Pickleball Paddle BANNED from Pro Tour… and Not for the Reason You Think

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Please send me to Dallas. I will do the I will play in the tournament just to make sure that it's legit and if and I win any money

I'll donate it to charity. I'm not a John Q. What charity?

Nico Nico Valencia's charity for overweight lefties and pickle ball like what is going on with charity? Are you donating this to oh?

My god

Welcome everybody to another episode of the pickle pod. I am your host Nico the lefty as always we have

Zane n' Avertile this time on weird hours in Vietnam

Zane what time is it in Vietnam right now?

It's it's 8 a.m. So it's not too bad. That felt weird dude. It felt weird to be introduced to my own podcasts

You're like as always we have zane davertile like what is going on here?

We don't have a we don't have a guest today. So basically I'm running this show as if you are my guest

So this is my my first time

run as the

official full-time host with first building of the podcast

You will be our guest with the you know probably shady Wi-Fi and the subpar camera from Vietnam maybe recording from your phone

Hey, hold up hold up. I actually finally upgraded the road production quality. I got a DJ

I'm like you won't be able to see this Nico because we're doing this like ghetto thing where I'm like Google meeting you over on the side

And I got my camera out from but look look at this you guys look at this my camera is tracking me everywhere

It's pretty cool looks good

Some tech personal pride tell me that it's crap, but I'm pretty proud of it to be honest

I got a light up there not Wi-Fi dependent on

You know 8 bits per second or whatever we got going on over here. I'm excited about this Nico

I'm sorry, you know you were a few minutes late to the podcast recording and I had asked our producer as like JB

Is it possible that zane could not find a panero bread in Vietnam?

Are you podcast?

That's a good point. That's a good point

You know, I'll have to google the closest panero near me and we're probably a couple thousand miles away

Yeah, all right. Well, we got it. We got a good show for everybody today

As always if you're watching on YouTube hit the like subscribe button comment share with a friend

Like if you want zane back as the full-time host

Comment if you want me to replace him overtake him first building and probably twice as much money

We'll see what the dink wants, but say I think you're you're probably pretty safe here, but we'll see how it goes

Wait, you're getting paid

Only only in Maui, Newy snacks they said hey

What kind of thing would you like to host the pod in an alperger Maui, Newy?

Yeah, so you know

That's all I get all right. Well, hey, I mean honestly. Yeah, that I would take that yeah, you know, does this

Count as our Maui, Newy add because honestly, this is organic as it gets

It is just like Maui, Newy with you know

55 grams of cow or 55 calories and 10 grams of protein

They're they're not actually sponsoring this episode of the pod but congratulations Maui, Newy you get this

Maybe you can just send me another pack in the mail because I still I still love it

Deal same here

Anyway, um, this is a great segue here speaking of not being paid

Um, let's talk a little bit about proton bankruptcy proton ban the UPA ban big news in the world of proton

Zane you have kind of basically been saying the writing is on the wall

I have been defending proton to my inner circles. I have a buddy Eric Burns who is an expert

Did you do that and he's like he asked me like to we seal you as Nico is proton and trouble are they dead and I was like

No, what are you talking about this is that's dumb?

Maybe they are Zane what's going on? What is that dead?

RIP

dead

Just just just no, I mean

But it's been so strange because probably what when did proton come in they signed Andre during

2023 when I was on the squeeze I remember he used that first initial cotton candy looking paddle

Oh, yeah, they had that like rubbery surface

um around then and like

About six months in it was like all right something's weird here. We're getting we're getting

Told by pros that they're not getting paid for months and then they're getting show they're showing up to events and getting handed like wads of cash

No, no 1099s nothing like

All types of weird stuff going on from

2023 until now

So oh there's just so much smoke

Like yeah, there's just so much smoke obviously. There's no there's no like flaming gun yet

But lots and lots of smoke obviously there was the involuntary bankruptcy from last year which people were very very quick to to poo poo

But like there are serious repercussions for

If you fraudulently file a an involuntary bankruptcy proceeding and that that that one I think from what I understand

Settled outside of court and now there's this which I think the ppa and upa doesn't come down so hard

If there's not a serious amount of money being owed for a serious amount of time

jeez it's like

Bernie made off or the guy that did uh the you know that put together with actually boys

I don't know I'm not is this is this a front for money laundering, you know

Am I gonna get sued for saying this myself?

Uh, but a lot of no apparently if you just say allegedly

Just say allegedly at some point during this podcast guys everything we say during this podcast is allegedly all right deals

There's uh, that's the that's the dink corporate lawyer team

Now can defend anything that we say so let's really take that as far as we can hear Niko

And to double stamp it this is also satire so you guys can you know between the allegedly and satire

We have everybody's cover we could say whatever we want about whoever we want and we're coming and these are simply opinions

Yeah, oh and their opinions my goodness. We

We are covered. I gotta use this like in life. I gotta remember a allegedly satire opinions and you know

I can never be held liable

Yeah, let me know if that works with your wife

I might try it too

Oh my goodness um

So the one question though so like you I think I listened on on one of your videos that they owed like seven figures like

Is that how much these companies are paying the upa like a million dollars?

I don't think that was from from my

One of my videos because I don't know that I mean like I don't know um

I had heard over well over a million dollars

Um, which obviously would be seven figures

But I don't think I think that's just part of the rumors

I would imagine it's gotta be seven figures to go to like come down on them this hard

You know sponsoring a ppa event is not cheap and we don't know what amount they have or haven't paid or or whatever

But um

Yeah, so

Interesting. I wonder if this is gonna mean do we think proton paddles go up in price like n-ron t-shirts

Do we think they go down in price uh, you know like a like a Rodney grubs

Pickleball rocks bankruptcy liquidation sale

But that's a real what is this gonna do to the price of proton paddles is the real question

I mean, I think those collector edition pink, you know cotton candy

Type A type B or whatever they're type one pickleball paddles or

But those are probably gonna be like the next you know

Uh, Tesla paddle on eBay. So we'll see I don't know everybody's reaching out to me and they're just like

This is bullshit. I love my I love my roadrunner my peacock or whatever and like I want to be able to use this forever

But I don't know yeah

Yeah, no, I notice that um, I posted my youtube video and there are so many people like defending proton

That's fine like they can make good paddles they can also owe a lot of money to to somebody and

Like I don't know I wouldn't defend a company that owes

Allegedly a lot of pros a lot of money and just in my conversation with you know pros

I've yet to hear somebody that's been

On good payment terms with proton

Yeah, no, I don't know I just I they can make a good paddle

I wouldn't defend a company that's not paying their their arrangements

And do you think this will affect amateur play at all at least within my uh, you PA events

Yeah, you know what I don't think that the upa should ban their paddles right away

But I actually wouldn't have a problem with them banning the proton paddles after certain some period of time like hey look you know

Pro-tahn owes us a ton of money like we're not going to we're not gonna let people use their their paddles at our events

But give them like till the end of

2026 by 2027 you got to you know have your you know get a different paddle essentially

I think that's like a most people are are switching out their paddle by that amount of time anyway

Interesting. Yeah, I'm interested to see. I mean if you had that that original type

I don't remember it was type one and two or type a and b

I feel like type one and two sounds too much like diabetes

So probably not it wasn't what it was called but those counting candy ones like apparently they get better with age

You know like wine. So they might last forever. Who knows um, but you know

It'll be interesting. We'll have to do a tier list one of these days on

Band pickleball paddles which ones were the top like is the mod

The best band pickleball paddle of all time where does the road runner or the peacock or whatever the latest

Proton out up, you know that originally I like that

Yeah, all right guys leave us a comment. We'll do that next week. Let's do that next week

Leave us a comment. What is your favorite band pickleball paddle? You know

We got stuff like the the diadem hush paddle that one was just straight up illegal from the beginning

So and they made no qualms about that

I think we can like just throw in illegal paddles as well

Vice vice is that the one with the holes in it?

There's the hush and the vice. I think both were were illegal

The vice was the original one with the with the holes in it. It was like

Straight yeah full foam whatever

Yeah, leave us a comment. What's your favorite illegal pickleball paddle?

I think we can even you know, mention ones that like become illegal right like those original legacy paddles that were the first ones to

Delaminate and then hit like a like a truck like the

Top illegal paddles. Let's go for it. Have you gear box pro power?

I mean, I never had more fun hitting people full bag than a gear box pro power. That's dangerous. That's fantastic

So yeah, there's there's a ton

Yeah, leave us a comment. Let us know. I have to actually issue one correction. Um, so

The the Phoenix flames at one point had ownership from the proton team and kind of like took they sort of took that over

Last year, right? You had a brand in the the clipboard the whole time

But from what I understand they sold their stake in the Phoenix flames

So the Phoenix flames aren't affected by by any of this by the sounds of it

So I had never seen anybody walk back their relationship with somebody faster like they have boom immediately

Like a story on Instagram. It's like we don't fuck with proton like at all

Carling who I don't know what you're talking about

We don't know proton is we fired the clipboard guy. We are out. Yeah, exactly

So

So yeah, so Phoenix flames whatever they're doing whether they're a dumpster fire or not of an MLP team is different

They're definitely at least not uh, you know, they don't know seven figures to the UPA

Apparently so yeah, well hey, Nico this got me thinking right I love our Mount Rushmore segments

This got me thinking and you know, we don't know

For sure whether or not this is some sort of fraud going on

In fact, there's not really much evidence to believe that there is actual fraud going on

But you know, it's shady. So what is the what is the Mount Rushmore of pickleball

Shadiness and or frauds because we love of Mount Rushmore

We love them out Rushmore and I think you got to have

Like George Washington front and center the legacy park

Oh, like that for sure number one like to me. I was like I don't I think they like

I think we we saw there in prison now. Are they going to prison?

Yeah, that's probably the worst thing that has happened in pickleball and they owe people like 300 million dollars

Which uh, you know, I think it's one of those things where you probably see it

You know sought coming from a mile away if you actually just like paid any attention

But that's got to be right up there George Washington

Yeah, you know what I was gonna put our guy Rodney grubs from pickleball rocks as the as the George Washington

But he's definitely got to be on the Mount Rushmore uh the pickleball rocks fraud. I think he's probably going to prison too

Um, they scammed 40 million dollars from their t-shirt company

Which like honestly, I feel like that's a that's on the person that invested into that company

Uh damn you're really selling a lot of t-shirts, dude

Let me give you a couple hundred thousand bucks like what is going on there? So um

Yeah, that's the weather timing ten to now. So I'm gonna be starting Nico the lefty merch and you know

So if you want to invest in that actually it's not true. I don't have it

I should now that I know that you could possibly make 40 million dollars maybe go to prison

But it's a good friend. Yeah, see the problem with all these scams is they don't escape to to Mexico or Guatemala or something before they get caught

They get caught and they just stay here like just take your money and run. What's going on?

Anyway, everybody loves to get caught. Then you know, they love to get caught

Uh, it's true. I think you have to throw

Like regardless of whether or not it is fraud or not

I think proton has to be on this Mount Rushmore

I like I still put proton there like the fact that they're not paying their pros

The fact that they somehow figured a way to oh seven figures possibly

um, you know sneaky sell their stake and the phoenix flames

You know make it out on in the night like a bandit. I don't know what's happening with their baseball stuff

I think pro proton a lot of comments saying that their baseball stuff is equally shady

So so yeah, so that you know, this is the slim shady uh, you know, Mount Rushmore or fraud Mount Rushmore

But I put proton right up there there. Uh, their thomas Jefferson. I don't know. I'm not

Not I'm trying to like I don't remember the before

That are on the right. Yeah, you know what? Give me pran coley as Teddy Roosevelt on there

From pickleball world rankings pickleball world series

You remember those guys they were gonna pay like millions of millions of dollars for their six events

Ended up canceling all the different events the guy. I think like you know ran from the country

Whatever it was defrauded some people um, yeah, give me give me pickleball world rankings and pickle world series on there

Was that was that here in the states or what was that the was that they were gonna run one

It was in they're based out of India

You know, they were claiming that they're gonna do events in like Dubai and the sphere in Las Vegas like all types of crazy shit

Uh, and then never ran any and promised the pros like

25k to show up to events like just stupid money and like this these weren't even like ppa pros these were like a pp pros

Oh, pp pro 25k to to like show up to an event

Wow, all right, that's yeah that

I just I just imagine these people showing up and then they're just being no tournament. No nothing no money

That sucks um say you know, they're not on the mountain this this this organization has has nothing to do with fraud

But it's just reminding me did you see like the amateur like pickleball money tournament series that happened had their first tournament in

Arizona this past weekend where they were like paying out 600,000 dollars to amateur. Yeah, was that the brick wall thing?

I don't think it's brick wall

I don't know

Something yeah, it was it was held at the legacy sports park. I think

Uh-huh one good fraud as there's another

allegedly

Yeah, I saw I saw our guy having slaughter there. I think Tio was there or Vinnie pickleball

And like they were given out like $2,500 to like of a three five champion, you know like I don't understand how that money come from

That's what I want to know that's what I want to know and so like

Is this stuff money laundering? I don't know you know allegedly, you know

But I have no idea how they're paying. I think it's pretty cool the next one is in Dallas

And maybe they just you know took it on the chin and ate one for the first tournament and people were now realized

Oh, this is real and we'll see three thousand people compete for this amount of money in Dallas

But I might have to go there and check it out, you know do some investigation

I think you're gonna have to do some investigating me go. Yeah, because I mean like I'm now just always skeptical of people

Who come in and really blow the norm out of the water like if there's some company that's paying just three X

Anybody else? All right my my my

Spidey auditor senses are tingling

I think you gotta go do some investigatory gative

Journalism Nico. I think that's what you gotta do the dink Thomas damn if you're listening to this podcast. I hope you are

Please send me to Dallas. I will do the I will play in the tournament just to make sure that it's legit

And if and I win any money, I'll donate it to charity

But yeah, well, I'll take it out

I was a john q

You know, you know that I could barely even say I was a straight face

But what charity?

Nico Nico Valencia's charity for overweight lefties and pickle them all like what is going on with charity? Are you donating this too?

Oh my gosh, no, I actually thought about that. I was like I should do like a charity competition for XYZ and

I was like what charity would I do? You know, I was like zanes got you know stop Alzheimer's now

I just like I gotta think of something, you know, the overeaters anonymous. I don't know whatever

Oh, hey speaking of which well, what about how's the lefty reset challenge going? Oh, yeah, so

You should watch in this and on launch day congratulations, which is Tuesday the launch of the lefty reset is on Wednesday April first

It is April fullstay, but the challenge is real. All right

I am not pickleball money tournaments. I do not have six hundred thousand dollars to give but we are

We do have a thousand dollars to the winner of whoever can actually

Who whoever can lose the greatest percentage of body weight over the 60 days

um

And I was one of those things where I was like all right. I'm going to

Post this out of my of my own pocket until I can hopefully find a sponsor and we'll see if that works

Because you know, I'm already making negative money a lot of times in pickleball, but we found a sponsor

um, you know, thank you to by the way zane I before I get to for far in this

I have been like nervous to even announce the sponsor because I don't know how to pronounce it squares is this shoe company that you use called squares

How else would you pronounce that? I don't know. I saw maybe I was like I'm like dyslexic and I thought I said like squares or something like that and I I mean

Why can't they just call it squares like a normal you know a normal spelling all these stuff whenever it's like p i k k l or s q a without the u and i z

I don't know so squares anyway, how would you let like what let's humor me?

Oh, how how else would you pronounce squares just

You know like I said I think it's because

There's no you and I saw the a and I could never remember like I didn't even take one second to look and see if it was squares or squares

And I was like, why would the shoe company be called squares then also why would they spell it this way?

Anyway, sq a i r z I think anyway, so they squares

Uh, they're they're the title sponsor of the lefty recess

So thank you guys that's awesome and thanks dane for the for the connection

Yeah, I got you squares is good stuff, man

Yeah, people see the square toe box if you have wide feet you got to check them out for sure because it gives your feet

Your your dog is a little bit more space to to to run around in the shoe

Your your toes don't get all scrunched up the way they do in uh in other ones so um

Yeah, I like them great for pickleball lots of lateral stability. They've got these little like

I think they call them outriggers or something like that uh on the outside of of the this

The shoe in the middle of the shoe I saw that they do they do but anyway

I think she's I feel oh, you know go ahead decode go ahead now that you know how to say squares really take the segment

No, what I was gonna say is

Anytime I like review shoes or talk about pickleball shoes

There is like a cult following of people that I think they have an auto-reply bot set

When they see a shoe review that says how wide is the toe box?

There's two things that people always ask about that are like

I don't know if it's bro science real science or whatever

Though there's like a cult of people that want a wide toe box and people that want zero drop shoes

I have no nothing about the drop on the square shoes

But they definitely have a wide toe box are built with a wide toe box

So if you're at me on the comments and DMs about shoes that you know

Don't have a wide toe backs. These are not it. They have them and so your feet can spread out

As you know if you like your toes like this somehow. I don't know if you got plenty of space. So it's cool

Yeah, so it's anyway back to the lefty reset real quick here. So

um

If you want to join, there's still time all right, so you can actually sign up anytime within the first month

And submit your initial like weigh in the way it's gonna work is like there's gonna be a code word that you'll find out

On Wednesday you take a picture with that word and the scale

And then you can win like a thousand bucks, right? And we're gonna have we have that pickleball trainer

Who trains Anna bride and Hayden Patrickwin to help with like

Died in fitness the whole thing is free the whole goal

You know for those of you like yes, I'm doing this for you

But most of them doing this for me because as I've said

I can't lose weight by myself. I need like accountability. So I created an entire

Nationwide global challenge just so that I would be accountable to lose weight

Um, anyway, and I thought I'll probably end up winning this too, but I'm not gonna pay myself. So I'll be disqualified, but uh

I'm still coming still coming for the top spot anyway. So it starts April first. You guys should sign up nickel the lefty.com

Um, we're gonna get the dink to send us out in the newsletter and this is the pressure that they need

Just calling it right now

If you don't see me on the pod next week is because I've been writing a lot of checks that my you know that I can't cash

But I kind of like proton okay

But but anyway, no, no, so it's basically and then there's there's gonna be also like um

Another grand prize of like a four month one-on-one training with that Diggleball trainer and his group

Uh, like I said the people that made muscle mommy Anna Bright made in Patrick win um

And that's your line hola. Yeah pause

What what what did we just say there? I didn't say anything

Yeah, I swear I heard something JB. Let's get a replay of that. I wasn't what he's

I'm quoting her. I'm quoting her and her fans

uh

Yeah, but that's like you know there's certain things that other people can say that you can't

Nico

Oh, I feel like uh that might be one of them like Anna Bright's about to say that about herself

I feel like you're not allowed to say that is about Anna Bright

You're probably right you're probably right, but uh here we are. I can't take it back anymore

So it is what it is the toothpaste is out of the tube um

but

If you win best transformation which is basically

Based on you know because some people don't have a ton of weight to lose some people are there for overall fitness

Like so there's going to be a prize for that and then we got a bunch of different sponsors

Uh to also do giveaways every week just for participating so like for me it was like important that

Every week I checked in even if I did good or if I did bad it didn't matter

I just needed to check in right and so like we got enhanced pickleball

We got 11 624 we got forward the pickleball bags

So we got a bunch of people that are giving away prizes just for people that show up every week and check in

And then at the end of the 60 days you submit your results uh we pick winners. We celebrate

You know we lose a ton of weight. We feel good uh and we play better pickleball

So it'll be fun. I'm excited. Hopefully this is like the first of many of hopefully eventually also

I guess at the point where I don't necessarily always need to transform myself. I can just stick to it

um

But I'd love to run these more often than not um and

Yeah, so we we got a bunch of people already uh it's all hosted like on school and stuff

So you got the community if you've done any kind of

You know training online with pickleball you might be used to it

But um that's what we have and then um you know shout out to zane we haven't you know

I probably got to figure out how to to dot the tease and cross the uh not dot the eyes and cross the tease

But yeah figure that out

Well we're gonna we're gonna also any anybody that um

I'm gonna sign up for the challenge can get uh is it two weeks uh of zanes pickleball school the transition

Zone yes, sir. Yep. Yep. So we'll have support for different drills and stuff that you can do different lessons within the transition zone

So yeah, happy to support the Nico the lefty the reset challenge and I gotta ask you a quick question first

How are you preparing for this like I feel like you know for most events you prepare by like you know

Trying to get healthy all that stuff like tonight

Before April 1st. Are you just gonna like crush a bunch of beers drink as much water as you possibly can try and gain as much weight

Of the next in the next 12 hours so that she can easily like lose it

Yes, so I actually I want to ask I want everybody in the comments to to drop their last meal

Recommendations as well, but I thought about this and I already have my meal prepped right so today

We're recording this on a Monday is coming out on Tuesday Tuesday night

I for sure and having sushi all you can eat sushi. So in Reno like

All you can eat sushi is like the big staple of Reno. It's it's weird, but um it is fantastic

It's everywhere and the nice thing is one I love sushi to I can eat a ton of it three

It's got a lot of sodium for I drink it with water and then all of a sudden I got this bloat

I looked terrible. I've added like an additional five pounds. This is probably not healthy

um

But that's what I would do say what would you do if you were to say you were in my position. What are you eating the the night before?

Oh

I can really crush endless Ben and Jerry's and like that you know first out

You know you got to get like a burger the fries whatever like just to say that you had a real

Meal and then just crush pints and pints of Ben and Jerry's and that's gonna make like those are real calories

That's not just water weight, right?

Like um yeah, no, that'll be good. I can eat those for forever

The same thing so I'm not trying to gain actual weight. I'm just trying to gain the water weight like

So okay, I'm gonna use your gear, but at the same time

You're I mean endless ice cream and what's the what's the flavor? I'm going with like a

Half baked or fish food

Ben and Jerry's

Topped fish food topped fish food those topped or the core ones those are real solid additions from the Ben and Jerry's

Line for sure and you

We should probably talk about pickleball again at some point

I just have one last question here for a couple of years and that is

I

I'm trying to think about how much I

How much you think I could lose in 60 days? What's the number? I mean a shoot for a goal here, Zane

If I hit if I hit some things in

Well, we should have some kind of little bet here

All right, what are you now? I'm 290

290 you think you get that up to 300 by tomorrow

No, I don't I tried I try I try I thought this is am like probably like 290

Three by the time the challenge starts, but we'll just say 290

Isn't it so like you're supposed to lose at most like a couple pounds per week

Like to do it like in a healthy way, right? So what do you think it's it's a

An eight-week challenge two months challenge six days

so

What two pounds a week by eight weeks that's only 16 pounds

I feel like I can do more than that. I feel like you can do like 30 I think 30 all right

All right, Zane 30 pounds that'll be the goal

So we have over under 30 pounds this is another we need a lot of audience participation here

Let us know in the comments

They will will have Zane be he's my supporter, but he's also team under 30 pounds

I'm team over 30 pounds what happens when I hit 30 pounds at the end of the time let us know dude

That's crazy. You're like two of me

Yeah, I am

I can reach tough stuff at the top shelf

But people who is like I you don't look almost 300 pounds of those because I'm like 64 you know

I'm my head is just this is true

Also, yeah like Nico is way way bigger in person like you're just a thick boy

Like even if you were even if you were like 10% body fat. I feel like you're built to be like

200 pounds if you're just totally shredded

You know, I was what was right one time I was like at

I was in the mall and I was wearing a Nevada wolf pack

Football shirt and I didn't play football or anything and I like was getting I don't know Starbucks in this guy

He's like serving me Starbucks and he's like

He's like you play on the Nevada football team cool. I was like no. I just like them. He goes. Oh, so you're just big as hell for no reason

Yeah, I guess I didn't know what to say, but like yeah

So I'm this kind of I'm the hefty size that's like I put on a football shirt

And you just assume that I play on the football team like I wear out, you know, so but yeah, so we're gonna see then spelled your name and I K K

Oh, he sure is and he was wondering why I was getting a pinkie-dee drinky so

So anyway, so that's a great drink. So thank you guys all for enjoying

The Nico the lefty reset like I said if you're interested go check it out

There's plenty of time and we'd love to have you but back it's applicable

I need go tell us more about

Mara-Calth and how are they gonna support in the the the lefty reset challenge like

You know, we talked a little bit about you know healthy weight loss

Is that something that you can work on with Mara-Calth? It is it is and so it's funny

I always mentioned that you know in this challenge. I will absolutely be cheating and if you're not cheating

You're not trying hard enough um and Mara-Calth is the way that I cheat but in reality, it's all good things

But so here's what happened so I'm I'm trying to figure out and I have to talk with kind of my health team

And then the nice thing is I have a health team

So I signed up for Mara-Cal and they gave me a bunch of recommendations right and one of them was like oh hey

Nico your testosterone is slightly low so great the whole world gets to know you can go got low T right now

The kltc's gonna love this one anyway

So

So like oh yeah, you know this happens with you know people when they're you know 40 or whatever my ages

And so I'm still debating. I was like all right. Do we want to have other kids?

I don't know if I want to be on testosterone right so

um

I go different routes and take it other supplements and of course

I'm like two days before this lefty reset and I'm like

Let me reshap to Peter my

Guru my health advisor and say hey is testosterone still on the table right so

That is definitely an option so like if you have low T or you you know if you think testosterone will help you

Absolutely Mara-Cal can get you there and

I messaged him and he immediately responded like within like two minutes and he was like hey Nico

Yeah, we just need a physical and and we can you know we can look into the testosterone and I said damn it

I already did it and I did and

So I went I saw my my actual physician got a physical

And once it's ended to Mara-Cal and I never actually sent it to them. I don't know why

Like so I forgot so now if I want to do it the only downside is I actually have to go back to my physician and and ask for a physical again

Because I can't just go 100% of the way but the moral of the story is

if you want to win a health challenge and you want to get in the best shape of your life and you actually want like all of the resources

Testosterone being one of them and like I said it's doesn't have to be for everybody

But just because you're getting like I think there's like this stigma around something like a testosterone or some of the

Things that can actually benefit your life like oh hey, you shouldn't eat this because you should naturally be able to do everything

But it's not the case

So there's a ton of people that have a ton of different

Circumstances based on genetic factors

You know their blood etc that they can really benefit from you know kind of like almost like leveling the playing field

And so while zane is mr. Hightie in the 700s, you know what I mean like if you can tell he's the most manly man

I've ever seen

And then there's me, you know who while I look like a brick shithouse, you know football player like maybe not right now

I get to level the playing field and I could possibly be as strong and as masculine as zane

And completely dominate the challenge

So

There we go. So is that the punchline of this ad if you want to be as strong and as manly as zane

Try maric health. I feel like we got to redo that if that's the case. They're probably gonna fire us after this one

I know but anyway, I love the team. I love Peter. I love the fact that

The supplements to help the guidance I need is there and when my life changes and I want

You know to pick other things back up or try things or or why not we can

Hop on the call and figure it out and if you want the same experience that I've had you just go to maric health calm

And you can get 10% off the guided optimization with the code dink and that's ma r e k health calm

10% off with code the dink so we had one of the coolest events

PPA black rock which I think every year

um

People rediscover it as like a really cool venue, but I think the press this year was like maybe it's because of the aerial views

But everybody was like this is this was a new venue. That's why I knew yeah new venue like people always rediscover

St. George is like oh St. George is sick. I think black rock is in or around St. George

But I think this is the first year that it was actually at this this uh this venue

The venue was sick. It was really was unreal

I I put it in my recap video. I don't normally get

FOMO from missing events, but I'm like that place looked freaking

Absolutely sick and the problem is I swore off going to St. George two years ago when

This happened, okay?

So we used to get rental cars from hurts and the best way to get to St. George is you fly into Vegas

You drive to St. George. It's like a little over two hours probably

so I

Flying to Vegas wait for like an hour and a half in the hurtsline

um get my car drive to St. George get to St. George

I realize I don't have a license plate

No license plate. I get out of the car no license plate because they had those little paper ones and it somehow

flew off

Somewhere between Vegas and St. George

Like okay, that's sick perfect. So I have to go file a police report

um otherwise like you just can't be driving around with no license plate

So I go file a police report whatever like deal with all that stuff and then

lose on my way back get a flat tire um

On the way back to Vegas get a flat tire

Like five minutes outside of of St. George

Also it snowed that year again. Uh, it snows every year in St. George. Except for this year. Where it was 100 degrees

So yeah, um

So uh on the way back get a flat tire

Change it

Going like 50 miles per hour through the mountains all the way back to to Vegas

10 miles out pop another tire. I'm like fucker. It's I'm driving

Different tire pop two tires one trip zero no license plate this car was it absolutely shambles as I came back

I'm like, you know what? I'm not going back to St. George

Um, nothing again St. George love St. George what I was there, but the travel was just absolutely brutal

Now I have FOMO because I decided not to go and decided to come here to uh to Vietnam instead

But anyway, dude, I feel like if that happened to you

I'd be like, you know what this place is cursed. I'm done. Oh 100% 100%

Uh, I've cursed places for less and to your point it is a pain to go to a city that is two hours outside of an airport

Regardless of the also the fact that you had to wait for hurts is like a super rookie move like this must have been like the first time you traveled

Like how do you not have hurts gold and you just walk put the keys and you know pick up the keys from the inside of the car and just get the hell out of there

Dude, that's never that's I feel like every single time they're like we don't have your car. You need to check in

Yeah, I just say give me give me any car in the aisle. I don't care. Give me the standard or mid-size and then it just lets me pick and somehow like I used to travel for work

Now I'm president circle. I feel like I'm president circle for life. So it's hurts is fantastic, but uh, yeah, okay

Let me wipe all right. Well hurts hurts can sponsor Nico. I will take Turo as my sponsor. I love those

guys actually Turo is a travel hack

Turo is like Airbnb for cars. You basically like rent out somebody else's car

It's way cheaper you get way nicer cars. They deliver them right to you like seriously Turo

I wish I had a discount code or an affiliate link or something, but this is just me genuinely loving that um

By the time you listen to this podcast if you if you use code Nico the lefty at Turo

I'm sure I can figure out a way to get in there

Nice nice

No, but this this venue looked

Unreal

Like golfing it's like right in a bunch of actual like red rock formations and all that stuff. Yeah, it looked really really cool

Yeah, so great venue

Cool backdrop perfect weather no zane you couldn't ask for a better better tournament

But let's get to the pickleball um, so what we'll start with like probably the headline is there's a new number one in men's singles

Chris Hayworth

Takes gold

beats Federico Staxtrude

Takes jumps from I think the three spot to the to the number one spot in the rankings

This is actually just the fourth ever

Number one different number one player in the world

In men's singles pickleball it went Ben Johns

Federico and then back to Ben John back to Federico maybe back to Ben John's anyway back and forth with those two hunter Johnson

And we're at Chris Hayworth. So

Zane first question is how long is this gonna last? How long do you think Chris Hayworth holds the one seed?

Oh, that's an interesting question. That's it. That's an impossible question. Um

I don't know. I feel like

Unless hunter or fed

Take this one back from him. I feel like you'll have it for for a couple of a couple of years

But it's so hard to predict especially in in singles. I'll give it

18 months plus or minus three years on either end

No idea that's a long time. I think Chris Hayworth said that he he assumes that it's gonna go back and forth between those three

Yeah, he's got to say shit like that. He's too nice. He's got to be humble. He's so nice

Yeah, well deserving. He's obviously put together the most consistent

Season so far and the crazy thing is how quickly he did go from

From number 57 seed and Cincinnati to number one less than six months. It's like it was like 12 ppa events. It's crazy

That's crazy. So I'm assuming you

Chris Hayworth to you is also the best singles player. I know he's number one player in the world

But is he the best singles player? Yeah, for sure. I've been saying he's been the best singles player undoubtedly

Through

Since 2026 since the beginning of the year like it's been hard to say that there's been anybody

better

So yeah, I mean that I think that makes sense and it's possible since he was playing a pp for the the last two years before that

He's been the best singles player for the last two years last two and a half years who knows true

But he did struggle early on like he he didn't metal in his first two ppa events now

He ran into hunter johnson early on but like he started a little bit

I think getting up to speed with ppa and then obviously he did and now is is crushing it. So yeah clear number one

I give it

If I had to guess 18 months

That's just why like I can totally see somebody else coming in quickly and and crushing in singles

Yeah, I'm interested to see I think right now you know, obviously we have the the three that are big

I think they're head and shoulders above everybody else

um

And you know, I think Chris it's Chris is to lose. It just seems so effortless like

I don't know what I think everybody else will just kind of respects Chris Hayworth as the best like

If an I know I know the analyst is on a different universe

But when people like show up to an analyst match they just expect to lose

I feel like Chris Hayworth has that

Kind of aura around him more than any other men's player

On tour when it comes to singles like people are like jeering up to lose to this guy

This is gonna blast him off the court without breaking us what

Yeah, I mean like it's obviously I think way more with with an elite like I men's singles

Yes, Chris Hayworth is absolutely the best but

people can get hot and and give him a game or two I mean like look I'd pickled them in a game right like

One player can get hot one player can get whole cold and men's singles and anybody can steal a game for anybody

Like I think Chris Hayworth could actually drop a game to anybody in the pro draws like he doesn't do that consistently

but like the the volatility and the level of men's singles makes it so that it is

Way less of a foregone conclusion than when analyst playing

Yeah, I mean he he had match points against I think

To a 14 year old kid, you know just in Minnesota. So

Yeah, it's it's tough, you know speaking of anybody can beat anybody's aine just another side quest story here is a

I saw there's a new a new discord

Chat that came out you know, like I said, I'd like to go to discord to punish myself

For liking pickleball and there's one for pro pro player talk

Yeah, yeah, check that one out boys. Yeah, we actually I created that one

To to give people a place to to chat about pro pro pickleball and so now you found your way to it

Okay, sick. I don't think we even talked about it on here. We did you did we'll talk we'll put it in the description

You did not tell me about it

What a nice descriptive title for the discord in case anyone is wondering what it's about

It's definitely about pro pickleball talk

But I got on there because there was a tweet that said

I did not have it in my bingo card to be defending

Nico the lefty on discord today, and I'm like wait nobody's on the kotc chat defending me or in forever

So this has a different discord. What are we talking about it was Jake Lvar and he's like oh, it's this new discord

But that you know that zane created and uh there was the first discussion was how many points I could score on zane in a in a

Singles match if we played three games of singles and three games the singles and

Jake some somebody said that I could score three points total in three games of singles jakes at eight

Which I think is probably generous considering I'm too 90

Biggest cell for no reason, but these are the kind of discussions that you could see and zane how many points could I score on you in a singles match

Three three three games. Could I score three points could I score eight points?

That's interesting. I would put you probably at like

1.5 points per game right because in order to win a point obviously you've got to win two in a row

You've got to win one on on my serve and then one on your serve like I could actually see you winning points on your serve with some

Because you can just you know clobber a serve and then um and then you know clobber a third whatever

I'd probably put you at like 1.5 points per game

I think so I told them let me drop this you know

30 to 50 pounds and they're on the reset and then we'll have this conversation

Maybe we'll give it a go we'll actually do uh three matches and we'll we'll see what happens

But I at to your point my thought was like if I hit a service hard as I can and then I and then I go for broke on a

They're sorry if I hit a service hard as I can go for broke on a passing shot

On the third

I could score points. Yeah, I could score a point on Chris Hayworth. You know what I mean like it's possible

And so and then somebody said there's no way Niko can score

Three points against Zane Zane pickled Chris Hayworth and then a bunch of people were like yeah

But and then let me got all the reasons why you you pickled in which was basically like you know Chris's fail fell bad for Zane

Wind hung over

Playing with his opposite hand. I don't know but

So I'm super confident I would beat Chris Hayworth if he was playing with his opposite hand

I mean a little bit

That two handed backhand all comes from the left hand to begin with so I mean like

That would that'd be a tough one

Ken Zane beat Chris Hayworth with his opposite hand

Um

Yeah, but this is the type of stuff that you get in pro pickleball talk. You get amateur pickleball talk

I love it. I love it. And so so we got four and a half that's the overrunner

We'll we'll try it out at the end of the lefty reset. This is how we do

Um, I saw Thomas I saw Thomas she'll score more than that on you in one match

But you look like you were sleep walking through the match. It's almost like a hype video for Thomas

Uh

I'm sure those you know might have been selectively edited. Yeah, so back to actual pickleball

um

So black rock couple uh fun moments that I saw speaking of getting frustrated as singles jack sock

blasting a ball to outer space hate and Patrick win also blasting balls to outer space getting technical fouls losing points

um

Is that the right is that for our first off let me ask you um

You hit a ball out of the stadium. Should you immediately lose a point? What's what's the what's the right punishment there? You're part of the pro Karen committee so

Also like I first thought I think that episode from last week did not get enough love. I mean the Karen committee

I thought that was electric. I thought the thumbnail was electric me with the Karen hair

Like that was that might have been our best pickle pod episode of all time. Oh

but um

So look

Paddles I understand paddles can hurt people right paddles can hurt people

Ball a ball can't with especially when you launch it upwards and I would like to take a little bit of credit

I feel like I may have actually pioneered this movement in the pro game

I I did this against spartalk. You remember when he hit that tweeter winner against me um

I went

You know, I went and uh scooped up the ball and then sent it to outer space and I got a warning

I didn't lose a point actually funny it up um so uh

First off

Big fan of players doing that. Oh it doesn't hurt anybody

Much better than smashing a $250 paddle unless it's a pro time because I guess you gotta smash that anyway um

but

No, I think I think they're just expressing themselves. It should probably be like a warning I guess

Yeah, I was I was so surprised

I mean, so Hayden does it at what 10 9 and game one something like that it was 11 11 and J and jama had just won the point

And so Hayden was subtracted a point and it becomes 12 10 game over

Oh Hayden was subtracted a point. Okay, 12 so that's what happened

And I think the best the best part of that entire sequence if you guys run it back is the Christian al shan face

At his face he's like he just like oh

Yeah, he's like he knew exactly what's gonna happen and like and and I think also

Hayden basically was like that. It's in the budget just basically

Walked right to the bench is like I know what I did we lost this game. Let's just regroup and we'll beat some ass in the next game

And that they did he was like you know what we're done here

You know, I think there's an alternate universe where he doesn't do that he controls himself

They lose the game anyway, but he doesn't have the added motivation to like come back and destroy and then they lose the match

Who knows so this might have been what Hayden needed

Um who knows

And my favorite thing is I'm I posted a video about this but like

When Hayden or anybody lay a whoever but specifically

I think Hayden gets the the worst rap and then sometimes analy when she like has an outburst of like

People go straight to Facebook groups

They get super upset and then my favorite thing is they're like

This guy's an adult. He's 19 years old

He should know better and he's a role model and I'm just like thinking like

Dude, I mean one did you ever see Justin Bieber when they were like when he was 19 years old

Like he was going insane

But to like a 19 year old is an adult in title only like this kid is still like you know

He's a kid now. He's an you know, I mean like they're not like but she like I think they expect

Professional pickleball players just because they have a platform to be better than everybody else as humans but like

I don't know like I they're well. That's crazy that you know

How much do we hold these people up to like the perfect standards?

And also like it's a pickleball who cares like it again

I can actually understand that argument much more for paddle throws people can get hurt paddle smashes

It's wasteful

Launching a pickleball who actually gives a shit

Like like it's it's not hurting anybody. Yes. Is it bad behavior? Sure, but you're not Hayden's dad like

Jeanne Villiers is Hayden's dad

Like you're not as you're not as parent like it's not your it's not your life like you got no you got no say in that

You know, Binion sure you can be like I think that's stupid whatever, but like that's your opinion like

Oh, yeah, I think it's the people that I don't want to hang out with like the people that hate

This is true when I haven't beers you're you're a tough hang you are a tough hang

So anyway, they overcome the they win that match take

Ben and and gave to the absolute brink which I think I think now officially men's

Men's doubles is the best championship Sunday match to watch by far couldn't get over the hump

Anything you notice in that match you watch the the finals

Yeah, I broke it down a little bit in my recap video um

I think the only thing is you see under pressure moments Hayden and Christian don't have a play that they go to right

They don't have they don't have a clear plan or a clear like identity

They're both two players that are very

Free-flowing, but it doesn't seem like they have a certain pattern like we are trying to set this up

And so at the end of game one you saw Christian pulling a lot of forehand triggers

Which he which he normally does but there's not a spot that he goes like when we need a when we need a clutch point

He missed a few of those

At the end of game one Hayden then starts pressing he throws up a a lob that goes out

He clunks a third into the middle of the net and that's the game that's game one. That's the difference in that match

um

They're at five five in game two and same deal like

Ben and Gabe go into lockdown mode and there's not like a a particular pattern that Hayden and Christian

Try to set up with any sort of regularity right like it word NBA or or ncda like you've got these plays

Or you've got a general idea of what you're trying to do when you need one last bucket at the end of the the game right

It just seems to me like there isn't that

like level of of um

um

Set up or or analysis for for match point and which is great when everything is flowing well

But when things are tight like you've got to have a game plan and that's that's what it seems like the is the main difference seems like

Crunch time Ben and Gabe um have a plan Christian and Hayden

Not as much

They're just relying on pure skill athleticism and and in prompt to nature so the question is like

You know whether it be like Ben wide backhand or i'm not sure what like what what is the what is the game plan like

If you have to say you're the coach of those two

uh

What play would you what would you run like what what do you think should should be the the um crunch time move

Yeah, I would say um

I think for the most part it seems like Christian pulling the trigger early doesn't work quite as as well

I think trying to get Hayden to dictate those points and be the the aggressor

But also not press right like I feel like sometimes Hayden presses it seems like sometimes on those clutch moments

Both of those guys are looking for those offensive opportunities

Which is good to look for but they're trying to beat each other to the to the punch a little bit too

Offensive down the down the stretch

I would say maybe it's maybe it's setting up Hayden a little bit more in those those clutch moments

So he can sort of attack on his own terms a little bit more

I like it. I like it. I definitely saw it seemed like in in crunch time

Ben came through a time with with great counters

You know gate gate putting away like counters away in one and Ben

Taking any speed up turning it into like a two shot combo that he was always on top of so

Um, yeah, so do you think they uh do you think they go on defeat at the rest of the year? Do you think Hayden?

I think it's I think I think we're past the era of

Okay, so better question is do they go undefeated through the rest of the season if you will which ends in May

I think there's a good a good chance of of that

I think it's so hard for any sort of men's doubles teams to go undefeated on a season. I think that would be

An unbelievable accomplishment. So I'm just gonna go

No, um on that just because of the pure like numbers and you do see like

Yes, they won, but this is the closest the field has been to them this year right they were almost taken out by

Andre and fed who they had been crushing at the beginning of the year and then you know

They escaped game one fighting off four game points against Hayden and and Christian and you know

They're five five in the fifth as well. They still are undefeated on the year

I just can't imagine they go the entire year undefeated

I think it'd be extremely impressive. They make it through May undefeated not saying that they can't but that'd be a really impressive accomplishment

Yeah, I mean, it's been a long time since they've lost number one seeds in all

disciplines besides men singles are like

101 I don't know. I'm not sure what their actual record is, but you know

But yeah, I think for me when it comes to men's doubles

specifically is that at the very beginning of the partnership

It seemed like Ben and Gabe didn't know how to win like Gabe was a nervous was nervous and they got they got got

You know two times at the very beginning

Um, and now it feels like the field doesn't know how to win again like they come close

But the thing that's impressive to me is that

Ben and Gabe pull out every close match now like matches are close

But they still pull them out. It's 5-5 in the third. They roll through like eight points

You know what I mean? They they come out and they they put their foot on your neck

When they need to so I don't know but I'm gonna say I think they're gonna go the rest of until MLP unbeaten

But the fact I think this is the most impressive streak out of anyone is that how

How dominant they've been in men's doubles more so then the mixed doubles or the women's doubles or whatnot

I think this is the most impressive feet so far

Yeah, because I think the overall level of men's doubles is probably the the highest and the deepest

So yeah, I'd say it's impressive

Hard to say it's as impressive as analees approaching 700 days undefeated

Um, which is nuts over 100 matches 24 straight tournaments

um

dropped uh dropped a game to to lay it and what I didn't know uh was apparently she had the the flu as well

um

Manly but yeah, I guess yep. She says she would die on the court to win

So which I believe um, yeah, she dropped the game to Leia

um

And that did she drop a game to Leia or is she no she no she she almost

Leia had the game points in in the first game and lost and she I think Kate Feh he had pickle point in the finals

She was a 10-goer. That's crazy like I was like

I was like ready with like all the tweets in the world to say like I was just so excited

It's like 10-0. This is insane and like

I don't know what I think was like you know analee missing some shots

But Kate like completely

Going for everything as hard as you know ripping serves ripping passes like no fear and kind of like

Giving analee the analee treatment

What's what's up what I thought but uh in the end she pulls out game one analee comes back and wins like

I don't know what's like 20-3 at you

Something like yeah exactly one a time one a time in the end which was super interesting right I

I

Momentum is such a thing in pickleball if Kate converts that that and I think analee had a net cord at some point in that 10-0 point or

Or there was something like it was it was very close to an 11-0. Oh, but I just I wonder

I was ain't good what happened was

Was analee like had a 360 on a point that Kate then just happened to put in the same exact

Corner instead of any wide open court and lost the point like it was

It should have been 11-0 to your point. Sorry. Go ahead

Okay, yeah, I didn't I couldn't remember what happened. I knew there was something crazy um 11-0

That's a very different thing because she wins that point

She's able to get momentum back caught back to 8-10 and if she loses 11-0 like you know things can go quickly from there

Right, so she obviously got brought it back to 8-8-8-10 8-11 whatever and she's like all right

I've got a game plan like we're good for games two and three and she was but if she didn't have that time to recover

At the end of the game even though she lost it

Let's just say that the game one is completely inevitably for Kate like coming back to 8-10 was absolutely huge for Emily

I think

Yeah, I mean to me I first off I'm thinking all right

It's at like 10-0. I'm like this is maybe a 50-50 game at this point like if Annelie wins two points and like who knows what's gonna happen

And it just looked like Kate while she won was not

You know she was almost already defeated after winning a game. So yeah, I got a quick question here for you

Let's just say Kate wins game one

What do you think that what does the score have to be in game two for you to officially give the edge to Kate in the match?

Say like the betting favors Kate

Like if she's on the first game four in game two and one the second game is that where you like what how bad is

And only have to be down before you say she's no longer the favorite to win. I think she's gonna be down a game in eight points

The game in eight points. I think I think the odds are 50-50 at

At a game in 8-0 for Kate

If you're if you're completely disregarding context, right? Yeah, if you're completely disregarding

Like okay, you know she's sick or or whatever like

It's got to be like a game in eight because if you look at their recent scores

It's like three and two every time so like three would obviously be 11 for Kate two would be ending that match at 10

Like yeah a game in eight

Which is nuts like who beats yeah, it's just crazy. Um

Yeah, I'll say I've said it before I'll say it again. I'll take shit for it again

Analy far more dominant pick-while player than Serena Williams ever was in tennis

Um don't think that's a cont particularly controversial take whatsoever

But other people do and obviously tennis is a more impressive feet. It's more competitive whatever

Agree with you there, right? If you would if you said what's more impressive Serena Williams or Analy?

I would say Serena Williams for sure, but

Dominance wise

Not even close Analy waters is way more dominant than prime Serena Williams

A you can you can put that on my grave stone

Zayn Avertill

You know what I kind of other shit to double down on

People are giving me shit for the Hayden Patrick win because Ben keeps beating him

But I'm like yeah because Ben plays better more consistently

I will also die on the hill that Hayden Patrick win

while this happens

10% of the time maybe is a better player than Ben Johns when Hayden Patrick win is playing at 100%

Right he doesn't bring that level nearly as much which is why he doesn't beat Ben Johns very frequently

But I think if you asked just about anybody on the pro tour

I think you would have 90 plus percent of people agreeing on that like his top level is the top level

But yeah people are giving me plenty of shit on that one too

Like 90% of casuals online disagree with you and give you shit give me shit

I would I would tend to agree now, you know, some what somebody did bring up to me

Well, they didn't bring up to me. I maybe I brought up to them. I was listening to somebody talking. I was saying

Oh, they didn't mention me by name, but basically they they gave the whole oh

Hayden's better than Ben and maybe they're talking about you

I don't know but it was talking about one of us and about how it's bullshit and like they won one time

And we're trying to throw them whatever right and but what they where I think they went wrong as they said

Ben and Analy win because of Ben and they said if Ben

Left Analy he would still win all the mixed goals and Analy would get silver

I think there's nothing farther than the truth if Ben

And Hayden switch partners is Hayden and

Analy Anna Lee winning a majority of the golds and mixed or are you taking team versus Ben and Anna bright Hayden and Analy versus Ben and Anna bright

I would love to see that

um

I think uh

Yeah, cuz I think

I actually I don't know I don't know. I think that's a pretty pretty even even team there um

I would give probably the slight nod to Analy and Hayden, but then again like my whole thing is Hayden is at his best when he's hunting and when he's the underdog and I think that with Analy like

He can't be quite as take up quite as much space be quite as chaotic and he is at his best when he's playing

When he's taking up space and being chaotic

I would love I would pay some serious money to to see that with I think I think what we have to do is like make some kind of rule at the ppa

Whereas if you go to like

You know ppa Asia or Sydney or whatever

At least one tournament a year the ppa gets like to side the partnerships and like split those two up

Uh and give us all the dream like let's see Hayden and Gabe play together. Let's see

You know Hayden and Analy and and to me I think it's Hayden and Analy pretty comfortably

I think I've ever seen Ben beat Analy. Maybe I have like I remember Ben

Analy does kind of own him and in mix Ben and Catherine against like was it Riley and Analy

Just was absolutely a destruction. I remember make you know, you see uh will hauls and Analy smoking

Catherine and Ben maybe Ben just can't play with Catherine and then Ben in

Anna bright losing to um

Thomas Wilson and Vivian David

Uh when they played so

uh yeah, I to me I just think Analy is the one that that decides who wins more than anybody else so

But let's let's let's make it happen somehow ppa Connor pull some strings

Ben if you're listening to this podcast which I highly got after everything we've ever said about you

uh

You want to know about you Ben? You want to throw a hand in the pickle pod

He's gonna join the lefty reset challenge pro pickleball talk discord all that stuff

How great would it be if like Ben was just like he's like Kevin Durant of pickleball

He's got a burner account that he's just like shooting on me repeatedly

This this definitely like one of two guys that after comment on every single video I've ever done

I'm like maybe one of these guys has been John

Uh

I doubt it

Yeah that one you know, I think there's got to be some players that have some some burner accounts um

I just can't imagine Ben as one of them

No, I don't think so I was gonna say I could think like Anna bright, but I feel like Anna bright says whatever she wants

regardless, but uh

Yeah, we'll have to have another segment at some point and you guys let us know in the comments once again

Who has a burner account who doesn't and we already know CJ

uh

We already know Colin Johns has a burner account for sure, so you got to think of somebody else

Yeah, he's got to for sure. Yeah, let us know who you think has a burner account. I like that too

um

All right sweet. What else we got here?

Yeah anything

So I was gonna say you have a

Anything about ppa asia that you want to talk about I mean you you're out there

You're in Hanoi

Anything we should be looking out for what time do these pickleball matches like are we gonna be have to be watching them at a

You know, yeah, so it's a 12 hour difference from central time

So it's 12 add it's the same time, but just in the evening or morning it there so um 12 hour difference from central time

I think it's gonna be on the ppa asia youtube channel um

Something to watch out for is

It takes technically almost a day and a half to get there, right?

So players who played on sunday and st. George probably don't get a flight out until monday morning

Which then takes about 24 actual hours to to get there

And then you plus 12 hours on top of that for the for the time difference

So players who played um probably aren't getting in until late Tuesday night

Early Wednesday morning playing the next day on on Thursday. So they've got like a day of recovery

So honestly, I think that jet lag is fake. I think that jet lag is a

A figment of our imaginations

Uh, and it's for the mentally weak to feel bad for themselves about traveling and excuse themselves and where they need a day at the pool or a day in bed to rest

um

But uh, it could be a thing for for some people. I have it solves. I don't get jet lagged because I'm an adult

Um, is your wife get jet lag?

No, we actually have a okay, so for real, I actually think I've defeated jet lag um like legitimately

Or at least it's what this is something that works for me and Nico Brian Johnson of jet lag

The Brian okay, we'll take it um

So what I do is I

Basically once I get somewhere I make that day

Pretty much miserable and try and stay up for as long as possible and go to bed at a reasonable time in the local hour

And so that's that gets tough because like you've got to stay up

When it's like 2 a.m. You know, you're your local time yeah, and stimulants to help with that

Cassine is the only still me lent that I take slam it focus

Actually, I suppose it's pair zanthine you know chill okay um

But I stay up. I still take melatonin when it's time to to go to bed because that doesn't make you

Go to sleep it resets your circadian rhythm which people get wrong and so get a workout in when you get there

And you're good you're golden. I'm not jet lagged at all. So yeah, anyway subscribe for more tips

That's smash that like button. I like that and uh so because of

The mentally weak that are going to suffer from jet lag because they're doing a treacherous journey

Who played in a tournament that because you are also mentally weak decided you couldn't go to because you

Antio with a rental car

Well, when you put it down like

I think I think we're gonna see some upsets. I'm calling it right now the what I'm most excited to see

Is Danny Townsend and Sarah Denny heat play?

I guess I'm going to be the first shot that we see um in quite some time

If they win their first match they got Alex strong and and lose true luck, which I think is a winable

Match and then they play to they would play Tina Piznik and Jesse

Irvine so I think I think I think I'm calling it semi-final run for the Aussies

But that's my bowl. I can see that

I actually so also Niko you should check out the pro pickleball talk bracket challenges

We've been doing bracket challenges through pickle wave uh

We've been doing uh it started last week with saying George one week one one for one week

But it's pretty cool dude

It can fill out an entire bracket for all of the different five events and we now have sponsors and prizes for those

And we can talk about the whole thing through the pro pickleball talk discord

So you can either go to picklewave.com to do the enter the bracket challenge or you can go in the pro pickleball talk discord

So I filled out a bracket. I have I do have them losing to to Jesse and Tina

I think they upset Alex and Liz true luck, but I've got Sarah and um and Danny

uh

In the whatever that is the the quarter finals and I think

I honestly think that we are going to see American dominance or at least US-based dominance because

the draw is like

Primarily US teams like they're small draws and there's a ton of US teams that are that are there

So there's just not that many opportunities now the interesting thing is gonna be

Hot humid

Yola ball pickle roll like the conditions are as polar opposite as you could possibly get from red rock where it was hot

Where we were using a lifetime ball outside

I actually think that lifetime balls

Are more like tennis balls than pickle balls and then I feel like they get a little bit faster and springier

When it's actually hot

And that's the case with tennis balls as well most pickle balls play

Faster when it's cold because they are like a like a baseball hitting a concrete wall

Um, that's how most pickle balls play

Whereas the lifetime ball is much more spongy and so it gets spongier and springier in faster conditions and springs off

Actually a little bit faster

So lifetime ball

Opposite of all the other pickle balls. I think it actually gets a little bit faster in hotter conditions

So anyway, that's all that just to say um

We're going from a lifetime ball that's faster in hot conditions to a Yola ball that's slower in hot conditions and pickle roll um

And it's just a slower ball to begin with like conditions are gonna be so different from St George

I don't really know where I was going with that um

I got to lost the plot in there, but like just figured that was an interesting tidbit

It's it's it's probably we're prime for upsets. It's it's a different experience. We got the jet lag

We got the different ball. We got the different conditions

uh as Chris Callie mentioned

uh christian al shan about to make the entire country of Vietnam sick

uh

With his his fever, but no, I I think um

Yeah, I think we'll see you know to your point

I don't think we're going to see a ton of upsets, but I think that we're going to have some surprises in the semi finals or the quarter finals at least

It's not just going to be chalk across the board like it in my normally beats um

So we'll see yeah, I'm betting the opposite put your put your uh make your racket on pickle wave um make my bracket

I'm excited make your brackets. I think we see all Americans all semi-finals with the potential exception of singles

Yeah, I also want to see uh, I want to see how Gabe and uh tire a black do so that's a new partnership

So that'll be an exciting one to see

Yeah, I agree. Hopefully she's doing all right um, did you just see her uh her her cryptic uh

Story oh, yeah, I did what was it in the airport lounge and walked in on you know an ex partner talking shit about me

Like that when they did you drink everybody is assuming that's Christian alshon, but that might not be Christian alshon

Maybe it's Paris Todd, you know like I don't know who could be you know uh

But the thing is if if it's not Christian alshon

he should be like

calling her repeatedly be like

Please tire everybody thinks this is me it can't be it's not me

And and please just say I wasn't talking about Christian, but uh, so if it is if it is indeed not Christian

Poor guy because he's taken a hundred percent of the blame

For sure oh

I actually I have no idea, but man. This is that's the first time like some uh

Drama like that really uh really blew up um people people are really upset about this this tweet or whatever it was

Instagram snapchat story Instagram story

I don't fucking Instagram story. Please say and get to the bottom of it uh detective zane put it on your uh your youtube or whatever

Get it detected. Yeah, I don't I'm just this is the extent that I'm gonna think about that one. I don't care

Perfect so zane we have uh guess my duper uh all right. Let's get this let's get this three oh red and er is duper

All right, let's see it

We got a giant arrow to nobody in the corner over here

Oh

Put the ball away dude. What are you doing? Oh, okay, we got a little jump he jumped up with both

I don't do you ever jump was impressive? Yeah, the jump was impressive, but the overhead following that up was absolutely anything, but

Six oh jump

My guy my guy is jacks sucking it over there not looking for a backhand

Oh, okay

I

Think I know I is

That another double Joe that's a the another jump nothing put away like

People are and people see him jump up like that and they're like oh, he must be good

And then they're distracted by his three mile power overhead. Oh, that was pretty that this is complete head

The guy just like running and the other guy just ran like an entire lap around the court. Did you see that?

I'm watching the same thing you are grow

Yeah, but I was like I'm all the sudden

I'm like, why is the other guy back on the same side of the court? How did he do that?

He went from a bird and then just ran around the baseline and the back it came back and was on the right side

This guy I feel like is peak pickle ball like I can kind of tell by that overhead and the forehand that he's that he's not like a like a tennis player originally

But also I think he's probably got some tricky stuff

I'm gonna give this guy a

Also, this is highlights

I'm gonna give this guy

4.75

All right, uh

I am so here's here's my thought one is I'm gonna because the other partners also looked really good like Mr

Running her 360 my guess is that he's he's probably in a similar range. I'm gonna go ahead and say 55

55 okay dang

I

Just always shoot too high generally like so I I subtracted probably 0.3 from what I would I really?

Wanted to oh, man now you got not now you're regretting your decision

Yeah, I'm sticking with it double down 4.75. I've never seen anybody

Better than this in the four five category

5.5 oh my god you opened his profile before

No, I did not open his profile, but to be fair I I thought it was Bryce Larson

So I think a guy's from Utah so um I

Played against one of his partners before in a money ball, but uh, so I knew he was good

Uh to be quite honest. I didn't look like 5.5 play

But my play doesn't my play looks like 3.0 play and I'm a little bit better than that

um, but

The little bit better than that dude. You're you're not even a 5.0. I'm not even a 5.0

No, I'm not better than him. I said I'm better than 3.0

Oh, okay, I literally just dude. I literally just posted a video speaking of guess my duper of

me playing with Ling Wei

uh, and then

This uh senior pro uh

Sabrina

Who's like a 5.5 and Ling Wei's like a 5.5 and I was like oh 5.5 oh guy versus girls are like yeah right

These like all these players are like 3.7.5 at best. I'm like this is a legitimate sign ppa pro you guys are

Hi, anyway, uh, that's what happens all the time. Zana. I'm not sure that's ever happened to you

People probably know that you're a pro so they don't they don't do that, but uh

It's it's crazy. So you know

Man, I just don't know how to play this game. Here's the thing

I just don't know whether I should try to play the game, you know

Like try to get the duper accurate or if I should just tell the people what duper they actually should be

You are actually the biggest thing. It's up in 5, buddy

no

I'm frustrated. I'm off by 0.75 on this guy Nico. I'm gonna

You owe this guy to Paul you you should probably go go message him and say you're sorry

No, I'm never gonna do that, but I play him. I am disappointed in myself

If you play this guy in the pickleball match how many how many uh points does he score

More than you buddy

I told the discord that I would beat you straight up in in men's doubles at this point

So

All right, I'll put some money behind that. All right. Do we have a pickleball court for for today before we sign off from Vietnam

Zane I don't I don't have

Anything for you. I've been like on my best behavior. I actually haven't played a lot of pickleball

Recently, so that's why you've been on your best behavior

Yeah, yeah, you

No, I've got nothing. I've actually been um pretty pretty nice to people

Hey, yeah, everybody pickleball players or wife all this you know

Yeah, just

You take her to the airport

Well, we went together. So yes

When I take her personally

Well, all right, well

I've been nice. We'll see. I'll try to be more of an asshole

um

Honestly, there were probably just so many asshole things that I did that I just don't even register has being an asshole anymore

So maybe that's where it is. It's saying that the calibration is off right now

So it's just like his baseline is asshole as opposed to normal. So

Maybe now after you have have been nice for a while you can figure it out go do some uh

Some some things go do some things in Hanoi figure out how to you know bring us down with your asshole behavior

Yeah, I'll try my best. I'll try my best on that note uh

Picklepod

Picklepod

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