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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.
[00:00:05.000] - Tony Roig
Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy, the podcast dedicated to your Pickleball improvement. My name is Tony Roig. I'm your host of this weekly podcast. This podcast this week is being filmed on location. You may hear the audio is a little bit different. Not sure how the background noise is coming through the microphone right now, but there may be some waves lapping against the shore. If you're seeing this on YouTube, you're seeing Upper Tampa Bay, which is about 15 minutes from where I live, and it's a beautiful day in February. So I took agency today and said, All right, we're going to record this out here as I do some work here at a little facility here on the Bay. This week, I want to talk to you about something that we haven't talked about in a little bit. I've been thinking a lot about my role in Pickleball and what I do and how I can hopefully provide more value to players who want to grow in the game. And in that process, the reason I do what I do is because of you as a pickleball player. So what I wanted to talk about in this podcast is, are my hopes for you as a player?
[00:01:05.930] - Tony Roig
I think it'll help you perhaps get some ideas of how a coach views your relationship with pickleball. And then I believe several of these items will resonate with you and help guide your own process within your relationship with this beautiful sport. And then in the RIF, I'll share with you some things that I'm thinking about in terms of where I'm at in the game or in the coaching game of pickleball and what my plans are for 2026 to see if we can continue to help as many players as possible. So let's start with you as a player, right? These are my hopes for you as a player. And again, I'm looking at it from a perspective of what I I think what I envision is a perhaps more meaningful or fuller relationship with the sport of Pickleball. And you'll notice that in this podcast, and you probably heard me use this term before if you listen to the podcast, the term relationship is intentionally used. It's a powerful word, and it's fully... It's a big word. It's powerful, it's big, it encompasses a lot, and it's used intentionally because our relationship with pickleball is much more than just a casual interaction or once in a while thing.
[00:02:19.000] - Tony Roig
It's an actual relationship that you build with this sport, with this world of pickleball. If you're watching this on YouTube, by chance, I'm sharing my view right now as I record the podcast. You're just we're going to see the beautiful waves. There's a gentleman out here doing some metal detecting and stuff. So I don't know if it'll come this way eventually. Maybe I'd see a boat go by or something, but enjoy the view. All right. So here, my host for you as a player. Number one, that you have the ability to hit the shots, and these are the necessary shots, with a reasonable degree of consistency. Now, a couple of side notes here. Not looking for perfection, not looking for you to be a perfect mechanical player. That is not necessary. It's also not realistic. Not even the pros are perfect in their shots. Everybody makes mistakes when they play. It's just that you can hit the shots that you need to hit with a reasonable degree of consistency. And playing on what I just mentioned, it's the necessary shots, right? You don't have to be able to hit every single type of possible shot that you can do with a pickleball paddle and a pickleball on a pickleball court.
[00:03:25.040] - Tony Roig
What I hope for you as a player is that you feel a certain degree of mastery or a certain degree of competency with the shots that actually matter. And there's not too many of them. There's the serve and return of serve. And the reason I point those out separately, even though they are ground strokes, is because of their level of importance. And we hit them a little bit differently because of that two bounce rule applies to bow shots. So you want a reasonably consistent serve and return of serve that gets the job done for you. You need a working ground stroke. You don't need a 400-mile-an-hour drive You don't need the spins. You don't need any of that stuff. You need a working ground stroke, and then you need two working volleys. You need a block volley, and you need a punch volley. If you have those shots, you can play an amazing game of pickle ball up to an including 4. 0 level pickle ball. So that's my hope for you, is that you gain competence with those shots. Now, listen, if you have other shots, if you come to the game with other shots from tennis or ping pong, or racquetball, or you just happen to know, that's perfectly fine, right?
[00:04:27.960] - Tony Roig
Not trying to take anything away from you. But At a minimum, I want you to have the shots that you need to comfortably play a pickle ball game on any court in any level. And with these shots, you can do that. And the way to think about it is these are the tools, tools of the trade or tools of the game. These are the things that we need in order to enjoy the sport. It is a sport that requires us. It's a sport that has a mechanical component to it. It's not like Scrabble or something like that, or Bridge or things like that. Those are fine activities, but they don't require mechanical proficiency in order to engage in Just understanding the strategy and being able to construct it. Pickable has an added element because it's a physical sport. It has a physical activity, sport. So it has a mechanical component to it, and that mechanical component is a part of enjoying the sport to its fullest. So that's my hope for you on the mechanical side, is that you have that proficiency. My second hope for you is that you have a working and growing understanding of the game.
[00:05:27.120] - Tony Roig
And here what I'm talking about is you'll hear us use the framework from time to time. This is what I'm talking about here, that you're able to see the analogy/metaphore that we use sometimes is like you're trying to build a puzzle. Framework is the puzzle box cover of pickleball. So basically, it's how the pieces all work together. Players, a lot of... I would actually be interested to say most players play their, if not all their entire career, much of their career without having an understanding of how the game is put together. So they end up chasing shots, chasing strategies. From my perspective, that's not as fulfilling as having a sense that there's a structure to this. There's an order or a method to the madness of pickable. I'd hope for you that you have that understanding. And then from there, you grow, you build, you start understanding more of the pieces and how they go together. And this is a lifelong process. This is not, okay, so for the next month or so, you're going to In the next 30 days, you're going to learn the framework of pickleball. I was reminded of this recently, this limitation sometimes that we impose on ourselves.
[00:06:38.420] - Tony Roig
We had a student, our year-align program is called the Pickleball System, and we had a student basically write in, and their belief was that they had already completed the program. That's just not a thing. You don't complete pickleball. You continue to learn and continue to uncover and go deeper if you so choose. That is entirely up to you, but it is there for you. If you want it, it'll always have something to teach you. So it's a lifelong process. And if you embrace that, if you acknowledge and embrace it, you'll have lifelong learning, which is one of the beauties of the sport. And then the idea is to start with the foundation and build on top of that. Keep on adding layers or pieces to the puzzle. Keep layering pieces onto your puzzle so you see the picture more and more, versus playing. You know you play for a long time. If you never really see the picture of a pickle, just not as fulfilling, again, from my perspective, and that's what I hope for you, is that you're able to engage on that process. I think that another thing that I hope for you as a player is that you utilize pickleball to its maximum for your physical health.
[00:07:51.520] - Tony Roig
This is the body mind of the athletic filler. This is the body piece. So you can use the game itself, obviously, to improve your health. You're moving around, you're getting some good cardio in. You're running with the NBZ every rally and stuff like that. You're probably getting some strength in your legs from having to squat down as you get a dink and those types of things. But my hope for you is that you take it One more step or maybe a few more steps from there, which is say, Okay, I love pickleball. I want to play better. Okay, what can I do to play better? One thing you can do to play better is gain better hip flexibility, for instance. Hip flexibility will allow you to move through the court quicker. Also, This will allow you to get down lower to get those shots because pickle balls, as you know, do not bounce up very high. So the lower you can get, the better your shots are going to be often. So hip flexibility, leg flexibility, mobility, balance, strength training, all of those things, cardio even, all of those items will help you with your pickleball.
[00:08:52.180] - Tony Roig
So you're using pickleball as the catalyst or as the motivator to get you to do these other things, but you gain the benefit of the other things as well. So I hope that utilize pickleball to help continue to strengthen your body and make your body more useful for you for the rest of your life. I also hope you use it for your mind. It's the same thing here, right? I mean, this is body-mind on the athletic pillar. So it's This is where you use pickleball to help you grow as a person, grow as a human. The mental processes that you learn by studying the mental game in pickleball are processes that will help you in every aspect of your life. You've heard before if you've listened to a podcast that we have a book called Pickleball Therapy, same name as a podcast. That could be a great addition to your mental process. You can also read the other books that we have on our resources page, A Better Pickleball. There's the Inner Game of Tennis, there's Mental Emotional Training for Tennis, Compete, Learn, Honor by Coach Peter Scales. He's my mentor, and I highly recommend that book.
[00:09:49.860] - Tony Roig
There's The Art of Learning by Josh Wetskin. There's a ton of books out there. There's a Sports Ecology for Dummies. There's just a lot of good books out there. Pickleball Mindset by Dane Gingrish The towel of a Figgerwell by Scott Golden and his co-author, whose name escapes me right at the second. But you have all these resources available to you that you can use to help expand your mind. I'll tell you, the feedback I've gotten on the book that I wrote, I have more feedback on that than any other book, is that folks who are reading it are realizing that, wait a minute, the things that are written in the book, I can apply in other places, whether it's a personal struggle, whether it's just normal life stuff. And so what you're doing, again, is using pickleball as the catalyst. It may not be the exact term I'm reaching for here, but I think it gets the idea. Pickleball is the instigator. It's the reason why you go out and work on your mental, your mind, and then you gain the benefits of that outside of the sport. So I hope you use that for that as well.
[00:10:49.580] - Tony Roig
The last ones that I have here are, I hope you're gaining social connections out of pickleball. That has been an important part of my pickleball journey is not just the coach students, I love those relationships that I've built. This morning, I was texting with some of our students that are undergoing some physical challenges and things like that to see how they're doing. I love having those, developing those friendships over the years, but Also as a player, I've developed some really, really good friendships here in my area with pickleball. So hopefully you're taking the full advantage of that. Maybe you're grabbing a coffee before or after, or a lunch before or after, things like that. I mean, Expand the pickleball, your connections, other than just being on the court with them, if you so choose. So that's my hope for you. And then I have a catch all here about personal growth. We talked about the body, we talked about the mind, but just you as a person, right? You as a human being navigating the planet, navigating your personal journey through the planet. Pickleball is just this beautiful canvas that allows you to do so much, and hopefully you're gaining that out of pickleball.
[00:11:55.400] - Tony Roig
And then the last thing I have for you is that I hope that you enjoy a strong and lasting relationship relationship, and that's our word again, right? Strong and lasting relationship with this amazing sport of pickleball. It's got so much to give. And as I mentioned, it's lifelong. So you choose the length of time that you want to engage with the sport. The sport will be there for you. As long as there's courts and paddles and balls and other folks to play with, you'll have a sport that you can engage with for as long as you're on planet Earth. So hopefully you enjoy a long and full relationship with this sport. So now let me tell you a little bit about myself and what I'm thinking about and my plans and how they interact with or intersect with what I hope for you. My relationship with Pigger Bowl has morphed over the years. When I started playing Pigger Bowl in 2015 and really got crazy into it in 2016, basically, I was a player. I started off as a player, pure player. Wanted to know more about the sport. I was trying to find all kinds of places to play it in Met some nice people.
[00:13:01.660] - Tony Roig
My friend Tom and I started playing tournaments together. My wife, Jill, and Tom, and his gal, Nikki, we were traveled to play tournaments all over the country, really. Most East Coast, but still all up and down the Coast. Basically, I was a player. I competed a lot of tournaments, and we bought an RV, we traveled, all that stuff. It was all in on pickleball from the player perspective. Then in 2018, I started the YouTube channel. I'd always liked helping others with the sport if I could. They wanted to listen to me. And then I also just wanted to share more information. At that time, there wasn't that much YouTube information out there. Most of it was good information. There was a couple of videos that I thought maybe it could have been explained a little bit better. So I'm like, Let me take a hand at it. So I started the YouTube channel in 2018. Jill said to me one time during our V trip, she said, You really like this, helping with. Why don't you get certified? So we actually changed our itinerary, our route, and I became IPTPA certified, and I believe it was 18 on that trip.
[00:14:08.040] - Tony Roig
And then I haven't really looked back. From there, then I started developing concepts, Like respect the X is a concept, the three pillars of a figureball, the Fawce approach, Strive. There's others that aren't coming to mind right now, maybe a middle cover four, stuff like that. So concepts that actually make a difference. I try hard to fight the urge to succumb to the algorithm, and no criticism of any content creators. That's just this is the world we live in, and we live in an algorithmic world. So it's natural. If you want to get more views, you try and find what the algorithm likes. I continue to try to fight the urge to do that because what I want to do is I want to provide information that will actually help players, even if the algorithm doesn't really like it or even if players initially buck I have a thick skin. I always stand in the comments of players who are like, Well, I still don't know what I'm supposed to do, even though the video has suggested something to do, but they're just not connecting the dots with what the video is saying. And that's perfectly fine because they're used to seeing a certain type of content is the key.
[00:15:15.560] - Tony Roig
As I'm driving into this, there's a gal getting out there on a paddle board. This is, I guess, what Tampa Bay is all about. I don't know if you're going to see it on the video here, but she's heading out on a paddle board. Beautiful day for it. Anyway, my role or my place inside Pickleball has morphed into being a teacher, being a steward of knowledge is the way I view myself. And my job is to transfer as much of that knowledge as I can to players who want to receive the knowledge for their growth, whether it's framework, whether it's how to hit the shots, whether it's helping with the body, the mind, things like that. I'm trying to help as much as I can in all those different areas. What I do is I develop concepts, again, that I try that I believe are helpful, even if they're a contrarian, even if they're heresy. I have a project I'm working on right now, which explores the use of the third shot drop up until 4. 0 play. The more I've studied the game, the more I've coached, the less relevant I think the third shot drop is at levels of play up until 4.
[00:16:17.440] - Tony Roig
There's a lot of other things that are more important that may sound heredical. And it should sound heredical based on the common knowledge about the third shot drop. That blows that around there, blows out there, but I'm not impeded by that. So my objective is to help the player. And so if I don't think the third shot drop is that important for a player, I'm going to recommend that they don't spend time on it. So that's an example of my work. Another thing that I spend a lot of time on is curriculum. It's thinking through the best way to flow out, or the best way to structure, I should say, the shots and strategies, concepts that are most important to players in a way that helps them see the game better and also gives them the biggest bang for the buck early. Meaning, let's not work on things that are on the margins, on the outside. Let's focus on things that are big picture. I spent a lot of my time on that. I believe it's very important for players to have access to the content. So what do I do there is I try and provide a content that's freely available.
[00:17:24.700] - Tony Roig
That's on YouTube, on the In2Pickle channel, and also on here, this podcast, right? Whether you're watching it on YouTube or listening to it on a podcast, it's free content. I think it's important to share that content and continue to share that content. I think the number of this episode is like 280 something, but we've done well over 300 episodes, if you include special episodes, and things like that. I love doing that. Five years, happy to do it, and happy to continue doing it for the foreseeable future. I think that's an important piece of this. And one of the things that I'm working on in 2026 is how to increase access to substantive coaching programs that we that we've developed and that have a proven track record. And that's something that I'm working on right now in Q1 and probably roll into Q2 a little bit. But how to provide greater access to that information for players out there. And I'll tell you this, and this just came to me right now, I didn't have it in my notes, but if you're someone out there, you're a Pickleball player, say you're retired and you're in a place where you can help with the project and you want to, send us an email.
[00:18:28.660] - Tony Roig
Send me an email, tony@betterpickleball.com. Please put in the subject line, Access 2026. A-c-c-e-s-s, not excess, Access 2026, so I know what it's about. And then I'll set up a time, and let's have a conversation and see if it's something that you can help with. Because at the end of the day, folks, this is about the sport. And I'm going to use some material from Coach Peter Skelles right now. The sport is bigger than you. It's bigger than me. It's bigger than any one of us, right? This is an important sport for our society. It's an important sport for a lot of players. I know it's important for you, too, but it's also important for other players out there. And so whatever we can do to strengthen the sport. Our lane is knowledge transfer. We don't do facilities, we don't do paddles, we don't do balls. We know what we do, which is we have knowledge about the sport, we know how to communicate it effectively, and we know how to help players. We know how to help players strengthen their relationship with of the sport. That's something that I'm very passionate about, and if it's something that you're interested in helping with, I look forward to receiving your email.
[00:19:38.140] - Tony Roig
All right, that's this week's podcast. I hope you enjoyed the background waves lapping. I hope they came through a little bit for you. I'll see some of you here in Tampa. We have cams coming up this week and next week, and the week after, actually. So hopefully, I'll see some of you guys here. Otherwise, I'll see you all, or you'll hear me, I guess, in the next episode of Pickleball Therapy. Be welcome.