Ep. 318 Bookmark Episode - 3 Questions to Prepare to Play

Pickleball Therapy, Episode 318 Bookmark Episode - 3 Questions to Prepare to Play Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy, the podcast dedicated to your pickleball improvement. I hope you're having a great week. My name is Tony Roig. I am your host of the weekly podcast. This podcast is dedicated to your mind and your mental approach to pickleball. Um, in this particular episode, I'm going to be covering three questions that I submit to you. You should consider asking yourself before you begin any play session. These three questions will help you get better prepared for that play session. Uh, I highly recommend that you bookmark this episode. So a bookmark episode is one that you have ready for, ready to come back to. There should be on your podcast player. There's probably a little bookmark there that you can kind of, like, like one of those bookmarks for a book and it looks like one. So click that and, um, and save this podcast so you have it ready for yourself. As we dive into the podcast, I want to give a quick shout out to Carol, who, uh, noted in the community this comment about, uh, adjusting their play based on Sorry NOT Sorry, a podcast that we did earlier, which also was inspired by Carol. "So this morning was the first time the open play regulars who inspired the sorry podcast were able to play together. Rather than use a crazy word when sorry was uttered, everyone else on the court preemptively, preemptively started to say 'nice try' or 'next time,' which is beautiful. It was very uplifting and a little lighthearted at the same time. Honestly, I think we all played a little better, too. The vibes on the court were amazing this morning." And it's the power, right, of the, just a, a tiny shift, right? It's, you know, it's the same group of players, same situation, same play. Um, you know, same, same basically happening, but now we've layered onto it just a way of defusing the sorry and just making everybody feel happy in the moment, and it changes everything. So, uh, the power of the mental, uh, the power of your mind as part of your pickleball just cannot be, uh, understated. So, um, all right. So, we're going to ask the three questions. Now, each question has a different purpose. That's why there's three questions instead of one question. And just to give you the background, these three questions, uh, came out of our camp development process. So, it's just part of what we do. And so sharing with you just a little insight on some of the back end that we do, uh, and that ends up with these types of concepts, like these three questions for yourself. So, uh, so what we're going to do is basically we're going to ask three questions that'll help you frame your day, that help you add some gratitude to your day, some additive gratitude we'll call it, and then a focus area if you're on an improvement journey. So the three questions that we're going to ask ourselves is, question number one is: Today I'm going to the courts to, and then you're going to fill in the blank. So it's, today I am heading to the courts, or I'm going to the courts to, fill in the blank. You're going to fill in the blank here with your reason for pickleball. Okay. So here's some ideas, and you don't have to limit yourself to these, just to kind of get the juices flowing. One is you may be going to the courts to get exercise. Number two is you may be going to the court to see your friends. Number three, you may be going to the courts to get your competitive juices, to get your competitive edge out. Number four, you may be going to the court just to express your pickleball self, see how well you can hit a certain shot, whatever it is, right? And then I have an Other category here on the, on the questions. And by the way, you can get these questions in written form if you go to tonyroigpickleball.com, go to the blog section and search the three questions, and you'll find the blog that has these in there as well, if you want to have a, a visual of it. But basically here, you're going to frame your day by asking yourself, why am I going to the courts? What this does is it sets a standard for you as to why you're heading to the courts today. Once you have the standard of why you're heading to the courts today, it avoids you from getting distracted with noise, wins and losses, things like that. You know, a trickler that cost you the game, you know, a friend of yours that may not be, you know, maybe upset with you, whatever it is, right? I mean, obviously you can work through that too, but at least your, your standard is framed for the day. Today I came to get some exercise. Today I came to whatever it is. That's how you frame your day. So that's question number one. Question number two is additive gratitude. And that's basically, the idea here is, let's, let's make somebody else's day better. Let's pay it forward. Let's, let's express gratitude in a way that is beneficial for the world around us, for somebody else and for us. So, um, uh, so: Today I'm going to make an extra effort to. And one of these is, is more for yourself, basically, like warm up before I start playing, right? That's adding to your day, adding to everything. And, and also as you warm up, maybe others warm up, reducing their chance for injury as well. So that's a beautiful way of kind of adding to your day. Number two would be ask your friend how they're doing, how their partner's doing, how their child is doing, right? If you know some situation going on in your community, you know, go over to that person and ask them how they're doing, right? What's going on? How they, how they feeling? You know, are they improved? Is, you know, they're working on their house, whatever it is, right? Show interest in somebody else's life, somebody else's journey. It's a very powerful way of connecting with that person, and also with making that person feel more alive, more full. Um, another one is to invite a player, a specific player, to join you on the court. So, let's say you play in a, in a community where it's like a closed environment, and then what you're going to do is you're going to say, now obviously you need to have buy-in from your group, but you basically, the idea is, hey, I would like to give up my spot for a game to Joe, or my spot, uh, for a game to Joan, right? Somebody in your, in your community who maybe, you know, would like to play on your court one time and kind of experience it and things like that. Or you're going to reach out to somebody you haven't seen in a while and invite them to join you and your group. Again, it's kind of an additive gratitude. It's like you're trying to expand the sport. You're making yourself stronger. You're making the sport stronger. You're making your friends stronger. Just a way of, of reaching beyond yourself, because I think sometimes when we play pickleball, we get so caught up in our own minds, right? We get so, it's almost like a prison, becomes like this, you know, jail cell, our own brains. Uh, this will force you out of that, right? Out of that, and to, um, and to, uh, uh, work, you know, engage with other, uh, persons out there, uh, on your... And then you can, there's an Other on there as well. So, anything that you want to do. It could also just be expressing, you know, like an expression of gratitude, excuse me, where you just, you know, see the court and kind of just look around and maybe tell your friend, do you see that tree over there? Looks amazing. Or you tell your friend, hey, did you notice that, you know, the, the person who's working the front desk today? How nice were they? You know, something like that that just adds gratitude. But the key is to frame it before you get there, right? This is what I'm looking for. Because what happens is this. Once you get to the courts, it's, you know, all bets are off, right? We're just focused on what we got to do. Again, we're getting a little, maybe a little, a little stressed, a little nervous, all those types of things. So, have these, these, um, ready to go. And then the third question has to do with improvement. So, this is, this applies if you're on an improvement journey, right? You're trying to improve as a player. And the key here is to stay focused. So, we're going to try and find one area, and we're going to hone in on that one area. Uh, this actually came up during the camp that we're in the middle of right now, and I'll share that with you as well, what my advice was to the player. But, so the question is this: Today I'm going to focus on, and then you pick something. So here are some ideas. It doesn't have to, these aren't exhaustive, right? Just like all the other ones, but just to get, get you thinking. I'm going to focus on my return of serve. That's one. Next one: Today I'm going to focus on my fourth shot. Now you can be more specific, on my block volley or on my punch volley. Uh, another one: Today I'm going to focus on my serve. Another one: Today I'm going to focus on my footwork. Or a related one would be, today I'm going to focus on my court positioning, right? And then there's Other on here as well, because the idea is to lock in just one area, and it can be any area that you're focused on. The reason I read those off to you that way is because also that's order of priority, the way that we coach, right? So return of serve is the most important shot. Then after that, it's your fourth shot, some form of, some form of volley. Then after that's your serve, uh, then it's footwork, court positioning. I don't even get to the third shot drop for quite a few, quite a few more ideas. So, um, but the idea on this one is you pick the area that you're most interested in, right? And again, suggestion would be in priority. Do it. Do the one that's the highest value to you, and then let everything else just be what it is, right? Just whatever happens, happen. So, you know, let's assume you're focused on your, um, on your block, right? You play a lot of bangers. I'm just going to focus on my block. So, you're going to basically, that's my focus. How am I blocking today, right? And then everything else that happens, we don't think about. You pop the ball up on shot number 32 of the rally, off to the side. No big deal. You miss this shot, no big deal, right? Really focusing on the block volley. How am I setting up for my block volley, right? Am I setting up all for my block every time? Fantastic. And that allows your brain then to have the bandwidth it needs to focus on the, on one area, because the reality is if you're trying to focus on everything, you're probably not seeing anything, because it's just too much. You're overwhelming your, your, uh, system. So, uh, so those are the three questions that, uh, that I wanted to share with you. Uh, in today's podcast, I did have a riff I wanted to talk about, which is this idea of, uh, framing, you know, the importance of winning in different contexts, but we're going to save that for a future episode. I really want you to focus on these three questions. If you like this episode, uh, so you can come back to it, and bookmark it, and just keep using these three questions as you develop the habit of preparing yourself better. Because the better you prepare before you go out on the courts, the more, the more prepared you're going to be, the more, the more ready you're going to be to handle what's in front of you when the ball starts flying. So, I hope you enjoyed this week's podcast. If you did, consider rating and reviewing it. It really helps us reach other players like you who may be interested in this type of thinking, this type of approach to the game. And as always, consider sharing 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 on the next episode of Pickleball Therapy. Be well.