A Mystic’s Approach to Pickleball
Scary Pickleball Questions
As an addict
of the game of Pickleball,
some questions bother me.
And they bother me deeply,
like they make me squirm inside.
The questions include:
- Do you teach pickleball?
Are you available to teach? - How am I supposed to hold my paddle?
- How do you hit the ball?
You’d think
that these innocent questions ,
one an inquiry
about my availability
and the others
simple how-to questions,
wouldn’t bother someone like me
who really, really wants to help
and enjoys helping
others play better,
to play more like
the way they suspect
that they can,
but can’t seem to.
I understand
that when someone asks me
if I’m available to teach them
how to play Pickleball,
they’re kinda asking
if I can help them
play more like me.
I get it.
I play
with a certain sense of style
and a degree of control
that allows me
to have a lot of fun
on the court.
All good
from my point of view.
Mystic’s Fire
So,
what’s my problem?
Why do the questions
bother me so much?
There’s a saying
attributed to William Butler Yeats
(according to Google & others)
but others have no doubt
expressed similar sentiments
across cultures & times.
Education
is not the filling of a pail,
but the lighting of a fire.
I feel like
in my past teaching experiences,
I succeeded in filling the pail
but did not really light the fire.
Partly, maybe.
If anything,
I created Frankensteins,
not fully human,
but not fully monster,
either.
This part and that part
stuck together
in a haphazard manner.
Oh sure,
the half-monsters
are happy.
But this creator aint.
Oh yes,
the little half-monsters
bring a smile
to the face.
How can they not?
They’re so cute,
monstering away
on the court.
They get respect
from their peers
on the court.
Heck,
they get my respect
on the court.
They’re mean.
Clever mean.
So,
that much they got.
At any rate…
to most of us,
that’s what counts,
getting respect
from our peers
on the court.
In their minds,
I’ve helped them
get respect
from their peers
on the court.
So they see me
as a good teacher
of Pickleball,
me thinks.
But
I don’t wanna be
no stinkin’ half-monster-maker.
I wanna be
a full-monster-maker.
That is…
I know now
I can make half-monsters.
Been there, done that.
Next level:
full-monsters.
I am now ready
to start laying the groundworks
for making full-monsters
from scratch,
for lighting a mystic’s fire
in the game
of those who care to dare.
Mystical Pickleball
What does it take
to make full-monsters?
What does it take
to fully light the fire?
I have been struggling
with this question
for some time now.
I think one thing that I need
is a written description
of what I mean by fire
and what I mean by full monster.
As a general rule,
to pass on the torch:
1. theory
2. demonstration.
I plan to describe the theory
behind my mystical approach to Pickleball
through a series of Medium articles
under the title:
Mystical Pickleball Principles.
Each article
will explicate a particular Principle
upon which the approach is based.
TMPT Principles
This mystic’s approach to Pickleball,
formally known as
This Mystic’s Pickleball Training system,
or TMPT system for short,
is defined by and revolves around
a set of yin-yang (ie: dualistic) principles.
TMPT Principles are inter-related
in that they all follow
a meta-principle,
which in its most abstract sense
maybe described as
the principle of balance & harmony.
The principle of balance & harmony
in the TMPT system
is The 3–2–1 Principle.
The 3–2–1 Principle
is the mother principle,
or the grand-daddy principle,
of the TMPT system.
The 3–2–1 Principle
A mystic’s path goes from
3 to 1.
The path
from 3 to 1
is 2.
A mystic’s path goes from
multiplicity to unity.
The simplest path from
multiplicity to unity
is duality.
In plain English:
Mystic’s overall goal
is to go
from confusion and chaos of many
to peace & harmony of unity
(aka non-duality).
The path or method to unity
is duality.
Rationale:
Two,
or duality,
is the simplest multiplicity.
By combining dualities
we can model any multiplicity.
Through a series of dualities
(ie: a bunch of simplest multiplicities)
we conquer infinite multiplicity.
In terms of information processing:
We can model analog system
to arbitrary precision
digitally.
Duality = Binary.
Principle of Mystical Compromise
At this point,
some of you may be wondering
how any of this
has anything to do with Pickleball.
This is one of the characteristics
of mystics,
me thinks.
We can get
very particular and abstract
in the beginning,
laying the foundation.
But the reason we do that
is so that we can be free
from all this
when we are
training & playing Pickleball.
By addressing the most difficult issues
from the start,
we simplify our task immensely
for the rest of the journey.
That is,
mystics optimize
for maximum long-term gain.
Mystics are willing to
pay the short-term price
of slower initial growth
for maximum long-term potential.
Mystics, too, compromise.
Mystics sacrifice short-term rewards
to grow long-term potential.
Most people compromise
by sacrificing long-term potential
for short-term certainty.
Series Articles
In this Series Introduction to A Mystical Approach to Pickleball, I introduced you to:
- The TMPT system which reflects my approach to Pickleball. That said, I did not approach my game of Pickleball with a system. The TMPT system was created to help others follow (or, more accurately, learn from) the path that I took in developing my Pickleball game. My personal path did not have a system. The system is the result of having traveled my path.
- The 3–2–1 principle, The mother of all good-for-nothing useless principles.
- The Principle of Mystical Compromise. This is the basic orientation you need, I think, to be a mystic… to risk it all for the potential of something bigger that we can only imagine, at least in the beginning.
These two TMPT meta-Principles (the 3–2–1 Principle, and the Principle of Mystical Compromise) serve as the foundational principles for TMPT system’s instantiated principles, which I will simply refer to as TMPT Principles, that address specific aspects of competitive sports in general and the game of Pickleball in particular.
TMPT Principles will explicated in the series articles.
Published Series Articles
