[00:00:00.580] - Speaker 1
Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy, the podcast dedicated to your pickleball improvement. Hope you're having a great week. I am your host of this weekly podcast, Tony Roig. I am a master teaching professional as well as a senior professional pickleball player and dedicated full-time pickleball professional. This is what I do every day is think of ways to hopefully help you have a more pleasant and fulfilling relationship with this sport of pickleball. In this week's podcast, I'm going to be talking to you about ratings. Ratings are one of those double-edged swords, right? There's definitely a place for ratings in our sport, but sometimes it can get to be a little bit too much. And so I'm going to talk about that. And this is in response to an email that I received from one of our therapists, and we're going to talk about that. And then another email that I received from one of our students talking about focus, right? How to maintain focus on-court. On-court focus is That's what is going to be the second topic for today. Before we jump into that, I wanted to give a shout-out, I should say, to a review that we got.

[00:01:09.880] - Speaker 1
I feel conflicted about the username, Med Student Slave. So I'm sorry that you're... I appreciate you're going to medical school. I know we need more doctors in our society, but sorry you're feeling like a slave. I have family members who are doctors, so I'm generally familiar with the idea of what you guys go through. But thank you for dedicating yourself to that path. The review says, Thank you, Tony, for this awesome podcast. I also enjoy your content on YouTube. Getting my mind in the right state is at least half of the importance for the game of pickleball, and you do a great job explaining this. It is my pleasure to do so. I do think that's really a good way of thinking about it, right? How important the mind is to our interaction with sport, our relationship with the sport. Not just in how we play, right? Not just in things like focus, which we're going to talk about today, which are important, but also how we feel about pickleball and how pickleball interacts with our mind and our mental state. So thank you Very much for that shout out. One more quick bit of housekeeping.

[00:02:19.880] - Speaker 1
If you're listening to this at or about the time that it is published, our pickleball system enrollment is closing now. It's closing. It closes at the end of the month. On September 30th, it closes. So if you're interested in taking this step in your journey, make sure that you take advantage of that now. This is the last class of 2024. Anyway, so those are the housekeeping items. All right, let me read you this question that got posed about ratings, and specifically, DUPR, because DUPR has, to their credit, I would say DUPR has done a good job, right, from a marketing standpoint of creating demand for something that wasn't even known a couple of years ago. They've, again, credit to them for creating this massive demand for their product. I think it comes with its potential downsides, and we're going to talk about those today. But no criticism of DUPR, right? They're doing what they're doing, and it's working. So why would they not keep doing it? So the email and the question is like this. So last summer, I did some DUPR events, which was a mistake because they were very good players, and basically reduced this player's rating on DUPR.

[00:03:33.520] - Speaker 1
And then this summer, the same player got rated in person, right? So you can go get rated in person, especially in certain communities, right? I I know, like in Arizona, there's a lot of communities there that are driven by ratings, meaning you can only play on certain courts if you have a certain rating. I know East Naples Park, where the US Open is held, has gone to that. I know the villages, I believe, does that as well here in Florida. So there are communities where you need to have a rating. So these communities will usually have, either have somebody there or put you in contact with somebody who can do a visual rating for you. And so the player who wrote this email in question got visually rated at 3.5. So continuing, it says, I get to play all 3.5 events, verified and unverified at both locations as they have verified and assessed me. Some folks were saying, I should really do some duper here. So this player tried one where there were some non-rated players who thought they were 3.5. And then one day after playing with the non-rated players, again, duper dropped. So now we're from 2.9 to 2.3. Yikes is what it says.

[00:04:47.210] - Speaker 1
By the way, these players are good, but were non-rated, and they also were less than 3.0 after that day. I spoke to one of the pros here locally where this duper round Robin occurred, and I was asked Basically, I was told that if not playing tournaments, why worry about it? Because I can play my three, five where I want to play, and I'm doing just fine. And then I continue to improve. And like I mentioned today on the call, I played today at a different club with greater younger players, and did just fine. My goals are to continue to work on my game and improve. And now we get to the meat, the nub of what's important to you as a player. And this is something for anybody out there, any player out there listening to this podcast to think about for yourself. My My goals are to continue to work on my game and improve. And then the question is, should I just let this duper rating thing go? It was suggested that if I want to increase my duper, the best thing to do is actually play in a tournament as you get more points than Club Round Robbins.

[00:05:42.910] - Speaker 1
They also suggest that I compete, if possible, at a 3.5 level as I can hold my own, and this should increase my duper quickly. I think what's meant there is more points means basically more waiting or more credit given to them. So there may be points at the end, but really what it means is that a win in the tournament will give you more, has more value inside the system. So the underlying question here is, should I let this duper rating thing go? And then obviously, the difficulty that chasing a duper rating can have in how you interact with the sport. So let's talk about ratings for a second, and then I'll give you the answer, what I would suggest. So ratings are just what a computer spits out based on incomplete information. Now, obviously, the different ratings organizations, including DUPR, they're trying to do their best, I'm sure, to figure out the best, the right way to factor in. It used to be, you just got factored in based on total results. I believe DUPR has gone to a system that weighs scores as well. I think that's important because back in the day, you would lose a really close match.

[00:06:55.100] - Speaker 1
You could lose in three games. You could lose 13, 11, 11, 13, 14, 12, and it just counted as a loss, the same as if you lost 11,1, 11,1. And those are two very different things. So they've finetuned it, right? But at the end of the day, it's still incomplete information, and it's based on a computer program, however well that's developed. The other thing is that it actually doesn't say anything about how you play, if you think about it, right? It's a comparative number, meaning, and even if If you read the email, it's talking about how I play with certain people, I go up, certain people, I go down, and things like that. So it's really a comparison to other players at the end of the day. If you play with a bunch of players who duper says are 4-0 and you do well, then you're going to... DUPR should eventually take you to around their level, a little higher, maybe even. But if that same group of players DUPR believes it's 3-0, then you're not going to get the rating that you think is correct. So a rating really doesn't say anything about how you play.

[00:07:59.610] - Speaker 1
And we've said this for years, that you're going to play the way you're going to play, right? You can say your number is 4.2. If you play like a 4.2 player, level of play, then great. But having a 4.2 doesn't mean you're going to play at that level of play. So to me, it's a little bit of... This process ends up being a little bit of tail wagging the dog, meaning we got to keep in mind What's important? What's important is the dog, not the tail. And so what's important is what's important to you. And what this player said is my goals are to continue to work on my game and improve. Other than whatever, if ratings are an obstacle to you doing that, meaning we live in the real world. So if you're living in a community where you have to have a rating in order to be able to play with a group that you want to play with, then you'll need to do what you need to do to get that done. I would suggest a visual rating is going to be more a better solution for you than trying to chase a DUPR rating because of the uncertainties of DUPR, et cetera.

[00:09:04.600] - Speaker 1
But ask yourself, why do I need the rating? And the only reason you need the rating is if it's consistent with the dog, consistent with what you want. So if you want to play tournaments, a lot of tournaments You can self rate, especially local tournaments, things like that. You can self rate and then start your career there on the tournament stage. If the tournament requires a certain type of rating, then you're going to have to comply with that requirement. That's a tournament specific requirement. But always ask yourself, why I need the rating? What's the rating doing for me and what I want with the game? Is the tail wagging the dog or is the dog wagging the tail? If you don't need the rating, or you already have one that gets the job done, then I would say, Why chase something, whether it's dupe or anything else, why chase this numerical thing? What really matters at the end of the day is how good you feel about how you're playing. If you want to improve, if you're seeing improvement in your play and your experience on the pickleball court, much more important than this ratings game.

[00:10:00.030] - Speaker 1
And be careful with it because it can become this vicious cycle, right? And what I wrote here is basically use DUPR or any rating system, only as necessary to accomplish your objectives. And do not allow Duper or any rating system to be the lead, right? Don't let it wag you, despite the pressures that are created out there to do so, because again, full credit to DUPR. They're doing a great job of creating these round Robbins and these different events that are all centered around a rating system, right? Rather than around the play. And what you got to be careful about is that becoming a vicious cycle and interfering with the reason for your play and why you go out to the court. So the specific to the question that was asked, right? I would let DUPR go. In other words, don't worry about it. Let it be what it is. If you want to play tournaments, etc, that need a DUPR, you can re-explore that. But I wouldn't do it to drive a DUPR rating. All righty. So that's that one on ratings. Now we're going to talk about focus. So I'm going to read another email that we received received from a student about a focus question.

[00:11:06.930] - Speaker 1
I don't want to call it a focus concern. I don't think it's a concern. It's just a question about how to maintain more focus. And obviously, focus is important to us, whether we're playing pickleball or doing anything else. And so we're going to talk about the process of focus. So let me read the message first. So after playing for about 45 minutes today, suddenly everything seems to come together. I was totally Fully focused, made the right shots, anticipating my opponent's moves correctly, and was in the right place at the right time. Sounds like this player was in the zone. This went on for three or four games. Other noticed that I was, hot. Then suddenly, it was gone. In our club, we say the switch has turned off. Sometimes the switch only turns on for a few points. Sometimes it can last for days. Here's the question, what can a player do to keep the switch on? Obviously, staying focused on the game and not allowing distractions helps, but what else? I'd love to hear What are your thoughts on this? It's a great question. Again, something that a lot of players wrestle with, right?

[00:12:07.980] - Speaker 1
They wrestle with to figure out how to stay in that zone, if you will say, in a moment. Now, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on distractions per se. And I want to be clear here because there's different types of distractions. What I'm talking about here are things like a ball behind the court, a player doing the antics and stuff like that. Those can affect your focus. But what I want to talk about more here is the baseline focus, right? The focus you can reasonably bring to bear while you play. I'm going to talk about distractions, but only as they tend to deal with your baseline focus, like the score, and we'll get to that in a second. So the main thing about focus, right, is is you want to try and bring your attention to the thing that matters when you're playing pickleball in the technical sense, right? We're talking about focus on the play, right? In the technical sense, when you're playing pickleball, the thing that matters is the little yellow ball. That's all that matters, is that little yellow ball. Where is it? Where's it going? What am I going to do with it?

[00:13:09.400] - Speaker 1
That's what we're doing when we're playing pickle ball. And you can think about it as a form of mindfulness, if you want to. You've probably heard about meditative breathing, mindfulness or breathing, and things like that. It's very similar when you're talking about the pickleball experience, meaning staying focused on pickleball. The better you're able to stay in the moment, if you will, to stay in the very specific minutiae that you're dealing with, the more you'll be in the zone, because essentially, what you're doing is you're looking at the ball, and the ball becomes like everything else fades away, like the settings on the phones nowadays that you can have, where everything behind it gets blurry, virtual background or blurry background, and all that matters is the ball. All you see is the ball, and you see the rough location of your opponents, your partner, where you're at, and it feels almost like you're removed, right? It's an out-of-body experience, where you're witnessing the rally as it plays out and seeing everything in slow motion as you navigate through the rally. And the way to do that is through this mindfulness, right? Through a process of focusing on the minutiae that you're dealing with.

[00:14:24.240] - Speaker 1
Now, let me address a couple of big picture distractions that can take you out of your focus. And these are not, again, not ancillary things, or once in a while things. The couple of things that come to mind that take you out of your focus, one, sometimes it's getting too focused on the score, okay? If you think about it, if you step back from your play, the rally plays the way the rally plays, meaning the shot you should hit is not score dependent. So you're going to make decisions on what shot to hit or hit the shot the certain way based on the conditions on the court, not the score. But what ends up happening is the score will end up impacting how we are performing while we play. So if we're up big, 10,1, sometimes we take the foot off the gas. Sometimes we get a little sloppy, a little lackadaisical with our shots. Next thing you know, they're serving it like 8,10, and things get a little tight. The score shouldn't matter whether you're up or whether you're down, because sometimes we're down 110, and then the pressure becomes too much or even just the obstacle becomes too great.

[00:15:42.080] - Speaker 1
The mountain is too big to climb, so we stop climbing, and we say, Okay, we're done with this game, and we just want to get off the court. The better you're able to focus in the moment and ignore the score... Actually, let me flip that around. The better you're able to ignore that score, the better you're going to be to stay in the moment and focus on what needs to get done. The other thing I would suggest to you is that the more competent you become as a pickleball player, the calmer your mind will get, and the better you'll be able to stay focused and in the moment. What I would suggest to you is start at the beginning. Start at the beginning of the rally, and try and make your mind as calm as you can with at least the first couple of shots that you have to hit during a rally. If you're part of our pickleball system, you know that we focus a lot on the first four shots of every rally. So that would be the serve in the third on the serve side, and the return in the fourth on the return side.

[00:16:44.510] - Speaker 1
If you can have clarity on those shots, calm the mind, it'll get you into that groove. It's like, I just spent this last weekend with the family at the beach, and we did a lot of boogie boarding or body surfing, and you're trying to catch the wave. You can think of focus that way, perhaps might help you, which is like that moment where the surfer gets on top of the wave and then just rides the wave into the shore. That's what really good focus feels like. You get on top of the wave of the rally, and then you ride the wave all the way in really nice and smooth. If you can get the groove by focusing on the first couple of shots and get on the wave, the rest of it becomes easier during the rally. Let's do the flip Let me ride for a second. If you start the rally with your mind busy or your mind distracted or just noisy right up there, then you're going to lose the potential ability of catching that wave. You'll miss the wave and be able to ride it in. The opposite is you'll be fighting the wave.

[00:17:48.540] - Speaker 1
You're going to be thrashing about from the very beginning, and it's really hard to find that smooth groove that you want to ride on your focus. Focusing on the first couple of shots in the rally will get you on the right path to more focus. Now, one other thing I wanted to mention is you can also try and work on your process between rallies. That would mean taking a rest between the rallies, meaning remove your paddle from your playing hand is one way of doing it, going back to the fence, tapping your paddle, tapping your paddle with your partner, doing something that will the last rally to conclude before the next rally. Because pickleball all is a series of rallies. Even though we're playing a game, and sometimes we play a match in a tournament or in a competitive setting, the game is we can't Rally the game. All we can play is the rally, and even more specific to that, all we can do is the next shot or the next movement. Whatever it is that we have to do right now is all we can actually do. But thinking about the game in terms of rallies will help you keep it more discrete, and then you can stay in the moment for that rally, and then worry about staying in the moment for the next rally, worry about in the quotes, right?

[00:19:06.280] - Speaker 1
Just basically, you're going to do your best this rally, and then the next rally, and it's over in the next rally. So having an in between is going to help you. And then you can give a thought between the rally also in terms of how you want to address the next rally, getting you ready for at least the first two shots in that rally. And then last I want to say is that understand that no matter what you do on focus, you are definitely They're going to have ebbs and flows. I wish I could tell you there's a way to stay focused 100 % all the time, amazingly. Not going to happen. Just not a thing. Even if you watch pro athletes in any sport whatsoever, they have ebbs and flows. The exception might be like a 100 meter runner, because a 100 meter runner is running for 10 seconds. So you can keep focused for 10 seconds. But if you look at tennis players, baseball players, top athletes, they all have ebbs and flows in their focus when they're playing their sport. I think it's unrealistic to expect that as amateur players, that we are also not going to have ebbs and flows in our focus.

[00:20:13.630] - Speaker 1
That hopefully will help you with the focus in your game. If you enjoyed the podcast, as always, please consider rating and reviewing the podcast. It helps others like you reach the podcast, and as always, consider sharing it with your friends. If you enjoyed the podcast, they probably will, too. If you're interested in the pickleball system, remember, you have a couple of days left. Otherwise, I will see you, or maybe you'll hear me in a week, in our next episode of Pickleball Therapy. Until then, be well..