62: Tournament Prep 101 (Part 1)

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Welcome to 4.0 to Pro.

The Pickleball Podcast focuses on a single shot, tip, or strategy to improve your pickleball

game with every single pocket-sized episode.

Our goal is to make you better on the court every time you hear our voices.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of 4.0 to Pro Your Pocketsized Pickleball

Podcast.

We teach you a single shot of strategy every single episode.

I'm my colonial here in Long Beach, California, joined by one.

Miracabra, Marario, there in Bokra, town, Florida.

He and I have both been fighting a cold for the last week.

How are you, bud?

I'm doing better.

Thank you, sir.

It was a rough past week.

I rarely get sick, and usually when I do, it's not too bad, but this last week was a little

rough.

Two days where I was only moving from the couch to the bed and from the bed to the couch.

So I'm happy to be up and around, and I got a chance to play a little pickle this morning

for the first time, although it was in 49 degree weather.

Geez.

Which it's still roughly around 49 degrees.

So, I mean, it could be worse, but for Florida, it's pretty chilly.

I'm not going to lie.

We will both be making judicious use of the mute button on this particular show.

I think we're both coughing pretty well.

Anyway, you guys, Mirc have brought something up, which I think is really important, especially

in February, it's still the beginning of the year.

For a lot of you, the beginning of your tournament season has not happened yet.

And probably over a year ago now, we did higher level version of tournament prep, which is

how to prepare prior to the tournament, right, Mirc?

That's kind of what we did.

Yeah, we talked about the tournament a little bit, but I think we want to do a little more

tournament 101, which a bunch of people have asked for.

Most people in general and pick a ball are rec players.

They don't play tournaments yet, but should you have a handkerin to play a tournament,

you will realize very quickly how different it is than rec play, because chances are the

people that you play in that particular tournament, especially if it's a 3.5 or 4.0 tournament,

may have played in tournaments before.

So they will have a little more experience with some things that we're going to tell

you today that are going to be maybe a bit of a surprise for you.

So Mirc, like me, when I first started playing pickleball, I was playing tournaments within

like a month or so.

And I think you had a very similar experience with Juan Julie Johnson, mom of Georgia and

J.W.

Yep, I met her and actually J.W. the very first day of start playing in a couple of weeks

later.

I asked her to play local money ball.

So in terms of tournaments, I'm all in.

So I'd like competition.

And one thing it really does, it really reveals your real level.

So it tells you where you are, because if you're the weaker player or if you have a weaker

wing or weakness, though that weakness will be targeted early and often and often relentlessly

in a tournament setting, you are going to feel a little bit of pressure, which you don't

typically in even high level intense wreck games.

You typically don't feel those butterflies in that pressure.

So it's less forgiving than wreck play.

You get your weaknesses targeted and often you or your partner or whatever.

And you have that pressure that you really don't have in the wreck play scenario.

Yeah, I think the nerveness is something that got to me really quickly in tournament

play.

But you end up very often playing people that are completely unfamiliar to you.

I think we all get into our groove a little bit and play people we know and you kind of

know their weaknesses and things like that.

Not the case at all.

Internements, we have to do a lot of scouting.

You can find out within your own game what breaks down, like what doesn't work for you.

And then you can identify specific weaknesses that you have.

And that's really the coolest part is that to me, even though it's humbling, it accelerates

your improvement on the court just by putting yourself in that high intensity, high pressure

situation where people are going to instantly pick on your weaknesses.

Exactly.

And actually, I enjoy that aspect of it, especially at the beginning of a tournament that if I

have a little bit of nerves, a little bit of butterflies, I know that it means something

to me.

And I actually look forward to that.

So it's that little adrenaline rush.

You know, we're looking for the adrenaline rush.

That's where adrenaline junkies.

When we play sports, that's part of it.

If I'm targeted and someone's targeting particularly weakness, I can work on that.

And it really gives me a sense of confidence to be able to manage that.

When you focus on executing, when it really matters, and I've talked about this a ton,

making the right ball, the right shot, just even making balls period at eight all nine

or all 10 all, that really gives you a sense of confidence.

And I've preached about this in rec play.

But when you do this in rec play, then you're able to translate in this tournament.

You really get that confidence and it improves your game.

I don't know if you saw this, but it was a great example of what you just said, which

was I know where you're going to say you know what I'm going to say about Anna Bright.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So Anna Bright in the last tournament had match point and she put her third into the net

because it's as nervy as a guess, it's game five, playing against band and, and

an elite waters.

And she puts her third in that and they lose this time in this particular tournament.

Her third on match point was 15 feet high.

Like it was so high.

Maybe not a four-year-line lob.

Yeah, it was so high, but it was like a shoulder high, left shoulder for Ben, but she was not

taking any chances with her third.

And that is one thing I want to say also about the reps is that one of the things for me

that helped me manage my nerves, which can be crazy in a tournament.

That's just something it's hard to train for is the more routine you get in your game,

the more you can rely on that routine to execute when you have these high pressure situations.

That's kind of what I had to do for my serving because I got the yips.

What tournaments give you is a benchmark and a goal post, which you're going to manage

and learn in order to get to where you want to be.

So give you a guide post, if you will.

So you have a goal in like two months you're going to be playing a tournament or a month

you're going to be playing a tournament.

That way you know that when you play certain rec games, you can practice those skills and

that's how you get better.

But it is pretty funny because what happened in that point because I watched that whole

match and by the way, Kudos to Hayden and Anna for just playing incredible and executing

a consistent, reproducible strategy that gave them winning patterns.

What happened in that point?

She hit a relatively high drop to Ben on a third shot and Ben cracked it and what did Hayden do?

Hayden reset it.

So it just gives you the lesson that when you hit a ball over the net, it gives your opponents

a chance to screw up and you a chance, you and your partner a chance to defend, which

is exactly what happened.

And they ended up winning that point despite a really poor quality drop to Ben John

which is the goat.

All right.

And so when you play players like Ben and Anna Lee, like you feel like, and this is what

how it goes in terms of one of the things you have to get over mentally is that when you're

playing better players, you feel pressure to hit better quality shots and you start making

errors.

So it gives you a kind of a mental challenge that you have to still make shots even

though you're under more pressure to hit her, you know, you think you got to hit

cool, perfect shots and cool.

And you really don't, you have to hit obviously good shots.

But you know, that was a perfect example on a critical point where she just made the ball

and it was, you know, really relatively easy ball for Ben to put a lot of pressure on

them and Hayden got it back and they ended up winning the point.

So that's a great lesson.

Make him hit, baby.

Make him hit.

Meh.

Exactly.

Which tournaments should we choose?

One thing I'll say is we're lucky enough that Pickleball has boomed and there are a million

types of different tournaments out there.

Should you decide to do like a PPA or a PPA event?

It can be a little intimidating because it's definitely a big, bigger stage and things

like that depending on what level you're in.

You got to choose the right tournament and you want to generally, and sometimes you don't

know if you've never played a tournament before, but you want to play your true level.

So don't sandbag.

I had these situations where I was in a, I don't know, it was like a four-row tournament

that I was playing in and there was a guy that just ran through the bracket, including

me and he gave up and this is not an exaggeration.

For an entire day of Pickleball, he gave up like seven points.

He just ran through everyone, hit games to 15.

It was a round robin and this guy gave up seven total points to the group and it's like,

all right, dude, if you're going to be a five-oh player playing a four-row tournament,

that's what's going to happen.

It's not that satisfying.

At that point, just go to Amazon and buy yourself a trophy.

So play your true level and then the goal is to have fun and be in play.

People that are in competition that are the same level as you.

You guys have incredible points.

That's what makes it really fun.

It's not just supposed to be you're running through the bracket.

It's just not or you want to get, you don't want to get crushed either because it just makes

you want to go, I don't really want to play a tournament anymore.

If, you know, I always lose to this one person that ends up sandbagging is what we call

it and plays a higher level than they are.

Yeah, I mean, that being said, you know, you do have to understand that when you first

start out, you're going to take some bumps and bruises.

When I first started playing senior pro doubles, I was far less effective in terms of winning

versus senior pro singles.

I started playing senior pro singles which translates from a henna style much more easily

than doubles.

So you're going to take some bumps.

But first of all, I'd recommend you start off with a local tournament, which is what

I did.

You know, start off with some local tournaments so you don't have to travel far.

It's easy for you.

You know, you might be playing some of the same people you know, but it'll be at least familiar

for you.

You have some familiarity.

You don't have to travel too far.

A hundred plus set player level or maybe play a little bit up if you feel that there might

be some wiggle room in terms of who's playing.

Definitely know your format.

If it's around Robin with a playoff versus double emulation or single emulation, it really

matters.

Certainly, more tournaments are getting to cool style play in certain types of brackets

or at least having multiple matches.

So you get a bunch of matches.

So I really recommend that both the APP and the NPL, which is now the Champions Pickleball

series or Champions Series Pickleball, they're really putting out some really good tournaments.

You know that if you get double emulation, you know, you get two chances.

So you also have to know the scoring format.

If you have games to 11, by two or two out of three, then you know you have a little more

leeway, whereas games to 15, you don't have as much leeway or if it's rally scoring, you

definitely don't have as much leeway.

So the style of scoring really is important.

So you just have to know all those and do something comfortable.

And this is all supposed to be fun.

So while you're going to challenge yourself, it's also going to be fun.

You have to look at it as, okay, even if I lose, look at it as a data point.

You know, I always tell people, if you speed up and you lose, just don't lose, look at

that.

It's like, oh, that was a terrible thing.

You know, I lost the point.

Look at it as a data point.

So look at it in a positive way, regardless of, you know, how you do.

I had extensive experience with both of those things that you just talked about.

Number one, when my very first tournament, I lost my first round and I didn't realize

that in the, the consolation bracket, that it was one game to 15.

And the other thing which just happened is I played the humanity cup, you were there,

actually, at the APP.

And it was rally scoring and man, does that change how you play pickleball?

Because every single point matters.

And it really makes you, to our first segment, really makes you think about, you better

make these balls because it really matters when you don't make a third.

You're not just losing your side out for your serve, you're actually losing a point.

And a game can go really fast if you miss a lot of balls.

Absolutely.

100%.

My very first pro tour tournament was the first PPA in Mesa, Arizona.

And it was incredibly chilly.

And this was in 2020.

And I played senior pro singles.

And I went out there the day before, you know, thinking I needed to get acclimated a little

bit, but I didn't get quite acclimated enough to the cold weather.

And I didn't know, you know, how to play in cold weather, really.

And I lost first round to Dan Gernott, who ended up being my first, the senior pro doubles

partner.

And I lost in singles and I lost first round.

And I thought, man, I'm going to quit this game.

I'm terrible.

I'm just, and then I went in the back draw and like, okay, one one.

And anyway, ended up playing Scott Moore in the finals was down 11 1 6 0 came back in

one in that one.

And then I beat him 15 13 in the final and I'm winning gold after winning first round.

Wow.

I'm sorry, losing first round.

That's literally lost first round in like a 32 draw.

And I just did not adjust the conditions immediately.

It took me some time.

Yeah, when we were doing, let's say the NPL trials and I knew it was going to be indoors.

I went to a local indoor place here to get reps and practice because if you show up the

day of and you're just not used to what it is, whether it's certain win conditions that

funnel in from a certain direction at this cord or whatever, if you can get reps at the

actual venue, that's great.

Otherwise, if you can get reps in a similar situation, whether it's sunlight or wind,

or way, you know, in your case, way colder, if you're playing a tournament like in Denver,

I mean, you know this from being an Aspen last summer, it's crazy how much farther the

ball goes in an altitude than it does.

Or may as see level.

I mean, it's a complete and, you know, we say game changer.

Know what really is.

That is an actual game changer.

You have to very much modify how you hit the ball when you're at altitude and vice versa.

So it's those kinds of things that really matter because you already have enough things

to think about when it turns when it comes into playing a tournament that you don't even

want a bother.

You've played a lot of indoor as well.

Like when you have to play an indoor venue, what are you looking for?

Because it's not the same as it is an outdoor.

No, it's not.

So one of the keys is really, like you said, is practicing in the environment that you're

going to play it.

You know, that sounds intuitive, but it's just so incredibly important.

Like if you're going from Florida to Colorado, you really need at least two days to get ready.

And if you're going from Florida to Arizona, you know, if you're going to start playing an

event on Friday morning, like you can't get there Thursday night and adequately prepare

in my opinion.

Like at the latest, you got to get there Thursday morning to at least give yourself 24 hours.

If you're going to travel, you know, whether it's indoors outdoors, like obviously if you're

playing outdoors, if you live in Florida and you're playing outdoors in Florida, you know,

you're good.

Just keep practicing outdoors indoors.

The ball is going to be faster.

There's typically more speedups.

You know, you don't have any environmental influence of the wind.

So that's really good.

You know, you're not going to get rained out.

So that's there's a lot of pluses.

There can be some court challenges in terms of the size of the courts.

So sometimes the footprint of the indoor courts are relatively small.

And the other thing, there can be some visual challenges.

So there's some venues that played that are amazing in terms of how they've done the

sightlines.

And there's some places where the sightlines are just really rough.

Like for example, I've played in a venue where they had, it was a beautiful venue, but

everything was shiny or glittery or reflective.

And including there's one giant mural behind the center court with all kinds of different

colors.

And it was incredibly tough to see.

So when I'm indoors, and this is a little tip to, and it's just a personal thing, when

I have a choice of whether to serve or pick side, I always pick side.

Yeah.

I always pick side because there will always be a side that is a little bit better.

And the way I pick is where I want to end if it goes three games and the last six points

I want to be on the better side.

One thing I'll add to that because the visual side for me was one of the bigger challenges

is if you are someone who wears eyewear and you should, you should all be wearing the

carbon pivot or the carbon drift pickleball glasses.

And if you want to do that, you go to carbon pickleball.com.

You get 10% off your order by using the promo code 402p at checkout.

If you have a pair of glasses or goggles that have multiple different lenses, try them

all when you're inside or outside.

And make sure that you have a remedy for whatever conditions that you might face.

So definitely experiment with them, especially indoor because things can get really weird

and your sight lines can get weird and there can be a lot of visual interference and that's

not a great way to play.

Exactly.

I mean, eye protection all the time.

Yeah.

Even when I'm drilling all the time.

We had to show a few episodes ago about playing in cold weather and how the ball performs.

It's a much slower ball.

It can crack.

The heat can be a faster ball, but it also doesn't bounce as well, especially if it's

a Franklin X40, which is something to know what ball are they using.

When you are playing like if I'm at Los Cab here in Southern California, we have a ton

of pros that play there and some play APP, some play PPA, some play local tournaments.

All three of those use different balls.

So you have to make sure you know what ball they use and the tournaments you're going

to play.

If I'm used to playing the lifetime ball, which is my favorite currently, and we switch

to a Franklin like mid, if I'm in the middle of a wreck night or something like that, and

we've been playing this lifetime all day and then I go to a Franklin, I miss everything

because it's a totally, it's like hitting a sponge and it takes me a couple games to

get used to it.

Imagine that's a tournament now and you've paid all this money to get in there and you've

flown there or whatever.

You've got to know what ball you're going to play with.

I just want to correct one thing that I thought I heard and I may have misheard, but I thought

you said with a cold ball that it's a little bit slower and the heat is faster.

Like I would flip those because you know we talked about this when it's cold, it's harder.

So the ball kind of flies a little bit more rather than the heat and kind of slows down

a little bit more.

If I said that I didn't mean to, the cold definitely flies more, but the and the ball can crack

more and then the heat you can slow down and especially a Franklin can get really spongy.

Yeah, I mean, and if you play the US Open and you know that sometimes they leave the

Franklin balls out there and little baskets, they leave the baskets by the court.

And in April or early May in Florida, when you're leaving the baskets with the balls on

the court at about one o'clock, it's going to be a marshmallow.

I just talked to somebody.

They were playing with like a Gen 2 paddle and they just got a sell clerk boomstick, which

is a very high poppy paddle and they were just about to play a tournament that weekend.

They were like, I can't wait to, I'm like, what you're going to bring this brand new

paddle out that you've never played with before to a tournament?

That's not going to go well.

So do not experiment with your equipment on tournament day.

That is a terrible, terrible idea.

Use the paddle that got you there.

You know, go home with the date you're brung if you will.

No last minute paddle changes.

And you want to bring a backup just in case.

Ideally, it's the same kind of thing.

You and I have talked about a little bit, depending on the conditions.

If it's really cold one day, you might have a different paddle or you're playing singles

in doubles.

It might be a different paddle, but in general, you want to have a good backup for whatever

reason.

You could find that one of your grips is too slippery because it's too hot and you don't

have time between games to change grips, but you can change paddles that has a nice fresh

grip on it.

So make sure that you are your equipment is what you're used to.

And you definitely need one backup paddle.

You really have to make sure that your paddle is approved and you have to make sure that

your paddle is approved for the particular tournament that you're playing in, which sounds

into it again, but like you have EPA, which has EPA certified paddles, then you have, you

know, nationals or US Open, which has USAP.

There are some tournaments like the National Pickle Ball League or the, you know, now it's

the champions here's Pickle Ball.

They allow both EPA and USAP certified paddles.

So you have to make sure that your paddle is certified by whichever body is used by the

tournament.

That's a big thing.

On that note, when I got my carbon barrage, which by the way, I think you guys are going

to love.

One of the first things that Kyle from Carbon said is don't play this in the tournament,

it's not approved yet.

Like they're, they knew ahead of time that it wasn't, the date wasn't there yet, but probably

by now it is.

But I think it needs to come out to the public before you can have approval or something or

there's some sort of timeline involved.

But you guys, by the way, are going to love that paddle.

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That's all.

I can't wait to try.

Along those lines, everything else that goes along with the paddle.

Many of us wait the paddles, so we use the lead tape, so don't add the lead tape the

day of or make sure that your backup paddle is weighted in the same fashion.

So I often play with both my backup paddle and the paddle I intend to use for the tournament

the week before.

So I use both to make sure that they feel similar.

So that's something I would highly recommend in terms of grips.

Like I'm a big over grip person, so I don't like playing with the grip out of the box.

For the most part, the Wilson perforated over grip.

That's my favorite grip that I've ever used.

I always put on fresh grips before.

How long has that last you, by the way?

Because my favorite is still the very old school tournament grip, like the one you could get

the 70s.

Just when it gets really hot and sweaty out, I like that one because I think it does

the best with that.

I'm curious, I mean, you're obviously in Florida.

How does that Wilson hold up for you?

How many games do you get out of it?

I actually get usually about four to five days, sometimes a week out of it.

But when I play tournaments, I usually change them the event the following day.

So because I like that fresh grip when I'm playing a pro level tournament.

I will say that I used to use the tournament grips as well.

The tournament grips last me one day in Florida.

Okay.

I mean, I take it back.

Like on a day like today, words in the 40s, you know, it'll be fine.

But in the last majority of the year, like from, let's say, March until October, those

grips will last me one day.

So that's why I just don't use the minimum.

The regular ones, not the sticky ones.

The regular ones last you a day?

Yeah.

Oh, well, that's your thing.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's crazy.

All right.

And then the shoes.

I was in the middle of a PPA tournament.

And my shoes were bothering me and I bought a pair of sketchers literally in the middle

of rounds and I wore them.

So shout out to sketchers for doing it quickly and for being comfortable enough to wear

in a tournament without any real break in.

Do not recommend in general for doing that.

But yeah, reliable court shoes, obviously.

Yeah.

And once you've worn already, you're hurt.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I do not want to play a tournament when I put on the shoes that morning or the day before.

So I've always broken them in at least four to five days before minimum.

It takes me a few days to break in shoes.

Yeah.

What are you throwing in your bag just in case?

Oh, man.

Quite a few things.

So I have a little bag where I have extra over grips.

I have my lead tape.

I have my electrical tape that, you know, I put on the edge of the paddle.

And then I have any extra tape that I need if I need to re-grip or I lose it.

I need to do one of my grips again or redo my lead tape.

So I have that.

I have my extra glasses.

So I have both, you know, sunglasses that have my clear glasses and my afternoon glasses.

I have a towel.

I always have my electrolytes.

I love the Ultima.

Ultima is my favorite one.

Just, you know, flavors.

It's clean.

Like liquid IV, but it's Ultima.

Yeah, it's the same idea.

Yeah, the liquid IV has some sugar on it.

So I'm sure they probably have a, you know, a different one.

But anyway, and then I have food.

I have our bars, different types of protein bars.

Obviously I have water, which I use with the electrolytes.

I have backup clothes and I mentioned this before that for me, like, I have a bunch of socks

because I like changing socks throughout the day.

And then, you know, I have one extra pair of shorts, but they have numerous shirts.

A lot of times I change my shirts and I wear sleeves.

So I do the sleeves.

And then I also have a hat.

So I rarely wear the hat.

And typically I wear like a headband that, I'm part of the reason for that is that I've

got to do rag.

I got a little bit of a do right.

Yeah.

So on your armor do rag, it is.

It is.

I kind of know.

That's your look.

It's a sleeveless shirt with a sleeve.

And then you're do rag.

That's the Miura Chah tournament kit.

The do rag.

Yep.

It's actually a, you know, consider it a head wrap.

I started wearing those when I was playing squash because squash is so intense physically

that you sweat like crazy and you have to wear goggles for eye protection.

Obviously, because you're indoors in a small conflits base and people are swinging

the rackets.

So if I wore a regular baseball cap or a hat when playing, it would often fall off when

I was playing squash or that sweat would be so bad, it would just kind of run down

into my glasses.

And so the head wraps were the only thing that would really keep the sweat from coming

down.

And then when I play tournaments, I rarely wear the head, the, just a baseball cap because

when I go for overhead, sometimes when I hit the overheads, the cap falls off and you

know, you don't want if that falls in the kitchen, you lose the point.

So that's why we're the head wrap.

So those are the things that I think you need in your, in your back.

What about you?

Am I missing anything?

Have you ever, by the way, used the, the halo, the halo headband, which is what I used

to wear, playing racquetball?

So it's like a wrap that you use, but it's got a little rubber strip that goes above your

eyebrows and it redirects the moisture away from your goggles.

And they have a big, like a four inch wide, it's called the bandit.

I'm just looking at it online right now, the halo bandit.

I'll send you the link.

I bet you really like these a lot.

The one thing I will add, what's that?

I said no, I haven't.

I've never tried it.

Yeah, it's really cool.

I just need to link.

The one thing I will add to that is you play a lot of games for tournaments.

If you're doing a tournament weekend and you're playing more than one division, it's typically

more than you'll play normally.

Like you won't play for six hours on a day, but you might, if you keep banging through

rounds at a tournament, I like to have some kind of like knee sleeves or if you twist your

ankle, I might have like an ankle brace or a knee brace or a choke pad strap or just

a few things in your bag.

In case you start getting sore, if you get a sore leg or a sore elbow or something like

that, but you want to keep going through, it's not bad enough to like bow out of the tournament,

but you're starting to feel it a little bit.

I really like that.

And I also like it as preventative maintenance.

I've had five left knee surgeries.

I know that when I get two or three hours into playing pickleball, my left knee is going

to start bothering me a little bit.

If I wear sleeves, which are, you know, sleeves you can get on Amazon or whatever, they don't

have to be crazy, I feel better for the whole day.

And I'll just wear those prophylactically.

Are you like that doctor?

Just to make sure my knees don't get really bad, you know, towards the end of the day,

because what happens often is you'll play and you'll win and then you got to sit around

for a while and you can get stiff.

So anything you need to do to get stiff, I might add a jump rope to the bag in case you

have like, you're going to go on in like 10 minutes, but there's not really enough time

to go do a proper warm up very often.

All the courts are taken.

So I might, you know, jump rope or do jumping jacks or something to get my body back into

playing mode.

And maybe this is just for people over the age of 50 that can soar between games.

Yeah, and I can't believe I forgot this.

And thanks for reminding me, but the yobo, like, the therapeutic massage gun, that's another

must.

So that's really incredibly improved.

My recovery decreased my soreness helps me warm up, decreased the chance of injuries.

I think that's really key.

Whatever therapeutic massage gun of your choice.

The reason I like the yobo, because it's very compact, it's not heavy.

So that's always been great.

And then also the bands that they have, we talked about the, you know, the backpack,

BAK, the back body activation kit.

That's also great for warm up as well.

So one thing that doesn't fly at a tournament is very often.

I'll step on the court and be like, hey, sorry to my partner.

I'll be fully warmed up by game three.

That doesn't fly at tournaments.

You do not have a game three if you don't play very well for the first couple of games.

So you have to warm up properly, like for real for real when you play a tournament.

The more reps you get, the more you realize how much you need to go through your entire

thing.

But I do feel like you need 30 minutes or at least 15 minutes of regular, your normal

full warm up routine, which we've talked about on this show before.

But what's your ideal warm up progression as you get there and more importantly, Mircha,

tell me how it is now versus when you first started playing doubles because I bet you

it's a little bit different.

Yeah, well, it's much more methodical now than it was before for sure.

The most important thing is you got to remember that you need to know what you need in terms

of your warm up and what your partner needs.

And I often just adapt my partner within reason.

So I've had some partners that really like to warm up for a long time, like 45 minutes

to an hour or more.

I typically like to warm up less than that because I generally anticipate optimistically

often a longer day.

So when we first started playing, we had full draws with full comrades.

So I played APP tournaments when I started at eight and finished at 11 because we had

entire full comrades.

8 AM, 11 PM.

Yes.

Yes.

That wasn't the typical day.

I'm not going to tell you that was.

That's obviously, you know, when you end up in the finals or if you're because you're waiting

for the back draw to come through or you're playing through the back draw and you get back

to the gold.

So fortunately for most tournaments, they have the US Open Style where you don't have the

full come around anymore.

So anyway, like you have to remember that when you go there to the tournament, you know,

let's say you and I are going to meet at, let's say 730, okay?

We started 830.

We're going to meet at 730.

You know, you don't want to get there at 730 because you have to park.

Sometimes parking is an issue.

If you know that it's a small place, it's a local park, it's not a big deal that's fine.

But if you're playing a larger tournament like the US Open or an APP tournament or a PPA

tournament, there might be an issue with parking.

And then you also have to check in, all right, especially the first day.

So that may take a little longer.

So you have to keep that in mind.

You have to park.

You have to walk over.

You have to find a court.

So if your bracket starts at 8 in the morning and you know you can get there at 7, that might

be fine because most of the courts will probably be open.

However, if your bracket starts at 10 and you meet at 9, you may have trouble finding

a court because the 8 o'clock brackets have already started.

So you have to keep in mind that you need a little that extra wiggle room in terms of

getting there to properly plan.

If my bracket starts at 9 and I know I don't have a buy, I would typically like to start

warming up around 8 o'clock.

Hopefully you get there and you can do a combination of your standard warm up where you have a little

stretching.

You know, you move.

You keep your body active kind of warmed down a little bit.

I'm sorry, warm up a little bit.

And then you also get to practice the warm up with your partner.

And then you also hopefully will get someone that you can play a bunch of points with.

Just like it doesn't even you have to keep score.

You know, you can just play a bunch of points and often it'll be like, you know, someone

will miss a serve and you just tell him, okay, hey, here you go.

Sure.

Again, serve me wide or serve me this way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And there's there's some.

There's some.

Yeah, exactly.

It's cooperative.

But even when like they miss a return here, I'll serve again, you know, take the return

again.

Yeah.

Or even you get to the point you miss a third.

Obviously miss fourth to fifth.

That's a little ridiculous.

But, you know, that's something you consider when you're warm enough.

And don't do it with the team.

You're going to play the that's generally not the greatest idea.

I imagine.

Yeah, it's funny because there's some.

I've had some partners.

They absolutely refuse to play with anyone in the draw.

I really recommend games the day before.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, that's funny.

There's some partners that will not play with anyone.

I really don't care.

I'll play with anyone because.

What happens in rec play, you know, the day before and what happens in warm up is not what

happens in in the draw.

Yeah.

That's not.

They're completely different things.

And you should be aware of that.

Don't you can use certain things to pick up on your opponents.

If you want to go out there and watch, you can definitely get some tips.

Again, tournament play is not rec play and vice versa.

So one of the things I mentioned, Mircha, was very often you'll be it'll be a break.

Because you have to wait for other matches to end.

Let's say you guys won your best two out of three and you did it quickly.

You were much better than that team.

You have to wait until all of the other games are finished.

So that bracket can go to the next level.

And sometimes that can be an hour.

Sometimes it can be two.

For some of us, taking that long of a break can make us really stiff.

And I'm sure that at the senior pro level, a lot of people feel like that.

So what are some of the things you like to do to kind of stay warm when you've got downtime

or you know that like in 35 minutes, your number is going to get called again.

Well, I got to tell you this might be a little bit out of the box.

But for me, one of the biggest keys regarding this topic is hydration.

And hydration doesn't start the day of the tournament.

I'm a huge, huge proponent of hydration on a daily basis.

Personally, I had a kidney stone when I was 14 and part of it was related dehydration

when we were practicing back in the old days when you know, you could only have a drop of water

after practicing for like two hours, the floor to heat.

You know, that was your reward.

Yeah, please to win the Coke.

The Coke.

If you hit the Coke while you're served, you could get the can of Coke, which was amazing.

Exactly.

South Florida.

So, yeah.

So basically I've been hydrating like crazy.

So it's 14 and knock on wood.

I have not had any recurrence, but the biggest mistake that I think people make is they hydrate

like the day of the tournament.

Yeah.

If you if hydration is not your priority on a regular basis, which for me it is, you really

need to do it at least two or three days before the tournament, minimum.

And my hydration is to the point where when I finish a match, I like go to the bathroom,

fill out my water, grab some food.

So like my intermatched preparation consists of those three things as a priority.

And then beyond that, I do some light movement, a little bit of stretching.

I do the yobo, the you know, therapeutic massage gun.

Sometimes you do some shadow swings.

You just, you know, basically keep your body active to a point, but also got to get some

rest.

So I typically don't, you know, walk around and, you know, chat to multiple people.

I like to, you know, just kind of chill in the protein or just chill in a quiet area

where I can, you know, sit down and not have to do a million things.

I like to, you know, have my mind focused on the tournament rather than a million different

things.

So I try to keep my focus and prioritize.

I typically have a protein bar between each match.

I have a ton of water or electrolytes or combination of the two and get some rest and focus

on the next match.

Love that.

Yeah, you're pretty locked in as you go throughout the day, which I think is a really,

really good, really good plan.

One thing we didn't mention, but it can happen, especially when you play a really long day,

as you can cramp, you can get a lot of cramping.

If you haven't gotten enough electrolytes during the course of the day, it's nice to have

some things that are helpful, like you have the liquid IV.

That has a lot of salt in it, which helps with muscle cramps.

There's just a lot of weirdness in your body when you ask it to do what you're not used

to.

Typically, we're in for a couple of hours.

We play our 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and we go home.

It's very different when you spend the entire day on a pickleball court and what can

happen in your body.

So you just want to be prepared with pickle, they have literal pickle juice shots.

If you're playing in a bigger tournament, by the way, like a PPA or APP, or even one of

the bigger local tournaments, they'll have a lot of this stuff.

They'll have bananas and they'll have snack bars and things like that.

But don't rely on that.

You don't know what's going to do to your stomach.

Just have your routine and lock in with what they have.

That's usually a really good plan.

Don't depend on the food there.

Oftentimes, they will have food trucks or snacks.

Sometimes the snacks are like these cheese and crackers that we used to have in the 1980s

in the vending machines that I really wouldn't feed to my dog.

So no offense.

But sometimes they have stuff like that or they'll have like a fruit truck with Indian

food.

I don't know about you.

I love Indian food, but not an tournament.

And for me, I just, I typically don't like a heavy meal right before I play.

So I rarely will have a traditional lunch like a big, I love sandwiches.

And during a tournament, I'm not really sure when I'm playing.

So unless I'm very confident that I have, maybe an iron half break or something, I typically

don't have a full meal.

So.

The other thing is you have to be careful with some of the electrical iPodders that are

filled with sugar.

Because then you'll get a little bit of a sugar crash.

And again, you know, I've talked about nutrition and hydration.

You really just do not want to get dehydrated.

It's not good for your muscles.

It's going to increase the change of injury.

It's not good for your concentration.

Caffeine is another thing that you can consider.

How are you about energy drinks, Michael?

I was just about to say, I might have a few five-hour energies in my bag.

I get to that two o'clock in the afternoon, especially if I got up early or I flew in.

Like when I did NPL, the west coast to East Coast thing, and we were on court at seven

o'clock, it was four AM for me when I got on the court, which means I got up at two

thirty AM to play pickleball, which is bonkers.

So yes, I definitely consumed a red puller five-hour energy or coffee.

I just don't drink coffee, which is why I do that.

But in general, yes, I'm okay with caffeine, but to your point, there's a crash sometimes.

It just depends on how you time your crash, I guess.

Again, it depends on your personal preference and what you typically do.

Just make sure you're not doing something completely different.

And if you do try energy drinks, don't try them the day of the trip.

No.

No, that's a bad idea.

And I was coaching at the Texas Open one time at PPA Tournament.

I was coaching J. W. Dillon and Georgia and J. W. And I wasn't playing at all.

And there was an energy company drink, an energy drink company there.

And they had the samples.

And it was later in the day and the guys were like, oh, you want to try?

I was like, yeah, I sure, you know, I'll try one.

So it tasted really good.

So I had like two or three of them.

Woo!

I was like, three.

And I was fine.

He's a doctor, you guys.

He's a doctor, you guys bother me.

Yeah.

But the caffeine, because I typically have, you know, probably two pots of coffee total daily.

So caffeine doesn't really affect.

And drink coffee at 10 o'clock and I go to sleep like, you said you drink two pots of coffee

a day.

Correct.

Roughly.

Holy moly.

Yeah.

Well, it's a habit, I guess, I've picked up, you know, since it's been a doctor.

Yeah, right.

And fortunately, more and more evidence is out there regarding the positive offensive

of the coffee.

But anyway, I digress.

So the next morning, after I had those energy drinks, I woke up like, I typically don't

drink that often, but I mean, I woke up like I had the worst hangover that I can remember

of all time.

And I think I've had like, re-hangovers in my life.

And this was one of them.

It was brutal.

1200 milligrams of coffee per day.

And you guys, that's what the doctor recommends.

But it wasn't that it was something in the energy drink, which did not agree with me.

So again, don't take stuff that you haven't taken before, even the electrolyte stuff.

Don't use the electrolytes the day of that you haven't tried, you know, the week before.

Make sure it agrees with you.

Agreed.

That is 100%.

Guys, believe it or not, we're only halfway through.

This tournament prep.

But we're going to cut this off to the next show where we're going to cover tournament logistics,

what it's like to play with a ref if you've never done that before, which is crazy, mental

preparation and what to do on the court, which is a way, way, way bigger factor than you

think.

Strategic tournament mindset, things that you would play or do in rec that would be a terrible

idea to do an tournament or vice versa.

And mistakes that we make very often at a tournament.

And then anything else we can come up with, Mircha, thank you.

I've got a run, but this is a great part one of this particular show.

Yeah, thanks a lot, Michael.

Thanks for your patience.

All right, guys, you've now just listened to another episode of 4.0 to pro.

This was not exactly pocket size, but it's a lot of information.

We got to disseminate here.

And what else you got to do?

Let's say you're commuting to the court as an hour today instead of 20 minutes.

All right, guys, we'll talk to you guys.

You guys go back and forth, right?

That's right.

I try.

You keep listening.

You don't stop audiobooks just because there are too long, right?

Guys, thank you for Mircha.

I'm Michael.

You guys keep on rocking to talk to us.

Thank you for listening to 4.0 to pro.

For more tips, find us on Instagram at 4.0 to pro.

If you have a pickleball question, submit it at picklehelp.com.

Now, get out there and dominate.

But don't forget to have fun.

This is a quest worth taking.

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