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Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy,
the podcast dedicated to

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your pickleball improvement.

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I'm your host of the podcast, Tony Roig.

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Hope you're having a great week.

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This is actually episode number 234 of the
podcast, not including special episodes.

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So this is regular episode 234.

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Counting Special episode is probably
episode 280, something like that.

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And I think that makes us
maybe the longest running and or the

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highest number of episode
podcast in pickleball.

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If someone else has information other than
that, happy to receive it because

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I don't think that's the case.

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Or I think that is the case.

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I should say that we are the longest
running podcast in Pickleball, and it's

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awesome to be able to
bring this podcast to you.

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I was reminded about the episode numbers
in a podcast I was listening to on a

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different subject
recently, and they start the podcast off

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by saying episode number this and that.

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So I thought that would be
a good thing to do here.

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So I'm going to try and remember
to do that in the future.

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This episode, what I want to
talk about is a couple of things.

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We're going to talk about open play.

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We're going to talk about the state of
play, if you will, in terms of how

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players are interacting with each other.

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And this arose from our state of play
event that we had a couple of weeks back.

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And then I'm going to share with you a
personal story about progress

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and sometimes taking a step back in terms
of your journey as a pickleball

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player, and I'll just share a personal
story that happened to me that perhaps

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will help you understand
how these things work.

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I had the pleasure of having a great
conversation with a young pro

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player, Richard Levernees, recently.

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A couple of days ago, and I shared that
with him about the taking a step back on

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everything, and he shared with me an
interesting perspective that I'll share

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with you during that part of the podcast.

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As we dive into the podcast, I have one
favor to ask, if I may, of you,

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which is if you know a player who...

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And just take a moment, right?

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You have a friend of yours who's playing
and maybe not enjoying the sport as much

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as they could if they felt better about
their understanding of the pickleball.

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Share with them our upcoming event, if
you would, which is coming up in March.

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The easiest way for them to sign up for
that would be to join Join us for the...

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Join our email list, and they'll
get information about it.

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It's a super reasonably priced event for a
three-day, three plus one boot camp,

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four-day total, but three plus one boot
camp, where we're going to be covering

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error reduction,
becoming more consistent, understanding

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the control that you do have while you're
playing out there and how you can use that

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control to reduce the errors
that you make when you play.

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So again, if you know a player who could
benefit from that, the favor that ask is

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that you take a moment, think about that
player and share with them the upcoming

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event, or the easiest thing is just tell
them, join our email list, and they'll get

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an email notifying them
of the upcoming event.

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All right, let's dive into the open play,
and I'm going to read you an email that

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was sent by Jeff, and I ask Jeff for
permission to use his name, and he

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said it was fine, and the email.

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It arose from the state of play,
and he asked me to talk about

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what's happening with play in general
and talk through it in the podcast.

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The email reads like this.

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In the first year, I played.

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It was all open play.

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Everyone played with everyone.

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There was a lot of joy and fun.

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The second year, as players' advancement
and ability started sorting out.

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People started being more selective
about who they played with.

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It was still fun, but there was a loss and
not being able to play with others

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I'd previously enjoyed playing with.

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In the third year, the smaller group of
better players wouldn't

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play with anyone below them.

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They would start a challenge court.

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This was not a problem until people were
waiting for courts and

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they wouldn't get off.

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Sadly, it almost came to fisticuffs
with some guys a couple of times.

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This seriously diminished
pleasure in the game.

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Then he talks about a new facility
opening, and that

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helped a little bit with the pressure.

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But then at the end, he says, But I'm
still experiencing a sense of loss

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from when I first started
playing, thanks, Jeff.

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It got me thinking about it.

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What
I want to do is share with you a couple of

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things that I think we can do as players,
exercising our control, our agency.

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If you're When you listen to the podcast,
that's a really big

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theme that runs through a lot of
our episodes, is the idea that

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we actually have more control
over things than we may think.

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That is we have control of everything.

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I don't have a solution for players

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segregating into groups or splitting

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themselves into different groups to play.

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That's happened here locally in our
community, and I think it's just part of

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how humans are wired and things like that.

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So I don't have...

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I wish I had an overall solution.
I do not.

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But I can offer you a couple of things
that you can do to help

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maybe ameliorate that, I think that's the
right use of the term,

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in your own communities.

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And one has to do with
you bringing players into your group.

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The other one has to do with
you visiting other groups.

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So the The first idea was basically keep
an open eye for players out there who...

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This is where you're looking at players
who are quote, unquote, below you.

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So they're playing in the
courts that aren't your courts.

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Spend a moment, walk around, look around
there, and See if you see players who are

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genuinely working at their game.

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And this is not a criticism of any player.
It's not.

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There's perfectly fine for,
and let's just use two numbers.

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Let's say you have courts in your facility
to 3: 0, and some that are 3: 5, and

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you're playing on the 3: 5 courts.

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So you go You look over to the 3:
0 courts, you're checking them out.

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Some of them are having a good time.
They're just bopping the bottle around.

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No problem.

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But I'm going to bet you that there's
players there who are working on their

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game and who you see and you recognize.

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We talk about it being
like a language, right?

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So You look at them and you're like, that
player is starting to

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speak pickleball, right?

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And they're working at
speaking pickleball.

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Maybe they still have some flaws in their
language, but you see them

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working through the game.

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Then I would say it's on you to do
whatever you to help them

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come into your group to play.

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In other words, opening up your group
to other players is the idea here.

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Does it solve everything?
No.

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But it allows some movement by players who
may otherwise feel left out or

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not feel welcome in your courts.

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It can be difficult for
the, quote, unquote, lower-level players

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to be accepted by the, quote,
unquote, higher-level players.

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I'm using a lot of quotes because I've
traveled enough and I've played on enough

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courts to know that there are, right now,
based on my experience, right now, there

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are at all facilities all across the
country,

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there are players playing on the lower
courts who should be playing on the higher

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courts and players on the higher courts
who should be playing on the lower

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courts based on their ability.
I've seen it.

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I've been places where I go to the
beginner courts It's beginner courts, and

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a couple of players there, I'm looking at
them, they're better than the players on

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the intermediate courts or
advanced courts and vice versa.

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I've been in other facilities where they
don't have the courts segregated

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that way, but groups naturally form.

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And the second one,
I'm spoiling the second one a little bit

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here or giving you a little
bit of a sneak peek on it.

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What I do when I go into those facilities
is I will play with the, quote, unquote,

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lower players, the ones that aren't
being allowed in the other courts.

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And in those situations, what I've noticed
is, and this was locally,

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where the players on those courts were
great players relative to the other

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players, were fine and
could have played with them.

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So I actually I went over to the other
courts and I told the other group, I

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was like, Guys, what is going on here?

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Why are you guys not letting
those guys play on these courts?

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Because they're
at least as good as you guys.

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Now, I understand that
most of us listening to this may not have

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the position in the community to do that.

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I'm a content creator.

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I'm a senior pro player, so maybe
I have some weight to throw around.

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But what you can do
is you can be the one to...

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Now we're going to talk about you
injecting yourself in with the,

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quote unquote, lower level players.

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Take some time and go and
play with those players.

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Play down if you want to
think about it that way.

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I don't, but that's fine.

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It's a good way of a shortcut
way of thinking about it.

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Play down.

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And what you do there is you play
in a way that you work on your game.

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I highly recommend working
on your soft game then.

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Say, again, you're a three, five, and
you're going to go play

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in the three-oh courts.
Don't blow them off the court.

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There's no sense in that.
They're not going to feel good.

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There's no, the quote win for you doesn't
really mean anything there because what's

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the point of trying to just
blow them off the court?

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Instead, work on some parts of the game
that maybe you're not as comfortable with.

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Say your back-hand
dinking isn't that great.

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Insert yourself in back-hand dinking
situations, in back-hand,

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third-shot situations.

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Work on areas of the game that perhaps
you're not as comfortable with.

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Work in the transition zone.

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Stick yourself in the transition zone for
one or two shots extra

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that you can get in there.

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So you can do it both ways.

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One is to identify players who you can
then be their mentor, if you will, and

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invite them up into your group to play.

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And you can personally go into the, quote,
unquote, lower-level courts and

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participate with those
players and engage with them.

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Improve the social, broaden the social
experience for everybody,

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yourself and them.

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And also perhaps they'll see
something that is interesting.

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They'll be motivated to keep working
because they'll say, wow, that's a really

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interesting way of playing
I hadn't seen before.

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Those are two things you can do to keep
more of the social open play

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aspects of our game alive.

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And one last piece that you can do,
which is you can become an organizer.

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It takes some work.

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I will tell you that our
friends at Pickleheads pickeled.

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Com, and I'll put a link in the
show notes, but the pickleheads.

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Com folks have created some tools
that help you do that more easily.

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They're free, so they basically help you
figure out how you want to run it, and

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they have Ron Robbins in their
formats and things like that.

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But you can organize.

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And so now you, as the hub, you get
to decide who comes to your play.

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And I can tell you here, there's a few
local players who do a

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good job of that, right?
More than a few, I shouldn't say a few.

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There are several local players who do a
really good job of that, of creating

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inclusive groups, of bringing players
of different levels together, players who

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would not otherwise naturally play
together, play together because

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of the force of these organizers.

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So that's a third way that
you can help improve that.

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But other than those three tips, I don't
really have an overall solution to this.

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I wish the world was a better place and we
could all sing Kumbaya together sometimes,

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but that's just not how we are wired.

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The
fact that that's not how we're wired and

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that's not how we do things naturally
shouldn't stop us from trying to take

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these steps to help improve that process.

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So hopefully that helps you with that.

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All right, now I'm going to share
with you, we're going to pivot.

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We're going to pivot to It's a personal
story, and it's a small story, but I think

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it's helpful to see how your mental
journey process ebbs and flows.

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So I went to play this last weekend,
very social setting, just a social group.

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I was joining them to play a few games,
and I caught myself two things

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that I caught myself afterward.

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One was I was getting on myself
when I hit balls into the net.

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Now, I don't mind
noticing when I hit a ball into the net.

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I don't mind making adjustments.
That's fine.

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It's the way I was addressing myself,
which was getting angry with myself

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when I hit the ball into the net.

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Unnecessary, unhelpful
in that format, right?

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Also not fair to me because this is social
play, not like get down, dick it down low

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and play competitive and get all
jacked up and things like that.

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Very social play.

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And I was approaching it that way, but
except I wanted to make all the shots.

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It doesn't make any sense at all.

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So that was one thing that I did.

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And the other thing that I noticed was my
feelings were different

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based on the score.

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And you've heard me
talk about a lot, right?

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When losses doesn't matter,
results don't matter.

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I agree.

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That's 100 % how I feel about it,
and that's how we should proceed.

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That doesn't mean that my
lizard brain doesn't...

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My lizard brain is still
back there, still activating.

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And so when the score was in our
favor heavily, I was relaxed.

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Everything's fine.

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When we were in a tight game or we were
behind, now all of a sudden my

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demeanor changes, my interaction with the
game changes, which is not how I want to

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carry myself, not the way that I want to
react to what's going on on the court.

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In this conversation I had with the young
pro Richard Leverny, as I mentioned

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earlier, we were talking about basically
the idea is approach every

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rally the same way.

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That's how it should be in
an all things being equal world.

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Basically, you just approach
every rally the same way.

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Whether you won the last rally, lost the
last rally, no matter what the score is,

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you're always even keel
doing the same thing.

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And what he shared with me, it was
interesting because he's had the

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similar experience with his...

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He's on a mental journey as well.

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He's younger than I am, also hasn't been
at it as long, but he's

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made tremendous progress.

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He's a student of the
mental side of things.

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In fact, the podcast I mentioned earlier
with the episode numbers was a podcast

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that he recommended to me during our
conversation that I started listening to.

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It has to do with stoicism.

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It's called Stoicism on Fire.

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If you want to check it out,
it's a great little podcast.

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I'm only into episode, I think
I'm on episode three right now.

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I started at the beginning.

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But it's basically about stoicism and that
philosophy, which has a lot of parallels

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with what we talk about in this podcast.

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But in any event, the way he framed that
was basically like, when that happens,

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basically we lose our center, right?

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So we're not centered anymore
when we start going awry.

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And what happens is once you start getting
off center, if you don't come back to

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the center, then you just keep going.

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You keep going down that
path and it gets negative.

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And what I would say, I think to minimize
the chances of that happening next time

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will be some pre-game preparation.

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And if you haven't checked it out
yet, check out our Bookmark episode.

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It's one of the special episodes.

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It was a couple of weeks, two or three
weeks ago, so it's in

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the recent feed still.

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The reason it's a Bookmark episode called
Prepare to Play, it's mental

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warmup, Prepare to Play, I think.

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Is because the idea is it's a practice.

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To get the most out of it, you should
do it before every time that you play.

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To minimize and perhaps even avoid these
Getting off the path or not acting in the

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way that you want to act,
given how you objectively understand the

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sport and your relationship to
it from a mental standpoint.

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So what I've told
myself is that the next time before I go

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play, I am going to
listen to the Bookmark episode, check it

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out, and make sure that I'm centered, that
I'm centered better as I move forward.

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That said, when these things happen,
there's no reason to beat

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yourself up about it.

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You observe it, you see it,
you react to it in a constructive,

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positive way, meaning I'm going to take a
step positive in the future, which is

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prepare to play better next time so
that I minimize the chances of a repeat.

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But that's just part of human life.

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You take a step forward, another step
forward, another step forward, then a half

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step back or a step to the side, then
hopefully another step forward

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and then a step back like that.

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That's just how the human experience is.

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Anyway, so hopefully sharing that with you
will help you when you have those

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situations where you invariably take a
step back in your journey

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because that will happen to you.
It's just human nature.

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Anyway, that's this week's podcast.
I hope you enjoyed it.

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I guess I do have a
second favor to ask you.

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If you have a minute to rate a
review, that really helps us out.

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As always, please share the podcast with
your friends because if you enjoy the

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00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:42,280
podcast, if it helps you, it
probably will help them out as well.

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I hope you have a great weekend and next
week, and I will see you during the

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next episode of Fertile Ball Therapy.
Be well.