Ep. 306 - Your Filtration System

Hello and welcome to Pickle Therapy, the podcast dedicated to your Pickleball Improvement. My name is Tony Roig. I'm your host of this weekly podcast. Pleasure. to be with you. Hope you're having a great week. This week we're going to talk about filtration. I think you're going to find it really interesting and it's going to help you perhaps minimize the amount of bad negative, worthless, incorrect, and complete information that you're receiving, in pickleball and also in life, right? This idea of filtration. And then in the riff, we're going to talk about, you know, the question that we could ask a lot about at camp. Now, I want to be clear that the conversation we're going to have extends well beyond the camp context. But the question we could ask a lot is like, what, what camp, what level is is this camp for? What level is this information for? As you know already or probably know already, our camp schedule is up. So that's why we've been getting these questions about the different camps that we offer and then like which camp, you know, like how do I know which camp is right for my level of play? This idea of level, right?, what level is this for, can be disruptive to your rece receive information. So I thought it was an interesting concept to talk about. in conjunction with the filtration idea we're going to talk about first as we dive into the podcast, we are in the middle of our tap Into your Flow series over at Tony R Pickleball. It's absolutely free coaching that we're doing. It's a five-w series. You can still catch up. If you want to, follow along with the tap Into your flow and not just follow along. If you want to literally tap into your flow. That's why it's called that. Make sure you're on the email list at Tony W Pickleball, and you should have an email from us inviting you to the program. So hopefully, it'll be in the newsletter and then everything Thursday, you got the tap into your flow piece with the supporting materials and you can study it at your pace. So, all right, let's talk about filtration. And, uh, and this came from a content creator whose name, uh, escapes me right now, but, uh, he's a, um, he's presented as a Buddhist monk, basically, dressed and looked like a Buddhist monk. So I'm going to assume that, uh, based on the preparation or the presentation and also the subject that the gentle was talking about, that he was in fact, a Buddhist monk. And he was on a podcast and he asked the podcast host. He said, um he asked him three questions. He said, number one, um, do you have a sink? I mean, sorry, do you have a kitchen? And then the podcast host was like, yeah, I have a kitchen. And then number two was the sink. Number two? Do you have a kitchen sink? And the podcast I was like, yeah, I have a kitchen sink. And then number three, do you have one of those little filters that goes on the drain in your kitchen sink? And the podcast host was like, yeah, of course I have one of those little filters I't want want stuff getting into my plumbing. And the monk paused for a second and he says, interesting, isn't it, how we are concerned enough with our kitchen sink to put a filter on it, which makes sense. But how many of us have filters for our mind? Filters for the information that we receive into ourselves, right? That we get into ourselves? And I thought that was fascinating, right? When you think about it that way, right? It seems so, so obvious in the moment that, you know, we understand well enough that we don't want, you know, debris from our sink, from our dishes going down into our plumbing and clogging up the plumbing. Yet I would suggest that I would suspect I should say that for many of us, we don't spend the same amount of energy, the same amount of concern and time in figuring out the filtration system for our mind, for our brain. And that is something that you can address, right? Something that now that it's brought to your attention, you can say, you know what? Yeah, I probably do want to have a better filtration system for my mind, because otherwise you're just receiving whatever information is out there. It can be wrong. It can be complete. It can be, it can be not relevant to you. It could be, there's a million different things that it could be that are not. This is, this is information that I should receiving for where I am right now, especially in pickable, right? Because of the amount of information out there. And in fact, I would submit to you that this podcast, right, should go through the filter. Now, I do believe it would pass the filter, but what if it's just chance? Like, what if it's just chance that you ended up on this podcast, a podcast where I can tell you that, and hopefully you know by now that I'm genuine in my, in my interest to help you, right? In my attempt to bring you information that's going to be positive and helpful and thoughtful and logically connected, right? That I'm not going to intentionally give you any information that is incorrect or would cause you harm, right? What have that luck of, you know, what that spin of the wheel had ended up with you on a podcast that wasn't a sign like this or in another source of information that wasn't designed like this? What then? Right? That's where that filtration system allows you to let one piece of information in, but block the other one out. Now, filtration is, you know, is a process, right? It's like anything else, right? It requires some work. It requires some intentionality, some effort. But it's well worth the the lift of deciding what comes in and what doesn't come in in your pickleball as well as in your life, I would submit to you, in terms of pickleball, right? You know, what one way to do this is initially, while you're working on it, is to initially have like a list of approved entors, if you will, right? Approved information sources. I would respectfully submit our company, you know, Tony R Pickball. I submit myself as a coach to you in that capacity, meaning that when you see something that is from us, right, has my name on it or my image on it and my voice and things like that that you go, okay, you know, I know where Tony's coming from and he's trying to give me good information. He's thought it through. He's certified in what he does. So let's say it's a strategic thing you're looking at. Like, you know, does Tony know what he's talking about? Actually, this is a funny story. I'll relate to one of your, one of your fellow community members and a student of mine for the last couple of years said to me one time, we were working on a certain part of the game and and he was bucking me, right? He was resisting the area, which is his right. But then he said, one day he said he was out there in a game and he was like, you know, I'm going to try that thing. Tony said. And then he, and his rationale was this. He says, you know what? Tony, he does play senior pro big ball and he has a, he has a full-time coach and been doing this for a long time. So maybe, just maybe he knows what he's talking about, right? So it's that's a form of filtration, right? It's, it's, it's, you know, he was resisting it because he just, you know, he, it bucked what he knew. So he was resisting he was filtering it out, I would submit on the, on the grounds that didn't, that weren't really sensible, right? Because he was blocking him out on grounds that didn't help him. And then he opened up the filter based on, okay, well, Tony's, you know, plays well and knows a game and this is what he does and he's a he doesn't say he's a math teaching professional, but that's I would add that too. it, right? So I'm serious about what I do, right? I add, I spend a lot of time thinking through these things. And, I'm happy to explain to you the why. That's another thing, though. I think we give me some credit. So initially, right, when you're working on your, on you're improving your filtration, you, you can set up kind of a crude filtration that says, if I don't know this voice I'm hearing, out until I can decide whether they come in. and then you work on your filtration. And so your filtration would be based on your understanding of the game. The better you get at understanding the frameworkicable, the better you get at understanding how the game is constructed, then the stronger or the better able you are to use filtration successfully to then exclude pieces of information that aren't helpful. Give me another example that is another idea that you can use for like a kind of easy filtration is when the sentence begins or the coaching begins with just only, this is what I do. Okay. And so if the player or coach saying it is saying, well, this is what I do. Interesting, maybe, right? To know what they do. But how does that apply to you? And, and, you know, you see that oftentimes with professional players who are asked to make a video. Okay. And no criticism of a professional player, I want to be clear. They're doing their thing. They're not coaches. They're players, right? But they're beginning put into a coaching environment and they're to ask, okay, well, show us this shot. Right? And so they'll generally begin with, this is what I do. This is how I hold the paddle. This is how I move my body. This is what I do. Great. What's that got to do with you the player watching? Right? So that's a way you can filter information too, is, is if you, you know, if you're not sure whether the information is for you, then lean or air on the side of maybe I don't let that information in right now because I'm not sure exactly where there's good for me. And then maybe you have to study it a little more, think about a little more before you let it through. So your filtration system may be a little delayed, right? And maybe a little bit of like several gates has got to get through in order to make it to you. But I would suggest to you that filtration as a concept is something that you should embrace, something that you should move forward with, something that you, something that you should work on. Because just like you don't want, you know, the pieces of lettuce and corn and whatever going on into your sink drain, you don't want the, whatever you do video, whatever short you saw, whatever thing you heard at the court, whatever over here, just popping into your brain and, and making it into your plumbing. Because what ends up happening is it actually clogs your thinking. Your thinking ends up all mushy in there, all clogged and you can't get anything through there, right? So filtration is going to be the best way to avoid some of that stuff from getting down into your pipes and into your plumbing and, and clogging things up. So, work on filtration and start with the idea of trusted sources. I, again, I will put my name from forward as a trusted source. I've been at this for a long time. You can look at my body of work. You can look at, you can read the feedback from players who have worked with me. So I put myself forward there. There are other coaches out there. I'm confident who, may also be eligible for your, you know, be in your, on your access panel as a green light, but that'll be up to you to source those coaches and to make that determination before you just let them in before you green light them. So, again, protect yourself, right? Protect your information, just like you would your kitchen or just like you do your kitchen sink. All right. So in the riff, we're going to come back in a minute. I'm going to talk to you about this idea of what level is this for? And this is another type of filtration, if you want to think about it that way. But this filtration, I'm going to suggest to you, is actually not good filtration. So we'll be back in a minute with the riff. I mentioned earlier in the podcast that we've been getting some questions about what level is this for, right? What, you know, is this camp or activity for my level of play? And I suggested that that may be a filtration system that is something that you don't want to use and you're thinking about your improvement as a pickball player. And so what I want to do is talk about that a little bit now in the riff. That said, I do want to let you know that if you are thinking about one of our camps and you're just not sure what to do, there's a button on the camp page that says schedule a call. For free to schedule a call, one of our members is our coaching team will get on a call with you and help you select the camp that works for you. I will, I am going to tell you, though, from my perspective, most important thing about coming to one of our camps is find a date and a location that works for you. Don't get bogged down and like which one of the camp experiences it is so much. We offer different camp experiences because that's what players want us to do, right? That's what you expect as a player. But I'm going to tell you that all of our camps, every single one of our camps, you're going to get taught how to play better at the sport that you play. You're going to improve in the sport of pickleball along the three pillars, or all the mechanical strategic and athletic pillars. So we don't leave anything to chance at any of our camp experiences. Now, why is what level is this for potentially distracting for you? It's because when you think about pickleball and playing, you know, your best version of pickleball, your focus should be on your fundamentals, no matter what level you play. I don't care whether you're a three, five five, four, or four, five, or a pro player. The game is won and lost based on how well you execute your fundamentals. It's not your Ernie, your ATP, you know, your, you know, behind the back shot, your whatever, you know, even your dris. It's all about your serve, your return, your volleys. Now, you probably thought I was going to go third shot there because it goes after the return in terms of order, not in terms of importance. Sir, return volleys. How good are you at these things? How good at you staying alive? How good at, how good at you? How good are you? And I's just say, how good are you at not hitting the net? How good are you at not unnecessarily hitting the ball out of bounds? Sometimes balls go out of bounds. It's impossible not to hit any ball out of bounds. But how are you hitting him unnecessarily out of bounds, risking it like that? Those are the things that will improve you as a player. And when I think about my job as a coach, my job is to teach you the sport pickable. And we all play the same game. I don't care whether you're a 2.5 player or you're a professional player. You're playing on the same court, same basic equipment, same rules, right? No same general rules, anything the same, right? Strategies are very similar. Everything's the same. The question is, can you do, can you execute those strategies better than your opponent? Can you execute the shots better than your opponent? If you can, you're going to play great. And that's how I'm going to suggest to you that you come at your pickleball, come at your pickball from a idea of fundamentals and doing them better than you did doing better tomorrow than you did today and today, but you did them yesterday, that's how you move forward in your game. And don't chase magic. I do not have a drawer in my office that includes magic shots that are going to like launch you forward. What I do have in my office is a clear curriculum, a clear delineation of what matters to your game and what matters to your game is, again, fundamentals and doing those better tomorrow than you did today. That's that's the past path for for you as a player. Don't get bogged down with what level is this for. That is a filtration system that is actually working against you and against your improvement because oftentimes what happens is, you know, you get to 3, five, you get to between 3, five and 40, somewhere in that range, and 40 plus. And all of a sudden you're like, oh, okay, now what I need is I need whatever you think you need over here. What you really need is just keep undo the fundamentals better. And I like to think of, uh, like Annie Waters here. Now, listen, Annie Waters has the extra special shots too, right? Yeah. She has the extra sauces over there, right? But what makes her the best is actually her fundamentals. She does not sleep on the fundamentals. Other players on the tour can hit a lot of the same shots that Annie can hit. Right. If they a cross-cour shot, a jumping on Ernie or whatever, you know, a powerful putaway shot. Okay. But what, where she did distances herself from the other players is that she has those shots, but she also doesn't sleep on the fundamentals. And her fundamentals are so good that it really is what separates her from the rest of the players in the pack. So be careful about the, or be wary, I should. They't not careful. Careful it's too strong. But be, you know, just be sensitive to this, like, what level is this for idea? Don't let that hold you back from a really is going to help you improve your play, which is to be better at the sport of pickball. So hopefully that helps you understanding that a little bit better. As always, if you enjoyed the podcast, please consider rating and reviewing it. It helps us reach other players and share it with your friends because if you enjoyed the podcast, they probably will too. If you're inside the tap into your flow series going on right now at Tony Roig Pickleball, I will see you inside that series coaching. Otherwise, I'll see you next week on the next episode of Pickleball Therapy. Be well.