[00:00:05.320] - Speaker 1
Hello, and welcome to Pickleball Therapy, the podcast dedicated to your pickleball mind. My name is Tony Roig. I'm the host of this podcast. It's a pleasure to be with you for a podcast, something like 250. Been at it for a minute now. And there's always different ways of thinking about the sport, thinking about our interaction with the sport. And what I've been thinking about recently has to do with our journey. And there's a couple of things that this to mind for me. One was a post by another content creator that I'll tee up in a minute talking about how he views the journey, and that's the way that I think we should view it. But then what I've been seeing is a lot of stuff out there about getting somewhere. One program that I saw recently is like 3. 5 to 4. 0 in 30 days. That is not really doable from our experience, and it just creates unreasonable expectations. 5. 0 in 90 days on YouTube. You see all these promises, right? About getting somewhere and getting somewhere right now. And it really robs us of a lot of joy that we can have, as you'll see as we work through this.

[00:01:14.280] - Speaker 1
So we're going to get into that. And then we're also going to just played a tournament in South Florida. I got to visit with the family and play in a tournament. So I'll give you an update on that and a couple of observations that tie into what we're talking about in this podcast. As we dive into the podcast, Right now, we have a competitive play series coming out in our Better pickleball Academy. So if you play competitively, so that's more than just tournaments. Tournament's a part of it, but duper matches that you're counting, team league, ladder league, anything like Round Robbins. These strategies that you can learn that have to do with competitive play can really give you an edge beyond hitting a good third shot, beyond your serve and your return and things like that. They're very specific to competitive play. So if you want to check those out, I'll put a link in the show notes. One way to get into it would be we have a strategy lab at the end of this month, and it's a live strategy lab. You get to come in to the lab and learn about pickleball from a competitive viewpoint.

[00:02:12.430] - Speaker 1
So check that out if it's of interest to you. All right, so let's talk about this journey idea. As I mentioned, I think this idea that we need to get somewhere is tricky, and also it's tricky because it sets expectations for us potentially in a way that can lead to disappointment. But it also really robs us. It robs us of enjoying today, and you'll understand that more as we get through here. What I want to do is let me tee up the creator first, and then I'm going to play the audio, and then we're going to play off of that audio. The creator is I don't know his name because the name he uses on his account is not his name, but he seems like a fine young man. And he talks about... He usually is in the forest doing his videos, and he has a stick with a microphone, which is pretty cool. He's usually talking about personal growth and nature and things like that. It's pretty interesting. I'm going to play the audio now, and then once the audio is played, I'm going to come back and we're going to play on it.

[00:03:10.770] - Speaker 2
If you were going on a hike and somebody offered you a way to just click your fingers and immediately be at the top of the mountain, you wouldn't do it because the hike is the fun part. If you were going to run a marathon and you could just drive from point A to point B, you wouldn't do it. What would be the point? The marathon is the point. But for some reason, when it comes to your life, you just lose that logic. You think if you can just fast track it, if you can just get to here, you can just get to here, you want to be as quick and efficient and as fast as possible. But why? You don't want to get from point A to point B in your life as quick as possible, because point B, we all know what point B is, and it's not that good. You don't want to get there quicker. Enjoy the journey. This is the journey right now. Whatever it is you're working towards, stop hating yourself until you get there. Enjoy the process. Take a breath and go, This is the marathon. This is the hike.

[00:04:00.010] - Speaker 2
This right here is being alive.

[00:04:02.850] - Speaker 1
I thought that was a really interesting way of looking at things, at processes. The idea of the mountain was interesting. You're going to hike a mountain and you can just press a button. Would you do it? I mean, hopefully the answer is no, right? Because that's not the point of climbing the mountain. And it's really the same thing with pickleball. I think with pickleball, sometimes it's easy to fall into these traps of, I need to get somewhere. I need a rating of a certain number. I need to get a medal of some sort. I need to win a certain thing. I need to be accepted to some group, whatever it is, right? And so what happens is when we do that is we lose the advantage lose the joy of the current moment. So going back to the mountain idea, when you're hiking a mountain, hopefully you're noticing the trees, you're noticing the flowers, maybe you see a lizard, maybe you hear a bird, a cicada on this time of year, whatever it is. So you're taking in the sound of the wind through the trees, a creek nearby, whatever it is. So you have all these experiences that are happening around you as you're hiking up the mountain.

[00:05:17.390] - Speaker 1
If you hike up the mountain in a more business-like fashion, where you're just focused on just getting to the top of the mountain, not noticing what's around you, it defeats the purpose of the hike, doesn't it? The purpose of the hike is actually the whole experience, including the views of the top of the mountain. I'll give you that. But let's say you were hiking and you got three quarters of the way there and for whatever reason weren't able to make it to the top time or your leg start charting or something like that. That doesn't mean your hike sucked or was bad, right? Because you got to hike it. But if you're so fixated on the top of the mountain that you lose sight of the hike, that's just really robbing you of a significant portion of your experience. And And it's the same thing with pickleball, okay? I don't know where you're at right now in your game, right? Whether it's by level, how you think about it, right? Wherever you're at right now is where you're at right now. Perhaps you have a thing that you want, okay? I want this other thing.

[00:06:14.580] - Speaker 1
And that's fine. There's nothing wrong with wanting that, wanting to climb, to hike the mountain. That's fine. But if you are so fixated on the result, on the thing, and there's a spoiler alert because we're going to get to that in a second, and there is no thing. But even if you think there's a thing to get to, what happens is if you get so fixated on that thing, then what you do is you deprive yourself of the experience that's happening right now. Example, you've been working on your volleys, and so your volleys have improved. You've been putting the work in and you start improving your volley. It becomes not a thing. It's like the flower you walked by on the hike or the tree you didn't see or the bird you didn't hear because you're still not whatever your goal is. And if you want to use, let's just use some terminology that will help with this process. So like this three, five to four, and 30 days thing. So you're not yet a 4-0. So You're not a 4-0, so nothing matters. The good volleys don't matter. Your friends who congratulated you on the shot, that doesn't matter.

[00:07:22.150] - Speaker 1
The battle that you won, the battle that you lost, doesn't matter. Because all that matters is what? Getting the 4-0, getting You're going to change to the top of the mountain, whatever it is. So you lose all that time between. And they're beautiful moments. And let's assume that for whatever reason, you don't make it to 4: 0. So you get the 3. 95 or 3. 87 or something in the way we're framing it. Then what? Then everything sucks because you didn't make the 4: 0? Obviously, it doesn't make any sense. But even though it doesn't make sense when we're talking about it here nice and calmly, me and my microphone, you're hearing it wherever you're hearing it. It can happen to us when we lose sight of it, we lose the framing, we lose perspective of the situation. So remind yourself not to... Be wary of falling into the trap of looking forward, looking ahead to wherever you think you need to go and not seeing the flowers, the trees, and the cicadas maybe along your path to that destination. And there's nothing wrong with the destination, nothing wrong with growth. There's nothing wrong the hiking, right?

[00:08:31.030] - Speaker 1
But enjoy the process of the hike, not just fixating on the mountain. And here's the kicker. In the hike, potentially there is a summit, right? There can be a summit that you can get to. In pickleball, there is no end. So there is no final destination that I get to here. And the best way to think about it that I've been able to devise is this. So So today, sitting here today, you maybe envision something for yourself three months from now or six months from now, some time frame later. So you have a picture of a player that looks like you, sounds like you, but doesn't play like you, plays in a different way somewhere in the future. Okay, that's fine. But now let's fast forward to that next player. So now you're that player. What do you think you're thinking now? Probably thinking about the next player that you are, the next version of yourself. And then what's going to happen? The next version of yourself. And so you see, if you do that, you deprive yourself of all the times in between. And it is even possible that you won't even appreciate the moment you're in, even though you think you will.

[00:09:48.320] - Speaker 1
Like you're somebody in the mountain, and you're going to get there, and you're going to summit, and it's going to be beautiful. But you get to the top of the mountain, and there's clouds or whatever, so you got to climb higher, you got to keep going. And that's pickleball. That's your pickleball journey. So Be careful about falling into the trap of not being content with your current moment in pickleball because of some future expectation that you have for yourself. And then one last piece on this would be it can set you up for disappointment and potential frustration in your game, particularly these three, five to four, in 30 days concepts, because it's a lot of pressure that you're putting on your sofa no reason. Growth, fine. Keep working on your game, fine. Keep studying the game, learning the game, all great. But to have an arbitrary metric that I must meet in a certain time frame, just not a good way of going about it for yourself and from a mental standpoint. All right, let me talk to you now about the tournament that I just played, and I'll give you the good and the bad that I saw.

[00:10:55.050] - Speaker 1
I am not playing a lot of tournaments these days, and frankly, I think This is one of the reasons why, as I thought about it after the tournament. And this is not a criticism of any of the players there, of any of the players that were at the tournament. It's a very normal human behavior, human responses. They're not outliers. They're not doing anything intentionally wrong. But what I find is that when I go to the tournament, I love seeing my friends, my acquaintances, making new friends. I met this player. I'll tell you his name because his name is Chad. He has the best hair ever. And I play with it. I joke with him about it. We played mixed doubles against each other. And then the rest of the time I saw him there, he has this beautiful flowing white hair. So I kept on asking if it was a wig and can I touch it? Just playing around with it. We had a good time with him. He played along and we were smiling and having a great time. So I get to have those experiences with other pick-up players from all over the country, players who I don't get to see other than at tournaments.

[00:12:01.930] - Speaker 1
I get to play with them. We had a couple of practice games because as I mentioned, I was visiting family, so I wasn't there too early, but I got there early enough to play some practice games. I met this lovely player, Tomer, from Texas. We played some matches, had some nice conversations. His partner, whose name escapes me right now. Same thing, nice conversations. Had to get to interact with my partners. I love all that, right? But then there's this undercurrent. And again, it's I'm not picking anybody out here, but just undercurrent in the tournament of just stress and pressure. And I'm laughing about it. And maybe I shouldn't laugh about it because maybe I have the benefit of the journey that I've been on for the last four or so years with this podcast and studying the books and things like that. And perhaps they just don't have the benefit of that, right? But I would encourage them to, if they're listening to this, to go on the journey, because to go to a tournament and play in a tournament and feel the amount of stress that these players do, frankly, is unfortunate from my perspective.

[00:13:07.110] - Speaker 1
It robs them of the event. Frankly, it's not an environment that I choose to be in. So I have other things that I can do, like record this podcast and other projects. So that's where I'm going to be at. But for you, the listener, be aware of that. If you're falling into the trap of pressure and stress and pickleball, take a step back and remember, you're playing a game. You're hitting a plastic ball on a court with your friends, getting some exercise, getting some sun. That's what it's all about. It's all about that. It's not about winning or losing and getting stress on yourself because of it. So hopefully that helps you maintain a healthier perspective as you play. That's this week's podcast. Hope you enjoyed it. Hope I get to see some of you at our upcoming Strategy Lab. Or inside the Better Pickleball Academy. It's our pleasure to be able to coach you in this podcast as well as everything else that we do in the better pickleball ecosystem of pickleball training. And if you enjoyed the podcast, consider rating and reviewing it. I believe there hasn't been a rating in a while on some of the platforms.

[00:14:15.180] - Speaker 1
So if you're in there and don't see a rating and don't mind giving us a rating, I would appreciate that. It helps us reach other players like you. And as always, share it with your friends because remember, if you enjoy the podcast, they probably will, too. Hope you have a great week and I'll see you next time..