Pickleball Therapy

Many players search for a “secret” to improve their pickleball game—but there's none. Improvement comes not from tips or tricks, but from understanding how the game works. In this episode, I'll explain why structured learning, clear decision-making, and consistent execution are the real keys to growth—and how seeing the full picture of the game can move you forward.  Show Notes: https://betterpick...

We’ve all faced frustrating moments on the court—with partners, opponents, or fellow players. What if we could reframe those situations into a healthier, more constructive way? In this episode of Pickleball Therapy , I explore a new mindset tool I’m developing called empathetic framing. I walk you through how this simple mental shift can reduce negativity and help you stay grounded in your game. ...

This episode holds a special place. It distills three foundational mental pillars— Play, Perspective, and Progress —that have resonated deeply with players around the world. These are not just abstract concepts but practical tools that will help you not only play better, but also enjoy the game more fully and consistently. Pillar 1: Play – Embrace the Oops Bucket Mistakes are inevitable. Even the...

Today we dive into a topic that resonates deeply with many of us: the journey over the destination,  and how our approach to it can significantly impact our enjoyment of the game. Join the Better Pickleball Academy for the competitive play series. In our quest for improvement, there's a pervasive trend: rapid progression promises. We've all seen them—programs promising to elevate your rating from...

When we think about pickleball, there are three pillars that comes to mind which we developed a few years back; the mechanical, the strategic, and the athletic pillar.  The mechanical and strategic pillars focus on how and when to hit the ball and the athletic pillar emphasizes the synergy between body and mind. The mind is super important, but it's one-a-half of the athletic pillar, there's the o...

You can't control every event in your journey, but you can control how you respond. And control goes beyond the physical aspect to include a mental dimension too.  Sometimes when things happen to us in pickleball, we tend to externalize them by blaming external factors. The idea is, you can control how you react to those events to dictate the pace and outcome of the game.  Just like holding the re...

Pickleball System Spring Boot Camp starting on March 27th; https://betterpickleball.com/march-bootcamp/ Will a smile help your pickleball game? While there might not be specific studies on the effect of smiling in sports, research shows that smiling can positively affect our attitude, calm our nerves, and enhance our overall well-being. On this episode CJ Johnson shares a story from her visit to t...

We had the pleasure of featuring a pro pickleball player, Richard Livornese Jr., in this special episode. It will be interesting to listen to the discussion, not just about the mechanics of the sport, but the mental journey that accompanies it. Richard shares insights about his pickleball journey which began four years ago during the COVID pandemic. Despite his achievements, Richard, like many of...

Join us for the March Bootcamp; https://betterpickleball.com/spring-bootcamp/ This week, let's dive into a concept I stumbled upon through an insightful video featuring a psychologist from Duke University. She introduces the idea of the "learning space" —the journey from not knowing to knowing.  Picture two dots on a board, one representing ignorance and the other knowledge, connected by a squiggl...

Open play can be interesting with players of varying skill levels playing and enjoying the game together. But that's not always the case when dynamics of it set in and players advance in skill; exclusivity sneaks in and can lead to less inclusive play.  In this episode we discuss the state of play in terms of how players at different levels interact with each other. This arose from our state of pl...

'The good thing about pressure is that it lets you know that you care.' Billy Jean King. The difficulty comes in when you let the pressure build up too much that it spills over into our hobbies and sports, including pickleball. It's perfectly normal for players to start feeling pressure in terms of their performance but not to the point where you're not having fun or can't function anymore. Here a...

In this special episode of Pickleball Therapy we sit down for an insightful and fun conversation with Shelley and Sher, the duo behind Life Lessons from Pickleball. We discuss the genesis of their podcast, their relationship with pickleball,  eye-opening moments from their mental side of playing pickleball and much more! Listen to the full episode as the duo shares with us how they deal with compe...

In doing some video review for a project I was working on, I came across some really good interview answer by Anna Bright, a top pickleball player in the world right now. When asked about what happened and despite losing the gold medals match, Anna expressed some thoughts that just reminded me of how we can have a better, a more constructive interaction with the sport that we play. She focused on...

At first glance, pickleball might seem simple—just a paddle, a plastic ball, and a court. But as you play more, you'll realize the sport's complexity. It's a puzzle that challenges you, both as a player and as a person, and that's what keeps us coming back.  Think of pickleball as an onion, used for many purposes, it's delicious, complex, deep, but can also lead to crying. The onion layers represe...

Whenever you're getting ready to play, you want a little bit more focus, framing for yourself and perspective. This special bookmark style episode of the podcast is designed to help you before you go out for recreational or social pickleball play. Here are four different areas to ensure you get the most out of your play on the courts; i) Perspective Part One: Understand Your Relationship with Pick...

 In this weeks podcast we talk about different strokes for different folks.  We got a couple of reviews I'm going to read to you here because I thought it was interesting. I'll start with a shout out that's a five-star game-changing review which says 'the podcast really helped me,' and explains why. The second review is one-star, and it's entitled 'Hot Air Nonsense.'  Both people listened to the s...

Strength training and proper exercise are essential for improving pickleball performance and should be a regular part of training, it's part of the athletic pillar that we talk about at Better Pickleball.  In this special episode we feature Ty Woody, a sports performance coach. Ty specializes in preparing pickleball players, both pros and amateurs, for optimal performance and injury prevention.  H...

How can we gatekeep information and use that to best enjoy our pickleball journey?  A lot of times when we're exposed to information in an area we're not sure what the right answer is, like pickleball, we're likely to err on the side of letting the information in.  This happens because we're just curious or we heard something and we're not sure how to discern that it's not correct for us. The algo...

What Does it Mean to Perform?   How many games do you expect to win the next time you play pickleball? All of them? Most of them? Half?   Extend that out: what win percentage would you be satisfied with over your pickleball playing career? Would you be happy with winning about 50% of the time?   It is common to react with a “No” here. After all, why should 50% be an acceptable result.   But reflec...

In 2025, the rules change has a little bit of impact on the non-volley zone when the volley starts. Basically the volley included the swing of the paddle before the ball was struck.  Rules change in pickleball can rob us in different ways leading to unnecessary stress, conflicts on the court or detract us from the enjoyment of the game.  In this episode we also discuss how to deal with criticism a...

Imagine having the same stats about your game like the pros.  Things like: How fast is my serve?  How accurate is my forehand?  Am I making more mistakes on my backhand?  In this podcast episode podcast we feature Swupnil Sahai, co-founder and CEO of Swingvision. SwingVision is an app that provides such stats by offering AI-assisted game analysis. The app provides real-time stats, tracking element...

At the beginning of the year, we have all that enthusiasm and most of us are filled with hope, promise and a lot of excitement for the coming year. When players set resolutions or goals for the year, it's very easy to fall into the trap of trying to tackle too many things at once.  In this episode we're going to talk about how to actually achieve your goals, take those New Year's resolutions that...

Happy 2025! Let's think about our progress journey through pickleball as worth experiencing and enjoying to see the game better. Because here's the fact, there's really nowhere to arrive at and there's no magic place to get to. Embrace the infinity of your journey and try and avoid pestering yourself with the, 'Are we there yet?' question. Take a minute to imagine yourself as the player you want t...

Ben Johns is no longer going to play with his brother, Collin, and is looking for a partner for 2025. It's a little bit sad in the sense that they're brothers, they play together and I imagine they love pickleball. There's been a lot of opinions about who would be the best partner for Ben for 2025 and I thought it was a good time to talk about picking a perfect partner. In this episode we'll also...

Think of a perfect world as one that includes adversities because things will occur to us that are not in line with what we would hope or like. That in and of itself is the perfect world.  How do you deal with adversity when you're working on your game or when you're playing?  i) If you're working on your pickleball improvement, let's say you're working on your serve and you have a tendency to pul...