[00:00:00] Speaker A: You know, we've tried to keep ours to around a half an hour. I think the last one might have been a little longer. We've had one or two that have gone over half an hour, but most of them have been between 26 and 32 ish minutes.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Perfect drive time podcast.
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Yeah, kind of is especially for people to drive into work just, or to end from work and knock out one pod with us and then hit some others with their friends, families, whatever that they listen to.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:00:22] Speaker A: You ready for my surprise?
[00:00:24] Speaker B: Um, yeah, you play some music.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: Are you sure you're ready for my surprise?
[00:00:29] Speaker B: Never completely sure I'm ready for your surprises.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: Well, I want to look at our episode layout and consider a change. But you haven't heard about this yet. That's my surprise.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: Oh, wow. Okay, I'm intrigued.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: Okay, here's the idea. We break it down into kind of subcategories, okay? Because as we go longer and longer, eventually we're going to be like, what do we talk about next week?
[00:00:55] Speaker B: I like being organized, so go ahead.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: So. And that. That means you're in charge of this.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: Okay. So there's a surprise, something for me to do.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: I'd like to have a couple segments. It'd be fun to have, like, a funny segment where we play screw ups that we.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: Oh, bloopers.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: Blooper reel type stuff. It'd be fun to have what I call what. I'm gonna use our own term. I'm gonna use pickle brawlers. It'd be fun to have a pickle brawler segment where we go at it on a topic like.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Oh, like argue.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: Yeah. It doesn't have to be you and me that we can bring in people we want to argue with or people that want to argue with each other or whatever.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: I don't usually have any problem arguing with you, but I don't always win.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: Like, James Abels is a good example. There are times when, like, we don't agree about a couple of things, so. Okay. Like, let's just have at it. It'd be kind of fun.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: That would be fun.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: He hates rally scoring. I love rally scoring. So we could be like, why do you hate it? Why do you love it? And then we just kind of go after each other for five minutes and call it the pickle brawl.
And we could. We could declare a winner and everything. Like, ding, ding. We could have the rounds playing on.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: Sound effects, if you're going to do that.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: Well, I keep getting told by my Gen Z children that it's not cool to use sound effects so I try to minimize the number of sound effects I use from my little board over here.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: Some that are very applicable, though.
Yeah.
[00:02:11] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: Battle one, battle two.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Maybe this one.
You're welcome. You're welcome, everybody. But for the most part, I don't think that they're overly.
Because this is probably what's really happening.
So I try not to use those too much.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:02:31] Speaker A: But we will. This isn't where I can just surprise you with this. And then we just do it on this episode. I think this one will take some work. But that's the surprise for this week is that I'd like to lay out our next podcast and surprise everybody here on the. That's listening with maybe three or four shorter segments.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: Now, if they go, oh, I'm not interested in a rules update for six minutes or whatever, I'm randomly making that up. They can jump forward six minutes and listen to the part that they do care about.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: So you're saying have these segments in every podcast?
[00:03:02] Speaker A: Well, maybe not, but certainly in some. Yeah, but if we have a topic that we go, no, this topic needs 30 minutes, then we'll just hammer the topic out.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: Hmm. I like this idea.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, on to what today's got to hold in it. Today's got.
Sounds like a bad. A bad song.
What? Today's got to hold in it. That's bad. I can make that country, though.
I could definitely make that country.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: Give me a truck and a beer, and I'll make out all kinds of country on you, girl.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: Yeah. What today's got the whole. Did I have a hard time?
[00:03:37] Speaker B: What today has got told.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: It means nothing. It does a horrible sentence.
[00:03:41] Speaker B: It's a really bad sentence.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: Apparently. We're starting with the blooper episode right now.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: I was gonna say most of our blooper wheel is gonna be like, weird noises that we make while we're talking to each other.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: Cut that out.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: Or like, exactly. Yep.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: Or clap. We'll do it again.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: Exactly. Or an argument.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: You are my one take wonder.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: So not last episode. You're making a funny face and pointing at me. Yeah, because I said something wrong.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: How can you not read my body language?
[00:04:09] Speaker B: This is when we should be on video. Should be. That's the blooper reels. The video part.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: I don't freaking get it.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: What do you. Now you're doing hand signals again?
[00:04:18] Speaker A: That hand signals like moving on, woman.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: No. You want my phone?
[00:04:23] Speaker A: I did want your phone.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: Are you gonna text me a secret message?
[00:04:29] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh I feel like this.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: Is out of control.
We were talking about being organized, and this is not an organized podcast.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: Today we're gonna talk about pickleball famous.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:04:40] Speaker A: So we're gonna go deeper into my Kevin Huff's personal philosophy.
[00:04:44] Speaker B: Did you play our theme song yet?
[00:04:46] Speaker A: No, but you have to wait for the right moment for that to occur. Okay, shut up.
And that wasn't even it. You got me all flustered over here, woman.
I'm Kevin Hough here with the lovely sky huff, also known as sweet love and the one take wonder.
[00:05:07] Speaker B: I don't know if that name is gonna stick or not.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: We'll see if anyone calls you that. It'd be pretty freaking hilarious if they did.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: They did call me sweet, sweet love at the pickleball court today.
[00:05:16] Speaker A: That's unacceptable.
Was it Mike Gibson?
[00:05:20] Speaker B: I don't remember who it was.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: Liar.
[00:05:22] Speaker B: I don't. I don't.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: You know who called you sweet love?
[00:05:24] Speaker B: I don't remember.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: How could you not remember that?
[00:05:26] Speaker B: I don't know everyone's name.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: Cheryl McKinney called you sweetie. Are you sure he didn't just misunderstand her?
[00:05:31] Speaker B: Nope. But that was very sweet.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
Okay.
[00:05:35] Speaker B: She gave me some good coaching today, too.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, she and Paul have been. I want to get them on here.
[00:05:41] Speaker B: We should reach out to her.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: Okay. They've just done a great job of integrating themselves into the pickleball world, which is exactly what you want and what I had wanted for them and hope for them from the beginning. And so the. All the couples that we kind of indoctrinated into pickleball with us, two of the three are heavy into pickleball. Absolutely heavy. Not like we play pickleball, but, like, it's coach. It's part of our life. We travel. So, like, Paul coaches Cheryl and Paul travel. I like to support events or to, you know, to play in events, but mostly to support events. I'm with Rick Ritzkin, which I love. And then you got, like, Robin and James, who do all the leagues, numerous leagues stuff at the church. Yep. And us who are involved in running, like, free clinics, free drills, free beginners courses, et cetera. And then you got the other couple, which, you know, one of them plays, which is great. And I love playing with him. But of the four couples we started with, three of us are, like, really serious about it, which is cool. So we need to get Paul and Cheryl on.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: That's because they're ahead of the game.
[00:06:40] Speaker A: Yeah. And they can correct my story about Paul because it was his knee, not his ankle. Oh, that got hurt back when he had surgery and was on the couch and on the bouncy ball and whatever else playing. Tap the ball. Yeah, exactly.
Okay, today's topic is famous, and I created this when I launched the pickleball Facebook group called Road to the finally 4.0. I do every once in a while, I do live videos to it. I need to do more to it, but I think that I have hit what I want to hit in terms of reaching 4.0. My new objective is reaching 4.5 and then reaching 5.0. And that's a whole episode, because, folks, that involves the wellness aspect of it. If I don't change the way, I can move on a court to faster, quicker, farther, I think need to be a $6 million man. I won't get to 4550.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: Right?
[00:07:32] Speaker A: I'm working on that. We'll have a whole podcast on that. But the road to the finally 4.0 group was created to help people get past three. Three or 5375, like, whatever those numbers were, that was below 4.0, keeping them from getting to 4.0. And when I created that group, I created this acronym called FAM, because I think of pickleball as my fam, my family, and it was four things that I think go incredibly well together and create really, truly a great framework for what you've got to do to become better. In pickleball.
The f is footwork, right? The a and the second a, because there's two a's in fan, but they go together. Accuracy and angles, super critical. And then the m is mental, because this game is so mental. And it's one of the reasons I bought Pickleball mindset from Dingy Grich and Joe Martin, because I want to read this book on the mental aspects of the pickleball game and see if they got anything special in here that can help me out. Why fam? Well, I would challenge any of our listeners, and I would hope that they would feel comfortable replying. Is there anything outside of footwork, accuracy and angles and the mental aspect of the game that's so important that we could maybe spell the word family or add any other letter to it?
Footwork is the foundation for being able to hit a great shot back.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: When you.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: I mean, I guess it's also foundational. Footwork is foundational to any core sport.
[00:08:54] Speaker A: It really is.
I guess it's in some ways an unfair question, because you can say, well, what about strategy? And I go mental. But mental is also accuracy and angles and footwork. And we could certainly add some more letters, I think, that are things that are worth studying, like strategy. I think strategy is super critical, but to me, it's part, that's all part of the mental game.
And we've talked about fam before, but very briefly we did, but it's hyper critical. So let's just, let's just think about this. The footwork piece is super critical because from a footwork perspective, and again, I know I've said some of this before, but it's that important. If you don't get to the ball, first of all, just say great shot.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: Exactly. We said that a lot today.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: If you do get to the ball but you're still moving, you've given yourself a tougher shot. Or arguably the team hitting it to you is giving you a tougher shot, which is how I like to think about it.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: Right.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: But if you are getting there early and you're in position and you're ready to hit the ball, then you've given yourself the best opportunity to go anywhere you want to go. So I watch the pros, especially during the dinking game, because the dinking game is up close. To me, it seems like there's plenty of time to dink. Like, it's a slow part of the game, but there's also really great dinks that are out wide that push you quickly to your backhand. Well, when I watch the pros, they are there really fast. And so here's the footwork thing that I want to talk about today, because a lot of people don't do this. I've been watching, and here's the difference. So I have to set this up mentally. I'm going to draw a picture for you. Sky here with my hands. But these are my feet. Okay? So if I'm on the left side of the court, that means my left foot is toward the outside edge of the court and they hit a ball to my left, meaning I've got to go left to get it.
Almost all of us step first with the left foot.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: You should push off with your right first.
[00:10:46] Speaker A: You should bring your right foot to your left foot and use that as a, as a springboard to push way out to the left fast.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: So a hop step.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: Yeah, and we're not doing it. I watch player after player watch today. Some of the best players out there, and we're still stepping first in the direction with the foot on the outside that we need to go, rather than getting that extra hop first and then the step, which pushes us much farther out but when the pros do it, they're literally out there much quicker and they're waiting for the ball. So we're essentially taking left, right, left, whereas they're just going right, left.
And that gets them there earlier.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: So in fighting sports, they talk a lot about footwork. And so we worked. We start with footwork.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:11:29] Speaker B: So we teach that hop step or that skip step where we, we do the slide, drawing the sea on the ground, drawing the seat. Well, that's, that's about stances, but that's footwork. It is. But when it comes to actually moving, we're talking about keeping that wide base. So when you're at that kitchen line, as you can see, they're the pros. They're low, they have a wider foot.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: They're not. Their feet aren't close together. They're wide.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: And so they, and they're facing almost straightforward most of the time.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: Most of the time, yeah.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: A lot of us will turn our feet toward the direction of where the.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: Ball is exactly opening a lot of.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: Times, but opening up behind us.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: So that is definitely foundation. So I remember I was drilling with the big kids, and one of the compliments that I got was I did a skip step and I didn't even think about it because I had done it a hundred times in martial arts, but it made sense at that moment. I got complimented it, but I didn't even mean to do what I did.
[00:12:30] Speaker A: Too funny. Well, you get there faster.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: You do.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: And footwork is a big deal. The other thing that we talk about a lot with footwork is you have to be in position when the other team is hitting the ball. You cannot still be moving to your position.
So we talked about it in terms of getting to the kitchen line and stopping in that transition zone area if you need to. Because if they're getting ready to hit the ball, your feet need to be set, set, but in a way that you're ready to move right on the balls of your feet, ready to go left, right, straight, whatever you gotta do. Here's another footwork room for you, generally, because these, these rules that we share are never, always, never, always. You know what I'm saying?
[00:13:09] Speaker B: Yes. You don't like absolutes, necessarily, because there.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: Aren'T absolutes in sports like this. There are good ideas and there are okay ideas, and then there's bad ideas generally, especially on footwork. Regarding lobs, generally, the person on the other side of the side that's being lobbed should go to get to the lob.
If you and I are side by side
[email protected]. they lob over you. I should go get it.
From a footwork perspective, I can turn and run straight to where the ball is going faster. Well, with a better angle than you can, placing me in a position to already be ready to hit the ball back, whereas you have to run straight backwards and completely turn around to be able to hit the ball. So we suggest strongly from a strategy standpoint that if you get lobbed, that if you get lobbed, sky, your partner, does that, sort of see, curve back to the back. To hit the ball back, your job should be to slide over or to read where they're at to determine if you should move and cover their side or not, of course.
[00:14:05] Speaker B: Or just get out of the way.
[00:14:06] Speaker A: Well, getting out of the way could be dumb because if you get out of the way by getting off the court on your side and you leave the whole left side open. That's exactly. So. I know what you meant, but just to be clear, for our listeners, I.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: Meant, like, covering the court, but get out of the way.
[00:14:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
So footwork is a big deal, and it's a big deal even when serving. So, for instance, we talked about business ideas in the last podcast.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: And one of those business ideas was coaching. And one of the biggest things that I see when I'm coaching is that players who are learning how to serve, especially those that struggle to serve well, maybe it's a strength or agility issue or whatever the case may be, they don't understand how much their impacts, the direction that they hit the ball.
[00:14:45] Speaker B: Definitely.
[00:14:46] Speaker A: So today, this morning, and I've got video of it because I had my glasses on that shoot videos and I had played a shot that went wide left, and I knew immediately I was like, that felt right. So I looked down and my left foot was pointing outside the court.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: Yep, you pointed that out.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: Amazing how much your other foot. So if you're left handed, your right foot, or if you're right handed, your left foot dictates the direction of the ball because the ball, remember, it's not an arm thing. It's a, it's a waist and shoulder, you know, movement more than it is anything else that controls it. And so that waist is going to come around to where it feels comfortable, which is when it's straight with your foot. Well, my left foot's pointing to the left off the court, and my body's going to rotate that direction. I'm going to naturally push the ball more to the left. There's things you can do to alter that. But as a beginner, we need to teach that to people. And so when I'm teaching people about spring, I'm like, you're really important. When you are ready to hit that ball, make sure that your left foot is pointing exactly the direction you want to hit the ball. This is right handed people, obviously. Of course, a lot of those people, I have to teach how to move while they're hitting the ball because they need that extra momentum to carry the ball past the kitchen line on the other side. So I have to teach them. Here's how these steps work. This is about footwork. I want you to take a right step, and then as you take in your left step, begin to drop the ball and point that left foot in the direction you want to hit it, and then swing through it, and it blows them away because they're just like, whoa. And where your left foot is pointing is very much a dictator of where your ball is going to go. Again, right handed people, generally, it's ladies, older ladies is usually who I'm talking about. And I'm not trying to pick on anybody here, but there tends to be a little bit more of a strength issue or a, you know, maybe a athleticism issue there. And when I show them that if they walk and hit the ball and all of a sudden they hit it in, they're like, holy cow. How did you do that? Well, I saw where you wanted to go, and the gap to help you get there was easily closable by making some adjustments. All these things that people think it is, it's not the mechanics, it's not the power, basically, it really is understanding the gap, and in this case, the gap was a momentum addition, would cause so much more distance. Some of these folks I work with don't have the power to hit it any harder, so we've got to look elsewhere to get them to close that gap. And the elsewhere we look in the serves for those people is adding momentum at the beginning. Now, let's talk about angles, which I love angles. Oh, you're good at it.
[00:17:14] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:17:14] Speaker A: You had some really good angles today. Here's where accuracy and angles comes in. So, obviously, you don't always have ten angles because, well, let's think about this way. You're always seeing an angle. Always.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:17:25] Speaker A: We're saying, don't forget how wide you have of a variety of angles to hit. It's not 180 degrees, but it's probably 150 degrees. You know, that you could really hit a legit ball. That's a lot of distance to work with. And if you're in position. Cause your footwork is good and you work on accuracy, meaning you hit the ball where you intend to hit it. We say pick your spot and hit it there. Danny Wilson is super good at this. His spot is your feet, and he hits it there down the line. If you give it up, don't give up flying on that guy.
[00:17:53] Speaker B: I learned that today.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: Yeah, but he'll hit at your feet, hit your feet, hit at your feet, hit at your feet. He's just. It's in tennis in him, and he's really good at it. But that's the accuracy part. The next part is the angles part. So I got Danny in a couple of good shots today because he didn't expect the angle. And I surprisingly got Paul in a serve because he didn't expect the angle. Iced him. Because I was on the left side and I rotated. I pronated my wrist a little bit. When I drove pretty hard to serve, I drove to the outside of that court from all the way on the left, which gave it an angle to it and skipped away, and he missed it. Okay, look, that made my day acing Paul, okay. He's a very good player, so I'm super happy with that. But, you know, the rest of the game didn't go that great for me, necessarily.
But that's a combination of accuracy and angles.
[00:18:36] Speaker B: Right.
[00:18:36] Speaker A: And how important that they really are to the game. And again, the footwork puts you in a place to do that, but then after that, you need to go, okay, wait. Strategy comes in here. This is where strategy comes in. Super strong is with accuracy and angles. Because I want to create my next opportunity, which we briefly discussed about in a different podcast.
[00:18:55] Speaker B: Yes. You described some strategy about keeping them back, the good player keeping back.
[00:19:01] Speaker A: Well, whoever's back, but.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: You also talked about getting to the kitchen line first, so there's some strategy there.
[00:19:08] Speaker A: I also talked about spreading the other team apartheid.
[00:19:10] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: To open up the easiest shot of all, which is down the middle, which solves the riddle.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: Exactly. So reset.
[00:19:17] Speaker A: Yeah. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna. You know, if I'm playing against Paul and Cheryl, let's say with you, I'm gonna try and push Paul out to the right. And then when he hits it back in, I'm gonna try and push Cheryl way out to the left. And when she hits it back in, I try and push Paul back out to the right. And at some point in time, I'm trying to lull them to sleep into thinking that I'm gonna keep going wide and they stay wide. The moment one of them stays wide, the middle is now open. I take that next shot, or you take that next shot down the middle, it's much easier put away.
[00:19:41] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:19:41] Speaker A: It's not a put away, like, we have to kill it. We just have to get down the middle.
[00:19:45] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: So, um, yeah, that's the accuracy and angles component, where all of a sudden strategy comes into play here. And you go, oh, this makes a lot more sense because if I can dictate play, then I will dictate the outcome of play.
Right. Think about that again. If I can dictate play, meaning I'm tell, I'm making them go where I want them to go, then I will also dictate the outcome of the play.
[00:20:08] Speaker B: Which is exactly what you mean by accuracy and angles.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: That's exactly right. Those things allow me to dictate the outcome of the play, which is I win the rally and that's my objective.
[00:20:20] Speaker B: Which leads you into the m. Which.
[00:20:23] Speaker A: Totally leads you into the m, because this is where things get tough. You screw up, you, whatever, you lob one and you're, the wind catches it and they crush it at you. You're tired, you don't bend your knees, and next thing you know, you're getting nasty. Nelson.
[00:20:38] Speaker B: Best play of the day, it.
[00:20:40] Speaker A: Was, he said it made his weekend. It made my week, too.
[00:20:42] Speaker B: So it was fun.
[00:20:43] Speaker A: I loved it.
[00:20:44] Speaker B: And you're right, you were not, you were not bending your knees deep enough.
[00:20:47] Speaker A: Right. And so I was doing my penance. And like I said, I was on my 9th squat, but I wasn't mentally there. I was mentally in my squats.
[00:20:55] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: Danny took advantage of that. He did, which I love.
So the mental thing that, there's a lot to it. And I'll give an example. One of the players today was getting ready to play, and I said, whatever you do, don't think about the wind and hitting it out.
[00:21:08] Speaker B: Oh, dear.
[00:21:09] Speaker A: And on his, you were saying that.
[00:21:10] Speaker B: To your opponent, huh? Uh huh.
[00:21:12] Speaker A: On his very first serve, right after I said it, he just leave me like, whatever, dude. He hit it like 2ft long.
And my partner was like, you trying to get in his head? And I'm like, a hundred percent, I want to get in. Everyone said, that's the thing for me, because if I can get in your head, I'm gonna help dictate on my side the outcome that I'm looking for.
[00:21:32] Speaker B: That's just part of court sports.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: It is part of court sports.
[00:21:35] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:21:36] Speaker A: And I love it because it's so powerful.
[00:21:39] Speaker B: It is.
[00:21:39] Speaker A: It is so powerful. Now, I don't necessarily mean getting in someone's head, but that's powerful, too. But I do mean in your own head. Maintain the space that you need to effectively compete. Don't let other things impend on or impede or crouch into that space. Keep the space that you need to mentally compete.
I believe it's okay to have something else in your brain, like, on your mind, if you will, but I'm just gonna say in your brain, because I don't think that you should be thinking about other things during a rally. No, I don't think it's such a big deal outside of that. Here's what I see. I see a lot of players. And I love to talk about Zayn, because, you know, I'm a fanboy and he's a good guy.
Here's what I see him doing.
He, between rallies, like, enjoys himself.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: Oh, of course, you have to.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: He'll joke with the crowd. So we were at a tournament one time in, it was actually a beer city, and he did something stupid. And so he came over the sidelines and he was mumbling, and I said. I said something to him. I said, hey, is it okay to call that last thing you did stupid?
He's like, you totally need to do that. He goes, yell it out loud. He goes, it'll drive me. And so something happened a few plays later, and he did something, and I said something, and he was like, all right. Like that. That sparked a fire on him. Right?
[00:22:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:56] Speaker A: That's cool. There are other people that would, like, throw things at you, so you gotta be kind. But those people have a mental issue. Yeah, those people have a mindset issue.
[00:23:05] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:23:05] Speaker A: Zane's mindset is, this is fun. I'm getting paid to play pro pickleball, and this is fun. And I'm gonna have fun.
[00:23:12] Speaker B: I lost almost every game today, and I had a great morning.
[00:23:15] Speaker A: Right.
Oh, we just heard a song. Even when I'm. Even when I'm losing, I'm winning.
[00:23:20] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:23:20] Speaker A: Yeah. No, it's not your sharing.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: It's legendhouse.
[00:23:23] Speaker A: Yeah. John. John Legend. Okay. That's a throwback for me.
Yes. So the mental game is a big deal. Here's how I manage my mental game. During a rally, I do my best to stay completely focused on the rally and being able to dictate where I want the other players to move after the rally. I try to learn from that rally, but as I'm moving to my position for the next rally to begin. When I get in that position, I've made an agreement with myself to no longer consider the last rally.
[00:23:55] Speaker B: Me, too.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: Excellent. Is that why you walk all the way back before you walk all the way to the front?
[00:24:00] Speaker B: It's my reset, and I, you know, everything's new at that point.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: I can't tell you how many times I'm back to receive surf, and I look at her and she's back there with me. I'm like, you're up front. She's like, I know. I'm still. I'm still getting there. I'm thinking through it. I'm processing her. What are we doing?
[00:24:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Or I'm just still talking to you.
[00:24:16] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:24:16] Speaker B: I follow you while I talk to you.
[00:24:17] Speaker A: Yeah. So if my job is to be at the kitchen line, then when I'm at the kitchen line and I'm ready for the next serve to begin, then at that point, I made an agreement with myself. Kevin, it's okay to forget about the fact that you just hit one the net. Just do better on this rally.
[00:24:29] Speaker B: Plus, our opponents don't know that we're not strategizing well, that's true. If I'm walking back with back line and we're talking to each other, they're like, oh, no.
[00:24:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:40] Speaker B: What are they saying?
[00:24:40] Speaker A: So I do believe you should have a reset of. And that reset doesn't have to be like, you know, tapping 15 places on your body or going back and tagging the fence, or which. All those. Whatever, it's fine. I don't care. My reset is when I've got my feet in position to get ready for the next rally. I've reset. I'm now completely focused on this rally. The last one doesn't matter.
[00:25:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: Now, that's awesome. In theory.
In practice, I struggle with that a bit, but that's what I'm working on. That's the mental aspect that I'm really working on.
[00:25:12] Speaker B: Well, that's good, babe.
[00:25:14] Speaker A: A few more things on mental real quick. Or maybe just one more thing on mental real quick.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: We're going long.
[00:25:17] Speaker A: Nah, we're not going that long.
[00:25:18] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:25:19] Speaker A: Anyway, on the mental side, I believe in mindsets, and my. Speaking of podcasts, my business partner used to have one called mindset to milestones. If you've got an objective you want to hit. So we go back to road to the finally 4.0.
[00:25:32] Speaker B: Right?
[00:25:33] Speaker A: Right. The mindset is, I want to have this milestone of road to finally 4.0 with a mindset really has to be. I'm willing to do everything it's going to take to get to that 4.0 level. So for me, now, if I'm saying I want to be playing legit four, five, and eventually playing legit 50, I'm 55 years old, I'm overweight, I'm going to have to do something or I will never get there. Well, my mindset now has shifted because I've got a different milestone, and because of that milestone and other obvious reasons. Want to be around playing pickleball with you for another 50 years? Want to play pickleball with my kids for another 50 years, whatever those things are. But because of that, I now know I have to lock and load where I will never get to my milestone. Along the way. There's other components which we'll eventually share here on the podcast, but they're a part of the books that Cesar and I are producing, so I can't share them with you yet. But mindset to milestones is the idea. And so that mindset piece is just hypercritical. You have to know why you're doing something. You have to know what the positive impact and negative implications are to why you're doing something, and then you'll. You'll be in a position to better drive yourself to get there.
[00:26:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:42] Speaker A: So mindset's critical. So that's it. Fam, footwork, accuracy and angles. Mindset or mental game? It's probably a better way to put it, yeah. Any other thoughts?
[00:26:53] Speaker B: And have fun.
[00:26:54] Speaker A: I talked a lot today.
[00:26:55] Speaker B: You did? But that's okay. You had a lot to share. And I was. I was enjoying listening, and I agree with all of that.
And it doesn't just apply to pickleball. It can apply to any goal that you have.
[00:27:07] Speaker A: It can. It truly can.
[00:27:08] Speaker B: Because footwork can be in an analogy. Did I say that right?
[00:27:12] Speaker A: Analogy to what?
[00:27:14] Speaker B: Something else.
[00:27:15] Speaker A: Yeah, it's analogous to something else.
[00:27:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:17] Speaker A: Getting yourself ready.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:18] Speaker A: I mean, if you're cooking mise en place, everything in its place.
[00:27:21] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:27:21] Speaker A: That's the footwork of cooking.
Right, right. Yeah.
[00:27:25] Speaker B: So, I mean, what you've. What you've talked about is good coaching, not just in pickleball, but in life in general. It's applicable to life.
[00:27:33] Speaker A: It really is, isn't it?
Thanks for liking, subscribing, sharing all the fun stuff. On behalf of Kevin and Sky, on behalf of myself, on behalf of Skye and myself, Kevin, we love you all. Thanks for listening. Bye bye.
[00:27:50] Speaker B: Bye.
That's what I'm ahead.
[00:28:01] Speaker A: I'm ahead of the game. I'm ahead of the game.
