"Dance first. Think later. It's the natural order." — Samuel Beckett

What does it mean to be in flow?

When you ask Google, here is what you get back:

Being in flow, often called "being in the zone," is an optimal psychological state of peak focus and immersion.

It is likely that you have had this feeling at one (or many) point in your life. The way time slows down when we are in danger is one example. Being moved by a piece of art or a song.

We can also experience the “zone” or “flow” in sport. Think back to a game you played where everything just clicked. The shots just came to you. You were playing out of your mind.

It’s a literally correct way of framing it – you played “out of your mind.” That’s because your mind wasn’t throttling you.

The ability to flow is innate. It resides inside you. Our job is to give it more room to get out.

Dance it out

From my perspective as a coach, the direct route to tapping into your flow won’t work. That’s because your built-up interferences stand guard outside the main door to your brain.

The plan is to sneak in from the side door. Once inside, we will work to open the main doors from the inside.

We will do this by using music and its most common physical expression: dance.

I wonder if that was what Beckett was thinking when he said the above quote: "Dance first. Think later. It's the natural order."

Dance will be our side door.

But first things first – we need buy-in.

Flow is real

Every day, we can see evidence of flow around us. From the flight of starlings to the movement of the leaves in your houseplants as they seek out the sun.

Science also finds connections. Salts on a plate vibrated at different frequencies organize into patterns. A recent study found that animal communication is all around the same frequency of 2 beats per second. Pretty interesting, right?

We can also feel it. Ever at a wedding reception or event and that one song comes on that gets your leg tapping or perhaps even moves you to full-body dance? Or perhaps you were watching a movie and the scene, together with the score, moved you to tears?

Where do those feelings come from? From a connection between us and the rhythm of the music we are listening to. We can innately differentiate between the rhythm of a song and other sounds that lack order.

Pickleball has flow

You can think of pickleball as hitting a ball back and forth over a net.

Or you can think of pickleball as a dance. You and your partner are dancing in tandem in a contest with two other dancers.

All four dancers assume their starting positions. There’s a serve, and the dance begins. The returner moves forward while the serve team holds position near the back of the court. The return team moves left or right to the ball. The serve team decides if it’s time to move forward or wait. Or maybe one of the dancers moves up to the line while the other one hangs back.

If all four dancers make it up to the kitchen line, they begin another phase of the dance. Sometimes, when the ball stays in one pattern, the dancers’ movements are small. But sometimes the ball swings to the other side. Then the dance move is a big one as the players slide to the other side of the court.

Every rally. Assume positions. Initiate the dance (with the serve). Then move forward, left, right, and sometimes even backward until the end of that dance routine.

This movement – this dance – is flow.

Look closely enough, and you can see it. Those rallies that leave you satisfied and full move a certain way. When you watch others play (even the pros), you can see the flow in action.

In my experience, a rally in flow continues to move forward. At some point, the flow is interrupted – whether by a misstep in the dance or a climax. This interruption signals a change in the flow of the rally – usually ending that dance routine.

In the video lesson that goes along with this written lesson, I put together for you a rally set to a song that I bet you will recognize. You will find the video lesson inside your community library at TRP. Both the community and course are free to you. You can access it by clicking here.

You have flow

We already touched on this: flow resides inside you. It’s what makes your mood shift when you hear a song that makes you want to get out of your chair and move your body around.

Our goal is to tap into it – hence the name of this series: Tap Into Your Flow.

I am going to suggest that your flow has become obstructed by internal interference:

• Some of it is lack of tapping into it – when was the last time you danced?
• Some of it is doubt – am I (or can I be) good at pickleball?
• Some of it is overthinking – how exactly am I supposed to point my toe to hit the shot when the ball travels past my backhand side, but only when it’s a dink not in the transition zone?

These are the guards at the main door I referenced earlier. They stop flow from happening.

Tapping into your flow

What we are going to do is bypass your guards and free your flow from the inside. The way we get to your flow – bypassing the guards – is by entering through the side door of dance.

Here it is again – because you now have a clearer picture of the parts:

"Dance first. Think later. It's the natural order." — Samuel Beckett

Our next step, then, will be dance. If you’ll recall, I’ve been saying to you that this coaching would be different.

Rather than continuing to “beat” on the main door – where your guards stand ready to fend off any entry, why not give the side door a try? Why not tap into the flow that already resides within you?

Put in the “work” and, who knows, perhaps you’ll be able to more easily flow with each rally you play. The results may surprise you. Worst case, you thought about the game a bit differently and got to dance a bit.

Your Work

Your Week 1 work is:

1. Watch the Flow is Real Video Lesson inside your TRP Community. If you are not already in the Community, join here. There is no cost to you (no credit card to be charged after 7 days – nothing).
2. Listen to the song in there. A few times. Listen with purpose.
3. When you go to play, find a moment where you can step aside from the conversation and just watch some rallies. The short ones will not develop enough to hear it – but longer rallies may allow you to peek into the rhythm on the court. If you don’t see it yet, don’t fret. It’s a process. But if you’re lucky enough to see it, then you may utter a soft “wow” under your breath.

We are doing this work in small, bite-sized chunks. This week it's Study, Train, and the start of Recognize. Next week we will continue to STR and will add Intention and Execution.

Excited for how this new coaching approach will impact your pickleball and, more importantly, your personal growth.

See you inside the lesson and in the TRP Community.