Best in2pickle.com Podcasts (2025)

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Ep. 243 - Avoiding Negativity Bias 28:27

2d ago28:27

28:27

A pop-up is not a failure—it is a normal part of pickleball. But your brain may treat it like a threat, thanks to an ancient survival instinct called negativity bias. Once you recognize that, you can stop overreacting and start responding with perspective because not every rustle in the grass is a tiger. Show Notes: https://betterpickleball.com/243…

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Ep. 242 - What's the Secret Sauce? (Psst... it's in this podcast) 21:30

10d ago21:30

21:30

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…

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Ep. 241 - Empathy Framing For The Win 20:29

17d ago20:29

20:29

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 nega…

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Ep. 240 - Our Three Most Powerful Tools for Your Mind 23:19

24d ago23:19

23:19

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 th…

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Ep. 239 - Don't Button Up the Mountain 14:34

1M ago14:34

14:34

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 the…

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Ep. 238 - Your Mind Needs Water Too 17:04

1M ago17:04

17:04

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…

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Ep. 237 - Why Are You Upset? 16:42

2M ago16:42

16:42

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 a…

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Ep. 236 - Does Smiling Improve your Pickleball Game? 18:04

2M ago18:04

18:04

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 epi…

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Special Episode - Pickleball Stoicism with Pickleball Pro Richard Livornese, Jr. 49:21

2M ago49:21

49:21

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…

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Accepting Frustration is the Key to Growth 11:02

2M ago11:02

11:02

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…

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Reanimating Open Play PLUS It's Normal to Take a Step Back 16:54

2M ago16:54

16:54

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…

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Handling Mental Interference PLUS Losing from Too Much 17:47

2M ago17:47

17:47

'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'r…

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Special Episode - Interview with Shelley and Sher of Life Lessons from Pickleball 23:39

3M ago23:39

23:39

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 a…

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Anna Bright's Positive Perspective Win or Lose 17:03

3M ago17:03

17:03

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 intera…

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Peeling the Pickleball Onion 12:22

3M ago12:22

12:22

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 …

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Mental Warmup: Prepare to Play Your Best - Bookmark Episode 15:40

3M ago15:40

15:40

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) Perspectiv…

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Your Individual Perspective 17:26

3M ago17:26

17:26

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 'H…

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Special Episode - Better Body, Better Play - Interview with Ty Woody 23:26

3M ago23:26

23:26

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, …

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Gatekeep your Pickleball - It's in Your Hands 18:52

3M ago18:52

18:52

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 t…

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Are you Performing when You Play? 21:09

4M ago21:09

21:09

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 shou…

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Don't Let the Rules Ruin the Game for You 18:22

4M ago18:22

18:22

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 epis…

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SwingVision: Is AI Assisted Game Analysis Right for Your Game? - Special Episode 24:17

4M ago24:17

24:17

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 …

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Big Wins Start with One Small Step 17:33

4M ago17:33

17:33

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 yo…

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Are We There Yet? - Avoid Progress Frustration 20:15

4M ago20:15

20:15

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 m…

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The Perfect Partnership - for Ben Johns and You 24:27

5M ago24:27

24:27

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 pick…

1
Framing Adversity and Bite-Size Chunks 19:44

5M ago19:44

19:44

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 work…

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Our 2025 Trends Class and Pickleball Central Partnership - Special Episode Announcing These for Year-End 3:15

5M ago3:15

3:15

You can register for the class and find the Pickleball Central link and code at BetterPickleball.com. Have a great week and we will see you this Friday for our regular episode - Pilling: It is a thing :).By Tony Roig

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Fighting Variability 21:06

5M ago21:06

21:06

Obstacles will naturally arise and are the reasons why you cannot reasonably say that you will not miss a single shot the next game you play. If obstacles are unavoidable and they generate the percentage, then that percentage is unavoidable by extension. This week we drive home the conversation we're having last week about 15% volley and setting re…

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Mistakes Aren't a Failure 16:38

5M ago16:38

16:38

When we're playing a match and we miss a shot, particularly one that we consider 'easy', we can get down on ourselves. Missing shots is usually the most negative feeling that we have besides losing. How do we process when we miss a shot when we play? This week I'm gonna share with you a technique of dealing with misses because they are going to occ…

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Reframe Your Frustration: Ditch the Struggle by Embracing the Process 14:49

5M ago14:49

14:49

This week we dive deeper into a recent episode by Tony on a very powerful perspective that had me reflect on my journey about learning. What I discovered about the reality of the struggle during practice is that, first of all, it's unavoidable. The absolute only way to master a skill to proficiency is through repetition where you will inevitably fa…

1
Turn Distractions Into a Positive 12:18

6M ago12:18

12:18

A distraction pulls our attention away from the main thing that we're trying to focus on and it could either be physical or mental. For instance, if you're trying to paint something, and somebody keeps tapping your paint brush right on the end, it becomes hard to paint because you're distracted by it. Same thing happens when we play pickleball and …

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2 Secrets to Pickleball Success 12:59

6M ago12:59

12:59

I got to play in one event at the USA Pickleball Nationals in Mesa, Arizona, that I'm going to be using as the centerpiece for today's conversation- How do we play better pickleball? It was a mixed doubles match where me and my partner, Ken, got to play hybrid which is one standing player and one player in a wheelchair. We were going to play Troy a…

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Pickleball Mastery - A Click Away 14:24

6M ago14:24

14:24

Let's talk about the concept of clicking when it comes to knowledge acquisition. How do we acquire knowledge and how do we know that we've acquired it? Sometime there's frustrations of not acquiring knowledge as quickly as we would want it to. So things may not be clicking for us and there's something that we're missing right now. i) Something as s…

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Factor A is the only Factor you control 17:33

6M ago17:33

17:33

On a pickleball court, there are four factors that affect the outcome of the game; us, our partner, and our two opponents. We'll use an analogy where factor A is going to be us, factor B is going to be our partner then factor C and D are our opponents-the two players across the net. The input in a pickleball game is going to be the game, the rules,…

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Play Net Positive Pickleball 22:45

7M ago22:45

22:45

Pickleball, in its essence, is a zero-sum activity because it's built around the concept that there's going to be one winner and one loser. In a zero-sum world, our opponent's victory is our loss. Their positive is our negative. But it doesn't have to be that way. Think about your losses as simply learning opportunities so now you have a positive a…

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The Best from our Archives Part 5 - Our BEST Episode - You Be the Judge. Your Journey PLUS Lots More 28:49

7M ago28:49

28:49

In this episode we're going to re-up one of our most popular and best episode. How do we customize the journey best for ourselves? Think of your journey as a customer experience and treat it that way to feel the best about yourself as a player and as your experience. We also talk about the concept of agency in outballs that applies to everything yo…

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Successful Pickleball - Your Way 13:28

7M ago13:28

13:28

You can be successful as a pickleball player with different types of approaches, both hard and soft game strategies, and being a proponent of the soft game, doesn't mean that I'm an opponent of the hard game. Most pros have both a good soft game and a good hard game, because they'll mix the two depending on what's working in that moment and their o…

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Constructive Pickleball Play With All Levels 10:54

7M ago10:54

10:54

Sometimes we'll play in situations in open plays where there's really no gathering of levels. So it's basically a free-for-all. How do you keep the game fun? How do you keep playing productively with players who you've known for a long time when you, or they, get to different levels of the game? This is a common question or situation we encounter a…

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Special Episode: Therapist Edition - What is Pickleball? 42:08

7M ago42:08

42:08

In this special episode of Pickleball Therapy, we have a meeting with fellow pickleball therapists who share their insights and happenings from their own pickleball journeys.By Tony Roig

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The Ratings Game PLUS Gaining Focus When You Play 20:48

8M ago20:48

20:48

Let's talk about ratings, one of those double-edged swords that really don't say anything about how you play. While there's definitely a place for ratings in our sport, the only reason you need the rating is if it's consistent with what you want. Always ask yourself; 1) Why do I need the rating? 2) What's the rating doing for me and what I want wit…

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Don't be a Pickleball Vampire PLUS Middle School Antics 18:21

8M ago18:21

18:21

As a pickleball player, I want to feel good and play without doing that at the expense of my opponent. Taking advantage of my opponent and paying attention to my opponent's negative feelings to expand my confidence should not be something to look forward to or to work towards. The idea that our tank of confidence will be filled by our opponent's mi…

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Two BAD Words that Are Holding Your Back 11:45

8M ago11:45

11:45

Good pickleball, and the best pickleball you'll ever play, is built upon a foundation of sound FUNDAMENTALS. I was reminded of the 'imagined' bad word, fundamentals, during a pro level match that I was watching because as pickleball players we often shy away from that word and dismiss it as only applicable for beginners. The truth is, executing eve…

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Special Episode: System Class Starting Soon PLUS Our Virtual Clinic 6:06

8M ago6:06

6:06

How to learn more about our upcoming course: ThePickleballsystem.com To sign up for our Virtual Clinic: BetterPickleball.com (click at the top header) To join us for our System tour, send us an email to [email protected] and put in the Subject Line: "Tell Me More" Hope to see you in class Tony…

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Whose Fault Was It? PLUS Evolutionary Empathy PLUS 5K at a time til the record 14:16

8M ago14:16

14:16

In this episode we talk about three subjects; assigning fault, increasing our evolutionary empathy and staying focused. I got to play in a mixed group recently where I was paired with Dakota, a younger player, both in terms of her time in pickleball and also just a younger person. It was a tight match and we ended up on the losing end of it. I comp…

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Applying the 20 Second Rule to Your Pickleball Journey PLUS Don't Underestimate Your Sport 18:06

9M ago18:06

18:06

Have you've been dreading doing something or having a conversation for a long time? The pool is an interesting way of thinking about it where you're standing by the side of the pool trying to decide, do I get in the pool? Do I not get in the pool? One way to deal with it is to just dive into the pool. Take the plunge into the pool- quicker than 20 …

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Special Episode - Interview with Sara Weiss 32:05

9M ago32:05

32:05

In this special episode of Pickleball Therapy we talk with the incomparable Sara Weiss about her pickleball journey and the idea of being an animal on the court. We also talk about how she balances between pickleball and life coaching and how that led Sarah to this amazing place where she's now playing pro-qualifiers. It's interesting to learn abou…

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Knowing the "Rules" to Apply and the Ones to Skip PLUS Forest > Trees 22:42

9M ago22:42

22:42

The idea of strategic fluidity (wanting to be adapt to everything) and pickleball is a fine concept that sounds great in theory. But how does that work in practice when it comes to pickleball rules and what rules to apply or not to apply? Having an idea of the rules or guidelines can help you determine the best shot in any given situation, as oppos…

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The Other Side of Your Game - Balance it out 17:58

9M ago17:58

17:58

There is another side to your game – and there’s plenty to be proud of I want you to list all the things you do not do well as a pickleball player – or that you could do better. Things that frustrate you or that you “cannot just get.” Actually, hold on for a moment before you start writing your list and hear me out. The moment you read the above wo…

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What Version of You are you on? PLUS allowing the information in 21:50

9M ago21:50

21:50

As we move forward, we will be in a different place every time. Ask yourself, am I the same player I was an year ago? When you're working on a part of your game that you're trying to get better at, you're trying to get closer to the solution to the problem so you need to engage in iterations. It's processing it again and again and repeating it to h…

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Lynne's story - Managing expectations and having more fun PLUS calling pickleball therapists 18:48

9M ago18:48

18:48

Game plan is super valuable because it's human nature to make errors. The better that you get at the big picture view of pickleball and your relationship with sport, the better you understand the perspective and the less likely you are to tip over into a downward spiral. Mental work will help you play better and have more fun. For instance, try and…

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