Ep. 295 - Measure Better - Gauging Your Play the Right Way

[00:00:00.820] - Tony Roig Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy, the podcast dedicated to your pickleball improvement. I'm your host of the weekly podcast, Tony Roig. I'm coming to you this week from Onsite. I am at this awesome facility in Carlsbad, California. It's my first time in this part of the country, Southern California. Um, shout out to everything down here. I did the PPA San Clemente commentating last weekend. That was a lot of fun, uh, with my friend Lon Kranz, coach from this area here. Nick and Sarah here at the Rally House have been nothing but amazing to us here and during our camps. I just finished 3 days of grad camp going into our regular camp starting today, next couple of days here. Shout out also to Kyleen, part of the coaching team here with me out in California. So, so far everything's amazing out here and just wanted to share with you some ideas that actually came up during the PPA, right? It was an idea of how to measure progress. I did a little short about this and, uh, put it out in the community, our Academy and Pickleball System community inside, uh, you know, this coaching that we do. [00:01:05.100] - Tony Roig And it really resonated, right? Really landed. There was a lot of comments, a lot of feedback. It really, uh, touched a lot of players in terms of helping them with their evaluation of their play, which I think is a super important part of the mental part. Because what happens sometimes is that we— maybe not even sometimes, maybe it's oftentimes, right? We you know, we grade ourselves too negatively, too harshly, right? Because we look at wins and losses, right? So the idea here is to look at something a little bit different, that— and that's what I put in the short. Um, so I'm gonna play the short for you in a second, let you hear that, and then I'm gonna play off of that because there's a piece of it that I forgot while I was walking, uh, doing the short that day, doing the little video that day. Um, uh, as we get into the short here, I'd be remiss not to mention Camp Sioux because we are in in the middle of camps, and I'm at this beautiful facility here. Uh, end of June, gonna be up in New York City, up at, uh, in the Gotham Pickleball facility, up at, up in, uh, right outside of New York City, the proper, you know, I'd say in New York City, but it's on the east side of Manhattan there. [00:02:01.150] - Tony Roig Uh, but it's a beautiful, uh, awesome little facility there. 4 courts, we have the whole place to ourselves. Um, it's right around the Major League Pickleball going on in Randall's Island. So if you want to take a nice little trip to New York, join us for a camp up there, please do so. You can find it at betterpickleball.com. And also we're going to have more camps coming out in the next couple of weeks. So if you're on, you know, thinking about a camp, please give it a second. If you want to send us an email, let us know that you're interested in the camp. We will email you immediately as soon as that camp comes up so that you can then sign up for the camp if it's something that's more convenient than coming to visit us in New York City. So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to roll the short so you can hear the idea, you know, the seed of the idea, and then I'll come back and we'll talk about it some more. [00:02:48.640] - Tony Roig On my way to some semifinal coaching here in San Clemente at the PPA, and I wanted to share with you some observations that arise from when you're, uh, you know, coaching even at the pro level. Um, and one of those is just, you know, measuring success, right? Measuring progress in your game. And so one of the teams that I'm coaching lost in the— it was round of 16 here, I believe. But the thing here is actually not the win or the loss. And as you, you know, obviously you follow our coaching, you know that, you know, win-loss is not a good metric, but it's the way that the games were played, the matches were played. And so the last two tournaments, Atlanta and here in San Clemente, in those two matches, the team that I'm coaching lost three games 12-10. So, you know, when you lose 12-10, it's almost the same as winning 12-10. I know it's like kind of a coin flip at that point. So the performance there shows grit, it shows fight, it shows obviously ability to play to get to 12-10. Even the second game here in San Clemente, the score was I think 11-7, something like that, but it was a well-fought 11-7. [00:04:13.770] - Tony Roig What I mean by that is, like, the score was like 9-6 and it kept on getting sided out. They kept on fighting hard on the serve side. They were very productive on the serve side. And ultimately the other team pulled ahead, pulled away, right, and won. But it wasn't like one of these that's like, you know, 11-7 and I kind of folded my tent up at like, you know, 9-6 and just kind of gave up. Nope, still battling the whole time. But the 3 12-10s and the second game show progress. And there was an old saying in tennis that, you know, as I grew up playing tennis, that basically says— it was basically like this, like Do your best to win the match. If you can't win the match, do your best to win a set. You can't win the set, do your best to win as many games you can. If you can't win any games, do your best to win some points. If you can't win any points, then make the points last as long as you can. You can apply the same thinking to your pickleball game. There's going to be situations where, you know, perhaps it's not your time to win that game, not your turn to win that game. [00:05:10.750] - Tony Roig But you know what you can do is you can try and win as many points as you can. And if you can't win any points, you can make the points last as long as you can by putting ball in play as often as you can. So it's a way of thinking about progress that's a little bit, uh, broader, I think, than just the very reductive win-loss. So hopefully that helps you with your journey and your performance as you continue to embark on this amazing sport. If you're into watching the pro game, I will be on Grandstand this weekend. I'm heading up there to do some coaching today as well as some commentating. And tomorrow I'll be doing Grandstand Court as well. Should be doing the bronze medal matches for the finals tomorrow. So hope you're well, and I'll see you next time. [00:05:49.480] - Tony Roig So you can see how there's different ideas on how you measure your play, right? How you measure your improvement. And thinking about it, I think, more in a more constructive way will help you avoid some of the pitfalls. What was interesting was, as I mentioned in that short, I was walking in toward the semifinals that day. So I was talking about another team that I work with, with the 12-10s, right? And how those are basically— that those show progress, right? Those show improvement. As I walked in, I mean, as I was walking in up to the semifinals talking about that, what was interesting was I was, I was able to coach in the semifinals that went— it was 2 out of 3, and it was an absolute barn burner, absolute like everything you could ask for. So, uh, we were— I was coaching the number 17 seed against the number 1 seed. Okay, uh, we lost game 1 11-7, we won game 2 11-9, and then we went to game 3, obviously 2 out of 3, and the final score in game 3 was 17-15. Now the number 1 seed won that game and won the match, but the score again was 17-15, and this is a game to 11, not a game to 15. [00:06:55.110] - Tony Roig So you can imagine that when it got to like, you know, 9s, 10s, 11s, 12s, 12-11, 13-12 one way or the other, 14-13, things like that. Imagine the tension, right? Imagine the pressure. I mean, every little thing matters in that moment. It's the most exciting way to play pickleball. Um, and what's interesting is that, um, it's one of those things that, like, you look at it and obviously, listen, my, my team wanted to win. I mean, they're out there, they're giving their best, right? Um, we want to win, but you know, the sport that we play is a sport where somebody's got to win, right? Sometimes it's going to be us, sometimes it's going to be them. But when you finish a match like that, right, where you basically— you took the number 1 seed 3 games and you, um, and you basically— and you, and you, uh, made it 17-15 in game 3, I don't know, I mean, that, that's pretty darn good in my book, right? And so it's a way of measuring progress that is a little bit different than maybe— that they're not— maybe it's a little bit different than just the very reductive win or loss, W or L. [00:07:54.090] - Tony Roig Go a little deeper, right, in your thinking. And then there's another piece that I wanted to give you that I, I just, you know, I didn't remember to say it during the short video, but it adds another layer to the idea of trying to do the best you can in, in the situation. So remember, in tennis it was like, if you can't win the match, win a set. If you can't win a set, win a game. If you can't win a game, then points. If you can't win any points, make them last as long as you can. In pickleball, what the way I did it in the, in the short was try and win the game. And obviously you're playing a match, trying to win the match. Otherwise, try and win a game. If you can't win the game, win as many points as you can. If you can't win any points, make them last as long. But there's another piece that's interesting because of the way our sport is scored, which is make the game last as long as you can, right? So we're going to add that in now. So it's basically, if you can win the game, obviously win the game. [00:08:39.190] - Tony Roig Can't win the game, get as many points as you can. If you can't win the game, also you can make the game last longer. In other words, use time as your metric. And the way to think about it is, say you're playing this team that they always beat you, right? They're just impossible for you to beat them. Uh, and so you're, um, you know, you're, you're going to lose 11-5, right? Or 11-6. That's just how it's going to be. But let's say last week you lost in 7 minutes. This week, make it 9 minutes. Next week, make it 11 minutes. Next week, that, make it 13 minutes, right? Keep adding time to it. My guess is that the score will also change because you'll score more points if you make it last longer. But just the, just the fact of making it last longer. But that tells you what your feedback there is: you're playing much better on the return side. Return side's improving, which is the key. The key to your improvement is the return side. So your return side is going to be improving by making the game last longer. And that's a metric that you can use in addition to just that I win or lose the match. [00:09:41.070] - Tony Roig Okay, so add those layers into your thinking: win, then points, time, And then if you can't win any points, right, and the game's still going to be done quickly, make the rallies last as long as possible. Even there, you'll extend the time a little bit, right? Try and hit an extra shot. Just a different way of coming at your thinking about the game, you're thinking about your performance, uh, and, and this will be, um, relevant to you, period. But it'll be particularly relevant to you as you move through levels or through ranks, if you will, in your local courts. Let's say that you're playing like advanced, uh, advanced beginner, okay? And then you're going intermediate, or you're playing intermediate, you're going to advanced, something like that, right? Where you're moving up a level. What will happen is, you know, you're, you're used to say like at some point you're winning like 60, 65% of your games, right? That's where you're moving up, you know, getting a little bit too easy for you, so you move up to the next level. Well, guess what? You're probably not going to win 65% of your games anymore. You might be the 35% now. [00:10:36.110] - Tony Roig So looking at it like your wins and losses, there is going to feel terrible. Because you just came from, I won 65% of my, my— I was winning 65%, then I'm winning 35%, right? So now you start this climb, and the climb is, okay, how many, um, how many points can I score in a game, right? If I'm now— if I'm scoring 3, I want to get to 4. If I'm scoring 4, I want to get to 5 before I lose. If the games are lasting 6 minutes, I want them to last 7, 8, 9, extend the time. And then within each rally, if my rallies are over in 3 shots, can I get them over in 5 shots? Can I get them over in 7 shots? Like that. So that's how you basically work through improving without having such a big cut at it, without being so reductive that the win-loss really drags you down. So try and use those ideas, right? Add that into your thinking about your, about your play, about how you evaluate your performance and your progress as a player. And I think it'll help you minimize distraction, derailment, frustration, you know, the negatives that can come when all we're doing is looking at wins. [00:11:33.110] - Tony Roig And so that's this week's podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. Onsite here at the Rally House in Carlsbad, California. Going to get out there, teach some players some additional concepts in pickleball, and help them continue to further their game. Hopefully one day, if we haven't done so already, I have the opportunity to work with you as well. And even if I had the opportunity to work with you as well, I'd love to work with you again. So, uh, you can find those at betterpickleball.com/camps, and make sure you check your email. And if you're interested in a camp, like I said, you don't see it on there, but you're— you'd like to learn, uh, from the Better Pickleball coaching team, myself, you know, myself and the Better Pickleball coaching team, send us an email, uh, and let us know that you have interest in doing that, and, uh, we'll take a look at that. I think it's camps@betterpickleball.com. You can also send coaching@betterpickleball.com, or you can just email me, tony@betterpickleball.com. Um, I or one of the members of our team will always be on site to check that out. So, uh, and as always, if you have a minute, please consider rating and reviewing the podcast. [00:12:25.570] - Tony Roig It really helps us reach other players just like you. You enjoyed the podcast, you have a friend of yours who's like struggling with this idea of like, I'm not winning enough games, share this with them because if you enjoyed the podcast, they probably will too. Next week I should be back at the studio and I'll see you next time on Pickleball Therapy. Be well.