It Feels Right
It Feels Right #69 - MLP Grand Rapids: Lineups, Team Strategies, and Adam's Playing Experience
I went to an early dinner with a handful of people, so there's a little bench right next to the front entrance of the hotel, and you have to walk right to get to a certain tower and walk left to get to another tower. So anytime a pickleball player walked in, I gave them like a 10 out of 10 loud introduction. Yeah, I'm walking in, Adam, what happens? I'm walking in the front door, not expecting anything. Absolutely. Deckle Bar from Heifa Israel, standing 6 foot 2 weighing 210 pounds with the most magnificent third leg in all the pickleball. Deckle Bar, ladies and gentlemen. So I mean, I'm talking like the whole desk was looking at me. There's 40 people just staring at me and like Deckle can't even control himself. I did one for Augie Gah and JW Johnson as well. Throughout the James Walter, it was it was everybody everybody was cracking up and it was it was just a good vibe. Because you know why? Why? Because it feels right. It feels right. Legendary. This is the moment we waited for. Everything you want is right here. We gonna give them what they came for. We gonna take it up from last year. Watch the game change. Watch the game change. Watch the game change. Watch the game change. Hello, Adam. Hello, Robert. You got your Celsius rocking? You're ready to go. Yeah, what flavor do you think I'm drinking? Lemon lime. I mean, not too far off green apple cherry. Fair lemon lime lemon lime is a lovely flavor. That's a lovely flavor. It's a go to it's a classic. What do you think carbonated versus non carbonated Celsius? I've never had a Celsius before. I'm off. I'm technically right now I'm off caffeine completely. I do mushroom brew and that's it. Oh, that's right. I told you the Greg Dow story about his Celsius his first Celsius experience. Correct. Well, we have pressed that red button and we are 36 seconds into the episode and I would love to hear a Greg Dow story. Well, other than the social media content he just put out, which is utterly insane with him and Carlos and Austin. Greg's doing a tutorial about cup dinks where it's he's he's cupping Carlos's butt saying this is how you do it grabbing his butt. He's like, it's not a spank. You don't just spank it. And then he's spanking his butt too. And then he's like, it's cup. It's it's all time content, Greg Dow content. Everybody out there check it out. Okay, but the Greg Dow story of Celsius is and what was this? Boca Boca retoned last year. Greg and I are playing together. It's the first time he's he convinced me to get him on the aces. So I told Sami to draft him, you know, that dude that was sneaky by him. But if he doesn't message you, I don't think he gets drafted. No, definitely not. I think we talked about that in the podcast. Like I read out his pitch and I asked you if you knew anything about Greg Dow and you're like, yeah, I know a little bit about Greg Dow. I do. Okay, but we were playing throughout the day, we ended up going into the Losers bracket and then playing in the gold where we, you know, we won the two out of three and then we were playing a 15 or against Andreas Silstrom and Joey Ferris. But we played seven matches and Greg has been known to be a little, you know, aloof, if you will. And he, I mean, I don't think he had a water. He's wearing my like, he's wearing my Selkirk shirt that's like popping off of his chest. He looks like a bodybuilder. Yeah. And like my sponsors on my sleeves, he's just wearing it because he lost his shirt or somewhat. No, actually it's another crazy story. Somebody stole his stuff out of his hotel room allegedly and it was on film. Anyways, neither here nor there. After each match, he's drinking a Celsius because he thinks it's a, he thinks it's a hydration drink. He doesn't understand that it's an energy drink. So he goes seven Celsius deep throughout the day. And the gold medal match, dude, he's like, is just can't even hold it. Like it's just, it's like, he'd, at the end, I'm like, dude, how many do you, like, I drink one every match. It was seven, which is, you know, that's approaching what that's uh, that's like over, it's over 1500 milligrams of caffeine, which is, which is pretty aggressive considering he doesn't drink coffee. Yeah. Like maybe, maybe you could get away with that as a coffee drinker, but that's still like an absurd amount. It's per, I mean, 1500 that that is obscene. Like that is, we could have some, we could have some major issues with the heart palpitations and the whatnot. I couldn't even imagine. I do 200 and I'm losing my mind. So Greg Dow, it's finest. Just add, add another story to the list, right? I mean, even just within that one tournament, there's seven Greg Dow story. So, you know, the, the legend continues of, of Mr. Dow. Yeah, it does. Robert, we had a pretty fun, exciting, majorly pickleball tournament this past weekend in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I was lucky to be a part of it, but I think MLP has got, of course, where you go in the country matters, but MLP has a little steam that first event in Atlanta, a little low on the attendance, and it's been building in DC and Grand Rapids, as I mentioned, and it was a phenomenal vibe. Two courts, grandstand championship, both lined with people, both had a little mini grandstand, phenomenal atmosphere, lots of chanting, lots of, you know, let's go fives chanting Georgia after every time she makes a good shot. It was, it was a very fun atmosphere. Yeah, what do you, what do you attribute it to? I know Grand Rapids, Andrew Coop, Beer City Open, I mean, they're like, they're hungry for this tournament. Right after this tournament ends, they're thinking about next year, there's waitlist for amateur events. There's like, it's like, it's almost like a US Open type deal where it's hard to get into it, you know, it's like, you buy lottery types, like the demand's so heavy, they've done such a good job of curating that experience over the past however many years they've hosted it. I love like, that's always going to make the pro experience so good, right? Because there's people there that are like looking forward to this every single year. I think, and it's a, it's a out-of-pocket location kind of, you know, it's, it's Grand Rapids. And you go to these big cities like Atlanta where it's a much bigger, it's a much bigger, like much bigger, not arena, but like Stan, you're going on. There's more going to Atlanta. It's a bigger space too, right? So it's like, I don't know, I like going to these little kind of the little out-of-pocket places where people are really, really hungry for pickleball. Oh man, I totally agree. So yeah, every single year they've sold out. It's just, they just, they only have so many courts. So there's more demand than what they're able to give. And they always bring a good vibe. Nice little beer tent with New Belgium, not only Andrea Koot, but Paul Richards. And I think it's Nicole Miller. I'm not sure if I butchered that last name or not. But they do a phenomenal job with player hospitality. I remember playing there like four years ago. And there was, we talked about this before, there was a light issue. The lights just weren't strong enough to see the ball. I played you and the match before gold. I had a very tight battle with you, with you and Rob Cassidy. And it was dark. And I remember playing that gold medal match. And after the match, I was not thrilled. I was a little upset. I had trouble tracking the ball. It clearly affected the quality of points. Next year lights fixed. So every single year it's different. Now they have this huge structure in the middle. I think it was something wild, like around half a million dollars. They have new walkways. They resurfaced the courts a handful of weeks ago. You, it's like a scooter e-bike town. They put up most of the players and the the Amway grand. And then there was also an embassy suites half a mile from the venue. So I walked to the venue every single day. You see all the players in the lobby all the time. There's a bar right by the front desk and the hotel. So it's a very cool vibe. You see everybody kind of around before matches, after matches. And I enjoyed myself very much throughout the tournament. Yeah, you mentioned bars and you mentioned the Amway grand. And before we got on, you mentioned a pretty fun, a pretty fun thing you did in the lobby. Yeah. So yeah, the last, the last night, I would say still maybe I'd say half the people left Sunday, half the people were leaving Monday morning. So I went to an early dinner with a handful of people, Koot, Jesse Irvin, Irina, a couple more. I'm sure I'm missing someone, Ben Grant. Anyway, so there's a little bench right next to the front entrance of the hotel. And you have to walk right to get to a certain tower and walk left to get to another tower. So anytime a pickleball player walked in, I gave them like a 10 out of 10 loud introduction, like at the top of my lungs. I mean, what do you, I mean, do you want an example? Yeah, I'm walking in Adam. What happens? I'm walking in the front door, not expecting anything. Absolutely. Dekal bar from Heifa Israel standing six foot two weighing 210 pounds with the most magnificent third leg in all the pickleball. Dekal bar, ladies and gentlemen. So I mean, I'm talking like, yeah, desk was looking at me. There's 40 people just staring at me and like, Dekal can't even control himself. I did one for Augie Gah and JW Johnson as well throughout the James Walter. It was, it was good. Everybody, everybody was cracking up. And it was, it was just a good vibe. And, you know, it's good time to get an IPA or two. Sometimes I get a little carried away, but it's, it's usually somewhat entertaining, somewhat entertaining. So IPA or two or four, that eight percenter will get you. Oh, yeah, that's you don't have to have a lot when you're eight percentering. So, but we're it's beer city, right? So you're just doing your part. That's correct. I mean, you really don't have a choice. And I remember actually last year I did commentary. I just coached for the SoCal Hard H this year. Last year I did commentary. And for the last match, we would crack one right next to the microphone for the beer city open one beer last match. I'm a professional. I wouldn't do any more than that. That's a perfect sound for the broadcast of the little bit. Yeah. Yeah, just like that. Yeah. So all the teams were there. All the players were there. It, but the format was turn in the format premiere separate from Challenger. It was top three places earn money. Correct. So if you lose in the main, you're thrown down to the loser's bracket where you can battle for third. If you lose twice, your, your team's done. Is that correct? Correct. It was a feed and backdrop. So as you progress in the main draw, as you get beat, you get funneled in. So that is exactly right. $140,000 prize pool for premier for premier $60,000 prize pool for challenger. And that they pay the top three spots in each division. Remember, Challenger only has 10 teams premiere has 12. Yeah. So lots of action, lots of play. I was lucky enough for the SoCal Hard Aids to make a nice run. We took a really tough loss to the Las Vegas night owls in the dreambreaker, but we got funneled back down to the backdrop and ended up winning the backdrop and capturing third place. So it was a very fun week, some good team building. Irina played well, Eric Lang played well, Purple Jesus is the man and newcomer for the SoCal Hard Aids, Jan and Nul stepped up in a big way. So it was a very fun, fun week for the hard Aids and myself. I will have to say, I, I have to, I have to eat some crow in terms of talk, dude, it's in terms of talking about the Vegas night owls, man. They keep just surprising me. Judith's playing really well. She's, she, dude, she's, I think she's underrated in MLP. She just gets wins and doubles. Her and Jeannie, like when they were on our team were like undefeated over like, I don't know, eight or nine, 10 matches, Judith somehow gets it done and MLP, dude, she's, she's good. And I think, you know, they are outperforming more than what I thought they would do. What are your thoughts on them? She played, she played a double right because she was paired up with Zoe Wong and, and women's doubles. And she's pretty good from here, one handed punch. So when she's not responsible for as much court, I think it plays in nicely. She will float some thirds and some fifths, but she's so athletic and moves so well that she usually gets out of it and gets forward, even if the initial drop, you know, isn't as spectacular as, as some other players. So, and clearly, if you do end up in a tie situation, she's one of the best, absolute best singles players out there, maybe number one and all the challenger. So, the team played well, the team played well. I mean, Scarpa, dude is, he looks like a physical presence, man. Like he is like thicker, his legs are, I mean, his quads were just ripped. It looks like he's been in the gym, been working out. He was God, he was sweating profusely, but he didn't miss a dang ball. He didn't miss a dang ball against us. And I still think the number one most impressive part of the Las Vegas night owls was Zoe Wong. She's a dang puppet master. She, she covers the court from the left like a lot of the guys do. She's like straddling the center line. She can manipulate the ball. She can roll it with forehand and backhand, whether it's soft stuff or with power. And she was playing with the, yeah. So, I mean, I think that the team played very well. And the hard dates, like I said, we got off to a slow start in women's first doubles match. And that definitely hurt us. And just weren't, weren't able to get them in the dream breaker, kudos to them. How important is that first match in MLP? Like that first match that goes out, man, it, it can change the whole momentum of everything. Yeah, it really does set the tone. I mean, just especially if it's one where you're not necessarily supposed to win, but like you're slight underdogs and then you somehow grab it, you're like, you have all the momentum in the world going into your stronger event. No, it's absolutely massive. It really is. I mean, four matches, that's all there is. So, to get off to a good start, and that even like, you know, sometimes you can think about some strategic stuff in terms of matching up mixed doubles matches. And if you lose that first one, you're often you're a little handcuffed. If you can get up to O or, you know, guarantee that you have a one one, you can kind of tinker a little bit. Maybe you have a one A, one B team or a clear cut, one and two team. And you can kind of get the match ups that you're hoping for if you're two O or one one. But when you lose that first one, it is, it's kind of like a punch in the gut. And you know, you have an uphill battle the rest of the way. I mean, you literally have to sweep to not go to a dream breaker once you lose that first match. And that's, that's pressure, man, that's pressure. Yeah, is there any strategy involved on your guys's end in terms of who you want to put out first? Like, obviously, you're, your men are probably favored in every match up. Are you thinking we want to put them out first to grab to secure a W and then, and then, you know, take one on the women's side, go up to O or like, like, obviously, your gender is stronger than mixed. I mean, I don't think there's any secret there. But is there any strategy in terms of who you put out first men or women? Well, I mean, it's just, it's just kind of, whatever you're looking for, there's different advantages and disadvantages to both. If you have a stronger men's team, maybe you put your men second and you carry over that momentum into mixed doubles. But yes, as you said, and I saw a variety of teams doing it. I saw the Dallas Flash put out Auggie and J Dub first a couple times. We were looking to put the the females out first most of the time. So, you know, kind of Yana and Irene that can set the tone. And then we could, if they were unable to get that W, we're feeling like 75, 80% of the time our guys are going to win. So that will at least even us up or possibly add on to that 1-0 that the girls got us and we're in a great spot for mixed doubles. But yeah, I mean, there's definitely advantages and disadvantages for both and also having a being up to over down to affects kind of how you want to match up your A team versus their A team and mixed and whatever. And of course, if you're if you're setting your lineup first, you don't get that choice. But if you're reacting, it's a big deal to have a lead or not have a lead to get the match ups that you want. So yeah. What do you think? So Brooklyn, Brooklyn Aces, what do you think? What do you think about them? They they they won the challenger event. It's Pablo, Daniel, Dela Rosa, Lane, and is it Lenna? Yeah, did you see that? Did you see them as, you know, getting through that bracket? No, not really. I mean, no, it's a good team. I mean, you add Pablo. I love Martin Imrich, but Pablo is basically a slightly better version of Martin. So I mean, I think that that's that's just what it is at this point, not that Martin can improve his game, but you got to give the edge to Pablo. So actually, I will rephrase that. They were one of the top couple teams. So I think they were more middle of the pack for me before, but now having Pablo, I mean, Pablo, and he didn't, there was no, there was no like mental dip. Oh, shoot, I got dropped down to challenger. The dude just steam rolled it played fantastic. He was locked in mentally. And, you know, it's always nice talking in that native tongue to your partner. So him and DLR, Dela Rosa, had a nice little bond out there on court. Lane Sleeth, I'll tell you what, it's not, I wouldn't say that she has the sexiest technique. There's a little bit of stuff going on, but she's extremely athletic. She makes a ton of balls, and she's just slowly improving each time I see her. So she might have a shot every so often. We were like, oh, wow, I'm not sure that was fantastic. But she gets a ton of balls back. She moves extremely well. She was doing the dang splits, sliding on the court, just leaving it all out there. And when you have her athleticism paired with the six foot line of Padigameta, I mean, it's tough to get a ball past those two. And they're also pretty dang scrappy and mixed double. So I'm not a shock for me at all, that they were able to win it. Having added Pablo, had they not, I would have, would have been surprised with the ACEs making it all the way through. I don't know if you know this, but I haven't checked a bag since probably 2005. So I'm going on 20 years of, of no check bags. I only carry on. And what's made that really easy for me over the past couple of years are Selkirk backpacks. Because a little do people know you get a personal item to carry on on those carriers. And both items are big backpacks. I carry them on. I fill both of them to the brim. And they both count as carry on. So I don't have to, I don't have to check back. It's important. I'm right there with you. And see that? See, that's the big boy. And I am past my playing days. So I do one big boy and one little smaller fella here that I can take with me from the hotel to the venue every single day. Leave the big boy there. Don't check bags. Get yourself some Selkirk gear. Small, medium, big. You need it. I don't have the small. I need the small. Somebody send me the small big. Yeah, you're right. Because I could put my little laptop and I don't have to take the big one. It's important. Selkirk, send me a small. I'll buy it. Yeah. Yeah, I think, yeah, the big question mark was how would the ladies perform? And yeah, I mean, making a lot of balls, right? There's a strategy in rally, right? It's like, I still, and I still don't quite know what the best, what the best route is. Is it just being incredibly consistent, making a ton of balls, finding your spots and taking care of, really taking care of the ball and playing clean? Or, I mean, you see a lot of teams win because it is such a, it can move quick. It can, where they're driving, crashing, really getting some quick, easy points on their serve, which kind of gets you that little lead. And then, you know, you can kind of coast on that. So, I think there's still some question marks on like, what's the best strategy in terms of actually how to, as a player, how to best play rally? You know what I mean? Rally scoring means nothing. It's no different. It's absolutely no different whatsoever. You play an optimal way to win, to win the individual point. Yeah, I personally think it means nothing now. If it's in your head as a player and affecting you or you're thinking about, you know, oh, I, whatever, lose the service point, we actually lose a point instead of sending the ball back over, then I could see where it's affecting strategy, shot selection and a variety of things. But for me, just in a vacuum, I think it means no difference. Rally scoring, every individual point, as you are to play optimally, to win, do what you need to do, whether that's pace, well-timed aggression, or full on defensive, consistent play, whatever your set strategy is going in, and the way you want to play these certain opponents, the rally scoring factor means absolutely nothing. Yeah, one thing that's I can't shake, and I really, it's like one of my favorite parts to watch with side out scoring is, you know, how to players, the game's shifted, right? Unwinding the stack, it's gone to like these really hybrid, aggressive dip thirds, you know, trying to catch somebody on a switch. Like, I'm, like, that's the part of pickleball where it's like, it's nuanced strategy that's getting removed from, getting removed from point play and rally, because you just, you know, you're just stationary on each side. Yeah, no, I think that that's true. I like, I like the unwinding the stack and kind of some of the situations that it brings, and, you know, if you're a, you know, you're a phenomenal returner and a good mover, you should get some benefit for that, you know, I think. So, you know, maybe some of the... Or be forced to, or be forced to play aside where you're not, you're not as comfortable. I just find it super interesting to like see those scenarios play out, and we lose a little bit of that with rally. So, it'd be cool to figure out like a... But, you know, the whole point of rally, right, was to, was to save time or have consistent times for TV. And, I mean, having a game to 40, 38 is probably longer than what a normal game would be. So, it's, it's, I don't think you're getting that benefit from rally that they were necessarily looking for. Yeah, yeah, no, I got you. So, seriously, I think the format's going to continue to, like, they're going to continue to optimize. But, I think it's important to, like, bring the stuff up because it just opens conversations about how to, like, what is the best format to where, you know, we get to see all of the interesting things about point play, whether it's unwinding the stack or, but also finding consistent game link times to make it work for TV. Yeah, I mean, Rob, Rob, format is no different than pickleball, pro pickleball strategy. It's unsolved. So, yeah, I mean, having these conversations, tweaking it, it will not be like this three years from now. There will be some, there will be something different. And that's okay. Some people just get really pissed about it. And it's just like, like, I mean, like, I mean, we're, we're still young. I mean, we don't even know how to, we don't even know how to optimally pay points yet. We don't have the optimal format either. They're working towards it. They made a tweak that you have to win on your serve after one event of it not going how the fans and the players wanted it. And they made the switch. So this is just the situation that we're in. Let's have constructive conversations about it and not, you know, be angry at someone because, yeah, a piece, a piece of format is not exactly how you want it. So totally, totally agree. And there's advantages, disadvantages, both if I was still playing, I would love the rally scoring format, because I could just stay on the right side and not have to run as much. But it does take away some unique situations that you see. I mean, you see, I mean, there's lots of people with the paddle technology and the ball in the past six to eight months that were unwinding the stack. And now we're not in a traditional BPA format, or just traditional tournament format in general. So I couldn't agree more with that. And I think just in terms of strategy, Adam, like just thinking about how points are constructed, if oftentimes when you are stacking as a serving team, you have that left side player, the stronger player that wants to take a lot of court, let's say they're serving from the right, right? And, let's say you and I are playing, I'm playing the left side, I'm serving from the right, you're stacked to my right. I serve big, I'm basically looking for, I'm taking that third, because I have the whole court, right? Like wherever that ball is, I'm basically taking that third, and it makes me play more aggressive and it makes me play more court. And I think when you're not stacking like that, the left side player has less kind of room to really get involved or move over and take and really take as much court as they're used to taking, without like really consciously making that effort. So I think there's a lot of little nuances that I find interesting. Yeah, I would say in a, you would be less, the right side player would be more likely to occasionally have to take a third with their backhand if they're right handed in that given situation, whereas you're right, if you are serving from the right, you do kind of have free range. Basically, if you're serving, if you're my left side partner, we're both right handed, you're serving from the right, I am looking to not hit a backhand probably the entire match right there and only focus on the forehand drops, you know, maybe a special circumstance. If I just prefer my backhand, I could step to my right and take some, but yes, I agree with the little nuggets that you get with just a light format tweak that can make a difference to some of the patterns that are happening on court. Well, I think it, I don't know if, I mean, it doesn't probably directly attribute, but I think for those people that are really, really strong left side players that can really take over court, I mean, look, we had, we had Ben, Colin, Riley, combined, I think we talked about this go 0 and 10 on the weekend. So yeah, it's a different format, it's, it's, it's unique and I'll be, you know, those are, those are some of the most influential voices in terms of, you know, where the sport's going and, and I'll be, yeah, you know, I'm sure they don't like to lose. So be curious to see if they get a little sour on, on the format Nimal Pete. Yeah. Oh, oh, oh, for 10. That's, that's, that's healthy. And just, I mean, god dang, what would the Vegas odds have been on that as, as a parlay? Yeah. Oh, I mean, something, something obscene. So that, that is, that is completely wild. And yeah, we touched a little bit on, you know, some of those matches and challenger talked about each of the top three teams for the, for the division. Let's step over to the premier side. Yeah. As we had, really, the, the DC pickleball club just absolutely dominating doubles. You have three of the top five individual performances from the DC pickleball team. Yeah. But somehow the fives and Annalee Waters were able to do some big time damage and singles as Will Howls and Zane Navratil combined under 500 in their doubles matches. So format definitely played a lot. And that, as, as I mentioned, that dominating performance and even actually the, the Dallas flash, they had better doubles results than the fives did, but the fives got it done. Hey, I mean, and this is, this was kind of fun too, right? Because like we see dream, dream breakers matter kind of less in the prior events, because, you know, you're getting less points for a, for a dream breaker win and you're getting eight point for a dream breaker loss. And this is like, you know, win or go home. Like it's a, it's just pure you win or you're dropping. So I, I, again, I think it's, I like it. I think it's nice to be able to have both where, you know, you're getting punished for a dream breaker loss versus getting rewarded. Um, you know, so tournament format was fun. It was fun to see like those dream breaker, because I think in the, in the prior, in the prior events, if it gets to a dream breaker, if you lose that versus win it, there's less on the line, right? We're talking one point versus two points. So, and you know, and now the dream breakers have a lot more tension because it's, you know, you lose, you lose, right? So it was fun to see a little bit more of the high stakes in the dream breaker in this event. Right? Yeah. I think I saw a little light discussion on Twitter about MVP performances. And, uh, I know he won some big points and some big moments, but I, I'm not sure you can put Zane Navratil in that conversation at two and four total record, but Annalie Waters, five and one career team to the title, uh, Studley, Studley, uh, singles performances. And man, that Mari Goldberg or Mari Humbert. Sorry. Sorry, Mari. Uh, I mean, just wow, rolling and cutting everything. I mean, she is a real treat to watch special, unique style. And she played big and some big moments for that team. Uh, good for her. Yeah. And I mean, Marta's just getting better and better, you know, played some practice games with her in Newport and she's, she's gotten much more consistent on the, on the drops and the mid court stuff. And that's what we talked about early on when I believe it was her and Georgia gave Annalie and Katherine to run for their money and maybe Mesa. Um, Mari had all the offense and this is why she got drafted by Annalie, right? She had that performance against Annalie and Mesa and Annalie's like, whoa, like, but she's, she's tough. Like she's long. She has flicks, like good flicks. Um, just was a little inconsistent and at that time, and now's really, I mean, I think in my opinion, still a little too choppy and slicey, but she's making, she's making way more of them. So I think, yeah, I mean, smart pick by Annalie, she saw something, right? So. And Humberg seems pretty cool too. Like she seems to my mind. Yeah. Throwin out, throwin out vibes. Like she seems like she would be a fantastic teammate. So yeah, really, I mean, how about this? Looky here, the crime dog going six and one Tyson McGuffin. And I know he had a win over Riley and Connor Garnett, Riley, his former partner. I know he loves that, but did they, did they beat the John's brothers as well? Federico and, and Tyson, I'm not 100% sure on that, but either way, phenomenal tournament for the crime dog. I always, always love seeing the veterans continuing to build on their game. And right when you think they might have a dip in level, they put up a good performance. Nice job, Tyson. 100% Um, you know, and Fed's going to be said solid. But big win, big win by speaking of beating the John's, I mean, Kwong, Kwong Dong and Christian Oshan getting the W over them. Yeah, I was, uh, you know, pretty surprising to say the least. Yeah, I was able to get on court in a little bit, just 15, 20 minutes or so with Kwong Dong. And you know, I'm not going to say he has an aggressive amount of variety, but man, he hits a clean ball. His consistency has really picked up. He's rolling the soft stuff. Uh, when he makes a move towards the middle of the court and hits a good ball, there's a lot of life on it. So, uh, if he can, you know, I mean, I know he's training like a madman and a beast and he's, uh, you know, so young and such a physical presence. If he, if he squeezes in some variety and some slippery stuff or, or some, some deceptive offense, uh, watch out, uh, the ceiling's pretty high with that guy. Yeah, agreed. I think obviously you saw it, you see it with the singles and, uh, yeah, being able to have Christian, you know, to the left of you is a big, obviously a big help or the right of you. It's a big help. So, and I think, you know, having some of these guys come up to premiere and MLP and in rally, it's like, I feel like it does protect you a little bit, you know, you're playing kind of one-off games and you are not having to switch. You're not having to look, have a lot of different looks. It's pretty, it's a pretty stationary look. You're playing the right. You're going to return. You're going to come in. You have a very like clear way to play versus like we talked about with the side out where you're switching and you're stacking and it's like it's, there's, you know, and if you're playing straight up both sides, there's just more, there's more looks and more that can go wrong. I feel like in rally, you can really just dial in on your one role and one job. Yeah. And I think also something you need to notice in those individual player statistics is who are their two partners? So, you know, like, you know, of course, you know, you're high on that list. That's a good situation. Nice point differential percentage and in games, one percentage. But, you know, if you're two partners or both bottom dwellers or your two partners or both, you know, top-notch guys or gals, it makes a big difference in your own personal stats. So, yeah. So, the finals New Jersey Fives got it done against DC Pickleball team. You had third, the third fourth place match was the Dallas Flash versus the Texas ranchers. And as we were just talking about, the ranchers got it done for third place with Kwong Duong, Christian Alshan, Edo Wright and Tina Piznick, who very, very balanced, solid, well-rounded team. And the fact that Duong got a second look at premier action and held his own again, I think that's a great sign for them moving forward as you kind of had to have a little doubt just from a lack of experience perspective for Kwong. Yeah, I think that's true. And I think, I think just continuing kind of on the idea of results based on rally versus side eye, I mean, obviously, Tina's had a ton of great results and regular tournament play and is getting better and better. And, you know, the most decorated tennis player to play in Pickleball at this point, you know, on the women's side. But I do think MLP really suits her, right? Because she's not having to cross, you know, she's in her forties, it's no secret. She's not having to switch sides. You know, she's just having to return and get to the kitchen line, which she's able to do. So, I think, I think it really suits her. And I think she's a, you know, getting the singles, you know, I saw her play some nice singles points too, but she's obviously not as mobile as a lot of the younger players. But she hits a really clean ball and can do a lot with the ball, put it wherever she wants. So, it's still really dangerous and singles just doesn't move as well. But I think this MLP format really suits somebody like that. Yeah, I agree. And she's great glue too. Like, she can, she can play different strategies. She can play right or left in women's. She's super consistent and makes a lot of balls. I love her game. I absolutely love her game. I've talked about her plenty. And it's just, it's just comforting, you know, like, there could be a more volatile player who plays at the same level that Tina does. But when it's like a Tina or a Federico or somebody that you're playing with, that the floor is so high and they make so many shots, man, it's such a comfort. You feel free, you feel like you can do what you need to do. You feel like if you do pull a bad trigger, they're probably going to dig you out of it. Like, it's such a mental relief to play with someone that is so consistent and so solid. No, it's such a good point. It lets you play a little freer. You're not so worried about, you know, when to pull as much. You're, yeah, it's, it's a very, very good point. Yeah. And, and, and we'll, we'll touch on the flash too here. I think at, fourth place at a 12 fine result. But I think a lot of people would have picked them to sneak into that top three with J.W. Johnson, Auggiga, Georgia Johnson, and Hurricane Tyra Black. So, maybe just a very slight underperformance from then. Still think that they are a great team and have a chance to do a lot of damage for the rest of the regular season. But, you know, just ran into a couple quality teams, didn't go their way in this particular standalone event. Which, which team do you feel like underperformed the most? And premier, let's see. Well, let's just take a look here. And, and remember, we did have a variety of, of villains. So, uh, like the, the LA mad drops, they, they didn't have Thomas Wilson. I have no idea. Just heard Thomas is having some medical issue. Love, love you, Thomas. Hope you're doing well. Seriously doubt you're listening, but, uh, get back out there, buddy. And, uh, oh, no. Yeah, no, no, no. And, uh, Catherine Perinto as well. I mean, you, you, I mean, uh, Emily Cedarquist and Blaine Hover near very competent players, but that's a tall task for them to just jump into premier and have the mad drops make a deep run. So, uh, you know, that, that's a tough one also. Oh, shout out to Biscuit, the Iceman Kohler for playing a quality game. I didn't get to see all his matches, but the buzz was he was playing just fine as a fill-in for the Arizona drive, uh, paired up there with Lacey Schneeman, Dylan Frazier, uh, and Caitlyn Christian. So, uh, nice job. Uh, love me, love me. Some veteran AJ Kohler hasn't been his best handful of months, uh, way to get in there and, and, and play quality ball, buddy. Uh, so let's, yeah, let's take a look, let's take a look here. I mean, some of the individual statistics for the Columbus sliders were pretty dang poor. So, uh, you know, I'm not, I don't think that they were a favorite to win it or anything like that. But, uh, definitely the numbers were not in their favor, uh, when you take a look at the stat sheet. Um, let's see. Yeah. So I, I, I don't actually, maybe you go, maybe you go St. Louis shock as the St. Louis shock were, uh, they did make it all the way to the semifinals, but they were bounced from that and then lost the next round to the Texas ranchers. So they were bounced by DC pickleball team and Texas ranchers were two, which are two very, very good teams. Yeah. But the, the, uh, the St. Louis shock were kind of operating at the peak of their powers with Anna Bright, big age, uh, Tardio and Fahey all having really nice MLP slash PPA results in the last couple months. So yeah, them not, them not making the top four, um, maybe, maybe is something even though, uh, you know, that's a little bit of a stretch considering they made it to the semifinals. Yeah. Um, but I think certainly with how Hayden's been playing and Tardio's been playing, I think they probably had much higher hopes than, than that for sure. Lost to the, yeah, lost to DC who, you know, probably should have probably should have won the event. Yeah. Right. No, like I said, dominating doubles performance. Vivian Glosman, uh, playing, playing a good right, man, playing a good right traded for Elise Jones, uh, two very different looking players, but, but Glosman is not playing left. She's playing right and she's playing it well, using her reach, uh, kind of held up to some, some tough, uh, left side in front of her pressure at her. Uh, so she, she's playing well and with her physical tools, her age and the link that she's been playing, uh, pretty good reason to think that she's going to continue to improve. Yeah. It's gotten, has really gotten much improved on the soft stuff, which is, you know, not missing as many random things or popping stuff up as much. And dude, if you, if she gets a ball that's, um, you know, anywhere a foot over the net that things gone and it's not coming back, you know, she's her forehand put away, even backhand. I mean, she just hits the living crap out of the ball. Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, but this, this has been, I, I have no, I was not there, but I've no doubt the Newport tournament was, uh, was solid, just given that it was in Southern California, but San Clemente, Newport, and then Beer City Open MLP, that's, that's, that's some good crowds and some good vibes. And the buzz around, you know, the player lounge and, you know, all that stuff, the players love playing in those kinds of atmospheres. And I think some of the, some of the quality of points and quality of matches kind of shows that. So pickleball looking up, maybe, uh, dude, and we really love the last couple of events. It's been awesome. I don't know if there's anything for PPA before Kansas City. Is that the next one? Uh, yeah. So we have a, we have an MLP Salt Lake City, not this weekend, but the next, and then you have the, then you have the Kansas City piggyback where you have a PPA and an MLP. So those are the next three, uh, UPA events. And, uh, I know that they're, uh, that you have an APP somewhere coming up and around a month. Is that correct? Yeah, at the end of August. Uh, end of August. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I think, I think having so Salt Lake, you have Salt Lake first, then Casey, and then, um, at the facility I'm helping out with in Bristol, the sportsplex just finished a brand new outdoor facility, new stadium court, the city, like they've been working on this for, uh, I would say the last, you know, the last six months of like preparations for the PPA, um, going to be a really cool pro player experience with players getting to go to the speedway and, um, getting a, getting a race car going around the track, which is going to be insane and super fun. There'll be like a player reception there. So Bristol's really, uh, really getting their act together. And it's going to be, they're going to put on a good event, the crowds. I mean, there's, they've already sold, I think 1800 tickets and got a nice stadium court. It's going to be, it's going to be an electric atmosphere in Bristol. So I'm excited for that. Um, yeah, then we have an APP at the end of August in Chicago. I'm actually going over to England for the English Open and then India for the monsoon open, which should be a lot of fun. So lots of, lots of stuff happen. Um, it's going to be a bit busy August. That's for sure. Yeah. Um, uh, what, where do you fly in to, do you fly into Bristol? Or do you have to fly in close and drive? Yeah, there's a couple of options. So Bristol, 15 minutes, 20 minutes away from Bristol's, uh, Tri-Cities Airport, which has Delta American, your typical, I think your typical. Um, and then there's an Asheville is like an hour and a half away. And then Knoxville's like two hours away. Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's like right on the cusp of driving for me. I think it's like four and a half or five hours. Try it. I'll, I'll probably drive it. If, if I'm going to have to do a little commute either way, uh, uh, if I fly, then I, yeah, I think, I think I'll drive it. It's like, like the good old days, man. That's it. You just drive that civic everywhere in the good old day. Hold up that civic and let it rip. Bring, bring my box fan for white noise in the hotel room. You got to have it. Dude, bring your own pillow. Bring your own pillows. You have everything you need. And if you have your own car, you have everything. Everything. You really do. I'm just, or you could just set up a little, little caught in the back of your car. You know, there you go. Oh, oh. I always, I always, I always thought it was like a cool idea to like just get a sprinter van. Just get a sprinter van and just roll around. I mean, I know a bunch of people are doing. I'm, of course, Annalise got the luxury motor coach, but I know like the DeHarts and a couple of other clingers and a couple of other people, they just RV it around and, you know, find a spot often like on-site. I mean, how, how nice is that? I mean, that is legit. Good shower in between matches. You know, the whole thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Oh, man. I think we, oh, oh, oh, oh, we might. Oh, bring that baby over here. He just, he just got back from stories at my rarely for the first time. Bring him over. AJ, AJ, AJ. Let's go. Oh my God. Corinne says he's wearing the same thing as the last time he was on. That's what she's worried about. I mean, he is, he's 14 months old. Proff, bring that kid over here. Let's see. AJ, come over here, buddy. You see if Rock can make you smile again. We got to do an outfit change. You got to do, you got to change the fit. Yes, sir. There's a sweetie. AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ get a little love and that's it. I mean, Ajet, we love you, but we don't want you on for five minutes. So it's all good. It's all good. Yeah, he gets it. He doesn't want to be on for five minutes either. He's not interested. He wants. No, he's ready for a napper for some food. Let's carry on the day. That's he lives a good life, man. Lots of eating, lots of resting. And I respect that too. And Adam, Adam gets to manage all that. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I was up bright and early this morning. Got to get a little. I mean, I was gone for a dang week, man. You know, some of the, I mean, there's five days of play for this for this BCO tournament and a couple days early for team bonding slash team practice. So how stoked is Ajet when you come back? Um, kind of sort of he warms up very quickly. He kind of just stares at me for but it's not like a song. It's not like dog that's like using their mind, right? No, no, no, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think somebody said it. It's like, you know, you could lock a human in the trunk of your car for an hour and they're not going to be happy when you open it up. But you can do that to a dog and they'll be, they'll still be happy. They'll still be happy to see you. So it's very easy. It's very easier, easier, easier situation, but the human's pretty cool too. All right. Shall we call it? This is perfect. Yeah. I think it was good. I think it was good, right? I mean, that was a pretty solid recap. And we're, like you said, it's a busy August and we're going to have, we're going to have lots of recaps and previews over the next few weeks on IFR. So chug that first roll it off. And we'll see the ladies and gentlemen next week on Wednesday, hopefully Wednesday. I got screwed by United. Otherwise, so this might be out Thursday for this particular week. I was supposed to come back Sunday night. But man, those ticket prices and frequency of delays is just skyrocketing in both regards, at least in my own travel opinion. No, and I've seen a bunch of articles that are talking about a ton of travel stuff. I got delayed coming back from wherever I just was. Yeah. So it's just not good. Oh, well, well, well, you guys get it sorted out United and Delta and American and all that good stuff. Because we got really happy. Yeah, don't really have any other options and we got places to go. So let's get it going. All right. Until next week, sir. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]