[00:00:05.400] - Tony Roig
Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy, the podcast dedicated to your pickleball improvement with the focus on your mind. That super important and sometimes overlooked part of our process as pickleball players and bigger picture as human beings. My name is Tony Roig, by the way, before I dive into this, I'm the host of your weekly podcast. Sometimes I forget to introduce myself to you. If you're new to the podcast, Welcome to the podcast. It's great to be with you. If you're returning listening to the podcast, it's always great to have you with us. We strive to provide you content every week that will help you navigate a healthier and a more constructive relationship with this beautiful sport of pickleball. And that's what I was getting at a second ago, getting to, which is we get feedback from players from time to time about how once you embrace the mental journey or the mental part of your journey, because you're going to have a mental part of your journey no matter what. But once you embrace it, once you face it head on and improve it, work on yourself, that the benefits far extend far beyond just the pickleball court.

[00:01:16.300] - Tony Roig
They apply to your life, they apply to everything that you do. And you're just going to feel better about everything once you have a clarity about your mental processes and improving them. And this week, what I'm going to do I'm going to read to you from the book, Acuity. Well, Acuity is not necessarily the name, but that's what I call it internally, Acuity for the Mental Process, or Mental Acuity for pickleball. And that'll be in the rift today. Before that, I'm going to talk to you about what I see as a fallacy in thinking that is pretty pervasive out there. And I want to address it in case it's something that affects you from time to time. And what I want to do is share with you how that approach is actually It doesn't work the way you think it might, if that's what you're doing, and might help you with some friends as well in terms of if you see them doing that. Before we do that, though, a couple of items. One is we have our academy for 50 plus players open right now. It's a super good price, I think, relative to what else is out there.

[00:02:22.000] - Tony Roig
It's basically like a lesson and a half, if you want to think about that way, at most local lesson rates. And you get a year worth of coaching from C, Jamie, and the Better Pickleball Coaching Team inside the Better Pickleball Academy. It's just bang for your buck, can't get better than that. So give that a check. Betterpickleballacademy. Com, I believe it is. We'll put a link in the show notes. I also want to do a couple of shoutouts here. I appreciate you all taking a moment to rate and review the podcast. As I always mentioned at the end, it helps us reach other players who, just like you, might benefit from this process. So the first one I'm going to do is from Mike from May 5. Thanks, Mike, for leaving this. The Zen approach to Pickleball. Love it. Lots of great advice on how to relax and enjoy the game instead of always striving for perfection and feeling bad when we fail to meet our expectations. Embrace the process. That's also my great way of framing it, and thank you for that. And then the other one is from Marion on May 12th. I look forward to every episode.

[00:03:19.820] - Tony Roig
I love that every episode is short yet impactful. The tips and lessons Tony shares help me with my mental game, help me to maintain an appropriate perspective, and remind me to be grateful every time I get to play this amazing game. Thank you very much, Marion, for leaving that review. And if you enjoy the podcast, I'll say it again at the end. If you have a moment to leave a review, that would be appreciated. All right, let's dive into the first topic I want to talk about, which is this idea of... It's the idea of quick gratification, of immediate gratification. We live in a society that is increasingly, and I'm not talking just about this society, the society in general. We're living in a time, I guess I should say, where instant gratification, or immediate gratification is becoming the norm. We want everything yesterday. There's comedians doing jokes about Amazon Prime and how you can get something delivered. One could be that's something pretty funny where he says that Amazon basically is going to start delivering to you before you even know you want it because they know you want it. So they're just going to bring it to you.

[00:04:29.060] - Tony Roig
Then you want it yesterday and stuff like that. As humans, it's hard to fight it. How do I swim upstream here? And the pickleball and pickleball learning is no different. And so this concept that I've been working on and wrote a couple of articles about recently, arose from a video that I did on basically the one shot that you need, the most important shot. And I focused on 50 plus play, because that's where I'm at in my game. But basically, it's the most important shot in pickleball, period, end of story. If you follow, if you're a system student or been following us for a while, you already know what shot it is. And you also know that the shot is completely not sexy. And You also know that a lot of players, and you know these players, right? You're friends with a lot of them, and so am I, the minute you say the shot, they tune you out. They're gone, right? They're done. So I did a video on it, and the video was set up basically to give two tips on how to hit it, two keys to it, and then three benefits about why hitting the shot that way will help you with your game.

[00:05:43.720] - Tony Roig
I can't believe how many comments I got. I mean, I can't believe it, but I got a lot of comments basically saying, This took forever. Two minutes to even mention it. And players were just like, Where's my fix? I need shot right now. Shoot me up, shoot me up. So it got me thinking, right? Because this is not uncommon. If you imagine if I had five or six comments like that, there's probably 500 behind there I mean, actually, boring. This video already has like 25,000 views, which is a lot for our channel. So happy about that. But when I see this bucking of information get delivered by a coach who's thinking about the game in a way that will help, it's pause, right? And I also went back and looked at the video, right? I went back and I said, You know what? Maybe did I spend the first two minutes just like dancing or something? I like doing something weird? Or was there something that I did for a reason? Because usually, not usually, but usually, like 90% of the time when I'm coaching, there's a reason why I've done it the way I've done it.

[00:06:51.270] - Tony Roig
And so I go back and look at the video. And so let me just tell you how it was laid out so you'll understand the thing. Because there's two points I want to make here. Let me lay it out for you first, and I'll tell you two points. So the first two minutes of the video are basically I set the stage. And what I'm talking about here is I talk about how this player that we were talking about was getting attacked early in rallies and was losing a lot of points quick, right? So how do we fix it? And then I talked about the There's shots that you could work on, right? So you could work on a role volley, a hard serve, figuring out every answer to every dink, things like that. Then I introduced the concept of consequential importance, which again, if you're a student of ours, you've probably already heard before. But the idea is How do I prioritize my journey, my improvement journey? Because we're being specific here. If you're watching this video, it's because you want to learn something better for your game. So how do I How do I prioritize my improvement journey?

[00:08:01.660] - Tony Roig
Well, consequential importance tells me which shots are most consequentially important to my game, meaning which ones have the biggest impact. So then I asked questions about the roll volume, things like that, basically saying how often you hit those. And then I said, well, compare that to the most important shot that I'm going to discuss, which is the return to serve. So the phrase return to serve is not said for the first two minutes. But there's a reason for that, because as I mentioned already, the minute I say return to serve, if I lead with that, who's watching in that video. Not you, but most players don't understand why it's that important. So if I start the video by saying, Hey, let me explain to you about the return to serve, you leave without really understanding that it's going to give you all of these benefits and also not thinking about this concept of consequential importance. So there's lessons inside lessons. So I'm teaching about the benefits of it indirectly by talking about how you get attacked early and how you lose a lot of points if you don't have a good It's indirect at the beginning by saying, This is what's happening.

[00:09:02.260] - Tony Roig
How do we fix it? This shot will fix it. I also validated the shot by saying, This is important to me as a senior pro player. So when I play in a tournament as a senior pro, return of serve is absolutely on my mind and as a coach. So I've already set the stage for that concept. And then I go into the return to serve, talk about the two keys to it, and then the three benefits. So there's two things. One is, I think players have a hard time Sometimes recognizing when teaching is occurring. For the players who commented, and I responded to them and I told them this is a process for them, and I offered to share the article with them if they wanted. So I have the team looking out, and if they reply and say they want the article, give us an email, send them the article. But basically, the one fallacy is that they're already learning, but they're not recognizing that they're learning because their reaction is, I just want to I was on to have a shot. And the problem there is it's not fulfilling that way, right? And it's not as complete and it's not as long lasting, right?

[00:10:08.490] - Tony Roig
Because you just have a quick little answer and you don't have the context for it, right? So there's a reason why the video is structured the way it's structured, because it's going to be more impactful. Now, in fairness, the vast majority of players who watched it and commented got the impact. They were like, Whoa, okay, I got to think about that. Yeah, that makes sense. That type of thing. So there was comments like that. But there is a significant number of players who just want the quick answer. So one, there is teaching that's happening that may not be readily apparent because It's not like, this is the shot, here's how you hit it, which is part of it, but not the overall story. And then the other thing is this idea of time. So some players were basically saying something like, this could have been done in a minute, two minutes, 90 seconds, whatever, right? Yeah, sure. We do shorts. I do YouTube shorts, not all day long, but we're getting more into those, right? And because that's what players are reacting to. So we'll do shorts, but shorts are not You're not really learning.

[00:11:16.480] - Tony Roig
You get a little... It's getting a glimpse. It's like watching a trailer and watching a movie. Actually, I hadn't thought about that before. But it's like that. It's like you're trying to get the essence of the Godfather in a three-minute trailer. But How much of the movie do you miss? That way. The other thing is if it's the most important shot, which it is by a country mom, this video was only six and a half minutes long. It wasn't a 20-minute video. I could talk about the return of surf for an hour. And with meaning and substance. It's only six and a half minutes of it. So for the most important shot, that's well worth it. But the other thing, here's the other fallacy. It's time. So players think that it could have been explained in 60 seconds. Okay, sure. Yeah. What's the most important shot? Return to serve. How long does that take? Four seconds, five seconds? Sure. There you go. Done. I'm out. Mic drop. But that's not a way to learn pickleball, and that's not a way to learn anything long-lasting. And the example, the analogy And the last metaphor that I used in the article was, so imagine you're building a piece of IKEA furniture, and there's this one piece of the puzzle that you can't figure out.

[00:12:24.680] - Tony Roig
It's like some doorhanger or something. And so you go on YouTube and you find a 90-second video that shows you exactly where to put it. And great. I mean, that's perfect. I don't need a 15-minute video on putting a piece on IKEA furniture. The reason is because it's a one-off. But now change that. And you're not building a one piece of IKEA furniture. You're going to be an IKEA furniture builder. You're doing it four days a week for three hours a day. It doesn't work the same. Meaning you want to understand what the different parts do. Right? These hangers, these door pieces, all these, so that when you come across one on a new piece of furniture that you haven't seen before, you don't have to go find a quick fix. Otherwise, you're just constantly finding quick fixes. And that's how some players pursue their pickle ball. That's what got me thinking about this, right? That they just want 30 second sound bites about this and about this and about this and about that. But that's That's what you're always doing then. Again, not you personally, the player doing that. Basically, it's like just sound bite after sound bite.

[00:13:36.060] - Tony Roig
How do I do this? How do I do that? How do I do this? How do I do that? But I never understand how it all works. I don't know. I don't know about you, but A, it's not fulfilling. But B, I do know this, you're You're going to lose time in the long term. If you're going to play pickleball for 10 years and you're always trying to figure out what it is, what it is, what it is, what it is, what it is, what it is, as opposed to understanding the why, understanding the framework, understanding the game, it's going to take you longer. You're not going to save time, and it's not going to be as fulfilling. Anyway, so those are the fallacies of that approach, and I wanted to share them with you because it's something that's been on my mind based on feedback to a recent video. And you're welcome to watch a video yourself. By the time you listen, this may not be the very last video on the IntuPickle channel, but it'll be in the last three or four. It's like the number one most important shot or something like that.

[00:14:28.060] - Tony Roig
I have a big number one on my finger, so you can see it. All right, let me dive into the RIF. I probably already said this. I said it last episode, I know that. But if you're not already in our email list, make sure you join our email list, betterpickleball. Com. We send out a weekly email with tips and stuff like that, but we also keep you appraised of what's going on. So I'm going to imagine you're already on there. But if you're not, check it out. All right. So I'm going to read you a piece from the book. This is from part four of the book. And I'm not going to belabor the whole structure of the book right now. But I don't know if I use the word belabor there properly. Let me know. But I'm not going to dive into that too much. But I do want to tell you that this part four is basically how we fit into the sport of pickleball. So it's understanding that... Actually, I'm going to tell you. So the first parts of the book have to do with you as a player, and understanding yourself.

[00:15:17.790] - Tony Roig
Next part of the book, we talk about the game, understanding that's framework and understanding that part of the game in terms of the game itself so we can interact with it better. And then this next part is how there's other actors in this play. So this section that I'm looking at has to do with... Or this section that I just finished reediting has to do with a downsize to an ego approach. And we discuss... So below, I'm going to read this part to you, and then I'm going to go to second scenario. Below, we explore two scenarios that commonly play out on the courts. Each scenario illustrates the downside, even harm, that can be caused by an egocentric approach to pickleball. In the first, we explore its impact on us. In the second, on our friends. And I want to focus on the friends because I think that's something that we often overlook. So this section is called scenario 2, the Come Back Kids. Let's move on to another scenario to see how a self-centered perspective can negatively impact our friends. In this scenario, we are up 10-2-1 against our opponents, Jeff and Vicky. One more point, and we finish our mission and win this game.

[00:16:25.650] - Tony Roig
We're almost there. A few minutes later, we're at the net tapping paddles at the end of the game, but there's a twist. Jeff and Vicky actually won the game. They came all the way back to win 12-10. I cannot tell you how many times I've witnessed this behavior after a comeback like that, a comeback loss by the losing team. The losing team walks off murmuring, Man, we screwed that up, or similar to each other. The losing team has made the result, their loss, all about them. The losing team's egocentric perspective is controlling the narrative. The reality, though, is that for Jeff and Vicky to mount a comeback from 2: 10 down, they had to play a near-perfect returnside. Plus, They had to score 10 points when they served. That's pretty impressive, right? Yet when the losing team, us in this scenario, walks off the court saying, We screwed that up, the accomplishment of the winning team is drowned out. Rather than being about Jeff and Vicky's incredible play, it's all about our bad play. This perspective robs Jeff and Vicky of their moment. To make sure this is not lost, Jeff and Vicky are our friends.

[00:17:48.430] - Tony Roig
Let that sink in for a moment. In our Man, we messed that up, we diminish our friend's accomplishment. To make matters worse, there's no gain in it for us. What is the advantage to you and I of adopting the, It was on us, conclusion? There's none. I am not suggesting that we should diminish our friends Even were we able to gain some advantage here. Pointing this out helps drive home how completely useless and silly it is for us to turn our friend's 'awesome' play into our failure. Switch the scenario around for a minute because I am 100% confident that you have experienced an awesome comeback in your playing career. You have been down and battled back to win. Imagine in that situation that you go up to the net to tap paddles and hear one of your opponents, again, your friends, say to the other, Sorry, I gave that game away, or Man, we messed up. How does that make you feel? It's difficult not to feel a bit reduced in that moment. The victory was not due to your amazing and tough play. Your victory was just because of their mistake. Now, it should be pretty apparent that robbing joy and accomplishment from each other is not desirable.

[00:19:18.840] - Tony Roig
With the better framing we gain in this part of the book, we have the tools to better navigate the different actors in the play that we call pickleball. The first step is acknowledging acknowledging that there are other actors. Pickleball is about more than just us. So that's an exit from the book. I hope you enjoyed it. We're still working, plugging away at the book, figuring out the last piece is to get this thing in play by the end of the year. If it's not up by the end of the year, folks, I don't know. I may think I have to take a month off the podcast. I have to get this done. But I hope you enjoyed it. And I'm going to be asking for any interest that you have in reviewing the book and things like that. But that's a little premature to do that in this episode, hopefully the next one or the one after that. That's my hope. And we'll keep plugging away on it. Anyway, that was this week's podcast. I hope you enjoyed the podcast. As always, if you have a minute to rate and review it, we appreciate it.

[00:20:20.460] - Tony Roig
And share it with your friends. Remember, if you enjoyed the podcast, they probably will, too. Be well, and I'll see you in the next episode of pickleball Therapy..