Before we jump into the podcast, the Better Pickleball team wanted me to let you know that we have put together a holiday gift guide. You can use a holiday gift guide to find an awesome Pickleball gift for the loved one in your life Who's just crazy About the sport of Pickleball. I'll put the link down in the show notes. Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy,

the podcast dedicated to your Pickleball improvement. It's the podcast with you in mind. I'm your host, Tony Roig. I am a dedicated Pickleball professional, and together with my partner, CJ Johnson, we are the creators behind Better Pickleball and our flagship program called the Pickleball System. I'll be having a great week this week. We are going to dive into a subject to help you better play when you're out there.

It'll help you focus, it'll help you play better when you're out there on the court. This is one of those episodes that if it works for you today, what I would suggest is bookmark it so you can come back to it next time you play and play it to remind yourself of these tips. So when you go out there, you can again,

be better focused and perform better on the Pickleball Court. If you've been a listener to the podcast, you know that historically we've done two segment podcasts where we have a main segment and then a riff. We have pivoted from that format, and we're gonna continue this single subject format because we think it's a better way to keep on, on task, right?

Keep ourselves focused as we deliver the content, but more importantly, keep you focused on this step along your process. So if you find a subject that particularly helps you, you can really focus in on that one subject during the podcast, we'll still do riff episodes, but those will be special episodes that'll come out other days, the Friday podcast Will Will from now on,

be a single subject podcast. And this week we're talking about a, a, an important subject, which is, where is the Pickleball? And it seems kind of reductive to ask that question, but it, there's a lot more to it than just where's the Pickleball? And we're gonna dive into that as we do. If you're interested in training with us at Better Pickleball,

make sure you check out our, our latest offerings. You go to better Pickleball dot com, you'll find our latest academy courses as well as upcoming camps, and it's an opportunity to train with myself and CJ Johnson and get the best training available for you in your Pickleball at games. Alright, let's dive into the topic this week about where is the Pickleball?

And as I mentioned it, you know, this is not just a reductive, you know, okay, I gotta keep track of where the ball is. When we play Pickleball, the, the, the ball itself, the little yellow ball, usually yellow that we play with, is pretty much everything, right? Everything revolves around that ball. It's the center of our Pickleball universe,

if you wanna think about it that way. And so, really focusing on where the Pickleball is will help us in several different ways, and that's what I'm gonna address during this week's podcast. But we want you to think about the ball and be knowledge about where the ball is and what the ball is doing beyond simply, you know, the, again,

the reductive. Okay, I need to, I need to keep my eye on the ball kind of a thing, which is important. We want you to think more broadly about it. And let me lay out for you some different ways that you can use this. When you're out there playing, playing the game, if you take a lot of your mental bandwidth and make sure that you are really tracking that ball and focusing on that ball and giving it the importance that it,

that it's due, what you'll find is that it'll quiet down other parts of your brain that are busy with, you know, questioning what shot you just hit. You know, thinking about, you know, do, do you have to do laundry later? Whatever it is that's going on in your mind, right? You know, the, the appointment you gotta make or the call you have to make,

and you, you become hyper-focused on the the little yellow plastic ball that we're playing with. And it just brings a tremendous amount of focus into your mind. It, again, quiet other parts of your mind. And what you'll start doing is you'll start reacting quicker to shots coming back your way. So say you're up at the naval zone and you hit a,

a ball that, that your opponent might attack. If you're really focused on that ball and you're by, you know, you're really looking at that ball, what happens is your, your mind is, is reading what's gonna happen to that ball. And it, it becomes almost like a prediction machine where you, you're watching the ball and you're, you're so focused on it that you,

as soon as the ball's hit, if it's coming hard back at you, you're able to make a decision to get outta the way or to hit it, things like that. By bringing that hyper focus to the ball and, and what's going on with the ball, what happens is you, again, you, you, you, you're not worried so much about,

you know, where's your partner standing? Where's the other player standing later on, we can bring those into your game. Number step number one in any Pickleball game is I have to know where the ball is. And to the extent I can, I want to know what the ball is gonna do next. Where's it gonna go next? How's it gonna go?

Is it gonna go hard? Is it gonna go soft you? And the first step in that process is focusing on the ball itself. And we would suggest going even deeper than just the ball. Focus on the holes on the ball. Because when you focus on the holes on the ball, you, that's hyper-focused there. That's, you're, you're really focusing on the ball.

It'll help you increase the focus, but also you'll get some additional information because when you see the way the ball moves with the, with the way the, the holes on the ball are moving, you'll be able to better predict spins and other things that'll happen with the ball after it bounces. So say you get a, a serve that has some side spin on it,

if you could pick up the ball as early as possible and notice what's going on with the holes, your brain will start processing, oh, that's side spend coming my way. And look, when it bounced, it kicked off to the right or to the left, so that next time you're better able to track the ball and to hit it. And the,

the thing about, and this, it's, it's, it's a similar concept as the focus part, but there's a calmness that comes from the singular focus on the ball. Because you're not so worried about a thousand different things going on while you're playing, you, your mind will just be calmer. You'll feel calmer because everything else around you becomes irrelevant. It's like this murmur around you,

nothing going on except for the ball. You'll also be able to move better if you're really paying attention to the ball. If the ball goes to your left, then you can turn your body and maybe take a half step to your left, depending on the situation. If the ball goes to your right, you're gonna track it because there is nothing else on the court other than the ball.

And at the end of the day, when you're playing Pickleball, that's all that matters. You could have, you know, you can have the best swing in the world and just, it's a beautiful swing you just swung. But if you're not near the ball, what's the point? Right? You're better off having 50% of that swing, but actually being near where the ball is.

You know, if, if the ball is short on the court and you're standing at the baseline, that's not gonna be great. If you're cheating in into the court and the ball gets hit deep, that's not gonna be great either. Well, you have to let it bounce right on the return of serve or on a third shot. So those are situations where if you're really cognizant of the ball,

if you're really paying attention to the ball, it's flight, everything going on with the ball, you're gonna put your body in the best position to hit the next shot. You're gonna be super focused on making contact with the ball, right? Because all you're doing is focusing on the ball. So as your paddle is moving, you're gonna be really focused on getting that paddle on the ball as best you can.

And then you're gonna notice how it flies after it leaves your paddle. That'll give you feedback to your brain to tell you, you know what, what you just did worked amazingly well. Let's do that again. Or, you know what you just did, I couldn't really tell what was gonna happen. Maybe we need to address that and, and fix that later on during a practice session.

So when you go play today, or the next time you go play, spend a little extra time out there focusing on the ball. If you're focusing at it or focusing on the ball at a say a four out of 10. Try and make it a five today or try and make it a six today in terms of you, the amount of, of intentionality you have,

the amount of focus you have on that ball. And as I mentioned earlier, consider trying to pick up the holes on the ball. Picking up the holes on the ball will really help you gain better, gain a better sense of what's going on with the ball, and improve your focus and your calmness when you play. All right. Hope you enjoy this week's podcast.

As always, if you enjoyed the podcast, consider rating and reviewing it. It helps us reach other players just like you. And as always, share with your friends because if you enjoyed the podcast, they probably will too. I hope you have a great week, and I'll see you next time.