It Feels Right
It Feels Right #72 - PPA Kansas City + The Importance of Team Chemistry
- If I were to throw my name in this waiver period, where do you think a good landing spot would be for me? - If you were to throw your name in for this waiver period, I think that there's quite a few teams that can use here, Robert. You can play a left side, weak side, and a right side strong side. That not many people can do. Not many people, it's rare skill set, rare skill set. - To be honest, I would say half the teams or more in the league would have some form of upgrade with you and the lineup. Because you know why? - Why? - 'Cause it feels right, it feels right. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ This is the moment we waiting for ♪ ♪ Everything you want is right here ♪ ♪ We gon' give 'em what they came for ♪ ♪ If we gon' take it up from last year ♪ ♪ Watch the game change ♪ ♪ Watch the game change ♪ ♪ Watch the game change ♪ ♪ Watch the game change, yeah ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Fa la la la la la la, that's what I do before broadcasting. I mean, I go through my vocal cord, I go through the whole spiel. No, actually I do not do that, Robert. - Robert, I have one question for you. - Mm-hmm. - Are you across the pond right now? - I am across the pond to play some pickle ball, pickle ball. What is pickle ball? - Picky-picky, picky-picky-picky-pigle ball. - That's fantastic, and the word on the street is we have two over 2K players in an international event, is that correct? - That is, those are the rumors swirling in the pickle sphere, if you will. - Rumor has it. - She's from England, isn't she, Adele? - Yeah. Am I wrong? - I think you're right. - Okay. - You're right. - All right, let's go, thank you. - Let's go with it. - I wouldn't have even known that was Adele singing that song. - Rumor has it. - Even though I can do that. That's her? - I'm a big Adele guy, so is my father-in-law, big Adele guy. - Oh, that's nice that you guys can connect on Adele. - Yeah, you know, you gotta find some common ground, Robert, you know, you do. - You do, you do, I mean, more than just his daughter. - Yeah, that's correct, that is correct. So, who are you playing with in this tournament, Robert? - I am playing with Ryla Hart, yep, yep, yep, yep. Or, you know, as people sometimes like to call Meghan Fudge's husband, and also Susanna Barr. - So, we got double left-side Robert in this tournament. - Yeah, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. - Double left-side Robert, ooh, I love that. - Yup, playing a little sliver on the left while my partners do a lot of work. (laughing) - I like that. - Hey, so have you, I got my SoCal boys purple haizous, Max Manthown, Eric Lang coming over there. Have you ever played purple before? - No, never. - Please God hit him with some flippy long stockings. Just do it. - Oh, yeah, I'll stay up. I'll have to be on the right, which Ryla and I will do quite a bit, 'cause we won't unwind sometimes. So yeah, I'll give 'em some flips. We'll flip to the right shoulder. - Just hold it for like 18 seconds, and then just flip the problem. - I'll go right shoulder, then I'll go a couple down the line to his left hip, and then I'll go straight into his chest. - Oh God, yes, please do it. And I wanna see this video badly. (laughing) - Just get entangled. - Just get entangled. I mean, that's the way to do it. I mean, sometimes they catch on, sometimes they don't, but you got, that's how you have to start. You must. - I just gotta be over there on the right, though. - We've talked about it a lot of it. I can make dings all day from the left. I won't miss much. So if I need to just be solid over there, I'm playing. If I'm playing, the left is like with a big right, like Ryla can do it, Jack Monroe, I'm playing with the rest of you, can do it. But my, yeah, I think one, I need to develop a little bit of a better two-handed roll dink. Little late to that game. Oh, I'm just solid on the backhand, not missing dinks, but I don't feel like I have a lot I can do necessarily weapons-wise compared to the right side. The right side, I feel like I have unlimited options in terms of what I can like places I can go. And you know, I've got a little like disguise, slice speed up down the line that I hold to the last second. I've got, you know, obviously the flicks out of the air, the flicks off the bounce, the backhand side, just I don't have as much, I don't have as many options. I don't cover as much court. I'm not as long as I need to be. So it limits me a little bit and I don't like being limited. - No, I hear you, I hear you. Well, at least you don't have the full on yips on your backhand like I do. - I can just hit it. - I can't hit it. Like I can't hit it. So I can dink my backhand and if they hit it hard at me, I can counter, but other than that, it could be a fourth or a sixth shot or a speed up. I don't like, my technique is flawed and I literally can't hit it. Like it might go 25 feet out or into the bottom of the net. So that's the state of my game right now, Robert. So regardless of what happens with you, you're gonna be heading shoulders above me from the left. So you can put that in your back pocket and know that. - Adam, are there any players that you have watched recently that doesn't put, no, I'm not talking on a soft dink or neutral dink from the kitchen on the backhand. Like hitting a two handed shot there, two in the backhand there. Are there any players that you see right now that aren't putting two hands on, whether it be a counter, whether it be digging out a ball, any kind of, yeah, like block, like are you seeing anybody that has yet to go fully to a two hander as well? Just as an addition, not full time. - Man, wow, that we might be here while for me to think about that. It's even like, even like for instance, a hard eights member, Eric Lang, who is a thunder punching guy, a one handed guy, he goes to two now. He dinks with two, he will occasionally put that second hand for support on a counter attack or a speed up. So I would have to ponder that for a while. And even like, yeah, like, say Federico, who has that one handed speed up that he can kind of go off the bounce with one. He's two handed now in a lot of different situations. Ben, who wasn't, now is, now. I mean, there's a variety of players that even if they're heavier one handed from a percentage that they use at perspective, there is situations where they add the second. So yeah, so I think your statement is correct. You are late to that game, Robert. And really the only one I can think of is me. So, and I don't matter. So that's really, that's really, that's really all I have. As it's just, I mean, and when, when I broke in, like if you saw somebody hitting with two hands, you thought it was wild. It was like someone, it was only Riley. It was like someone playing ping pong with two hands. You're like, what is this person doing? It was no different when you first got into pickleball. And now it's almost a necessity. And that's, I mean, it's a long time, five or six years, but it's really not that long. And when you're thinking of like sports and strategic stuff and whatever else. So yeah, so I go ahead, I, no, I was just going to say, like I, I'll put two hands on a dink and I feel pretty good like rolling that. I just won't do it often because one, I pop it up too much. I just, I haven't crazy that I haven't spent that much time practicing that, that shot considering I haven't practiced any shots. I just go, I just go play tournament. - Hey dude, you'll ship one two hands off the bounce cross-court every now and then, Robert. - No, I do it, I do it like on a neutral ball into somebody's chest, but they let it go and it goes in oftentimes. I can get, I get more, I can get more topspin off a, off a two-handed backhand roll off the bounce and I can off pretty much any shot for whatever reason. I can just generate more dip on it. But the issue is I, I feel so uncomfortable putting two hands on a counter. I don't know if it's, I don't know what it is. It just doesn't feel like I would be able to, it feels like my one-handed, my one-handed backhand counter is so much stronger than if I go to. I just don't understand how, I don't, I don't know. - Yeah. - I think there's times where I don't hit it necessarily cleanly and it's a little off and I don't feel like as strong as maybe if I would have had two hands on it, but I don't know, the, I see a lot, like pretty much everybody has gone to a two-handed counter in some occasion, on some occasion, not all the time, but I just haven't found that occasion where I feel like I would be better with it. - Yeah, I mean, like I said, I don't matter, but I'm the same way. I even tinkered when I was playing with two hands, just extremely awkward. And it felt less awkward on like dinking, but countering like, I mean, I could be doing a drill focusing on it and I couldn't do it. Like I would just start going one again. Like I couldn't even like get over the hump to even like try to consistently over and over again. So I just like, scrap it. That's just not for me, but now you almost, it's almost a necessity at this point as... - Yeah. - No. - Yeah, it's getting there for sure, if it's not already. - That's where we're at. Yeah, that's exactly where we're at. Well, Robert, were you able to watch any MLP Kansas City this weekend? - A little bit, not, I wasn't able to watch a ton, but I watched a little bit, yeah. I guess what it was hot. - That's, you know, that's the word on the street. - Yeah, yeah. - You know. - I saw some suggestions. Should we not, should summer be the off season? Should, what can we do? What could we possibly do to make sure that it's not too hot for players and it's safe? I don't know Adam. - You're welcome. - What can we do? - I'm a good work. - What can we do? - I set you up, I set you up. I knew you were gonna run with it. I don't even have to give you any runway. You're gonna take off with that one. But it was pretty wild. And it was, you know, of course it was affecting the ball and, you know, there were some instances, I saw Viv David over on the sidelines with bags of ice on her neck. Jill Braverman was struggling for the Bay Area breakers. And that was like a main focus, sure. As, you know, the hardates, we talked a little strategy, but like managing the day and like bringing a cooler with us and having ice packs and all that stuff was a pretty dang big factor in this tournament, especially on Sunday when we had two matches in that day. So, yeah, I mean, it was pretty wild with the heat and the ball was playing very soft as well. So, yeah, just some of the conditions that were going on in Kansas City. But, I mean, good pickleball either way, but just, and I think even, you know, we always talk about it from a play player perspective. But I think we should maybe talk about it a little bit from a fan perspective. How hard is it to go out and just watch a day of pickleball six to eight hours when the heat is that oppressive at, you know, 93, 94 plus with, you know, not every single seat in the championship or grandstand stadium having access to shade. So, it was something, that's for sure. - I will say, in respect to outdoor pickleball, one really cool aspect of it, and this is a rarity to hear me say anything that could possibly be construed as a positive for outdoor pickleball. But playing under the lights, under good lights, outside, like where it's, even like a summer where it's warmer at night, it's still fine 'cause the sun's not beating down on you. But, playing picky under the lights and kind of like a MLP stadium atmosphere, that's legit, that's fun. So, outdoor pickleball at night, and it's less windy, there's no wind at night. That's the play. Outdoor pickleball at night. - So, we're talking like a, you know, first couple rounds in the heat of the day, like a 2 p.m. start or something like that, and then as you work into the quarter semis and beyond, you're just rocking it 'til like nine or 10 p.m. Maybe later. - No, not really, because I think that's, that goes against what I'm saying. I'm saying, if there's a scenario for like MLP, for example, where you have, you just line up night matches only, you know, maybe you start at seven p.m. and you roll in, like look at it, like the U.S. Open night session, right? It starts at seven p.m. Sometimes it rolls 'til two a.m., whatever. They have five set matches. MLP is pretty consistent on time. You start at seven, next match at nine, finished by 11, two chords going. You get, you know, I think that's a super fun play. And I think outside of that though, we don't play pickleball outside during the day, Adam. It's just a non-negotiable, non-negotiable. We don't do it. - And I'll say this now. Granted, you're gonna occasionally run into a problem, but I think intoxicated fans are the best fans. Well, how about this? - Of course. - Slightly buzzed, we'll say slightly buzzed fans. And we, there's been a couple situations where especially I have been to the night session at the U.S. Open. And, you know, nighttime breeds a little bit of beer and wine and spirit drinking. So that is a fun atmosphere also. Just, I'm just adding to the list here. So carry on. - You get it, you get it. I mean, that was an easy sell. I mean, I mean, you get it. So yeah, outdoor pickleball at night, no problem. Rest of time, indoors, let's go. - Yeah. - Other than SoCal. SoCal, whatever. - Okay, whatever. - Playhouse. - It doesn't even matter. - Do whatever you guys want. Whether you're silly, perfect weather. - With your silly. - Everywhere else in the country. - Weather. Let's go inside. - Actually, so after this event, so this Thursday and Friday, Thursday, premiere of Friday Challenger, we're gonna have a little waiver wire. So there should be some fun stuff going on there, especially in the Challenger division. I'm sure there's gonna be some drops and ads, maybe a couple trades. Possibly a trade between premiere and Challenger haven't heard anything in concrete, but that'll be a fun little update here in the next few days. And yeah, I also heard a little buzz. This is not confirmed by any means that there could possibly be next year 2025, a stretch where it's just the MLP season. So instead of PPA, MLP, PPA, MLP, and kind of going back and forth, there could be a stretch or a block of like three months or something like that where it's just MLP and then the rest of the year will be PPA tournaments. What do you think about that? - Yeah, I'm a big fan of that. I think it creates, let's call it a three month season, similar to other pro sports, right? I don't think we need to go all year. Have a three month season where you're able to really track what's going on, right? And really have the tension built up and have each week lead to the next storyline and the next match up and that stays consistent throughout versus now we have a Kansas city PPA tournament where it goes back and then we go to another MLP. It's just, it does get confusing for the fans. I think having just a consistent three month season would be super dope and be fun to watch and get excited about the MLP season. And then once it's over, you'd be pumped to see tournaments again and the normal partnerships and see what's going on there. - I like that, I think that's a great idea. - Yeah, and it's like, the die hards don't matter. The die hards are gonna be fans. They're junkies, they're in, they need their fix, you know? So it's all-- - Don't watch everything. It doesn't matter what it is. - Right, it's all about the casual fans. So I think that that's, I agree with that completely as well. When you have storylines stacked and it's one week later or possibly two weeks later as opposed to four or six weeks and you're kind of bouncing around between standard tournaments, you can kind of get lost in translation what everyone's playing for and what it means. So I, yeah, just very, very briefly, you know, heard a conversation or talk to somebody that mentioned that that could be a possibility and I'm with you, I like it a lot too. - Yeah, I like that. I did have, so I was hanging out with Greg Dow this past weekend and we were chatting and-- (laughing) - It's all right-- - Obviously the, well, it's not a good story. I mean, there's plenty of good stories within this weekend. Starting off with like this hotel we were staying at, I go up to the room, I'm taking a shower, going to bed, he, Greg hasn't checked into the hotel yet. I get a call like three calls, seven texts and it's just, hey man, can you come down to the lobby? Like, okay. Come down to the lobby. He's like, yeah, you know, long story, lost by wallet. Can you put your card down for the deposit so I could check in? Sure, Greg, sure, sure, sure. How are you operating without a wallet? Like, how are you traveling? How are you, like, how are you operating? And how are you not stressed out about it? He wasn't, he doesn't care. He's like, whatever, right? But, you know, I'll figure it out. He's a, you know, he's a unique character. - Well, if you wouldn't have come down there, he would not have figured it out, Rob. So, I don't know, like, what would he have done? Would he have asked a stranger for it? Would he have, like, he did, there had to be a physical card. He had his card number. They wouldn't, like, they couldn't take that. They needed a physical card. - Yeah, maybe he could sell the Venmo a random stranger and have him do that. So, he lost his wallet. - That's if he had, that's if he had his phone, which he usually doesn't have his phone with him either. - But he, I mean, he's flying. So, he had to, he had to have his wallet. - I don't know what he did. - So, yeah, special human. I saw him up at MLP Kansas City, at least for a brief moment. I think he was on the mic a couple of times. He actually might have been on the mic. No, no, there was, there was Roddy. So, there were some characters on the mic this weekend too. So, we had Roddy, Dow, and AJ Kohler jumping in. One of the heartache matches was AJ Kohler and Roddy. And then, our last match of the weekend was Wyatt Stone and Big H. With the guest appearance from Anna Bright and Gabe Tardio kind of lingering in the back, occasionally saying something. So, it was, I don't always go back and watch, but I watched that one. And it was, it was pretty dang hilarious. I'm not, I'm not sure how hilarious it would have been for a casual fan, but it was pretty dang funny for me to listen to those two. - Again, it's great for the diehards, right? Because they get like the context of what's happening and who these people are. Casual fan probably just likes what is happening. Yeah. - Big H, he's got, he's got something about him that, I don't know, just, even if he says something vanilla or plain, it's still kind of funny. I don't, yeah, I don't know. I think some people just have that, not everyone does, but I think, I think, H has it. - 'Cause you just don't really know if he's like ever, like his, the snarky versus the regular is a very like fine line, right? You don't know if he's like being serious, if he's like talking, if he's, you just don't know. So it makes everything feel like he's talking. - Yeah, that's right, and that's right. So I think there is a random, every so often, genuine comment coming out of his mouth. But most of it is, it's fuck. So it all just kind of blends together, it becomes one. So. - I don't know if you know this, but I haven't checked a bag since probably 2005. So I've gone on 20 years of no check bags, I only carry on. And what's made that really easy for me over the past couple of years are Silkirk Backpacks. 'Cause 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 check the bag, it's important. I'm right there with you. And oh, 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 Silkirk 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. 'Cause I could put my little laptop and I don't have to take the big one. It's important, Silkirk, send me a small. I'll buy it. - Adam, if I were to throw my name in this waiver period, where do you think a good landing spot would be for me? - Robert, if you were to throw your name in for this waiver period, I think that there's quite a few teams that could use you, Robert. You can play a left side, weak side, and a right side, strong side. That not many people can do. - True, not many people, it's rare skillset, rare skillset, and that's impressive, that's impressive, but everyone has that. So I would say, to be honest with you, I would say half the teams or more in the league would have some form of upgrade with you and the lineup. And I also know that as an older gentleman, you will be just fine, four points at a time playing singles as well. - Striking, some more hand passes. So yeah, I think there's a lot of spots, and I'm really wondering if we're gonna get some wild action or just a couple moves at this waiver wire in a couple days, 'cause I think, as you get deeper into the season, some of those teams that have low points per match or don't have an accumulated what they want, they start really going for it in terms of changing up team dynamics and team chemistry and things of that nature where after one or two events, you kinda wanna hold pat and see what you have, and now we're getting to a point where, if it's not working, let's make a change. - Yeah, I know real clear stats. They have kind of a standings list, and they also have, I requested like a last column being how many matches you've played and how many matches you have remaining on the year. - And they did it. - And they did it, they did it. - And it's cool to see it too, right? 'Cause like now you know, okay, this team's in first, but they have the fewest matches remaining, this team in six has a bunch of matches remaining and a bunch of ground they can make up. So I like that. But I don't even know what I was gonna say after that, but it was-- - Well, I'll get ya. Well, it's like a perfect example. It's like the fives. The fives, Annerley Waters, Marry Humberg, Will Howes, Zaynabertil, they've played nine matches. And the top teams, like the Dallas Flash, St. Louis, they've played 17. So, I mean, that's wild. So they only have six left, those top teams, where the fives have 14 left. So there can be a lot of moving and shaking and you can make a run too. Especially, you know, you start, they always talk about this in football and baseball like strength of schedule, you know? So if you're one of those teams that has a ton of matches left and you have a weaker strength of schedule, my goodness, you can make a run hot. And I mean, well, let's talk about my boys and my girls, the heart eights. One in five in Atlanta, one in five in Atlanta and have just been on a steam roll right now. And we found ourselves in second place just below the Brooklyn aces. So things can change quickly when you can accumulate three points for a regulation when multiple times over and over again. So it's pretty fun and it's gonna be even more fun as we get tighter and tighter. We got, yeah, we got Virginia Beach, we got New York, we got Miami, just a handful of tournaments left and there's gonna be some moving and some shaking. - Yeah, how many MLPs are left and which one's next? - Yeah, that's a great question. I think there is, I think there's four and we only play two as the heart eights, I believe that is correct. We have quite a few at Virginia Beach. The next one, I think, is New York. And this is something that I should absolutely know and I do not, but I think that that is correct. And yeah, so it's gonna be real tight. And you know, top two and challenger, who knows what might change, but top two and challenger with that automatic bid to premiere and then also-- - Top four, how does top four for whatever reason? - Top two for the automatic bid. So you're gonna have to play through the playoffs to get the other two, that's correct. - What is the top two and challenger? They didn't even play the playoffs. - They're good. So I think, or they still play maybe? - I think they still play it, but they just make it. And then also, if you were the top two seeds, you get a variety of advantages. You don't even have to play a match first off 'cause you get a buy through to, so basically six people will make the playoffs and four people will play for two spots and then they will play those top two teams in the semifinals. - Oh, I see. - And you also, yeah, and you also get to like, you get like all four choices. You get to react to mix, you get to pick side, you get to pick, so there is big advantages. - But you still have to, as the top two seeds, you still have to win those matches to get the top two. - Say that again? - Yeah. - Are you saying, so like, the top two in the regular season advanced to basically the simmies. - Correct. - They get all those advantages. But just because you got top two in the season standings, doesn't mean you automatically advance, right? - No, no, no, no, no, no, yeah. - Okay, okay. - You have to win the, you have to get to the finals essentially of the tournament. - You have to get, you're just in the semifinals, but you have to win that match, yeah, so. - Gotcha. - Okay. - And I think that it kind of is a delicate balance because with how it's set up, there really should be huge benefits for regular season performance. I mean, that's a bulk of the season, but at the same time, there's been a couple of people that have mentioned that it might be too much. Not having to play with that match and getting all the choices, but I don't think, I agree. - I don't think it's too much. I think you're absolutely right. I think you play, you have a full season body of work, you've earned those top two spots. And as we see, there's already so much variance and possibilities of upsets and MLP that you really, I think as the top two seeds, you really deserve those little nuances to set yourself up because you've earned it. I think just giving them just the buys and then playing straight up, you know, anything could happen, it's MLP, but giving them kind of all the choices is, I think that's cool, I like that. - Yeah, yeah, no, I agree. I mean, that's, I mean, we're talking 23 regular season matches, you perform in that big giant pool. - It's like the one-game playoff for baseball. Yeah, I'm saying stuff, you know, like, oh my God, dude. - Yeah, one-game, 162, the 163rd game. I mean, think about that, you know, that's like-- - Who's got the ace? - That's basically it. - Who's got the-- - Correct. - Who's got the ace? - The ace matters and it's wild, all that. You know, that's less than 1% of the games that they played for the season and that's what can carry them into the playoffs. Now, granted, before they made that rule, they had no shot, they were already out. So, throw that in there, but it still seems wild to have a one-game playoff, especially for baseball. - Yeah. - Yeah, so, yeah, so, I mean, fun event, you know, good pickleball, of course. And I talked to Corey, the GM for the New York Hustlers and he's pretty excited about kind of the layout and the setup they have for the New York tournament. I think there's gonna be good fan experience, that they have some solid seating and bleachers set up throughout some pretty heavy numbers in terms of the seating and all that stuff. So, I think that it's gonna be, like I said, always get good pickleball at the MLP events, but I think this is gonna be great for the fans, which is important. - What's the venue? - I don't know. I have absolutely no idea whatsoever. He just explained it to me. I don't even know what it was. I know it's not-- - Do they sound like it's end doors? - No, not no ideas. He said there's like this little like S thing, this little S that goes like through both courts, like for the VIP. And he said, I believe he said 2K seats for the championship and a high number of seats for the grandstand as well. So, that's pretty exciting. - That'd be cool. - How many teams are going to that one, do you know? - I, of course-- - I like asking you all the detail questions about the future events that I'm going to-- - Adam, what's the date? - I don't care. - I don't know, we're not going. We're working on us, Robert. I will be fan-boying, though. I will be fan-boying and I will be watching and I will be taking some notes and doing some scouting and maybe having an adult beverage while I do it. - Hey, that sounds like not watch a little pickle, have a little beer. What's up? - Chase AJ around the living room a little bit. You know, that's a lovely weekend afternoon. - Beautiful, are you in Kansas City this whole week? - You, like you're in a hotel room right now. - No, I never left. Yeah, I haven't left. So I would have been able to go home for one day, but I start tomorrow with the commentary. - With all Drew Felios. - Oh yeah. - I don't think I've ever worked with him before, so that'll be fun. And then Dave and myself will have Friday, Saturday and championship Sunday. So speaking of that-- - A long weekend ahead of you. - I know, I do. It's a long time to be away from the little one, but you know, when I go home, I don't have a ton of responsibility other than him, family stuff. So I'll get like 10 or 11 days, just-- - Fully dialed. - Me and the guy dialed in, changing diapers, doing the thing. So actually I wrote down, so I'm using my iPad to be on this podcast. So I don't have all my little stats at my fingertips, but I wrote down some partnerships for the PPA Kansas City coming up and a couple that were kind of exciting. So first and foremost, I just scrolled down one or two spots in the men's doubles and I saw Hayden Patrick, when in Christian Alshan, that is a pretty-- - Formidable. - Formidable, talented team. I thought about it a little bit in terms of right side, left side, but I would expect Christian to play right and Hayden to play left and then-- - That's what I would have said too. - Maybe some flexibility to possibly play straight up or mix it up if they get in some trouble, but that's a ton of talent. Love H man, he's just, I just don't get it every time I watch him and his little backhand flick. It's like, I just don't get it. One, I don't have that shot. And two, with such a slight frame, how is he getting so much action on that ball? It is absolutely a world-class shot. - It's, yeah, and it's crazy because we've talked about height, we've talked about wingspan. I mean, he must have decent wingspan 'cause he's able to reach in really strong and really like a net high ball, even a little below the net. He's able to get so much pace on the ball and it's, yeah, I don't get it. I don't want to make sense to me. It's like an a lot like J-Dubs is a little different. It's not, it's kind of similar, but his wrist is much stiffer, I would say. - Yes. - Stronger too, probably, and H is more like, it's like elastic, like gumbi a little bit where it's just like, it's like very flingy, but he gets so much, he gets so much pop off of it. - Yeah, he does, and that's exact. I think that's a really fair statement, just slightly more firm with the JW and it's just the range of motion for H on that shot and the paddle head speed is silly. And I think Christian Alshan too had kind of a small issue, had a minor surgery and actually missed an MLP event and I think that his game has been building a little bit since then. So, saw him play a little bit for the Texas ranchers who have been having some really good success. So I think kind of moving away from maybe some of that rust and that couple of weeks of not playing, he's his game's just building more and more. So, yeah, I expect, I don't think anybody wants to play that team. I know. - Do we think? Go ahead. - I was gonna say, do we think, 'cause there's some guys that have had like Brandon French that have had pretty significant, and he's very wristy, he had the Tomahawk, like he was kind of, I saw the first time he heard his wrist, we were supposed to be playing Newport together and you were there, I remember you being there and we were playing a practice game against somebody and they did the Tomahawk and then he had to pull out of the tournament. So, with all of the wrist action that we're seeing now with like these flicks and like, do you think there's gonna be a real uptick in wrist injuries? - That's a good question. You know, everyone's playing about, I don't know, somewhere between eight and 10 ounces. So, you know, that's, you know, significantly less than a tennis racket. I know another one to throw into that mix is DJ Young. DJ Young's had some issues with the wrist as well. - Yeah, also Tomahawk. - Yeah, so I would say maybe a slight, maybe a slight uptick, but not, I would be shocked if it just starts, you know, like becoming an injury, like tennis elbow or something like that. But this is what you have to do now. Like you can't, like you need the action, you need the spin, you need the pace with these flicks and the thing is, is the amateurs and the lower level players, you know, using the wrist, it's just almost not worth it because they can't control it and they can't be consistent with it, but these guys now, so if you can have that baseline of consistency, you need to continue to add, continue to add, you need that margin for error, you need the spin, you need the power. So, I would expect as long as they're able to control it and of course the world-class players can, that they're gonna continue to add more and more wrist action with the shots moving forward. - Yeah, and we just don't, it's so interesting though, 'cause we don't really see as much of it on the forehand side where it's like, even just out of the air on the forehand side, I think guys are hitting it harder with their backhand. - Yeah, it's, it's, I don't disagree. I don't know why exactly, I guess it's just, I guess it's just a little bit easier to roll over on the backhand side. - Oh, I can get a little, it seems pretty even for me, like in terms of the windshield wiper kind of, the forearm slash wrist strength, but. - It's just the wrist also going, it's going just different directions, right? Like my wrist is much more like, gumbi-esque on the backhand, I feel like I can come back much further. On the forehand, I feel like it's a bit, it's a bit more stuck. - It's opening up the palm, you can only go so far on the forehand, but the backhand, you can really, you can like, you're talking about like the-- - Like coming all the way back and through. - So you get, you can, you can have a little, you have a couple extra inches or a little bit of extra fling, if you will, to come from the back on the backhand side. Yeah, that makes sense, that makes sense for sure. So. - The crazy part with, with big Asia is like, not only just the power he can get, but he's not, he's not tall. - No. - He must have like crazy, I don't know, but he gets sees on the, when he's on the left, he gets sees his backhand flicks that have wild cross-core angles. - Yes, yeah. - That shouldn't be able to happen. Like it's, I'm not talking like, like big Asia isn't just like, power deep into the court. He has heavy power pace pushing it off the court. - Like Humberg, it's like Humberg, similar. Yeah, wow, once again, I repeat myself for the 30th time, I don't get it, I don't have it. And good for them, good for them. Another one I saw is old, I just had to mention old, old hard-aids buddies. - Both players getting better, and both players already very good. But CJ Klinger and Todd Fote, I don't believe that I have seen that in a PPA tournament. So, I think they could do some damage. Todd is playing well, and of course CJ is growing. We have seen this matchup before, Xiaomi and Tyson, and I think they've played a couple times together with one very good run. So, I know they're familiar with each other. Xiaomi's gone up to train, up in court of lane, a couple times, so possibly they can make another run. And then here, this one is fairly sexy, kind of like the first one. We have a Federico Staxroot, and a Gabe Tardio matchup, which I think could certainly do some damage, especially with, I mean, I can't say this anymore, because Fed is just so consistent, and he can create plenty of offense from the left. But I always thought that just his overall raw power was one of the tools that he didn't have in spades, like some of the other top guys do. So, a right side power speed up player and Gabe Tardio could pair very nicely with Fed. So, any thoughts on any of those teams? - Yeah, I mean, I think that team could do a lot of damage. Could beat anybody, I think Todd and CJ could do very well too. I wouldn't put him quite in the same boat as Todd. - Yeah, I would agree with that. - Yeah, I would agree with that. - Yeah, I know, I agree. - But I think you're right. I think Fed being a rock on the left, making a ton of balls, playing not so dissimilar from like an Andre, who Tardio's played quite a bit with, makes a lot of sense. I think Andre's the same way. He needs a guy on the right that can create offense. I would say Fed has a bit more offense than Andre. Andre has better defense, and grabs more balls and gets more balls in play. - Yeah. - More length as well. But I think, yeah, absolutely right. I think it's interesting to see like those guys that are just steady on the left that have some offense, but not crazy. They're not gonna really light you up or anything crazy, like a Fed or an Andre. Like they really do need offensive right side guys, which it's like, it's an interesting evolution too, right? Like the, you know, what everybody looked to be was the Ben and Colin, where Colin really is like rarely speeding up. It's very rare. And he's just being solid and dinking and then Ben's coming over and doing all the offense. It's changed a bit, right? It's like now you need guys on the right that have that can, that can be dangerous. Like the way I'm thinking about it is like, you don't really want to have any safe places for the other team to hit, right? You want to be able to have offense from every part of the kitchen. And if you don't have it yet, you're gonna have to start developing it because I think as the game keeps moving forward and keeps evolving, the windows and areas where you're safe on the court, like right now you're pretty safe at somebody's left foot if they're on the right, it's gonna be changing. They're gonna be able to do an analee where they can take a two handed backhand roll inside out across the kitchen or they can speed it up right to, you know, the left side players left hip right in front of them or she can speed up in the middle. I think the windows are getting smaller of safe areas on the court and it's fun. It's a fun evolution. - Yeah, I think Tardio's a perfect example of that. Last couple of times I've seen him play. When his partner is cross court dinking left to left, he's straddling the center line. He's not hanging out on his side and he has a really nice initiation of a backhand flick from the middle of the court. So I think that that is a dangerous pairing and it'll be interesting to see exactly how much court Tardio is playing with Fed and kind of where, you know, is this a full on two to one situation, 66-33 or is it a little bit closer to 50-50 for those two fun team to watch either way? Women have Hurricane Tyra Black and Vivian Glosmin. I don't believe I've seen that before and if it has, it's only been for a small amount of tournaments but I think that that's a pairing that could work well. Glosmin playing a nice right side. I would guess Hurricane's gonna be on the left but maybe that's a little more fluid than I'm thinking. I just feel like I've been seeing Glosmin a lot on the right and she seems to be embracing it. So that could be a tough team. A player that we just talked about, Mari Humberg pairing up with Georgia Johnson. They had a nice run at an early PPA and Mesa kind of a fill-in situation when Georgia's partner went down and I believe they made a run to the semifinals or championship Sunday. And I don't believe I've seen Leia and Tina. Is that wrong? Have you seen Leia and Tina? I don't know if I have. I don't remember if it's happened. It might have happened, but. Yeah, that one too, I would expect Leia to be on the right and Tina on the left. Anything stick out for those. Well, mostly there was more interesting match-ups on the men's side, a lot more of the standard stuff, you know, like with Edda, Meg, and CP Analee, that kind of stuff. Those three match-ups, anyone that piques your interest or might work well for you. Yeah, I think a lot of this also is just dependent on conditions and weather. Is it gonna stay super hot over the weekend? No, no, okay. Oh, it drops like wild. It's gonna be in the low 80s. Even on Saturday Sunday, I believe it was like high of 78. So we're talking like a 10 to 15 degree difference in the play for the PPA as opposed to the MLP. So the conditions are absolutely different. Yeah, and I think, you know, to your point on hurricane and glaws, I think that suits them. You know, they have good power. If they're gonna play in the dead heat and have the softer ball and play the Kawamoto's or somebody, it's gonna be tough sledding. Right. But if the ball's flying and staying a little hard, they can rip through some people. I mean, they're probably, I would say, the most powerful power wise and the bracket and the draw. And if the conditions are playing a little cooler, then they can do some real damage. That'll be fun to watch. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, we'll just go ahead and cap it off with a couple mixed teams as well. We have Edda and Alshan, which makes sense as they are ranchers, teammates and MLP. We have CP and Fed, Catherine and Fed. It's an interesting one, yeah. Jackie, Kawamoto and Augie and Glawsman and Tyson. And once again, some of these teams might have played once or twice together, but for the most part, these are very fresh new partnerships on the mixed side and a couple interesting ones for sure. Yeah. Yeah, CP, Fed, yeah. That's like, I mean, that's a high floor. They'd be so annoying to play. No, annoying. That's a high floor team right there. If they're able to, you know, find some consistent offense from somewhere, find some patterns that they're able to do some damage with from an offensive perspective, we know the defense and the ball making is gonna be there. And yes, I think that playing them a good word to describe that would be very annoying. Yeah, they're just gonna make so many balls and wait for the, like, you're gonna have to beat them. Like, they're not gonna beat themselves. They're gonna, yeah. So, it's gonna have to come up to, it's gonna come down to somebody or a team that has big shot-making ability to take them down. Yeah, you just have to overwhelm them. You're not gonna out-pattern them. I'm not gonna out-bomb them. No, that's not gonna be a thing. So, you're just gonna have to, any little smidgen of anything that they give you, you're gonna have to take it and kind of try to blow them off the court is definitely gonna be the play. Plenty of teams can do that. I also think that Jackie Auggie is an interesting team as well. As Jackie can, you know, a little more offensive than Jade Kawamoto and Auggie plays a quality mix. He's had a couple of nice runs with Tyra and his game seems to be, you know, slowly improving, kind of really burst on the scene with a pretty high level quickly. And, you know, I wouldn't say that he's jumped another level, but just consistently improving as, you know, the rate at which people grow is very different for everyone. But I like a lot of what he brings to the table. Yeah, they're gonna be another tough team to beat. Jackie, Jackie on the left is, you know, comfortable over there 'cause Jade, you know, when she does play with Jade, Jade's on the right. So, yeah, they're gonna be tough. Auggie's got, I mean, there's, yeah, I agree with everything you said in terms of, you know, quick rise, don't even say maybe plateau, but just, yeah, consistent, where he's at. And, but it does have, like you said, good runs in mix and has good reach, good offense, can do some stuff off the bounce. It'll be, yeah, they're, like, talk about firepower, they could be a tough team. Yeah, bounce attacks for the fella and mixture are just unbelievably necessary. Just really, really, and he can do it on both wings. But yeah, it's really fun to see the players that come in and you just, like, there is no blueprint to what growth is gonna be. It's, it is, it is never, I mean, it's just jump here. You think someone's plateau, then they take another leap, so there's those inclement, incrementally rising players. It's really fun to see the, the plateaus and the growth and the sort of get figured out and then make another adjustment or add another tool to the toolbox. So it's, it's really fun to see all these players that have, you know, been playing whatever. Pro pickleball for a year, 18 months, two years, and kind of how people figure them out and how they adjust. I mean, it's, it's just, it's just such a cool sport. Easy to learn hard to master, as we always say, and I think it's always gonna be like that. - I will say, just talking about kind of that growth and the consistency and never knowing somebody's gonna get better, I was, I was down in SoCal, playing a tournament over there, and I was practicing some at the Hub in San Diego, Rob Cassidy, who, you know, we partnered together a couple of years ago, quite a bit. He put his name in for the MLP Australia draft and did not get picked up. And to me, it's, that's the, like, people just, no respect, even playing with him when I was down there, he's playing good pickleball, man. He's, he's, in my opinion, super underrated. He makes a lot of balls and has a nice drop. He's gotten better. He used to be pretty, used to be a pretty big liability on backhand dinks. You could just really target the backhand dink, but he's obviously worked on it, obviously improved. And to be honest, looking at the MLP Australia guys that are there and that have been drafted, I'd put Rob Cassidy in, like, the top three. Wow. Okay. So, yeah, that's the best story. I love me some 22 Rob Cassidy. And he was just in the mix this past weekend on the practice courts, just incredibly shirtless, just grinding it out for hours on end. And yeah, the only thing better than Rob Cassidy is a shirtless Rob Cassidy. So that was a real treat and I couldn't agree more. It's easy just, oh, he's been passed by. I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure. A lot of the, there's been multiple veterans that I thought were just gonna be practically out of the sport or just not in the mix anymore to make runs. And they just kinda, they don't just go away. They just kinda hang out. Maybe they, maybe that lights some fire in their belly and they get a couple extra shots or work a little bit harder off court, whatever the case may be. I don't think the working hard off court applies to Rob Cassidy, but I couldn't be wrong. So it's fun, it's fun. You never know, you can't count anyone out. You must always, yeah, especially as a GM and coach, you can't just decide that somebody doesn't have it anymore. You have to put in the hours, you have to watch and you have to see what's going on as anyone can reestablish themselves when they have that base of talent. Yeah, and I think a piece of it is it's like the whole, as new players come in, new shots get developed, people will innovate, show that new stuff works, everybody's forced to get better, right? Everybody is forced to learn that shot. Everybody's like, it's just all of the skills and talent coming in just raises everybody's level 'cause paddle's changing, new stuff, you could do, you could just do new stuff and it's changing all the time. So yeah, it's fun. - I agree. Well, that's all I got on my little note here. Very official tip, my very official tip of the day. People get upset when they don't do tip of the day. - Yes, we have flubbed that a couple times in the last five or six episodes or so what you got, you got anything for us? Tell me, talk to me. - Well, what have we talked about today? I think we've talked about-- - Ooh, go ahead. - We can talk about wrist use from the lower levels and kind of-- - I know, I teach them never to use it. - Right, right, and it's tough because I think that anyone who is a lower level player and is a fan of pro pickleball or pro sports in general, you want to copycat. You want to copycat. And I'm not gonna, I very rarely use never or absolutely when I'm teaching but you have to make sure that you don't go over that threshold of inconsistency and it's so easy to do so. So I think, and we've talked a little bit about this kind of the progression of shots and skills and I think that you have to, maybe not master but get close to it with a locked wrist on your shots before you start adding to it. And I don't think that that's a no. A no for your wrist, an absolute hard no for whatever. You know, three, five to four, five players but you have to get the technique and use kind of those bigger joints, the shoulder and the locked wrist to be consistent before you really get freaky with the wrist stuff because it's a fantastic shot when it works but if it's working one out of four times, you're not gonna improve like you want to and the people that you're playing with and rec play and your group, the points are gonna be shorter and not as clean and not as good and it's gonna be in everybody loses situation if you get carried away with it. - Yeah, and it's no different going into the higher levels, right? It all comes down to decision making and playing the right shot and trying to flick a ball with your wrist that's six inches below the net, not high percentage for anybody, not even on the pro side. So yeah, it's just one, it's developing it but also knowing that at the end of the day that you have to play high percentage and you have to play the right shots even in practice you can wanna work on stuff and wanna work on flicks and wanna work on attacks out of the air but at the end of the day, you wanna practice playing high percentage. - Yeah. - And we talk about in this respect Adam and then I'll let you take that. - Let's go. - Is we talk about playing to the better player in wreck and not just icing out that person so you get the win, you also have to be careful, right? Because you also don't wanna get into the habit of just playing a shot to the better player even if it's the wrong shot, right? If I'm thinking right in front of me just 'cause he's the better player not necessarily the right thing to do. So you don't wanna ice that person out but you do wanna play the shot that you would play in a match. - Yeah, no, no, I agree. And I even, just to touch on what I said earlier I even kind of labeled that range three, five to four, five. I think it even works for a talented five-oh or qualifier player. - Still? - Still be consistent with the regular playing shots that you need to set yourself up. I think just because a high-end tennis background or someone jumps on the scene who is clearly talented, they want to be JW or they want to be Hayden right off the bat. Even for a great player who has a chance to make it in Pro, start playing. Start playing, figure that stuff out and then you can add other things or higher risk, high reward shots as you move through your progressions. So it's for all levels. It's not just, I didn't wanna just kind of pigeonhole that three, five to four, five level. - Yeah, couldn't agree more. I think the teams, you know, seeing these really talented teams come through qualities and stuff like that or that are in qualifying, it's usually that they're overextending and trying to do too much versus just being patient and grinding and playing the right shot. So couldn't agree more. - Boom, shock a lot, good done. - Pup, pup, pup, pup. - Just two guys in two hotel rooms getting it done, Rob. Let's go. - Just, hey, high-end quality content creation, baby. Let's go. - What's going on? - Go next time, fellas. - Out. (dramatic music) (crowd cheering) (clicking) (clicking) [ Silence ]