Welcome to Pickleball Therapy, the podcast dedicated to your pickleball improvement.
This is the podcast that puts your mind at the center of your game.
I am the host of your weekly podcast, Tony Roig it's a pleasure to be with you.
This is episode 235 of the podcast.
This week we're going to talk about the learning space.
It's a really interesting way of thinking about your journey as a pickleball player
and dealing with the most common feeling that we have, which is frustration.
And when we're in the learning space, I think you're going to find
it really interesting.
Before we dive into the podcast, I'm going to repeat the favor from the last episode,
which is if you know a player out there who's on a journey of improvement, someone
who's, you know, maybe feeling like there's more to the game than
they're able to connect with.
Right now we have a boot camp coming up right now in March which I think will
really connect with them and help them improve in their sport.
It's a super recently priced podcast or boot camp.
And then if they like that, then they can join us for our upcoming TPS course.
So that's the. That's the plan.
So if you can help us reach players like you who are interested in more than just
hitting the ball when they're out there on the court, we would appreciate that.
All right, so let's talk about this learning space idea.
So I came across this video and that's actually one of the reasons I like
sometimes just flowing through videos, because I wasn't looking for
this, you know, the idea.
And I came across it was.
It was a psychologist speaking at Duke, and she was talking about how,
you know, she basically had two dots on a board and one dot was not knowing
and the other dot was knowing.
Now, this could apply to anything.
In our case, we're using it for pickleball, but it can apply to
anything that you don't know.
So not knowing, and you want to get over to knowing.
And then she had this kind of a squiggly line between the two
dots, kind of up and down.
And then so the focus was on the space between.
Between knowing and not knowing.
The squiggly line. What is that?
So she calls that the learning space.
And what's really interesting about that idea is that, is that it, like it gives.
It puts something a name on something, right, that we know we're
doing, but we don't really.
We're not clear on what's happening kind of like when you play pickleball, right,
you have the baseline and you have the non volley zone line.
Well, we call the space in the middle either transition zone or no man's land,
something like that, to give it like a.
So that we can understand that it has a name, right?
It's not just like blue cord or red cord or whatever color it is in your facility.
So this area between not knowing and knowing is the learning space.
And what she said is, she said, when you're in the learning space,
there is one.
There's one feeling or one emotion and only one emotion that's associated with
anyone whenever you're in the learning space.
And that one feeling, that one emotion is frustration.
That's the natural state when you're in this learning space.
So if you think about it for a second, right, you say, okay,
I don't know something.
And in this case it's pickle, right?
Or I don't know it the way I want to know it.
So I want to go from not knowing to knowing.
I'm going to be traversing this space, this transition zone
called the learning space.
And the emotion that I'm going to be feeling during this time is
frustration, right?
So I expect frustration when I'm in the learning space.
And she continued to expound on that.
So I'm basically saying that the persons who are able to grow the most, right?
Persons who are able to continue on their journeys the furthest are those who
are able to withstand frustration, right?
The persons who are able to just dive in and say, you know what?
I'm embracing the frustration, right?
There's a saying, you know, embrace the suck, if you will.
So basically I'm just embracing the feeling of being frustrated.
And I know that it's fine because it's necessary for me to progress
from not knowing to knowing.
The more you're able to do that, right?
The more you're able to either accept it or resist it, however you
want to think about it.
But the more you're able to stay in that middle zone between not knowing and
knowing, the more you'll grow, in this case, as a
pickleball player, but also in life, right?
The more you're willing to put up with frustration or just accept it, right?
If you want to be more Buddhist about it, you're just kind of like,
oh, that's the state of now. And I'll just.
It is what it is, right?
You can do a stoic approach, a nihilistic approach, whatever you want, right?
But at the bottom line is it's not bucking.
Don't buck frustration, right?
Avoid the temptation to.
To get upset about being frustrated, to be.
Be disappointed that you're frustrated, to, you know, feel bad
that you're frustrated.
In fact, if you think about it, big picture, it's the opposite, right?
You should embrace frustration.
You should say, not only am I not upset that I'm frustrated, I'm
excited that I'm frustrated.
Because if I'm frustrated, what I know is what I'm in the learning space, right?
If I'm frustrated, what I know is I am moving from not knowing
closer to knowing, right?
If I'm frustrated, I'm moving forward towards what I want.
There are the puppies.
So the puppies are active right now, and so you might hear them in
the background a little bit. That's Benita and Olivia.
Every once in a while, they're pretty quiet dogs.
They don't bark a lot, but every once in a while, they get a little
excited about something.
But, you know, so frustration is not only not bad, frustration is a positive because
we're moving forward.
And what I would suggest to you is if you.
The more you work this through, the more you understand that
it's a permanent state.
And allow me to explain this to you.
So right now we have two dots, not knowing and knowing.
And we're looking at the space in between as a learning space.
And then we're talking about frustration being the natural feeling in that space.
But here's the thing.
As I go from not knowing to knowing, as long as I'm
still curious, as long as I still want to grow, that not knowing
dot continues to slide, right? Because.
And let's just. Let's make it simple.
Let's start at the beginning.
So let's say that you just started playing pickleball and you don't
know how to keep score.
Frustrating, if you remember, right?
It's kind of like I can't remember how to keep score, so I don't
know how to keep score.
And then there's knowing how to keep score.
And in the middle learning space, frustration.
Okay, Now I know how to keep score, but I don't really understand the strategy
for what to do in my return of serve.
So I'm back into a not knowing knowing and a not knowing knowing and
a not knowing knowing.
Right now you have a not knowing knowing gap.
If you're, excuse me, curious and want to grow, you have a not knowing gap between
where you are and where you want to be.
And that continuously slides, right?
There is no.
There is no end point in pickle ball unless you decide the only end point in
pickle ball is when you say to yourself, I'm done growing.
And there's. Don't, don't take this the wrong way.
It's not a, it's not a adjudication that you're a bad person or
that it's perfectly fine.
You're entitled to engage with the sport however you want.
You know, I would submit to you that personally, whether it's inside or
outside of pickleball, you should.
I would suggest it's more fulfilling to engage in this life with a constant growth
idea, with a never, you know, always.
There's this idea of always thinking yourself as a beginner
in everything, right? You're always.
I'm always like looking at it as I'm, I'm new to this.
What can I continue to grow in, right? As a person?
I think pickleball is a great place to do that.
Think about it like a canvas for yourself.
And we've talked about a little bit before, but just don't
lose sight of that, right?
Pickleball is a great space that allows you to work on yourself physically,
socially, emotionally, mentally, everything.
And actually the way.
Recent interview with pro player Richard Livernis, he talked about it like
basically it gives him more reps.
You know, let's say you're playing pickleball four or five
times a week, right?
There's going to be plenty of places there for you to work on your
mental journey because you're going to have so many different exposures to
potentially adverse mental reactions, right?
You missed a shot, you lost a game, you should have won.
Whatever, whatever you're thinking, right?
All these different things are different repetitions that you have that allow you
to continue to strengthen your, your, your mental journey muscles, right?
Your ability to, to deal with those situations.
Whereas if you remove that, right?
So let's say you weren't playing that, those pickleball games.
And, and let's assume, let's go completely the other way.
Completely sedentary lifestyle, sitting on the couch, watching television.
There's no adversity, right?
Other than, you know, maybe once a month or something, you're looking back
on like, what did I do last month?
But other than that, I mean, like during day in and day out, you're just kind of
receiving information there' Whatever.
So these, these pressures that pickleball creates for us allow us to continue to get
the reps, to continue to, to continue to work on our mental processes inside
the game, but also outside the game.
So as you work forward, right?
From not knowing to knowing, understanding that those are always going to be moving
goalposts as long as you are open to that and understanding that the space between
them, this learning space is a learning space is an area that when you're
transiting it, it's going to be characterized by feelings of frustration.
Then what happens is you can embrace the frustration, right?
And definitely, at least don't fight the frustration, right?
Don't get upset about the frustration. Just embrace it.
And then you'll continue to grow as a person, knowing that your
frustration is a necessary piece to your growth, from not knowing to knowing.
Which will improve your pickleball and more importantly, will improve your life.
So hopefully this helps you navigate not just pickleball, but also outside of
pickleball, in terms of any kind of growth process that you are engaged with,
as long as you remain open to growth.
That's this week's podcast.
I hope you enjoyed it.
If you have a minute to rate and review it, fantastic.
And as always, if you can share it with your friends, great.
Because remember, if you enjoyed the podcast, thanks.
They probably will too.
I hope you have a great weekend and week and I will see you at the next
episode of Pickleball Therapy. Be well.