It Feels Right
It Feels Right #71 - Pickleball's International Expansion + Players' On-Court/Off-Court Behavior
to get to the sun from Earth. Let's call it eight minutes. I think that might be right. So speed of light to the sun, eight minutes. I think to the to like Jupiter or something, I think I'm actually right on this. I think it's 33 minutes if you're traveling at the speed of light. So 33 minutes to get to Jupiter. I think to to leave the Milky Way galaxy, it's it's something like 100,000 years. Okay, I might be wrong. Like where we going with this? Yeah, I don't know. I don't. Yeah. You were talking about foot speed and I started thinking about speed of light because you know why? Why? Because if it was right, it feels right. It's scary. 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. What's the game change? What's the game change? What's the game change? Hello, Robert, what you what you got there? It doesn't look like coffee. No, it's not. It's it's better. It's it's five calories. It has the same it has more more caffeine than a then a coffee. I'm just kind of I say I'm sick of it. I had one yesterday, but I'm kind of over milk. You know, it's even the thought of like having a coffee with like boat milk in it like this morning just sounds gross. Like this is nice. It's refreshing. It has caffeine. It does the trick. I think you know, I think Starbucks gets it there. They know people are over coffee. They're over all of these milk alternatives. The true milk alternative is this. You didn't say what it was. I don't know. I have no idea. Well, uh, all that all that milk knocking, uh, I had about 16 ounces of whole milk last night and about seven cookies. Like just Oh, you're you'll you'll just drink glasses of milk. Absolutely. Oh, absolutely. Whole must be wow, wow, wow, wow, full fat, full fat milk. I'm all about it. I try to keep it reasonable. But if I had my choice, I would have a glass of milk every single day. Wow. And I could eat it with cookies. I could eat it with spaghetti. I could eat it. I mean, sorry, drink it with with any form. I mean, I'm talking Mexican food, Italian food does not matter. I can I can drink milk at any moment. This is, I don't know how I don't know. I think your your milk intake probably gets overshadowed by Colin. I think that's the issue is that you aren't known for it, but you it sounds like you're just as into it. Yeah, Colin John's is the true milk monster at about two gallons of whole milk per week. And I think that that's actually accurate. Two gallons of whole milk per week. Yes. So that's what you'd like to be at. That's what you aspire to. I don't know. That's that seems a little excessive, but I would just say you drink it with spaghetti or Mexican. Yeah, but like that also seems excessive. The thing is that I don't actually do that, but I could always put is what I'm saying. Like what the mix of flavors wouldn't mess you up or what bother me for half a piece a second. So okay, and apparently humans are the only animal being whatever on earth that drink and other animals milk. Yeah, there's a fun there's a fun fact for you. Yeah, but do you think we should? Maybe if no one else is doing it, we shouldn't. So I mean, that's that's very possible. Robert, I have I have something to ask you here. Okay, I was, of course, deep in the Twitter streets getting ready for this pod is that's about the only prep work I do. Yeah. And I just came across a number and the number was $15 million. I don't know what it is. I don't know who's putting that money up. I don't know if it's guaranteed, but that seems like a lot of money for international pickleball. And I was wondering if you have any insights or thoughts about what you've seen, I'm sure, as you were always deep on the Twitter streets. Yeah, but I don't know a ton about this. Obviously they had they had an event. The dink was over there. A bunch of organizations were over there. Pron from pickleball United, from pickleball world rankings, I believe it is. Pickleball World Series. He's owning the world. He, yeah, there's they're going to put on a bunch of tournaments. The first one's going to be a $1.5 million purse, which, you know, sign me up, baby. And they did something in Dubai. I mean, it's going global and $15 million committed. I think it's over next year. I'm not entirely sure is is not nothing, but it's kind of nothing for the, I did see the investment group leading it. I think it's it's the times now, maybe it's a it's an Indian publishing media conglomerate that's been around since the 1800s that owns a lot of stuff. And 15 million is probably just like, toss in a few bucks for this little pickleball with the ball thing. So, okay, I mean, catch it early. I mean, so, so this is, okay, so this has nothing to do with, like, Saudi money, because I know that they have been very much in the sports game with LiveGolf and a variety of other things. So this is a completely separate thing. Oh, Indian. Well, well, who knows? Who knows? And where, and where they were for this was, was it UAE? Yeah, this is where this is where this is where it was all happening. Because I know, like, I saw, like, Megan Fudge went, and like you mentioned, some of the, the entities of the dink or whatever, that that was over there. So seems pretty wild. But this, I mean, pickleball is the Wild West, and it is young. So here we are. Man, what a number, though. What a number. They thought the tour wars were done. Yeah, I saw something like that. It was old Maggie Romenzi who likes to, likes to jump in there and throw out a few tweets. And she mentioned something about the tour wars and how, can't we all just get along and throw the sport of pickleball? And I was like, that's, that's just not realistic, and she knows that too. But it would be nice. But man, like I said, what a number, wild times, if this is true, maybe maybe they pay out 96 deep, I might jump in there, you know, just, just say it. But yeah, that's crazy stuff. I can't wait to get a little more info on it. Yeah, it's, it's, and if this is happening next year, it's got to come together quick. So exciting stuff for certainly for players. I wonder if it's just the pro piece or if they're doing the amateur side of stuff as well. It feels like it's just the pro piece. But who knows? And yeah, Saudi money, who knows about that as well. I mean, I saw that the, the Saudi Prince, MBS, he was, he was in attendance with Prawn. So I mean, that's, that was pretty wild to see. You know, 15 millions, basically like a week's paycheck for, you know, Bryson to Shambo on live. So they need to throw a few more dollars maybe. I mean, they don't seem to mind losing money on all those guys. So I think I need to have an IPA with old Prawn. He sounds like my guy. That'd be, that'd be quite an experience. He's just a lot of stuff. He's just in there. And also, you know, scrolling through, I saw PPA announcing an official stop in Melbourne, Mumbai and Toronto for their international. So we are, we are getting going with the international stuff. And yeah, I mean, let's go, you know, I mean, already, already popping in the US growing everywhere else, just incredible infrastructure and possible amounts of players in India and Asia. I mean, it's, it's, it's pretty, pretty cool stuff. Yeah, with the international stuff, I think what we're going to see when you, when they're throwing numbers out like that and as details crystallize and as purses crystallize and what you have to place and people get guaranteed money for making the draw, yada, yada, yada. It will be interesting to see like we're going to have a whole new wave of talent coming out of the woodwork globally. People are going to start playing, training, you know, country federations are going to start getting into it and getting players going. It's, it feels like that wave is coming and it's not slowing down. I mean, on the US, it's more about getting established as a, as a high school varsity sport, as a junior sport and that whole, that kind of the funnel coming from the, from the youth, which I think that's kind of the next step in the US. But we have two different things going on, right? It's like we have that pro side, which is going to drive a lot of participation at the top level, um, internationally. But then there's going to be, I mean, if that money, if that money continues, you're going to have a lot of kids come into the end of the store. Yeah, definitely. I mean, they throw out this wild number or something for a more established sport. It's like whatever, you know, that's, that's great. Those guys are going to get some money. But this is a sport where you can still be in the mix. Like, you know what I'm saying? It's like, if you're playing whatever, a way more established sport, you have no shot. You're just, you're just reading the article and possibly viewing. But if, if you have a certain skill set or, or possibly a certain background at another racket paddle sport, you could get a piece of this pie. And I think that like hope and, uh, uh, just the infancy of the sport is going to bring out a lot of players and, and another wave and another wave and another wave, uh, until it's, uh, that, that hope is crushed and we're not even close to that situation. Yeah. If you're ranked 50 in the world in table tennis or badminton or something like that, why would you not? I mean, are those, are those players making more like, what are they making on an annual basis, do you think? I have no idea. I would imagine the top, uh, are, are doing just fine. But yeah, similar to tennis, it thins out pretty quickly. So, uh, I mean, the talent gap from whatever 10th badminton player to a hundredth or same thing in table tennis. I know it's just incredibly popular, uh, over in Asia, but I have to imagine it's not, it's not crazy off of tennis. So it dips pretty quickly in terms of the amount of money you're making annually. So, I mean, even tennis, it, it falls off a cliff at like, yeah, 110, 120, whatever it is, like, if you're making, you know, main draws of majors, um, if you're not getting into the majors, you're, you're, it's a struggle. It's a grind. Yeah. So, yeah, come on over now that I'm not playing anymore. The more the merrier shoot, maybe I'll go over there and, you know, double my commentary salary for one event over an idea. Uh, that would be pretty nice. But, uh, yeah, just wild times can't wait for more information on this. I'm sure it's going to start trickling in, uh, as that was really the first time I had heard anything of it, like yesterday. So, uh, I mean, just, just, just fantastic. I don't know how it can't be fantastic, uh, when the sport we love is getting, uh, an injection of that kind of money, uh, and that kind of prize. It just feels like that number keeps moving too. I do remember at some point, somebody said like six events on six continents. Maybe that's still the case. Uh, but I heard nine million dollars in prize money. And now it's 15. Let's, let's just keep, let's keep that bumping. Let's keep it going guys. Throw some more at it. Throw some more at it. I mean, it's, it's like us throwing a hundred and fifty dollars at it. So, I mean, if you, if you're talking about net worth and like what you could come up with, you know, they're just, you're just tossing a little money at it. You know, no big deal. Yeah. Well, I'm going over to India later in August. So, I'll find out some more information. Maybe how I'll have that IP with Pran. Yeah, you do that. You do that. You get all the deans and tell them I'm not far behind. Uh, I'd like to be there as well. Yep. I'm doing shadow dinks in his basement right now. He's ready to put it in. Seriously, dude. I mean, really, man. I'm about to, I'm about to get on the rower and the bike and let's go, man. Yeah. Just, just wild stuff. Um, we had some pretty, pretty fun pickleball this past week. And were you able to watch any of it? Uh, MLP, Salt Lake City? I was, you know, why I watch Adam? Cause it was indoors. And I knew exactly what time would be on. I knew there'd be no interruptions due to rain. So now it's beautiful. And it even rained a couple of times. Just pop up thunderstorms coming over the mountains. Did not have to worry about that at the Pickler facility. Even your boy got a little wreck play in and didn't almost die as it was about 98 degrees, outside. So it was, it was lovely. It was lovely. Pretty good action. Pretty low. You tall baby, Utah, they like their pickle. They like their sports. Yes, they do. They, Utah is a big fan of Utah. And so the fans came out there. The energy was good. It was a little slow build up. Like it always is Thursday was a little lower key. And actually Sunday, a little lower key just kind of given, you know, some religious implications, especially for the morning matches, but Friday and Saturday was pretty ridiculous. The, the eruptions on grandstand and championship court were pretty awesome. And of course, just to probably not talked about enough aspect of indoor play is you get quite a vibe. The noise in there, it's very, it's very real. And it's very energizing when you're kind to end that, that closed off situation for a facility. So it was great. Really enjoyed the weekend, had fun watching matches and of course, did a good bit of coaching for the SoCal hard day. So tons of fun and salt lake. And you guys had a good weekend, huh? This was a, we talked about it last week of how important this weekend was for the team. Yeah, so it turns out with the given format, if you play three matches, the most points that you can accrue is nine points. Robert, we got, we got nine points from this weekend. And we played a couple pretty dang good teams. So I'm I'm thrilled with the squad right now. That's, yeah, that's a big weekend. You guys, you guys went and took care of business. And what, I'm assuming you're attributing the success to mixed. What was different? Well, one, Yana Bear, Yana Nule, complete stud, just really played great for us. And we have a little, a little strategy. And, and we've been working through some stuff for Eric Lang, who is a very tall individual. But he's a bit of an elder statesman. So we're just kind of finding a happy middle place for him to affect the game as much as possible without overextending. Yeah. And so I think we really have a nice strategy in place for his overall game style and mixed. And of course, being paired with a partner that he's comfortable, comfortable with. And she is comfortable with him and Yana Nule really helped. And also, veteran Irena Terashinko, a game has really been growing every single event. She had a bit of time off leading up to that initial Atlanta event. And possibly a bit rust. I don't know. I didn't, we didn't get too far into it, but she is playing better. And of course, purple Jesus, a little fresh on the scene, Max Manthau, actually an odd kind of progression for him as he was initially more comfortable with gender doubles, which is usually the second thing to come along for a male player. And now he is kind of finding his footing on how aggressive to be shot selection patterns, all that kind of stuff and mixed doubles. So as I mentioned before, very happy with the squad and the results. Yeah, he should be very aggressive, I think, right? Yeah, no, for sure. He's quick as heck. He's a short guy. Yeah, probably about my height, maybe a much taller. Can you get back and cover can cover behind him? Yeah, so what? So if I have high end elite foot speed, what would we call his? You stop me on if I Not where I thought, I mean, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. All explosive athleticism. I heard some I heard better than that. Wild science science stats call it. Oh, here we go. About the speed of light. And I don't remember exactly like I'm going to butcher it completely, but it was like I'm absolutely butchered. So to get to the sun from Earth, let's call it. I'm just going to be making. Oh, God, let's just let's call it eight minutes. I think that might be right. So speed of light to the sun eight minutes. I think to the to like Jupiter or something, I think I'm actually right on this. I think it's 33 minutes. If you're traveling at the speed of light, so 33 minutes get to Jupiter. I think to to leave the Milky Way galaxy, it's it's something like a hundred thousand years. Okay, that might be wrong, but it's like it's like, okay, so speed of light to like our the planets in our solar system, not very far to get there. Yeah, but to I believe to leave the Milky Way galaxy, our own galaxy, it's it's a long, long, long time. It just surprises you, right? Because you're like, Oh, the the galaxy's that big and the you just wait, wait, wait, where are we going with this? Yeah, let's I don't know. I don't. Yeah. You were talking about foot speed and I started thinking about speed of light and so yes, if if if just let's continue. Next, next, next, yeah, speed of light. 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 cell Kirk backpacks. Because a little did 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 passed by 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 Selkert gear. Small, medium, big, you need it. I don't have the small. I need the small. Somebody said me the small big. Yeah, you're right because I could put my little laptop and I don't have to take a big one. It's important. Selkert, send me a small. I'll buy it. I have a question for you. So there is a player for the Las Vegas night house who is very animated on court. His name is Mo Al-Hoonie. Yes. And he has has been ruffling some feathers a bit with some of his on court antics. He is a very fiery player, very good player and continuing to get better. Actually seems like a very nice guy off court. I had some very brief conversations with him, but seems to talk well. He seems to be personable. He seems to be that guy off court. But on court, there's some poking and some prodding. There's some looking over at his opponents. There's some looking over at his opponents bench and some things that he does on court that several players are not thrilled about. So what is your opinion of a player who gets under your skin on court, but seems to be a very nice guy off court? Are those things totally connected? Are they totally separate? What are your thoughts on that particular situation? What do you mean? Can you completely separate those two and be boys off court, or does what happens in the heat of competition leak over to how you view somebody off court? I think it context matters. I think it depends on the relationship ahead of time. If I've never talked to this guy and then he's just being a complete on court, then I think he's a complete off court. But if I go into it and I know that's coming and we've chatted before and it's all good, and it's just trash talk on court, I love it. It's fine. If I'm playing Matt Wright, I want to chirp the whole time. It's fun, Brandon French, same thing, fun. But there would be no issue off court. Perfect. That's the answer I was looking for. It was pretty funny to watch him play Jill Braverman. Do they have any rapport or no? I don't know. They went back and forth. Jill loves that stuff. She loves the controversy on court and all that. I'm not sure if it didn't. Another step to this conversation too is I think it probably makes Jill play better. She also doesn't make everybody play better, but her for sure. Also, Yana Newell, she had some issues with some of the chirping going on in that Las Vegas night owls match. She was, I feel like it made her play. We call her Dark Yana. She's just the sweetest little thing. Sometimes that switch can flip and her celebrations were up. She was doing the Paris Todd and a bright clench thing after she'd hit a big forehand winner. Yeah, exactly right. I just wanted your view on that. I actually think it creates a pretty fun atmosphere and gets the juices flowing for both teams and even some fans. I'm not knocking it. I was just looking for an opinion. There was even a time or two that I found to myself just getting a little, just a little steamed up as someone who wasn't even playing. It was fun and I think it's a situation that arises every so often. But this is perfect because that's why people enjoy watching MLP style. Players get more amped and fired up in these standalone league matches because they have team behind them, they have coaches behind them, they have fans behind them. You don't really get that same environment in around a 16 or a quarter final or even a semi final sometimes their final in normal tournament format. So I love it. I think the the chirping adds to it and I think it's also what creates rivalries and stories and people are going to want to watch that match next time because hopefully all that all of that tension carries over the next match. Yeah, agreed. And also, I mean, just pickleball, man. So great. I mean, you have six, four athletic stud lefty guy out there and five, two, Janah Newell, just go and add it back and forth. I mean, that's I mean, who doesn't want to watch that and view that and who doesn't enjoy seeing those types of situations and and when the the female can absolutely hold her own with that physical disadvantage. I mean, that's that's fun for everybody. So I mean, I think she still hits it harder than probably for pound. Most people on court pound for pound. She is I'm saying it. I'm sticking with it. Most power and all of pickleball pound for pound. So yeah, fun, fun, fun weekend for for the eights. Only four challenger teams there. So, you know, some of the scheduling, you get all the teams, you only get a few teams for little pockets of events. But there was quite a bit of premier play going on and some really fun results to be honest with you. So let's talk a little bit about that. The Texas ranchers played extremely well. That's Tina Piznick at a right Christian Alshan and Kwong Dwang who has more than held his own so far, really solid results playing well. I could watch him and his brother Bao Dwang and his father Duke Dwang drill for I could watch for four hours straight. It's so amazing. I mean, they're they're drilling for like four they have two matches in the day and they're like drilling for four hours finding spots to drill in between, you know, Duke super animated talking with his hands, you know, making sure everything's going right. Bao's the hitting partner. If he misses a couple shots, Duke comes over and pushes him out of the way and starts feeding balls in there to Kwong, you know, it's just it's very funny, very junior tennis vibe. But yeah, this, this is kind of what it's going to start being. Yeah, it's, I mean, I mean, I'm talking like we're talking four, six, eight hours of court time, whether it's an event or not, specific drills, locking and people putting in an insane amount of work. This is what the sport's going to be just like every sport that kind of grows and prize money and whatever becomes involved. You're right. And Adam, you've you said it best and you said it for a long time. It's, you know, when when games are involved and people can make money, I'll let you they get good. People get good at things. I don't care if it's money involved. Yeah, we'll get good. I don't care if it's whatever juggling the Rubik's cubes while fixing them, playing video games, playing part cheesy. I mean, it does not matter. If if there is, is money to be made or that can be your full time occupation, people are going to get extremely good at it. They're going to lock in. And I think that's what Kwong, Kwong's doing. And his ascension has been really nice to see. Yeah, nice move by the ranchers. I'm not sure he's totally on Pablo Tay has double level, but he might be at this point. And he definitely has a lot of boxes checked to possibly continue to improve. Yeah, it's you're absolutely right. This is going to be the trend continuing. And I'm surprised it's actually not surprised. It's been fun to watch like what I don't think anybody's actually worked that hard and pickable yet. I mean, some that have I mean, you see people out there dinking all day, that kind of thing and drilling, but like to the point where you're getting like the number of reps that you got playing junior tennis and stuff like that when you were training, that level of dedication has not come into the sport yet. I assure you, even at the top, like the very top, it's not it's nowhere near what it was like for any of us that grew up playing tennis. And if it's even close, it's a very small percentage. It's a very small percentage. Very like 10 or less is what I would say, taking it full on professionally. So yeah, it's going to be it's going to be fun to watch this trend continue and, you know, see who can burst on the scene. Another another quality name that I mean, just flat out, flat out nobody a couple months ago is Blaine Hovaneer, who jumped in for the LA mad drops and big strong guy, really intense, really worked on his game hard over the last few months filling in for Thomas Wilson, who's having some health issues. Love you, Thomas. Hope everything's okay. Can't wait to hear from you, buddy. But he jumped in there and played played very solid, played very solid, clinched a dreambreaker, I believe the mad drops beat the Columbus sliders 21 to four in a dreambreaker. Now that is hard to do. That's that's hard to do. And granted, they have a very quality single squad, but 21 to four is wild. But anyway, doubles playing with Hunter Johnson or mixed doubles playing with Catherine Prentot, two very solid partners, but good for him to to kind of just have an opportunity to showcase this talent and taking full advantage of it and having some good results. Yeah, no, 100%. And I saw, I believe it was Chris, sorry, not sorry. That said, maybe it was somebody else, maybe Jake, like all of our, but it was in the Twitter streets, they're talking about having, like it's, it's, it is odd having just villains, alternates on site hop into teams, randomly, right? If somebody gets sick, I know Tyson and Fed got sick. So it's, you know, Adam, what are your thoughts on having teams would call it six players, eight players? And I think Matty Pickles was like, it would create an interesting environment where, you know, the players want to be starters on a challenger team, or would they rather be that, you know, third guy on a, on a premier team, it does create some interest, like additional interesting story lines. Yeah, no, I, I agree with you. And maybe there might be at some point where there, there is no premier and challenger. I have absolutely no information on that, just, just saying that that could be a possibility too. But I, I think it makes sense. I mean, because that, that, that really was pretty wild. You know, you have Roscoe Bellamy commentating a match. Fed and Tyson go down. Some sickness, I guess it could have been COVID. I'm not sure. I heard some rumblings of that, but who knows? And then he jumps in a match with Spencer Smith and Millie Rain, who was filling in for Viv David. So three replacement players on the squeeze. Paris Todd, the only traditional member of the team, and they were able to get a W in a dreambreaker against the Utah Black Diamonds. Yeah, that's, that's wild stuff. In their own home. In their own home. And with the fans chaining Utah, every time they won a point, let's go Utah or whatever it was. So yeah, I mean, a couple, a couple wild results as the Arizona drive beat the Dallas flash, which is the best team from a points perspective in premiere. And then they lose to the Black Diamonds the next day. So yeah, that's sports. That's MLP. That's pickleball. But tell me, can the heartates, would the heartates beat the Utah Black Diamonds? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. I don't think it's unreasonable. Yeah. I don't think it's unreasonable either. So, you know, there's, there's no way I was going to say no to that. But I actually, I actually believe, I actually believe, I didn't just say it. I didn't just say it to say it. So, I believe we're definitely one of the top couple teams and challenger, if not the top, you know, after some roster reconstruction. So yeah, I'll stick with that. Absolutely. So the drive we had who's on the drive again? That's Dylan and Andre. Dylan and Andre Caitlin Christian and Lacey Schneeman. So they went, they went pocket aces with their first two picks with with Andre and Dylan. And I was not able to see, you know, had some responsibility. So I wasn't able to see a lot of it. I would guess Andre had a bit of rust two months off. I believe this was his first event back after that, after that two month 60 day suspension. So not exactly sure what happened, but just just wild to beat the best team and then, and then lose to the lowest team in the standings. And that's, that is why you play the game. It's absolutely correct. What else we got that was interesting, Adam and the premier. We had a, we had a nasty Nelson. We had, we had Zane, Zane tagging Hayden. And then I believe Hayden let out an obscenity and got a warning and point penalty immediately after it was, it was a lopsided score line. So Zane was down, right? Zane was down. I think they were down like 10 points or something like that. But they were down nine points after he had Hayden. So I think it's a little bit more of a, a boss move to do it in your up 23 12. Sure. Sure. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's just disrespectful and more fun. Right. But either way, I'll take a nasty Nelson in a MLP game any day. Yeah. No. And Zane, I mean, he's a showman. He does great out there. He brings lots of energy. He talks back. Yeah. I mean, he was, no, he's funny. I think it was Al Sean. He was aggressively talking smack to Al Sean and saying all kinds of stuff and throwing out nasties and, you know, like, oh, yeah. And also the, the full send body bag from Annalie Waters to Jay, Jay, Bill. Yeah. And like you can see Zane's reaction and Lee Waters reaction to all that as the ball is like six inches off the ground on a drop ball. She just charges it in tags of the soldered poor Jay, man, poor Jay, big man, big target. What can you say? I mean, she hit it pretty hard too. She hit it pretty hard. And, you know, I was expecting her to all drop it in the kitchen. She went for option B there and just sent it flat and hard on a complete upward trajectory into Jay's body. Oh, it's so good. It's just like the ceiling. Yeah, it was fantastic. It was going to go over the video board. But yeah, I mean, these are these are, I mean, that's fun times. Full grown man, teenage girl, light them up, just do your thing. Annalie Waters. Amadeable. You know, also the trash talking with teenagers that some like withdrawn with grown adults. That's also just it's different. It's different. It's fun. I like it. You know, I'll talk trash to teenagers all day. All day. All day. That's what they want. And then that's a that's that's that's what they want. They initiate it. I mean, you got to you got to be ready for it to come back to you. And they are. And mostly who I'm talking about here is Gabe Tardio and Hayden Patrick. So I mean, is it just me or has has has big age just really rubbed off on Dario? I love that. Yeah, like, like seriously, like Tardio. Tardio grew three inches just by standing beside Hayden, you know, like he's like his chest is out now he's got swag. Yeah. So just just throw him in with Hayden and Anna Bright. And he's a completely different person from a crazy energy smack talk perspective versus like playing with J. Dub and Georgia where he's a little more dialed back. Yeah, polar opposites there. Some pretty some still pretty big issues for the Carolina pickleball club with Team chemistry. So they swapped out Andrea Koot for Brooke Buckner. Solve it. Yeah, didn't solve it. The the the the john's eye Jesse Irvin, the other three members of that squad. I know that the john's eye are not big indoor fans. Little vibe issues in the previous event at the beer city open in terms of team chemistry and camaraderie. And I didn't see a big difference. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna use the word tank, but it was pretty dang close to that from what I saw. You just use the word tank. Yeah, I did. I did. I kind of meant to do that on purpose a little bit. I like that Adam. Well, yeah, that you know, good cops got to be bad cop every so often. Do you think you think Brooke Brooks just on the phone with everybody just like get me out of here like trade me? No, I think she's just yeah, I think she's just happy to take that flight back to Charlotte and be with the family for a few days before she has to do it all over again. I don't even know if they're playing Kansas City. But yeah, so yeah, so we we saw a couple of those trades, but it was Connor Garnett for Jay de Villier also and then kind of like the even swap, you know, just to not gain and necessarily gain an edge somewhere, just kind of mix it up with its squad and see if they can have better results. And I'm not sure either one did even though it made sense to try those trades. On the on the tank word, what are your thoughts on in respect to like the feedback I've gotten on MLP still is that nobody really knows what any match means, like what's in stake, what's what's on the line here, what are the, you know, like I real clear stats puts out a graph that shows how many points per match, right, because everybody's played different numbers of matches. So the number of points doesn't, it's not indicative of who's in first really. So what I'd like to see is like, okay, well, how many, how many matches on the season remain? Like, you know, baseball, like what's that magic number that you have to get to to make playoffs, that kind of thing, what, what's the playoff format, which I don't even know, what's, what is like, what is at stake in the grand scheme of things. And do you think that, so like, I'm, I'm going to go back on like what I said a little bit about beer city with nothing being on the line in beer city with in terms of standings. I don't know which is, which is more important actually, because it feels like players playing for additional money is going to be more motivating to them than just playing for standings. Because it doesn't act like what's at stake, right? Like, even if you make the play, if your team makes the playoffs and, but what's at stake, like, you get a bonus, you get like, like, that story is not really told. So, and sports are fun to watch when you know what's at stake and you see, like, you know, you're able to see emotion and reaction based on what's at stake. So any, any thoughts around what that looks like, how to make their be more like, more tension and more like, what's, what's all this mean? No, that's, that's fair. And I think just having the variety, I don't even, I'm not even going to knock the format or what's going on. It's just been the lack of consistency. There's been so many, so many changes to format and this and that that we're going to be teams. We're going to be clumped together. Now there's two divisions, this and that, all that stuff. So I've heard similar complaints about finding ways to watch, finding format, finding rosters and knowing who is there and on what teams and how long they're going to be on those teams. Is there another draft as we've had several drafts for NLP? So I think that you just have to give it some time with the same rules for everyone to kind of slowly follow along. And of course that just takes time, that just takes time. But from a what's on the line perspective, I do think that that needs to be talked about more in terms of, in terms of how do you get into the playoffs, how many teams, what, what, what are the situations and that will at least give you some inkling or some inclination of what is being played for. And I know that the tournament had prize money and all the prize money with the contracts and all that stuff is, it's different. It's different. So I think that overall having prize money, having some form of baseline contract, but having something on the line too is definitely the play as when you get those numbers thrown around and you know that as a fan and as someone viewing and watching, that has to make it more interesting. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. And I just just think about like, even with the international $15 million purse and like everybody, you know, there's the tour words, right? You have all of these pro organizations that are vying for the professional landscape. And we still don't know if, you know, like you mentioned, Adam, like how to find it, where to watch it, are we even going to be able to like get enough viewers to where this makes sense for media deals, that kind of thing. Like everybody's vying for this thing that we don't even know exists in terms of, will it be a really viable big time store that gets a solid media deal? Maybe it will. Hopefully it will, because that's good for, you know, us pros and commentary and being able to talk about the sport on the, you know, at the pro landscape. But I do wonder, Adam, I do wonder, and this is like, I don't have enough projects going on, so let's just create one more. How fun, how fun like the complaint is that it's, you know, especially for the layperson, that it's not very fun to watch. Pickleball, the dinking, you know, so we've talked about like, shot clock, stuff like that, like just to, just to make it a little more exciting. Savannah Banana's floor pickleball, who wants to do it? I mean, they're selling out, they're selling out MLB stadiums. You know, they started off as an operation in Savannah at their local ballpark there, sold out every game, there's waitlist for like next year. Now they're selling out major stadiums. And it was, it's kind of the same, there's some parallels, right? It's like baseball, baseball, unless you're a traditionalist and you've always followed it and you like the, like the deep data in it and all of that, moneyball type stuff. You know, baseball is also, MLB has also made a lot of adjustments to shorten the games to make it more fan friendly, viewer friendly. And obviously the Savannah bananas went even harder and made up their own banana ball, which is their own rules, you know, choreographed dancing, just it's entertainment first. And I do think that there is a place in pickleball for a league and a tour like that. And I would love to be involved. So let's, so whoever wants to, whoever wants to throw some money down, hit me up. Let's, let's get rolling. Yeah. And I mean, I think you're right. I mean, baseball, I guarantee the 25,000 people at that stadium, there's like a thousand who are like real baseball fans, you know, it's, it's where we're going to have a meeting place to hang out with our friends to watch every fourth pitch exactly and eat some food and have some drinks. And, and you know, I think that that's just kind of what it is from a social aspect. So the Savannah banana bananas is great. I mean, this is like, I mean, like the, the group down in Savannah, which I have been to one of the games, like we have very well connected friends there from the, the Savannah golf club. And it is tough to get a ticket. Like these are like Savannah people, they like own the city, they own the town, they can get what they need to get. And those things are sold out constantly. And this was even years ago before it totally blew up. So they're kind of, I was really doing something right. We were there together. And do you remember what you ate? Trash can nachos. Yes, you did. I do. So this is literally the top of a metal, Oscar the grouch trash can with circle round chips, liquid cheese, jalapenos, and someone with two plastic gloves, crumbling up hot dog wieners and hamburger patties and sprinkling it all over the nachos. And we ate all of them. We ate every single dang one of those nachos. It was, it was lovely. It took me, you know, 72 hours to recover from the body. But you know, we got through it, Rob, but people love it. The kids, the kids were just enthralled with everything that was happened. Everybody had gear on. Everybody had a glove there. Everybody was just in a great mood. And it was like, it's like whatever night it is, Friday night or something, like that is the hottest ticket in town. And that's where people want to be to have camaraderie with their friends, to get together. I am, I am absolutely all for that. And why, why not mix the two together, you know, athletics and entertainment and just just go with it. And yeah, like, like the bananas, it's, it's former college players or even sometimes, you know, existing college players that are off for the summer. Like, there's enough high quality pickleball players, call it the 5-5 plus, the 5-0 plus, that you could really identify ones that would be great entertainers that could do, you know, have big personalities that aren't afraid to, you know, be out there doing choreographs, silly dances and just putting it on for the fans. And I think that would be such a fun, outside of like viewing online. I think it would just be such a fun experience to put on in person. And I think fans would love it. You know, it made people out to watch. Rob, you can catch a foul ball as a fan and it counts for the game and it counts for the game. It's absolutely sick. Yeah. That's amazing. That's, I mean, get, get them as involved as possible, meaning the fan base to what's going on, on the field or the court. I mean, I am, I am 100% on board. I have no capital, I have no money, I have no anything to get this started, but I'm on board, Rob. Okay, same. So we got two guys on board. On board with no assets whatsoever to throw at it, but hey, you know, maybe maybe one of our viewers might help us out. We're on board. Hey, Pron, talk to Pron with the IPA. Maybe, maybe Pron's on board. Let's go. Robert, I don't, I don't have, I don't have much more here. You got anything you would like to add. We covered a variety of topics, topics like we always do. I'm still just thinking like they call it banana ball. I mean, we have another food pickle ball. It's, there's, it's, it's too good to not pursue this. I, I, okay, I'll be honest. I, I sent an email to Jesse Cole, who is the owner of Savannah Bananas. Um, this is like two weeks ago, just kind of lightly pitching the idea. Like he's not busy, you know, like, like coaching, like, having games and Fenway and stuff. But I was just like, Jesse, um, what if we did pickle under banana ball? Do you, like, do you see how cool this would be? And shocking, I didn't get a response from him. Oh, he did shocking. He, he, he forwarded to his assistant and his assistant was very kind, was like, Rob, Rob, we're a little busy right now. But thank you, thank you for your lovely idea. Take him. I'm shocked to even forward it to the assistant. So good. He must be a good guy, if even, even through you, a bone in that regard. But yeah, not, not shocking to not get a response, uh, there, but hey, but he is the one that got us the tickets when we're in Savannah. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah. Because I, I, I knew him from a business conference from a while ago, and just kind of get people, do you know from that business conference? Like, I mean, you got boots on the ground in every corner of the world because of this business conference. I don't know what it is, but I mean, you're in Mastermind talks, guys, Mastermind talks, Mastermind talks. That's what it is. Okay. Look it up. Look it up. It's, it's, it's a awesome group. It's like, it's where I met Adam Franklin from Franklin, Franklin's tours. There you go. And you were, you were part of the Franklin family for a while. And now, uh, yep. Uh, upgraded old to old Selkirk sport. So here we are, man. What a, what a journey for you. And, uh, maybe, uh, that journey is going to take us to banana ball pickle ball. And, uh, we'll just have to see. I'm ready to banana the pickle. Yeah. Yeah. [click] [click] [click]