My odd pickleball obsession...

So quick story:

Last summer, I fell in love with Pickleball.

I binged every YouTube video I could find.
How to spin. Where to stand. When to smash.

I knew the game cold.

Or so I thought…

When I stepped on the court - I couldn’t execute all the techniques I had been obsessing over.

My brain said “drop shot.”
My hands said “good luck.”

I knew where to hit the ball. The ball was just being stubborn.

(At least, that’s what I told myself 😜)

Truthfully, I probably looked like a baby deer on roller skates.

And that’s when it hit me:

I had been spending all my time studying what to do - but I never practiced how to do it.

Or as the academics call it: Declarative knowledge vs. procedural knowledge.

Now I know you may be thinking, “Duh Jay, everyone knows that.”

But do we? Do we really?

See, most people live in the first area.

They read their 5th book on a topic.
Take their 4th course.
Watch their 17th video.

Yet they never cross over to type 2 knowledge. And in turn, they never truly learn.

Because the truth is, procedural knowledge only lives in one place: the dirt.

It lives in the missed shots.
Failed launches.
Uncomfortable reps.

You can’t click a button and download it. You have to earn it.

At my new role with Acquisition.com, I’m learning from the absolute best in the business (ask me about my running Google Doc of learnings sometime).

But the biggest lessons don’t come from scripts.
They come from scars.

They come from rolling up your sleeves, stepping into the arena, and yes… DOING the thing.

So here’s my reminder to you (and to me):

If it feels neat and easy, you're probably not learning as much as you think.
And if it feels messy, that’s the point.

Remember: You can’t YouTube your way to greatness.

Don’t stay on the sidelines.

Get on the court.

Until next week,
Jay “Pickleball King” Yang

Ps. LinkedIn Maxxing

Pps. One of the reasons You Can Just Do Things is only 146 pages long is because I didn’t want to overwhelm you with academic studies or fancy experiments.

The goal was simple: inspire you, shift your paradigm, and give you practical frameworks you can act on today.

The principles in this book genuinely changed my life.

I’m not promising they’ll change yours… but if you’re willing to try, they just might.

You can grab your copy here.

Ppps. One newsletter I always come back to is The Lake Street Journal by my friend Joe Wells. It’s full of timeless wisdom on leadership and living well.

If you care about becoming a better thinker, you’ll want this in your inbox.

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