Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy, the podcast dedicated to your Pickleball improvement. It's the podcast with you in mind. My name is CJ Johnson and along with my partner Tony Roy, we bring you insights and techniques to help you navigate the mental hurdles that accompany Pickleball improvement. Now, over the last couple of weeks, Tony has been talking about the essential ingredients players need to successfully navigate their Pickleball learning journey.

Today I wanna dive deeper into one of the crucial elements that can make all the difference, not just in the effectiveness of your learning journey, but in the enjoyment as well. And that's a growth mindset. So first, let's define what we mean by growth mindset. It's a term that was coined by researcher and psychologist, Carol Dweck, and it refers to the belief that your abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication,

hard work, and feedback from others. Now, this contrasts with a fixed mindset, and that's where players believe that their talents are innate gifts that are unchangeable. I have to tell you this, nowhere is a fixed mindset more apparent than the comments of our YouTube channels. You can quickly see which players have a growth mindset and which players have a fixed mindset.

Fixed mindset players have a tendency to seek instant gratification or easy solutions rather than engaging with the content critically or recognizing an opportunity to use that video for both growth and learning. So as we dive into this, I want to read a post from one of our Pickleball system members. She left the left this in the Pickleball system Facebook group, and I wanna to,

she really illustrates how the growth mindset has helped her manage the ups and downs of her learning journey. Before I do that, speaking of the the system, we are gonna be starting a new class in March. So if you are not a member and you are looking for a personalized path to improvement, I highly recommend you check it out. Alright, so here's what CT wrote.

She said, my last post was shortly after the Tampa camp. I reported that my game took a big step backwards one of those times when it's two steps forwards and a giant leap backward. But I just kept working the process, trusting all the magic was working behind the scenes. I've had a rough couple of weeks where it looked like I had regressed big time.

Fast forward to this week, as usual, I was just focusing on return of serve and secondarily, my serve. Even my serve had fallen apart during the past couple of weeks. And here she puts sigh, bam, everything was clicking this week. My return of serve has been consistent and usually deep. My serves were consistent and deep. And here's the bonus,

the other parts of my game came along for the ride. Someone even commented that I had really good reflexes up at the net. I'd never really been comfortable up at the net until recently. So that comment really took me by surprise and she ends up by saying, trust the process. So there's a lot to unpack in here and ct, thank you so much for not just writing the post,

but for, for allowing us to share the post because this, this post perfectly encapsulates the principles of the growth mindset. So let's break it down a little further. Why is a growth mindset imperative for our improvement? There's this really popular misconception that great athletes in any sport are simply naturals, when in actuality nothing could be further from the truth. Yes,

there are some athletes that may possess specific, well, that was hard to say, specific physical attributes that are advantageous to their sport. I mean, as an example, a seven foot basketball player at height would be advantageous, but those alone don't guarantee success. What sets exceptional athletes apart is their willingness to embrace challenges, to persist in the face of adversity and to view failure not as a reflection of their inherent abilities,

but as an opportunity for growth. Those qualities or the growth mindset in action. Lemme give you an example. Legendary basketball player, Michael Jordan. You remember Michael? He was widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes of all times, but his success was not solely attributed to his natural talent, but rather to his Unparalleled work ethic. And he had unwavering determination as well.

Now, despite facing numerous setbacks, and one of those came very early in his career, Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. He continually focused on refining his skills, expanded his knowledge of the game, and he kept pushing himself past his limits. The myth of a natural athlete diminishes the importance of a growth mindset to success. Pickleball is like any other sport or skill.

It's a journey of continuous learning and development, as we've seen with many members of the Pickleball system, including CT embarking on this journey often involves facing and overcoming numerous challenges and setbacks. Cultivating and maintaining a growth mindset allows players to see these challenges, not as barriers to their success, but as opportunities to grow and to learn and to improve their game. Now it's important to acknowledge that we all exhibit traits of both mindsets,

both the growth as well as the fixed mindset. And it may be growth and fixed mindsets with the same activity. It may be different activities, it might even be different times. We are not all one mindset or the other. We're a combination of both. But the important thing here is to know that it's not only imperative to cultivate the growth mindset,

it's equally important to recognize when we have fallen into a fixed mindset. Now that we understand that improvement in Pickleball or really in any area of our lives requires embracing that growth mindset. Let's explore a little bit about how CT story exemplifies that approach and what we can learn from her journey to apply to our own paths towards improvement. So in her post, she described her game at the very beginning as taking a big step backwards after coming to camp.

In fact, I think there were two backwards in there. But instead of viewing this setback as a failure, CT demonstrated a key principle of a growth mindset, perseverance in the face of difficulty. Here's the thing, if we're challenged by something, it's doubtful That we are gonna have immediate success. Success comes from embracing that challenge and from learning and growing.

That comes from struggling with something hard. C T's experience of feeling like she had regressed, only to find out later that her game had improved. Underscores the importance of seeing challenges as an opportunity, an opportunity to develop skills. Moreover, cts focus on specific areas of the game, such as the return of serve and her serve, even when it seemed like she was not making progress.

Exemplifies another critical aspect of the growth mindset focus and the belief that effort will lead to improvement over time. Effort is seen as the path to mastery in sports and cts eventual realization that everything was clicking. And to her surprise, receiving compliments on her reflexes at the net illustrates the payoff of persistent effort and the willingness to tackle difficulties had on finally cts encouragement to trust the process.

Her final message on the Post is a mantra that echoes the growth mindset's emphasis on learning and improvement, and that it is an ongoing process. It's a reminder that growth and development are usually not linear. It requires patience, time, and really faith in the effort that we're investing now. Cts approach to her Pickleball to to practicing Pickleball, particularly after facing setbacks,

highlights a real critical lesson, and that's the value of focusing on effort and persistence rather than being solely focused on outcomes. After experiencing what she described as that big step backwards in her game, she could have easily succumb to disappointment and disillusionment. However, her dedication to working the process and trusting, as she said all the magic was working behind the scenes,

is a testament to her commitment to effort and persistence. Now, the process of learning and the effort put into overcoming obstacles are much more important than immediate results. Embracing effort as the pathway to mastery encourages a love of learning in a resilience which are Essential for great accomplishments. Cts story exemplifies this as her focus on improving specific aspects of the game, like the return of serve and her serve through consistent effort and practice eventually led to a breakthrough where she told us everything was clicking.

Moreover, cts realization that other parts of her game improved alongside of her focus efforts, even leading to compliments on her reflexes. At the net, that underscores another vital aspect of the growth mindset, indirect benefits that come from directed effort and persistence. Now, the journey that she shared with us is a powerful reminder that Pickleball as in life outcomes are beyond our direct control,

but our effort and our persistence or not by concentrating on what we can control, our dedication, our work ethic, our practice habits, our resilience in the face of challenges, we set the stage for growth and improvement that can far out seat our expectations. Now, cts experience encourages us all to adopt a mindset that values the journey of improvement itself, celebrating the effort and persistence it takes to progress.

This approach not only fosters a deeper love of the game, but it also co cultivates a resilient spirit that's capable of navigating the ups and downs of any learning journey. It's really a powerful lesson in the transformative potential of focusing on effort and persistence over immediate outcomes That reinforces the idea that true growth lies in the process, not just in the product. Now,

if you enjoyed today's podcast, please share it with your Pickleball playing friends. Remember, if you are enjoying the podcast, they probably will too. I wish you a great week and a growth mindset for your Pickleball game. Tony will be back next week, but in the meantime, have fun out on the Pickleball courts.