Hello and welcome to pickleball Therapy, the podcast dedicated to
your pickleball improvement.
It's the podcast dedicated to your pickleball mind.
I am your host of this weekly podcast, Tony Roig.
I am a full-time pickleball professional.
This is what I do with all of my time is break down pickleball, provide pickleball
coaching, think about pickleball, how to teach it better, and record content like
this, YouTube videos and podcasts like this, to hopefully bring some additional
value, some additional knowledge to your pickleball game, to your pickleball
journey, to your pickleball relationship.
In this week's podcast, I'm going to be diving into rules.
If you're watching on YouTube, behind me, you'll see rules, rules,
rules written on the board.
And here's the thing about rules.
It is a rules-based game, but the rules we're going to be talking about today are
the rules that are like rules of the road, if you will.
Things that you hear from players at the court, like strategy rules, like maxims,
things like 400 in the middle, respect the ex, get to the MVZ, all those things are
the type of rules we're going to be talking about.
And the reason is because rules can be helpful, but they can also be
detrimental if you're following too many rules or if you're
following the wrong rules.
So in this podcast, I'm going to give you some guidance
as to determining what rules to follow and what rules may be to go,
not sure about that one.
Let me give that some thought before you dive right into it.
And then in the RIF, I'm going to talk to you about About the forest from the trees.
Again, behind me on YouTube, you'll see a tree and you'll see a forest.
So we'll talk about that in the RIF.
Let's go and dive straight into the content of this week's podcast or
the concept of this week's podcast.
And what we're dealing with is we're dealing with this idea
of these rules, right?
And this podcast, the reason I wanted to talk about it this
week is because there's been some online chatter about rules, right?
And about the way that you think about rules.
And another coach who's fairly well followed on Facebook, wrote a couple of
posts dealing with what he described as binary and rigid
rules, and that you shouldn't follow them, so you should follow this idea that
he referred to as strategic fluidity.
And in those rules that he describes as being too rigid and should
be applied was respect the X.
So that obviously came to my attention because, I don't know if you know it or
not, but we're the originators of respect the X.
Back in 2018, I'm pretty sure, was when the first video on respect the X came out.
It survived the test of time.
It's a really great rule to understand, great guideline to understand,
as well as to understand when to use it and when to break it intentionally.
As as opposed to just reaching across and getting balls across the middle.
I'm not going to dive into Respect the X here.
If you want to know more about Respect the X, the strategy of it, you can go to the
In2Pickle channel and check out our playlist.
We have an entire playlist on Respect the X.
And then we're updating the Respect the X guide that we have.
That's a free resource that you can get at betterpickleball.
Com.
So just be on the look out for that when it comes out and you
can get a copy of that.
It's going to be the most comprehensive guide on Respect the X available.
But let's talk about this idea that there are some rules that
basically we shouldn't follow rigid rules or binary types of rules.
Here's the thing.
The idea of fluidity and pickleball, strategic fluidity, if you want to use the
terminology I was using the post, it's a fine concept.
In theory, it sounds great. I want to be fluid.
I want to be adapt to everything. Great.
But how does that work in practice?
How does that work when you're out there actually trying to do it?
Who hits the ball?
That's what respect the X deals with.
Respect the X, just real briefly, respect the X is,
helps you deal with middle ball uncertainty when you're playing doubles,
because that's where the problems arise. There's never a problem.
If the ball gets If the ball gets to the outside of me, I know it's mine.
If the ball gets to the outside of you, it's yours.
What happens with the balls in the middle?
Who covers those?
The ones that are coming across that middle, that's what trouble it issues.
That's why that saying, the middle solves riddle.
Why do you think that came up because the middle is so powerful.
All sorts of confusion in there.
Respect the X was designed, I designed it, I should say, back in 2018 to deal with
that because I was playing pickleball and that forehand in the
middle wasn't working.
We have a video on the In2Pickle channel that explains It means why forehand
in the middle is not a great rule.
You can check that out if you want to know more about it.
But respect the X was designed to deal with this middle coverage issue.
How do you determine who gets the ball?
All things being equal, who should take the ball.
I don't believe it's a rigid rule, but it's certainly a rule that is there and
available to you to avoid confusion between doubles partners.
Another rule that would be a rigid rule, if you want to call it that, is we're
trying to play the pickleball from the non-volley zone line as much as possible.
I don't believe any coach who understands the game would disagree with that
principle that if you can, you want to play from the non-volley zone line,
understanding that, strategically speaking, the team at the non-volley zone
line, again, all things being equal, will defeat a team that's not
at the non-volley zone line.
Those are the types of rules that help guide the way that we think about
pickleball.
Another rule, if you're thinking of your assistant Remember, you're really familiar
with this, is the idea of keeping your opponents back.
It's the other side of the coin of you want to
play the non-volley zone line is you don't want them to, your opponents.
The further you can keep them back, the better off you'll be.
Those are guidelines That's all the things that you can use to help you determine
the strategies for your shots.
One more that I'll give you is angles.
Make angles, right? Beget angles.
Basically, if you're going to shoot an angle shot off, you better be
ready for counterangles back.
Those are all things that can help you have a better understanding of
the way that a pickleball rally is constructed and how to deal
with who takes what shot.
So I believe it is helpful, big picture, as a player, to have an idea of these
rules or these guidelines that help you determine the best shot in any given
situation, as opposed to a purely fluid approach that requires that
you factor in all of the variables in a rally before you decide what to
hit every single shot that you hit.
Here's the thing.
If you looked at it scientifically, a rally, every time that you hit a shot,
particularly, let's say, deep in a rally, so you're hitting the
seventh shot in the rally.
There are many variables that you need to factor in or compute to
determine the best shot.
Most players, even the pro players, I'm I'm working with pro players.
Even the pro players don't try and figure it out in the moment every single time.
It's just too much. We don't have enough bandwidth for that.
Our brains don't work that fast.
To be able to calculate exactly where the opponents are, exactly where you and your
partner are, exactly what shot got hit your way, exactly what your abilities are
with that type of shot, what you can do with it, what you should do with
it, what the optimal shot is.
What most advanced players do is they have certain patterns and
tendencies that they bring to the table.
Now, that's not to say that you can't make adjustments as you go.
You're playing a game and you're trying something...
You're trying strategy X, right? But I don't use X.
That's our strategy. It's strategy A, right?
And strategy A isn't working.
So you can pivot the strategy B.
You can modify strategy A and make it strategy B.
That's perfectly fine.
But this idea that we're not going to play based on some
general appreciation of strategies, general appreciation of our own strengths,
general appreciation of our opponent's tendencies when we play, is
something I think is not...
Sounds great, right?
Fluid strategy, but in application, breaks down.
So when I read all this, it made me start thinking about,
what do you do if you're a player out there and you're trying to
figure this out yourself, right?
Which you should. I mean, this is your journey, right?
How do I deal with this?
What rules do I apply? What rules don't I apply?
So I came up with some ideas here, some guidelines or some suggestions.
You can call them rules if you want to.
Which I'll help you determine what rules How to screen rules, how to filter rules,
and how to gatekeep, if you will, your own journey.
Because here's the thing, even if you're going to discard all the
other rules and then have...
Here's the irony.
So the suggestion is, let's get rid of these rules.
And the thing is, there's no explanation as to why the rules shouldn't be applied,
which is going to be important in a second.
You'll understand. In a second.
If you're going to argue against a rule, argue against the rule.
Why? It doesn't make sense.
Four hand in the middle, doesn't work.
We explained why it doesn't work.
We made a video on it, and here's the reason it doesn't work.
You can watch the video and then make a decision.
You know what?
Tony's not right about that.
I'm going with four hand in the middle.
That's your right as a pickleball player.
But when there's just a suggestion that this rule shouldn't be followed because
it's binary or because it's rigid.
That's not a conversation.
Then the irony of it is then it's replaced with another rule, which is use
fluid strategy, which is a rule.
You do this way without any explanation of how to do fluid strategy or how it works.
I've already explained to you that the problem I see with that is in application,
I don't really know how that works.
Also, now you have a further complication because we're usually talking
about doubles in these situations.
What's my fluid strategy and what's your fluid strategy is maybe
two different things.
So who gets to decide that?
But anyway, so here's some ideas on how you can determine what rules to follow
and which ones not to.
Number one is the source.
Where does the rule or the suggestion come from?
In this case, I would say the suggestion came from a well-respected coach.
And so from a source standpoint, it's not problematic because this coach been around
the block, been successful as a player and as a coach.
And so you look at that and you go, Okay, the source source is good.
But there are many times, not this coach, but there's many times when you're getting
advice that the source is questionable.
An example are players at your courts.
And no offense to any player out there, right?
But many times players at the courts don't have a deep enough understanding of
pickleball to be giving advice to other players.
Not only that, they don't really understand your game or what you need
or where you're at and things like that.
So That's the advice that you take with a grain of salt.
Maybe you write it down or make a note of it and think about it later or
double-check it if you want to, things like that.
But don't just take advice you hear at the courts and just go, Boom, I'm in.
Because I can tell you one thing.
When I was a new player, I got a lot of bad advice, just a lot of
bad advice from players at the courts.
And again, nothing against those players. They meant well.
They weren't trying to do anything wrong.
But I, as a sentient human being, have the ability to say, You know what?
I appreciate it, but I'm not going to take that into my game because I don't know if
you know what you're talking about, right?
And the other thing is, and the fact that they're a good player, or you hear it from
a potentially good player, doesn't not mean anything, but doesn't just
say, Okay, they're a good player. They must know what they're talking about.
Not the case.
There's many situations where you have players who appear to be good players
because they are succeeding, in They're succeeding in their area, they're
beating other players in the area.
But those players, once you face them to good players in other areas,
maybe not as good, also don't have the understanding of the game that is going to
be helpful to a player like you, and if you want to really understand the game.
So what you want to look for is you want to look for sources who are serious about
pickleball, who are professionals, is what I'd recommend, and who are
And if it's well thought out, well thought out advice, these one-line things,
respect the X is shorthand.
But respect the X isn't the whole thing because alone, it's not enough.
To understand respect the X, you got to understand what it is and
also when you don't apply it.
So when you break the X is what we call it.
It's just respect the X. It's again, shorthand.
But a lot of times these rules get thrown out there like dogma, right?
Do this. But there's never any backing to it.
There's never any like, well, what does that mean?
And I'll get to that in a little more in a second because that's also important.
But is it a well-thought-out idea from this player?
Or is it just something that they heard and they're parroting to you?
Just be careful with that.
I can tell you that in terms of sources, I assure you that everything that we
provide to you a better pickleball is well-thought-out and your source is solid.
Anything you hear on this podcast or Better pickleball is something you
can take to the bank, so to speak.
Now, this one's tricky. The second one is tricky.
I'm going to get to the explanation of it in a second as the number three.
But number two is a tricky one because number two talks about it being
consistent with what you already know.
Now, that one cuts both ways because there are times you're going to
hear something that runs contrary to something else that you've heard.
And then you have to figure out, well, oh, man, now I got conflict here.
What do I do?
If the original source material came from a reputable source.
So let's say you came to one of our workshops, and we have another one coming
up in September that you're welcome to join this for.
But you come into one of our workshops and you hear something about the most It's the
most important shot in pickleball that we explain in the workshop.
And then someone at the court says, No, that's not right.
This is the most important shot.
So now you have conflict, right?
In that situation, you're going to discard
the player at the courts who's telling you different than the trusted source
who told you the other thing.
It also works the other way. That's why it's tricky.
Because you may have heard, for instance, get to the non-visal line as soon as
possible when the third shot is hit.
That's a very common advice that players get early on in their careers.
From us, you're going to hear something very different than that.
Now, you have to make a decision because you have a conflict.
It's not like these two are irreconcilable.
So you will have to pick one.
Our advice there is to pick ours because, again, we are the more trusted source.
We are the source that has a better understanding of the game.
And also, we're going to explain it to you, which I'll get to in a second.
And the other one is simply like, Get up here, get up here, get up here.
But they don't really have a real explanation for it in that context,
other than the understanding that the non-bolly's in the line is good, which is
true, but there's more context to that when you're playing on the surf side.
So just be cognizant.
And I will tell you this, a lot of what we teach at Better pickleball is
going to be contrarian. It seemed contrarian.
It's going to seem like, Oh, man, these guys are going against
what I've heard out there.
If we are, it's because what you've heard is wrong.
And we're not just going to simply keep parroting or mimicking information that is
incorrect out there and not give you what really matters,
because we're serious about what we do, and we believe that we have confidence in
you as a, again, essentially human being, and we want to communicate with you in
a way that will help you with your game.
So we're going to buck the trends whenever it's necessary.
And then the third component of it is going to be the explanation
that goes along with it.
How does it work?
How does it work under different scenarios?
Let's explore it.
There's a term that, back in my prior professional career, you like blackboxing.
You blackbox something.
So you take an idea or an equation or something, and you run it through a black
box several times with different inputs.
And then you see what outputs come out and see whether the thing works or not.
If it makes sense or doesn't make sense.
Respect the X, I've explained it for six years.
We've explained it for six years. It works.
It's a great guideline to apply for doubles.
It really simplifies things, makes things much clearer for both
players, and it still has enough exceptions to it for
breaking the X intentionally.
It's an all-around awesome rule that stood the test of time, and we explain it
thoroughly in all different scenarios.
And I have yet to have someone, a coach or another player,
challenge the X from a functional standpoint, with any
substance, with any depth, that would Excuse me, that would undermine the
respect the ex. And I'll tell you this.
I'm going to take a sip of water real quick.
Had some popcorn a little bit ago.
I think I have a little pea stuck in there.
I'll tell you this.
If it was shown to us that respect the ex was flawed, we would pivot
because we're not interested in advocating positions that are flawed, right?
But we know it works. That's why we keep on advocating it.
On the flip side, again, it's not a criticism of the coach who advocated this,
but I will tell you that the post that had this idea of strategic fluidity,
there's no real application of it.
It's just basically like, adapt to the situations that are in
front of you at every time.
We all do that, and we all want to do it, and we all do it.
When I drive down the road, I apply strategic fluidity because I'm like, The
driver in the right lane is coming over a little slow.
I got to back up. I got to break.
There is a merge coming in. The light's turning red.
All these different factors are happening. That's strategic fluidity.
But I also have general rules that I apply when I drive.
I don't drive like a lunatic.
I keep some distance with other cars.
I know how to move my foot from the...
I know that the break stops the car and the accelerator makes the car
go faster, things like that. Those are rules I drive with.
Within that, there's strategic fluidity, but it's very vague to just say strategic
fluidity in pickleball because there's no real guidance on how to do that.
So conceptually, on paper, fantastic.
Application, not really seeing how that works.
And that's the stuff that when you get a rule, when you get a thing, black box it.
How does this work?
How is it going to work when I'm playing with Bob, when I'm playing with Mary, when
I'm playing with Sue, when I'm playing with Joe?
How does this work in practice?
Those Those are three different ways that you can think about rules that come in.
But be mindful of your gateway, of your gate, right?
Of your gatekeeper yourself, because just having all these rules thrown at you and
just bam, bam, bam, bam, bam a very difficult way to play pickleball.
It'll take you down some weird paths and create uncertainty in you, unnecessarily.
So hopefully these three will help you.
And listen, if you get posed with a rule in the future and you don't remember, come
back to this episode, check it out, and remind yourself of the three things,
and then test it, see what you think.
All right, let's dive straight into the RIF.
So the idea of the RIF is, sometimes when we are
playing or working on ourselves, working on our game, sometimes we can lose
sight of the forest for the trees.
We get so hyper-focused on a tree that we lose sight of the bigger picture.
And here what I'm talking about are things like how you're going to approach a game,
how you're going to approach your play.
I am a huge fan of the fact that pickleball is a complex sport,
and it's complex in a great way. It offers...
It has a lot of layers to it and a lot of pieces to it, and
To master pickleball, if you want to think of it that way, or to become the best
player you can be, you're going to need to work in a bunch of different areas, a
bunch of different parts of the game, which altogether make for an awesome
pickleball playing experience for you.
As you move forward with your growth as a pickleball player, it's helpful to think
about yourself and the game big picture.
And and avoid getting hyper-focused on a particular tree.
Now, that's not to say that if you identify a tree in your forest that needs
work, so you need to work on a volley, then you put working on that.
But you don't lose sight of the rest of the game because you're
working on one shot.
So for example, you're working on your block volley.
And if you're a system member, you know this process that we have inside.
So you're working on your block volley, and then you're going to you're going to
focus on that.
So you're working on that block, working on that block.
But then you start playing and you're forgetting about your return of serve.
Well, your block volley is going to become a lot harder.
Your return to serve starts suffering.
So You don't want to forget the bigger picture of the game that you're playing in
the different parts of it and hyper focus so much on one part of
it that the other parts deteriorate.
Again, to be clear, when you're practicing, you can work on a tree.
You can prune the tree, right?
You can give it extra fertilized, whatever you got to do for that tree, that's fine.
But when you go play, when you go engage in the full game of pickleball,
don't lose sight of the other parts of the game that are just as important
to your overall performance.
And in fact, for which the particular tree you're working
on will benefit from because you're also implementing the whole forest, if
you will, of your game when you play.
So that's this week's podcast. I hope you enjoyed it.
I hope it's, again, these rules, it's important to gatekeep and take a big
picture view of yourself from time to time and when you're playing, right?
When you're playing, make sure that you're viewing all parts of the game and not
letting parts that you've already perhaps gotten better suffer because you're so
hyper-focused on this one potentially smaller piece of the puzzle.
If you enjoyed the podcast, as always, please consider rating and reviewing it.
It helps us reach other players just like you who may benefit from the podcast and
share with your friends, because if you enjoyed the podcast,
they probably will, too.
Be on the lookout for the next couple of weeks.
We have some announcements coming out, and that therapist project will be coming up
in the next, I would say, next two weeks. That's the plan anyway.
We'll get it done and out.
And I look forward to seeing Therapists Inside the Therapist event.
Have a great week, and I'll see you at the next episode of pickleball Therapy.
Be well.