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Brian Thinks: Ideas from the CourtAuthor: Brian Lutz
Short ideas from a lifetime on the racquet court. Ive spent more than 38 years around tennis and pickleballcoaching players, watching matches, and noticing the strange little decisions that happen between points. These episodes are quick observations about strategy, psychology, and how players actually improve. Longer thinking lives on my Substack, Brian Thinks, where players go deeper and meet Narci, a conversational coaching tool built for the moments between games. The podcast starts the thinking. Narci continues it on the court. Language: en Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Your Rating Isn't Stuck. Your Identity Is.
Sunday, 8 March, 2026
Many players say they want to improve, but quietly organize their decisions around protecting a number.A DUPR rating.A league level.A reputation on the court.The result is predictable: safer choices, fewer experiments, and slower improvement.In this episode, I explore the subtle psychological trap of identity protection — and why real progress often starts when players are willing to temporarily look worse in order to get better.This idea shows up everywhere in racquet sports, from tennis league matches to pickleball tournaments.The question isn’t whether your rating is accurate.The real question is whether it has started to define how you play.More thinking on this topic lives on my Substack at Brian Thinks, where I explore the longer version of these ideas and the questions that help players think more clearly between games.Because the next point doesn’t start with the serve.It starts with the thought before it.
