Hello and welcome to pickleball Therapy, the podcast dedicated to
your pickleball improvement.
I'm your host of the weekly podcast, Tony Roig.
It's a pleasure to be with you this week.
This is a new format we have for the podcast called Walk and Talk.
So I am going to be on the road walking as I speak.
So if you hear background noises in the podcast, it is perfectly natural
and nothing to be alarmed about.
This week's podcast, we're going to be talking about playing with
players from different levels.
And this is a common question that we get or a common situation that arises,
which is, how do I keep the game fun?
How do I keep playing with players who I've known for a long time?
And Maybe they haven't kept up with where you're at in the game.
And also sometimes we'll play in situations in open plays where
there's really no gathering of levels.
So it's basically a little bit of a free-for-all.
So how do you make that fun and maybe productive?
I'm going to use the word productive here, but I mean the word productive here.
And it's not in a sense of producing work-wise active for
us so that we feel like we got something out of the experience,
perhaps more than would be otherwise.
So that's going to be the topic of today's podcast.
If you have a topic that you're interested in covering in the podcast, you can send
us an email at therapy@betterpickleball.
com and let us know, and we're happy to see if we can cover that.
We also do Occasional Ask Me Any Things format, which is basically
or mailback episodes, really.
So where there's a series of questions that are asked, and we just
rapid fire go through them.
So if you want to be a part of that, send us an email, put on the subject line,
pickleball Therapy, question, and we will either answer it in its own podcast
episode like this one, or we will include it in the mailback.
All right, so that's the reality of pickleball today is it's evolving.
And I would submit one of the downsides or limitations that we're seeing
in the sport is the sport becoming more clickish, where
the sport is becoming more, I play with my group, you play
with your group, and we don't mix.
I'm going to suggest you that there's a world in which you can
engage in pickleball in a constructive, productive way that you're going to feel
good about that allows you to play with a broader range of levels of players.
And let's work through a couple of different areas where I
think you could do that.
One area is working on your game.
Say that, let's just use some round numbers for shorthand to make it easier.
So say you're a really good 4.
0 player, and you go to open play and the players there are 3:00 to 3:5.
There's not even any 4:00s there during that day.
You have the option, obviously, of walking away, right?
You can just leave and not play pick-up in that group that day.
Or you can use the opportunity to work on parts of your game
that perhaps you don't work on as much when you're playing
with other 4-0 players.
Because what happens is when you're playing at level, if you will, when you're
playing with other 4-0s, there's more pressure on you.
It's normal for us to feel a little more pressure.
And so we're less likely to stray from what we know.
So if you're, say you're a good offensive player, you have a lot of
weapons to use, and you deploy those when you play a 4-0
and you have good results, don't want all the time, you have nice
results with those, then you're going to use those when
you're playing the 4-0 players.
You're going to be less likely to expand your range into shots and ideas
that aren't as comfortable for you.
An example would be playing a more sophisticated soft game, a
more advanced soft game, a grinding game, on your counter, setting yourself up,
knowing that the 3-0, 3-5 is likely to attack from maybe a bad spot and
getting your counters improved.
Working on outballs is another area.
So counters and outballs, those two come hand in hand.
You can work on those when you're playing.
It 3035s of your 4-0 or playing under-level.
You can also, like I said, work on your soft game.
You can work on pinpointing your shots a little better.
Take some pressure off yourself in terms of results and work on parts of your game
that you would not normally work on with your level.
Another example would be, let's say you have a really good soft
game developed, but not a good hard game.
Work on your hard game, work on your offensive output in the 3-0, 3-5 setting.
So one way you can be more productive or constructive with your play
outside level is to work on your game.
Another thing you can do when you're playing outside level is
to work on the social part, right?
Work on the other parts of the game that aren't just technical, right?
And I think sometimes as pickleball players, we get a little too
caught up in technical side, in the, I need to be pushed all the time, always
100 % of the time, I need to be pushed in my game so that I continue to improve
like there's some end result to this, which there isn't, by the way.
That's a spoiler for a concept we're going to talk about in a second.
But basically, work on the other parts.
Work on your gratitude, work on the mental side of the game,
work on dealing with adversity, work on parts of your game and parts of
you that it may be harder to work on when you are
playing a level and maybe feeling a little bit more stressed about
the results of a particular game.
Now, I wanted to touch on this subject of there's no end line.
I think as a pickleball of players, we can get caught up in, I need to get somewhere.
I need to get to a certain level.
I need to get this one shot down.
I need to whatever it is, fill in the blank with what It's on your mind, right?
What it is that your mind says, you need to get this done.
It's a finish line or something you got to get to.
And understand that pickleball has no end line.
There is no finish line with our sport, which you probably heard me say before,
something we should embrace, something we should celebrate about our sport,
because that means that as long as you choose
to to partake in pickleball, as long as you choose to be a part of this sport,
pickleball will have something to teach you.
Pickleball will never run out, and you can never exhaust it.
But that means is that there is nowhere to get to.
So this idea that I need to always play at a certain level or else really is a myth.
It's really just a fiction that we fabricate in our minds,
and it really doesn't do anything for us.
Frankly, it limits because it keeps us away from situations
like this where we could enjoy a nice game with players who perhaps are not exactly
at our level and get a lot out of it.
But we choose not to because we look at it and just say, Okay, these players
don't play the way I do or don't play at my level.
And so I'm going to opt out of this game.
Again, there's a lot you can gain from playing.
And we skipped over a really big one, right?
Which is just getting to play, right?
Just getting the opportunity to get on the court with
friends, with other players, and enjoy this awesome sport of pickleball.
It's like someone's got a generator going back there.
This is a post-Haleen here in the Tampa Bay area, and there's some
houses that are still running generators and things like that.
So pretty loud.
Anyway, so just enjoying the sport of pickleball is a a gift, right?
Anytime we can get on the court and denying ourselves the ability to play
just because we have this baseline that we won't dip below is a disservice to us.
And a last note on this is that this idea that we're only going to play at
a level or higher creates a real problem for the sport in general and for you.
Because if everybody thinks the way that, maybe not you're thinking, but that
players think, which is I can only play at level or higher, then no one will ever
play with you who's a higher level.
Because they have the same thought process that you do.
They're sitting there saying, Well, I'm a 4'5.
So I'm not playing with a 4-0.
If you're, let's say, you're a 3-5, then also play 3-5 and higher, then the
4-0 is thinking the same thing, right?
And the 4-0 is thinking, I'm not playing with you because you're a 3-5,
and you keep going, right?
3-0 to 3-5, etc.
So consider that part of game when you're making your decisions about
whether you're going to join in a game or not join in a game.
And remember that there are lots of positives that you can gain from
participating in pickleball, regardless of the level of play, as long
as you have clarity in your mind and who you are, and
that there's places that you can explore in your own
game and parts of not just your game, but parts of yourself
that you can work on and get stronger at when you get to play with
players who perhaps at a level of skill or proficiency are not quite yet where
you are at in this sport of pickleball.
That's this week's podcast.
I hope you enjoy the content and the Walk & Talk series.
There are going to be more of these Walk & Talks as I continue to work on
my physical development and that gives me a good opportunity to
get out, walk to where I need to go, and share with you some ideas about the mental
side of Pickleball to help strengthen you on your journey.
Have a great week.
If you enjoyed the podcast, share with your friends.
I almost forgot to say that.
Share with your friends, if you guys have enjoyed the podcast.
If you enjoyed the podcast today, I probably will, too.
Have a great week, and I'll see you at the next episode.
Be well.