Episode 13: Rec Play Etiquette

EPISODE 13: Rec Play Etiquette

Intro, Welcome to Hoosier PB

Classic Matt ADHD is sending a voice text to a guy named Lex, our little puppy starts walking down Matt’s shoulder and he gets distracted and his text reads “Oh Hello….where are you going? You’re not going to bite my nose are you?” which I about died and asked him to PLEEEEEEase send it. He didn’t.

When students have a growth mindset, they take on challenges and learn from them, therefore increasing their abilities and achievement.

Seven steps…..

• Learn about the concept of 'incremental success' ...

• Embrace failure. ...

• Listen out for your fixed mindset voice. ...

• Change your language. ...

• Seek outside help. ...

• Accept feedback. ...

• Keep going

A fixed mindset describes children (and adults) who believe their intelligence, talents and personalities are fixed traits that cannot grow. They believe we are born with a certain level of ability (or special skills) and we are unable to improve our level abilities over time.

I want to apply growth mindset and fixed mindset to rec play!

Also side note I really don’t want this episode to turn into pet peeves because we all have pet peeves and they are as numerous as stars in the sky, haha

Let’s have an adult conversation and try to keep an open mind about how we each could improve in some of these areas…

When it comes to rec play, we should apply the growth mindset to every part of our game. There is always something we can improve upon, even if it’s not pb skills! Sometimes it’s interpersonal skills. One of the things people love about pb is the social aspect, so be the one to grow in your patience and grace when you face someone who is acting in a way you find “against” pb etiquette.

Line calls - bad calls, and people calling the ball out when it’s not their call, listen, I’ve cheered when I’ve had a nice shot and they didn’t see it, it happens. But I actually had someone on the other court, call a ball out on my baseline. No.

Kitchen line calls - I don’t care if people have a toe or two in the kitchen… I rarely look. I mean entire bodies planted in the kitchen, sure. I don’t know many higher level players who make that call unless it’s really egregious.

Music or no music - I love music, any music. I’ve seen people on fb say music is distracting. I’d say you would need to learn to play with things that are distracting bc no venue is going to be without distractions. Maybe you should take up yoga.

Playing with people of lesser ability - don’t target the weaker person. Hit it to the weaker person, yes, but target? Congrats 40yr old man, you beat a 75 yr old lady, did that make you any better of a player? And the stronger player is annoyed!

Playing with people of higher ability - don’t get upset when “you play like crap” because really the higher skilled players just revealed a lot of your deficits (ex Paula at the Y)

Playing against a doubles team with big skill disparity - again, don’t target the weaker player. Hit it to them, they need to be challenged and see some balls, but unless the game is just going on for too long and you need to end it (which I get), your goal should be to extend rallies, not bang it at the weaker player. Having said that, I’ve been targeted a whole bunch and it actually never bothered me. I mean sometimes Id get annoyed but overall my attitude was, well, I’ll get better quicker

I have one skill (lobs, spin).....so you can lob and lob and lob and lob, and it helps you win against non mobile people, great job. Maybe work on something else. I played against someone who sliced the CRAP out of their return, great, it was very effective against my partner bc she’s new to pb and couldn’t lift it. Well, that game lasted all of 6 minutes. How is that fun for anyone? So slice away, I guess if you’re working on that, but also, isn’t there something to be said for playing a decently long game with longer rallies? Maybe that’s just me.

Short rallies vs long rallies - to my point, are you in rec play for the W? Or, could it be more fun if we worked on longer rallies, dinking longer, getting your heart rate up vs typical 3.0-3.5 which is 3-5 shots and done.

Tapping paddles - be aware some people spent decent money on paddles, be gentle

Coaching - people don’t want coached

Poaching - well, it’s appropriate more than people think is my opinion. I’ve actually gotten annoyed when I’ve poached very appropriately and my rec partner is like “that was my ball”.

Arguments - hey, it happens. We can learn to let to stay on the court. Make amends, or ignore it and move on, whichever you like, but keep it on the court, be the bigger person and don’t carry it.

When someone doesn’t play rec play the way you think they should - what if someone plays in all the ways that are opposite good pb etiquette? Chalk it up to YOU being the bigger person, and maybe just don’t get on the court with that person. Some people just don’t mix and that’s ok. I’m sure there are people who don’t like to play with me. Just don’t play with that person and if you have to, decide that game you’re going to work on patience and forgiveness instead of a pb skill!

Other things our friends brought up (that had mixed reviews)…

• Apologizing (ball hitting net, hitting opponent, etc.)

• Replays for close calls

• Chit chat before/after/during games

• Playing up but unwilling to play down

  • When people that always want to play up to improve their game but are not willing to play down to pay it forward”

• When people start laughing in the middle of the point LOL

• Communication- fine line between partner communication and a hinderance

• Rotating out…

So if you have a fixed mindset, you’ll walk into pb with your skill set, whatever that may be, and you’ll use that, and nothing else. And you won’t get much better. And maybe that ok for you.

But if you have a growth mindset, you’ll work to expand your skill set, you’ll try new things even if you lose a game (gasp!), AND you’ll be gracious to others who don’t conform to your annoyances.

Overall, be hard to offend. I think that would revolutionize not only rec play in pb, but maybe all of our mindsets!

Alright, well let’s leave it there for now. Hopefully this episode has given you something to think about and hasn’t offended anyone too deeply. I think the biggest takeaway is just to have more GRACE– take yourself and this amazing game we all play less seriously. I need this reminder often as my competitive nature can be a BEAST. Even the events of last past week or so with Damar Hamlin are a good reminder of how precious life is–through the tragedy it was really cool to see the entire football/sports community come together… but don’t wait for tragedy to strike in your pickleball community to let people know you love them and change the way you behave on the court. You can start today or the next time you play!

Listener questions: Give email- hoosierpickleball@gmail.com

What we are loving:

Abby: Fair Trade Friday earrings

Matt: Lemon Verbena soap from Trader Joes