[00:00:01.14] - CJ Johnson
Welcome to the Pickleball Therapy podcast. It is the podcast dedicated to your pickleball mind, and it's the only podcast dedicated to your pickleball mind. This is not the familiar voice that you hear each week of my co-coach at Better Pickleball, Tony Roig. This is CJ Johnson. And every once in a while, Tony lets me hijack the mic to talk about all things mental and how they can improve our pickleball. And this week, I I want to explore this question, Will a smile help your pickle ball game? I have a story about an event that I want to tell you where I do believe a smile helped this player to play their absolute best. That's what I'm going to be talking about in the podcast this week. But before we get into that, if you are listening to this about the time that the podcast drops, we have the Pickleball System Spring Boot camp coming up on March 27th is the first day. That's the kickoff day. And then the boot camp is over the weekend. It is a fantastic way to tune up your pickleball game. We are going to be talking about your number one complaint, which is consistency.

[00:01:17.29] - CJ Johnson
We're going to help you to become a more consistent player. And the best part about this training is it's 100 % online. You do not have to have a course And it is definitely going to help your improvement. So you can check out all the details in the show notes below. So just simply go ahead and click on that link. All right. So the question is, does a smile help you to play your best pickle ball? This past week, I was down in Palm Springs, and I had a chance to attend the BNP Paribas. I'm not sure that's how you say it correctly, but the BNP open in Indian Wells. I was down in Palm Springs. I was shooting some video with the Swingvision app. It's a AI AI-related coaching app. And I got a chance to pop over and watch the BMP, and it was a wonderful event. And even though I played a little tennis in high I never played tennis as an adult, but I love sports. I love athletes. I love sports. I am a big tennis fan. So it was quite the treat to go over there. And I happened to see Francise Tiafoe.

[00:02:43.21] - CJ Johnson
And if you're not familiar with tennis. He is the 17th ranked player in the world. I happened to see him, and I think it was his first round match, and it was... He didn't play his best, but he eked it out in two sets. And I like Francise Tiafoe. He is really a showman. He's an American player. When he is at his best, he is performing for the crowd. He gets them excited. He involves them. He smiles. He's very animated. He is just... It has a real outgoing aura, I guess, is how I would put it. Pulls the crowd in, gets the crowd to cheer for him very easily. So in his next match, he was put up against a young Japanese gentleman, and I'm probably going to say his name incorrectly. I'm going to give it my best shot, Yosuke Watanuki. I'm sure I slaughtered that. And this young man has been on quite the winning streak. Now, he is, I think, the 340... Let me see, I wrote it down. 349th ranked player in the world. So there's really, obviously, a substantial difference in ranking between Francise Tiafoe and Wata Nuka. And he got into this, though.

[00:04:13.16] - CJ Johnson
He is on quite the role. He has won his last, I believe it was, I think it was his last four events prior to coming to the tournament. And for those of you who may not know tennis or follow tennis? Tennis, this is a fairly big tournament. A lot of players say that if there were a fifth major, this would be it because it draws that strong of a field. So for the 349th ranked player in the world, it really is just a feat even to get into the tournament. So here he comes in. He's facing Tiafoe, certainly a fan favorite. As I said, he's quite the showman. But from the very beginning of this match, Wata Nuki came in and he had this smile on his face. He's looking around. They were on stadium two, and I happened to see a match there. It's quite a beautiful stadium. And he's looking around and you can see him taking in the wonder, taking in the experience. And he has a smile that's ear to ear. That's how he comes in, and that's how he is starting the match. So he serves first. And typically, you have a few nerves when you serve first.

[00:05:41.24] - CJ Johnson
And he serves three aces right in a row. So for those of you who aren't tennis fans, an ace is the serve, the returner, either hits it into the net or hits it out, and it is a point for the server. So he serves three aces right in a row. Let's pretty interesting to start out that way. So as he's about to serve for the game, if he wins one more point, he's going to win that very first game. He gets up there and he misses the fourth ace. And he makes an extremely cute gesture of like, Oh, dang. I missed it. And he got the crowd to giggle because the crowd was wondering, Are we going to get a fourth ace here to start off the match. So he misses that fourth ace, but then he does win the first game. Throughout the whole entire first set, he takes that same wonder that he had when he walked out onto the court, that same, almost, I would say, childlike curiosity, the smile on his face, certainly enjoying the experience and is applying that to the rallies that he's experiencing while he's out there. This young man was playing some incredible tennis, and I would dare to say that if you're firing on a 10 out of 10 level, for the majority of the match, he was firing at a 10 out of 10 level.

[00:07:25.28] - CJ Johnson
There were some shots that he hit that were They're unbelievable. There were some shots where he's sliding to get to the ball, so he's reaching for it. The ball is under the net as pickleball players. We all know how cumbersome the net is, right? You got to get it over the net. And he hits the perfect shot. But his reactions after the shots, good shots or not so good shots, were So ultimately, what I think may have turned the match in his favor. It certainly got the crowd in his favor. It may have thrown Tiafoe off his game just a little bit because normally, he's the one who has the crowd in his favor. But I think those reactions helped him to stay in the moment and to really perform his best. He would hit a shot, one of these great, spectacular, crazy, once-in-a-lifetime shot. It's like hitting He was getting a great, absolutely awesome ATP. And he would look at the shot and have big wide eyes and this huge smile on his face like, Did I just do that? Really? For real? I just pulled that shot off. And it wasn't just the good shots, though.

[00:08:51.26] - CJ Johnson
He had a similar smile on his face when he hit poor shots. In fact, Sam Query, and as you know, Sam has been a tennis professional his whole entire life. He plays pro-pickleball now, was commentating on this match for this tennis channel. And Sam made the comment, I have never seen a player smile so much at missed shots. Now, not only did he smile at his good shots, at his missed shots, when Tiafa, who is unbelievably athletic player in his own right, a great player, like you said, he's number 17 in the world. When Tiafoe hit great shots, he applied that same smile and that same wonder and really admiration for the shot that his opponent hit. In fact, there was one shot that Tiafoe returned, Watanuki serve at a very sharp angle tough shot. He was off the court. He clipped the line. I mean, it was a great shot on Tiafoe's spot. Watanuki looked at it with big wide eyes, and he literally looked down at the line, and then he looked back at Tiafoe like, Oh, my God, I can't believe that was in. That was so good. Almost a thumbs up.

[00:10:25.10] - CJ Johnson
Now, I think what that demeanor did is it did two things. So The first thing it did is it impacted the crowd. Because generally, Francise Tiafoe, he's a crowd pleaser. As I said, he's a showman. He gets the crowd on his side. And I think for him as a player, that's some of when he plays his best. When the crowd's on his side and he's playing to the crowd, he plays his best. You can see him lifting his hands up, trying to get the crowd involved, And I think he lives for that as an athlete, and he performs well under those circumstances. And in this instance, it's an American crowd, and Francise is American, and Watenuki is a Japanese, and certainly, they would lean towards the American player. But Watenuki's actions, just like that smile and that wonder, And that being in the moment, I can't believe I'm here, brought a large portion of the crowd over onto his side. And I wouldn't say it was like they were cheering for him over Tiafil. I don't think that was the case, but it certainly wasn't lopsided in the other direction. They were appreciating his performance, and they were appreciating the fact that he was in wonder, and he was smiling at both his performance as well as Tiafoes.

[00:12:02.15] - CJ Johnson
So I think that was the first thing that it did. But I believe the second thing that it did is that wonder, that smile, that helped him, Watanuki, to be in the present, to be in that present moment. I mean, think of it this way. How many times have you smiled after you hit a poor shot? After you hit a shot that you think you could make, how many times have you actually smile? And there is something about smiling. There's been some scientific studies on what smiling actually does to our bodies. And I don't know if there's ever been one that's been done about what smiling does in sports. But there have been these studies about what smiling does to our attitude and how how it calms us and the different things that smiling can do for us. And I know for myself, I probably have never hit a shot that I think I should make and then smiled afterwards. I'm going to guess I've always had somewhat of a negative reaction. In fact, I was telling Tony this earlier today when I was getting ready to record this. On Sunday, I was watching the...

[00:13:33.12] - CJ Johnson
I think they were in Coral Gables, the PPA Coral Gables final, and Anna Bright was playing. And respect Anna Bright as a player. She is a great player. She missed a very easy forehand dink, down the line, forehand dink. Easy forehand dink, one that she's going to make 99 out of 100 times. And she took the paddle and she smashed she asked herself, she hit the paddle to her head. And it wasn't just a little light tap to her head. It was with a similar force that I've seen players slap a paddle to their leg. And I got to thinking to myself, I'm like, wow, those are just two such very different reactions to a missed shot. What's the internal impact to our psyche when we do that? And unlike all players, I've been guilty of thinking at times that, wow, how could I have missed that shot? In fact, Tony did a podcast several weeks ago, about a month ago, where he talked about we are going to miss a percentage of shots, right? We all know we're not perfect. So why do we beat ourselves up when we miss a shot? Because that's just one part of the percentage that we will miss.

[00:15:03.14] - CJ Johnson
It's silly to beat ourselves up. And I never thought about it that way until he framed it out that way. I'm the player that when I miss a shot, I think I should, let's put it that way, that I should make. I have more of a Anna Bright style reaction. I don't know that I've ever hit myself in the head, but I have more of that beat yourself up type of reaction versus to put a smile on my face. Now, I don't know that the smile impacted his win. I think, personally, I think it did. Now, first of all, he was just playing great tennis, and he pretty much played great tennis through the entire match. He did go through a little lull where his play dropped, but his demeanor didn't change. And in the end, he beats Tiafoe. And I'm going to guess on any given day, right? I mean, he's the 349th ranked player in the world. Tiafoe is number 17. I'm going to guess on any given day, Tiafoe could beat him as a player. I mean, that's what the rankings say. But in that one particular match, I really do think Watanuki's demeanor changed the match in his favor.

[00:16:27.04] - CJ Johnson
He was playing great. He kept smiling. He took the pressure off. He took any pressure off himself because here he is, he's the underdog. He's not expected to beat Schiaffo. And he took the pressure off and was able to perform. So maybe, just maybe, the next time you're out on the court, I know I'm going to try this, the next time I'm out on the court, I'm going to smile after I make the shot, no matter if it's a good shot or a not so good shot. I'm going to smile, and I'm going to observe, what does that do to my mindset? I'm going to guess it slows me down. I'm going to guess it calms my body. I'm going to guess it calms my breathing. But I'm going to observe what it does for me, and if truly a smile can help me to play better pickleball. That's what I've got for you this week. Don't forget, we've got that March boot camp coming up, and your regular podcast host, Tony Roig, will be back next week. Until then, have fun. And hey, let us know if an email, cj@betterpickleball. Com. Let me know.

[00:17:50.25] - CJ Johnson
I want to know. Until then, have fun out there.