171. Upcoming Six Zero Coral Pro & Pickleball Advice We Wish We Knew Sooner

All right, what's up guys?

Welcome back to another podcast episode.

This week we're going to be talking about a couple upcoming paddles, the Coral Pro, the

Honolulu BlueGrip paddles seem to be having some consistency issues, the Padletack Honey

Phone 14 millimeter, and then to wrap up the podcast we're going to be talking about some

Pigaball advice that we wish we knew sooner so that you can learn from our own mistakes

and not make those same mistakes.

A ton this week in terms of news, we have one little thing about the nerdy turnie we're

going to go over, but otherwise it was kind of a dry week in terms of the news.

Yeah, it's been a slow one.

Yeah, so we'll just hop right into it.

So first of all, the nerdy turnie, if you don't know what this is, which to be honest,

most of you probably don't.

Last year, bread and butter hosted this event where they invited all these content creators,

primarily paddle reviewers, and then it's a random partner.

It's basically a tournament for content creators.

It's a random partner drawing.

They split it in half.

So they find whatever the halfway point is for everyone's duper, and they split it into

a high duper bucket and a low duper bucket, and then you can only pair a high duper and

a low duper.

This year, I believe the cutoff was 419 was the top of the low duper and 422 was the bottom

of the top duper.

I think the highest duper was like 55 or something.

So anyways, yeah, it's just random pairing.

It's basically just a party.

There is no, it's not really about any paddle thing.

It's not super serious.

Everyone's just having a good time goofing around.

Like I would say, all the things we have been to for pickleball that are typically work

or event related, this is like the least work related one.

Yeah.

In a good way, where it's just like, oh, okay, I just get to play some pickleball, which

is kind of nice.

Yeah.

So yeah, excited for this one.

This year, I had a legendary partner poem watching the video.

If you want to watch it, I'll leave it linked down below.

I got lucky.

I got lucky.

Lucky doesn't do a justice.

This is like when you're open a Pokemon card pack and you get to the back and you get a

shiny.

That's what this one is.

It's a mythic.

It's a mythic one.

I got Lewis from pickleball pursuit.

Very excited about that one.

I think, I think we'll get along great on the court.

He'll be super fun to play with.

He's not a bad at playing.

More of a vibes guy.

Yeah, he just like got a vibes.

I mean, last year, he was in the finals.

Yeah, he played well.

He played well.

He was fine.

Magangos?

Yes.

He had, yes, he had Magangos and Justin had right there.

Well, the difference between you and Magangos is his back is good.

You can carry.

You're back.

Ain't going to be able to carry.

So, well, I am hoping that is the one thing I'm worried about.

So for those of you who remember last week about my backup date, my MRI is scheduled

the day you hear this podcast.

But I'm doing better now.

I can play on the court.

I just can't play games.

Like, I can't do a lot of bending.

But day to day, I'm not in a lot of pain because I'm avoiding certain movements.

So I'm curious if by the tournament, it'll be enough to survive like one day of play.

I'm just not going to push it before the tournament.

I will play no games before the tournament and hope for one day, I'm good.

That's all I need.

But yes, I was very excited to get Lewis.

I think that's going to be fun.

You got Logan Brown.

Yeah.

What would be good?

Which I also think is going to be good.

I feel like there are probably five or so teams that could win this.

If I'm remembering off the top of my head and I might be forgetting some, I think depending

on my back, me and Lewis have a decent chance.

I think you and Logan have a good chance.

Braden and Rafa are a good team.

John, Q and Magangos will be a good team.

That's four.

And then I feel like there's one other obvious one.

I would really like my team's chances.

If I wasn't dealing with a torn shoulder, that would really help things.

We're just kind of messed up over here.

Seriously, the Pickleball Studio podcast is broken.

Well, yeah.

So we'll get there.

But yeah, it's going to be really fun.

Even if the play doesn't go well, to me, the only thing really at the nerdy turnie that

you want to avoid, I don't even really care if I win it.

I mean, I do want to win.

But as long as I don't get last, as long as I get the toilet bowl trophy, so that's

another thing.

They do this thing where the loser, the team that wins zero games, the entire tournament,

they go to the toilet bowl and they win a golden toilet bowl trophy.

Because I think it splits after the first round.

Yeah.

If you lose your first round, you go into the, obviously, the backdrop bracket.

If you win, you keep going and that backdrop bracket, then play it.

It's a pool play, I think.

Like, round robin, you play each other.

And then the losers of that then play each other.

So the losers keep advancing.

Exactly.

So if you, if you go to the toilet bowl, the backdrop and you win a match, you're just

dumb.

You're out, which is good.

Yeah.

You want to be dumb.

You want to be dumb.

You want to win that backdrop.

Once you lose your first bracket, you don't want to be playing anymore.

You want to just be out of the tournament.

Exactly.

So, yeah, I think either way, it's going to be really fun.

It was great last year.

It's fun to catch up with everyone and see everyone.

So, yeah, I'm pumped.

Yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be fun.

I'm looking forward to it.

That's coming up really quick.

That's like in like in a week.

It's, yeah, we leave in like a week.

Yeah.

Kind of wild.

So, all right.

That's all we had for news.

We're just going to get real quick.

Oh, yeah.

I just want to say, I just got back from a trip from LA.

I was out there for like four days and I'll keep this pretty quick.

I was out there for the US Open for Tifty, that news, racket sport.

It was incredible.

Tons of fun.

Production was amazing.

Tournament was great.

Rant smooth.

It was amazing.

Anyways, I just wanted to say, I have such pet peeves when traveling.

Okay.

Okay.

I feel like this is common sense, but maybe it's not.

I just want to throw this out there to anyone who's listening.

If you are flying on a plane, keep your shoes on.

Dude, I was flying.

This guy next to me just popped his shoes off, stuck his feet up.

I'm like, dude, what is going on here?

And then we land.

And now everyone hears the ding.

They take their seat belt off.

They pop right off and they try to get as fast as possible.

I hate that.

That's also annoying.

But this guy took it way too far the other direction.

He's got headphones in.

He's listening to a movie.

He's watching.

And we land.

Ding.

People start getting up and everyone's getting off the plane.

And I'm in the window seat.

Isn't the aisle seat?

And he just locked me in.

And everyone's walking by and he's watching his movie.

I'm like, dude, I want to get off this plane.

So anyone who's listening to this, don't be that guy.

Bro, he locked you in with the dogs.

Dude, we got the dogs out.

Exactly.

Yeah, that was crazy.

Dogs were out.

Like, I don't care how good your hygiene is.

These keep your shoes on.

That is a crazy thing to tell you.

I would never do that to someone.

Right?

Like, that is wild.

Like, even if you just showered fresh socks, doesn't matter, man.

You just keep your shoes on.

I don't think I've ever been next to anyone on a plane that took their shoes off before.

Yeah.

I wouldn't even consider that.

Dude, I get unlucky with my poles on the plane trip.

I would.

Which is funny, because you do somehow always get ones that are tough and minor always

fine.

Like, I genuinely couldn't tell you one of the last passengers I've had.

I was bothered in any capacity.

Really?

Yeah.

Every there always like fine normal people.

I somehow always have somebody kicking the seat behind me or dude, also the worst is when

it's dark in the plane and there's somebody on the window seat, whether it's the row

you're sitting in or the one next to you adjacent on the other side and they keep opening

and closing the window like flashbanging everybody.

Like, can we all agree to just keep the windows down?

Yeah.

Anyways, I had to rant for a second.

Yeah, that would be tough.

Well, you know what's funny, going on to our next topic, a shoe that you can take on

and off very easily.

So maybe if you want to take your shoes off on the plane.

So you pick up all central centers of the shoe and it's funny that actually was literally

perfect timing because the day they sent us this sketch or shoe, I was actually going

to buy them myself because I was really interested in them.

Yeah.

And then I got a text and they're like, hey, we're sending these and I was like, yeah,

because the day to day shoes you wear are slip on.

Yeah, slip on like the Kizzic shoe, the heel like can compress and use the slider foot

and that's actually, I've always thought that brand is great.

I've never owned a pair of those shoes.

I kind of want to.

Those seem awesome.

It's what's funny about it is so the brand is talking about Kizzic.

It's K, I, Z, I, K. I bought these last year when the same time last year actually when

I was dealing with even more back pain when it was even worse and I was having such a

hard time like bending over to time my shoes.

I was like, I can't keep doing this.

Like this is making it worse.

And so I was like, I need, there's got to be a shoe you can just slide on and I don't

like wearing actual slides.

Like they just, I don't, I just don't like them.

And so I found this brand and they have all sorts of different shoes and you just pop them

on and off.

Love them.

What is funny though is I feel like they are known as like shoes for pregnant women because

apparently, you know, same thing.

They probably have a hard time bending over.

So all the reviews I was watching were from pregnant women and the few times I've ran

into someone who knew what they were.

They were like, you wearing those like pregnant shoes and I was like, bro, I don't care.

Have you called on that?

I'm like, these are amazing.

I've always thought those were just a great idea for going in and out of the house is incredible.

I love the shoe.

Highly recommend, Kizx.

I think they're awesome.

I've had mine for over a year and they're so great.

Yeah.

So anyways, same exact concept with this sketch or courtshoe.

You can just slide it on and off.

So is it the same idea where the heel compresses?

I actually haven't looked a lot of these.

I mean, I just wore them, but I haven't looked at any of the marketing for these shoes.

Yeah.

So it's the same thing.

Like it's not because it's a courtshoe.

It's stiffer.

It doesn't bend as much, but just slide it right on and off.

And it's actually been great the last few times that I've been on the court because again,

I don't want to bend over to time my shoes.

Yeah.

So it's been awesome.

It's like perfect.

How tight do you have them tied?

I would go tighter than I have them right now, but because I'm not moving very aggressively

on the court.

Compared to like a typical courtshoe, what's the level like the same if you were going

to like untie entire shoes?

I could probably go to the same tightness and still slide them on and off.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Even right now, I think I could probably play in the tightness they are, but I would

feel like it would be possible for my foot to slide out just because this I wouldn't

even wear my normal courtshoe this loose.

Yeah.

But yeah, it's been great from that standpoint.

Here's how necessary the Velcro strap is.

Yeah.

So if you guys are watching it.

Almost looks more like a design thing rather than a function.

I'm sure it does have function, right?

Like they wouldn't put it there if it didn't.

Yeah.

I really, yeah, I don't feel like it needs this.

Yeah.

So there's just this Velcro strap over the four foot.

That is the one thing.

I'm glad at least on this pair that it's white because I think if it was another color

and it stood out more, it would be very ugly.

But I will say when I'm on the court, you know, the shoot, the lace is kind of, don't

know.

I can't really see it, but it does just make it look like an odd shoe when it has a Velcro

strap over the front of it.

Yeah.

Like to me, it's like either have the Velcro strap Velcro.

Can I speak English?

Velcro strap and no laces or laces and no Velcro strap.

Yeah.

I agree.

But yeah, I like the shoe a lot.

The one thing I will say, because I noticed this and as soon as you put them on, you

notice the same thing.

They are uber stiff out of the box.

They might be the most stiff shoe I've ever worn.

Yeah.

Like out of the box, you put it on and you're like, dude, am I wearing a two by four?

Yeah, like it does not bend.

But they break in very quickly.

Like even we hit this morning for maybe 30 minutes.

Yeah, maybe 30 minutes.

And you were like, it's already loosening up.

I could tell, yeah, immediately it was already flexing more.

Sorry, but I think it's more of, because it immediately felt like there was some type

of, you know, like a lot of running shoes have like a carbon shank inside the midsole

of the shoe.

It's more so, I think the upper of the shoe is very stiff.

There's a lot of this like corded mesh around this blue area.

And I think that that when it's new is just pretty stiff and that doesn't like to bend.

But yeah, 30 minutes of playing it already started to loosen up.

Yeah, mine feel a lot better and I haven't even gotten to play hard in these yet.

Like it's been very light movement on the court.

So I imagine, you know, if you gave it a couple days of actual real play, it probably

softens up quite a bit.

Yeah.

But the main reason, you know, one thing, they're like $125 on Pickleball Central.

And I think if you use, I'll put the link down in the description.

But if you ever use Pickleball Central and you want a discount, you can go to pickleballcentral.com

slash PB Studio.

And then it will just automatically apply the code at checkout for any item that it has

a code for.

Like I don't think that works on sell-cork products.

But I did check and it works on these.

It brings them down to like 115 around there, maybe 113.

So solid price, but it doesn't come with a six month warranty, which is a little bit

of a bummer.

I think a lot of court shoes are starting to do that these days.

But also, I feel like when I started, I grew up, I grew up.

I came into Pickleball in the era where that wasn't really a thing.

Yeah.

So to me, it's nice to have, but not a must have.

Yep.

Just you have to kind of know yourself.

Oh, say, go ahead.

Comfort-wise of wearing the shoe, I like, there's good cushioning around the shoe.

It's pretty wide.

So I had plenty of space.

But one thing, because of pretty flat feet, you might not like it because there's tons

of arch support.

Like that was the first thing I noticed is there's a lot of arch support in the shoe.

I have very, very arch feet.

So I actually liked it quite a bit, but I could see somebody with like, like, extremely

flat feet, probably not liking it as much.

But I'm sure you could change the, the insul out.

Yeah, definitely.

So I know I think that is what they have this like arch fit thing.

So that's probably related to that.

Yep.

So yeah, if you're someone who like is similar to me, you're in some pain, which of you

are, you probably shouldn't be playing Pickleball, but you know, people play through it anyways.

Being able to slide your shoe on and off, honestly, one of the most underrated features

of a shoe.

At the point now where I don't even want to buy a shoe with laces, yeah, because I've

just gotten so used to being able to slide stuff on and off.

Even with normal shoes, I do like wear day to day and have them tied.

I like to just, if I can, some shoes are better than others.

Yeah.

Being able to just slide them, my feet in and out, even when they're tied.

So it's just makes it even easier, which I like.

Also that colorway looks just like the velar shift.

One of the colors.

I think it's on the wall.

Let me grab it real quick.

I can't remember if it's like a purple and yellow, because this one's like a blue and

a green.

Oh, yeah, I think that is a blue and a green or yeah, this is the velar shift shoe.

If you flip it, I'd call it to this colorway.

That's funny.

The green and blue.

It's almost identical.

So out of your velar shift player, I guess you got to buy these shoes.

That'd be pretty funny.

But I honestly, so far in the early amount of time I've spent on them, I would recommend

these.

Nice for not having to bend over and they seem to be a very solid shoe, regardless

of if you're just slipping it on or not.

Yeah, I'm going to have to wear them more.

Hopefully, it keeps my plantar fasciitis away, because sometimes when I wear different

shoe than jet mocks, it does come back, but hopefully it does not.

Sure.

All right.

Next one to talk about.

So we have the upcoming Coral Pro.

I'm actually pretty excited about this paddle.

I've only gotten to hit it a little bit.

I've hit it twice now.

Basically, the Coral Pro is just going to be a UPA diamond tough grit version of the

coral.

So it should be the same exact thing, but just more diamond.

It's considerably rougher.

So if a reason you didn't like the coral before was like, you thought it didn't have enough

grit, you will not touch this paddle and go, oh, it doesn't have enough grit.

Yeah.

Plenty of grit.

It's honestly, it's like the same realm as the Ruby Pro that had issues with USIP.

So extremely gritty.

I think that the only thing holding the coral back before I already thought it was one

of the best Alcourt paddles you could buy, this just makes it even better.

And I think now that there is this much rougher version, the Friday, or a Friday, Friday

aura and this, it's definitely like a, you can get an Alcourt paddle for cheaper, right?

You can get it for maybe just around 120 after a code for the Friday aura.

And then this is going to be 220 before a code, so probably about 200 after a code.

So now it's basically like, do you want one that is peel ply or do you want one that

hasn't longer lasting texture?

And so it's whichever one you pick is fine.

It's just whichever thing is more important to you.

Yeah.

What do you value?

Yeah.

So I think this is going to be a really nice paddle.

The one PSA I'm going to give you, not necessarily the paddles fault.

This is because I was a moron.

It is that time of year again, guys.

We talked about this last year when foam paddles were getting big, but I think now that we're

seeing paddles with a lot more foam ring designs and we're about to go into the hot season

and even more complex, like some of these have dual rings.

The foam cores are getting more complicated.

Do not leave your paddle on the court baking in the sun in a basket.

Don't leave it in your car baking in the sun.

Don't leave it in the heat because it will dis bond.

I accidentally left our hybrid coral pro in the sun for like four hours.

I just four hours is extreme.

Yes.

I went inside.

I was finishing with a friend and I went inside and I just forgot stuff was outside.

I went to go work on some stuff and as soon as I went outside and I saw the basket and

I saw the paddle in there, I was like, oh no.

I was like, I guarantee you.

It's just fun.

That's been like 85, almost 90 degrees here.

Yeah.

And sure enough, it was dis bonded.

So that is the one thing with foam paddles.

Don't leave these in the sun.

Well, say it is kind of tough though.

I mean, if you're from a hot climate, like I'm sure Arizona, Florida, California, if you

do a public court, a lot of the like, um, the right or paddle racks, dividers, whatever

are on the fence, kind of just sitting in the sun or some people, you know, you'll just

stick your the handle in the fence to hang it.

And then it's just the face of the panel sitting in the sun.

Now you're probably not leaving it there for a super long time, but even that could potentially

damage it.

I'm, yeah, I'm a little less concerned with that just because, you know, at most, maybe

you're talking it, well, I'm not going to say most depends where you're from.

You know, probably on average, maybe a 15, 20 minute weight, the courts are super busy.

It could be 20 to 30 minutes.

And I think to me, it's more of if it is in like, this was in a black basket or if you're

leaving it on the hot concrete where the heat is going to be even more intense and, you

know, black faces absorbing all that heat.

That's why I think it's more problematic.

But just generally speaking, I think there are a lot of people who have gotten used to

with paddles like, oh, let me just leave it in my car when it's really hot.

Let me leave it in my car when it's really cold.

Let me, you know, whatever people should just get out of that habit.

Like yes, there have been paddles where that was okay, but it's not awesome for it.

And as much as you can avoid it, you should avoid it.

Yeah.

For sure.

Just don't just bond your paddles.

Don't be ignorant like me.

It's very easy.

But yes.

And I already said this, but, you know, UPA only so that may matter depending on what

tournaments you go to.

But we kind of called this, right?

Like six zero clearly realized, hey, we have a USAP compliant version, but now everyone

just wants the rougher version.

Like we said this at the beginning of the year when some of the new ones were coming out,

more and more brands are going to keep doing this unless USAP figures this out and does the

same thing.

Right.

Like every consumer, if they touch this and a regular coral, they're going to say give

me the pro exactly.

And I mean, even you show up at a facility, right?

Like if the UPA paddles are fine for the pros, people are going to be like, yeah, it's

fine for me as an amateur.

I think it was more weird, right?

When UPA first started because it was like, oh, you guys just came out of nowhere.

The first paddle you approve is the one that USAP delisted.

So it was all weird and everyone was like against the concept.

But now that I think that they have made improvements and I think they have shown that they are

making, that there are more trustworthy than what people initially thought.

I think now people are just like, it's fine.

Like the worst case scenario that I think people thought would play out didn't play out.

And now it's like, okay, well, then just give me the better paddle.

Right.

I mean, is there any world where you're taking a smoother version if this is available

to you?

No, no, you would never.

Exactly.

Yeah, like you said, if you could hand both to somebody, they're for sure going to grab

the refer one.

Yeah.

So we'll probably have a video on that at some point, released June 14th.

I think it's going to be great.

I'm excited for that one.

I think it'll be a very good upgrade for the coral.

And it was to me, the coral was already their best paddle.

So we just made it even better for sure.

Yeah, yeah.

I would agree with that.

Okay, before we go on, I just have like one, one little piece of thing.

So remember that Mizzuno Acro Strike paddle?

Yeah.

How much money do you think that paddle is?

Oh gosh.

It finally came out.

So I went and looked it up.

If it's more than 280, that's going to hurt.

And my guess is 249.99.

295.

Mizzuno, I love you Mizzuno, but why?

Why?

I mean, I know why, but holy cow.

I agree $100.

I get why, but that's crazy.

Bro, you can buy a boomstick.

You can buy a pro five.

You can buy three cannons.

Dog.

You can buy three turbos.

Yeah.

For an edgeless paddle with just an adjustable weight system in it.

Yeah, that's about it.

If you just want to be different and have the most interesting gimmick on court, go ahead.

Now look, I get that I'm sure it was, you know, to develop and come up with that concept.

I'm sure it wasn't easy to like make that cavity and make the weight slide and like not

have issues.

But I'm like, yeah, that I'm sorry.

People thought the pro five at 300 was a stretch.

I'm telling you right now that the Acro Strike at 300 is a no-go.

I would push everyone to a pro five before I pushed them to that.

I would venture to say that less than 200 of those will ever be sold.

No, I don't be more than that.

I bet.

But it's not going to be.

That's insane, dude.

That's insane.

Yeah, I just, I saw that price and I had to mention that because when we originally

talked about, I realized I didn't have the price yet.

And then I saw it and I was like, oh, no, oh, no.

That's wild.

Even 250 would still be crazy.

But we all knew it wasn't going to be less than that.

Yeah.

I mean, all the brands, the big brands have to.

They're not going to be cheap.

You're not expecting a $120 with something completely different than the market.

Yeah.

Right.

So I get it, but I'm sorry, it just wasn't good enough to be priced at 300.

There's no way.

No.

Okay.

Next thing we got to talk about here.

This started just coming up this week.

So I have a Honolulu J6CR with the blue grit on it.

This has obviously been an extremely talked about paddle very well liked by a lot of people.

And I think for good reason.

But it does seem like there's some consistency issues and it's unclear to me if it was an

early batch thing versus a new batch thing.

Are they inconsistent from paddling the paddle because of the manufacturing process?

It's not very clear to me right now, but I had gotten a text from someone and they were

like, hey, I have one of these and my friend just got one and they're not the same.

And he showed me a picture and one is very blue and clearly looks like it has a lot

of whatever's on here.

And then the other one had way less.

I was like, okay, well, that's weird.

And then I went and checked all of mine because we have maybe I've maybe almost six of them

now or something with the blue grit and they all look the same for ours.

I didn't notice any big difference.

And then I was on Reddit this morning and I saw another Reddit thread will put some

pictures on screen for you guys to look at.

And same thing.

He had one old one and then a new one and the new one had looked just like this.

A lot of blue, whatever the crystals are inside of it.

And then the other one did not.

So I don't really know what to make of it yet.

I guess we'll just keep seeing if reports of this keep happening.

Maybe it's a one off.

Maybe it's not, but just something to think about.

Is any time you're buying something like a pre-order and it's like this new technology.

I feel like we've seen this over and over.

There ends up being some like hurdles like this.

And I'm like, man, it just makes it so hard.

I'm just curious like what does their quality control look like?

Are they just getting shipments of paddles in and then just not even looking at them

and just grabbing and shipping it out?

Or like, imagine you want to sift through it and see if there's any defects or issues

with paddles before it.

Because dealing with returns and having to pay for shipping and stuff is really annoying.

That's why I'm curious if it is how much of it is potentially earlier versus newer.

Like did they change it at some point and go, oh, actually we need to code it with

whatever more they're coding it with.

I don't really know how they're doing it.

Yeah.

And they're like, oh, it'll be better if we do this.

Because then if it's like that, it's like, okay, whatever, all of them moving forward,

they'll be the same thing.

But anyone who did have an old one, I hope that they'll replace that.

But another thing I have seen a lot.

I see it very mixed.

See people who are like, Honolulu has the worst customer support I've ever seen.

I have seen that a lot on Reddit.

Really?

And then other people who are like, ah, I was totally fine.

So I don't really know what to make of that either.

But I've seen enough complaints now that I'm like, that customer service team probably

needs to get a bump.

Typically, when customer service is good, like, I mean, Selkirk, I've never heard anyone

complain about Selkirk.

Yeah.

You know, so obviously that's the extreme opposite end of the spectrum.

Yeah.

But if you hear some complaints, it's usually there's some issues.

Yeah.

So anyways, I just thought I would bring that up.

We have not seen that issue ourselves, but I have seen complaints about it multiple times

now.

We guys posted as we hear more about that.

And hopefully, you know, as I get to be on court more, we'll give you guys some actual

updates on how the grit holds up.

Yeah.

All right.

Next up, a lot of you had been asking, why won't you talk about the Paddle Tech County

foam 14 millimeter?

And it's because we didn't have it.

But we do have it now.

And that's one of the things we were hidden this morning.

Yep.

So now I don't know why, but all the ones we got from Paddle Tech have this giant not for

resale on it.

Wasn't planning on selling these anywhere.

But they all have not for resale on here.

I'm assuming that probably has something to do with, you know, these paddles, because

like on one side it has the UPA stamp.

I assume there was a USAP stamp there, but it's weird.

It's like a sticker.

Yeah, it's weird that one side has it printed.

And then the other side, yes, like a sticker or something on here.

I bet you money.

There's just there was a USAP stamp there.

Yeah.

So that wouldn't surprise me.

So the 14 millimeter, like we talked about previously, only has UPA approval.

It did not pass USAP certification.

So if you buy this, just keep that in mind.

Yep.

You can go ahead first with this because you probably have a little bit more to say about

it than I do.

I guess I'll go over specs quick.

It was a 114 swing weight and 5.8, 3 twist weight.

And also the handle does seem to be closer to about 4 and 1 eighth.

It's less blocky than the 16.

And I did, I appreciate how this handle feels.

Yeah.

But anyways, go ahead.

Yeah, I mean, for a 14, the swing weight is definitely lower than most.

The elongated says nice, but it wasn't like crazy noticeable or anything.

I wouldn't say that this is a super fast elongated in the hands.

I mean, 14 is pretty low though.

One 14 is pretty low, but it's not, you know, we've seen lower.

Yeah.

Yeah.

First of all, the shape of the honey foams is my favorite elongated shape by far.

The handle of the 14s is better than the 16.

The shape of this one, much more comfortable.

I like this a lot more.

LeetSpot's good.

For a 14, I will say this is probably my favorite 14 foam paddle I've hit.

Out of everything, if I had to pick a 14, it would be this one.

Comparable to the 16, sweet spots, not that much smaller.

Energy return off center shots is pretty good.

I wouldn't really call it a power paddle.

It's still kind of, maybe it's like lower power, all court, but it's not, it's not like

an inferno or anything or a loco.

Was able to shape the ball well.

Hands felt really good with it.

Dinking at the kitchen felt fine.

I mean, it was hard to find anything really to complain about.

If I'd put weight on it, I'd probably like it more, but I would still take the 16 over

the 14 if I had the choice.

Yeah.

You know, but it was solid.

It was good.

I actually, I liked it quite a bit.

I think hitting it, what was interesting to me is it's probably one of the few 14 millimeters.

The only other one that comes to my mind immediately was the Franklin 14 versus 16, where

the first time I had hit them, I went, this is specific to the dynasty.

I went, wow, this is way more, they're more comparable to each other than they are not.

A lot of times there's a big gap between a 16 and a 14 and that one was like, yo,

las, yeah, huge gap.

Yep.

And then these, like, same thing with the paddle tech and the Franklin, I was like, this

is, it's not the same thing.

That's oversimplifying.

But they're more similar than they are different.

There's not enough differences to be like, why would you choose the 14 over the 16?

I think the 16 is the better choice unless you're somebody who's just always played a 14

millimeter paddle and that's just, that's the maneuverability would be like the maneuverability

in the handle would be the two things.

Exactly.

But maneuverability isn't even that much better in my opinion, right?

And then especially once you start adding lead or weight to it, if you do, then again,

I would still just choose the 16 over the 14.

But again, if your preference is like one of your non-negotiables, is this got to be

14 millimeters, then it's good.

I wouldn't like steer you away from buying this paddle.

Yeah.

Again, out of all the 14s, like, I like the speaking of, we just had the shift.

I liked that, but I would definitely take this over the shift.

I'm trying to think what other 14 millimeter phone model speed up was solid.

Yep.

I was in huge fan of the shape of it.

The speed of time was like an inferno of 14 millimeter inferno.

There's one other one I can't, I don't know why I can't think of it.

Waves?

Yeah, the waves are the barrage.

Yeah, barrage is solid.

Barrage is solid, but I'd still probably take this over barrage.

I'd have to hit em both a little bit more.

I think I would probably lean barrage a little more.

I think that more comes down to maybe a feel thing than actual, oh man, it's like so much

more performance.

It's more of a preference rather than a, oh, this one's just better.

Sure.

Because as I was hitting the 14, it was just interesting.

I didn't find, if anything I maybe found it like less powerful than the 16, I don't

know for sure if I'd say less poppy, but it wasn't, it was just very small differences.

I'd say less poppy.

Less poppy?

Yeah, I'd be like hitting em back and forth side by side.

I'd say this was less poppy than the 16, but like, I didn't really feel like I was getting

behind in hands battles, resetting with it felt easy for a 14.

Anytime I'm going to reference this stuff, I'm pretty much just comparing it to 14 millimeter

paddles.

Yeah.

Again, the biggest surprise was how much energy return it had on off center shots

and resetting because that's the biggest thing I noticed with 14 millimeter paddles

that are really bad.

The first thing to go out the window when I was resetting the mid court, I did not feel

like I had that many balls just like die off the face or voles at the kitchen.

That's another area that is pretty noticeable.

That's bad with 14s.

So surprisingly, I like to quarter bit.

Yeah.

I think it's solid.

I think it's a good option.

I think I would probably tell most people to choose the 16 unless the maneuverability

and handle size are the two most important things for you.

Yeah.

Because I think the 16 is probably just a bit better overall, but the 14, if you are a 14

millimeter user, I think it's solid.

It also feels a bit softer than most 14s.

I agree.

What was also interesting is, so it is nice because I think a lot of times 14s feel pretty

stiff, but this is on the softer side, which is a nice, nice little difference.

Yep.

So those are some thoughts on the, the honey foam definitely not bad.

It's too bad that they couldn't just put the same handle on the 16 would have been, would

have been nice.

I know.

You don't have the 16 down here with you or you know, do you?

Yeah.

I don't.

Next battle we have the Luzglider 2026.

So they basically just made some, I think it's basically just one update looking at the

website.

I was reading it this morning and they make it sound like the core is the same and the

only thing they changed was a longer lasting grit, which I am, this one needs some testing.

I'll be very curious to see what John ends up saying with the canning because almost

certainly he's going to have results before us unless I can get someone here to play with

this because it feels and looks very much just like raw carbon fiber to me.

They're, I'll read what their marketing material says enhanced bonding between the carbon

fiber phase and honeycomb core through structural penetration technology, the 984 arrow.

That's what they're calling the technology 984 arrow coding integrates into the carbon

weave reinforcing internal stability and maintaining long term performance and consistency.

I'll be very curious to see.

I will say the spin when I ran a spin test was awesome.

Yeah, was like 2275 RPM, which is on the very high end for me.

So that was sick, but we're very gritty.

We'll see if it lasts.

That's obviously the question.

Yeah.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to really play this much this morning and I actually don't have

a lot of experience with the past glider.

So I when we talk about it more, maybe on another podcast off to hit it side by side,

but again, it sounds like it's mostly the grit here.

So I'm very curious to see how this holds up.

I mean, I hit the, I hit this a decent amount while I was out in LA with, I was drilling

with Roscoe.

Oh, yeah.

And I hit it a decent amount because Roscoe is using this at the moment.

And it feels like a softer hybrid version of the cannon.

Okay.

The best way I would describe it with a really rough texture.

Sure.

So if you've hit a cannon, just expect something that's a little bit softer, very much so in

all court category, this is essentially like, I would say,

the Luz's version of a prism is the best way I would describe it.

That's soft or a saga close, but maybe not as soft as a prison, but it's soft.

It is not, it is not a power paddle.

It is very soft.

It's less powerful than a cannon.

I would definitely give this all court.

I would not put it in a power category.

Okay.

So if you love, if you love soft paddles in the hybrid shape, because it only comes in

the hybrid at the moment.

Then you'll probably like this.

What's the price in this?

And remember, it'll be under 100.

I believe they are under 100.

Yeah.

After our code, let me double check just to make sure here, but I mean, that would make sense.

You know, I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be like the cannon, but maybe with the

grid, I could be wrong.

So we'll double check that.

We'll be good podcast host and double check this.

Lighter.

It is one 19.

So after a code, it's probably right at 100 if I had to guess or 109.

Yeah.

This is one where stability is good on the paddle stock swing weights very low.

So it's plowthers not great.

The one I hit had some weight, I believe up towards the head.

And it feels much better with weight on it.

So I would it's it's not quite like, uh, Rob is quanta like needs weight level.

But if you were going to buy this, I would recommend putting weight on it.

Okay.

Sure.

So I mean, hybrid shapes, not for me, but if you are a diehard hybrid fan,

and your budget is 100 bucks solid option.

Now I was just need to do a wide body already.

Nah.

I did just check it after code code,

P.B. Studio will drop that down to 101.

So right at the 100 price mark.

So if you're wanting a Gen 3 paddle, potentially, I'm not going to make a claim

about the grid because we don't know yet.

We just don't know.

I think we're going to need more time.

And after seeing how the area of cyclone held up with their longer lasting

grid claim, I am.

I don't want to give really anyone the benefit of the doubt until it's been tested.

Yeah.

And this is one where I'm already not super sure.

So we'll see how that actually does.

But if you take that aside, I mean, a hybrid Gen 3 for 100 bucks is a good

paddle.

Yep.

You like a Gen 3.

That's a little softer.

That'll be great.

Nice.

Okay.

Let me pop back into our notes here.

That's all we had for the gear this week.

So now we're just going to talk about.

We thought it'd be fun since, you know, we haven't been able to hit as many

paddles recently.

Just go over some pickleball advice that we wish we knew sooner.

If you're new to pickleball, you've been watching this podcast.

We'll try and speed up your journey a little bit for you.

We'll save you from some mistakes that maybe we made.

Do you, how do you want to do this?

Do you want me to go through all of mine?

Then you go through all of yours.

Do you want to go one at a time?

It's still one at a time.

Okay.

I'll go on back and forth.

I'm going to go on my first one, which people have heard me harp about many

times and I'm going to keep harping about it because of just the whole experience

about this.

So if you get sick of this, I'm sorry.

You can turn it off, but I'm going to go over it.

Go to the gym and avoid injuries because I'm telling you right now,

a couple of things.

One, with the amount of pickleball that people play, it is not sustainable

unless you already have an extremely healthy, active lifestyle.

Well, maybe your job isn't a lot of sitting where you are not going to

get injured.

And I have watched so many of my friends, including myself get injured and not be able

to play.

And the everyone's like, wow, but I don't have time for the gym.

Well, you know what happens when you like tear and ACL or something,

you're not going to be able to play either way.

So you're going to wish you had just went to the gym and worked on these things.

Same thing with my back had I been putting in a little bit more work on that.

I wouldn't have had to sit out for basically all of May.

So go to the gym, find some pickleball specific workouts.

I've mentioned it before, but Connor Derrickson, you can find online.

He trains a lot of pickleball pros.

You can find a lot of gym related things.

I think with pickleball, there are a lot of things like when people think about going

to the gym, I'm just going to be brought here, especially men that's like, oh,

I'm going to deadlift.

I'm going to bench press.

I'm going to, you know, squat lifting those things are fine.

You should probably still do some of those things, but pickleball, it's a lot of

single leg things.

It's a lot of core stability.

And I think especially in the gym world, I feel like core gets skipped a lot.

Or it's more generic things like, oh, I'm just going to work on like the visible

abs, but your core muscles are a lot of different muscles that are not.

I feel like as commonly talked about.

So find resources about that.

But core stability and one leg workouts are great.

That was what I was just starting to get into right before I hurt my back.

So I will be going right back to that as soon as I'm good.

But like the one thing I've learned about this is as soon as something in your

health is bad enough, it becomes the only problem that is worth fixing.

Like when my back, you know, two weeks ago was really bad.

I couldn't do regular day to day things.

I couldn't do my job.

I couldn't sit and suddenly no other problem matters anymore because this is the

only one that is like degrading your health.

And I've seen lots of people who have had tennis elbow for years and years.

And that causes them a lot of pain when they play like a lot of pain is very

preventable.

You just have to go to the gym and you might have to give up a little bit of

pickleball, but that is worth it in the long run.

If you want to play the sport five, 10 years, I promise you this is not a

non-negotiable.

You can't skip it.

So my big one is go to the gym, learn to prevent injuries and also on that

same note, learn to do a proper warm up.

Don't just show up at the court and start running around, get some stretch bands.

You don't need to do static stretching before you play.

Wait till people that just jump on court, especially like not only just jump on

court, but like just play intense right out the gate.

Like if you don't have time to stretch, maybe you're late to a game or a session

or whatever, do some kind of like loose light hitting it first because I see

too many people just jump on and start hitting drives and running around.

It's like, you're going to get injured doing that.

Yeah.

And ever I look, I know I know there's probably someone,

handful, let's just say 10 years younger than me.

Anywhere between five and 10 years younger.

There's tons of people who are sick of hearing you say this.

No, not even the sick of hearing it.

I'm sure there's that too, but I'm sure they're going, okay, on look, I'm

invincible.

Look, I thought the same thing when I was your age, I know if I heard the same

advice at that age, I would have went, it doesn't matter.

I don't need it.

I'm fine.

That only lasts for so long.

There's no, there's, there's honestly no point in even trying to say that

because every older generation has said the exact same thing to the younger

one. And clearly it has never gotten through to anyone's skull.

So let it happen.

It's just unfortunate that it is a lesson that I feel like a lot of people,

including myself, have had to learn the hard way because it's like, it's so

avoidable.

It is so avoidable.

And everyone ends up having to learn the hard way.

I just know all of our friends we've seen it, they end up hurt.

And it's, it's like, it didn't have to happen.

So that's my first one is get your butt in the dang gym.

Yep.

Yep.

Now don't worry guys, mine will be pickleball advice.

No, um, this is going to sound super basic.

And a lot of times when I'm giving advice, like I've, I've gotten into

coaching a lot of people, it's, it's honestly pretty basic advice, but

it's, it's very useful and it helps a lot.

And just never, never miss in the net as much as you can avoid it.

Missing in the net is the worst thing you can do because the point is guaranteed

to be over.

But if you, this, and I can remember the exact time somebody first said this to me,

which obviously like I said, once you hear it, you're like, well, duh.

But seriously, the point is guaranteed to be over.

If you miss the net, you miss high, you might give them overhead.

You might give them an easy put away, but you at least have a chance to get back

into the point.

Okay.

At the higher level or even mid level, like the amount of times and just don't

give up, right?

Like if you hit it high, say in the point, because we were just at a turn

over the weekend and the amount of times I saw a ball get popped up,

stay in the point and got back into it, had a good reset and still won the

point.

It's a lot, even ones that were bad resets gave them an overhead and then they

shanked it long, are they hit it in the net?

Exactly.

I mean, yeah, like it goes along with the advice of like just make your

opponent hit one more ball.

One more ball because they might make an error.

They might miss that ball.

You know, it's pretty, it's pretty big advice in my opinion.

Yeah, just don't miss the net.

Miss high.

Yeah.

Especially on thirds, like what was this when Ben and Analy were playing Hayden

and Anna Bright.

I think they, Anna Bright and Hayden had a match point and Anna Bright

missed a drop into the net.

Yeah.

The next tournament when they were playing each other and they lost that match.

And they lost that match.

Yeah.

The next tournament they were playing each other and a tight point in the

match.

I think I can't remember what game it was.

And it might have been the last game match point again.

Yeah.

Anna Bright had a third and she launched that thing to the moon.

She was like, there is 0% chance I'm ever missing this third in the net.

Guess what?

They stayed in the point.

I don't remember that point.

Did they win the point?

I'm pretty sure that I think it was the same exact scenario again, but they

won this one.

One was missing the net.

One was given an overhead.

Yeah.

Just saying.

Again, sounds extremely basic, but seriously, it means a lot.

Yeah.

And I agree with that too.

I think there are also just, I think I might have a tip in here that kind of goes over

this a little bit, but in case I didn't write this down.

I think there are, here's a scenario that's very specific to me and maybe other people relate

to this.

A lot of times, let's say I get lobbed or, and then I'm running back to the baseline and

either I'm like, hmm, I could drop this or I could drive this.

First of all, the amount of time I drive percentage when I go back to hit that shot is extremely

low.

Turning around and whipping a drive, I'm sorry, but I'm just not good enough to do that.

Not Delarosa.

Exactly.

So I miss that shot a lot in the net.

And so every time I'm going back, and I have to tell myself, don't drive it, don't

drive it, don't drive it.

But also, even a lot of times I find myself, if I'm on defense, maybe we've returned a

handful of overheads at this point, and I'm tired of popping one up and the next one,

I'm maybe on the stretch and I'm like, I'm just going to rip a drive and see what happens

here.

I just always regret that.

Some of that, I'm sure other people can do that and they're fine, but I find when you

are just not in a good position, just do not try and be a hero.

I'm not saying hit a lousy shot, but every time I'm like, okay, this is a great idea.

I'm going to hit a drive and then we're going to get back into this and then I dump it

in the net.

And every single time I go, you know you should have just thrown another one up way in

the air or hit a mild drop and then maybe the next one you could have hit a little bit.

Giving yourself another chance to stay in the point and extend it longer, rather than

trying to hit a one out of 20 shot and missing in the net.

That feels way worse than popping another one out, maybe hitting another two balls and

then sure, maybe they put it away or maybe you get back into it and win it much better

than just launching it at the bottom of the net.

Yeah, I regret it every single time I do that.

So yeah, anyways, my actual tip is you can basically never be too low.

I think in fact, I don't think I have ever watched someone on the pickleball court and

went, bro, you don't got to be that low.

Like it come out.

You can come up a little bit.

Like have you seen anyone and went, nah, man, you don't got to be that low.

It's almost always get get lower.

Yeah.

Like I best best example is Vivian David.

Vivian David and she gets so lost.

She's retired now.

But if you go back and watch some rematches when she's resetting, dude, she is on the floor.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know if I've seen anyone get lower for resets.

And then on the men's side, if you watch Kristen Olshon, dude, he is in a permanent squat.

Those legs are always activated.

Yeah, I mean, he is, I don't think I've seen anyone who holds that position better than

him.

Like it's crazy.

It's tiring.

But if you want to get to that next level, it's necessary.

And I think if you think about it, one, you're able to move quicker when your legs aren't

just straight.

You can like launch off of them immediately.

You're lower.

So it's easier to dodge and gauge outballs.

If something is depending on how tall you are, right?

If it's past a certain height for me, if I'm actually low where I should be, if it's

probably like upper shoulder height, it's probably going out.

Yeah.

Depending on the pace of your lower, it's easier to hit scorpions.

It stops you from jumping when you get a speed up that's tacked to your body.

It just, it helps so many things.

Yeah.

You can reach dinks easier, right?

You're already near the ball instead of standing up right.

I think like, oh, now I got to move and I got to get low.

So I just think every time I watch myself, I go, hmm, you should get lower.

And I find it's the same thing when I'm watching other people.

It's like you could be lower.

Yeah.

So I think whenever you're playing a game and you should, this is a great time for some

homework.

Take your iPhone, film a little game of yours and just watch.

If you think you're getting low, you're not.

Yes.

And do you think you're bending your knees?

You're not.

So when you're in a cross-court dink battle with somebody and you're the one not hitting

the ball, your tendency, and this is common amongst almost everyone I watch, you just start

to stand up.

And you kind of disengage.

You might be watching, but you're just not expecting the ball to come at you.

Yeah.

I mean, I think I had a great example of this, man, I had a train of thought and I just

completely, it just evaporated.

But film yourself because, oh, I was going to say if you watch my two handed backhand

video where I hit 15,000 backhands in two weeks, this is an older video, maybe two years

old now, I remember the first couple of days that I was doing this.

So day one, I watched myself back and I went, wow, I'm standing straight up.

I shouldn't do that.

So I said the next day, I'm going to get really low.

And then I watched the video back again and I went, dude, you're almost standing the same

exact way you were.

But on the court, I genuinely believed like if you made me bet money, I would have said,

here's 20 bucks, I bet you I'm lower.

I wasn't.

So sometimes you need to actually see yourself to go, are you actually doing it or not?

Like I would not just trust yourself when you're on the court because you're almost never

as low as you think.

And by the time I was as low as I should be, when I watched video back, I was like, holy

cow, like my legs, feel it.

Yeah.

Like your legs will be exhausted if you're not used to doing that.

Exactly.

So what I was under the next thing that I was going to say is have a wider base.

Like if you think you have a wide stance, probably don't, I mean, the two things kind of correlate,

getting lower and having wider base, I think at the kitchen, wider is better, right?

You're more stable.

You're more ready for speed ups rolling out of the air.

Like when you start reaching into the kitchen, if your feet are not wide, like far apart,

you're just not going to be on balance.

You're going to be falling over.

Especially if you're someone like me who's a bit taller.

I mean, look at Roscoe.

His feet are so far apart and he's so wide.

That's why it's easy to lean one way or the other and cover the kitchen and then hit

rolls out of the air.

Wider is better.

Well, I'm glad you brought that up because I do think that one thing with getting lower,

I think a lot of people will just bend at the waist and keep their legs straight.

Yeah.

It should be both.

It should be you are hinged, but you are also just a wider base will bring you lower

to the ground.

Yep.

That's actually a great continuation on what I said.

So yeah, you should get lower by those two things, like reminding yourself to stay low

and then widen your base because I also keep you more stable for resets, dinks of the

kitchen, volleys, just everything.

Those two things, if I'm reminding myself of one thing during a match, it's those.

Wider base and getting lower.

Those are my first two things that I just like go out the window when I'm getting tired.

And there's, I really can't think of a scenario again, where if you are, if you tell yourself

and remind yourself to do that during a match, it's never going to make you play worse.

Yeah.

It's, I feel like it is only upside to doing that.

Yep.

You're never going to go, I wasn't low there.

I had that.

I wish I was standing straight up.

You're never going to say that, you know?

So yeah, that's a, that's a great one.

So my next one is, and people hear this a lot, but I think I developed some bad habits

early that I'm now trying to clean up.

And it's learning to treat speed ups as a setup.

I think early on, yeah, in my first couple years of pickleball, I don't think it's because

I necessarily had like these god tier speed ups or anything, but I think I had enough speed

ups in my bag that a lot of times they were just winners or you know, you jam someone

and the ball doesn't really come back or maybe it's just a pop up overhead.

Now at the level I'm playing, you cannot hit a speed up and just expect it to be a winner.

And I feel like I'm having to, I since I never trained it that way, my mentality, a lot

of times when I'm hitting a speed up is I'm expecting the point to be over.

And so I'm not as ready.

Well early on in levels, you can really catch people off guard with speed ups.

Yeah.

A lot of times they just aren't even expecting it so they won't get a paddle on it or

it's just a clean winner or whatever.

But now once you get higher and higher level, people are always expecting speed ups.

You're playing chess, you know what's coming.

90% of time people at least always get a paddle on it.

It's going to come back in one way or another.

So you just got to be ready and expect it to.

Yeah.

But a lot of times if it's a good speed up, they'll pop it up and you can have an easy

winner.

But you just got to be ready for that second one.

Yeah.

So being just knowing that you should always expect it to come back because I, while I'm

better about it now, I still think I have quite a ways to go to improve it.

And when I am actively ready for it, sometimes I'm like, wow.

My hands are insane.

And it's not even because my hands got faster because I was actually ready for the next

ball.

And I think training, if you drill with a partner, training some of these speed up patterns,

like let's say I'm just going to make up an example.

Let's say I'm on the right side dinking, I'm dicking with a person in front of me, hitting

a speed up cross to their forehand if you're both righties.

So from my right side to his right side and then being ready for a backhand right after

that.

Sometimes you just drill like 50 of these balls.

So you get in the pattern of ice speed up here.

It's probably coming here to counter.

It's just a good habit to get into to like train some of these patterns.

And I think that is one of the things, you know, whenever I'm finally back to being healthy,

I will go back to training.

Yeah, I just think it's a bad idea to get in the habit of, oh, yeah, I know if I just

hit this ball, it's a winner because that's going to stop working if you keep climbing

levels.

Not going to work forever.

Yep.

All right.

What do you got?

Next one.

A lot of these minor very, very similar and correlated to the wider base.

Getting lower, keeping your weight forward, right?

A lot of people and, you know, I gave this piece of advice to someone recently and they

just weren't even thinking about it and it seemed to help them a lot when you're particularly

mid court resets when you're moving in through the transition zone.

You know, he was, you know, would get a fast forth coming back at him when he'd reset.

He's kind of like falling backwards as he hits it, right?

And you know, a lot of that was because he didn't have a wide enough base.

And so he was off balance when the ball was coming at him, but staying on your toes,

wider base, leaning forward will have more consistent resets.

We'll keep them lower and gets you in that momentum and space to move forward into the

kitchen rather than, oh, I'm going to hit a reset now and falling backwards and you're

going the opposite direction of what you want.

Yeah.

So keeping your weight on your toes, the balls of your feet and moving forward, like leaning

forward, very important.

Agree.

Agree.

Next one for me is you just don't need to hit every ball as hard as you can.

Now, while most people aren't doing this, and I'm saying this because it's another

thing I catch myself doing, particularly on drives, I think is the main area I notice

it for me.

But whenever I'm hitting a drive, my mindset again is I'm basically trying to hit a winner.

I'm like, especially if they're unwinding, I'm like, oh, I'm going to hit this pass

and while they're unwinding, I'm going to put them in a really bad spot.

But the vast majority of times, if I was to hit like a 70% hybrid drive drop on an

unwind way better, spin is better than power.

Exactly.

So I find myself a lot of times on drives and I watch, we just watched the tournament

this weekend.

I watched a lot of players.

You see people just going for broke on their drives and they hit the back wall or they

hit the net and it's like, man, if you just hit that at like 80% and picked a good spot,

you'd be in a way better spot.

You're probably dropping the next one or maybe you do get the free one that you want.

That does just happen sometimes.

But I find people's consistency goes down so much when they're just trying to wail

on the ball.

Yeah, you might get some free points, especially if you have a great drive.

But I think most people would have higher success if they just dropped it like 20%.

A drive as hard as you can at someone's chest might work every once in a while.

They might shank it, hit it in the net.

It's possible.

Sometimes you're just giving them more pace to counter it back at you, which then might

catch you off guard versus a drive with a lot of shape that dips below the net.

People will miss that in the net.

They'll pop it up.

It could go long.

You could come in and crush it.

There's just, or they just don't even expect it and it goes right by them.

So spin is so much more important than power.

Yeah.

And so I just, I see myself doing that all, especially in tournaments for a wide of

a reason.

I think in wreck, I'm better about it.

And then in tournament, I'm like, I'm going to just start.

It's just one of those dopamine things like speed ups where it's like, oh, you hit a

clean winner on someone.

It feels really good.

When you hit a drive that just blows right by someone, it feels great, right?

You're like, oh, man, can't even handle my drives.

They're just flying right by these guys.

But in reality, it doesn't work that way.

It's very rare that you actually have clean winners with drives unless someone's just

really slow on winding a stack.

And then it's easy.

And you know, the nice thing is with this, you don't even necessarily have to change

your technique.

It's not that hard to go.

Okay.

I'm going to hit this one.

More people though are just more consistent when swinging harder, right?

Like I've found that a lot of times.

I mean, used to be like, it was much more difficult for me to actually control direction

when I was swinging slower.

So some people do have that issue.

Interesting.

I have one more unless you've got another one.

Yeah, I've got another one.

Okay, go for it.

Hitting rolls of the net is not about using your wrist.

Hitting a roll a lot of times, people, you know, we'll win she a wiper and just use a lot

of wrist and try and like snap it.

And it's not how you hit rolls.

A lot of times this is kind of mind blowing early on when this is taught to me.

It's a lot of like reaching out, keeping your wrist down like locked and it's it's shoulder.

Like you're using your shoulder to lift the ball and kind of rotate your forearm rather

than snapping your wrist.

And it's not about speed.

You're not trying to like roll this as quick as possible.

It's just a nice smooth lift, essentially.

Yeah.

It's just something I would say maybe in the last year ish, but I definitely this year

noticed myself more balls that were meant to be a role.

I was trying to use so much wrist and it was just very inconsistent.

Eventually I was like, man, why?

And then I think I watched some videos and maybe heard some other people talk about it.

And I was like, okay.

So now a lot of times when I'm thinking about it, I am just thinking like, okay, wrist

does not move.

It's like only my shoulder.

And now it feels like I can't generate the same head speed to get the spin, which feels

backwards in my head, but the ball is so much better when I do just use my shoulder.

Easier to place the ball in spots you want to hit, change direction.

You get plenty of spin.

You feel like you feel like you really need to snap your wrist to get spin you don't.

Yeah.

So yeah, much slower than you'd expect.

Use your shoulder.

It's probably one mind as busted.

But it's not about using your wrist on rolls.

Yep.

All right.

Last one for me is working on your footwork.

This is one.

No one.

Honestly, there aren't even a lot of amazing videos in pickleball about this in my opinion.

There are footwork videos and maybe from a very basic level, I think they are good, but

I do think as you advance to higher levels, there's not as many good footwork videos, which

is kind of a shame because I think there should be more about it with how important it is.

But one of the things that I think is interesting is we talked about this semi-recently off camera,

but there are people who when people see them online, they go, oh my gosh, this person

is a god.

Like this guy is a 5.5.

He is amazing or she whoever, but they might not actually be that level.

They might be like a 4.7, but because they they move so smoothly with their body, they

just look way more mechanically sounded.

Everyone thinks you are better because of it because you're on time, you're smooth,

you're not off balance.

So that, I mean, from the perception point of view, people will just think you're better

if you're more on balance.

Footwork and court positioning.

Like the court IQ plays a big role in that, right?

Like you have great footwork, but if you're not in the right spot, it's not great.

But like those two things together, yes, is one of the clear indicators of someone who

is a lot better.

Yeah.

And court positioning and being able to just split step on time, this is actually something

I am still not awesome at and I really need to remind myself a lot is especially if

I'm like hitting a drop, I am a lot of times like I'm going to get to the kitchen right

off of this drop.

And a lot of times that means I am choosing to continue moving as my opponent is hitting

the ball and there are so many clips of me getting burned or being late to a ball or

hitting a ball off balance because instead of splitting as they were about to hit the

ball and then just moving easily to the next one, I wanted to do it all in one motion.

And so another thing you can do if you do film yourself is every time your opponent is

about to hit the ball, see what you do with your feet.

I was going to say this is another thing that goes right into filming yourself because

a lot of times you might think, oh yeah, I'm covered in this line.

I've got this line covered and then the ball goes right by you and you watch yourself

and you're nowhere near that line.

Yeah.

We made fun of you for years for not covering the line.

Yes.

So, yeah, you might think you're in a certain position on the court, but until you watch

yourself and see how much space there actually is, you're probably not.

Yeah.

So working on footwork there, I think there are a lot.

There are a lot of pickable videos you can watch and I think some tennis drills do port

over.

But improving your footwork I think is probably one of the things that while it's not actually

improving your paddle handling skills, like it's not getting you a backhand roll, by

improving this, it will make other shots while playing matches easier.

Yeah.

But no one actually wants to do anything with footwork is like, oh, that's boring, but

it's not.

It is a boring thing to train, but it's very important.

Yeah.

So finding ways to work on your split steps and just moving more efficiently, I think is

huge.

Yeah.

So that's everything I had.

Do you have any others?

Nope.

That's it for me.

We did not see each other's list before, so that was kind of perfect.

I wasn't sure.

I figured I was going to have way more.

I mean, I probably could come up with something, but that's what I've written down.

Okay.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

So that's what we had this week.

I know this is probably a bit of a shorter podcast.

So if our California and other long pod listeners are sad right now, I'm sorry.

There was one person.

What did they say?

Was it last week?

I can't remember.

Something along the lines of man doing my laundry is so much easier when I actually have

a podcast.

I was like, yeah, that's true.

I always turn on a podcast when I'm doing laundry.

So I feel that.

So anyways, thanks for listening guys.

We will be back after we'll actually love one just before the nerdy turnie, a podcast

just before that, I suppose.

And then right after that, we'll have some updates about how that actually went.

Yeah.

But I'm excited.

So anyways, thanks for listening and we'll catch you next week.

Peace.