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Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy, the

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podcast dedicated to your
pickleball improvement.

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Hope you're having a great week.

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I'm the host of this
weekly podcast, Tony Roig.

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I am actually at Nationals
right now here in Arizona.

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So USA Pickleball Nationals in
Mesa, Arizona, specifically.

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Got to play in one event, which I'm going
to be using as the centerpiece

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for today's conversation.

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And today we're going to be talking
about a secret to winning more games.

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And I'm going to use a match that I played
in on Monday, or a couple of matches,

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to compare them.

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But one of the match in particular that I
played in on Monday here at Nationals, to

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help you understand, or to help explain to
you, I should say,

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a way of playing that gives you a much
higher chance of success

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than you may currently have based
on how you're approaching the games.

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Before we get into that, a
couple of notes of housekeeping.

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We are in the midst of our
subscription launch for our academy.

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So if you want to take advantage of
that, make sure you check that out.

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If you're on email list, you're probably
getting that already in your email.

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So take advantage of that if you're
interested in

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that model or in that ecosystem, it's an
academy where we basically have a bunch of

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courses that cover different parts of the
game, whether it's lobbying, bangers,

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partner play on forced errors.

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We have some really good guest pro coach
courses as well that are in there,

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so make sure you check that out.

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All right, so let's dive into the subject
that I want to talk about, which is this

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idea of How do we play better pickleball?

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Everything else being equal, meaning you
have your strategy, you have the way you

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hit the balls, you have
your approach to the game.

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What can you do that
you're going to see how simple this is.

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That's very, very simple that will
greatly improve your chances for success.

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And what I'm going to use is a
couple of matches that I played

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here on Monday in a hybrid division.

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I'll explain that in a second.

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That really illustrate how you can up your
game, staying within the confines

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of everything else being the same.

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In other words, without radically changing
where you're hitting the balls and things

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like that, you can do a couple of things
that will really radically

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improve your chances for success.

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So on Monday, I got to play hybrid, which
is one standing player,

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one player in a wheelchair.

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So it's a mixed an event,
mixed doubles, if you will.

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So one standing player, one seated player.

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And I had played with my partner Ken
before at the US Open, he asked

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me to join him at Nationals.
I was happy to do so.

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So we come out and we play our first match
against a very good team, against

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Troy and Ryan, and a solid team like us.

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It could look very similar us
in terms of their abilities.

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And we won the first game against them.

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Then we were up 10-5 in the
second game against them.

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They ended up coming back and beating us
12-10 in that game, and they

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beat us in the third game.

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So that So this is the first match of the
day that knocks us down to the

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bottom bracket, which is
the Bronze Metal bracket.

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And so we go down to that bracket, we win
the next two games, and then we're in the

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Bronze Metal match, me and my partner Ken.

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And we're playing the
exact same team again.

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So we're going to play Troy and Ryan
again in the Bronze Metal match.

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So in that match, Ryan and Troy come
out and they win the first game.

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Then we win the second game,
and then we're in the third

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game, and we're getting hammered.

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We're getting destroyed
by Troy and by Ryan.

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And so we do this...

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In case you don't play tournaments,
you don't know this, I'll explain.

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So basically, at six, you change sides,
change ends in a tournament

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in the third game.

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So we change ends in the
third game, 6-1, down 6-1.

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Then we were down 7-1, we were down 9-4,
ultimately ended up being down 10-4.

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So Ryan and Troy have us 10-4-2.

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We get a side out.

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We go to work.

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So I'm serving at the side out.

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We get that point, serve again, get
that point, serve again, get that point.

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Now we're at 7, 10.

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They get a half a side
out, so now it's 7, 10, 2.

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My partner Ken takes over serving, and
this will become particularly relevant in

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a minute, but my partner Ken
takes over serving at 7, 10, 2.

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We score a point at 8, 10, 2.

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They call a time out,
and then come back, and we score at nine,

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we score at 10, we score at
11, and we score it at 12.

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So we came back from 4-10 down in the
third game to win

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12-10 and get the Bronze medal.

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So the reason I told you the first match
was because I thought it was interesting

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that we had basically the exact same
situation earlier, meaning we had been up

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really big in a 10-5, I think it was that
game, in the first match, And they were

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able to come back and beat us that game.

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This time, we were the ones who were able
to come back from being down significantly

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4-10 and put on a run and beat them
in the last game, in the last match.

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So what changed
between when we were getting hammered and

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when we ended up winning?

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A couple of things I
want to focus on here.

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One is I mentioned Ken serve.

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So Ken serve earlier on in that match
had been a little bit erratic.

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Ken had been missing some serves.

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And during the day, he
missed a few serves.

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So what we've been working on when he's
missing his serves was for him

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to take more time to serve.

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And It's a tempo concept.

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It's an idea of when you're playing
pickleball, trying to play the game

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at your tempo, trying to play the game in
the way that makes the most sense for you.

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And oftentimes, I would suggest you that
you're rushing more than you should be.

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And if you slow yourself down and give
yourself the time you need,

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your shots will improve.

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Your mechanics will improve because you're
giving your brain time to

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get rid of whatever it's thinking about.

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And from the prior rally, get itself ready
for the next rally, take a moment to

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acquire the new situation.

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I'm serving from the left or I'm serving
from the right, and then acquire your

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target and then execute the shot.

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So when you think about When
you think about your game, consider

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controlling the tempo better of the
way that you're playing the game.

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And completing the story on Ken serve.

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So we had Ken serving a little bit erratic
earlier, missing some

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serves here and there.

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Starts to slow down, starts to take more
control over his time, and then is able to

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start to piece together his serve in a
more constructive way,

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including at the end, because as I
mentioned, we were down When I told you

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the story, we were down 7,10,2 because
they had gotten a half-side out at 7,10,1.

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So now Ken has to serve at 7,10,2.

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And Ken is able to rattle off five
straight service points, meaning no miss

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serves, and also serves that are
putting pressure on our opponents.

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As I recall, I think they missed one
return of serve during that sequence

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based on Ken's quality of Ken serve.

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And we also got a couple of short returns
of serve that we were able to attack.

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So by taking his time, he changes from
erratic missing serve to having

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the wherewithal or the confidence and the
ability to then rattle off the five points

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we needed at the end in order to
complete the and get the bronze medal.

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So tip number one step for
success is going to be tempo.

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Play at a tempo that makes sense for
you and just getting your job done.

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Not, I need to rush around, I need to go
run and get the ball, I

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need to hurry up and serve.
None of that.

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You play at your tempo, slow yourself
down, and you're going to play better.

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The second piece of advice that I would
give you in terms of improving your

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success relatively easily is smile.

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Now, I know that sounds
so simple that it can't possibly work.

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Absolutely works.

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And I would say smile was actually a
bigger factor in our comeback than even

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the time that Ken was taking on a serve.

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The time was super important because it
got Ken more comfortable with his serving,

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and he got more reliable with his serving.

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But smiling is key.

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So what happened there was
we were at 10:41, and I looked

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I looked at Ken and I said...

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And it had been a nice day.

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The sun was setting.

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It was the evening.

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All the other players from the bracket
were watching because we were the last

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match in our division for the day.

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And we were It was just
day of pick-up, right?

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And so I look over at Ken and I said, Ken,
don't forget, you're playing in the Bronze

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medal match at the Nationals, right?
So it's pretty cool.

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And so I said, we should probably
smile smile about that, right?

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Smile about that.

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So Ken breaks out a smile, and
we win that point.

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So then we win that point.

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I looked at Ken and I said, Ken, you
smile the last one, and we won the point.

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I mean, might want to smile again.

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Smiles again.
We win that point.

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Every time that we want to point, I
reminded Ken of the fact that

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he had smiled the one before.

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So obviously, now you don't
want to break the rhythm, right?

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Or you don't want to jinks it, right?

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You've been smiling and
winning, smiling and winning.

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You don't want to stop smiling.

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So Ken starts to smile between rallies.

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We start, Ken and my
energy gets more positive.

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We're more relaxed on our side.

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And that little thing, that smiling,
takes us from down 10-4.

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Okay, we're going to lose in the bronze
battle match, and that's it, right?

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We're done.
To, okay, let's keep battling.

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Let's keep doing this thing.

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Let's keep playing one rally at a time and
continuing to battle back

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with the understanding understanding that
pickle ball is a

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game of swings and can be messy game.

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Sometimes it's just
we'll be messy for a while and they get up

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big and then they get messy for a while,
and then we were able to come back and

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tie up and ultimately win the game.

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But in the middle, it's this idea of
smiling as we're playing and just enjoying

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each moment,
taking a second to smile, taking a second

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to be grateful for the situation that
you're in getting to play the sport.

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That act of smiling is going to then give
you additional calmness, and that

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calmness leads to better play.

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What I haven't said happened because it
didn't, was

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in terms of understanding the change in
our results between getting killed

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and then ultimately winning the game, is
we did not change anything strategically.

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So we did not.

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The The turnaround between
4:10 down to 12:10 winning

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wasn't something like, Okay, we're
stacking, and then we didn't stack, or we

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started stacking, or we started hitting to
the player on the left side's right foot,

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and whatever, and all that stuff, right?
Nothing wrong with that stuff.

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That's fine, right?

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Everything was the same.

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We were playing the same, the same
approach we've been using the whole time.

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The differences were
Ken taking time on his serve so that he

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was more comfortable and reliable
with it, and the smiling.

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The smiling is what took us
from fourth place to third place, and a

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spot on the podium at Nationals on Monday.

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So if you want to improve your play,
There's a lot of things you

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need to improve your play.

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So don't think there's not
a lot of things you can do.

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That's fine.

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But all things being equal, meaning you've
already done the other stuff to the best

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of your ability, consider taking your time
and consider smiling, considering

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enjoying the situation more.

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You're going to play better.

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By definition, you're going to enjoy
yourself more while you're

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playing this beautiful sport.

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So hopefully you enjoyed
this week's podcast.

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If you did, consider
rating and reviewing it.

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As always, that helps us reach
other players just like you.

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And share with your friends.

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Remember, if you enjoy the
podcast, they probably will, too.

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I hope to be in the studio next week for
another regular episode

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of Pickleball Therapy.

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Until then, be well.