The #1 way to learn the truth about your pickleball game.

Don’t lie to yourself.

And I know…

It’s hard to stop because it’s so easy to do. 

And the reality is, we all do this from time to time. We say things like…

“I worked hard enough,” (when you know you didn’t). or

“I trained well enough” (when you know you haven’t). or

“That’s good enough, (when you know it isn’t).

And these lies we tell ourselves — they build up over time, and hurt us more than they help us.

Now, before I share how that applies to pickleball, 

Welcome back! 

And WELCOME, to the 94 new members who joined the newsletter in the last week. 

If you’ve been with me for awhile, you can skip the italics part and head down to the section titled,

“The #1 way to learn the truth about your pickleball game.” 

To all my new people — some of whom I’ve gone back and forth with on email the last few days — glad you’re here.

Because I want to bring you up to speed. 

To start, if you’re brand new to the sport, watch this video to learn what this whole pickleball thing is.

And if you were drawn to the newsletter because you heard about some random guy trying to go pro in pickleball, here’s what that’s all about. 

I’m Kyle and I’m training to become a pro pickleball player. (yep, that’s a real thing.) Right now, I’m 10 months into the process. Which means, I have two more months to officially become a pro. And if I don’t, I’m officially doomed and will quit the sport altogether. 

Haha jk. but we’ll cross that bridge if we get there.

Now, tournament season was on break and is about to start back in mid august, so I’m preparing myself to compete again as I work to make my way to the top of the sport. 

More on that soon, 

Now, back to the newsletter. 

The #1 way to learn the truth about your pickleball game.

Here’s the thing.

There are countless exchanges that happen in a match. Serves, returns, volleys, dinks, you know the deal. And over the course of playing for, say, 90 minutes, we can’t remember everything that happened. 

No chance. 

So we often leave those game with five or six points stuck in our head directing the narrative of how that entire 90 minutes went.

If we had seven awesome shots that stuck with us after we finished, we tell ourselves how good we are, despite the 17 missed dinks we had while playing.

So how do you get to the truth of your game.

How do you understand what you’re actually doing well or struggling with?

Well…

Film your games and watch them back. 

And the good news is, it’s quite simple to do.

All you need is a $20 - $40 tripod, a phone and…

Voila. 

You can study yourself playing.

Now, for some who don’t have a ton of time, just film a single game on your phone. Then later that day or soon after, watch one of the games while you’re cooking a meal or relaxing before bed.

Yes, it can be painful to watch yourself play terribly (if you did).

But again, watching tells you the truth of what happened, not what you think happened.

You can see your court positioning, your balance, and your shot selection.

Then…

Write down 1 - 2 learnings from the game, and move on with your life. 

Before you play the next time, take a peek at what you wrote down and see if you can improve on those things the next time out. 

It doesn’t have to be this elaborate process (unless you want it to be). 

But you do have to get over the fear of watching yourself play — especially when you know you played poorly.

If you do this, you’ll accelerate your improvement, reduce errors, and be more aggressive at the right times in future games.

So here’s my challenge for you. 

Don’t do too much at once.

Bring your phone out to play, set it up on a tripod or lean it against a water bottle. And film 1 game. Afterwards, watch it back and see what you learn.

If you do, it’ll be harder to lie to yourself because you’ll discover the truth of what’s actually happening with your game!

Until next time, 

Kyle