DUPR Brain Fitness Pickleball Performance Series Podcast

About DUPR Brain Fitness Pickleball Performance Series Podcast

Born from an obsession with pickleball, the DUPR Brain Fitness Series uses precision brainwave entrainment to sharpen your focus and accelerate your DUPR rating... no meditations!, just high-performance brain training delivered straight to you here. brainfitness.substack.com (https://brainfitness.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Dr. Gordon Jones

Category

science · sports

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

17 Apr 2026

Latest episode

9 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

24 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   9 Sept 2026

   Equipment can be your Neuro-Anchor

   Welcome back to the Brain Fitness for Pickleball Performance Series. I’m Dr. Gordon Jones, and today’s episode is a big one. I’ve got two announcements to share with you. One is personal, one is something we’ve been building behind the scenes for a while, and both of them come back to the same core idea we talk about every week on this show: that your brain, your nervous system, and your practice are all part of the same performance system. Today is special because we are going to be talking about something you may not have ever thought related to your mindset; how your equipment can be a neuro-anchor in your performance as an athlete. We’re going to discuss your responses to the Paddle Poll from last week and which paddle I’m officially moving to as I head into the South Carolina State Championships and the YMCA Nationals. At the end of the episode, I’ve got some really exciting news about a new partnership with an old friend who just happens to be a multi-Gold World Champion in Pickleball, Hall of Famer, and world pickleball traveler & coach. Let’s get into it. Here’s a question I want you to sit with for a second. When you pull your paddle out of your bag before a match, does your brain get quieter, or does it get louder? Because that answer matters more than most players realize. In this series, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about how stress responses degrade fine motor control. When your nervous system spikes into that fight-or-flight zone, blood flow shifts, breathing shortens, and the prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain responsible for court vision and tactical decision-making, gets crowded out by lower-brain survival signals. And one of the sneakiest triggers for that stress response is equipment doubt. If you’re worried about off-center twisting, unpredictable pop-ups, a paddle that feels dead in your hand, or a grip that’s slipping in the fourth game of the day, your brain is quietly running a background process the entire match. How many of you, when you make a stupid unforced error (and we all do) look at your paddle in wonderment? Well, that is the neurological equivalent of having twenty browser tabs open while you’re trying to write an email. That’s what I mean by cognitive friction. Every ounce of mental bandwidth you spend second-guessing your gear is bandwidth you’re not spending on shot selection, positioning, or reading your opponent. The best equipment doesn’t just perform. It disappears in your hand. It becomes a neuro-anchor, a piece of gear so trusted that your brain stops thinking about it entirely and gives that bandwidth back to the game. That’s what I’ve been testing for in my next paddle. Which brings me to announcement number one. After a lot of testing, a lot of match play, and honestly, a lot of resistance to change, I’m officially moving from Velocity Pickleball to Holbrook Pickleball as my paddle sponsor heading into the state and national tournament season. And I want to walk you through why, because a lot of you were part of this decision without even knowing it. A few weeks ago, I ran a poll asking which paddle setup you thought I should bring into tournament play. Here’s what you told me: So a strong majority of you pointed me toward the established tour mainstays, JOOLA and CRBN. And I get why. Those are proven paddles and a lot of pros play them for good reason. They also have huge marketing budgets! But here’s what happened when I actually put them all through the same testing protocol, using basic performance metrics that mattered to me, not just marketing specs. I settled on two paddles from the Holbrook Fuze line. One for men’s doubles, one for singles. For men’s doubles, I’m playing the 16mm Elongated Fuze. Doubles require micro-adjustments during fast kitchen exchanges, and the 16mm core gives me the dwell time and feedback my autonomic nervous system needs to stay calm during those high-speed dink battles and resets. The elongated shape extends my reach, which matters more the older I get. For singles, I’m on the 14mm Fuze. Singles is a different sport. It demands rapid court coverage and immediate energy transfer. The thinner core gives me that pop off the paddle face when I’m hitting passing drives from the baseline, without forcing me to over-swing or rush my mechanics. The Fuze is Holbrook’s flagship paddle. It’s built around their patent-pending Dual Density Foam Core, and honestly, the thing I noticed first when I picked it up was the consistency of the feel across the entire face. Miss the sweet spot slightly, and it still hits the shot you wanted. That is exactly the neuro-anchor property I was talking about earlier. It gets quieter in your hand instead of louder. And credit where it’s due, this isn’t a faceless corporation. Holbrook is a family-owned company built by two brothers, Breygan and Kasen, with their dad Brody. As a serial entrepreneur myself, that truly matters to me. I most appreciate supporting bootstrapped ventures! Now, I know most of you aren’t heading into a state championship next month. So let me talk to you about how this applies to your game, wherever you are on your journey. Because peak performance isn’t just for tournament players. Cognitive comfort on court applies to every stage of learning, and choosing a paddle that fits your current brain and your current game is one of the most under-rated ways to accelerate your development. Here’s how I break down the Holbrook lineup for the players I coach at the North Augusta YMCA and on the North Augusta High School Club team: If you’re a beginner or a casual rec player, you don’t need a $230 paddle. You need forgiveness. You need a big sweet spot so that off-center hits still stay in play, so your brain gets positive feedback while you’re learning. The Holbrook Mav at $99.99 is a great entry into a real performance paddle without the price tag of an elite one. If you’re an intermediate all-court player trying to develop your soft game, your resets, your third-shot drops, you want responsiveness and feedback. The Aero series at $169.99 is built around edgeless design and fast hands at the net. That’s where a lot of your brain training is happening as you level up. If you’re an advanced or competitive player ready for a tournament-grade paddle, you’re looking at the Arma at $199.99 or the Fuze at $229.99. Both use patent-pending core technology built for precision under pressure. And if you want to test any of them yourself, Holbrook has a demo kit program where they’ll ship paddles to your door so you can hit with them on your home courts before you buy. I’ll put the link in the show notes. It’s holbrookpickleball.com/gordonjones Okay. Now for announcement number two, the one I’ve been waiting to share with you for months. Years ago, I met Scott Moore and his son Daniel Moore. Both are World Pickleball Champions and Scott is also one of only a few Pickleball Hall of Fame members who continues to play professionally while also taking players around the world to tour (https://pickleballtrips.com/aff/20/) amazing places as they get pickleball lessons on the go. Daniel is bringing professional and recreational pickleball to Japan, where he lives with his family while playing professionally in SE Asia and Australia. The news is that we will incorporate their training programs into our Brain Fitness series for a complete performance system from head to toe. The Moores have recorded all of their training techniques and practices into a video series that you will access through this Brain Fitness series. I will add commentary to each session, orienting everything to how the brain leverages the lessons to enhance your performance and DUPR journey! So, stay tuned for that launch. Also, if you want to tour with Scott or Daniel and play some pickleball in beautiful places around the world, click over to their Pickleball Trips site here! (https://pickleballtrips.com/aff/20/) Before we sign off, don’t forget, we launched the Brain Fitness for Pickleball program on the BrainTap platform. I joined with one of the true pioneers in brainwave entrainment and brain optimization technology, founder of BrainTap, Dr. Patrick Porter, PhD to produce a BrainTap series specific to the sport of pickleball and its athletes of all levels. We have found this new series can reduce athlete’s stress by up to 39.5% even in a single session. BrainTap provides a 14-day free trial you can use with your own headset. You get full access to my pickleball sessions plus the entire BrainTap library for two weeks. After the trial, membership is only $29.99 a month for the most advanced clinical brain entrainment platform. Just go to braintap.com/pickleball (http://braintap.com/pickleball) to find my dedicated page with all the details and the sessions ready to go. So here’s what I want you to take from today’s episode. Whether it’s the paddle in your hand or the brain fitness sessions running in your headphones, everything you use as a player is either adding cognitive friction or removing it. Your job as a competitor is to build a system, gear, mindset, training, that lets your real level of play show up when it matters. If you’re ready to try a paddle that gets quieter in your hand, head to holbrookpickleball.com/gordonjones (https://holbrookpickleball.com/gordonjones) and order a demo kit. Test the Fuze, test the Arma, test the Aero, on your own courts, in your own game. And if you’re ready to train the most important part of your game, the part nobody’s been coaching, go to braintap.com/pickleball and start your 14-day free trial. Run one of my pickleball sessions before your next match. Feel the difference. Decide based on your own experience. Both links are in the show notes at brainfitness.substack.com. Thank you for being part of this community. Our next session may well include World Champion and Hall of Famer, Scott Moore. Thank you for the poll responses, for the messages, for showing up every week ready to train the game and the brain running it. Remember, your access to this Substack series is freely given, so would you consider making a contribution to our non-profit (https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/dupr-brain-fitness-series) mission of spreading the benefits of pickleball to the world? Just go to: https://brainfit.gordonjones.org/ (https://brainfit.gordonjones.org/) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainfitness.substack.com (https://brainfitness.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

2. 

   10 Aug 2026

   Athletic Intelligence for Performance

   A coach decides whether to push an athlete through another training session or give them another day of recovery. A sports medicine physician determines whether an injured player is truly ready to return to competition. A strength coach adjusts a training plan based on fatigue. A parent wonders whether their child is developing appropriately. A recruiter is wondering what is really under the hood of this prospective athlete. An athlete asks what they need to improve to reach the next level. Remember, your access to this Substack series is freely given, so would you consider making a contribution to our non-profit (https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/dupr-brain-fitness-series) mission of spreading the benefits of pickleball to the world? Just go to: https://brainfit.gordonjones.org/ (https://brainfit.gordonjones.org/) You can access the link in the written portion of this post. Now back to our discussion on Athletic Intelligence for Performance. These are among the most important decisions made in sport, yet they are often made with incomplete information, not because data are unavailable, but because the information exists in disconnected systems that rarely communicate with one another. Over the past two decades, sports science has experienced an explosion of innovation. Exercise physiology, biomechanics, sports medicine, performance analysis, wearable technologies, computer vision, and artificial intelligence now generate unprecedented amounts of information describing athletes, teams, and organizations. Yet despite these remarkable advances, these disciplines have largely evolved independently, producing fragmented models of performance that often limit our ability to integrate biological, technical, tactical, environmental, and organizational information into coherent, evidence-based decisions. That realization is what ultimately led me to begin developing what is now becoming what I call the Athletic Intelligence Platform (AIP⁴). But the journey toward AIP⁴ actually began long before I ever stepped onto a pickleball court. I have been fascinated by the intersection of healthcare, human performance, and emerging technology for nearly thirty years. In 1997, I began exploring how technology could improve health and wellness. My doctoral research surveyed more than 5,000 early Internet users who regularly searched online for health information. At a time when most healthcare providers viewed the Internet with skepticism, my research explored something that seems obvious today: people wanted to communicate with their healthcare providers using digital technology. Looking back, I realize I was never simply chasing new technology. I was searching for better ways to help people make better decisions. Throughout my career I have continually experimented with emerging technologies before they became mainstream. I developed applications to better understand how people interacted with digital platforms and how user experience influenced behavior. Shortly after the introduction of the iPhone, I designed two live-streaming applications, one that would allow first responders to see emergency scenes before arriving, second that would allow any iPhone owner to stream short 60 second video with location data inviting their community to join them in the excitement. Later, I explored social video platforms, blockchain technologies, cryptocurrency, and artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, not because the technologies themselves fascinated me, but because each represented another opportunity to improve how people communicate, learn, and make decisions. I was also fortunate enough to teach these subjects at the University of South Carolina to Information Sciences students. At the same time, athletics remained a constant part of my life. From winning a state championship in high school to later earning two Beach Ultimate world championships, and completing dozens of Ironman Triathlons and other tri distances. Sport has always challenged me to improve, yet for many years I never seriously considered applying these emerging technologies to athletic performance. That changed three years ago when I discovered pickleball. Like many people, I quickly became captivated by the sport. I began competing in tournaments, earned my coaching certification, and one year after learning the game won a state championship in my singles division. As my passion for the sport grew, I found myself asking the same question I had been asking throughout my technology career: How can emerging technology help people perform better? One of my earliest experiments was creating an AI voice and chat digital twin of Pickleball Hall of Famer and multiple-time world champion Scott Moore. Rather than training the system on everything known about pickleball, it was trained specifically on Scott’s coaching philosophy and player development model. The project taught me an important lesson. The technology could answer questions, but it could not truly coach. It responded only to what a player asked. It could not observe movement, recognize patterns, identify strengths and weaknesses, or provide feedback the way an experienced coach does after watching someone play. That realization changed my thinking. Instead of trying to recreate coaching, I began exploring how computer vision and artificial intelligence could observe athletic performance directly from video and transform those observations into meaningful coaching insights. My original vision was to build that technology myself. Fortunately, I didn’t have to. Companies such as PB Vision (https://www.linkedin.com/company/pb-vision-ai/) , SwingVision (https://www.linkedin.com/company/swing-vision/) , Wingfield Sports (https://www.linkedin.com/company/wingfield-gmbh/), and others were already making remarkable progress. As these platforms matured and became integrated with ecosystems such as DUPR (https://www.linkedin.com/company/dupr/), many of the capabilities I had imagined only a few years earlier became reality. Today they are helping coaches and players (even fans) better understand shot selection, movement patterns, technical execution, and match statistics in ways that were unimaginable only a short time ago. Watching this rapid evolution led me to an even bigger question. If technology can now analyze movement, biomechanics, match statistics, physiology, video, and performance independently, why are we still treating these disciplines as separate conversations? Perhaps the next breakthrough is not another application. Perhaps it is a framework that brings them together. That question became the foundation of what I call the Athletic Intelligence Platform (AIP⁴). AIP⁴ is an interdisciplinary scientific initiative dedicated to advancing Performance, Physiology, Prediction, and Potential through Sport. Rather than replacing existing disciplines, it seeks to create a common scientific language and evidence-based framework capable of integrating contemporary sports science with emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, wearable sensing, digital twins, knowledge graphs, and advanced decision-support systems. The framework recognizes that athletic performance is not produced by physiology alone, nor by biomechanics, coaching, psychology, analytics, or technology acting independently. Performance emerges from the dynamic interaction of individuals, teams, organizations, and their competitive environments. AIP⁴ seeks to better understand those interactions through scientifically validated measurement, continuous learning, transparent evidence, ethical AI governance, and human-centered decision-making. It is important to emphasize that AIP⁴ is not presented as a finished solution. It is a research initiative. A living platform. An invitation to collaborate. Like every meaningful scientific endeavor, it will evolve through experimentation, peer review, constructive criticism, and contributions from experts representing many different disciplines. My expectation is not that every initial idea will prove correct. Rather, I hope the framework will become stronger as researchers, coaches, clinicians, engineers, technologists, and athletes challenge its assumptions, refine its models, and expand its capabilities. Over the coming months I will begin publishing the AIP⁴ framework for public review and scientific discussion. My hope is that this platform will grow into an open body of knowledge that helps advance both the science and practice of athletic performance while remaining grounded in rigorous evidence and practical application. If your work involves sports science, physiology, biomechanics, coaching, sports medicine, rehabilitation, computer vision, artificial intelligence, data science, wearable technology, organizational performance, or if you are simply an athlete who is passionate about improving human performance, I would genuinely welcome your perspective. Whether your contribution is challenging an assumption, sharing research, participating in pilot studies, testing new ideas, building technology, or helping validate future models, there is a place for you in this journey. When AIP⁴ ultimately succeeds, it will not belong to one researcher, one university, one sport, or one technology company. It will become a collaborative platform dedicated to helping the world better understand, measure, predict, and develop human performance. I invite you to help build it. Send me a message here on LI, or email me at: doc+aip4@gordonjones.org (mailto:doc+aip4@gordonjones.org) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainfitness.substack.com (https://brainfitness.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

3. 

   21 Jul 2026

   FAST HANDS AND SMART FEET

   Welcome back, brain-fit player. This is Dr. Gordon Jones, your brain fitness and pickleball performance coach. Today we talk about how the brain directs two skills that win more points, and saves more bodies from harm, than anything else in this sport. So, settle in, get comfortable, and let your hands rest naturally open and easy. Remember, your access to this Substack series is freely given, so would you consider making a contribution to our non-profit (https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/dupr-brain-fitness-series) mission of spreading the benefits of pickleball to the world? Just go to https://brainfit.gordonjones.org/ (https://brainfit.gordonjones.org/) You can access the link in the written portion of this post. Now for our discussion on Fast hands Smart feet. Here is what most players never realize. The fastest hands at the kitchen line do not belong to the youngest players. They belong to the calmest ones. Speed is not a muscle. Speed is a brain state. By training your brain properly, you’ll be able to handle anything that comes at you at the kitchenline. And then there’s balance; The thing that keeps you upright when the point gets wild is not in your legs, it is in your nervous system, actively reading the court and recognizing the patterns forming so you will naturally make decisions before you know you have made them. Today we instill both. Let’s begin with our breathing; Breathe in deep through your nose, for 1, 2, 3, 4 And hold for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Breath out the mouth for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ,8 And hold out for 1, 2 Listen as you breathe the pattern in and out again. Breathe in deep through your nose, for 2, 3, 4 And hold for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Breath out the mouth for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ,8 And hold out for 1, 2 Now, breathe naturally, letting each exhale take you a little deeper, a little quieter, a little closer to the theta state where real learning happens. At the kitchen line, a ball can cross the net in under half a second. Your conscious mind cannot keep up with that. It was never supposed to. Fast hands belong to the other-than-conscious mind, and the other-than-conscious mind works best when the body is loose and the attention is soft and wide. A tight hand is a slow hand. A searching mind is a lost point. So the training is not to try harder. The training is to trust deeper. Learning at the speed of trust. Think about your feet. Just like your hands, your feet are only as smart as the decisions your brain has rehearsed. The single most dangerous moment in pickleball is the moment a player backpedals, chasing a lob over their own head, eyes up, heels blind, balance gone. Smart feet never backpedal. Smart feet know a better answer, and tonight your brain learns it so completely that it becomes automatic. You’re drifting deeper now. Deeper into the learning brain state of theta. See yourself at the kitchen line playing doubles. Your partner is beside you. You know and trust each other to play in coordination together, not as two individuals, but instead, one team. The ball is dinking, patient, quiet, and then it happens. Your opponent lifts a lob, high and deep, floating over your head. Watch what your body does not do. It does not backpedal. It does not reach and stumble backward. Instead, you hear your partner’s voice, immediate and certain. Mine. Your partner turns, naturally, the way you turn to walk, and runs back with the ball in view, balanced, smooth, arriving in position to return it. And you, you stay forward. You hold the kitchen line, to shift to cover the open court behind you, your paddle up, ready to counter the very next shot. This is the pattern. The lob goes over one player, and the other player takes it. Turn and run. Never backpedal. Feel how right it feels. Feel the balance in it, the teamwork in it, the safety in it. This one move not only offers a much more successful return or reset shot, but it reduces emergency room visits by half. If you are listening to this podcast, make sure you read the notes to find the link to the most recent report on injuries due to pickleball in the United States. valuepenguin.com/pickleball-injuries-study (http://valuepenguin.com/pickleball-injuries-study) Now, back to our match; Run that last point again, and this time reverse the roles. The lob sails over your partner’s head. Your eyes read it instantly, before it reaches its peak, and your voice is already out. Mine. You turn, hips first, and run naturally, the ball dropping into your vision, your feet under you the whole way. You return the lob with ease while your partner holds the line. Turn and run. Never backpedal. Turn and run. Never backpedal. Your brain is recording this right now, wiring it as the automatic answer. If you have been enjoying this brain fitness series for pickleball, you now have the opportunity to benefit from our more advanced brain fitness series for pickleball, sports, and for all aspects of your health and life with neuroscientist, Dr. Patrick Porter. Just click over to Pickleball on BrainTap (https://pickleball.braintappartner.com/) That’s pickleball.braintappartner.com/ (http://pickleball.braintappartner.com/) Now back to the hands. You returned the lob with a reset and you are back at the kitchen line with your partner. The ball is speeding up now and a drive comes at your body. Notice your hands, soft, quick, alive. Your paddle meets the ball out in front, a clean counter, no tension, no rush. Another attack, even faster. Your hands answer again, relaxed and instant, because your mind is quiet and quiet minds make fast hands. Energy follows attention, and your attention is calm, wide, out in front of you, exactly where speed lives. Remain here, in this theta state, while these patterns settle in. Fast hands come from a calm mind. Smart feet come from rehearsed decisions. As we rise, let’s build more capacity. Breathe in deep through your nose, for 1, 2, 3, 4 And hold for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Breath out the mouth for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ,8 This time hold out for as long as you can 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 Maybe more. Try it again. Breathe in deep through your nose, for 1, 2, 3, 4 And hold for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Breath out the mouth for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ,8 and hold out for as long as you can, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 You’re coming back now, refreshed and sharp. Ready for the day and the play. And here is your assignment, because this session is not complete until it reaches the court. The very next time a lob goes up in your game, over your head or your partner’s, the call happens early and the coverage happens naturally. Mine. Turn and run. Return and reset. At the kitchen, paddle up, hands soft, mind quiet. Now, play several more points in your mind where you consciously notice how calm your hands feel, and how your feet make their turn and run. No, backpedaling! Excellent, you are getting better at this. For the rest of the day, remember… Reset fast and Play free. This is now the rhythm of your life. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainfitness.substack.com (https://brainfitness.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

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