Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy,
the podcast dedicated to your Pickleball improvement.
It's the podcast with you in mind.
I'm your host,
Tony Roy.
It's a pleasure to be with you again this week,
as you know by now,
perhaps, but maybe you don't.
So I'm gonna tell you again,
we're going to single subject podcast on the Friday podcast.
The reason behind it is we want to make sure that
we can stay on,
on task,
right? Stay on one subject,
not just as your podcast host,
but also you as a listener,
because the mental part of Pickleball is a process,
and we wanna make sure that we can bite off one
thing at a time.
So what we're doing now is we're gonna have single subjects
during the regular Friday podcast drops,
and then if there's a riff or something else that is
of interest,
a special guest or something like that,
we'll bring those to you another day of the week,
generally on Monday in our special episodes.
So that's the,
the format that we're gonna be pursuing from here on out.
If you like the new format or don't like the new
format, you can let us know at therapy at better Pickleball
dot com.
Also, let us know if there's a subject that's of interest
to you.
We're overdue for a mailbag episode,
and that'll be coming out in the not to this in
future. So let us know if there's anything out there that
has been been backing you or something that's been happening that
you have questions about regarding your Pickleball game.
And speaking of questions and answers,
that is the topic of today's podcast.
We're gonna talk about how do we get to the right
answer As Pickleball players,
we, we often have questions and you know about Pickleball and
what shot should I adhere and what should I do in
this situation?
And if you wanna get to the right answer,
you first have to start with the right question,
and we're gonna talk about that during today's podcast.
I wanna remind you that if you're interested in,
in, in learning or,
or being coached by CJ and myself,
make sure you check out our Pickleball Academy.
It's, there's some courses and,
and offerings that we have that are coming out in inside
our Better Pickleball Academy.
And also we have our camps,
upcoming camps in 2024.
That should have some spots left by the time you listen
to this podcast.
If not,
then, you know,
we'll see you next time,
but probably some spots left there for you.
If you go to better Pickleball dot com and check it
out, and you get to learn the way that we teach
Pickleball, which is a different way of approaching the game.
It's a,
it's a,
in our experience,
more productive and engaging way of playing Pickleball and it'll generate
the results that you're looking for.
Alright, so let's jump into the,
this idea of finding the right answer and starting with the
right question.
Pickleball players,
and I mean this as a,
as a compliment,
Pickleball players are curious beings have lots of questions,
and again,
total compliment,
not a criticism at all in our camps,
our students inside the Pickleball system.
I mean,
there are question upon question upon question about Pickleball,
and again,
compliment. I think it's fantastic that we remain curious about this
sport because we're passionate about it and we wanna know more
about it.
We wanna learn how to do things better.
We want to feel more confident out there,
more competent out there when We play Pickleball.
But the,
the, the,
you know,
what we normally try and do in our teaching is rather
than just simply answering the one question is we try to
provide you with a framework.
We try and give you a structure within which you can
answer the questions yourself.
It's that old saying about,
you know,
teach teach a person to fish or give,
give a person a fish and you feed 'em once,
teach 'em how to fish,
and you feed 'em for a lifetime.
Same approach.
What we're trying to do is say,
okay, let's,
let's see how we can frame this question in a way
that, that,
or give you the framing for a question in a way
that you can find the answer to this one question as
well as questions you that may arise in the future.
And I give you an example of a question that was
posed and how we approached it so you can see how
this works.
So the question was posed by one of our system members,
and the question had to do with playing on the return
side, particularly to the for shot.
And the idea was balancing out the objectives of the return
side with the type of for shot being hit without it
overextending, without going too far to make,
make an error.
And so the question is,
how do you avoid that?
How do you avoid overextending and potentially making an error in
connection with the achieving your objectives on the return side?
And so rather than simply answering that question,
which we could have done,
we responded with a framing,
which it's called the FOSS approach.
It's, it's something we use inside the Pickleball system,
which is framework,
objectives, strategies,
and shots.
And we basically framed out the,
the question that was being asked in a way that the,
that the,
the system student,
something that they refer,
we refer to 'em as TPS,
that's gotta become an acronym.
So TPS student could respond themselves,
right? They could come up with the answer to themselves.
Because here's the thing about Pickleball,
there are lots of variables,
and that's a beautiful aspect of our sport.
You may have heard me refer to this before,
that you know nothing against sports like cornhole and things like
that. That's,
it's a fine activity to engage in.
I don't know if it's a sport or not,
but pastime,
whatever it is,
it's a fine activity,
it's great,
but it's static.
And what I mean by that is you're always standing so
many feet apart from the other,
the the hole,
right? The board with the hole,
the, the bean bags you're tossing weigh the same unless there's
wind or something like that.
The variables,
there's no variables.
And you're not,
you're playing a little bit tor against another player because if
they, I,
I guess if they block you,
some you have to modify your,
your tosses a little bit.
But in theory,
you could learn how to toss the beanbag along an arc
that would always just basically dive into that hole.
So again,
fine activity,
not a lot of variables,
Pickleball, lots of variables we have.
Forget about wind,
forget about that,
forget about external variables like that.
Let's just just talk about the variables of a,
of a rally.
We're talking about you and just breaking you down.
I need to know,
you know,
to to,
to, to give you an exact Dan shot.
We need to know like,
is your forehand stronger or your backhand stronger?
What shots can you hit off,
off this side or the other side?
Where's the ball that you're trying to hit?
Is the ball on your left side,
your right side in front of you going behind you?
Is it deep towards you?
Is it,
is it way in front of you?
You're gonna have to be reaching forward to,
to hit it?
Is it way to one side or the other where you're
gonna have to reaching away?
How proficient are you at that shot?
Right? And then,
and then the next questions then now we have to look
at like,
okay, where's my partner?
Right? Because that affects may affect the type of shot that
I hit.
Also, where are my opponents?
Where's the player on the left side and the right side
of the court?
How, how deep are they in the court?
Are they up in the non volley zone?
Are they not?
How far left?
You know,
what's their positioning left to right?
What are their strengths and weaknesses,
right? I don't want to be hitting the ball to their
strong side.
If I'm playing in a,
you know,
competitive environment,
I want to keep hit it to the weak side.
Is there a,
a weakness of theirs that I can exploit in that situation?
So there's all sorts of variables and,
and I,
I didn't even bring the bring up,
you know,
wind and,
you know,
type of ball being used.
I mean,
surface, you're playing on just great,
great number of variables when you're playing this sport.
And it's awesome.
It's amazing and awesome that we have that many variables because
that's what keeps us mentally young,
right? Keeps us challenged out there.
We're just having to solve these puzzles every time we play,
depending on who the opponents are,
what formation they're in,
what kind of situation we're in.
All of that.
And, and I referred to this in a previous podcast as
like this having like a Rolodex approach,
which basically you're trying to like come up with a particular
answer to a particular question.
The, the limitation of that approach is that then you,
you're gonna have to have a hundred thousand answers,
right? And you have to have 'em stored in your brain
in a way that you can pull 'em out when you
need 'em.
Instead, a better approach is to have this more,
more fundamentally sound way of asking the question that then allows
you to pursue the answer yourself,
given the framework of the game as you understand it.
I'll give you a,
a a,
a concrete example you can use.
Is is one that we use when we talk about partners
playing with each other.
A lot of times the question is,
or the,
the, the issue that comes up is like,
that was my shot or that was your shot.
And it's not that that necessarily is wrong,
wrong way to ask it,
but we don't ask the question that way.
The way that we ask the question is,
what was the best shot for our team?
Once I ask the frame the question that way,
right? So that's where the framing of the question becomes important.
Once I frame the question as what was the best shot
for my team?
A lot of variables that don't matter fall away.
For instance,
was it a forehand or a backhand?
It's not,
it's not the top question,
right? Forehand in the middle kind of a thing.
All that kind of falls away because perhaps it is the
forehand that would've been the better shot there.
But not necessarily because let's say my backhand is stronger than
my forehand or than your forehand and I,
and I'm up at the line and you're not.
Things like that,
right? You can work through it in a more constructive way
by asking the base question being what's the best shot for
my team?
You also get away from ego considerations.
You know,
that was my shot or my Paul,
that was your ball.
Doesn't matter because that's not the question.
Question is,
what was the best shot for my team?
The center line disappears.
The center line's one of those areas of the court that
I wish,
you know,
we could make disappear after the rally begins.
That goes away if you ask the question correctly.
So as you think about puzzle solving in Pickleball,
consider evaluating the way that you're framing the question before you
try and arrive at an answer.
If you're assistant member,
the FOSS approach,
going back to the FOSS approach and your objectives and the
framework of the game is absolutely gonna change how you approach
answering the questions that come up when you play.
If you're,
if you're not in the,
in the,
in the assistant member,
I highly recommend you check it out.
You know when you're ready for it.
'cause it's,
it's, it's just the most comprehensive training platform where it's tying
in Pickleball.
So when you're ready,
it's there for you.
I hope you join us in one of the classes if
you're not already in there.
But even if you're not a system member,
use your understanding of the framework of the Pickleball to ask
the right questions.
The one I just gave you,
you can use when you're playing with a partner,
what was the best shot for my team?
And then you work from there backwards and you're gonna find
the right answer because you're starting with the right question.
Alright? I hope you enjoyed this week's podcast.
That framing is so important and it'll really help you play
better Pickleball and just think about the game more,
more fully and more,
more deeply with,
more meaningfully is the word.
I'm, I'm,
I'm, I was reaching for there.
And, and it really just,
it's a,
it's a better way,
it's a more productive way of thinking about the game of
Pickleball. If you enjoyed the podcast,
please rate and review it.
As always,
it helps us,
you know,
reach other players.
So if you have a moment,
we appreciate you doing that and share it with your friends
because you enjoyed the podcast,
they probably will too.
Have a great week and I'll see you next time.