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The podcast dedicated to your pickleball improvement. We are here to help you achieve your pickleball goals, with a focus on the mental part of your game. Our mission is to share with you a positive and more healthy way of engaging with pickleball. Together let’s forge a stronger relationship with the sport we all love. With the added benefit of playing better pickleball too. No matter what you are trying to accomplish in your pickleball journey, Pickleball Therapy is here to encourage and support you.
[00:00:05.300] - Speaker 1
Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy, the podcast dedicated to your pickle improvement. I am your host of this weekly podcast, Tony Roig. I may sound a little bit different this week because I'm actually out of town. So what we're going to do this week is we are going to re-up one of our most popular episodes. Actually, I believe it is our most popular episode of all times. I'm always curious about these things. We called the episode when we published it. Our best episode I don't know whether it was our best episode and the title was basically foreshadowing it or did the title influence the podcast. In any event, it's a good podcast. I hope you enjoy it, and we'll be back next week with a regular episode of the podcast. Enjoy. This week's podcast, we're going to cover... It's going to be a little different format than normal. We're going to cover a few different areas than we normally do. I'm going to start off with the main part of the We're going to be talking about you and your journey, and the word of the week this week is going to be custom, and I'll explain that to you.
[00:01:06.540] - Speaker 1
Then we're going to talk about how do you deal with approaching a new group of players, or maybe you're visiting a town. We received an email from a listener, and she asked in response to Lost in the Jungle about some of the weird vibes that we're getting out there in pickleball right now, and some of the clothes that's getting more closed as a sport, unfortunately. But we talked to... She asked how to approach groups in an area that she's visiting for a while. So I'm going to talk about that. And then I'm going to give you an update about the therapist, pickleball therapist idea. We've gotten a lot of feedback on this. And I'll give you an update on here, and then I'll send you all some emails giving you some more information, but I want to give you an update. And then in the RIF, I'm going to talk about agency. And this conversation comes out of a video that we did on outballs that we pushed out on the Better Pickleball YouTube channel. If you haven't checked it out, check it out. But that was an interesting conversation that I had with a few of you on email regarding the concept of agency and how it applies to our game and how we can use it.
[00:02:12.700] - Speaker 1
That's all I'm going to talk about in the RIF. So that's this, this, this podcast. I think you'll enjoy all of the different subjects. So let's jump right in. Let's jump right into the idea of your journey, right? And the reason this is becoming more and more of an important subject as I think about the game as an instructor. And if you don't know me that well, what I can tell you about myself in terms of my relationship with the sport is that my primary relationship with pickleball is... I still play it, and I still practice it sometimes and things like that, and I play tournaments mostly. But my biggest relationship with the sport is actually as an instructor. Basically, CJ and I think of ourselves as stewards of pickleball knowledge. We don't have all the answers, but we have a lot of answers. And what we want to do is we want to try and get that knowledge from us to you. And in that process of doing that, one of the things that is really important for us to keep in mind and for you to understand as a player is that every Everybody's journey in this sport is different.
[00:03:18.400] - Speaker 1
We all come to the sport with a different set of variables. We all experience the sport differently. We all have different conditions that we participate with the sport in and different environments that we participate in. And let's just explore that a little bit so you see what we're talking about here. So let's talk about our background, how we come into the game. Some of us, myself, for instance, I played tennis since I was a child. Since I could pick up a tennis racket, I remember swinging a tennis racket. I took a little bit of a break in high school because I was a teenager and didn't know any better, but that's life. And then I picked it up again a little bit in college, just minimals and things like that, and then played it more significantly with my brother once he moved to our area so we could play stay together on a team. Anyway, but with my background, I have an extensive racket sports background. So I am going to be different than, for instance, CJ. Cj is a professional golfer and also a professional skier, a high-level skier and instructor. So she comes to the sport with probably better awareness of hips down, mobility, balance, things like that than I do.
[00:04:25.030] - Speaker 1
But she doesn't have a racket sports background or a paddle sports background. She doesn't have that part of the sport. So if you watch us side by side hitting balls, it looks very different. Now, does that mean Ceej cannot be a good pickleball player? No, she is a good pickleball player, right? Does that mean you can't be a good pickleball player if you don't come from a tennis or basketball background? The answer is no. What's important to know, though, is that you will have a different experience coming into the sport. You will have a different skillset, I should say. Not a different experience necessarily, but different skillset. So that changes from player to player. Another thing is, for instance, where are you in age and physical condition? If you are 40, that's one thing. If you're 60, that's one thing. Another thing, if you have a bad knee or if you have pain in your hip or if you have lack mobility, things like that, you come to the game differently. And then we talk about your exposure so far. So let's say you've been playing for, let's assume you're playing for a year or so.
[00:05:21.690] - Speaker 1
What have you been exposed to so far? Has it been helpful, positive knowledge that you can use? Or has it been the local person telling you X, Y, and Z, which are, and hate to use X because I respect the X, but from a variable standpoint, different information. They've been giving you information that may not be accurate, may not be good, it may hold you back. That'll affect how you interact with this game. And then you have the idea of, let's assume you have the correct knowledge, right? You found us, and I'm going to talk about the pickleball system in a little bit so you understand a little more about that. But you found us and you have the knowledge that is most applicable is going to do the best for you. How much time do you have to devote to it? And not just time, focus and energy. And it's not a criticism. We all are built differently. I know some of my friends are just, they're machines. And I mean that as a cowboy, it would be a loving way. They will go out there and drill for hours and hours and hours and hours.
[00:06:20.980] - Speaker 1
And that's fantastic. In fact, some of the players who I compete against in the senior pro tour are avid practice players, right? They practice a lot, and I give them due respect for the work that they put in. I spend my time more doing podcasts and videos and trying to help other players. And it's not that it doesn't make me peter. I'm just saying that's what I do. That's the thing that I do with my time. They are very good at developing their games as well as helping other players that they do it as well. I'm not saying they don't, but their focus is on drilling and practice and things like that. And so that shows in their play. So the question is for you is this. It's how much time, energy, and focus are you prepared to and can give to your improvement? If you have a lot, then you're going to improve faster than if you don't. And so that affects your journey. And then you can think about it more broadly in terms of the area that you're in. What's the level of play of the area that you're in? How often is there play available?
[00:07:26.840] - Speaker 1
How many courts are available? How big is the pickleball community? Things like It's that, right? So there's many factors that affect your journey. And the key to this is understanding that your journey is not going to be the same as your friend's journey, as the same as the other player at your court's journey, or my journey or CJ's journey. It's just we have to acknowledge the fact that it is our journey. And within that understanding, now we start thinking about how do we customize the journey best for ourselves. And what I mean by that is this is where where YouTube can be a hindrance and local player advice can be a hindrance. Because I would suggest you that normally when a local player is giving you advice, they come from a good place. They're trying to help you, and they believe that what they're telling you is correct. They're not trying to lie to you or deceive you about the game. I would say the same thing on many YouTube videos that maybe... Sometimes we would disagree with the premise, but more often the problem is this with the YouTube video. The content may be fine, but is it for you?
[00:08:33.910] - Speaker 1
Is it meeting you where you're at right now in the game? And if it doesn't, then that can prove a hindrance because you may be skipping steps ahead. If you come to our soft game workshop, you'll get a better explanation of how this could be a hindrance because basically you're skipping over some steps to get to other steps or other shots that require precursor steps. Then the other question is, does it really fit you and where you're at, right? In terms of adding a roll ball, adding spins, things like that. But I still can't hit this shot consistently, but I'm going to move on to another shot. Those are areas where a YouTube video, for instance, can be potentially damaging to your game. Not just not helpful, but damaging because it takes you down a path that's either a dead end or it's a path that's not for you right now. And you just end up standing looking at this chasm at the end of this path called what now? And now you have to backtrack and then go down the other path again. And so think of your journey as, again, as a custom experience, as your experience.
[00:09:37.120] - Speaker 1
And you have agency, and I'll touch on that at the end of this podcast. But you have agency in every step of this process. And What I mean by that is that you can exert agency over the information that you're receiving, as well as the decisions that you make on what to do with that information. And that's a really important part of this. But that brings us to the word of the week, if you will, which is custom. And think of, again, your experience as being unique to you. So if it's unique to you, you want to take a custom approach to your improvement. It's not a one-size-fits-all. For instance, a video that you see on YouTube that says, these five tips are what you need. Do you? Are those the five tips you need? Maybe. But if I were making a bet, I would bet the answer is no. I put my money on no because the higher % of chances that the answer is no. The same thing you see videos that say, I took this player from this level to that level, or this will get you to that level, things like that.
[00:10:38.800] - Speaker 1
In the abstract, sure. Those pieces may fit into the puzzle in certain ways, but there's so many other pieces to the puzzle. And just jumping around from this tip to that tip to this tip, it's not a very satisfying or complete way of approaching the process. So think of your journey as a customer experience and treat it that way, and you're going feel the best about yourself as a player and as your experience. Now, that brings me to a subject that... It's a project that CJ and I embarked on several years ago, which was, is there a way to help as many players as possible through an online platform? And the answer has and has been yes, which is the pickleball system. The pickleball system has... Think of the pickleball system as the library of the knowledge that you need to play a really good game. But it's not just a library of knowledge. It's a library of knowledge that has a success path overlaid on it, which allows you to customize. It allows you to say, Okay, I'm here. I'm going to focus more on mechanical, less on strategic. It also is organized in a step-by-step approach.
[00:11:47.280] - Speaker 1
What that means is you do step one. Until you're done with step one, you do not move on to step two. That's clear in this process in the system. If you're interested in that customization for your experience, then I can't recommend the pickleball system enough to you. The testimonial speak for themselves. I'm not going to read them here or tell you about them here because you can read about them when you go to the page. If you're on our email list, you get an email from us that the registration for the system, our next system class, which opens in July, is opening soon. You'll get an email. It'll tell you what to do. If you're ready to do it, our recommendation is just go straight to registration. Register, secure your spot in the class. It's a commitment you're making to yourself. It's not a commitment to us. We're going to teach the class, and I hope you're in there, but whether you're in there or not, it's not going to affect whether we teach the class. We're going to teach the class. Your decision is, do I want to commit to myself at this time to join the pickleball system?
[00:12:42.140] - Speaker 1
Now, that said, if you don't want to use the pickleball system as your source, that's okay, too. But find a way that works for you, that is a custom experience for you to really respect and honor your journey through pickleball. One last note I forgot to mention about the pickleball system is there's no risk to it because we offer a money-back guarantee. So you You sign up for the system, you join the system, it doesn't work out for you for whatever reason, you ask us for the money back. We don't ask any questions. We just send your money back. I can tell you that there's a handful of folks that the system hasn't worked for compared to over a thousand students for whom it's worked magnificently well. So the chances are, again, if I was a betton person, the system will work for you. And one last note, I said that was last note, this is the last note. There is no financial obstacle to joining the pickleball system. There is a cost associated with because there's cost to everything we do in life, and providing an online course is no different. But if for whatever reason you cannot float that, then you just send us an email and you're in the class.
[00:13:42.590] - Speaker 1
So there's really no obstacle to joining the system. I really recommend you take a look at that if you want to continue your improvement. All right, let's talk about the question that we got. So the question we got was this. It came out of Lost in the Jungle. Are you feeling lost out there? And it was a great question, and we dealt with it a couple of years ago in another podcast, but I thought it was time to rehash it here because I know that there's players out there who maybe are either traveling or are trying to appear to play in a new group, and they're not really sure how to interact with that group. So here's some tips for you. The main thing I will tell you, and I'm going to say this, and I hope it doesn't come off as sexist. It's not intended to be sexist, but our general experience is this. When men show up to play, they're normally very confident about joining the group. They act in a way that they know what they're doing, and so they're more readily admitted. What I found, and my experience has been with female players, is they're a little more tentative to join the group.
[00:14:47.650] - Speaker 1
And again, not a criticism, it's just what happens. And when they're asked about their experience and things like that, they tend to understate or undervalue their level or underlevel themselves, and that affects their ability to join the group. Here's the general outline I'm going to give you for how to do this. The first thing is, you wouldn't ask, may I join your play? You ask, where do I put my paddle? Something a little more assertive, right? Where do the paddles go? You're making an assumption that this is open play or a play that's open. Let them tell you, no, this is not open play. This is a closed group. That's fine. If they do, then that's a different conversation. But if it looks like an open play a setting, just ask somebody there, Excuse me, where do I place my paddle in the rotation. And then find out what the rules of the quarter. Engage in that conversation about where the paddles go. Do they split, two on, split, four on, new, things like that, how many points they play to. Ask a couple of questions that make it sound like you know what open play is, because I'm assuming if you're doing this, you've already been to an open play, so you know how it works and what's the scoring to, where the paddles place, things like that.
[00:15:59.470] - Speaker 1
So So you go in there knowing what you're asking about. You're a knowledgeable player. Now, what may happen is you may get asked what your level is. Now, here you're going to use some judgment, but at the end of the day, I want you to know that we got your back, and you'll understand why in a second, because it can be daunting to go out there and have to put yourself out there alone with no backing. So here's what you do. If you look at the group and you say, you know what? I can hang with this group. I got no problem with this group. And they ask you, What level are you or what level of player you are? You will tell them without blinking and without blushing or anything that you are a 4.0 player, not a 4.0 player. You are a 4.5 player. Again, your judgment here, and I'm trusting you on the judgment, is that you look at the play and you say, I can hang with this group. Not that you can beat them and not that you're going to dominate everybody. Just, you know what? I can play in this group in a way that is...
[00:16:58.060] - Speaker 1
I'm going to be fine. Everything's going to be fine. So if they ask you your level, you tell them you are a 4.5 player. Now, if they ask more questions, you can use this as well. But if later on somebody says to you, 4.5, no, you're not. Who said you're 4.5? You will tell them that my coach, Tony Roig, rated me as a 4.5 player. Now, that's between you and I. I don't care what they think about me or what they think about the rating system or anything else like that. I'm trusting you to use judgment that you're able to hang with them. So I will give you a 4.5 rating backing in this context, because what I don't want you to do is go to them and say, I'm a 3.0 or 3.5 or something like that, because they will not let you play. More likely. So you can say... And obviously, if you're a 2.5, tell them you're a 4.0, I guess. That's fine. If you're trying to find 2.5 or 3.0 play. But if you're a 3.5 to 4.0 and you're trying to get into a 3.5, 4.0 game, I should have made this clearer.
[00:17:57.690] - Speaker 1
You're trying to get into a 3.5, 4.0 game, you tell them you're 4.5. Because if you're a 4.5, they will let you play in their group. And if they let you play in their group, then you're going to play and you're going to be fine and the chips will fall where they may in terms of the games. And again, if they question you, You don't have to take ownership of the 4.5. You tell them, My coach, Tony Roig, rated me as 4.5. And then, here's the key, you give them my email address, tony@betterpickleball. Com. If you have If you have an issue with the rating that he gave me, you can send an email to him. I can tell you to this date, no one has sent me an email. I have this offer on the table for a couple of years now, both publicly as well as with some private persons in terms of their efforts to play in groups. There you go. That's the process for when you're trying to play with a group. Again, use your judgment, but if you make the decision you can play, we're going to have your back, and you can just tell them that we rated you at that level so you can get into that group.
[00:18:58.100] - Speaker 1
All right, so that's Now, Therapist Update. A couple of episodes ago, maybe three episodes ago, I floated the idea of doing a second accountability concept where you commit to being a pickleball therapist. Now, I'm using the term therapist. No one's licensed here as a therapist. With any state agency and things like that, we're talking the more colloquially use of the term therapist. But the idea is this, that if you want to be a pickleball therapist, what you're going to do is you're going to commit to yourself. Again, same thing as with the system. You don't need to commit to me about this because committing to me... I'm going to do the podcast. Again, I hope you're listening, but whether you listen or not to the podcast, I'm going to make the podcast, record the podcast. It's really your decision whether you want to join me in this piece of the pickleball journey. But the idea of being a therapist is a commitment to yourself that you are going to commit to listening to a certain number of the podcasts. You can also watch them on the channel if you want to. We have a YouTube channel that we've launched Pickleball Therapy.
[00:20:00.650] - Speaker 1
If you like that better, feel free to go there. But you're going to commit to listening to the podcast. And then there's a couple of other things that you're going to be doing, which include starting some mental training with a book. We have some recommendations, but you can pick any book you want. And then there's some other steps that you would agree to, which is, let's say you have a friend who's going through a rough patch in pickle, because trust me, everybody goes through a rough patch or more than rough patch in pickleball. I interviewed Lee Whitwell, who's a tremendous pickleball player, a tremendous athlete. She's a pro player. I interviewed her for the podcast, so that'll come out. I think it's coming out next week. I have to see the calendar, but it's coming out soon. But basically, Lee said she has a love-hate relationship with this thing. She loves pickleball, and then she quits pickleball, and then she goes back to pickleball. Very common. This is not an uncommon feeling. So let's say you have a friend who's feeling that way. Well, you can share with them either the podcast itself, just say, Here's a podcast, check it out.
[00:20:58.640] - Speaker 1
You can share with them some concepts you learned in the podcast, to try and help them see the game maybe a little differently. Maybe you share with them some ideas from a book you've read. So the idea is that you become basically like an informal ambassador for pickleball and the mental side of the game, the therapy side of the game, if you will. And so that's the other commitment that you're making to yourself and to your friends and to your community. So if you're interested in that, send me an email at therapy@betterpickleball.com. I'll put you on the list. If you've already sent me an email, I know I haven't responded to yet. I will. I'm going to respond to you with this document that I'm preparing, which will have the outline of what it is to be a pickleball therapist. This is version one, if you will, of becoming a pickleball therapist. I think it's a great start. It's a great way to get us going down this path of becoming a pickleball therapist and committing to ourselves and helping our friends and our community improve their relationship with the sport. All right, I'm going to get into the RIF on agency in a second.
[00:21:56.480] - Speaker 1
But before I do that, I wanted to make sure you have this on your calendar. July 20th, we have our soft game workshop. The soft game workshop does a couple of things. One, it talks about the soft game, so it's going to have a lot of good information about the soft game. We're going to talk about the whys of the soft game and the how of the soft game. Then we're going to do a lab study, a game study, or a lab study, I should say, showing you the impact of the soft game on bangers, outsmarting bangers by using the soft game. We're going to use a bronze medal match from Nationals from 2017. It's a great match. It really illustrates the use of the soft game. Two excellent bangers against one hybrid player and one soft game specialist. I'm not going to spoil it for you. Come to this workshop and you'll learn more about it. But it's a really helpful workshop in terms of understanding the soft game better. Even if you think you're using the soft game, my guess is there's something in here that you're not doing yet. And so you can always get better at the soft game.
[00:22:51.530] - Speaker 1
So you're going to want to join us, whether you use the soft game or not. If you're not using the soft game at all or don't really understand what it is, definitely want to join us. You also get an opportunity to learn a little bit more about the Bigable system. So it's a way to introduce you to the system a little more in-depth. Now, if you're ready to do the system, you can come to the workshop. Feel free to come to the workshop. We always want you to participate in anything that we're doing. But my recommendation is don't wait for the workshop to sign up for the class. Commit to yourself and go ahead and sign up for the class now. You'll feel better about it. You'll feel great about taking that step forward. And as I mentioned earlier, there's a money back guarantee. If you sign up and two weeks later, you're like, I don't want to do this anymore, just send us an I will send your money back. But the commitment part, taking positive steps is really important. I just watched a video recently, yesterday or today, I can't remember now, but it was a really good video about the hardest part.
[00:23:41.380] - Speaker 1
Oftentimes, it's just taking that first step. The gentleman was talking about doing 10 pushups a day, like do 10 pushups today. And it's like, well, that's not a big deal. How's that going to help me? But then he's like, well, you do 10 pushups every day, that's 3,650 pushups in a year. That sounds like a lot. And so it's the same thing here where you're just taking that first That's a lot of times. The first thing is if you take the step, then you'll be in. Then you can make a decision to leave if you want to, but you're already in. So you've made the positive step forward to get into the class, secure your spot, and make that commitment because I think you'll know, I'm confident you'll appreciate that you did it, and you'll be glad you did it, and you'll enjoy the class and get a lot out of it. All right, but definitely come to the workshop July 20th, 4:00 PM Pacific, 7:00 PM Eastern. Put that on your calendar. Try not to book something else at the same time. All right, here we go. So let's talk about agency for a few minutes.
[00:24:34.790] - Speaker 1
So what happened was we did a video on outballs, and I'm not going to get into the details on the outballs themselves because you can watch the video for that. But what I want to touch on a little bit is this idea of agency and even the concept of a replay, because we did get some pushback on both those concepts. Had a very productive email conversation with a gentleman about it, and we came to an understanding of what I was saying, and I think he understood better what I was saying, and ultimately was on board with the concept. But the concept of agency in the outballs, because we like agency on everything, as we mentioned earlier with the journey and everything like that. So agency applies to everything you're doing. What shot did you just hit? That was your decision. Where are you standing on the court? Your decision, right? Did you play with a player who was not pleasant to you? Your decision to play with them, not for them not to be nice to you. Actually, I'm going to touch on that as well, because I remember now that I got another question that was asked about that.
[00:25:30.880] - Speaker 1
So as a bonus, at the end of the Agency About Outballs, I'm going to talk about agency with... Not to no thank you concept because we've already written a blog about that, but these are the more marginal folks that you play with sometimes that just are not positive Positives in your life. So let's talk about the outball. So what happened with the outball is, the idea is this: if you hit a ball that is so close to the line that it creates a possibility of being called out, realistically, then you should take some to see over that. Take some ownership over the decision to hit the ball in a position that made it difficult for your opponent, who, don't forget, is your friend, more likely than not, to make a difficult decision, difficult call. So you're putting them in an uncomfortable position by deciding to hit the ball there. Now, that was interpreted as me suggesting, Don't ever hit the ball there. I'm not saying that. You get the ball wherever you want it. You can aim the ball wherever you want to aim it. You want to aim it right at the sidelines or the the end line or whatever you want to do.
[00:26:30.900] - Speaker 1
That's up to you. Now, the question is, what happens when that shot decision that you've made creates controversy on the court? Potential for controversy, meaning they call it in a way that you disagree with. That's where you say, Oh, wait a minute. You know what? I hit it there, and you're entitled to hit it there if you want to aim it there. So I'm going to take some responsibility for that, and I'm not going to get upset about their call. I'm going to understand that my opponent, who, again, is your friend, is a fallible human, is a human being with fallible senses. I will say this here, and I'll say it again every time that someone asked me, I have made bad calls in my life, and so have you 100% guaranteed. There's no doubt in my mind that I have made bad calls and that you have, too, if you play for any amount of time. Now, did you call them out incorrectly intentionally? Did I do it? I would suggest no. But it happens. There can be reasonable disagreements among reasonable human beings about whether a ball was in or out in a given situation.
[00:27:35.190] - Speaker 1
The agency concept is you saying, You know what? That's something that I contributed to, so I'm going to own up to my part of the problem. It's the same thing with replays. We got more pushback on replays than we did on agency, but replays are really no different. They're just an agency. You're using your agency to allow the steam in the situation to vent out rather than explode the pot. With that steam. And so I will stand by replays. And the pushback is like, well, let's not expand replays from the way that they're expressly written out in the rules. I'm going to tell you, I like the rules are fine, but there are many times that I'm not going to be a strict interpreter, imply the rule strictly because they just don't serve a purpose there. To me, rules are more like a backstop in a lot of sense. An example would be an illegal serve. If you're playing with somebody who's hitting an illegal serve, but they're just bopping it in the same way they would if they were serving underhand it, what does it matter? And how do you know that they don't have a shoulder problem or a vertigo problem or something that makes it more difficult for them to hit the way you want them to hit according to the rules?
[00:28:43.890] - Speaker 1
Now, if they're hitting an illegal serve that's creating a competitive advantage, okay, but that's not what the rule says. The rule doesn't say... That's something that I apply to the rules based on my agency as a human being on this planet, able to do so. Same thing with replays. If a replay is going to avoid a melt on the court, I'm going for a replay, no question about it. So hopefully, it helps on agency. And I wanted to extend that to this concept of playing with players who are negative Nellies out there. The extreme on agency there is, don't play with them. I know it sounds like, wow, that's really extreme. But you know what? Life is short. The older I get, the shorter life gets, I guess. That's a state in the obvious. But the shorter life gets, the more precious my time is. And I would suggest to you, you do the same. If you're going to get on the pickleball court with someone who's just going to make you feel bad, why are you there? Why are you there? Why? Because of peer pressure? No. You're responsible for yourself. You're responsible for your environment to the extent you can control it.
[00:29:45.100] - Speaker 1
That's a pickleball as an optional activity. You're not having to go out there and hunt for food with someone you don't like to survive. Don't play with them. Just tell them, I don't have any interest in playing with you. I'm sorry. Or just decline with an excuse if you want to, whatever. But don't let peer pressure drive you in a situation that's just not comfortable to you. If you have the fortitude just to ignore them, that's fine. Or you can tell them, Hey, I don't want to hear another word from you. That's fine, too. You have agency over yourself and your life. If someone is making you feel bad, you can have a constructive conversation, too. If it's a friend of yours, and there are folks like this, and we know a few very well, and they've actually benefited from being told, if it's someone who you're close with and they're acting negatively in a way that's affecting you negatively, have a constructive conversation with them off the court. Say, Hey, listen, when I play with you, I don't enjoy it because of X, Y, and Z. And that may help them to go, Oh, I didn't even know I was doing that because that can happen.
[00:30:40.860] - Speaker 1
Or if they say, You know what? You're just being unreasonable. Okay, then that informs your next decision as to whether you play with them next time or you say, Listen, if we're going to play together, you do not speak to me. I'm going to play with you because our group is small and we need the rotation. That's fine. But I just want you to know, don't speak to me when I'm on the court I'll speak to you off the court all you want. Again, what's the underlying concept here? Premise here is agency. Agency over yourself and over your life and over your pickleball experience. Anyway, so that's this week's podcast. Hope you enjoyed it. July 20th, put it on your calendar. Be on the look out for the pickleball system class opening. If you haven't yet rated and reviewed us, please do it. And as always, please share our podcast with your friends. Remember, if you enjoy the podcast, my guess is they probably will, too. I'll even put money on it. Have a great week, and we'll see you next time.