Episode 305: Ridiculously Optimistic

The clip

I 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 control

Let'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 scared

There 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 four

Last 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 works

Pressure 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: time

I 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 own

If 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 riff

Camp schedule is live

The 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 update

The 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 contacts

Camps: tonyroigpickleball.com/camps
Camp cost conversations: camps@tonyroigpickleball.com
Email Tony: tony@tonyroigpickleball.com
Tap Into Your Flow: free with the email list at tonyroigpickleball.com
TRP Community: tonyroigpickleball.com