Hello all my Pickleball Joy Riders!
Welcome to the Monday Minute, a 60-second list of what I’m exploring and thinking about. Feel free to forward along if the pickleball spirit moves you. If you love to learn and you love pickleball, you may love this:
In my practice... Aim for the tape!
"I aim for the tape," says Jaume Martinez-Vich, Connor Garnett and Andre Mick, who I just trained w/ in Indian Wells.
This weekend I was reminded just how good Andre Mick's drives were after his fourth winning let cord in a row (in one game!). I audibly lamented and he said, "well I AM aiming for the tape, Jill."
And it reminded me that Connor and Jaume (two amazing drivers of the ball) also told me the same thing. Coincidentally, I had been hitting my drives REALLY high that day. So I tried this simple mental shift and...voila! Better drives instantly.
It was so much easier to mentally process a lower aim point versus shortening my swing, or putting more spin on the ball, or staying lower to the ground (yes, all of those things can help but sometimes just changing your aim point can be both simpler and more effective, at least it was for me!)
Try this simple mental shift out and LMK what you think.
In My Mind: "Who cares?!"
Andre Agassi & Shaun White. No, this isn't the start of a bad joke.
When Shaun was asked what he thinks about before dropping into an Olympic Run he said, "At the end of the day, who cares? What's the big deal? I'm here, I'm going to try my best, and I'm going to go home, and my family's there..." He adopted this mindset from Andre Agassi's "Open" autobiography.
This was definitely my mentality during Nationals, where I took home Gold w/ my partner Megan Fudge and Bronze in mixed w/ Eric Oncins. I felt very much like "I'm here to do my best, be a good example and let the chips fall where they fall. And at the end of the day, we are getting paid to play a game with the word 'pickle' in it...which is pretty absurd."
I sometimes think of this as the "Surrender" mindset a la Michael Singer.
What mindset do YOU use to bring out your best self (and results)?
In My Ear: Dave Asprey w/ Mo Gawdat
Former Chief Business Officer at Google X, Mo Gawdat, blew my mind on The Human Upgrade Podcast.
Did you know most of us can't name three good things that happened to us at the end of the day? Why is this?!
Mo & Dave discuss how our brain's capacity to forget good stuff is REALLY high. For example, to log a positive experience, the experience needs to remain in your consciousness for 12 seconds...but guess how long it takes the brain to log a negative experience? INSTANT! Why?
Well, the brain wasn't really designed to start companies or invent technology...it developed to keep us alive. Once you know this, you can use the basic practice of repeating good things that have happened in your day for at least 12 seconds. I've been doing this and I am genuinely less stressed and more happy at the end of each day.
They also talk about how 99% of the time the thought that is stressing you out isn't true or hasn't happened or won't happen. So if it's not true, drop it.
"Happiness is Events minus expectations."
In my Diet:
Creatine
Fun fact: Creatine has been studied for over 200 years. (Don't believe me? Just ask AI!)
I take 5g of Creatine 5 days/week (cycling off usually Mon/Tues). It's been game-changing for me to promote building muscle and getting less sore.
I look back and wonder what took me so long to get started with it. Probably misplaced conceptions on what it really is versus what I thought it was.
What do you think of Creatine? Ps. this photo was supposed to make me look JACKED.
In my Future?
I'm thinking about creating bonus content for each episode of "The Pickleball Breakdown" podcast featuring advice from top pros who specialize in the episode topic. Good idea, bad idea? It would be for subscribers only at a small monthly or annual fee. It would be a lot of work for me personally, but I think it could be a cool value-add to what Scott and I are doing.
E-mail me your thoughts! Thispblife@gmail.com
In my feed... hip flexors!
Some say pain is just weakness leaving the body. Meghan Callaway would probably say "Building strength is just tightness leaving the body." Mobility and strength are like two sides of the same coin. Since following Meghan's exercises, my hips "flex"ors are finally living up to their name.
So just remember, tight muscles = weak muscles. Don't just stretch, get strong.
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That's it for the Monday Minute. Did you like it? Should I keep doing this? Reply to this email and let me know. Kristin and I read and respond to all emails! Thispblife@gmail.com
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Last week on the Monday Minute:
In my mind... Tony Robbins “Mindset Prime”
In my practice... $3 to faster hands
In my ear... “Failure isn’t a lesson, it’s a tragedy.”
In my diet... Protein powder
In my orbit... 2025 Camps
You wouldn’t step on the court without warming up your body, would you? So why would we start our day without priming our minds?
My key takeaway: If I wake up on the wrong side of the bed, it doesn't have to mean my day ends before it can even start. I can treat my mind like I treat my body before a pickleball tournament. I've been doing this for about five days, and it's been pretty game-changing.
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