Picklin' At The Playhouse - Chatting With The Pros

Can you imagine transforming your pickleball game from a 3-5 to a 4-0 rating while having a blast? Join us for an engaging conversation with Graham Mann at Preston Playhouse, where we discuss their retro-themed facility that offers both competitive play and fun date nights. Our Operations Director, Sean Edwards, delves into his rich background in tennis and padel, highlighting the rise of the Dallas Flash team and their community's enthusiastic support. From thrilling events to the aspirations of their head pro, Tam, there's a lot to unpack on how this vibrant hub is shaking things up.

What are the secrets to running a top-notch pickleball facility? Our insights from the Twisted Pickle networking event reveal the crucial balance of pricing membership fees and diversifying programming to keep players engaged. We talk about unique events like glow-in-the-dark pickleball with DJs and the power of strategic partnerships with brands like EULA and Casamigos. We also offer tips on choosing the right pickleball paddles, emphasizing how equipment can significantly enhance your game. This segment is packed with valuable takeaways for anyone looking to elevate their pickleball experience.

Finally, we tackle common issues like cracked balls in colder temps and the challenges of promoting pickleball in a tennis-centric community. With insights from pros Zack Mroue and Trevor Vaccaro, we explore the benefits of an indoor facility and the exciting potential partnership with the Dallas Flash. We celebrate the passion of players who've fallen in love with pickleball, sharing heartwarming stories from our own journey during the pandemic to launching a clothing line. Tune in for a delightful blend of tips, stories, and the vibrant community spirit that makes pickleball so special.

Want to find out for yourself? Download the Aim7 app today. Use our url to get a 25% discount and try the app for a free trial before committing. https://www.aim7.com/?via=blazing-paddles

Special thanks to Crown Pickleball for their support and sponsorship! Don't waste money on balls that break, Crown pickleballs rarely crack, are more visible and have a higher spin rate than the competitors.
Use our link to receive a discount on your next purchase! https://crownpickleball.store/blazingpaddles

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

It's one of those things that you can only get so far and then if you really want to take your game to maybe like a 3-5 or to a 4-0 player, it's just not going to fly. You're going to have higher level players that are more experienced, that are positioning themselves better on the court and, like the biggest thing I told all the ladies tonight is like every time they would hit a drive and their opponent would deflect it right back at them.

Speaker 2: 0:28

I was like can you not feel that all that power you're putting and all that effort you're putting into driving the ball offensively is, within a second, turning into your own defense. Hello Picklers. Episode 12, part two. As Blazing Paddles marches forward, we talked to Lisa and Renee about TCD and their involvement in the community. Well, they were out at the Preston Playhouse and now we get to talk to the people who run Preston Playhouse.

Speaker 2: 0:46

Karen's going to first introduce us to Sean Edwards, operations Director there. Sean's going to tell us about the facility, what it offers, how it was created, a little bit of his own background, and then we're going to talk to two of the actual teaching professionals, and this is Trevor Vaccaro, zach Marui. They are pickleball pros. They were out there as instructors and talking a little bit about their competitive spirit and how much farther they still want to develop their own games. So saddle up, put your ears on, you'll be glad you did. Also, as a side note, the Dallas Flash will be holding exhibitions at Preston Playhouse throughout the year. Pay attention to that, because those are must-see events. So saddle up, put your ears on. I'm glad you did.

Speaker 3: 1:30

Graham Mann here at Preston Playhouse. How long has this place been open? We did our grand opening on April 3rd. It's about a month and a half now. Yeah, not too long.

Speaker 3: 1:37

This place is like a Gen X playground it is yeah, it's a little bit of retro and funky and that's just kind of the vibe we were going for. We didn't want to be just the traditional like, too industrial with it. I think pickleball's got, you know, more creative creativity behind it. Now, with a lot of brands and a lot of players want to do just different and not just oh, I'm here only to grind pickleball, I want to have a fun, vibrant experience. That's kind of what we're all about here. This place screams date night too.

Speaker 2: 2:00

I mean, you can come out here and just have a blast.

Speaker 4: 2:03

Date nights have changed.

Speaker 3: 2:05

Yeah, I have some ranch waters and play Pac-Man and play pickleball and yeah, that's all you can ask for. So now, as far as your playing experience.

Speaker 2: 2:13

What is your rating?

Speaker 3: 2:14

I'm still coming up. I'm trying to get on the courts as much. You know I've played more tennis. That's my background. And then Padel I started playing once. We brought in Padel at T-Bar M back in 2017. So that was my focus. So really now I'm kind of leaning on our head pro Tam to teach me a little bit, and he's a great teacher to have. He just made it to the second round there in Atlanta, lost to the two seed, which is a pretty good accomplishment comparing how they played against him. So, yeah, he's a legit. Like you know, he could probably stop teaching here and go play pro, trying to get him to slow his role a little bit, um, but also encourage at the same time, because he's capable. You know he can hang with Augie and you know JW Johnson and some of those guys like he can, he can compete with them. It's just he's you know he's a busy guy. So you mentioned Augie and JW and Georgia.

Speaker 2: 3:00

And that's the flag right. And what's the fourth? It's Hurricane.

Speaker 3: 3:05

Hurricane Tyra Black. Yeah, they have a really good team. Dallas lucked out to get that squad for here.

Speaker 4: 3:11

We're excited to back them. It's so new to us. Everything seemed to be PPA for the longest time, and then the MLP just kind of emerged late last year and we actually went to the pep rally.

Speaker 1: 3:23

Oh wow, and we actually went to the pep rally, oh wow.

Speaker 4: 3:25

Yeah, that was super fun.

Speaker 2: 3:27

Great team. Last year they had a great team.

Speaker 4: 3:28

yeah, I haven't seen one of the MLP events other than on TV Right?

Speaker 3: 3:32

yeah, I mentioned earlier, we did an exhibition here just a couple weeks ago for the Flash and it was the first of their thing. They have a new GM, ed Chow, who's great. He's really trying to get momentum behind it and get exposure to the team, just in general, and it was one of those things where we didn't know what to expect. You know we've done. You know I've ran the ATP event that we did at T-Bar M the last 10 years of it, so I'm used to big crowds and big players.

Speaker 3: 3:56

Nisha Corey is near those guys playing there, so I didn't know what to expect with a pro pickleball event, especially on short notice. I think they did like a week of if a week even I'm not sure if it was that long of promotion about the event being here at Preston Playhouse and we had a line out the door. You know, an hour before the event People drove from Arkansas to see these guys play. They actually have a better following than I would ever expected to come that far to be. Just hey, we're here to play with these guys and watch them and see their level. Because it was cool, we did a 45-minute exhibition and then switched up and we had each one of the pros on a court and they got to play in with the people who showed up.

Speaker 4: 4:33

So really cool experience. Oh, that's super cool. So you say, tam can hang out with them. You're holding him back, man.

Speaker 3: 4:40

Well, I guess I need to get a couple more pickleball pros here, so I don't have to say hey, Tam, I need you to do this event and this event. No, I'm not going to try to hold him back. I want him to play. He'll play the next one coming up down at Oasis. We'll get a chance to see him again. I'm sure once the final ratings come out he'll be a top 100 on the men's doubles for PPA, based on how they did.

Speaker 2: 4:59

What's the surface here? What's the place?

Speaker 3: 5:01

so it's you know it's pretty similar to how we would do an outdoor court, you know, for the outdoor pickleball, same surface as that.

Speaker 2: 5:06

Yeah, I mean it looks it looks great, it looks clean and you have padel here, which is the first time I've actually ever seen a padel court in in person. It looks crazy, it's a growing sport.

Speaker 3: 5:15

It was something that we uh got in on early. We saw the rise in europe. Where it was just exploding, it was it's still kind of like the pickleball of Europe, where Sweden, you know, if you look at, like Spain and Argentina, where those are like the big two hubs, it's that's all they do, like they don't build tennis courts over there anymore, it's all Padel. You know, we wanted to kind of do that trick so we felt like our membership at TVRM was more accustomed to that, just because it had more of a tennis base. It's the same tennis scoring and it's just more engaging.

Speaker 3: 5:43

As far as you know how you play at the net, thinking through the geometry of playing off the wall, especially with serves, it's kind of can be difficult for beginners on if you get punched in the wall. You got to take a few steps back and at an angle to be able to scoop it off the wall. Maybe twice that it hits off the wall. So yeah, it's like a, it's like a squash tennis mix type thing. But yeah, I mean it's growing.

Speaker 3: 6:03

I think there's another facility, mckinney, that just opened a couple courts and then I heard I think Brookhaven is going to do some courts. So, yeah, it's starting to grow and I think the community is starting to build up quite a bit too, so we'll see more of it. It's just still more more expensive, for sure, than putting in pickleball courts. I think it's 60 70 thousand dollars. It's sort of like a minimum to put in a Padel core Barrier to entry for a lot of clubs and a lot of cities. You know if they're wanting to add it, but we're seeing it. What's the wall made of?

Speaker 3: 6:29

So it's the one that we have now and there'll be a new one that will do this kind of like all glass all the way around, but it's sort of just like a steel. Yeah, so those back walls that you actually play off are just glass.

Speaker 4: 6:40

Well, Well, that sounds scary.

Speaker 3: 6:41

There's some videos out there of guys running through the glass. I mean it's pretty thick so it's hard to do, but it happens occasionally. I mean that is the slight danger for sure with that sport is you can just run into the wall sometimes if you don't watch your footing. But you know.

Speaker 4: 6:55

I'm afraid one night, in the middle of the night, I'm going to stumble into the bathroom and go through my shower door. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2: 7:01

Well, so as far as the playhouse here, public who want to come out and play, what do you do? Do you pay just for total access? Do you have to reserve courts?

Speaker 3: 7:09

Yeah, so you can just come in as a drop-in if you just want to play that day. That will kind of give you the ability to do a drop-in membership if you want to just do that membership. So you can book 24 hours in advance, a family, an annual um and then same thing for padel. Right now we do them separate. There's not an all-inclusive, you're not limited. Like you have the option to be able to play paddle if you're not a paddle member. It's just a higher rate, it's more of a drop-in rate.

Speaker 3: 7:39

But yeah, that's kind of where we're at right now. You know, we're just kind of see how you know people want to play. We're kind of learning a little bit on um, on the group that's going to come in here, who we see coming in for, based on our location, because sometimes that's, you know, important you may not get the same demo that's in a different part of the city or a different part of the metroplex. Some areas like they want to play at 6, 7 am and they just want to you grind open, play stuff, and other ones are just like hey, we want to do mixer fun play. It's sort of top golfy and you know you kind of have that too, yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:11

We were at a networking event last night put on by Twisted Pickle, and it was these different entrepreneurs, I guess, people getting into pickleball industry, a lot of facilities and a lot of the big challenges. What's the secret code for the membership or the admission fee? Don't charge too little. Show value, but don't overprice.

Speaker 3: 8:31

Yeah, we've seen that in the market. For sure. Other facilities have definitely had that struggle where here's all the unlimited play you want and then they hit like a wall where it's like, okay, well, that doesn't work after a certain point because then the new people can't get courts. Yeah, you definitely want to avoid and that's what we thought through going into this as far as model of being able to gauge it and say like, well, what makes sense, like when do people really want to play, and be able to accommodate that and give them the ability to play. A lot because we want to do that.

Speaker 3: 8:59

But I think programming is probably the other big key to that. If you're doing tournaments, you're doing leagues, you're doing open plays, you're doing exhibitions, mixers, what other kind of fun things are you doing? Are you doing glow-in-the-dark, Are you doing DJs? That's all stuff that we do here that I don't necessarily see other places. But I think for pickleball in general, you'll see more of it. I think there'll just be more of those type of events and not just like it's a tournament, come play pickle, and that's kind of like the nuts and bolts of it I haven't done the.

Speaker 4: 9:25

Uh, what did you call it? The glow in the dark?

Speaker 3: 9:27

yeah, is that, it is, yeah yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's a little trippy, but you know it's. It's entertaining for sure.

Speaker 3: 9:33

Yeah tried it with tennis and that was scarier because it's just a ball coming a lot faster. But yeah, I mean it's a fun, just a different change of pace. For like a friday, saturday night, like hey, let's go do glow-in-the-dark pickle. And we have great partners like Casamigos, who usually likes to help out and support and do stuff with us. So I mean that was the other kind of big thing with us is like let's find partners that make sense for us. Like obviously we're a Duper facility, we're a EULA facility.

Speaker 4: 9:57

No, really.

Speaker 3: 9:58

Yeah, and then like Casamigos and Mizzen, and Mane is another one of our partners. That's tequila, right Tequila. Yeah, Isn't that Clooney's?

Speaker 5: 10:07

tequila. Yeah, it was.

Speaker 3: 10:09

He sold it, but I think he still has, you know, his side of it that does promotions, but he's done well on it. It's a very popular one. Ranchwaters and Margaritas are big in Dallas. We go through a lot of it.

Speaker 3: 10:29

Now, how get EULA as a sponsor? We talked to them kind of when we first opened up the facility and told us like, hey, here's what we're wanting to do, here's kind of the number of programming events we want to do and here's the terms we want to do and here's the level of players. You know, the other thing for us that was really big was, you know, having these better, higher level players play here and train here and stuff like that and working with the flash and having those guys come in occasionally and hopefully we can work out a deal with them too to have them, you know, here a little more often. So, kind of giving them that explanation and say, hey, you know how does that work? Can we do something together? And we said, yeah, let's do a partnership together. As far as the facility, um, so they're helping us a lot. You know, we're bringing in more stuff as we speak.

Speaker 3: 10:58

Now. The nets we knew it's something we would upgrade and they. Yeah, they're working with us on that, so our nets should be here next week. That'll be the pro EULA nets. Upgrading the nets, we'll have more dividers than you know we kind of have now, and then obviously we'll be selling that equipment, balls, all that stuff.

Speaker 4: 11:13

Well, you're talking to two people who have EULA paddles, so you're in the right lane.

Speaker 3: 11:18

Yeah, yeah, they make good equipment.

Speaker 4: 11:21

Yeah, and one of our we're friends with the owners of Pickle Roll and ULA is also a sponsor partner. I love their paddles. I want to get the new Ben Johns one, but I needed to wait until the season is over, because you don't want to switch paddles. I don't think mid-season.

Speaker 2: 11:39

Well, you know, father's Day is coming up.

Speaker 4: 11:41

Father's Day is coming up, but I can't decide if I want the 14-millimeter or the 16-millimeter.

Speaker 3: 11:46

What do you play with? I prefer the 16 just because for me, like as I'm starting out, I'm finding that I like to put my hand into singles a little bit. It just seems like it's more fitted for my game. I play less traditional. I play kind of like how I played in tennis, where it's a lot of slice and a lot of change of pace, and that works a lot better in singles and doubles. And doubles you don't really have the opportunity, I feel like, to change pace enough. You're just so into it so fast, you know up at the kitchen. So for me I think a 16 is pretty good, but I can play either. I mean, either one feels pretty good. You let's just feel better to me, for whatever reason too who are the padeladel paddle makers?

Speaker 4: 12:23

Are they the same as Pickleball?

Speaker 3: 12:26

No, I mean the main ones that we've seen in Niko's. That's the other thing. Like we're so lucky to have Tam, who's like incredible at Pickle and now he's like basically going to be a top 100 Pickleball player. We have Niko Agritelli, who's our Padel pro and he's the number one player in the country right now.

Speaker 4: 12:47

Oh, I met him so luckily and I mean, it must have been close to when you opened, because it was early on in our season and I remember that we had bad weather and our captains were able to work out a deal somehow with your facility and so we had one of our TCD matches here. It was incredible. We were like, wow, you know, we've got this indoor place and that's where I met him and got to see the Pedal for the first time and yeah, yeah, so he plays bull paddle now, so that's who his sponsor is.

Speaker 3: 13:12

So we haven't officially went to one paddle brand or the other. It's like our facility, necessarily, but we definitely back bull paddle. But there's several. Starby is one of them. You know, wilson. There's several. Starby is one of them, wilson. There's some other ones that are trying to get in the game, that are newer, but most of them are still kind of based out of Spain. There's not a large US presence.

Speaker 3: 13:35

I know when we first brought in the courts it was really hard to get equipment. You had to get it pretty much from Spain because nobody's selling it here in the US. So that was one barrier that we had when we started. The sport is like well, where do we get equipment? We had to start finding these connections that had connections to spain. But now there's more brands coming up and I think we'll see more of that as we go. Same thing you know wilson was kind of slow and then they got into paddle. Same thing they're getting into pickle now, and now they're starting to improve those and take it, you know, a little bit more seriously oh geez, this paddle thing.

Speaker 4: 14:01

I mean, we're thousands of dollars into paddles at this point and it doesn't seem like it that's gonna slow down anytime soon, because as soon as something comes out, that's great. I'm like you want a new one I want a new one, and you know they're improving them so much that I can feel the difference right, right away.

Speaker 3: 14:19

Oh yeah, with the newer technology yeah, everybody's trying to keep up with each other. Um, and if you're not playing this, rack this paddle and you see somebody else playing it and they're playing really well. You're like well, then I need that, otherwise I'm at a disadvantage competitively.

Speaker 2: 14:32

Sometimes, though, it's the Indian, not the Bowen era.

Speaker 3: 14:36

Yes, that's true, and I can find that with me. Same thing with drivers and golf. Like I can have the best you know, tailor-made or tight list, but I'm still going to slice it, so it's not going to make a difference.

Speaker 2: 14:46

I've got this beautiful new club and I'm going to go out and shoot 95.

Speaker 4: 14:49

I love seeing it, it's more men than women that, after a bad shot, look at their paddle. Have you noticed that I was?

Speaker 3: 14:56

just doing it earlier. Yeah, I grabbed a demo that I hadn't played with before and I was like, nah, this doesn't feel right. But it probably had nothing to do with why I was just dumping them in the net. It was mostly skill that factored into that, or lack of, I guess.

Speaker 2: 15:09

Yeah, we have like 50 ladies out here doing this boot camp, is that?

Speaker 3: 15:12

right, yeah, I think yeah, 50 today.

Speaker 2: 15:14

Cool, we're keeping our eyes, and you know that's. One thing about this game too, is every time you think you've got your skill set, you realize, boy, I've got to work on this part of my game.

Speaker 3: 15:23

Right, yeah, it doesn't take long to figure out that you may be missing something when you play a little bit up in competition level, like, oh, I don't, that's not what I've got, you know, in my set of tricks yet. And that's definitely. You know, what we're hoping to kind of teach today is. You know, we have our instructors today and they're all kind of doing stations of, okay, let's work on serve and you know it's placement, it's. You know, are you doing a topspin serve? Is it more of you know the typical underhand? Are you putting any spin on it at all, if you can? And then stations where they're focused more on strategy, of just the play in general. Or you know, there's another one of we're working on dinking and just kind of getting our feel for that, and so, yeah, it's good to have these different stations where people can say, okay, I worked on this, this and this.

Speaker 4: 16:06

All you know, just in a couple hours I love it, I love it and um, I would now.

Speaker 3: 16:10

I wish I wasn't doing the podcast and I was actually doing the boot camp well, the good thing here is, you know, tam does a lot of clinics which are the same're open to the public.

Speaker 3: 16:19

If they want to do a clinic they just kind of have to sign up the day of, or 24 hours in advance, and it's the same opportunity. Usually there's an hour ones for kind of beginners that he's more instructional on, and then there's the hour and a half clinics that are more like we'll move a little more fast-paced but we'll have some focus on you know, that day, like what do we kind of want to focus on? How do we plug into those? So, yeah, if you go to PrestonPickleballcom and just check to get a membership, once you have either a drop-in membership which there's no dues involved in it, you just sign up and then you pay based on you know how much you play. Just through that you can kind of go through. Look at the events that are on the schedule and that shows for each week. You know, know, all the clinics that we have available, and pretty much all days, I think, except for sunday, we have clinics, yeah, morning clinics, evening clinics.

Speaker 4: 17:04

So yeah, we have a good variety this is something that we definitely need to tap into, john, because we we went to one, no, two camps, two camps, yeah or uh. So year into playing, playing all wrong, we finally went to a camp and learned that there was a kitchen and you have to ding right, yeah and then um, and then we went to another camp.

Speaker 4: 17:25

But other than that, like, we've taken lessons from, you know, local pros, you know I'm lucky enough to have a friends that are really good, that also have helped um, but but I think a clinic would be really beneficial at this it's a good change of pace too from just like oh, I either have to do a lesson or I'm just kind of on my own to figure things out.

Speaker 3: 17:43

This is less of a investment. Basically, they say, like I'm gonna get some instructions an hour and a half. You know you're playing it with another group, so it's still social and you get to meet other people that maybe you could play with. It's a good opportunity. You know we usually do a max of eight people that we'll do for a clinic I like that because that's more personal instruction.

Speaker 4: 17:58

You're not just a huge number.

Speaker 3: 18:00

Yeah, so it's just $50 for the hour and a half. So you know, based on going out and trying to get like a lesson from somebody where now I mean, it's pretty much common to pay the same as you would for tennis A hundred or a hundred plus for an hour lesson.

Speaker 4: 18:12

So that's a great deal. All right, we're plugging in. Well, sean, thank you so much for sitting down with us.

Speaker 1: 18:18

Appreciate it Excited to see how the rest of the day goes. Pickle on, thank you all Thanks, thank you.

Speaker 2: 18:26

You know, guys, there's not much that's wrong with pickleball, but there are a few things that can be annoying, one of which is having balls that crack, and if you've been out there lately, temperatures dropping, balls are cracking they're. Also. If you play indoors, or if you're playing when the visibility is not great, that ball gets lost pretty easily in your eyesight, and we know that people are hitting it harder and harder. So you'd like something a little bit higher visibility. So we are here to announce our partnership with Crown Pickleball. In our show notes you'll have a link where you can get a discount for your first set of Crown Pickleballs. I can tell you that they don't crack. They beat the price point of the competitors and they beat the quality of the competitors. So as the temperature gets cold, get you some crowns, because otherwise you're going to have a lot of cracked balls, which is great for my wife's crafts but not so great for competitive play. Go to crownpickleballcom. That's door.

Speaker 1: 19:22

All right, all right.

Speaker 4: 19:24

Oh, you're doing the grape fest.

Speaker 5: 19:25

Yeah, I'm playing with a girl named Jazz Hearn.

Speaker 4: 19:28

I know Jazz.

Speaker 5: 19:29

Okay, wait.

Speaker 4: 19:30

You need to get it closer so you can be in the microphone. Okay, all right, so I'm sitting down here with Zach Moreau.

Speaker 1: 19:36

Marui.

Speaker 4: 19:37

Marui, I knew I'd get it wrong. And Trevor Vaccaro. Hi guys, I knew I'd get it wrong and Trevor Vaccaro.

Speaker 1: 19:42

Hi guys, how are?

Speaker 4: 19:43

you. You guys were the pros today at this TCD boot camp, right? How'd you get roped into this job?

Speaker 5: 19:50

By Tam.

Speaker 4: 19:51

Get in closer.

Speaker 5: 19:52

Yeah, so Tam was kind of the one that asked us to help out. We both work here at Preston Playhouse T-Bar M, so we kind of just got roped into doing it. So it was fun.

Speaker 4: 20:06

Now do you guys both regularly play here?

Speaker 1: 20:08

Yeah. So we I mean he got brought on. He just finished his collegiate tennis career playing at Dallas Baptist. I have a tennis background. I took tennis lessons at High Point growing up but kind of got sucked into club volleyball and club soccer for most of my childhood, started playing pickleball within the last year. It was something I knew I would pick up pretty quickly with the foundation that I had. And since I got brought on to T-Bar it was just kind of good timing of the fact that I was already starting to play a lot of tournaments myself. And you know, with pickleball rapidly growing the way it is with T-Bar M, our members are so diehard loyal to tennis that it's kind of been a struggle for us to get pickleball to take off here. So when I got brought on board, you know I was really excited to be able to help grow the community here.

Speaker 4: 20:50

Yeah, came over to the right side.

Speaker 1: 20:52

I got the light man Pickleball.

Speaker 4: 20:54

There you go and Trevor, what about you?

Speaker 5: 20:58

Yeah, I mean I just finished playing college tennis and I mean I've been playing pickleball since, yeah, 2017 or so, so I've been playing for quite a while over in Southlake and yeah, I mean I love it and I bring out a bunch of people out here and play. I mean we're just trying to like, grow, grow this place and anyway we can. Yeah, we had an open play like a month ago and probably had over 200 people here from all over the complex or Metroplex, so it was fun.

Speaker 4: 21:27

It's great to have an indoor facility. When, I mean, like I said, we came here, I was introduced to the place with my TCD league when we had bad weather and I was like this is a beautiful alternative to because we see the weather in Texas is terrible, especially with summer coming up, because we just see the weather in Texas is just terrible.

Speaker 1: 21:40

Especially with summer coming up. You know, I think, out of a lot of the indoor pickleball facilities around, I really do think that we have one of the bigger and better facilities to offer. And with that Texas heat right around the corner you know not a lot of people I'm an outdoor player. One of my favorite things about this place is just the fact that we've kept the court surfaces to feel more like an outdoor game, while still being able to be indoors, protected from the sun and with AC.

Speaker 4: 22:06

Yeah, yeah, yeah Now, and I heard that the wait, a flash, the flash came here. Did you participate in that?

Speaker 1: 22:15

So I was actually working at T-Bar that night. I wanted to be here so bad, but it was a really cool event we did. Yeah, I wanted to be here so bad, but it was a really cool event we did. Yeah, dallas Flash is potentially going to maybe make Preston Playhouse their official training facility and that would be really cool.

Speaker 4: 22:30

Nice. Now, how do you think you guys do against the pros that?

Speaker 1: 22:34

would be fun. You know we get to play against Tam a decent amount and it's humbling, to say the least, yeah, but it's fun. I mean. That's thebling to say the least, yeah, but it's fun. I mean that's the best way to learn about the game is? You know? I know for me, when I go play, I want to be the worst one on the court at all times. That's the best way to get better and to learn the game from higher-level players.

Speaker 4: 22:54

That's smart, that's smart.

Speaker 5: 22:55

Tam definitely brings like a good amount of people out here too. I mean some of the people he's he's brought out their top 40 in the world at pickleball. Riley Newman, yeah, they play out here once a week maybe. So I mean they, they love they, they love this place. So it's, it's nice Gosh.

Speaker 4: 23:12

I only wish I could learn from people like that. Trevor knows Tim right paddle club. The South Lake mayor pickleball.

Speaker 5: 23:22

The social mayor of South Lake.

Speaker 4: 23:24

Social mayor yeah, how did you guys meet?

Speaker 5: 23:27

So Tim and I met. We were at the South Lake Complex and he was just playing a game over there and they needed a fourth and I kind of just hopped in and started playing. And then from then on, I mean Tim and I, we play every other day together over in South Lake.

Speaker 4: 23:41

You're making him better, aren't you?

Speaker 5: 23:42

Yeah, I'm trying. I love that guy, so it's fun.

Speaker 4: 23:47

Oh, that's great. That's great. All right, so tell me about today the boot camp. What did you guys work on? What stations did you have?

Speaker 1: 23:53

So my station was focused on transition and positioning on the court. So what I was having the ladies do is kind of play through scrimmage points but with a focal point around hitting your third shot, drop or driving to whichever opponent isn't actually closed up on that kitchen, just kind of getting them comfortable with moving up the court, resetting balls, getting in those dinking rallies.

Speaker 4: 24:16

What's one of the biggest pointers that people need to know in that transition zone to be able to execute.

Speaker 1: 24:23

I mean, I know, the biggest thing for me, even as I was getting better, was especially people that have a tennis background, that come from a power game, and we want to drive every single ball that we can.

Speaker 4: 24:33

I have some of the girls on my team. I start laughing because they're at the back. They bang. They take a few steps, they bang, they take a few more steps, they bang. All of a sudden I'm doubled over laughing because, I'm like, can you hit it any harder?

Speaker 1: 24:51

Yeah, it's just.

Speaker 1: 24:52

You know, it's one of those things that, yeah, I was the stereotypical banger player when I started and it was funny to me how quickly my mindset changed, because when I would play with someone who refused to hit a drop shot or reset or try to get into a dinking rally, I was like I could feel the position that they were putting me in and I, it's just, it's one of those things that you can only get so far and then, if you really want to take your game to maybe like a 3-5 or to a 4-0 player, it's just not gonna fly.

Speaker 1: 25:15

You're gonna have higher level players that are more experienced, that are positioning themselves better on the court and, like, the biggest thing I told all the ladies tonight is like every time they would hit a drive and their opponent would deflect it right back at them. I was like, can you not feel that all that power you're putting and all that effort you're putting into driving the ball offensively is, within a second, turning into your own defense? And I was like, and that's how you have to think about it, you're putting your yourself and your partner in a crappy position to work your way up and actually get that point.

Speaker 5: 25:44

Yeah that's kind of how, like I kind of first played tennis or played pickleball too. Like I was like your stereotypical banger player, just coming from tennis and I thought I could just out rally and just I don't know, hit the ball harder than them. And then I eventually played some people that they loved it. I mean, they just stood there at the net and they just blocked the balls back super easily and then I realized that that's not how you play pickleball and you've got to work on dinking and dropping and all this other stuff, so you can't exactly hit through people in pickleball.

Speaker 4: 26:18

Yes, yes, I ended up getting dragged into a foursome while we were waiting for our court at Southlake Pickleball Complex the other day. The guy that I was partnered with is a total tennis and he just knew it pickleball the game. It was so unnerving to me I did not enjoy myself. Because he didn't know what was going to happen, right he's slamming the ball and into the net, Not not even worried about where I'm at, not watching my shot at all, putting himself and I was like this is crazy, it did.

Speaker 1: 26:49

It's difficult to play with.

Speaker 4: 26:50

It's so hard when you've and I used to play like that, but it's so hard to go from where we're at now, cause we're, we're I mean not nowhere near you guys.

Speaker 4: 26:59

All right, we're just now getting our because it's a mixed bag in in in the leagues because we're in that tweener where a lot of them are still banging and yet you know. But then you got some teams that are doing, you know, evolving like they should, but nothing like this, like that was, like this guy's new and that's all he's doing is he's playing tennis on a pickleball court I've played against some people too that like that, like refuse to like move up to the kitchen.

Speaker 1: 27:25

It's like they just want to sit on the back line and just rip forehands back and forth across the goal and it's like, all right, we can do this. I was like we're probably not going to get anywhere, but we can hit there and rally.

Speaker 4: 27:37

So, Trevor, what stations were you working on?

Speaker 5: 27:38

yeah. So I was on the courts, kind of just focusing on, uh, dinking. Uh definitely wasn't the lady's favorite court, um, but it was just kind of like a more patient drill and just kind of barely hitting the ball over. And then, uh, yeah, we kind of just worked on consistency to start out with cross court down the line and then, uh, yeah, we kind of got into some points, so kind of finding that high ball and putting it away. So I kind of just told the ladies to really stay on that line and not be pushed back and not take a step back or two, but to like hold the line and if you have to reach for a volley, you reach for a volley and put it away.

Speaker 1: 28:19

So that's kind of what we're going over over there, speeding up when you can, taking the ball out of the air when you can as well. I think that's a really big deal at the higher levels. Um, just giving your opponent a little bit less time to read what you're doing with the ball right, it's getting harder and harder to read what you're doing with the ball, with the little trick more and more deception. Yes, what?

Speaker 4: 28:41

is that like I think you're doing one thing and you do a totally different other thing and the paddle technology is helping with that too, I mean.

Speaker 1: 28:47

I mean I don't know if you heard about yola's gen 3 paddles I just yesterday they got called back for us. They did the gen 3 paddles they just got oh no, I almost bought one.

Speaker 4: 28:56

Yeah, I'm holding off.

Speaker 1: 28:58

I was really excited about the release with the new Propulsion Core technology. Yeah, and just yesterday I was watching the Atlanta the big Atlanta opening and they did a recall. Doesn't mean we can't play with it, though Right At a casual level there's no rules against it for us, but someone like myself who is playing tournaments around locally, it's just not something I even want to waste my time using.

Speaker 4: 29:21

Are you?

Speaker 1: 29:21

guys playing tournaments it's just not something I even want to waste my time using.

Speaker 4: 29:21

Are you guys playing tournaments?

Speaker 5: 29:23

yeah, I have a little fun tournament tomorrow with a girl named Jazz Hearn out of Grapevine yeah, she's in the Southlake Battle Club she plays with Tim too, and Derek, derek, the frogman he's got that little frogman. Derek is awesome.

Speaker 4: 29:44

Yeah, he was a strong tennis player.

Speaker 5: 29:46

Yeah, I think he played Abilene Christian back in the day. But yeah, we're playing tournaments, tam, he actually just got back from playing the PPA Atlanta Open. So that pro tournament. He won his first round and then lost to the two-seed in a third set.

Speaker 4: 30:02

So Tam is very good yeah, I mean we're gonna have him on the podcast okay, right on, yeah, we exchanged numbers okay, because he had to go. He couldn't stay, so he was the third guy doing the damn okay sweet yeah yeah, yeah so favorite shot in pickleball we'll go with you trevor, you go first. I know your answer what do you? Okay, what do you think all answer. Okay, what do you think that is? What do you think it is? Zach?

Speaker 5: 30:25

Your backhand flick. It is the backhand flick.

Speaker 4: 30:28

The backhand flick.

Speaker 5: 30:29

Yeah, just kind of sitting up at the net and just top spin roll hard volley type deal.

Speaker 4: 30:34

I gotta learn it. I mean, I'm kind of getting there, but it's like I don't know. Do you have to strengthen your form? It's like I don't know, do you have to strengthen?

Speaker 5: 30:41

your form. It's just like relaxing the wrist, I guess, and just letting it fly. I don't know. It helps that he's like what?

Speaker 1: 30:47

6'3", 2.

Speaker 4: 30:49

6'2", something like that he's such an advantage.

Speaker 1: 30:52

Yeah, he's tall, he's got a long reach so he can really get down there and reach in the kitchen. And that's what I was touching on earlier is teaching people to play those balls out of the air when they can, and a lot of people just don't even really position themselves correctly. It's like a lot of standing straight up at the kitchen and that was something that I had a horrible habit with just from open play, and it's like you can get away with some things, open play at a lower level, but I was relying on my reaction time and when I started playing in more competitive environments and playing higher-level players, I to like really make a conscious note to be down in a stance and ready for those balls in the kitchen to get in those fast hand battle exchanges I can relate with you advantage on height.

Speaker 4: 31:32

I mean because you know a lot of it is hitting at your opponent's feet. I can't sometimes see their feet. Yeah, I'm only 5'4, I'm like, and I'm current, like you said, you in an athletic position, so I'm losing even more height there. I don't have those advantages, so my game is a little bit different. I say live for another point.

Speaker 1: 31:51

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 31:52

So I'm the one that goes for the balls that no one goes for and gets them back. So my husband's had to learn to adjust with me, like the moving back Covering the court. What would you say if I got pulled out wide for a ball? Where would you put yourself?

Speaker 1: 32:09

If you're on the right side getting pushed out like on a cross-court, dink you're saying, yeah, I would shift over a couple steps into the middle of the court to take that middle-driven ball or that hard cross.

Speaker 4: 32:19

Right, would you step back a little bit? Yeah, ball, or that hard cross, right, would you step back a cup a little bit? Yeah, see, that's the part that I was telling him. Uh, john, that I was like you've got to move backwards because, that's going to give you more time, because it's like if they're tennis and they've got good angles, it gives you a couple more second or split seconds or whatever, to get that ball on either side, because they could.

Speaker 1: 32:39

They could angle it on either there's only one person with you really need to be in almost like a string tandem with your partner as far as the way you're shifting across the court to cover.

Speaker 4: 32:48

Yeah, and I'm going to ask you, but I forgot to ask you what's your favorite shot.

Speaker 1: 32:52

I have a volleyball background, so anything that gets put up in the air is like a dream for me to just volley. I have learned the hard way that 100% power is not a necessity in pickleball, with how small the court is.

Speaker 1: 33:06

You're so smart, so that is something that I've been actively trying to practice more self control on, but because of my volleyball background I do have a good understanding of how to flick my wrist to take angles, so I'm not just trying to power through people. I always definitely look for my hard cross angles and for me it'd be an overhand volley for sure. Yeah, okay, I also love my drop shots and transitioning and, like the player that I have, I really enjoy hitting my drop shots too. That's probably the most satisfying shot to hit, like just in the sense that if you're in like the middle of a rally, like you're always going to have those points where you put away an overhand or rip a volley right, but working your way back up to the kitchen by hitting drop shots and like just being smooth like butter on those, that's probably the most satisfying feeling I love that because I've said that to a lot of people who are trying to transition.

Speaker 4: 34:00

You know, they got so much joy out of the power put away and now you just have to retrain your brain to go. Okay, I just hit a smart shot. I am so proud of myself for that smart shot.

Speaker 1: 34:12

It's like work smarter, not harder.

Speaker 4: 34:14

Exactly, and it's taken a long time to get that concept down for sure, for sure.

Speaker 5: 34:18

That's definitely like a big key is not like powering through it, but just kind of working the angles. I don't, yeah, I never hit the overhead like 100, I just angle it off left and right and placement overpower.

Speaker 1: 34:30

Yeah, well, for sure, that's right. I think, again, it's easier said than done. I know I tend to try to. I get excited and I want to power shots and I want to look like I'm, like I'm him on the court. But you could really play pickleball with like almost 75, 80% power and really just focusing on placing your shots right and you'll create a lot more opportunities for yourself and probably make a lot less errors in the long run.

Speaker 4: 34:56

A hundred percent what's on your mind.

Speaker 5: 34:58

You got something. No, no, I mean I, I agree with what he's saying. I, no, no, I mean I agree with what he's saying. I mean, yeah, just you know. I also love that you can just play pickleball like just with anyone. You know, it can be 10 years old, it could be 80 years old. I mean you're still playing the same game.

Speaker 4: 35:11

I mean you're playing with Jazz Hearn, she's what.

Speaker 5: 35:18

Exactly, I think, like 16, 17.

Speaker 1: 35:20

So and I play with Tim. He's like 55 or something, so I love.

Speaker 5: 35:21

I love that you can. Yeah, maybe fit I don't know somewhere in there, but uh, I just love that you can play with anyone. I mean, we're all on the court, I'm 24 and we're just all like same level, so it, that's like the part. I love tennis. It's not exactly the same way. You know, you get a couple like a 10 year old, you get an 80-year-old or a 70-year-old or something, and it's not fun. You're chasing balls and it's too big. But pickleball is fun.

Speaker 1: 35:47

I mean, it's a great sport to be able to pick up casually and take it to a competitive level, if that's what you desire.

Speaker 5: 35:55

Yeah, I was helping out these people yesterday in an event and these two people have never played before and they off the court and they're like I am literally gonna play this every day. And they went and bought. They told me like today they bought like paddles and they're like diving in. So I thought that was awesome that's awesome, that we're the same.

Speaker 4: 36:15

I mean, we got into it during the pandemic and just like now we have a podcast and we've got a clothing line and we we've got you know, I mean it's just like all in pickleball. I just knew it from the minute the bug yes.

Speaker 5: 36:27

The pickle bug yeah.

Speaker 4: 36:28

It's going to be a lifelong thing, Even if I ended up in a wheelchair. You can play in a wheelchair, you know. So anyway. Well, guys, thanks for joining me.

Speaker 5: 36:36

I appreciate it, Thank you so much for having us on.

Speaker 4: 36:39

Of course, of course. Well, it was great getting to know you and keep making fun. All right, thank you Bye.