In this week's episode we go back to archives where I'll share three essential mindset tools to help you mentally prepare before stepping onto the court. This will deepen your reason for playing, and create a positive feedback loop through intentional gratitude and clarity. Listen before your next match to elevate your mental game and play with purpose.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy,the podcast dedicated to
your pickleball improvement.
This is a special episode heading to thecourts version of Pickleball Therapy.
What I'm going to do in this episode, I'mgoing to give you three
things that you can focus on to get readyfor your pickleball all day.
In fact, they're all aimed at helping youfocus and also helping you play your best
today, helping you keep your mindstraight and avoiding potential
(00:28):
distractions out on the court.
If you like this podcastand it helps you on your way to the
courts, I recommend bookmarking itso that next time you're heading out to
the courts, you can justhave it ready to go.
It's going to be a fairly shortepisode because I want to give you enough
to consider, but I don't want to overwhelmyou and also want to give you time to
complete it before you get to the courts.
So let's go ahead and dive right in withthe first thing we're
(00:50):
going to talk about today.
It's going to be three things a gain.
The first thing we're going to lookat today is, what is your focus today?
So let's think aboutit a little bit, right?
What is it you're going to focuson today while you're playing.
If you're trying to improve, let's sayyou're trying to work
on an improved volleyball, you're tryingto improve
your third shot, or your movement, oryou're trying to hit your returns deeper,
(01:12):
whatever it is that you're workingon, that is going to be your focus today.
And the important thing isthis, and this is the hard part.
You got to pickone thing, not three things, not 10
things, not I'm going to win,not I'm going to play better.
It's fine to play better.
The problem with playing better isyou can't really measure it.
And then it gets mushy up in the head andyou start wondering, am I playing better?
(01:34):
What does that even mean?
Now, if you say to yourself,let's take an easy one.
I'm going to try and avoid thenet on my third shot drops.
Now, if you hit the net with a third shotdrop, you can say, Okay,
that's not what I wanted.
What do I need to do toavoid the net next time?
Maybe it's some more energy.
Maybe it's the trajectory of your shot.
If you're not sure what energy andtrajectory are, very
(01:56):
difficult to fix your shots.
Highly recommend you check out the pickand ball system because we include that in
there and there's a lot of discussion inthere on energy trajectory,
explaining to you all the parts.
But those are the ways that youcan actually influence your play.
And here's the thing.
Let's say, let's continue withthis third shot drop in the net.
So your objective today, let's say, is I'mgoing to clear the net on my third shots.
(02:18):
What will happen is you'll hit the net afew times because you're human
beings, but you'll have something veryspecific that you can focus on and then
that you can try and remedyas you continue to play.
And what you'll do is you'llfeel calmer because
what you're going to do is when you pickthe one thing you're going to focus
on, everything else becomes secondary.
(02:39):
And one way to think about it is, you knowthose on the cameras nowadays, it's pretty
easy to do where youhave a blurry background, so you can take
a photo of somebody, they look crisp andcrisp and clear, but the
stuff around them is fuzzy?
That's what happens.
What happens is you're so focused onthat third shot in clearing the net.
Or let's take another example,hitting your returns deep.
(03:00):
That when you hit the returnshort, it becomes very noticeable.
It's very apparent to you.
But the other things that are going on inthe game, they're fine, but they're fuzzy.
They're not super important in thesense of you paying attention to them.
And so you're reallyfocused on the one thing.
And what will happen is this, as you startclearing the net more with your thirds, if
(03:21):
that's what you're working on, orsay you start hitting your
returns deeper, guess what?You're going to play better.
Your results are going to be better, butnot because you're focused on the results.
What you're focused on is the thingthat you can actually control.
So as you'removing towards the courts, whether you're
walking there or drivingthere, give some thought to what it is
(03:42):
that you're going to focus on todaywhen you're out there playing.
And what I recommend is that next time yougo to the courts, if you're going to play
tomorrow, you're going to play in a coupleof days, think about it
before you're in the car.
Put this podcast on to remind you thatthis is what I need to be
focusing on today.
But give some thought to this, a couple ofthings that you want to work on over the
next week or two weeks, and thenyou're going to pick one of them.
(04:05):
You're going to say, You know what?I have three things on my list.
I'm working on this, this and that.
But today I'm going to work on that.
I'm going to focus on that.
And that will give you a lot of confidencewhen you're out on the court and really
let you focus whileyou're out there playing.
All right.
In a second, I'm going to give you numbertwo, and then we'll give you number three
of the things you're going to considerheading out to the football courts.
Stay tuned.
(04:26):
If you're ready to break out and becomethe best big ball player that you can be,
then the pickleball system is for you.
If you're ready to make the commitment toyourself in your pickleball game, you
can join us at thepickleballsystem.Com.
I'll put the link in the show notes.
If you're not sure whether you're readyfor the pickleball system or just want to
learn more about it, then join is for athree part mini series
where you will learn some of the mostimportant concepts that there
(04:49):
are in the sport of pickleball.
In addition to these concepts, you'll alsolearn more about the pickleball system.
You can find the link to the three partmini series down below in the show
notes, and we'll see you in class.
All right, the second thing I want you tothink about now, this is not
conflict with the first thing, right?
The first thing is what you'rethinking about while you're playing.
This is something I want you to thinkabout, which is a little bit more general.
(05:13):
What I want you to think about is, why areyou on your way to the courts right now?
Why are you in the car or why are youwalking to the courts or biking there?
Why are you on your way to the courts?
Is it primarily becauseyou want to get exercise?
Is it you want to see your friends?
Is it you just want toget out and do something?
(05:34):
Whateverit is that is your reason for going to the
courts, I want you to think about thaton your way to the courts.
And this is important.
It's important, not just becauseit'll make you feel mushy and better.
In other words, it's notjust the mushiness of it.
And the mushiness is great.Don't get me wrong.
(05:54):
But it's not justa mushy, mushy, zen thing that, Okay,
Tony's telling me to think about why I'mgoing to the courts, and
that's going to put me in a zen mode.
I want you to think practicallyabout it, pragmatically about it.
Here's how it works.
You're heading to the courtsand you're going there because
you want to see your friends.
(06:15):
You know that John and Sue and Bob andJane are going to be there, so
you're going there to see them.
And you get there and there's Bob andthere's Sue and a couple of other people
you didn't even think about being there.
And so now you've gottenwhat you came for.
Now you're going to get to playpickleball, which is amazing.
(06:37):
But I asked you a question, why areyou in your car heading to the courts?
Why are you walking to the courts?
Because of you fill in the blank.
And if you got you fill in theblank, you got what you came for.
And what that means is thatwhether you won the game or lost the game,
whether you hit the crazy good shot ormissed the easy put
(07:00):
away, doesn't matter as much.
Now that's going to have the mushy feelingbetter aspect to it.
But it's also pragmatically,practically going to help you play
better, because your mind is not occupiedwith the noise
of, I missed the shot, or, We just lostthat game and we were up 9
(07:23):
3, or something like that.
Why?That's not what you came for.
You didn't come here to win that game.
You came here to see your friends or toget the exercise or get out the door.
Now, that said, doesn'tmean you don't compete.
It doesn't mean you don't go out thereand give it your all and do your best.
But if you didn't come out there todayto win that third game against so and so
(07:46):
and so and so,then whether you won or lost that game is
not paramount, is not centralto your thinking or your feeling about
your day on the court.
So the second thing you need to do isthink about why are you heading out
to the courts to play pickleball?
And as long as you got that,you're going to have a great day.
All right, stay tuned.
(08:06):
We're going to go over the third thingthat I want you to do out there today
that will help you keep your focus andfurther increase your enjoyment
out there playing pickleball.Stay tuned.
As a pickleball ball player, you are nodoubt working on your game, but are
you also working on your vision?
Doesn't it make sense that better visionwill lead to better pickleball ball?
(08:28):
Not to mention better night driving.C.
J and I rely on the experts of Visual Edgeto help us track those balls
so we don't ever miss a shot.
If you're ready to take your visionand perhaps your.
Game.
To the next level, joinus inside Visual Edge.
I'll link.To it little bit more about it.
We'll see you inside.
All right, here's the lastthing that I want you to do.
(08:50):
Now, this you're going to dowhen you get to the courts.
I'm going to lay it out for you.
I'm going to set it out for younow or set it up for you now.
But you're going to do itonce you get to the courts.
And I want you to do it two moretimes while you're out there.
And I'll explain it.
What I want you to do when you get to thecourts, I want you to take a second, just
a second, put your bag down,look around you and just find gratitude.
(09:11):
Find just the beauty of you standingon or next to a pickleball court.
Maybe the sun's out, maybe there's a birdflying by, some trees
or plants if you like that as well.
That's what I like to look at.
Maybe you see a good friend you haven'tseen in a while, somebody visiting from
(09:32):
out of town, or someone who's beeninjured in his back at the courts, or
someone's laughing, whatever it is.
Find a moment of gratitude foryour interaction with this sport,
your interaction with the game.
It's well established that theresearch on dopamine and
(09:54):
the loop that your brain generates with itand things like that, it's all
really well established stuff.
And there's parts of your brainthat are more primeval, right?
Not lesser developed, butthey're a little more primordial, right?
They're just the ones that make you, Ineed food, I feel danger,
(10:14):
those types of things, right?
And those parts of your brain,it's not tricking them,
it's just conditioning them.
And so you can use yourhigher sentient abilities
to feed information to the parts of yourbrain that are a little more primitive
and to get a positive response from those.
(10:36):
And one way of doing thatis through gratitude.
Is taking a moment, using yourconscious mind to stop
yourself, put your stuff down and forceyourself to look around for a minute and
find something to give gratitude for.
And that will feed yoursubconscious or your primitive mind
some positive messages.
And then you'll have a positivedopamine loop with the whole process.
(10:59):
Your relationship with the game andyour relationship with that day.
As I said earlier, is therea mushy benefit to that?
Absolutely.
Just like with the second suggestion aboutwhy you're heading to the courts or
the second assignment you have today.
You're going to feel better, butagain, you're going to play better
because you're going to feel better.When you feel better, you play better.
(11:20):
You're more relaxed, you're more loose,and you're just going to execute better.
Your shots are going to be better.
You're going to be clearer of mind.
It's just going to be abetter day all the way around.
When you get to the courts, take a moment,find some gratitude, find
something to be grateful for.
Then what I want you to dois I want you about halfway through the
session, you know how long your sessionis, maybe it's after three
(11:41):
games or four games, repeat it.Do the same thing.
Find a second thing to be grateful for.
Guarantee you can findsomething to be grateful for.
Look around the courts.
If you're just grateful for being on thepickleball court that day, being able to
move around and have a goodtime out there, fantastic.
Find gratitude there.
Then then I want youto do it one more time.
(12:02):
At the end of the session, when you'regetting ready to go home, take a moment.
Don't rush out there.Don't worry about it.
Unless you have somebody like a doctor'sappointment you got to get to or something
that you got to rush out for,you have time.
Take a minute for yourself.
Stop and be grateful for yourday on the pickleball court.
The good, the bad and the ugly, whateverhappened out there today,
you got to play some pickleball.
(12:24):
Think of how many people in the worldtoday did not get to play pickleball.
They have other things going on in theirlives and whatever, and they simply
don't get to do what you got to do.
So try and find gratitudethree times today.
That will build a positivereinforcement for you.
You're going to feel better andyou're going to play better.
Remember, bookmark this episode ifyou enjoyed it, if it helped you out.
(12:46):
Listen to it when you'reheading to the courts.
If you enjoyed the podcast,please rate and review it.
It helps us reach other players.
And as always, if you enjoyed thepodcast, share it with your friends.
If you enjoyed it, they probably will too.
Have a great time out there andwe'll see you next time.
Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy,the podcast dedicated to
your pickleball improvement.
This is a special episode heading to thecourts version of Pickleball Therapy.
What I'm going to do in this episode, I'mgoing to give you three
things that you can focus on to get readyfor your pickleball all day.
In fact, they're all aimed at helping youfocus and also helping you play your best
today, helping you keep your mindstraight and avoiding potential
(00:28):
distractions out on the court.
If you like this podcastand it helps you on your way to the
courts, I recommend bookmarking itso that next time you're heading out to
the courts, you can justhave it ready to go.
It's going to be a fairly shortepisode because I want to give you enough
to consider, but I don't want to overwhelmyou and also want to give you time to
complete it before you get to the courts.
So let's go ahead and dive right in withthe first thing we're
(00:50):
going to talk about today.
It's going to be three things a gain.
The first thing we're going to lookat today is, what is your focus today?
So let's think aboutit a little bit, right?
What is it you're going to focuson today while you're playing.
If you're trying to improve, let's sayyou're trying to work
on an improved volleyball, you're tryingto improve
your third shot, or your movement, oryou're trying to hit your returns deeper,
(01:12):
whatever it is that you're workingon, that is going to be your focus today.
And the important thing isthis, and this is the hard part.
You got to pickone thing, not three things, not 10
things, not I'm going to win,not I'm going to play better.
It's fine to play better.
The problem with playing better isyou can't really measure it.
And then it gets mushy up in the head andyou start wondering, am I playing better?
(01:34):
What does that even mean?
Now, if you say to yourself,let's take an easy one.
I'm going to try and avoid thenet on my third shot drops.
Now, if you hit the net with a third shotdrop, you can say, Okay,
that's not what I wanted.
What do I need to do toavoid the net next time?
Maybe it's some more energy.
Maybe it's the trajectory of your shot.
If you're not sure what energy andtrajectory are, very
(01:56):
difficult to fix your shots.
Highly recommend you check out the pickand ball system because we include that in
there and there's a lot of discussion inthere on energy trajectory,
explaining to you all the parts.
But those are the ways that youcan actually influence your play.
And here's the thing.
Let's say, let's continue withthis third shot drop in the net.
So your objective today, let's say, is I'mgoing to clear the net on my third shots.
(02:18):
What will happen is you'll hit the net afew times because you're human
beings, but you'll have something veryspecific that you can focus on and then
that you can try and remedyas you continue to play.
And what you'll do is you'llfeel calmer because
what you're going to do is when you pickthe one thing you're going to focus
on, everything else becomes secondary.
(02:39):
And one way to think about it is, you knowthose on the cameras nowadays, it's pretty
easy to do where youhave a blurry background, so you can take
a photo of somebody, they look crisp andcrisp and clear, but the
stuff around them is fuzzy?
That's what happens.
What happens is you're so focused onthat third shot in clearing the net.
Or let's take another example,hitting your returns deep.
(03:00):
That when you hit the returnshort, it becomes very noticeable.
It's very apparent to you.
But the other things that are going on inthe game, they're fine, but they're fuzzy.
They're not super important in thesense of you paying attention to them.
And so you're reallyfocused on the one thing.
And what will happen is this, as you startclearing the net more with your thirds, if
(03:21):
that's what you're working on, orsay you start hitting your
returns deeper, guess what?You're going to play better.
Your results are going to be better, butnot because you're focused on the results.
What you're focused on is the thingthat you can actually control.
So as you'removing towards the courts, whether you're
walking there or drivingthere, give some thought to what it is
(03:42):
that you're going to focus on todaywhen you're out there playing.
And what I recommend is that next time yougo to the courts, if you're going to play
tomorrow, you're going to play in a coupleof days, think about it
before you're in the car.
Put this podcast on to remind you thatthis is what I need to be
focusing on today.
But give some thought to this, a couple ofthings that you want to work on over the
next week or two weeks, and thenyou're going to pick one of them.
(04:05):
You're going to say, You know what?I have three things on my list.
I'm working on this, this and that.
But today I'm going to work on that.
I'm going to focus on that.
And that will give you a lot of confidencewhen you're out on the court and really
let you focus whileyou're out there playing.
All right.
In a second, I'm going to give you numbertwo, and then we'll give you number three
of the things you're going to considerheading out to the football courts.
Stay tuned.
(04:26):
If you're ready to break out and becomethe best big ball player that you can be,
then the pickleball system is for you.
If you're ready to make the commitment toyourself in your pickleball game, you
can join us at thepickleballsystem.Com.
I'll put the link in the show notes.
If you're not sure whether you're readyfor the pickleball system or just want to
learn more about it, then join is for athree part mini series
where you will learn some of the mostimportant concepts that there
(04:49):
are in the sport of pickleball.
In addition to these concepts, you'll alsolearn more about the pickleball system.
You can find the link to the three partmini series down below in the show
notes, and we'll see you in class.
All right, the second thing I want you tothink about now, this is not
conflict with the first thing, right?
The first thing is what you'rethinking about while you're playing.
This is something I want you to thinkabout, which is a little bit more general.
(05:13):
What I want you to think about is, why areyou on your way to the courts right now?
Why are you in the car or why are youwalking to the courts or biking there?
Why are you on your way to the courts?
Is it primarily becauseyou want to get exercise?
Is it you want to see your friends?
Is it you just want toget out and do something?
(05:34):
Whateverit is that is your reason for going to the
courts, I want you to think about thaton your way to the courts.
And this is important.
It's important, not just becauseit'll make you feel mushy and better.
In other words, it's notjust the mushiness of it.
And the mushiness is great.Don't get me wrong.
(05:54):
But it's not justa mushy, mushy, zen thing that, Okay,
Tony's telling me to think about why I'mgoing to the courts, and
that's going to put me in a zen mode.
I want you to think practicallyabout it, pragmatically about it.
Here's how it works.
You're heading to the courtsand you're going there because
you want to see your friends.
(06:15):
You know that John and Sue and Bob andJane are going to be there, so
you're going there to see them.
And you get there and there's Bob andthere's Sue and a couple of other people
you didn't even think about being there.
And so now you've gottenwhat you came for.
Now you're going to get to playpickleball, which is amazing.
(06:37):
But I asked you a question, why areyou in your car heading to the courts?
Why are you walking to the courts?
Because of you fill in the blank.
And if you got you fill in theblank, you got what you came for.
And what that means is thatwhether you won the game or lost the game,
whether you hit the crazy good shot ormissed the easy put
(07:00):
away, doesn't matter as much.
Now that's going to have the mushy feelingbetter aspect to it.
But it's also pragmatically,practically going to help you play
better, because your mind is not occupiedwith the noise
of, I missed the shot, or, We just lostthat game and we were up 9
(07:23):
3, or something like that.
Why?That's not what you came for.
You didn't come here to win that game.
You came here to see your friends or toget the exercise or get out the door.
Now, that said, doesn'tmean you don't compete.
It doesn't mean you don't go out thereand give it your all and do your best.
But if you didn't come out there todayto win that third game against so and so
(07:46):
and so and so,then whether you won or lost that game is
not paramount, is not centralto your thinking or your feeling about
your day on the court.
So the second thing you need to do isthink about why are you heading out
to the courts to play pickleball?
And as long as you got that,you're going to have a great day.
All right, stay tuned.
(08:06):
We're going to go over the third thingthat I want you to do out there today
that will help you keep your focus andfurther increase your enjoyment
out there playing pickleball.Stay tuned.
As a pickleball ball player, you are nodoubt working on your game, but are
you also working on your vision?
Doesn't it make sense that better visionwill lead to better pickleball ball?
(08:28):
Not to mention better night driving.C.
J and I rely on the experts of Visual Edgeto help us track those balls
so we don't ever miss a shot.
If you're ready to take your visionand perhaps your.
Game.
To the next level, joinus inside Visual Edge.
I'll link.To it little bit more about it.
We'll see you inside.
All right, here's the lastthing that I want you to do.
(08:50):
Now, this you're going to dowhen you get to the courts.
I'm going to lay it out for you.
I'm going to set it out for younow or set it up for you now.
But you're going to do itonce you get to the courts.
And I want you to do it two moretimes while you're out there.
And I'll explain it.
What I want you to do when you get to thecourts, I want you to take a second, just
a second, put your bag down,look around you and just find gratitude.
(09:11):
Find just the beauty of you standingon or next to a pickleball court.
Maybe the sun's out, maybe there's a birdflying by, some trees
or plants if you like that as well.
That's what I like to look at.
Maybe you see a good friend you haven'tseen in a while, somebody visiting from
(09:32):
out of town, or someone who's beeninjured in his back at the courts, or
someone's laughing, whatever it is.
Find a moment of gratitude foryour interaction with this sport,
your interaction with the game.
It's well established that theresearch on dopamine and
(09:54):
the loop that your brain generates with itand things like that, it's all
really well established stuff.
And there's parts of your brainthat are more primeval, right?
Not lesser developed, butthey're a little more primordial, right?
They're just the ones that make you, Ineed food, I feel danger,
(10:14):
those types of things, right?
And those parts of your brain,it's not tricking them,
it's just conditioning them.
And so you can use yourhigher sentient abilities
to feed information to the parts of yourbrain that are a little more primitive
and to get a positive response from those.
(10:36):
And one way of doing thatis through gratitude.
Is taking a moment, using yourconscious mind to stop
yourself, put your stuff down and forceyourself to look around for a minute and
find something to give gratitude for.
And that will feed yoursubconscious or your primitive mind
some positive messages.
And then you'll have a positivedopamine loop with the whole process.
(10:59):
Your relationship with the game andyour relationship with that day.
As I said earlier, is therea mushy benefit to that?
Absolutely.
Just like with the second suggestion aboutwhy you're heading to the courts or
the second assignment you have today.
You're going to feel better, butagain, you're going to play better
because you're going to feel better.When you feel better, you play better.
(11:20):
You're more relaxed, you're more loose,and you're just going to execute better.
Your shots are going to be better.
You're going to be clearer of mind.
It's just going to be abetter day all the way around.
When you get to the courts, take a moment,find some gratitude, find
something to be grateful for.
Then what I want you to dois I want you about halfway through the
session, you know how long your sessionis, maybe it's after three
(11:41):
games or four games, repeat it.Do the same thing.
Find a second thing to be grateful for.
Guarantee you can findsomething to be grateful for.
Look around the courts.
If you're just grateful for being on thepickleball court that day, being able to
move around and have a goodtime out there, fantastic.
Find gratitude there.
Then then I want youto do it one more time.
(12:02):
At the end of the session, when you'regetting ready to go home, take a moment.
Don't rush out there.Don't worry about it.
Unless you have somebody like a doctor'sappointment you got to get to or something
that you got to rush out for,you have time.
Take a minute for yourself.
Stop and be grateful for yourday on the pickleball court.
The good, the bad and the ugly, whateverhappened out there today,
you got to play some pickleball.
(12:24):
Think of how many people in the worldtoday did not get to play pickleball.
They have other things going on in theirlives and whatever, and they simply
don't get to do what you got to do.
So try and find gratitudethree times today.
That will build a positivereinforcement for you.
You're going to feel better andyou're going to play better.
Remember, bookmark this episode ifyou enjoyed it, if it helped you out.
(12:46):
Listen to it when you'reheading to the courts.
If you enjoyed the podcast,please rate and review it.
It helps us reach other players.
And as always, if you enjoyed thepodcast, share it with your friends.
If you enjoyed it, they probably will too.
Have a great time out there andwe'll see you next time.
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.