Coach Tony recorded Episode 320 of Pickleball Therapy at the PPA World Championships in Dallas. It’s about a habit that drains the fun out of the game for many players: waiting for the big breakthrough.

Two friends, one trail

Tony opens with a short clip that came across his feed. Two friends are hiking through beautiful country. One keeps stopping to look at the mountains, the flowers, and the rolling fields. The other keeps pushing ahead because "it gets better" up ahead.

When they reach the spot the second friend was aiming for, he still wants to keep going. His friend asks him to stop for five seconds and actually look. He does. He realizes he was so focused on what might be better that he was never really there.

Tony’s question for you: which of those two are you when it comes to your pickleball?

Goals are fine. Waiting to enjoy where you already are is not.

Most of us have a goal. 3.5. 4.0. Whatever it is. Tony is clear that having goals and working toward them is fine. The trouble starts when you hold off on enjoying the game until you get there. You end up giving up the game you’re playing now for one you haven’t reached yet.

Why you can’t see your own progress

If you’re working on your game, you’re probably picking up small wins all the time. Maybe you drilled yesterday or warmed up before you played. Your play was likely a little better because of it. But you didn’t notice.

That’s because your growth was incremental, and you’re waiting for the big breakthrough. Tony calls it a mirage. You almost never see the watershed moment because you live your improvement day to day, and from one day to the next the changes are small.

He compares it to a growing child. Parents don’t see the growth because it happens a fraction of an inch at a time. Then a relative who hasn’t seen the child in a year walks in at Thanksgiving and can’t believe how tall they are. Pickleball works the same way. Half an inch here, an inch there, and eventually you’re two feet taller. You just can’t see the two feet from where you’re standing.

There’s always another future you

The second trap is human nature. Picture where you are now. Then picture the player you’re working toward. The idea is that once you get there, you’ll be satisfied.

So what happens when you get there? There’s another level and another future you. Tony has played for 11 years, and he knows he can still get better. That doesn’t stop him from enjoying the game today. It would if he only looked forward to some future version of himself.

Notice the flowers

Tony saw this on his first day at Worlds. Two friends of the team had been planning the trip for 2 years. A few hours after they arrived, they couldn’t even list everything they’d already enjoyed. They noticed every detail.

You can bring that to your next session:

• Enjoy the rally. The one where everyone says, wow, that was crazy.
• Enjoy the defensive save. You’ll hit some you didn’t think you could.
• Laugh at the miss. Okay, missed that one. On to the next point.

Do that, and you’ll enjoy your games, your friends, and the day more. The big moments will still come, but you’ll recognize and appreciate the small pieces along the way. Those are what add up.

Extra coaching tip: Both traps in this episode come from the same habit: measuring yourself against a future version of you. The relative at Thanksgiving sees the growth because they’re comparing against the past. When you want to know how far you’ve come, look back, not ahead.

Original content made by humans. Adapted from Coach Tony Roig’s Pickleball Therapy podcast episode 320 with AI assistance, then hand-edited before publishing.