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Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy,
the podcast dedicated to

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your pickleball improvement.
A happy 2025 to you.

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I hope you enjoyed 2024.

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Not everything can be perfect all the
time, but I hope you had a

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generally good 2024 or at least a
perspective on 2024 that

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makes you appreciate just having it.

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There is something to be said for
just enjoying the ability to

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be here, the ability to
experience, the ability to have it.

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That's a deeper conversation than
directly deeper, I guess.

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We do approach that in this podcast,
incidentally, from time to time, these

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ideas, but that may be for another podcast
where we get into the depth of that thing.

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But in any event, I hope that you had a
good 2024 and are looking forward to a

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2025, which is the year we will be
passing through, coming up.

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Actually, we're already
passing through, right?

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We already started.
So by the time you listen to this podcast.

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Anyway, so I hope you had a nice one
and I hope you have a good year in 2025.

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This podcast, I want to talk about
your journey.

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The folks at the Better Pickleball
Coaching team said, Hey, we

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need a piece on the journey.

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I said, All right, let's do it.

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I prepared a written piece,
and then I said, You know what?

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Let's have that as part of the podcast.

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I think it's helpful to
how we approach our steps along the way

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and how we deal with
maybe the frustration that sets in

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sometimes when we're not getting to where
we want to get to as fast

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as we'd like to get there.

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Then in the Riff, I'm going to talk about
a piece of the game that I think merits

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your attention in 2025 if you want to
continue to grow as a pickleball player

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and play pickleball at its
highest level possible.

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When I say highest level, it doesn't mean
necessarily pro-level, even though

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if you want to do that, that's fine.

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But it just means that
you're playing it in the way that

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is the highest way of playing our sport
based on how the sport is constructed

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or based on its framework.

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As we get into the podcast, I want to
mention to you that we have an

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event coming up on January 16th.

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That's going to be a
really fun live event.

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We're going to give you things that you
can do right now, including off-court.

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That's an important detail,
meaning if you're somewhere in the north

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or you just don't have access to courts
right now for whatever reason,

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these activities that we're going to share
with your activity, you can do off-court.

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Then when you get on-court, you're
going to be like, What happened?

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How did I get so much better off-court?

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You'll be surprised
at how much you can actually do.

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But it's this idea of 10 minutes a
day to a better pickleball player.

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We're going to work on that on January
16th at our live event, so

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make sure you join us for that.

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Then the live event also includes access
to materials post-event

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that you'll be able to access
to put in the work

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so that you get the benefits of the
knowledge that you gain on January 16th.

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So make sure you're on
the look out for that.

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All right, let's dive into
the main subject of today.

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What I want to talk about
is your pickleball journey.

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The piece that I wrote, I
entitled it, Are We There Yet?

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Now, hearing those words, probably
just hearing, Are We There Yet?

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Causes blood pressure to go up a little.

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It's basically like, Oh, no.
What do you mean, are we there yet?

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I'm already stressing about it.

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It's the common
trope, if you will, of kids asking their

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parents on a road trip, Are we there yet?

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The thing about asking, Are we there yet?

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Is that it undermines our ability to
enjoy and have a more positive experience

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with the process of going
to where we're going.

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There's basically three things about it.

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One, it undermines our ability
to enjoy the growth process.

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Two, it places undue pressure on
us, this idea of, Are we there yet?

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Because we believe we're not
getting it quickly enough.

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We're not getting there quickly enough.

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In any event, it's a flawed premise, as
you're going to see, because

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where exactly are you going?

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What we want to do is, as we think about
our progress journey, our

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traveling through pickleball as players,
and

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hopefully seeing the game better, playing
a little better each day,

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each month, each year.

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Avoiding this potentially being held back
by this are we there yet mentality

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that can definitely creep in.

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It's very natural as humans, We
want the end result.

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But understanding that the end result
really isn't a thing will help us avoid

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it, avoid the downsides
of asking this question.

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When you think about it, it's basically...

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When you think about your journey through
pickleball,

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it's not like there's these waypoints
along the way

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that will be these repositories of
happiness for you, and then between the

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waypoints, you should be unhappy or
frustrated or upset with improvement

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because you're not yet at these waypoints.

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Better to think about the journey itself
as worth experiencing and enjoying.

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And Similar to what I said about 2024 at
the beginning of this podcast,

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your journey through pickleball
is something to be savored, right?

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It's something to
enjoy not just this, okay, now I'm hitting

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this particular shot a little bit better
than I was six months ago,

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it's the first time you do it.

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It's even hitting it
the wrong way, but realizing, Oh,

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now I see what's happening, right?

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That little moment of clarity that you get
that's the building

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block for the next block.

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Then maybe making contact with the ball a
little differently than you had before and

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going, wow, that feels a little
different, but I see what's happening.

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I feel better about it.

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Those little moments as we journey down
this path towards growth,

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or not towards growth.

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Even when I say it, I just said,
journey down the path towards growth.

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That's not correct.

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It's we're journeying
down the path of growth.

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It's not toward something, it's of.

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It's the process itself that
we want to be able to enjoy.

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We want to be able to enjoy...

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I would say it's a more
fulfilling experience

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to be in a position to enjoy those steps
along the way and not just

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waiting for the magic line to be crossed
so that we can then at that point

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go, Oh, okay, now I've gotten there.

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Now I have my five minutes of happiness.

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Because here's the thing.

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There really is nowhere to arrive at.

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Here's the best way to
really hone this in for you.

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I would take it to to
wrap your arms around it.

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You are currently at a
certain place as a player.

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Just take a minute to imagine yourself
as the player who you want to be.

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Picture this player in the future.

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It could be a six months from now player,
it could be a six year from now player,

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however long you want to do it, and
however much you want to

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add to yourself as a player.

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Picture that player for a moment.

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What does that player look like?

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How does that player hit the ball?

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How does that player
make decisions on the court?

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How does that player
anticipate, see the opposition?

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All the characteristics that you want to
impart to that future you

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that is the idealized version of you.

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I'm going to have a sip of coffee while
you're thinking about it,

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because I think it's...
Take a minute to think about it.

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Place yourself in the future you and
who you want to be as a big of a player.

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Okay.

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Now, we have your future you.

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Let's fast forward to future you.

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Do you think future you is going to be
sitting there going like, Okay, I've

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arrived everything's fantastic, and I can
be happy now for the rest of my pickleball

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career, for the rest of
my pickleball journey?

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Probably not, right?

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Don't you think future you is going
to think about a future player again?

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Or He's like, Okay, I'm hitting the ball.
Fantastic.

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I get this shot in an 80% consistency.

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I understand what to do
in all these situations.

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I understand I'm playing amazing.

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Don't you know that it's going
to be something else after that?

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There's going to be 85% consistency
or 90% consistency on that one shot.

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There's still going to be another
situation that's risen that you're not

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really sure how to handle that
now you have to figure out.

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And that's the beauty of pickleball.

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There's always something new.

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Even the best players in the world,
the pro players, they're never done.

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So if we know that that
future us, the one that we think right

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now, if I can just get there,
then I'll be satisfied.

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That player, too, will have a future
player that they will want to get to.

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And then that future, future player will
want a future, future, future player.

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It just keeps going.

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And it's infinite.

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If you can understand that today,
you can avoid the trap of

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just hoping to become that future player
and then expecting to

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be happy at that point.

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Be happy now.

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Be happy with your current player.

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Because here's the other
thing, go backward now.

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Perhaps you're not satisfied with
where you're at right now as a player.

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And there's nothing wrong with...

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Let's change the word
satisfied in a second.

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There's nothing wrong with wanting to
continue to grow, to knowing that there's

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more, and I would like
to continue to grow.

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That's fantastic.

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That's what keeps us going.

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That's perhaps the reason why we even
exist on the planet, arguably,

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is just to do that.

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And so There's nothing wrong wanting
to grow, and wanting to grow is great.

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But the thing we want to avoid is being
dissatisfied with where we are now because

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we want something more in the future.

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It's the same way if you look backward.

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My guess is either...

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One of these things is true.

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Either you hit the ball better than you
did a year ago,

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you understand the game better than you
did a year ago, you can compete at a

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higher place than you could a year ago.

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Pick a thing, any of those things, you can
always say there's something you do now

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that you do better than
you did a year ago.

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But if you're currently dissatisfied with
where you are,

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then that proves the point, doesn't it?

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Because a year ago, you wanted to be where
you are now, and then you'd be happy.

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But you're where you are now, and you're
still waiting for the next

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iteration of yourself to be happy.
Well, that doesn't make any sense.

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And it robs you of the joy.

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It robs you of the happiness you can gain
from those moments as

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you go along, from those small
experiences that you have, some good,

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some not great, as you go along.

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It robs you of the ability to just laugh
at yourself when you go out there and

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you're working on something and you're
just like, Oh, my God,

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I can't get this serve in.

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No matter what I'm
doing, I can't get it in.

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That's going to happen sometimes.

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You got to be able to laugh at it and
just go, Oh, my God, that's just...

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Okay, that's silly, but that's
just part of being a human being.

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And just enjoying those moments
that pickleball has, that pickleball

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gifts you, that pickleball has for you.

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It's a shame not to be able
to miss out on those moments.

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The metaphor/analogy that I use in the
piece I wrote is you're in the car with...

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You're the adults in the car with
children, and the children

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keep asking, Are we there yet?
Every two minutes.

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Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?

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Are we there yet?
Again and again and again.

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You're driving through beautiful lands in
your countryside, beautiful landscapes and

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barns, and just picture whatever you like
outside the window of the car, and you

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can't see it because you're just like,
Are we there yet?

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And you're just stressed out
about the, are we there yet?

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So don't be that little kid to yourself.

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Don't be in the back of your brain
going like, How come I can't get there?

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Why am I not there yet?
What's going on?

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I need to get there.

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This is not a race.

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There's no Timer, and there's no magic
place to get to, because when you get

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there, there's going to be another magic
place to get to and another

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magic place to get to.

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So once you understand
that, you go, You know what?

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It doesn't make sense for me
to ask myself, Am I there yet?

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For me to stress myself out
about something that I should otherwise be

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enjoying about something
that I love to do, i.

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E.

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Play pickleball, hit balls, enjoy the
game, grow as a player, all those things.

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Embrace those and enjoy those and
understand that your journey as a

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pickleball player
is as long as you choose it to be.

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You are in charge of how much you want to
grow as a pickleball player, because

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pickleball will always,
always have something to teach you.

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You will never exhaust it.

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I mentioned this earlier,
not even the pros exhausted.

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The best players on the planet
have not exhausted pickleball.

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Nobody has.

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And that's a beauty of sport, of any
sport, is we can always continue to grow,

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always continue to push ourselves and our
understanding and our ability to perform

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in the sport of our choosing,
which in our case is pickleball.

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So  in the back of your mind

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again and again and again.

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Infinite, embrace it,
and enjoy every moment.

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In the RIF, I'm going to give you an area
of the game that I highly recommend

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that If you spend some time on in 2025.

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You don't have to do it all
the time if you don't want to.

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It's your choice, but I can tell you
that it's from a playing pickle ball.

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I'm going to use the term IQ here, but
yeah, I'm not even going to use it.

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But From playing pickleball at a high
pickleball IQ level, it is

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going to pay huge dividends for you if you
decide to add that to your

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repertoire in 2025 as your focus.

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As we dive into the RIF,
please consider

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00:14:59,805 --> 00:15:06,360
your paddle and equipment and pickleball
item using Pickleball Central as your

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00:15:06,385 --> 00:15:09,620
primary resource for those items.

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We have partnered up with
P pickleball Central.

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00:15:12,360 --> 00:15:14,160
We've known P pickleball
Central for years.

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They're a fantastic provider.

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00:15:16,760 --> 00:15:18,180
They're number one for a reason.

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00:15:18,205 --> 00:15:23,735
And you also get to support this podcast
as well as our other content efforts to

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00:15:23,760 --> 00:15:25,360
share with your knowledge
about P pickleball.

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00:15:25,385 --> 00:15:27,000
So if you go to betterpickleball.

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00:15:27,025 --> 00:15:30,775
Com and just click on the Resources tab,
you'll get the most The recent code that

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00:15:30,800 --> 00:15:32,880
we have, and if there's an
applicable discount, you'll get it.

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00:15:32,905 --> 00:15:35,020
There's no reason not to type it in.

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00:15:35,045 --> 00:15:39,920
So you type it in, get your discount if it
applies, and by using the link, pickleball

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00:15:39,945 --> 00:15:42,220
Central will know that
we sent you to them.

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00:15:42,245 --> 00:15:43,600
So appreciate you doing that.

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00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:48,080
All right, now that we're in the RIF, I
want to talk to you about one area of the

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game that you should at least consider
adding to your

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work or to your improvement process
in 2025, and that is the soft game.

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I mentioned it
in a couple of things that I've written

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recently, but basically,
there's a lot of noise out there.

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You can't get away from
this idea that the soft game is dead.

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That's what you keep on hearing.

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Frankly, to be fair, we do expect that the
game will continue to get harder,

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meaning there's going to be players trying
to do more with hard shots because of

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paddle technology and things like
That's going to happen.

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That does not translate to
the soft game is dead.

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They're two entirely different...

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Not entirely different, but they're
two sides of the coin, if you will.

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There's the hard game.

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The hard game is going to
continue to get harder.

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That does not mean the soft game is not
valuable and useful as a

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tool when you're playing.

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When you think about pickleball,
I've been watching some Padel lately.

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Padel is the sport where you play inside
the four glass walls, like a

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tennis with four glass walls.

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This ball is a little bit mushier.

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But they have a strategy
they use for lobbying.

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They use a lot of lobbying in Padel.

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And the reason they use lobbying is
they don't have a non-volley zone.

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So The players can stand right at the net.

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Their belly buttons can be
almost like touching the net.

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They're just standing there
waiting to smash balls.

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So they use lobs to push those players
back, and then they come in, and it's the

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sea salt, back and forth to
see who can control the front.

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A dinkable, however, has
a non-volley zone, right?

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And that is the most relevant feature
of the construction of our game.

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It's the non-volley zone.

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If we did not have a non-volley zone, we
would play an entirely different game.

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We would never talk about dinking.

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Third shot is a dink, right?
It's just a long dink.

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But we would never talk about those
shots because they'd be nonsense, right?

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How are you going to dink a ball when you
got a player standing at the net, they can

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just smash it or drop it or
do whatever they want, right?

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He'll drop it or angle it.

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You can never hit a ball like that.

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But we do have a non-volley zone.

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So the idea that we're going to play a
game that does not use a non-volley

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zone makes absolutely no sense.

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So in 2025, I highly encourage you to look
at the

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soft game, part of your
overall game, and consider adding that

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into your game or working on it more
if you haven't worked on it in a while.

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00:18:25,165 --> 00:18:29,740
It's nice to have roll volleys and sexy
shots and hard shots and all that stuff.

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That This is not going to let you play the
best pickleball you can within the

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framework of the sport of pickleball.

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00:18:36,485 --> 00:18:42,280
If you want to get more advice in this
area, you can join us inside

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00:18:42,305 --> 00:18:45,330
our Pickleball System course.
We have a class opening up in March.

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00:18:45,360 --> 00:18:48,520
I know it's a couple of months away, but
it's nothing in real-time.

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00:18:48,545 --> 00:18:52,050
If you're as old as I am, you know
that two months will be tomorrow.

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00:18:52,080 --> 00:18:55,975
So be on the lookout for
our system course in March.

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00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:58,640
And then in the meantime, the Better
Pickleball Academy will get you started

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00:18:58,665 --> 00:19:03,135
down that path as I'll
be it without the depth of the system.

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00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:04,680
It's just a different type of experience.

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00:19:04,705 --> 00:19:10,895
The system being a year-long
course, like for reels, reels, reels, and

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00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:13,960
the academy being more like a do it
yourself, but knowing that the content

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00:19:13,985 --> 00:19:20,010
that you're getting is the highest quality
content you can get online for your

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00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:20,240
pickleball knowledge.

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00:19:20,265 --> 00:19:21,660
You can check those out
at betterpickleball.

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00:19:21,685 --> 00:19:22,290
Com.

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00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:26,855
Whatever you do, do not sleep on the
soft game in 2025, would be my advice.

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The more that I study the game, the more
that I think about the game, and the more

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I teach the game, the more apparent it is
to me that the soft game is the central

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feature of our game and continues to
be the most reductive form of our game.

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If you were going to play any part of our
game at its highest level,

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it would be the soft game.
Just watch the pros.

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That's what they do.

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All right, that is this week's
podcast and the first podcast of 2025.

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I hope you enjoyed it.

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00:19:54,645 --> 00:19:58,180
If you enjoyed it, as always, consider
rating and reviewing it

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00:19:58,205 --> 00:19:59,800
and share it with your friends.

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00:19:59,825 --> 00:20:02,860
Remember, if you enjoyed this
podcast, they probably will, too.

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00:20:02,885 --> 00:20:06,940
To a great 2025, because it will be.
Why?

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Because we'll be in it
just experiencing it.

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00:20:09,205 --> 00:20:11,160
Be well, and I'll see you next week.