[00:00:04.900] - Speaker 1
Hello and welcome to Pickleballl Therapy, the podcast dedicated to your Pickleball improvement. I hope you're having a great week. This week's podcast, I think you're going to enjoy a concept that I've been exploring. And I'm actually going to ask you for your help with this podcast because I think it's an interesting concept and maybe you can help me develop this idea. It's a new way of thinking about engaging with different options that we have when we're playing in terms of looking for wins and results. And I think you'll find it a pretty interesting way of thinking about how we interact with the sport of pickleball. And then in the RIF, I have a great shout out that I'm going to share that it really helps us actually analyze what we're working on today or what we're developing. So I think it's pretty helpful. It's a, I think, was it two stars? I'm sorry, they actually got two stars. Better than one star, I guess. But it was I don't know why it wasn't one star based on the language of the review, but we'll talk about it because everybody's in the out of their opinion, I guess.

[00:01:08.220] - Speaker 1
And I think it gives us an opportunity to work on the main subject today. As we dive into the podcast, As I mentioned, try and mention every week, one of our loves in pickleball is coaching. And so we offer several different types of coaching opportunities at Better Pickleball. If it's something that we can ever help you with, please check out our coaching options. We have an academy, we have the pickleball system, which is a year long course. We have some direct coaching that we're doing now and things like that. So if you're not sure what we do, well, first of all, make sure you're on our email list because you'll be notified of different things that come out. And then if you have a question, you can always send us an email at either support@betterpickleball or coaching@betterpickleball.com and get you an answer if you're interested in learning more about the great sport of pickleball. All right, let's dive into the subject of... Oh, one more housekeeping note, sorry. If you're listening to this podcast the day it comes out, I will still be in St. Louis at Major League Pickleball. So if you're going to happen to be in that area, please say hello to me.

[00:02:08.600] - Speaker 1
I'll be wearing an orange cap. It should be pretty easy to locate. And I know sometimes players are hesitant to say hello. I guarantee you or promise you that I won't bite and you can always say hello. And maybe we can take a photo if you want to. All right, let's dive into the main topic today. So I've been playing with this idea of how do you deal with situations where where we get bogged down in trying to seek a, what I will submit to you is a smaller or more immediate victory or win, when there may be, in fact, a bigger win available to us. So this idea that, should we think about maybe going for the bigger win? And there's different ways of of exemplifying it or illustrating it, which I think make it easier to process the information or process the concept, I should say. So let's play with a couple of those, and then maybe we can see where we take this concept But I think it may end up being a pretty helpful concept for us as we continue to work through our mental journeys as pickleball players. So one example that comes up in my mind is, as you may I play senior professional pickleball, so I'm a pretty decent pickleball player.

[00:03:34.420] - Speaker 1
And let's say that sometimes I will go to open plays and things like that and mix in. So let's say I'm playing in a mixed game of some 3-0, some 3-5, some 4-Ls, and things like that. Now, I can basically try to take over my side of the court, hit the ball super hard at players, do my thing, and then maybe probably end up with the win in the game, right? Probably. Not 100 %, but probably. Another option is I can play a more inclusive style of pickle ball. And what I mean by that is, is play at a level that allows the other players on the court to enjoy the experience, to be challenged, but to enjoy the experience, to move the ball around, to get some exercise, to hit some balls back and forth and things like that. Allow my partner, who may also be a 3-0 or 3-5, to hit as many balls as they can that are reasonably theirs, as opposed to taking a bunch of the court, and potentially reduce my chances of winning that game. But I guess the question in that situation is, or the thought there is, when I do so, am I not chasing the bigger win?

[00:04:57.680] - Speaker 1
I may I lose the game, but perhaps I'm gaining something even bigger than the score of an arbitrary score in a game, that at the end of the day is not going to make a difference to anybody. So That's one area where you can think about that concept. Another area we can think about it is in something like an outball dispute. So let's say you make the call and you call it out. You see it, you're That's out. I'm going to make the call. And your opponent is just losing their mind. I mean, they're just absolutely losing their mind. Now, it's your call. And if you called it out, I'm okay with the fact that you saw it out. You believe it to be out based on the information that you received from your eyes and your mind processing that optic information, et cetera. So you have every right to win the call argument. Okay? I mean, it's your call. You can just look across the net and say, I appreciate your perspective, but it's my call, and I'm going to stand by my call. And so you win. But is there a bigger win?

[00:06:21.320] - Speaker 1
Is there perhaps a bigger win? It appears to be such a big deal to your opponent. It is affecting their ability to enjoy that game, enjoy that match. Perhaps the bigger win is to let them have the call. And I'll give you guys a personal story. And I talked about this a little differently before in the podcast I talked about it in terms of like, just we all do the best we can. And this was a tournament match where I saw the ball out. So I called it out. Opponent lost his mind. I just not quite jumping up and down in the court. We're pretty close to that. And he was beside himself with the call. And at that point, I took the, maybe the smaller went, I'll say, now that I'm thinking about it this way. Because it was my right to make the call. It was a macho moment or whatever where you'd puff up the chest and go like, Hey, man, you can see everyone see it, but it's my call, and it is what it is, so let's just move on. And I'm going to call it the way I saw it, right?

[00:07:29.500] - Speaker 1
And then just And I don't think there's anything technically wrong with what I did, because that's what I saw and that's my call, et cetera. But could I have maybe gotten a bigger win there in terms of just the world and pickleball in general and the sport and everything else, right? I think so. I think I could have had a bigger win by just saying, yeah, it's fine. If you're that strong about it, I'll Basically, it can see the call. Is that really that much damaging to me, right? I mean, it's like, I don't know if you watch soccer or not, but I watch soccer. And one of the things that drives me insane is most players are trained to challenge every ruling, everything. And so it's almost like they never commit a foul, which is silly because, of course, they're going to commit fouls. It's a contact sport, it's a physical sport. And so it becomes silly for them to do that, right? Where the bigger win might be for them to sometimes go like, Yeah, that was my mistake, right? I screwed that up. No big deal. Anyway, I digress. One other area would be the illegal serve, the quintessential argument, the illegal serve idea.

[00:08:51.740] - Speaker 1
I've talked about this before, but I haven't articulated it this way in terms of the bigger win. What I've said in the past is, leave it be because it's probably not affecting the game. Usually, most of the time when you see, not all the time, but the vast majority of the time when the player says, Is that serve illegal? In rec play, it's not really a big deal, even if it is technically illegal. But again, is there a bigger win? Is it a bigger win for you to allow that serve to just be what it is? And the nice thing about the bigger win is that it helps incorporate a bit more empathy into our practice, into our lives, because you're like in the alcohol situation, even you're conceding the call to your opponent in situations where you can just simply say, well, to them, it's obviously more important than it is to me. And so I'm going to grant them this. It's like a gift you're handing them. Same thing with the illegal Sometimes it could be they're just not comfortable serving any other way. And so you make them serve the legal way, they're going to miss their serve and not want to play because they feel pressure or maybe their arm bothers them or whatever.

[00:10:11.760] - Speaker 1
Myriad reasons why a lot of... Not a lot, but why some players may serve in a manner that's illegal. But maybe there's a bigger win there. So yeah, just something to think about. And if you have feedback on that, please let me know in the comments on YouTube. It's the best way to do it. If you go to YouTube and look at Pickleball Therapy, you'll find this episode. And then there you can share your ideas in the comments. That would be appreciated. And maybe we can work on this together and come up with the concept here. Which leads me to the RIF. And it's perfect because this The Comet allows us to seek the bigger win or me to seek the bigger win. So it's the comment is entitled... The heading of the comment is, it was left on June ninth, 2025, and I appreciate leaving the feedback. Longwinded Nonsense is the name of the comment or the feedback. I don't know, again, why it's two stars, but I guess thank you for giving me two stars instead of one. This podcast is a long winded waste of time. I can't imagine being coached by him and waiting for him to get to a point.

[00:11:21.520] - Speaker 1
So a couple of things, right? It's, one is the idea of Sondra that I just mentioned. Obviously, this person is entitled to navigate the Earth the way that they want to navigate it. Frank, I'm always a little bit surprised that someone would listen to the podcast, the entire podcast, if they're not enjoying what they're hearing. But that's okay. I appreciate you listening to the podcast. And the big win and the small win here, right? So the big win, the small win would be for me to take issue with this, right? I think. That's what I'm playing with in my head, with this small win, big win. So the small win here would mean to me to go toe to toe with this person. Actually, the comment I just made probably is a little bit of a small win idea. I'm just fighting them about it. I have to share it with you because it's curious. So the name of the avatar, the username here is, I wasted my time 6: 19. So I don't know if that's a common thing that happens to this person, and maybe that's baked into how they're seeing things. Things like this that aren't this quick little fix or a waste of I'm not sure.

[00:12:31.920] - Speaker 1
But when I look at it in terms of bigger win, I try to think of what this show, what this illustrates to me or points out to me is how we're as a society, we're moving away from deep and maybe lengthy sometimes. I'm sure I guarantee that I speak a little longer than others. But it's because I'm trying to explore something or I'm trying to go deeper on something or explain it at a different level than a TikTok or a quick Instagram video. But we live in a world where everything now is short. Frankly, like our social media consultants, they're always like, you have 30 seconds. I think right now, 30 seconds in total, I should say. We're down to three seconds to get attention or four seconds. I mean, it's like a really compressed attention span. So when you see this a comment, perhaps that's just this person is conditioned this way. And it's unfortunate from my perspective that the person is looking for just quick hits. Frankly, I don't know how to do it in a mental. If I did, I would. Listen, I'd be happy to give you a five second thing on the mental and everything is fixed.

[00:13:55.460] - Speaker 1
But that's not my experience anyway, of how the mental has worked for me, nor my experience of how it's worked with other players for whom it's been effective. It's a process. You have to think about it. Sometimes I may say the same concept three different ways, and the first two ways don't land, and the third way it lands, and now we have progress. So that's part of this process as well. Frankly, from my perspective, I will tell you that I'm at a place right now where when I... I'm not saying I'm perfect about it. When my initial reaction to these things is still a little Still small, I guess. Like, oh, what do you like about the podcast? But then as I let it simmer a little bit, let it sit a little bit, then I ask myself about the Sonda, right? And how we're being conditioned in our attention spans. And then lastly, I honestly, I wish that this... I hope for this player, I assume it's a player, but I hope for this player that he or she finds a way to interact with longer form content in a way that is productive for them, because I think that there's a lot of benefit to that in the long term for them.

[00:15:12.920] - Speaker 1
It's the same hope that I have for players looking to improve just their mechanical skills in the game or their strategic skills in the game. Whenever we're looking for those quick hits and things like that, that's just not how things work. And it ends up being counterproductive most of the time. And those quick fix things, when you explore them, oftentimes they're missing pieces or they're incomplete. I guess I think missing pieces, incomplete, or they lack substance in them, but they seem really good on the surface. Anyway, so that's my thought there on that. Again, I appreciate them sharing their feedback about the episodes and the podcast. But is there a bigger win for me as a podcast, a content creator? Yes. And I think the bigger win here is to encourage the player, whether it's this voice or another voice, to find long-form content that can help them with their mental journey. Because if they listen to this podcast My guess is they did so because they're in need of something in the mental side of their game, in the mental side of their development as players. And if they can find a voice that resonates with them, that helps them, I'm all for that.

[00:16:31.180] - Speaker 1
All right, so let's keep working on this concept of bigger wins. Think about it when you're out there, right? Maybe you'll come up with something as you engage with the sport, as you interact with other players. See if you can find moments to have that bigger win a dispute over a paddle placement, a player who doesn't want to play in a certain formation on the court, whatever. The things that are normal that happen in daily pick-up all life that are less than agreeable for us. See if you can find an area where you can look for the bigger win, look for the bigger picture thing that you can do that is better for the situation than simply winning the small victory, which is the game or the argument or the whatever, see if there's a way to pivot that towards a bigger win and then share it with us. And again, the best way to do that would be in a comment to the YouTube video that accompanies this podcast. And as always, if you have a moment to rate and review the podcast, really appreciate you doing that. And lastly, please share the podcast with your friends because if you enjoyed the podcast and if it helped you along your mental journey, it will probably help your friend as well.

[00:17:41.680] - Speaker 1
I'll be at the MLP this week, so if you're up there, please say hello. Next week, probably going to do an archive episode because I will be out of town with family. Got a family summer trip planned with the grandkids and everybody. So next week will be an archive episode going into the vault. And then the week after that, we'll be back into our regular programming. I hope you have a great week and I'll see you on the next episode of The Pickleball Therapy. Be well.