thing.Kick off 2026.
(18:20):
Well, we have an eight-weekfitness challenge.
I forgot to mention earlier for the bodythat we're doing inside Better Pickleball.
I highly recommend you check that out.C.
J.Johnson put that together.
I know that several members of the teamuse it religiously every year at the
beginning of the year, and itreally helps them with their body.
I've used it in the past as well.
I can tell you that you use it and it'sreally going to help you with your
(18:41):
pickleball as well as with your life.
That's that straddle concept.So check that out.
If you're on our email list,you're getting notifications of it.
So just click on one of thosenotifications and you'll
find out more about it.
So take advantage of that and takeadvantage of this Canvas idea to
use pickleball to its fullest for you as ahuman being and improving your
travel through the universe.
(19:03):
Now, let me jump into the RIF, and I'mgoing to share really briefly this thing
that happened, and thenwe'll wrap for this episode.
So playing wasn't playing theway that I want to play, right?
And that happens.We've talked about it before.
You go into it.
You need to be able to accept that somedays are going to be
better than other days.
I played a day before, and I played out ofmy mind well, and then I played,
(19:25):
and I didn't play as well on Monday.
So then I started getting down onmyself a little bit while I was playing.
I I actually reached out to myfriends and I told them that I was...
Apologies for...
Because I was getting on myself.
I'm not going to say anything to anybodyelse about their stuff,
but I was on myself.
My friends shouldn't have to deal withthat when I'm just being
a Debbie Downer on myself.
So I reached out to them to apologize.
(19:46):
But the good news is, A, recognitionof your student, how powerful that is.
So recognition was pretty quick.
And then, B, I was able toget past it, move past it pretty quickly
by understanding understanding thatthat's just a part of how life is, right?
And now I'm still a work in process, justlike probably everybody listened to this.
(20:07):
If you weren't a work in process, I guessyou probably wouldn't be
listening to this podcast.So we're all works in process.
And it allowed me to then move past thatmore easily than I probably could have a
few years ago before I had the tools thatwe've worked on throughout the five years
that we've been on theair on this podcast.
So my plans for 2026 is to continue to dowhat I have been doing, which is
(20:27):
pickleball as a canvas for myself,for my body, for my mind, as well as
for my understanding of pickleball.
Even though I've been doing it for a longtime, doing this coaching for
a long time, I still learn.
I still have differentways of looking at things.
Just today, I was coming up with a new wayof slicing up a match to see what the
deciding factors wereinside of a pro match.
(20:50):
Because I've said this before, and I'llcontinue to say it,
you cannot exhaust this sport.
This sport will always have something toteach you as long as you remain curious.
And I hope 2026, for you,is as curious a year as ever.
That's the podcast for this week.I hope you enjoyed it.
If you enjoyed it, pleaseconsider sharing it with a friend.
Remember, if you enjoyed thepodcast, they probably will, too.
(21:12):
I hope you have enjoyed and continue toholiday season in 2025, and
I will see you all in 2026.
Be well.
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