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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.
Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy, the podcast dedicated to your Pickleball improvement. My name is Tony Roy. I am your host of this weekly podcast, which is dedicated to your Pickleball Mind. We're dedicated to your Pickleball in general, but with a specific focus on your Pickleball mind. This is what CJ Johnson and I call the athletic pillar inside of all of our coaching.
And there's three pillars, As you may or may not know, mechanical, Strategic, and athletic. And in this podcast, We are focused primarily on the athletic pillar, which is Your body and mind. Now, that said, this week we're actually bringing back a, an a former Segment of this podcast called The Riff. One of our Pickleball therapy therapists let us know that the riff meant Something to them.
So we are going to Bring it back. And what I'd like for you to do, if You can, is let us know, is this Something that you Like? If you feel strongly about it one way or the other, send me an email at therapy at better Pickleball dot com. Put in the subject line, the riff, if You would.
I Believe it has two s. And let me know if this is something that you enjoy. The riff segment at the end of the podcast in the riff, I'm gonna be chatting about paddles and basically our mindset when it comes to paddles. In the main section, we're going to be talking about the never say die Mindset. And it's, it's, this is interesting because this is where the pillars overlap.
You know, there Are three pillars, but they, it's not like they stand alone all the time. There's a lot of overlap between them. For instance, when you think about the mechanical pillar, there's things that you have to do with your body in order to play Pickleball. Well, the Athletic pillar is the body mind, right? And the body and the mind.
So the, let's say like the stronger that your, your legs are, for instance, right? The better able, you're able to, you know, stay down in your dinks and get down for your, the low shots. The longer you're able to do that, the better you're able to play. So everything works together. And what we're talking about this week is gonna be the,
the never say die mindset in a rally, right? Specific to rallies, and I'll explain that in a minute, but if you think about it, it's an interesting overlap between the strategic pillar and the athletic pillar. Because the strategic pillar is, you know, what's the, what gives me the best chance for success, right? What's the, what's the highest chance for success in a game?
And if you have this mindset, which is the mind, you're gonna give yourself the highest chance for success strategically as well. So again, overlap between these pillars and understanding that all three are necessary. And working on all three is how you're going to really maximize your potential as a Pickleball player. I just looked at the, at my, I I'm i,
we capture this. If you don't know this, we, we capture this on YouTube as well. So it's, there's a YouTube channel called Pickleball Therapy and a podcast Buckle Pickleball therapy. So you can listen to it on a podcast or watch it on YouTube if you choose. And I just realized that behind me, I, I've hung up a a shirt that one of our team members Patty sent me and thank you Patty for the shirt.
It's very cool. And it says, warning, I am a poacher. It was based on a series of videos that we did on the YouTube channel that created a lot of interest about poaching, even though frankly the videos were not about poaching. Poach was involved in the videos, but the videos were about decision making and things like that. So a little bit different angle,
but thank you very much for the shirt. It's a very cool shirt. Alright, let's dive into the podcast and talk about the never say die mindset. So think about, you know, when you're playing out there, you know, there, there are times when we're gonna be in trouble, right? There's times that we're gonna be reeling, we're gonna be on our heels,
right? The other team has the upper hand. The question is, what do we do right? What do we do in that situation? And I was reminded of this thought process in a watching A-A-P-P-A match. It was the finals between Andre DCU and Anna Bright against the strongest mixed doubles team in the history of Pickleball. Ben Johns and Anna Lee Waters. I don't remember their exact record,
but they haven't been beaten, I think since I was 22 or something like that. You know, it's been a long time since they've lost a match. And this was a gold medal match at the Austin Tournament, I believe it was. I'll put a link down in the show notes if you wanna check out the match. Although if you watch it,
I'm gonna recommend you do it in a certain way. So I'm going to give you a specific instruction in a few minutes on how to watch it. But the, and let me be clear, I'm gonna give you an instruction that you're welcome to use or not use. I'm not trying to tell you how to live your life, but if you wanna get the most out of watching it and,
and growing your eye for this type of thing, then I'll give you a suggestion. How about that? Alright, so the, the, it was the final match, like I said, it's three out of five as they play in that format there. So the best three outta five games. And frankly, it wasn't even close. Like it wasn't even,
I mean, the second game, you know, I guess Annaly and Ben did a little better, but the match was very, very, very one sided in favor of DCU and Anna Bright and dcu, I happen to, I don't know him well personally, I've said hi to him a few times at tournaments, but he's a, he's from Florida. And so I've seen him in the Florida circuit for many years and I know he's,
you know, he's been one of, he's been a player that's worked at his game for a long time. Like he's, he comes from a strong background of tennis. He played Davis Cup for his country and things like that. But he is a, you know, he's been at Pickleball about, probably about as long as I have, maybe a little bit long,
maybe a little bit shorter, a little longer, but still while, but he's really worked at his game and you know, for a while, you know, he played, he, I think he still plays a PP events, which is great, but I think the PPA, your crowd kind of like, was like, well, you know, I ask you.
Yeah, he's good, good at the P-A-A-A-P-P, but not PPA, that's a different level. And so he comes to the PPA event, wins the men's doubles gold with Matt Wright, right? So awesome there and then wins the mixed doubles in very convincing fashion. But what I wanna focus in on with dcu, and I, I'll give Anna Bright credit as well,
but everyone wanna focus on dcu. 'cause DCU is also, I don't know exact his exact age, but he's one of the older players on the court, I think, but he has to be the oldest player on that court, pretty sure, but he actually a hundred percent sure he's the oldest player on that court. But if you watch him play,
he is on the court. He is the fiercest extender of the rally. Like he is talking about never say die mindset. And, and I want to hone in on a few specifics of, of what he does to extend rallies. First of all, you know, he is always putting himself physically in the best position given the situation. And what I mean by that is,
you know, if he has an opportunity to be offensive as a player, then you'll see him move forward and be offensive. If he's in a situation, if his team's in a situation that doesn't merit, that right, doesn't warrant that, then you'll see Andre put himself in a defensive position, right? Which means generally means farther back in the court.
So at the baseline, behind the baseline, you know, as far back as possible in order to be, be be able to better defend against the potential offense that's coming against hit his team. And you'll see him and he's a, he's, he's I think six five, I believe he's a very, he's a tall player, you know, but the way he,
the way he commits to, to going after balls and to keep extending rallies, he is, like I said, it's, it's a, it's a mindset thing. It's not just, you know, strategically I know that if I extend the rally, I give myself the best chance for winning. It's, it's, you know, it's basically, to him,
it's become second nature. I'm pretty sure that he's never going to let a rally end without him doing the best that he can to put his paddle on that ball. So you have court position is really important there. Another thing that he does very well is his awareness of the net. So if you're trying to extend rallies, and we've talked about the net before on this podcast,
and we have several videos on it, it's a, it's a big topic because that's one of those areas of the game that you actually do have control over. There's a lot of things in Pickleball you cannot control. You know, you can't control your partner. I mean, you can make suggestions if they're a partner you can talk to, but you can't control your partner,
you can't control your opponents, you can't control the wind. You can control the way that you think about the net and the way that you come at the net, right? And if you watch, I ask you playing Andre playing, he, as he gets closer to the net, yeah, you can see it. Let me say, he gets closer to the net,
you'll see his paddle flare open. So open up a lot. It's almost parallel to the court. It looks parallel to the court because he's trying to get a lot of loft on that ball. He knows that there's only one player he can't beat. And that's the net right player quotes, that's the net. He can beat Ben Johns, he did,
he can beat Anna Lee waters. They, I mean, he and Anna did, right? He and Anna Bright did, right? So they beat them both, right? The best team, but the net unbeatable. So Andre knows that, right? And that's, that's not just strategic, right? 'cause he knows, okay, the net, I can't beat the net.
It's a mindset. He's saying to himself, I am not gonna let that net beat me. Ben can beat me and Lee can beat me. That net is not going to beat me. And what I was, what I was getting to is, if you watch the match, you'll see when he gets in trouble, the ball's low. And he's supposed to,
that you'll see like his paddle looks like, like he's like, he's trying to like pull a pizza out of a pizza oven or something. Like basically he opens it down a lot and flares it super open. And it's really obvious to see it. It's, it's an, it's an interesting, it's an interesting, you know, it's really not, it's,
it's very obvious, right? It's really graphically it's, or visually it's very easy to see what he's doing. And then the last thing I wanna mention about Andre is, you know, it's just this idea that I'm gonna make you hit one more ball. My shot doesn't have to be perfect, okay? I don't have to hit a perfect shot to win the rally.
And this hearkens back, we did an episode, I'll put it in the show notes, but it's an episode about Pickleball being messy, being a messy sport. And it is a messy sport. It's a, you know, it's messy in terms of, you know, the rallies are, are messy and you know, things happen that are, you know,
sometimes in your favor, sometimes not. But you know, there, there's not a lot of rallies in Pickleball that are like textbook perfect. Like everybody played, you know, the most amazing Pickleball in the rally ended. Usually there's some, there's some muck in there, there's a little bit of mess. And Andre doesn't mind that Andre, you know,
he's fine with that. And he's just saying, I'm just gonna extend the rally. I'm going to make you hit one more ball and one more ball and one more ball. And in this match, what you'll see is you'll see Ben and Elise start pressing, right? Because they start feeling the pressure of Andre's and Anna again, I'm not trying to take anything from Adam,
I'm just focusing on Andre because it was just so obvious what he, what he was doing and how he was approaching it. But he, you know, he just kept extending rallies and you'll see Ben start blowing balls up out of bounds and Elise starts pressing and hitting balls into the net. It's just like frustrating, right? And so when you think about that yourself,
that can be you, right? In terms of how you approach the game, you become that player who the other teams go, oh no, you know, I'm gonna have to hit 17 balls in order for this rally to be done. And I'll tell you, I got to play yesterday with my friend and and fellow coach inside the better Pickleball ecosystem and a fellow competitor.
We're gonna play together at the US Open this year. And we played against a couple of, a few different teams. Were were kind enough to give some of their time to play against us, to get us ready to go. And you know, some of these players, they're, you can see the players who just keep the ball going and going and going.
And it becomes frustrating, you know, to play against that, right? Because you have to keep your discipline as a player. And sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. But that idea of extending the rally, extending the rally, extend the rally, it's a mindset piece. You know, being aware of the net, you know, knowing, okay,
I'm gonna just put a paddle on this, I'm gonna keep you, I'm gonna keep going and going as long as you know, I'm gonna keep extending the rally as long as I can, will really change how you play and how your opponents view you as a competitor. Again, I'll put a link to the, to that match below in the show notes.
You can check it out if you wanna watch the match. I recommend really focusing on Andre, you know, in terms of how you're gonna get the most out of this process. If you want to start seeing something different, you know, enjoy some of the stuff. But try and really stay focused on Andre and watch Andre watch everything he does. Watch how he moves,
watch how he uses his paddle and watch how, you know, there's no ball that is gonna get hit by Ben or Anna Lee, that Andre and Anna, again, no nothing against her, but really gotta focus here is not gonna like, do his best to try and get back over the net into play again. So anyway, so that's, that's the idea.
Never say, never say die mindset, right from the bond thinking. And it's a really good way that you can just become a more fierce competitor by applying something very specific to your mind that will translate to your play. Alright, in the riff, I'm going to chat about paddles and my thoughts on paddles. So stay tuned for the riff. As the Pickleball season begins in earnest in spring,
it's probably a great time to check your shoes and make sure that they're not worn. And I'm not just talking on the bottoms with holes in the bottoms, I'm talking about compression in the mids sole. If your shoes are older than about six months, double check them. Make sure they're not gonna hurt your legs or your feet. And if you're in need of shoes,
check out the shoes from our friends at Taro Pickleball, the only shoes specifically designed for Pickleball. I'll put the code down below PP 10, Use it at checkout. Alright, let's talk about paddles. My favorite topic, paddles and all, seriously, paddles obviously is super important to our game. You know, they're, they're the tool that we use when we're out on the Pickleball court.
Just recorded a, an video for the YouTube channel and two pickle that we have that has to do with lead tape, right? And it's a, it's a, it's a friendly guide to how to think about lead tape and how to apply lead tape to your paddle. I'll put that link down below. You can find it at N two pickle as well just on YouTube the,
and review that, you know, you, you're doing some research reviewing some materials. And so I started going down the paddle rabbit hole a little bit and some of our fellow creators have created some really good additional supplemental kind of information on, on lead tape in terms of an analyses on, on the machine that handles the swing weight and the twist weight,
and then also the specific weights of different types of tape and different sizes. So we linked to that inside the video. So I was gathering that information, but you know, I started to see some of the other content that's being put out on paddles. And it's interesting content, don't get me wrong, it's interesting to see what's going on, you know,
with Kevlar, with rock carbon, with all these different things. But I will suggest to you that there is a limit to the impact that a paddle is going to have on your play. And what I mean by that is, when you think about your play big picture, right? When you think about your play, you, you want to ask yourself like what is the impact that a paddle is gonna have versus something else?
And that something else usually is improving a shot technique, improving an understanding, right? Because you could have, you know, the, the, let's assume that you have the best built best, you know, just the best design, best built, best everything paddle, right? It has the highest grit, the best core, the best serp paddle face.
I mean, you've done your research and you, you found it. This is the, the holy grill of paddles, right? But you know, you, you have a flaw in your, in your volume, mechanical, let's say paddle's not gonna do anything for you there, right? Same thing if you have a flaw, a major strategic flaw,
okay? In terms of how you view your, or how you approach your game, right? Whether it's your return side, your server side, whatever it's you're doing right? And you have a major strategic flaw, again, paddle is not gonna bail you outta that. So if you think about it, like in terms of priorities, you know, understanding the game strategically,
right? And that's that fo approach that we talk about inside our coaching. So framework, objectives, strategy and shots, right? In that order, if you don't have framework and objectives, you're gonna have the holy grail paddle, not gonna bail you out, mechanical issues, not gonna bail you out. Athletic pillar issues, right? So you, your mind is cloudy because you know,
you're, you're, you're still working on your mental processes, right? Paddle's not gonna bail you out. Same thing. Your body's tired, you know, you can't get down for the shot, paddle's not gonna do it for you, right? I can't get down for you. So, you know, again, you know, when you think about paddles,
I think it's, it's important to find a paddle that's right for you. And what I would suggest focusing on there, generally speaking is you want a paddle that's not too heavy for you, right? That's really key because you don't want to hurt yourself with a paddle. You know, you could have a holy grail paddle meaning like everything is magnificent in the paddle.
It's the best built paddle in the history of paddles, but it's too heavy for your body, right? Not gonna be good for you because it's gonna hurt you, you know, so you're better off going with a, you know, paddle that's not the holy grail, but doesn't hurt you, right? That makes sense. So weight is super, super,
super important. You know, paddle grip size is super important as well. Make sure it's a paddle grip that you're comfortable holding. Doesn't hurt your arm. It's not too big, not too small. And you can think about that in terms of like gripping a pencil. It'd be too small gripping a water bottle's too big, obviously I've gone to the extremes,
but you know, you want a, a paddle that fits in your hand comfortably. Usually you can use your pinky from the offhand kind of fitted in between your finger and your palm. That's a pretty good guide quarter in something like that is decent guide in terms of spacing there. But so grip and weight are super important. And then, you know,
it's a paddle that feels good to you when you hit it. That's gonna be great. That's gonna be super valuable. And it's a paddle that makes you happy. You know, there's not enough said about that. It's just a paddle, you pull outta your value, you're like, man, I'm so happy to have this paddle. Fantastic. You know,
that'll, that'll make your mind happy, right? And so those are characteristics of a paddle that I think are more valuable than getting bogged down in it's got raw carbon fiber now. They're doing what Kevlar mixed with a carbon fiber. I mean it's just, there's always gonna be something, you know, there, there's gonna be a little hole in the throat and not a criticism,
but as an example I gotta a comment on, on the video we did about paddles and there was a question about the hole inside the selker paddle that happened to be in that video. And I answered the question and there was another question, I answered that question and then there was a third question and it, the question kept on being, do you think the hole's a gimmick?
And I answered it a couple times and I was like, well this is, this is being repeat repetitive now. So I stopped answering. But the point is, this player was bogged down in like the hole and the paddle kind of who cares? You know, at the end of the day it does make a little bit of a difference, but not that big a deal.
Like I said, it's not gonna bail you out from any of these other things. So if you, if you're, if you really wanna play better, right? And generally when p players are looking for new paddles, my experience has not been that the player's looking for a paddle because the paddle that they have is hurting them or something like that. If you're looking for a paddle 'cause it's your paddle's hurting you or doesn't feel good or something like that,
great, keep going please. And as I mentioned earlier, our friends at Total Pickleball help you out. They have great selection and they're, they're good folks over there. They've been around, they've been around sports forever. They used, they're, they're part of tennis warehouse and they've been around forever anyway. So if you're looking for a paddle for that,
great. If you're looking for a paddle because you think it's gonna change your game, it's gonna, it's what you need to level up or something that is not a good, that's just frankly not a good thought process. It's not thought process is gonna be productive I guess if you wanna buy it because you wanna buy it for yourself and it makes you feel happy or something,
you know, fine, that's fine. But don't kid yourself and say, you know, I buy this paddle that this is what I need, right? This is the secret sauce that I need. 'cause that's not what you need. There's gonna be other things that are gonna be higher value and, and we're really gonna give you the results that you want so it'll meet your expectations more.
So anyways, that's the sweet podcast. We went a little bit over because we included the riffs. I hope you enjoyed the length of the podcast as well as the format of this podcast. Again, send me an email at Tony at Better Pick at, sorry therapy at better Pickleball dot com. They both go to Tony at better Pickleball dot com. Anyway,
so it works as well. Put out the subject line, the riff, let me know if this is something that you enjoyed or did not enjoy this riff and, and then we can proceed accordingly. 'cause at the end of the day, as much as I enjoy making this podcast, this podcast is about you, the Pickleball player, trying to provide you information that is helpful to you and will,
you know, just make your Pickleball journey a more complete and happier what, as much as we can. If you enjoy the podcast, please consider rating and reviewing it wherever you listen to podcast. And as always, please share it with your friends. If you enjoy the podcast, they probably will too. I'll of you, have a great week and we'll see you next time on our Pickleball Therapy podcast.