Ep. 317 - We All Play the Same Game

We All Play The Same Game (PickleWall) Pickleball Therapy, Episode 317 Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy, the podcast dedicated to your pickleball improvement. My name is Tony Roig. I am your host of the weekly podcast. It's a pleasure to be with you. I hope you're having a great week. This week's podcast, we're going to dive into the game that we play. Uh it's going to be a little bit nerdy. We're going to go a little bit deep on on the topic, but I think it's a topic that if it lands for you, it's really going to change how you engage with the sport. In other words, it'll give you really better understanding of the game and how you relate to the game. And then again, if it connects with you, it's really could be paradigm shifting for you. So, we're going to we're going to take a flyer on this one and uh and go deep on the sport uh and explore it. uh and I'll explain how it came up and everything when when we dive into it. And then the riff I'm going to share with you some ideas about how you are at the center of your improvement journey. And again, this is a kind of a paradigm shifting concept where basically, you know, you become the centerpiece as opposed to an algorithm or something else or a friend or something being at the center and and you know, orbiting around that. No, why don't we make everything orbit around you because you're at the center of your uh journey. Um before we dive into the podcast, I want to let you know that we have our Your Pickleball Coach online program is in full swing now. Uh go there and check it out. It's yourpickleball.coach. I'll put it in the show notes as well, but it's Y-O-U-R, yourpickleball.coach. You can find out more about the course. Uh, I'm going to tell you that it's the best value out there in terms of the amount of learning that you're going to have in the sport of pickleball, the amount of improvement you can have in the sport of pickleball, particularly relative to uh the uh cost of the program. We wanted to make it super accessible. So, we've priced it in a super accessible way. Nothing on the market even comes close to uh Your Pickleball Coach in terms of the del, you know, the the value for uh the deliver the deliverables for the price and nothing nothing comes close. So, uh, check that out. And if you are already a student, um, we, uh, have our get together on the 21st. So, next Wednesday, we're going to get together and talk about, uh, the new modules that are coming out this week or the the next week, the week before the 21st, and also give you some ideas on how to continue to navigate the course to get the most out of it for yourself, including the builder program, um, the community, and the other pieces that are integral to Your Pickleball Coach. All right. So, let's talk about we all play the same game. This idea about how we all play the same game. And this actually my thinking on this continues to develop uh and continues to fine tune, you know, to refine itself. And the latest refinement was as I was working on the builder program inside Your Pickleball Coach. Uh, the builder program is built on a it's step by step. We call them blocks because we use the the image of what we call a PickleWall. So, basically it's like a wall that describes your pickleball. Um, and so not describes your pickleball, but it it represents how you engage with the sport. And if you think about it, right, the more solid your wall, the more the the better built it is, the the more stable it is, uh, the better that all the blocks inter, you know, interconnect with each other and lock in place, the better you're going to play, right? The better as a player you become. And so in that process, I'm thinking about um, like the PickleWall for different players. for me, right? I'm a senior pro player. What does my pickleball look like? What does Ben Johns, Anna Leigh Waters, Anna Bright, you know, Gabe Tardio, or whoever you like, right? All the top players. And what does it look like for our students? What does it look like for you as a player? And the the cool thing is this, our PickleWalls are all the same in terms of their basic design and construction. And what I mean by that is uh the the bottom row of our pickle, our PickleWall is basically serve, return to serve, block volley, punch volley, right? Those are the four shots that we're going to get going on. Everybody that I mentioned, myself and all the pros and you and all those shots are part of your game, right? It's not like the pros play a game or like, oh well, we don't have to return serve. Uh or you know, if you're a 3.5, you don't have to serve. I mean, that doesn't make any sense, right? All of the pieces apply to all of us. The difference is between, you know, levels and it's just execution, right? Sometimes it's there can be like a missing block for some players. You're missing a block, right? And so if you're missing that block, your wall look the the design of the wall is the same. So basically like the blueprint is the same as the other players, but you're just missing that block. So if you know that you're missing the block, then you can make you can put the block in there, right? You can you can fill that hole in your wall, put the block in, and then get closer to playing like a pro does. Get closer to playing like a higher level, get increase your own level of play, right? That's the idea. But the key is this idea that the wall itself is the same. So the game itself and we, you know, the way that I used to express it was um you know, pickleball is pickleball. And you know, we would get questions about like, you know, can I come to your camp? I'm this level. Should I do this? I'm this level. things like that. And you know, I still I I still think it's valuable to express it in the way that like you know, pickleball is pickleball. Like we all play the same game. But I think when you break it down into its parts, right? In this case, it's blocks and you say, "Okay, show me the pickleball for whatever player you want, the best player at your facility, you know, the beginner player, the pro player, all of us, the the wall, the design, the blueprint, it's the same. The key is to be able to execute better along each one of the blocks. And the way that we've built the builder program, and it's the same thing that you should do, whether you want to come into our coaching or not, it's, you know, obviously you got to do what's right for you. Uh, but um, and I'm going to talk about that more in a second, but um, uh, you have to do whatever you want to do, right? You're an adult and you, you know, navigate it the way you want to navigate it. But no matter how you decide to come at it, think of how valuable it would be to know this is the first thing I need to do. And then after that, this is the next thing I should do. And when I say this is the first thing you should do, what I'm talking about with a coach's eye is what is the thing that is going to give you the biggest bang for your buck? What is the thing that's going to give you the most value for your time? What is the thing that is going to make the most consequential impact in your game? In other words, have the biggest oof in your game and make you move forward the most compared to the other options, the other blocks. Right? So, the way we the way we blueprint our wall is the first block is the most important one. The second block is the next most important one. The third, the fourth, and and important meaning like importance in your performance as a player. Also, another way of looking at it is through the negative lens, if you want to for a second, just to to complete the to round it out. Without that block, the rest doesn't matter as much. Without the next block, the block above it doesn't matter. And in fact, if you think of how a wall is constructed, you can't put in block 10 until you have blocks, you know, one through nine, at least in sufficient structure that it can withhold block, it can hold the weight of block 10 on top of it. Right? If you're just running around like YouTube and stuff like that and just you know finding this block and that block and whatever and you don't have the pieces underneath built not going to work so well. So our blueprint handles it in terms of priority and also in terms of uh precedence right so like think of like things that need to precede the other thing. So the bottom layers first then the next layer is next and the next layer is next. And then once you build these layers, right, the the layers of the of the blocks and building your wall and improving your wall, um, you know what happens? Like everything comes together like the blocks all work together. Everything's connected. Everything works, you know, in a way that that it makes sense. And in fact, the the So, I'm working on on the this idea comes out of this working on the on the builder program. And I'm working on the the basically it's like the guide, the catalog if you will, the playbook that has, you know, an introductory section describing how we do it and then the blocks, right? And giving you some more information on each block, going kind of deep on it. So if you want to, you can read it and and really connect with what's happening in that block. But what's really cool is you start to see how like this block is here, and I explained it in there. This block is here because it's a it's a preceding to the next block, which you're going to need to do this other thing, right? And so you want to work on this block first so you have this nice and set in your wall and then you're going to go on to the next one and then that one will will work off of the last one. Another thing that we do is like block one for instance is in there because block one, what we chose for block one is a shot that allows you not just to have a shot that's very important and not just to be good with that shot, but to to it's like going to the gym to work on a way of interacting with the sport that will help you with that shot, but will also help you with every other shot that you're going to want to work on and that you're going to play with. So basically it's like this uh like a gym or like a playground where you get to work on your skill sets on your um on your development as a as an athlete to move for to move your game forward. So that's how the the program is built. But the idea that I want to I want you to walk away with is understand that you're playing the exact same game that the pros that the best players on the planet are playing. The key is for you if you want to improve is to have the blueprint of what it is that what are the pieces that are necessary to play a really nice pickleball game. And then obviously you need the detail of how to do each thing and then you put in the work, right? And then you you lay that first block and it's nice. You the second block and it's nice. I'm going to tell you by the time you get to block six or so on the PickleWall, you're killing it. You're just like, "Wow." I mean because you've like there's you have so many good pieces in place that all interlock that all work together and you'll have benefits that basically extend expand beyond that because as you improve in in one of these areas your mindset changes, right? Your your your in your wiring with pickleball starts to change to the positive and then a shot that maybe like block nine, right? just by extension, you're improving it because you worked on block four and you really focused there and you got that shot better. So, it's a it's a really I think it's a much more complete way of thinking about the sport. And again, you can you can do this on your own, right? Meaning like but just think about it, right? Think about, okay, what what should I focus on? What's the most consequentially important thing that I should do for my pickleball? And then you find the resources, right? And pull that together and then put in the work, right? so that you can actually put that block in place. Uh I said I was going to come back to the idea of like, you know, if you want to do it on your own or coach with us, your choice. It's always going to be your choice, right? I mean, we don't force anybody to do anything because, you know, it's your life you enjoy, right? We're going to do our job and do the best we can. Um but I will tell you that um our our Your Pickleball Coach program has a um we don't believe that finances should be a limitation, right? So, you're in, let's say you're in a place right now where you're like, you know what? Um, you know, I'm on fixed income or whatever the reason. We don't, we don't ask questions, but whatever the reason is, right? I just, I just can't swing that right now, right? But I want to do it. Come to us and you're going to do it because there is no financial limitation to coaching with us at Tony Roig Pickleball. That is not a thing. Uh, we have it's just a pay what you can. You click the button. Whatever you put in, you put in. That's your deal. Right now, I want to be clear. This is not a discount program. And what I mean by that is if you know there's we it's a very full program has live events has a lot of stuff happening right live online events but a lot of pieces right um so it's not like well I don't feel like paying that if you can't afford the the the uh subscription right the enrollment we expect you to pay the full enrollment right that's the deal right uh but it's an honor system you know we're not going to audit it but that's the expectation I just want to be clear in communicating with you but again if you're in a place where you're like, you know what? I'm really interested. I'd like to do it, but I can't do the the the the subscription. Go ahead, click on pay what you can and come in and get the coaching because I'm going to tell you that the coaching will definitely help you with your play. All right, we're going to we're going to dive we're going to take that energy and roll it right into the riff, which is about how you are uh you are at the center of your improvement. And this is important because I think um so like back remember back like in history right like like humans used to think that the earth was in the center of the universe right that it looks like the sun goes around us right and everything's going around us so we must be in the middle and so everything goes around us right and then I believe I'm pretty sure it was either Copernicus or Galileo I can't remember but one of those cats back in the day right was like I don't think that's right I think maybe we're going around and and then you obviously now we know that we go around the sun and the sun goes around other things and there's you know, all these other things going on out there. We're definitely not in the middle of the universe or the center of the universe. Um, so what happens is in your pickleball, um, I think what happens to players is you don't control your you being at the center of your thing, of your journey. So what ends up happening is you end up like letting other things outside of you determine the center meaning you start orbiting those instead of those orbiting you. And an example would be like YouTube right and listen I have a YouTube channel right I've been doing it for eight years now um and um you know it's a way to connect with players and things like that but I even my YouTube channel right shouldn't dictate your improvement journey. It should be a tool for you perhaps, right? If it helps you, that's great, but you should be the center of it. Well, what ends up happening is you get a a feed through the algorithm, right? Oh, look at this. Or a friend at the court comes up to you and goes like, "Hey, this is what I heard." Like the big thing now is the two-handed backhand. That's like everybody's going two-handed backhand nuts out there. Uh, and I don't mean that negative. I just it's, you know, it's like a lot of two-handed backhands going on out there. when the two-handed backhand when you really break it down there's nothing wrong with the shot but it's actually more limited than you would think you know compared to how much demand there is for it. So to me like the two-handed backhand has become like this black hole, the center piece and then players are orbiting the two-handed backhand. That should never be the case. Your journey is you specific meaning you're the center of your journey. Whether it's the two-handed backhand, whether it's the builder program that I described earlier, whether it's a YouTube video, whatever it is, all of those things should circle you and they should service you as a player, keeping you at the center of the um of the of your improvement journey. And and the term that I wrote down here that I was looking at was is basically um it's it should be you-centric, right? You as the player, you-centric is what it should be. Um, and uh, and that's what that's how you should come about it. And I mentioned this earlier, so I'm not going to belabor it, but like for instance, when I talked about the blocks interacting and things or not interacting, but the the blocks and how they work together, right, as pieces of the of the overall game, the way that that would work is basically you have these pieces of the game. So the blueprint of the game, whether again you're a pro player or amateur player, same blueprint. Then what you do is you basically you find the block that you need to work on and you stay there as long as you need to get it done. And so you just in our system you just go through the progression, right? In our, in Your Pickleball Coach, you just go through the progression of uh you know block one, block two, block three, block four, and you stop at the block that's particularly relevant to you, right? You say, "Okay, this is the block that applies to me. I'm going to stay there." Uh and that's how those two things intersect. But the the the the moral of this part of our story today is that your pickleball journey, your improvement journey should be all about you and not about the tips video, not about the idea that somebody just planted out there or threw out there. It needs to always come back to you and about you and your uh development and your fuller experience of the sport of pickleball uh through um through your journey, right? So keep that in mind as you uh as you move forward, particularly if you're on an improvement journey. Um you know, keep in mind what matters is you as a player. So that's this week's podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. Uh next week I'm going to share with you uh what I think you'll find to be an interesting topic about uh it's called STRIVE. It's a acronym that I came up with a couple years ago uh to basically capture the flow of improvement. So, we're going to uh hit improvement next week uh very specifically uh in terms of some ideas that you can use uh for your journey. Uh and um that'll be next week's episode. So, if you enjoyed this week's episode, um please consider rating and reviewing it. And as always, share it 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 on Pickleball Therapy. Be well.