Podcast
Pickleball Therapy
Hosted by Tony Roig · EN
The podcast dedicated to your pickleball improvement. We are here to help you achieve your pickleball goals, with a focus on the mental part of your game. Our mission is to share with you a positive and more healthy way of engaging with pickleball. Together let’s forge a stronger relationship with the sport we all love. With the added benefit of playing better pickleball too. No matter what you are trying to accomplish in your pickleball journey, Pickleball Therapy is here to encourage and support you.
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Episodes
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Ep. 306 - Your Filtration System
3d ago00:16:46Tap to summarizeYou put a filter on your kitchen sink. You don't want debris getting into your plumbing.So here's the question a Buddhist monk asked on a podcast recently: how many of us have a filter for our mind?This week we look at filtration. Not the sink kind. The kind that decides which pickleball information gets into your head and which information gets blocked at the door. There is a lot of content out there. Some of it is wrong. Some of it is incomplete. Some of it is fine, but not for you, not right now. Without a filter, all of it goes down the drain and clogs up your thinking.Tony walks through how to build a filtration system: start with a short list of trusted sources, then strengthen the filter as your understanding of the game grows. He also flags one of the easiest filters you can use today — what to do when the coaching starts with "this is what I do."Then in the riff: "What level is this camp for?" It sounds like a reasonable question. Tony makes the case that it is actually a filter working against you. We all play the same game. Same court. Same rules. Same fundamentals. Serve, return, volleys. The player who executes those better wins. That is true at 2.5 and it is true on the pro tour, which is why Anna Leigh Waters does not sleep on her fundamentals.Don't chase magic. There is no drawer of magic shots.Mentioned in this episode:Tap Into Your Flow — free 5-week coaching series, in progress now. Get on the email list at tonyroigpickleball.com and you'll get the invite.Camp schedule is live. Not sure which camp fits? There's a "Schedule a Call" button on the camp page. It's free, and a member of the coaching team will help you sort it out.If you enjoy the podcast, please consider rating and reviewing it. It helps other players find us. And share it with a friend — if you liked it, they probably will too.
Transcribe →Ep. 305 - Ridiculously Optimistic
1w ago00:20:05Tap to summarizeEpisode 305: Ridiculously OptimisticThe clipI open this one with a message from a content creator who goes by Writer's Cramp. The theme: be ridiculously optimistic about your future, aim higher than seems reasonable, and do not let other people talk you out of what you want. Worth the ninety seconds.These messages always strike me the same way. You hear them and think, well, yes, obviously. So then ask yourself the real question. Why wouldn't you live that way?What you actually controlLet's be clear about the limits. You cannot control how a game turns out. You cannot directly control how the other players behave, though you have more indirect influence there than you might think, mostly through how you carry yourself.What you control completely is how you choose to interact with the events that happen to you. On the court and off it.That is not a consolation prize. That is the piece that determines your experience.On being scaredThere was a line in the clip about being scared being part of being alive. That one applies directly to improvement.I think of the mental side of pickleball in three parts. Perspective, which is what Pickleball Therapy: The Book covers. Play, which is the next book. And improvement, which is the third, because improving carries its own mental weight.Improvement is scary. You are leaving the thing you already do well and moving toward something you do not do well yet. That is uncomfortable by design. It is also when you feel most alive, because that is when you are growing.The story: let's just get fourLast week I was playing in an eight-player group. My friend David and I partnered up for the last game against Jeff and Patrick, two good players. David had not had a great session.Before we started I told him: let's just get four points.He looked at me. Four?I was not being serious about the ceiling. But watch what it does. We score one, and we are a quarter of the way there. We score two, halfway. We get stuck at three for a while, three quarters. Then we hit four.And now think about it functionally. I have to get to four anyway. Nobody counts to eleven without passing four first. So the target was never a lowered bar. It was a real checkpoint on the way to the same destination.Once we got there I told him, let's go for six. We got six. Then we pushed it again.We won the game.Why it worksPressure comes from measuring yourself against something you do not control. The final score is not yours to control. A checkpoint on the way there is.And here is the part that makes it hold up: if we had lost that game 11-4, I still get to turn to David and say, I told you we were getting four. The metric survives the loss.The other version: timeI talked a few weeks back about using time the same way. Same group, playing with Jeff, and our opponents Tyson and Scott could not miss. All credit to them, they were out of their minds.We were down 8-2 and the clock read something-25. I told Jeff, let's get to 30. On the clock, not the scoreboard.We got to 31 and I put my hands up. Victory.We lost that game. We won on our metric.If you come up with your ownIf you find a version of this that works for you, I want to hear it. Drop it in the comments, post it in the TRP Community under the podcast, or email me. Fair warning that my response time depends on what else is going on, but the address is open.In the riffCamp schedule is liveThe 2026 and early 2027 camps are posted. You have been asking, so go take a look.One principle that matters to us: if you look at a camp and the number does not work for you right now, email us and tell us what is doable.To be clear about what that is and is not. It is not a discount program. The value is there at the stated price. The signature camp includes the online course, pre-camp experiences, and the community, so there is a whole structure around the two days.What it is: a way for cost not to be the reason you don't get coached. We don't ask follow-up questions. We don't ask for a bank statement. No guarantee we can make every request work, but we will do our best.Tap Into Your Flow updateThe series is underway. Five weeks, one piece at a time, and it is free.Week one establishes the connection between rhythm and the sport. We have done a version of this at camps for years, where players dink with their eyes closed and hear the metronome underneath the rally. Rush it, and the sound changes.What has been interesting for me as a coach is pulling the pieces together for this series. Putting music next to pickleball footage makes it obvious in a way that talking about it never quite did. You can watch the rally move with the music.If your play feels forced, one position to the next, paddle up, paddle back, staccato, this is for you.And the name is the point. I am not teaching you to flow the way I flow. The flow is already in you. You are a human being who has made it this far on this planet. It is in there. What gets in the way is interference, most of it self-issued, our own minds handing out instructions that keep us from moving cleanly through a shot.The series includes written materials, videos, and music. You will also come away knowing more about Johann Strauss and the Blue Danube than you expected from a pickleball newsletter.Links and contactsCamps: tonyroigpickleball.com/campsCamp cost conversations: camps@tonyroigpickleball.comEmail Tony: tony@tonyroigpickleball.comTap Into Your Flow: free with the email list at tonyroigpickleball.comTRP Community: tonyroigpickleball.com
Transcribe →Ep. 304 - Tap Your Flow
2w ago00:18:08Tap to summarizePICKLEBALL THERAPY · SHOW NOTESEpisode 304 – Tap Your Flow What this episode is aboutFlow is not something you go out and acquire. It is already in you. This week I make the case for that, and then I show you what the work for finding your flow actually is.Do you already have flow? Yes.Picture yourself waiting to return serve. The serve gets hit. What happens next is remarkable, and you do it without thinking about it:• Your brain tracks a ball spinning through space• It calculates where that ball will be at a moment in the future• It moves your body to that place in space• You hit the ballYou were doing that before your first lesson. Before your first pickleball YouTube video. Nobody taught you. That is your supercomputer running software that came pre-installed.So what is the work?Removing interference. Taking away the noise. Clearing out the distractions and obstacles so that you can stop trying to think your way through the rally and start feeling the rally instead.Playing by feel more than by thought.One example of interference: trying to read paddle anglesPlayers ask about this a lot. How can I learn to read my opponent’s paddle at contact so that I know where the ball is going? It’s a fair question.To be sure, some coaches teach it. But think about what you are actually asking yourself to do. You are moving. You are tracking the rally. And now you want to also read a paddle face at the moment of contact.There is a better way. When the ball travels to one side of the court, you start to sense where it is likely to go next. Will you get surprised? Sure. Once, maybe twice. Then your brain adjusts. That is flow doing the work instead of your conscious mind.Watch the pros. It looks like they are gliding. They always seem to be where they need to be. They are sensing the rally.Pickleball is musicThere is a rhythm to a rally. Learn to hear it and move with it, and you are in flow. That idea sits at the center of what we are doing in the Flow Project.The Flow ProjectFive weeks. Five bite-sized chunks. Focused on your mechanics.Here is why it works: you have probably already tried the frontal approach to learning pickleball. You want a better third shot drop, so you watch 87 videos and take 32 clinics on the third shot drop. Fine. Let’s come at it from a different angle. That’s what the flow project is all about.No cost. To participate:• Go to tonyroigpickleball.com and get on the email list. The written lessons come by email, so that is the only way to receive them.• Add tony@kjbm.tonyroigpickleball.com as a contact so the emails do not land in spam.• Join the community at tonyroigpickleball.com for the video lessons and follow-alongs.In the riff: what Tony Roig Pickleball is aboutIt is about you. A pickleball player who wants to grow in the sport. Period.On the question of whether the pro work I’ve been doing lately means a pivot away from amateur coaching: no. Commentating Major League Pickleball and the PPA, and coaching pro players, increases my knowledge of the game and keeps me current. I bring that back here. Not a pivot. Doubling down.Free at tonyroigpickleball.com• Four mini courses• The TRP Community• The Flow Project (five weeks)
Transcribe →Ep. 303 - Your Next 10 Years
3w ago00:19:31Tap to summarizeInterested in a pickleball camp? Visit https://www.tonyroigpickleball.com/campsCheck out our new website, join our Community, and get free pickleball coaching and more at https://www.tonyroigpickleball.com/Take a minute this week to think about your next 10 years.Not tomorrow. Not next week. Ten years out.In this episode, Tony walks through a simple exercise. Where are you now, and where do you want to be a decade from now as a pickleball player? It's a kind of audit. A way to check in on your journey and remind yourself that the path forward is still open.Here's the thing: if you want to keep learning, you will. And as long as you keep learning, you'll know more about this game every year than you did the year before. Learning and growing are not the same. Learning is acquiring the knowledge. Growing is putting it into practice. Do both over 10 years, and you will be a different player by the end. That's not a promise about becoming a pro. It's a fact about the direction of travel.Tony also shares where he's headed. Why coaching the amateur player is still his focus. Why the pro commentating and the pro coaching feed that work rather than pull him away from it. And why finances should never be the thing that keeps a player from getting good coaching.Pickleball is a canvas. The game is worth working on. But the bigger thing it's really working on is you.New free courses are live at tonyroigpickleball.com. Next week: the flow state.
Transcribe →Special Episode - The Next Phase: What's Tony Roig Pickleball?
4w ago00:07:32Tap to summarizeA special episode. This one's a little different.I'm sharing something I've been building: Tony Roig Pickleball, the next phase of my coaching journey. In this episode, I walk you through what it is, where it came from, and what it means for you as a player.If you're a player who wants to genuinely know this sport, this is for you. Mini courses, coaching playbooks, camps, one-on-one coaching, a newsletter. All of it pointed at one thing: helping you grow.One more thing worth saying. Finances should never be an impediment to your growth as a player. If cost is standing in your way, reach out. We'll do what we can to make it work.The Pickleball Therapy podcast continues, same as always, now under the TRP umbrella. Nothing changes for you here.Come find us at tonyroigpickleball.com. Free mini courses are loaded up and waiting.Be well,Tony
Transcribe →The Best from our Archives Part 8 - Stop Chasing Winners and 2023 Open Notes
Jul 300:18:45Tap to summarizeThanks for joining us on Pickleball Therapy - the podcast dedicated to your pickleball improvement. If you have not yet subscribed to the podcast ... wait what?? you haven't subscribed? ... you know what to do.If you can STOP chasing winners, you will win more. What??? Yes. When you chase winners, you make more mistakes. When you make more mistakes, you lose more points. Simple as that.Stick with the program: make less errors - and you will win more rallies (and games). One powerful way to do this is by going for less winners. Stop playing high risk pickleball and you will play better.If you like the podcast, please give it a rating. And share it with your friends. If you like it, they probably will too.Stay well,Tony
Transcribe →Ep. 301 - Play Copernican Pickleball
Jun 2600:08:40Tap to summarizeThis week, Tony reads from Pickleball Therapy: The Book — specifically the opening of Part Four, "Our Place with Pickleball."The framing comes from Copernicus. For a long time, humans believed the Earth sat at the center of the universe. It made sense at the time. Then Copernicus came along and changed the picture.We do the same thing on the pickleball court. We put ourselves at the center of everything that happens out there. The miss? Must be my fault. The lost rally? I should have done something differently. Tony walks through a scenario most players will recognize: a short return of serve, an opponent who moves in and drives hard, a ball that ends up in the net. The instinct is to blame ourselves. But if you rewind the rally, the cause is usually somewhere else.
Transcribe →Ep. 300 - Is Your Mosquito Derailing You?
Jun 1900:11:21Tap to summarizeEpisode 300. Hard to believe. What are the mosquitoes in your pickleball? Your opponent's shot that trickles over the net. The unlucky bounce. The gust of wind. The wrong call. The lead you watched slip away. Each one is just part of the game, and each one can derail you if you let it. If you can identify your mosquitoes before they show up, you'll be ready when they do. And the better you get at it on the pickleball court, the better you get at it in life.Show Notes: https://betterpickleball.com/300-is-your-mosquito-derailing-you
Transcribe →Ep. 299 - It's YOUR Journey PLUS Avoid Distraction
Jun 1200:20:45Tap to summarizeIn this episode, I explore two important ideas that can help you build a healthier and more productive relationship with pickleball. The first is why your pickleball journey belongs to you and how recognizing your own agency can help you navigate challenges, setbacks, and social dynamics on the court. Then we examine why so many players get distracted by so-called "magic bullets" and why lasting improvement comes from focusing on fundamentals rather than shortcuts. Show Notes: https://betterpickleball.com/299-its-your-journey-plus-avoid-distraction
Transcribe →Ep. 298 - Focus Your "I Care" Beam
Jun 500:19:48Tap to summarizeLet's explore this mental performance concept I call the “I Care Beam”—the idea that the significance we assign to pickleball experiences is entirely within our control. By consciously focusing our attention on the aspects of the game that bring us joy, growth, friendship, and health, we can reduce the emotional weight of mistakes and losses. Listen to the full episode for a fresh way to engage with pickleball and protect your enjoyment of the sport. Show Notes: https://betterpickleball.com/298-focus-your-i-care-beam
Transcribe →