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Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy,
the podcast dedicated to

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your pickle improvement.

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I'm your host of this
weekly podcast, Tony Roig.

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It's a pleasure to be with you.

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I'm recording this podcast on-site, so
there may be some background noises from

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time to time as part of this podcast.

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Today, we're going to be talking about a
subject that is near and dear to my heart

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and near and dear to your development as a
pickleball player, and that is

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shifting the paradigm of how we react to
adverse events when we play pickleball.

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We're going to explore different levels of
events, meaning from the end of the game

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to the rally, all the way down to being
inside of a rally,

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so that we can have a better perspective
on how we react to those

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events and understand that we have a
certain amount of control over

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the way that we react, the way that we
handle those events when they

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occur because they will occur.

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That's just part of the game that we play.

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This is an extension or a development of
that zero-sum concept that

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I started working on with you a few weeks
back in one of the podcasts where we were

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dealing with how we respond
to certain situations and talking about

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the idea that
we can move away from a zero-sum

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mentality, a zero-sum approach,
in terms of how we react to the

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events that we are dealing with
when we play a pick-a-ball.

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Let's start with
defining what zero sum means.

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Zero sum is a
way of looking at things, or it's a

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reality that we deal with where One side
gets something means the

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other side loses something.

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At the end, you have a zero sum.

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The victor would have a one,
the loser would have a negative one, and

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when you add those two
together, you end up with zero.

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There's things in life that
are viewed as zero sum.

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An example would be like a war.

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You could argue a war as negative,
negative, but the idea is that

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one side Wins means the other side loses.

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At the end, you have a zero sum.

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Pickleball, in its
essence, is a zero sum activity

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because pickleball is built around the
concept that there's going to be one

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winner and there's going to be one loser.

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If you want to think about it, that's
at the highest level of the game.

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At the end of a match or at the end of a
game, you have a team that

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is declared the victor.

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That team gets a plus, plus one if
you want to for purposes of easy math.

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Then you have a side or a team that
has a loss, and that is a minus one.

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Add those up, and you have a zero.

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That's zero sum at the highest level of
the game, which is at the game level.

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It's the same at a rally, at
a rally level in our sport.

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At the end of a rally, we have a side
that wins the rally, gets a plus.

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We have a side that loses
a rally, that's a minus.

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Again, You end up with zero
once you add those two together.

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And then you can go even deeper.

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You can go into the rally itself.

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So during the rally, you'll have a shot
that gets hit that is a

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good offensive shot by one side.

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So say, the stress dink out to the side
or a smash shot, something like that, a

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roll volley and a flick shot into
your body, something like that.

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That is a plus to that side.

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It creates a negative to your side
because now you're under stress.

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Again, you add those two up
and you end up with a zero.

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So you can think about zero sum, the zero
sum approach at different

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levels of pickleball.

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I'm going to walk you through how to
deal with it more constructively in how

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you react to those at the three
different levels as we go on here.

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But what we're trying to deal with is
we're trying to deal with the game

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from a perspective standpoint.

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In other words, we're trying
The reality of the situation is we

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are playing a game where we will have a
winner and we will have a loser

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of the game, of the rally.

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We will have situations during rallies
where one team is in the lead, meaning

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They have the advantage or they have
the offensive momentum, if you will.

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Then we'll have a team that does not.

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That's the reality that
we have to deal with.

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The cool part about this is that we do not
have to simply accept that

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thing that is happening to us, that
reality that we're experiencing.

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We actually have the ability to
address it or to react to it in

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whichever way we choose in our minds.

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We're We're going to take a detour here
because I need to explore this concept

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with you about how we can
react to different things.

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I'm going to give you
one of the analogy/metaphors, and then

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we're going to come back to pickle ball.

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But what we need to understand is
there's a distinction between the thing.

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The thing is a win-loss thing.

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A win and a loss.

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Add those two together, you
end up with zero, right?

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But that's the nature of
the game that we're playing.

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What we want to delve into is, do
we have to react to it in that way?

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Do we have to simply accept
That it's a win for one, a loss for the

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other, good for one, bad for
the other, and then that's it.

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We don't have any choice over how that
impacts us, or do we

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have some agency here?

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Can we react to it in a way that is more
constructive for us, more positive for us,

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and is going to allow us to feel better,
play better, and also just have an overall

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better experience when
we're playing pickleball?

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The detour here
is Let's go into an analogy metaphor where

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you, or a loved one or a
partner of yours, drops a dish.

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That's a dish that means something to you,
not just one of a 20 dish, but maybe it's

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a glass that means something to you, or a
plate that means something to you, or a

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serving dish that means something to you.

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You or your loved one drops
that dish, and it breaks.

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It cracks.
That's the reality.

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That is the thing that happened.

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We can't There's no sense in sugar
coating the thing that happened.

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The dish fell, the dish broke.

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We can't change that.

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Same way like when you play pickleball as
we're going to get into,

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you're going to lose games.

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That's just the reality
of how we deal with.

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Back to the dish, though.

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How we react to that reality
is within our control.

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It's 100% entirely within our ability to
determine how we want to react

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to the reality that the
dish in the situation broke.

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One option would be we can
just get upset about it.

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We can despair over it.
Oh, my.

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The dish broke.
That's terrible.

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I can't believe this dish is gone.

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We can get upset about it.

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Another option is we can acknowledge that
these things happened That is simply we're

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human, and it's human nature to make
these sorts of mistakes and drop things.

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It's just part of how we're built.

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It's basically an acknowledgement, a
situation where we are

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being neutral about it.

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We're just saying, Okay, well,
it's too bad the dish broke, but

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that's just part of the deal.

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That's just part of being a
human being navigating the Earth.

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If it makes you feel better,
I like thinking about this from time to

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time because it helps you
frame things, I think.

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You're actually traveling at 67,000 miles
per hour around the sun

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every moment of every day.

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That doesn't include your travel through
the universe, doesn't include your

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rotation around the axis of the Earth.

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Just traveling around the
sun at 67,000 miles an hour.

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I think dropping a dish at 67,000
miles an hour is not that bad.

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That's option two, is acknowledge your
human nature and that that's

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just part of the deal.

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Third option is you get philosophical
about it and recognize that everything

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comes to an end,
even the life of a prized dish.

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Then fourth, you can even
take it a step further.

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You can go…

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There's a Japanese
concept called kinsugi, which is the art

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of repairing broken, primarily ceramic.

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I don't know, it may extend to more than
ceramic, but it's primarily

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in the ceramic world.

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You have a dish that breaks, and in the
Japanese philosophy of

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kintsugi, they will repair that.

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But what's interesting is the reparation
is part of the process, of the philosophy,

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but it's not just repairing the dish.

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It's embracing the beauty of the crack.

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It's the beauty of the imperfection.

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It's actually going a step further and
not just saying, Okay, I can fix this.

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It's embracing the crack
itself as a thing of beauty.

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In its highest form of kinsugi, they'll
put gold in the epoxy or in the resin

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that they're using to fix the dish.

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The crack actually ends up being
embellished or ends up being highlighted.

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Again, embracing the the flaw in the item
as its How do we apply these sorts of

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theme concepts in our pickleball game?

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At the first level,
remember the highest level, which is

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the end of the end of the game, right?

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End of the match where you're going to
either win the match or lose the match.

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That's just how it goes.

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You can
choose how you're going to react to this

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reality of the win-loss, because
the win-loss, we can't avoid that.

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That's just play pickleball.

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You're agreeing to that
set of rules and that way of the

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world, like the dish breaking.

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How do we deal with that
reality that we're facing with?

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First thing is to recognize that
that's up to you.

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You have agency over how you decide to
interpret that

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piece of reality that you have to deal
with, which is

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the loss, because you will lose games.

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We don't have to worry about how we're
going to feel about winning games, because

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that's never the problem.

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The problem is when we lose the games is
when we usually have a perspective, where

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a perspective shift will help us the most.

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In a zero-sum
world, if we live in that world, then

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our opponent's victory is our loss.

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Their positive is our negative.

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But does it have to be that?

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Do we have to live in a world where
their positive is our negative?

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What if we reframe the outcome?

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Here's a few different
ways that we can do that.

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One, and you've probably heard this
before, it's It's a pretty common refrain

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that instead of saying, Sometimes I win,
sometimes I lose, it's, Sometimes

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I win, other times I learn.

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That's a really good way
of thinking about it.

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If you can think about your losses as
simply learning opportunities, That's

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going to shift it from being a negative, a
loss, to a learning opportunity,

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which is a positive.

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Instead of having a zero-sum game, now
you have a positive and a positive.

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Positive for your opponents
because they won, that's easy.

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Positive for you because now
you get to learn something.

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There's a variation of that that I like to
think about in addition to just the

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learning part of it, which is that
you can think of your loss

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as a condition to your growth.

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Again, it's similar, but it's a different
shade than just thinking about

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it as a learning experience.

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It's actually more fundamental in that.

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It's actually required
if you're going to continue to grow as a

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player and as a person, those
moments of adversity, those

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losses, are conditions to that.

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One way to think about it, it's like that
kintsugi, Japanese philosophy I mentioned

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to you earlier about how you
view the cracks in the dish.

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You view the losses as
as positives because they are the things

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that will make you
grow stronger as a player.

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Again, you take a negative, which is a
loss, and turn it into a positive, which

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is the understanding that this
is a condition to your growth.

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Another way of looking at it is to
celebrate your opponent's success.

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Opponents, most times your
opponents are your friends.

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I think it's helpful to reframe them from
simply opponents, like your adversaries in

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a game, which they are, but they're
also your friends, bigger picture.

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If you think about your friends having
success, and you can be happy for them and

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their success, then you
turn your situation into a positive.

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Because for your friends to be able to
enjoy that win, you needed to have lost.

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If you don't lose, they can't win.

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So understanding that
their victory is conditioned upon your

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defeat allows you to then celebrate their
victory, turning the potentially negative

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loss into a positive, which is a
celebration of your opponent's win.

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Then the last one is similar to the idea
about how when you drop the

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dish, it's just human nature.

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It's just part of the deal.

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To understanding that loss
is just a natural outcome.

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It's just you have this 50% expectation.

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If you're playing a level, you're
going to win some and lose some.

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50/50 is a pretty reasonable expectation.

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At least In that situation, you
go from a negative to a neutral.

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Perhaps you don't view that as positive,
and that's okay, but you've

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removed the negativity from it.

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You just say, Okay, that's just part of
the deal that I've signed up to play or

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that I've signed up for when I signed up
to play cycle ball, is that I will win

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some and I will lose some, and
this loss is just part of that.

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Even if you make yours neutral,
you're no longer in a zero-sum situation.

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You're in a net positive situation for the
game as a whole because

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yours is not negative.

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Yours is neutral, theirs is positive,
so you're in a positive situation net.

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What you're able to do is you're able to
use a reframing of

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your loss, of your Well, let's not quote
it because it is a loss from a purely

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real-world standpoint.

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You get to reframe your loss
as a either neutral or positive.

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What you're doing is you're
removing it from a zero sum situation or

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you're eliminating the zero sum nature of
it and transforming it into

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a net positive situation.

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It can be more positive.

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The more positive is for you, your
experience as the loser of that game, the

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more net positive the total is.

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But even if you're able just to go to
zero, make yours neutral, it's still a net

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positive situation for
everyone, including yourself.

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Now, let's bring that same
thinking down to a rally.

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Because it's one thing to think about it
at the end of the game,

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and that's very helpful.

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But it's also helpful to have this way of
thinking during a match, during a game.

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The more you can do it during each rally
or at the end of each rally, then So as I

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just say, the more you can do it during
the game,

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during the game at the end of each rally,
the better off you'll be because you won't

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have those spikes and dips that
happen during the game, right?

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At the end of rallies.

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So One way to think about it, again, is
you can learn from it

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when you lose the rally.

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And learn from it here is
a little more micro, right?

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So learn from it means, let's say you hit
a ball,

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you tried to attack your opponent's
backhand, and your opponent was able to

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counter it successfully, ending
the rally in their favor.

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The learning there is to say, Okay, maybe
I don't want to attack that spot because

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that spot looks like it's
pretty good right now.

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Maybe I attacked the other spot.

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You make strategic adjustments
based on the loss of the rally.

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That's the instantaneous
learning that you can have.

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But instead of just sitting there
going like, Oh, we lost the rally.

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That's terrible.

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You take that moment and you
learn from what happened.

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Another example of learning
would be like an unforced error.

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You missed a serve.

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Obviously, nothing Nobody did
anything for you to miss a serve.

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That's just on your
paddle, and that's okay.

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That happens.

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You learn from it and you
say, Okay, what happened?

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If you're a system member, you understand
energy and trajectory, you

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follow that thinking and you figure
out, Okay, this is what happened.

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Then next time, you're
It's good to do better.

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But you take the moment to learn rather
than just simply ruing the missed shot.

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The second way you can address in a rally
is this acknowledgement of normal human

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part of the process, the dish again.

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You are going to miss shots.

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You're a human being.

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You can practice all day long.

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You can practice more than the pros do or
as much as the pros do, you will

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still miss shots because guess what?
The pros miss shots.

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Everybody miss a shot.

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When you miss a shot, you simply
go, Okay, I missed a shot.

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Part of the normal process as a human
being and not beat yourself up about it,

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definitely way better than just hammering
yourself over missing a shot at the end.

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You're in a rally and you miss a shot
that perhaps you shouldn't have

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00:17:31,265 --> 00:17:34,040
missed, like an unforester error again.

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Then the last one is
when your opponents overpower you or when

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your opponents play a really good rally,
celebrate their rally.

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They hit a really good shot and you're
just like, Wow, That

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was a really good shot.

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Rather than getting bogged down and, Oh,
my God, we lost the rally and what could

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we have done, and everything else like
that, just look across the net, tap your

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paddle, clap with your paddle if you
want to, or just give them a nod.

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Make it about them.

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Make it about celebrating what they did
successfully, because your opponents

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hopefully will, from time to time, hit
shots that you're just like,

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Wow, that's a really nice shot.

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Hopefully, you will also, from time to
time, hit shots that

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are really nice shots.

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Imagine a game in which you are
celebrating their good shots and

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they're celebrating your good shots.

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00:18:19,965 --> 00:18:24,220
It's a much better experience, much more
positive, and also just more constructive.

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Because the flip side,
being upset about losing the rally, even

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though your opponents hit a good shot,
doesn't add anything to the equation.

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It's not a good thing for you.

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00:18:33,305 --> 00:18:35,920
It's not going to be pleasant for your
opponents, and it's just

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not helpful in any respect.

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So consider that as another
option for the rally.

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00:18:41,680 --> 00:18:44,380
I was wondering when the motorcycle
was going to come, and there it comes.

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There's a lot of motorcycles in this area,
but we haven't heard too many so far.

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All right, within the rally itself.

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This is also helpful if you want
to apply it within the rally.

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This is you're in the
middle of a rally situation.

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00:18:55,445 --> 00:19:00,720
Your opponent puts you in a tough spot
rather than despairing over it,

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00:19:00,745 --> 00:19:04,620
you think to yourself, Nice shot.

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00:19:04,645 --> 00:19:07,495
Now I got to get myself out of this mess.

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00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:09,600
So that's just the way you
can apply it during the rally.

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And obviously during the rally is going to
be, some time from now, Don't

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00:19:15,445 --> 00:19:17,180
try and do that right away.

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00:19:17,205 --> 00:19:21,680
You can start working on the low hanging
fruit, which is at the end of the game for

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00:19:21,705 --> 00:19:25,175
sure, there's no more pressure at the end.

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00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:27,560
Once the game has ended, there's no
more pressure at the end of the game.

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You can take a moment to
yourself, reflect on on the game.

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Maybe note down, you can have a notation
of these options that I gave you

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00:19:37,785 --> 00:19:40,800
earlier, which are looking at the...

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00:19:41,760 --> 00:19:46,810
I'll get my notes so that I don't
forget all of them here.

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00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:50,560
One is you can notate if you like the fact
that you're learning instead

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00:19:50,585 --> 00:19:52,140
of losing, that's helpful.

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00:19:52,165 --> 00:19:55,520
If you understand that loss is a condition
proceeding to your growth,

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that's helpful as well.

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00:19:56,680 --> 00:19:59,920
If you want to celebrate your friends,
just celebrate them for winning and

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00:19:59,945 --> 00:20:03,160
understand that your loss
is a part of that process.

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Without your loss, they
can't win, that's good, too.

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00:20:05,645 --> 00:20:06,400
Excuse me.

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Or if you want to just make a note that
loss is a natural outcome of the game.

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I mean, that's just part
of what you signed up for.

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Any of those will work.

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The idea is to get yourself out of
the, Oh, my God, we lost the game.

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00:20:18,445 --> 00:20:20,440
How terrible.
I'm a bad player.

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00:20:20,465 --> 00:20:24,380
Whatever.
However it is that you usually...

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00:20:24,405 --> 00:20:30,040
If you usually negatively
react to losses, then this will help you

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00:20:30,065 --> 00:20:34,980
get out of that
routine of negatively reacting to losses,

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00:20:35,005 --> 00:20:37,620
and you can use any of
those for that purpose.

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Then the next step in your process
would be at the end of rallies.

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There's different ways to deal with that.

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00:20:43,705 --> 00:20:46,560
One way you see some of the pros
use, and some players use it.

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00:20:46,585 --> 00:20:49,160
They'll take their paddle,
tap it on the fence.

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00:20:49,185 --> 00:20:51,960
That way, they take the bad shot or
whatever happened off the

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00:20:51,985 --> 00:20:56,050
paddle, put it on the fence.
You can turn around, take a deep breath.

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00:20:56,080 --> 00:21:01,000
You can ask yourself, like
some players say, What now?

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00:21:01,025 --> 00:21:02,840
What next?
Okay.

355
00:21:02,865 --> 00:21:04,810
Some neutral type of term.

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00:21:04,840 --> 00:21:09,320
If you want to get better at it at the end
of the rallies, then, like I said, you can

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00:21:09,345 --> 00:21:12,980
either learn from it, so make a
strategic adjustment if appropriate.

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00:21:13,005 --> 00:21:17,880
If it's an unforced type of error,
then either make an adjustment on that.

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00:21:17,905 --> 00:21:21,495
I always learn from that if you
can, if you know how to do that.

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00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:24,440
If you don't know how to do that, then
acknowledging that you're a human are

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00:21:24,465 --> 00:21:26,460
going to make mistakes will work fine.

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00:21:26,485 --> 00:21:30,480
If it's just a good shot, your opponent's
hit, how about celebrating that good shot

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00:21:30,505 --> 00:21:34,660
by them and then maybe getting used to
nodding at them, saying nice shot,

364
00:21:34,685 --> 00:21:38,480
giving them a paddle clap, whatever works
for you, are ways that you can learn how

365
00:21:38,505 --> 00:21:44,640
to shift away from
the negativity of losing a rally,

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00:21:44,665 --> 00:21:48,840
negativity of losing a game,
living in this zero-sum world that we

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00:21:48,865 --> 00:21:55,570
sometimes find ourselves in,
and taking control over how you react to

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00:21:55,600 --> 00:22:01,260
adverse consequences in rallies
or games when you're playing pickle ball.

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00:22:01,285 --> 00:22:06,040
Because what you'll find when you reframe
that experience, the experience is

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00:22:06,065 --> 00:22:08,050
what it is, the loss is what it is.

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00:22:08,080 --> 00:22:14,540
But when you reframe how you experience
that, how you interact

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00:22:14,565 --> 00:22:18,700
with that experience, which you have
control over, it'll improve how you react,

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00:22:18,725 --> 00:22:24,500
which is really important, and also how
you feel about the sport of pickleball.

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00:22:24,525 --> 00:22:26,480
I hope you enjoyed this week's podcast.

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00:22:26,505 --> 00:22:31,140
As always, if you enjoyed the podcast,
consider rating and reviewing it

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00:22:31,165 --> 00:22:34,140
and sharing with your friends, because if
you enjoyed the podcast,

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00:22:34,165 --> 00:22:35,540
they probably will, too.

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00:22:35,565 --> 00:22:39,140
I hope you have a great week, and I'll see
you in the next episode of

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00:22:39,165 --> 00:22:40,560
Pickleball Therapy.

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00:22:40,600 --> 00:22:40,800
Be well.