Pickleball Therapy

What if it works out?

Coach Kyleen joins Coach Tony this week to share a video from TikTok Mima. Her message is simple. We spend plenty of time imagining how things could go wrong. Give the other possibility a little attention.

Tony and Kyleen tie it to pickleball. Many players decide it won't work before they even try. They tell themselves a story before they leave the house. Kyleen shares the question she now asks instead: what's the best that could happen? Tony explains why "don't miss" can backfire, and the two talk about a gold medal match where one player missed every serve and her team still won.

In the riff, Tony talks about 50+ coaching. Same game, same rules. But lived experience matters. Tony shares how he stays competitive against younger players with smarter play and better court positioning.

In this episode:
- TikTok Mima: What if it works out?
- The stories we tell ourselves before we play
- What's the best that could happen?
- Why "don't miss" works against you
- Every serve missed, gold medal won
- Pickleball is messy
- Why 50+ coaching matters
- Smarter play and court positioning

Join us on October 15, 2026, for the live Stacking Lab. Sign up here - https://www.tonyroigpickleball.com/offers/ofCAzfB3/checkout

Learn more about Your Pickleball Coach, the most comprehensive online pickleball coaching. Visit YourPickleball.coach

Interested in a Tony Roig Pickleball Camp experience? Check out https://www.tonyroigpickleball.com/camps

How deep does your pickleball knowledge go?

This week, Coach Tony Roig looks at the difference between Google knowledge and real knowledge. Google knowledge is surface-level. Real knowledge means understanding the why, so you can see how the pieces of the game fit together. Tony uses the forehand in the middle vs. Respect the X debate to show what that difference looks like on the court.

In the riff, Tony takes on information overload. Too many voices, so you can't hear any of them. He explains how to be more discerning about what you let in, and why trusting one source for now helps you build the knowledge to decide for yourself later.

In this episode:
- What Google knowledge is, and why it often comes up short
- Forehand in the middle vs. Respect the X
- Why it's always about the why
- The cost of letting everything in
- A Twilight Zone lesson in being discerning
- Long term: move toward real knowledge
- Short term: find a source you trust
- This week's challenge: cut one input

Read "The Myth of Forehand in the Middle": https://www.tonyroigpickleball.com/blog/pickleball-myth-forehand-in-the-middle

Free mini-courses, blogs, and other training opportunities: Click here to view the episode transcript.

In this special mailbag episode, Tony answers questions from the TRP community. How tightly should you hold your paddle? If the third shot drop isn't your priority yet, what is? How do you use partner play strategy when your partner changes every game?

As always, Tony gets into the why. Why a lighter grip gives you more power and protects your arm. Why a drop and a dink are the same shot. Why getting beat on the outside dink probably isn't where your points are going.

In this episode:
- Grip pressure and the 10-5-3 scale
- What to work on before the third shot drop
- Drop vs. dink: one shot or two?
- Partner play when your partner changes every game
- Forehand in the middle vs. Respect the X
- Where to stand when you serve
- Split step or keep moving through the transition zone?
- Getting beat on the outside dink
- Back braces and staying healthy
- Finding practice partners, local and virtual

Have a question for the next mailbag? Post it in the free TRP community: https://www.tonyroigpickleball.com/offers/s2u4oi6n/checkout 

Read "The Myth of Forehand in the Middle": https://www.tonyroigpickleball.com/blog/pickleball-myth-forehand-in-the-middle

Tony's comments on back braces reflect his personal experience only. He is not a medical professional.

Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

Carol, a member of our community, posted about a pattern in her weekend group. After almost every point, someone apologizes. She keeps telling them there are no sorries in pickleball. It isn't sinking in.

In this episode, Coach Tony invited Coach Kyleen from the TRP coaching team to join him in the conversation. Kyleen has lived the experience Carol conveyed. She started playing with a group of women who were all new to the game. Same level, same mistakes. They still apologized to each other. We see it at our camps too, especially on the first morning.

Mistakes are built into this sport. Your partner is going to make them. So are you. So are professionals. We talk about why the "sorry" habit sticks and a simple way for a group to break it together.

Then a harder question. Are you good enough to play with this group? Coach Tony shares the story of a player who, while traveling, approached a group of men, was asked her level, and was turned away. Tony talks about what he told her to say next time.

The bigger point is simple. Someone welcomed every one of us into this sport. If they hadn't, we wouldn't be playing.

Kyleen and Tony will be in Tampa this October for two camps, including a women's camp on October 22 and 23. If you're curious, book a call with Kyleen. She'll give you the facts, and you can decide if it's right for you: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/appointments/schedules/AcZssZ1kdoeYXFOcUDj4tGqrzJAXwC9bD5kZr4qWMhBWUn9KoHhTbVhWGRv0xwoCgij4L1wM_QV2QRV-

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Coach Tony Roig helps players understand the game instead of just collecting tips: strategy, the mental game, and the decisions that decide pickleball rallies.

🌐 Website: tonyroigpickleball.com

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A player I have known for years told me they did not think they could advance in the game. If that player believes it, others do too. So this week I want to be clear. There is no real limit on your growth as a pickleball player. Not age. Not ability. The only limit is your decision not to grow. What actually derails players is trying to do too many things at once. The fix is one thing at a time. Lock it in, let the positive feedback loop build, then move to the next one.

Second, a conversation from our Boston-area camp about expectations on the serve side. Because of the two-bounce rule, the serve team starts every rally at a positional disadvantage. When you go back to serve, you are more likely to lose the rally than win it. Not because you did anything wrong. Because that is how the sport is built. Set your expectations with that in mind.

Third, our Partner Play series starts at the end of September and we are collecting stories. Share up to three things a partner has done that rubbed you the wrong way. Post it in the comments, in the community, or email [email protected] with "My Story" in the subject line. Improvement stories are welcome too.

Camps for 2026 and 2027: https://tonyroigpickleball.com/camps
Your Pickleball Coach: https://yourpickleball.coach

Pickleball Therapy: The Book is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Be well,
Tony

Doubles pickleball is a team sport just like football or basketball. Two players instead of 5 or 11, but the same dynamics apply: your team plays its best when both players are in sync.

You cannot control your partner. But you can communicate with them, and there's a constructive way to do that. 

The second idea is sonder. Everyone on the court is walking their own path. Your partner included. That matters most in the small moments, like when someone apologizes after a miss. Tony explains why the "sorry" reflex tends to make the dynamic more uncomfortable, and what to say instead. 

The through line is simple. How you treat your partner shapes how they play. How they play shapes how your team plays. Partner play is a skill, and it's one you can hone.

A ceramics instructor swapped a ball for a "priceless" vase and watched his class tense up. Nobody forgot how to catch. They just became afraid of what dropping it would mean.

That shift happens in pickleball too. Early on, the game is just fun. Then the expectations arrive, and the same missed shot that meant nothing now feels like a big deal. This week I talk about how expectations change how you interpret what happens on the court, and why setting them before you play protects the enjoyment that makes this sport worth coming back to.

In the Riff: improvement frustration. Working hard on the wrong thing (the third shot drop is a common example) can leave you wondering where the payoff is. I explain the block-by-block approach we use in Your Pickleball Coach, and why locking in one block before moving to the next builds a positive loop that lasts.

Your Pickleball Coach: https://yourpickleball.coach
If cost is an obstacle, email [email protected] and we will work with you.

There is a lot going on in a pickleball game. Four players, several rallies inside every rally, the lob, the dink, the banger, the volley you got jammed on. And underneath all of it, a conversation running in your head about the score, your partner, the wind, the shot you should have made.

That's all sound. No silence anywhere.

The week before a live coaching call, Tony visited an art exhibit called "Silence Before Sound." One room, roughly the size of a small house, held three pieces of art. That was intentional. They could have filled it, but filling it would have defeated the point.

Your brain works on the same principle. Give it three things to see, and it sees all three. Give it fifty-three, and it sees none of them.

In this episode, Tony connects negative space to the Tap Into Your Flow series inside the Tony Roig Pickleball project, shares what players reported after using The Blue Danube as an anchor, and offers a practice you can start before your next session. Not on the court. In the car, before you get out.

Learn more about Your Pickleball Coach at https://yourpickleball.coach

Episode 309: Use the Force Luke (and Leia)

A floater comes at you. It's just hanging there in space, waiting. Game point. Everybody on the next court has stopped to watch. You bring the paddle up, you swing, and the ball goes straight into the net.

You have to be kidding me.

So what happened? The natural response of any athlete is to go to mechanics. I mishit it. Something in my swing broke down. Something in my grip, my footwork, my paddle face.

I'm going to suggest to you that more often than not, that miss was not mechanical. It was mental.

And I don't mean mental in the way we usually mean it. I'm not talking about focus, or nerves, or staying present. I'm talking about your decisions, or the absence of them, about the shot you just hit.

Run through three questions.

One. Did you have a clear idea of where you wanted the ball to cross the net? A target. A specific space over the tape. If the answer is no, or I'm not sure, then you did not hit an intentional shot. You hit an unintentional one. You swung the paddle forward, and whatever happened, happened. When the ball lands in the net, it's hard to be upset about it. Where were you sending it?

Two. Did you pick a spot with enough cushion? If you're aiming a quarter inch over the net, you have already baked the net into the shot. It sits inside the range of outcomes you selected. Give yourself paddle width over the net, at minimum. You'll still catch the tape once in a while. It will be much rarer.

Three. Did you feed that information to your processing unit? Your processing unit is your brain. The decision only helps if it gets delivered before you swing.

Miss any one of those, and the error was mental. Do all three, with real margin, and still find the net, then yes, now we can talk about mechanics. Footwork, swing, grip, something. But that's the second place to look, not the first.

Here's where the Star Wars part comes in.

In the movies, the Force is telekinesis. You move an object with your mind. You don't touch it. You just decide, and it goes.

You can't do that on a pickleball court. Not directly. But you can do it indirectly, and that's the whole idea. Your mind makes the decision. Your mind hands that decision to your body. Your body sends the ball. If that connection isn't there, the ball goes wherever it goes.

So if you want to fix the shot, start with the mind.

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The Riff: Gratitude

Most of you interact with this sport as a player. Some of you also interact with it as a student of the game, which is a different thing altogether. There are players who just want to go out and hit the ball, and that's perfectly fine, but they usually aren't listening to this podcast.

There are other ways in, too. Fan of the pro game. Organizer. Referee. Tournament volunteer. The person who texts three other players on a Thursday to make sure Friday morning happens. That last one matters more than it gets credit for.

I'm thankful for the people here who organize our play. David, Paul, Tyson, Stephanie. If I'm forgetting somebody, forgive me. It's been a long day of content creation. Because of them, I get to play on a Wednesday, or a Friday, or a Saturday.

I'm thankful for the facilities, too. Pickle and Pint in Largo, Florida lets me shoot my videos there and cooperates with every project I bring them. None of that happens unless somebody decides to build courts, operate them, and pay for them.

And I'm thankful for you. My coaching would be for nothing without players who listen, who watch, who read, who came in early and founded the community. All of it is what lets me do the thing I love doing with this sport. I like playing. I love coaching.

Thank you, from me and from the whole team here at Tony Roig Pickleball.

Be well,

Tony

Episode 308: The Definitive Guide to Out Ball Disputes

Here's the situation. Score is 10-9-2. Your team is serving. You hit a volley, crisp, and it lands right on the line. A hair in or a hair out.
Your opponent calls it out.

You're sure it was in. What now?

Most of us go straight to the challenge. That instinct makes sense. You saw what you saw, the point mattered, and nobody likes losing a game on a call they don't agree with.

But before you say anything, run through a few questions.

Who created the situation? You did. You hit the ball so close to the line that your friend was put in an impossible spot. Unless you believe they're cheating you, they made the best call they could in a situation you handed them.

Where is this conversation going? They say out. You say you saw it in. They say they saw it out. Then what? Even if nobody escalates, the temperature on that court already changed the second you opened your mouth.

Is there enough riding on it? Is this point worth spending your friendship capital on?

Are you 100% sure you're right? Would you bet your life on it? I clipped a call like this recently and zoomed all the way in. I still couldn't tell you. I wouldn't bet a dollar on it.

And if we want to play by the rules, the rules are clear about whose call it is. Theirs.

Last one. Flip it around. They serve, you call their ball out, and they come at you about it. How does that feel?

Work through those questions, and the answer shows up on its own. Move on. Don't pause. Don't look twice. Toss the ball, serve, carry on.

In competitive play with a referee, an appeal is fine. That's what referees are for. An appeal is not a dispute.

And here's the part that matters most. Those same filters work off the court. Is it worth the cost? Where is this going? Am I sure? How would this feel from the other side? That's a useful screen for a lot of disagreements that have nothing to do with pickleball.

You're out there to play, see your friends, and have a good time. Protect that.

In the riff, I take you behind the scenes on the new course we're building here at Tony Roig Pickleball. It starts from a premise I want you to sit with: you are a capable, intelligent adult, and you can learn to navigate this game yourself. My job is to transfer what I know to you. Yours is to go play.

A thank you to the founding members who have joined us. This coaching, including this podcast, is possible because of you. It means a lot.

Be well,

Tony