Blazing Paddles - A Pickleball Podcast
MLP Summer Slam, Preston Playhouse - Dallas Flash vs. Orlando Squeeze
This is a must watch! Now available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/s_-nIDDM9DI
Ready to witness the pulse-pounding action of Major League Pickleball like never before? Join us as we celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary with a special recap of the MLP Summer Slam Exhibition match between the Dallas Flash and the Orlando Squeeze. Hear about the unique dynamics of the game, featuring standout performances from JW and Jorja Johnson, Tyra Black, Tyson McGuffin, and Vivienne David. Add to that the exciting appearances from guest substitutes John Isner and Samantha Parker, and you've got an episode bursting with high-energy pickleball action.
Curious about the behind-the-scenes strategies and team chemistry of top-tier MLP teams? We delve into the challenges and triumphs of building cohesive units with limited practice time, and how community activations play a vital role in expanding the sport. Listen as we share insights on the MLP draft process and discuss what it's like competing against formidable teams like the Texas Ranchers and DC. Get up close with seasoned players like Julie Johnson and Hurricane Tyra Black, and uncover the secrets to their success on the court. We also get insight from Ed Chao and Ameen Hafez, the GM's for the Flash and Squeeze, respectively.
Our episode also features a captivating conversation with Robert Slutsky, an up & coming figure in the professional pickleball world who transitioned from professional Ultimate Frisbee. Discover his journey, including the moment his viral diving ATP shot took the internet by storm. We also chat about the camaraderie of doubles play, the intensity of women's doubles "firefights," and the nuances of player techniques, especially for taller athletes. With anecdotes from pros like Tyson McGuffin and reflections on the joy of witnessing high-caliber pickleball, this episode is a can’t-miss for any pickleball enthusiast.
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
Have a suggestion for a guest or topic you'd like to see us address?
Hit me up at john@dink.pro or shout out on social:
Instagram
Twitter
Tik Tok
This is a must watch! Now available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/s_-nIDDM9DI
Ready to witness the pulse-pounding action of Major League Pickleball like never before? Join us as we celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary with a special recap of the MLP Summer Slam Exhibition match between the Dallas Flash and the Orlando Squeeze. Hear about the unique dynamics of the game, featuring standout performances from JW and Jorja Johnson, Tyra Black, Tyson McGuffin, and Vivienne David. Add to that the exciting appearances from guest substitutes John Isner and Samantha Parker, and you've got an episode bursting with high-energy pickleball action.
Curious about the behind-the-scenes strategies and team chemistry of top-tier MLP teams? We delve into the challenges and triumphs of building cohesive units with limited practice time, and how community activations play a vital role in expanding the sport. Listen as we share insights on the MLP draft process and discuss what it's like competing against formidable teams like the Texas Ranchers and DC. Get up close with seasoned players like Julie Johnson and Hurricane Tyra Black, and uncover the secrets to their success on the court. We also get insight from Ed Chao and Ameen Hafez, the GM's for the Flash and Squeeze, respectively.
Our episode also features a captivating conversation with Robert Slutsky, an up & coming figure in the professional pickleball world who transitioned from professional Ultimate Frisbee. Discover his journey, including the moment his viral diving ATP shot took the internet by storm. We also chat about the camaraderie of doubles play, the intensity of women's doubles "firefights," and the nuances of player techniques, especially for taller athletes. With anecdotes from pros like Tyson McGuffin and reflections on the joy of witnessing high-caliber pickleball, this episode is a can’t-miss for any pickleball enthusiast.
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
Have a suggestion for a guest or topic you'd like to see us address?
Hit me up at john@dink.pro or shout out on social:
Instagram
Twitter
Tik Tok
Are we live right now? Yeah, so fantastic. So we're warming up right now. The Dallas Flash tonight will feature JW Johnson, georgia Johnson, tyra Black and, with Augie Gunn not able to be in attendance, former top 10 tennis pro John Isner will be our fourth player.
Speaker 2:I come up to his butt player I come up to his butt.
Speaker 1:The TV doesn't lie, he's a big boy, 6'10". He's a big guy For the Orlando squeeze tonight, karen, we've got Federico Staxrud. He was number one, he's now number two in singles. Tyson McGovern. I've got goat Vivian David Love her game. And then local favorite and from South Lake Paddle Club, sam Parker, yeah. So it's going to be a great exhibition, a lot of fun pickleball.
Speaker 2:How nervous do you think that she is?
Speaker 1:Sam's a gamer, she's just fine.
Speaker 2:She'll be fine, she just focuses.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, but expect this match to go five. They will go to singles folks, so stay tuned to the end. It'll be fun.
Speaker 6:Here we go Blazing Paddles again. Season one, episode 13. This one actually happened back on June 3rd. We got invited to a really cool event. It was MLP. Major League Pickball had a summer slam. It was presented by EULA, it was hosted by the Preston Playhouse and it was covered by yours truly. Karen and I went out to check out the event.
Speaker 6:If you've never been to a live MLP event exhibition or otherwise, it's a really entertaining venue. It's very competitive and what Al's doing he's kind of laying out the format. A lot of people aren't familiar with how it works, but he's telling us who the participants are. There was a couple guests in tow as well. Because you know an exhibition, you could do that, and our hometown favorite, samantha Parker, was one of those folks. So we were thrilled to be able to do it, and we decided on our 24th wedding anniversary. Why don't we go back and look at our live stream, put in some commentary and share it with you? And that's what this is. So put on your ears, saddle up, you'll be glad you did. We're going to do a little recap, well first of all, what?
Speaker 3:What's today?
Speaker 6:Oh, today's our 24th wedding anniversary.
Speaker 3:First of all, I have to tell you this Okay. And you know this is what started it all right what you invited me on a special podcast and now here we are.
Speaker 6:Was it your birthday that I invited you on?
Speaker 3:yes, and now I'm it's. I'm saying I'm joking like haha. Now, here you are with me as your co-host permanently so are.
Speaker 6:Are you saying, looking back, would I have done things differently?
Speaker 3:I just wanted to remind you so for our 24th anniversary.
Speaker 6:I wouldn't have it any other way.
Speaker 3:What did you suggest?
Speaker 6:I suggested that we do a recap episode because we were at an event last night, super cool, super cool. An event last night, super cool, super cool. June 3rd, 2024, preston playhouse in Dallas, as a new indoor facility, I guess what. Maybe three months open now, not, not that long. Nine indoor courts, they have Padel, they have a vintage video games, they have ping pong, but last night they had an exhibition match between the Dallas Flash, formerly known as Dallas Pickleball Club, and the Orlando Squeeze.
Speaker 6:Now, if you're not familiar with the team sport version of pickleball, mlp tournaments are a lot of fun. They're a lot more, I'd say maybe rowdy than PPA events. I don't know, it just seems like the crowd gets into it. You have a team you're rooting for and if it makes it any better for you, comprising that team are some of the best individual players in the world. I mean Tyson McGuffin, jw and his sister, georgia, the Johnsons Viv, vivian David. We had Hurricane Tyra Black. We had a couple guest subs because, because augie couldn't be there for um the flash and I'm trying to remember who couldn't be there for, oh, paris todd couldn't be there for the squeeze, so in their place, john isner, former tennis great, all six foot ten of him and um south lake, texas's own samantha parker uh, took Parker took place as substitutes for this event. It was an exhibition and I'd say wild success. What would you say?
Speaker 3:I'd say wild success.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the rain kind of dampened, I think it hindered some people from getting there, so it wasn't as big of a turnout as we knew it was going to be because there were tickets, so I think that kept some people at home.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I mean, we've had such a run of bad weather lately and it was storming cats and dogs, but we did.
Speaker 3:The show must go on. The show must go on.
Speaker 6:And Blazing Paddles. Actually, we were asked and kind of asked if maybe we should come out, because we had done an episode out there previously at the Preston Playhouse. Well, people, are listening.
Speaker 3:They know that was episode 12. Right, okay. If you're listening, paying attention. Part A and B.
Speaker 6:If you're paying attention. Yeah, and Sean Edwards, who's the director of ops Is that who he is? We hit it off with Sean first time out there. He thought it'd be a great idea. We come back out and we have a few real critical connections who have helped us so much on their own behest. One of them is Al Arco the best, the best. The pickleball, mayor of the world and knows everybody.
Speaker 3:He knows everyone.
Speaker 6:He's got some tight friends in the industry and he was pull people aside for us and everything, and I thought it was great. So what we thought we'd do there were so many great conversations we narrowed it down to some snippets. We're going to play those snippets and then we're just going to talk a little bit about it and carry on like that. What do you think?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so why don't we talk about how the teams ended up matching up and you know what? I don't have that written down.
Speaker 6:How they matched up. You remember? You mean when they played each other. Yes, okay, so the first match was the guys. Of course you had JW and John Isner playing Tyson and Federico Stachford. So the Fed, remember, because Karen has the hardest time. I can't even remember.
Speaker 6:Stachard, yeah, no, I don't. Yeah, it didn't work out for her. So they played. And the Orlando Squeeze, not surprisingly, because they have two. I mean, fed and Tyson are both amazing players, as is JW Isner is an unbelievable tennis player but doesn't have the pickleball game yet of a, you know, a traveling professional like these guys. And so Tyson and Federico took, took care of them pretty, pretty good. I mean, they, they played around with a little bit, so it wasn't a route, but they, there was no question, the women came up and played, and that's when we had our own Samantha Parker. She was teamed up with, uh, viv, vivian david, and they were up against the very imposing to some of hurricane tyra black and georgia johnson. And first first impression was samantha parker was not the least bit phased by the situation, which was amazing to me yeah, she's brave won that one.
Speaker 6:Yeah, just solid. She'd been out there. I guess that's what happens when you get to warm up with, like Leanne Jansen beforehand and you're you've already played in a few sanctioned tournaments, but she's she's done well in her short time as a pro. As a matter of fact, she recently signed with Thrive yes, and so a shout out to Thrive for signing. A very quality human being looks like she's got a good stable of teammates, but I I think we're going to see her um in a bigger stage I agree with that, and we have a snippet of our interview with her.
Speaker 3:She just could not be nicer and just more down to earth let's snippet it well, well, that's later.
Speaker 6:That's what you're supposed to do when you do things. So when each team wins two matches, then what happens?
Speaker 3:A dream breaker. A dream breaker, okay, but before we get there, so Al this mayor of Pickleball, who knows everyone, I mean, this was the place where they all were right. You got the general managers of each team. You got dave fleming was there. You got, uh, who's the red head referee?
Speaker 6:oh gosh, I forget her name, courtney courtney. Um well, you had mark. Co-owner of the flash um molson and many other up and coming, uh, pickleball pros.
Speaker 3:So um, but we want to hear the first snippet.
Speaker 6:Yeah, let's hear it.
Speaker 3:All right, let's go. So this one is um, going to be with Ed Chow, uh.
Speaker 6:Ed Chow, general manager of the Dallas flash. Pretty big role. It appears to be a pretty. He's a young guy. He's a guy who was already in the sport. I believe Cerebo is the sporting firm that he's with sports firm. Not sure what their business model is, but he's got two hats to wear.
Speaker 3:So Karen did, al pulled Ed Chow aside, yeah, and Karen got a chance to talk to him. Let's take a listen. While you left me, I was so nervous. Yeah, and Karen got a chance to talk to him. Let's take a listen. While you left me, I was so nervous. Yeah, the more you started talking, the more. I was like oh goodness, what am I going to say next? I?
Speaker 1:wasn't prepared for it. We've got Ed Chao, the general manager of the Dallas Flash, with us right now, and so tell a little bit about the formation of the squad.
Speaker 2:Did you mention this was a live Instagram feed, not just tonight, but things that you're working on for the club and the team and what took place.
Speaker 3:So this is from our live Instagram feed last night.
Speaker 7:All right, Thanks everybody for coming out and listening watching. You know the formation of this team was built a lot around, really like chemistry and family.
Speaker 7:So, you know, when we were in the war room and we were looking at the potential you know scenarios we knew we wanted to draft our first guy a little bit later and when JW fell to us at 12, we knew we would love to pair him up with his sister, georgia. So being able to go in there and try to grab pairs and get out of the draft by the 30th I think was kind of our MO try to get out by then. So it's been a fun ride to get to know our team, build the chemistry and just get ready to battle and make adjustments to get ready for DC.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So, and when does this start?
Speaker 7:DC is in two weeks. In two weeks. Okay, yeah, that's our second event, okay, okay. And how did the first one I didn't get to say the first one MLP? We went 2-2. We won our match against the Texas Ranchers.
Speaker 6:And we also beat the that sounded like Texas Rangers. It's the Texas Ranchers.
Speaker 7:We lost to DC.
Speaker 6:I will not have the Texas Rangers disparaged on my show.
Speaker 7:And so I'd say it was a little bit disappointing not to be able to come out with a winning record, At the same time just taking a little bit of time to gel for our team.
Speaker 2:I imagine how much time does it take, do you think, for a team to get that chemistry?
Speaker 6:It's funny when you talk and you're watching. I did the same thing it's like all of a sudden your head stops and you're watching.
Speaker 7:We're playing a different event throughout the season on the PPA Tour, and so we only get them for for a few Weekends at the time, so I think it's gonna take a few months and traveling back and forth.
Speaker 6:That's when I had my bro moment with Tyson. How much time do they get to practice? Together Federico gave up in the middle of the point he just stood on the side and didn't come back.
Speaker 7:How much time do they get to?
Speaker 2:practice together. It really is before each of the events.
Speaker 7:We get there a little bit early, we try to practice a few things, so it's really not more than a day, two days at the events.
Speaker 2:Now do they watch tape?
Speaker 6:Yeah, I thought that was a really solid question.
Speaker 7:Okay, watch tape, try to listen to the players, because they have way more experience and experience, especially with having Julie Johnson on our team.
Speaker 6:Julie. Johnson is the mother of the JW in Georgia. She's a senior professional football player herself.
Speaker 7:Julie, in her own right, is a fantastic player, senior pro and works with a lot of the players, so, yeah, it's great to have her.
Speaker 2:Now, did you organize these exhibition events, or how did that come about?
Speaker 7:Well, this was definitely a collaboration between Orlando and us, but the PPA Texas Open was just here this past weekend, and so, knowing that a lot of the players would be in town, I reached out to Amin the.
Speaker 6:GM for the.
Speaker 7:Orlando Squeeze.
Speaker 6:Have you ever watched reaction videos on YouTube?
Speaker 4:I'm interested in doing something like this because, they had just hosted an event in Orlando about a month ago that brought in like 900 people to come watch.
Speaker 7:So they've definitely set the bar for how a team organization operations can be built and we just felt like they'd be a great, great team to partner with.
Speaker 2:Well, I love it that you're doing this.
Speaker 6:That's a good place to stop.
Speaker 2:Who've seen an MLP event and, to be honest with you, I haven't seen one in person last year.
Speaker 3:Okay, so what we're talking about there is how, at the beginning of the night, they had asked everyone to raise their hand. Who's seen an MLP event? 10 asked everyone to raise their hand. Who's seen an mlp event? And 10 maybe, maybe, yeah. So these activations are super important, so that, uh, you know, I know that this there's a huge, growing community of pickleballers, but there's an, there's a pro side to this and I think we feel like we. It's just so new and I mean think about if you were there at the beginning when the nfl started, how cool would that be? If you were there at the very beginning when the major mlb that's great, is it mlb? What major league?
Speaker 6:baseball cutting. That, what is it?
Speaker 3:Major League Baseball MLB Okay, yeah.
Speaker 6:Okay. But what I thought was really cool the way you started off the questioning, though, because you wonder how do these teams get picked and stuff I mean, do they just like say you're going to be on this team? They actually have a draft, right, our buddy Al was actually in the war room during the Dallas flash draft, and when we saw the team that they ended up with uh, jw might have the fastest hands and all pickleball and outside of, uh, ben Johns might be considered the best men's doubles player um, his sister, I think, is one of the youngest people on the tour. I think she's only 17 years old, oh wow, and she's already proven herself to be an unbelievable talent. Hurricane Tyra Black just, I guess, exploded on the scene about two years ago, if I remember, when I remember everybody really starting to talk about her.
Speaker 6:The one unknown was Augie Guh, and, truth be told, we don't have a whole lot of experience with Augie either, but he did share our post and followed us. So, augie, we're going to be tagging you and all this stuff too, buddy, and I can't wait to see you play. But they did have a draft and, much to my surprise, the JW Georgia thing. That wasn't a package deal. They had to wait and see if they would both be available and picking them, so that was cool. The other team you can't argue with having Fed and Tyson Viv David is amazing and they have Paris Todd. Tyson Viv David is amazing and they have Paris Todd. So that's probably one of the other powerhouse teams. So this was a great exhibition. Good players. We met some interesting characters too, not just the best-known people. We met some pros that are on their way up On their way up.
Speaker 3:Well, it would be very interesting, this guy. So this guy walks up, al goes and grabs this guy and you're not going to be able to see it on here, so look him up yeah, and and it, it he's about six four. He's about six eight with hair that is late he's big guy sticking straight up all the way around, and um just interesting individual.
Speaker 6:So when I think of the word dude, I think of this guy. Because his sports.
Speaker 3:He was a professional.
Speaker 6:Frisbee player. He played Golf or foot frisbee. He's playing frisbee now, yeah, disc golf now, but he played the game Ultimate, which is a great team sport in frisbee, is it? It's the best. He never played Ultimate. You don't know. It's the best. You've never played ultimate, you don't know. It's the best. I mean he got. The guy's an athlete, he's a big guy. Doesn't look like, uh, he would be out on the tennis court or anything. It looks like he'd be at a grateful dead concert, but he also has one of the greatest shots to a grateful dead concert.
Speaker 3:I'm picturing more like surfer I'll show you later.
Speaker 6:Uh, but he does. If you go to go to this guy's uh instagram account robert's uh flusky, robert slutsky and he has the film clip from when he did a diving atp in a ppa tournament. It's a really badass point, um, good enough, where everybody who talks to him that's pretty much what they ask him about, because they saw that shot and you showed me earlier. I mean, this is a big guy, he's like six, three, something like that For him to be moving all over the court and diving all the way out there. It was really impressive. Anyway, you want to hear a little of that. Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:Thank you, let's sit down. By the way, robert is Okay, I see what you're saying.
Speaker 6:He might have been wearing Grateful Dead socks. See, there's the diving Ernie.
Speaker 1:Diving ATP Corrected him.
Speaker 5:So I've been playing pickleball about a year.
Speaker 4:A little over a year.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so I played my first pro singles Qualies and Texas Open last year Qualies, by the way, cool word to use.
Speaker 6:I played my first pro singles Qualies in Texas Open last year actually Qualies, by the way, cool word to use and then my first PPA doubles tournament I played a couple months ago in Austin.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so I think I played four so far this year and my best result was the quarters out in Utah.
Speaker 6:So are you seeing like some incremental yeah?
Speaker 5:so I mean, I've come a long way in just the last couple of months just getting to play with better people has been really nice so who's uh what's? Been the highlight as far as who? You've played against uh, we played against the johns. Oh, you did. Yeah, we lost pretty bad he has a history of losses, but it's so positive and like uh, when he came out to the texas tournaments last year, I got some tickets from him so it it was kind of like a little reunion type of thing.
Speaker 6:I think what I really like about this guy is he is just unabashedly happy with himself. He's awesome. He's comfortable in his own skin.
Speaker 5:Are you singles? And?
Speaker 6:doubles.
Speaker 5:I played singles once this year. It's just difficult with the heat and a lot of matches.
Speaker 6:He did the singles. That's where he got the diving ATP.
Speaker 5:I lost difficult with like the heat and a lot of. He did the singles, he got the. That's where he got the diving atp to yates johnson in three and the round 16, but I hit like a diving atp. There it is yeah, so that was like was that the highlight best shot I've done so far in pickleball by? Far pretty cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, now were you out there, I didn't realize how tall he was yeah, I played on mixed doubles and, uh, men's doubles, so I mixed.
Speaker 5:Like I said, uh, I had to play in qualifying actually, so we won two rounds in qualifying.
Speaker 6:Yeah, and then we lost our first round to Fed and Jade. Fed, yeah, tough draw. And then in men's.
Speaker 5:I played with Tam, actually when we were playing paddle.
Speaker 6:He mentions Tam Tam's, one of the teaching pros at Preston Playhouse and also. Tam is like he works with the Flash he works with the Flash.
Speaker 7:I played with them once when they were here, like a month ago or something.
Speaker 5:But yeah.
Speaker 6:Is this here in the community? Well, if you were out there this weekend. We've had this learning experience this year. We found out what dew point is All right let's see what else we got here. Yeah, if you weren't in Texas last week, the humidity is one thing, but when the dew point is higher than the humidity, you're literally drenched. I don't know how these guys were playing multiple matches on Sunday, remember, crazy?
Speaker 4:I was watching some doubles after I was out it was raining so hard in the cover course I don't know how anyone's played late, you can't hear anything.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we got hail, are you?
Speaker 1:a Texan.
Speaker 5:I grew up Plano now. I grew up in South Florida.
Speaker 3:He grew up in South Florida. He's used to this rain and humidity and dew point.
Speaker 5:Yeah, then I went to college at Wash U in St Louis.
Speaker 6:Wash U baby.
Speaker 5:Okay, so wait listen to this. I was playing a little bit of disc golf, disc golf. I was playing a little bit of disc golf, disc golf.
Speaker 1:They just carry disc golf.
Speaker 5:There is. Actually. It pays pretty well if you're good, but I'm not.
Speaker 3:He says it pays well, but I'm not good. I went to university and college.
Speaker 5:I was pretty good at that. I was probably a good semi-pro. But I couldn't find a team when I first moved here, so I picked up disc golf, crossfit and I led to pickleball.
Speaker 3:Okay, crossfit, no yeah, discball.
Speaker 6:Discgolf CrossFit Pickleball.
Speaker 3:And then pick. Do they all go together? Is that one leads to another? Don't start disc golf anyone. Disc golf's awesome. I'm just saying if that's the progression of your addiction to pickleball.
Speaker 6:Well, you've never played disc golf and you're the most addicted person I've ever seen to pickleball.
Speaker 3:That's true. Let's see what else he has to say. Do you have the Patrick?
Speaker 6:Gordon, do you love him? Yeah, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:Wait, because you ask him where he works, like for his or I do.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you do. Yeah, isn't been like lonely on the court just by yourself?
Speaker 3:in that community. Yeah, they need a finance guy no, that's um the next one or the other. No, he's a software guy suffering one way past. I started hating it, started hating it, so he was afraid that would happen with pickleball so far, so good.
Speaker 6:I always I get it, though he's like, if you're not looking forward to it, all of a sudden it becomes a labor, right, yeah, it's not fun.
Speaker 3:Right, right. Well, I don't know. I'm really enjoying my way in this big world journey to being good.
Speaker 6:No, I'm saying but it's because you still love it, Even if you go out there and you're miserable. You love it. That detested having to practice, I know.
Speaker 1:I hope you don't ever get like that. That's what he said. I love to drill with you.
Speaker 6:Oh, here's the drill question.
Speaker 2:He doesn't drill as often as he should.
Speaker 3:Wait, there's a little bit more here I went.
Speaker 6:He says he likes to go to but it's far different than the open play.
Speaker 5:It's just one.
Speaker 3:He says he likes to go to open play and just play with whoever?
Speaker 6:Hey, we're going to be at the Pickler this Saturday.
Speaker 1:Me. I can't say.
Speaker 6:Your game after Me, I probably should like like some.
Speaker 3:All right, anyway, cool dude, check him out, follow him. Maybe we will see him on the big stage one day. Yeah.
Speaker 6:All right, and so I. I keep getting pulled away at this point, but I did come back and um Al brought another person into into the little sphere of our microphone. Is this where we meet Tiffany?
Speaker 3:This is where we meet Tiffany, and her last name is Landgraf, I believe.
Speaker 6:Tiffany Landgraf, another Southlake's own Carroll grad, and I guess she was a pretty accomplished tennis player in high school, went to nationals, that kind of deal. And now guess what, after a year of getting into it, she's in the 5-0 qualies at some of these open tournaments 5-0. She's playing a year, oh okay, yeah. And once again Al Arco setting the table for us. He's like the Ed McMahon of our show here at. Texas Open.
Speaker 8:Okay, sure. So I played in 50 Women's Devils. I got silver medal.
Speaker 6:Silver medal, yeah, and then I immediately asked him if she's going to play singles. So did you play singles? Did you play doubles as well? I played.
Speaker 3:I played uh, you set up this whole. You're nervous, it's clear.
Speaker 6:Yeah, because I had no idea what I was going to ask.
Speaker 8:We'll try again next time. This is my first time trying pro mixed.
Speaker 2:Your first time.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 8:Okay.
Speaker 2:I'll get used to it a little bit.
Speaker 6:Is singles your?
Speaker 8:I feel like I've never actually played in a tournament.
Speaker 6:Oh, you haven't.
Speaker 8:Not singles, yet it's usually during the week.
Speaker 3:Are you trying to ask if she's single?
Speaker 8:How did you do Okay in tennis? I was like you went to nationals. I went to nationals twice Were you a Carroll grad?
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, where'd you go?
Speaker 1:to college. I went to SMU for college.
Speaker 8:I didn't play tennis at SMU, though.
Speaker 6:Really yeah, when did you pick pickleball up? I started playing pickleball like a year ago. A year ago.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you're driving me crazy, you get so good.
Speaker 3:It's so quick. A year into it there were five outs.
Speaker 6:I just drive everything I was just mentioning to my wife. She walked up and said what happened. I said, well, Isner got into a firefight with Sam, yeah, and he looked like he was going to take it a little easy. I was like that's a mistake.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so this is more like a conversation. It was good. I mean she hung around for a little while.
Speaker 8:Oh, did you really? So I'm like I've seen her at all the tournaments and stuff.
Speaker 6:Well, on what I was mentioning there, you know how we really enjoy watching the women's doubles matches, because the firefights are so amazing and most of the firefights you see with guys are the one hand pop, pop, right. These women just double-handed everything. Yeah, Full swing. I don't know how they get around and do it, but their firefights are something to behold. And so when I saw Isner just kind of maybe take it a little easy I was like dude, you're going to catch that one back. And she did. She body bagged him yeah.
Speaker 3:Was that when he was body bagged? Oh sorry, I have that actually saved in this. Yeah, I keep moving this.
Speaker 8:Six out right now, the Black Diamond one. Okay.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I have no idea what paddle she's talking about. I just thought that would be a good question. To talk about Black Diamond, yeah, I like the 609.
Speaker 8:It's pretty.
Speaker 3:It's a good kiss song, Black Diamond. Okay, see, you can't get any question right. You kept going to singles and now you asked her.
Speaker 6:I was trying to pay attention. Why did you ask her if she was?
Speaker 3:a lefty, why would?
Speaker 6:I ask a lefty.
Speaker 3:What does it matter? I had nothing, you know what. The best part of the video because we're watching a video.
Speaker 6:The best part of the interview is when her brother accidentally walks into the scene and we just end up talking to him because I was more at ease just talking. All of a sudden, I don't know.
Speaker 3:I was like I think it was because it was. You're with another girl, even though you weren't like. You were uncomfortable with me watching you talk to another girl when you watch.
Speaker 6:No, no, it was because al kind of you know, he just pulled her side. It wasn't really right. You know me, I'm a prep guy, I like I know okay, so the impromptus are my thing even though I was. Yeah, because even if you ask a dumb question, you're cute. No, stop, I'm not.
Speaker 8:I'm not good at them. I'm like we got to figure this out, you want to hear my trivia, sure.
Speaker 3:Okay, but what's weird is that you said, asked her if she was a lefty and then she goes in the story. No, I'm a righty bet, I scored with that one and then I love that you go into your. I am right.
Speaker 6:So then I begin writing and then I blew that one out. You see how she was looking at my arms and I'm equally mediocre with either hand Got it.
Speaker 8:That's my story, at least you can switch it up, I guess maybe.
Speaker 6:So what's next for you? Are you going to keep trying to advance? Are you going to try to become a professional? Do you?
Speaker 3:think you're going to try to advance, or do you think you're just going to become like a bum on the? Well, I'm it and I think I got it out a little more clear than you're portraying it.
Speaker 6:Is that going to be your vocation? Quit, because some of these people like I think Zane Navratil is that his name. I think he was an accountant or something. I mean, there's lawyers out there that have quit and made this their career.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, hang on.
Speaker 8:See, I'm going to keep my day job, but for now it's a fun hobby.
Speaker 3:So she's the finance person. So now you're getting more comfortable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 6:I think I do better with you know what the problem is. It's like trying to talk to me when I'm watching TV. I was. I get caught up in watching the match and forget what they answer, and so I asked him another question. It has nothing to do with what they just told me. That's terrible.
Speaker 1:How did you handle that heat out there?
Speaker 6:Cause it seemed it was so oppressive.
Speaker 8:I mean, I'm from here, Not too bad. And tennis, you know you're training outside all the time.
Speaker 6:That's true. So she has no problem with heat. Do you hydrate the heck out of yourself that week?
Speaker 5:coming up to it.
Speaker 8:Yeah, I mean I bring my big family everywhere.
Speaker 2:I go, so I'm like I'm always drinking water.
Speaker 6:I'm trying to get people to talk about how unbelievably terrible the heat is here. And they're just kind of like oh, at him he bolts.
Speaker 2:It's all right.
Speaker 6:Get back in here.
Speaker 4:No, no, you're fine.
Speaker 6:No, this could be good for you. You never know.
Speaker 8:I was just telling him that you're a lefty and we're trying to play more doubles together.
Speaker 6:Yeah, so, and Josh are you a Carroll?
Speaker 3:Yeah, he just graduated from Carroll, Did you A&M and John's an Aggie. There you go. You and him should have been doing the interview. Your lefties, your Aggies yeah, I mean in a good way.
Speaker 6:Well, here's. Let me add a little fun fact here about Josh too. So, josh, nice kid. It was her younger brother and he didn't realize John Isner was going to be there, and I guess he's a huge tennis fan. And John Isner was going to be there, and I guess he's a huge tennis fan, and John Isner is, to many people, the goat of tennis. I mean, he was that good. And so he was like, oh man, I wish I'd brought something for him to sign. So guess what he got for him to sign.
Speaker 3:He got a Blazing.
Speaker 6:Paddles trucker hat, he did not yes, he did, and he got the silver Sharpie and he got a john isner hat.
Speaker 3:Are you for real? Yeah, that's pretty cool that you did that for him that is very cool, that I didn't know that you did that.
Speaker 6:Well, you know, sometimes it's when you do nice things when people aren't looking that it's really nice. Is that a cheers moment? See, I can botch up the interviews and still totally redeem myself, hey 24, 24 years baby 24 years. You know what? I didn't realize how pervasive my eye dimples are. What in the hell is going on, josh?
Speaker 3:Seriously, seriously. Look, I know you have cute eye dimples, I never. You're just hiding them. So then I take, so I, I, I. The conversation has gone on, you know, quite long at this point, so I did it become painful.
Speaker 3:So I come in, I'm like I see these guys over there playing in the pedal court, oh yeah, and. And I was like, how did you play pedal before? And he and I think it's interesting, pedal sounds so French. Think it's interesting, padel sounds so French. And then, but it's called paddle. But doesn't that just sound better called paddle? Oh, for sure, right, paddle.
Speaker 6:Well, paddle can be a lot of the paddles.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so anyway they, but people go by them interchangeably and um, so Al was giving me a little. Oh yeah, over. There are the three top pedal players in.
Speaker 6:Texas no Metroplex Nope.
Speaker 3:Um the whole United States of America.
Speaker 6:You know what they did? Look pretty good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, uh. So I take the microphone and the camera away from these. But I loved your, I loved the good away from these. I loved the good. That's the Okay. So now I take a look at the Padel courts and whatever, and Al had gone to the bathroom, so I take the thing from your guys' interview and Al's gone. So now I'm stuck with the window, I'm watching.
Speaker 3:Padel doing nothing of what I'm seeing, so I don't know nothing what to say. So now we're live on Instagram. All these people out there who want to watch the MLP get stolen into this.
Speaker 6:So I want to show it though Maybe lesson learned you shouldn't go film other sports when people Because, oh God, I think that it's going to be really interesting what happens with this sport.
Speaker 3:It's huge. In Spain I think that they said they stopped building tennis courts because they're it's just Padel is going so big. There's no just kind of like here with pickleball, you know.
Speaker 6:I liked it what I saw. I think I go and club up everything or whatever Like a five-0 Padel player probably.
Speaker 3:So Al finally gets out of the bathroom and and yeah, right. So Alec finally gets out of the bathroom and he starts talking and he sounds like a.
Speaker 6:Are you saying it took him a real long time in the?
Speaker 1:bathroom. Great sir Right there, Look at that. Perfect. These guys just know what they're doing.
Speaker 2:Sounds like you know what you're doing.
Speaker 1:I can't remember what's going on I?
Speaker 6:almost everything.
Speaker 1:So Nico, here is number one in the US right now in purple.
Speaker 3:What.
Speaker 1:TTR purple shirt. He's number one in the US. Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 6:Oh US.
Speaker 1:So Nico is playing with Tam Tam was number seven.
Speaker 3:So Tam was number seven, but now he's working on pickleball. He had tournaments, just put out tournaments.
Speaker 6:Okay, because I saw that guy make some shots earlier and I was thinking he was just like your average everyday head L player. I was like holy crap, that guy's good. I mean they were doing stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that guy, that number one guy is their pro.
Speaker 6:TRM and Preston Playhouse Mm-hmm, wow, what a get, yeah. By the way, if any facilities are looking for a pro for 3-0s, I'm available.
Speaker 3:I think you have to get a certification, maybe A. What Certification?
Speaker 6:You know what's hard about doing the interviews like I did right there um, it was a little awkward at first is you don't know how long you're supposed to go and you don't want to be rude and go, okay, well, thanks yeah, that's why um I just kind of you. You totally pulled the eject button.
Speaker 3:Thank you yeah, but I was great honey, good college try.
Speaker 6:She was fantastic and I just felt like I was asking dumb questions.
Speaker 3:This was mentioned earlier, when Sam body bags Isner. Here we go. It's Isner by the way, isner.
Speaker 6:Telling you you don't take it easy. You will live to regret it.
Speaker 3:Where are we at?
Speaker 2:at all.
Speaker 1:I think I heard a score of 22-18. That means a squeezer winning.
Speaker 6:There he goes. See, he just kind of banged, all right.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 6:He gave a nice little roller kind of shot that would kill me. And she comes back with a double-handed backhand and just tattoos him.
Speaker 3:He turns to the side.
Speaker 6:That's one thing we noticed. He's so big. Well, there's a lot of areas.
Speaker 3:I mean I can't tell at that size if it's an advantage or a disadvantage. I'm thinking leaning more towards dis.
Speaker 6:I think I mean because he's not 6'4", he's 6'10", 10.
Speaker 3:That's like I mean.
Speaker 6:You know how you talk about get low. You know how bad that must hurt him to try to get low.
Speaker 3:We did talk a lot about that. That's so funny. All right, so then, al does the total solid oh my gosh and pulls over a goat.
Speaker 6:I can't even believe this.
Speaker 3:John didn't even see it until this afternoon.
Speaker 6:I did from afar, because we did have the teenager with us who was bored, and a bored teenager is going to be all up in you. So I went off to one of the back courts Great courts, by the way and we played singles. And I look over, how'd that go? We split two games each.
Speaker 3:I can't believe that you beat him.
Speaker 6:I beat him 11-3 one game. No, you're just bragging and I look over and I'm like huh Karen's talking to Tyson McGuffin there it is Great Tyson McGuffin In the house.
Speaker 1:What's going on?
Speaker 4:How we doing Dallas, Texas. What's going on? It's always bigger in Texas. Baby Good to see John Isner out here. Huh, Isn't he great, what a phenomenal.
Speaker 1:He's an athlete, right, hey? Thank you, by the way, for sticking around next year day in Texas. Yeah, for sure. What do you think of this MLP format?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think the MLP format is definitely a fan favorite.
Speaker 7:You know rally scoring. Anything can happen out here. It's a roll of the dice.
Speaker 4:It's definitely like an equalizer as far as anybody can win, so I think that's like the most exciting thing. But yeah, we're out here, Fans are having a good time. We're at the Preston Playhouse, correct? That's right Place is beautiful. Nine indoor pickleball courts.
Speaker 2:It's great.
Speaker 4:Ceiling is plenty high and come on down here and check this place out.
Speaker 6:I mean, did you hear all the little sound bites? Anything can happen. Roll of the dice, never know. Anyone can win, so can win.
Speaker 1:So, Tyson, when you come to town in Texas I know in Rockwall you've got a certain fan base and you won last year.
Speaker 3:This is when he brings up our friend Francie. I know, but I'm dying to say something to add to it.
Speaker 6:There you go. You laughed Admiringly, oh you.
Speaker 4:I should know his first name, but he was a local kid, huge fan. He had a Michelob Ultra and we ended up smashing beers after I won on championship court. His girlfriend actually had a sign that said I left Instagram because of Tyson McGovern or something like that, but anyhow, super supportive. He was actually there yesterday as well. He's nice and loud, big buff guy. I thought he was going to take his shirt off at one point, but overall, always, always, loved coming to Dallas. I actually taught the first pickleball camp at Rockwall 2019. There was no, all tennis the place has come a long way there's a gal by the name of Francine.
Speaker 7:She's a total angel.
Speaker 4:So shout out to Francine we love her and yeah, I think. I have a nice little support group there because I taught a couple camps there and obviously I've had some great results. So love me some.
Speaker 2:Rockwell, texas. You've had an impact on our club, so a couple of our guys have gone to your camps.
Speaker 3:Actually not a couple there's a lot.
Speaker 6:So yours wasn't a question, yours was more of a suck up.
Speaker 3:Well, so is Al. No, Al's the mayor, he's got a glad hand people.
Speaker 6:Oh, you were just so excited that you got to keep him in the court. Yeah, I got to. Tyson went for a point. Yeah, and we did the power gap Is that what you thing, yeah, and we did that we did the power gap.
Speaker 3:Is that what?
Speaker 6:you did yeah.
Speaker 3:Cause. You know it. Just how do you say it? It just comes out.
Speaker 6:The bro yeah.
Speaker 3:I don't know how you turn that on.
Speaker 6:I said look at this, 30 years from now, you could be this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I wonder how long he's been married.
Speaker 6:He's been married. He's been married a long time. He's got like four kids, I think.
Speaker 3:Oh, really yeah All right.
Speaker 6:How old is he? 30s.
Speaker 3:Didn't you have that in here? Oh no, you only had that for Isner.
Speaker 6:I had it for Isner.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that he was 39.
Speaker 6:Oh, because I thought that was kind of significant. I mean not only is he just breaking into the sport, but he's 39, which you know. Playing some youngsters out there, yeah, Okay.
Speaker 3:So we keep going and then we had to get our pride and joy of Southlake right, right? Well, al once again goes and grabs her. So this was after she had played her mixed match and it's in the final match which she's now in, the final match which he's not in. So that would have been who.
Speaker 6:The final mixed. That would have been when Viv was playing with Stax. And who did I say they were playing? They might have been playing Hurricane and Ister. Anyway, it was definitely Viv, viv and stacks for playing on her team. And once again they have to say go ahead and press play. But you know, we play in a club sponsored mlp event and it was just nerve-wracking to be out there playing in front of your friends. Sam is playing in an exhibition in front of hundreds of people here and top ranked players of the world. She didn't miss a beat. No, she's in mental toughness, thank you yeah, that was.
Speaker 8:That was fun. I got to body bag.
Speaker 1:John is there not many people get to say that, so that's kind of cool we're gonna clip that and we're gonna blow that thing up on the internet.
Speaker 8:All right, he has the marks to prove it too.
Speaker 1:That's really fun so you've come a long way. Like you know what a year ago. You're playing up on the hill under the water tower and here you are on the ppa tour winning medals. Uh, and I mean, tell us a little bit about the run this past year uh, yeah, I guess.
Speaker 8:So my first like big run was the houston singles right uh, yeah, I was just. I was just trying to.
Speaker 2:I was just playing, playing.
Speaker 8:I was like yeah, I'll see what happens. I ended up getting Witcher on the first round and then right into Mary Rasha.
Speaker 1:So I was like oh, she was the one seed that week, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 8:So I'm like, oh, we'll just all play, we'll see how it goes. I ended up beating her in three.
Speaker 1:Beat her in three.
Speaker 8:It was a little windy so that might have thrown her off. But then, yeah, I won my next one and then beat Lacey in the semis and bam championship Sunday. So that was serious.
Speaker 1:You got a couple runs with Lacey right. You faced her in Minnesota too, right, yeah, I?
Speaker 8:played her in Minnesota first round. Beat her and then beat another girl to play Harris in the quarters. Harris, yeah, I don't think Lacey likes to see me in St John's.
Speaker 6:Paris is on her team now. They squared off against each other and Paris did beat her.
Speaker 1:So more recently now there was a little bit of a break.
Speaker 8:You signed right after that Houston tournament right, I actually signed before, but they just announced it after.
Speaker 1:So I see you're going to Sacramento this coming week. Who are you playing with this coming week?
Speaker 8:So for Women's Devils, I'm playing with Rachel Redker. I played with her this past weekend.
Speaker 1:How'd that go?
Speaker 8:It was good. We won our first match pretty handedly, 1-1. And then we played Tyra in Georgia as 8-0.
Speaker 3:But it's okay, tyra in Georgia that would have been so tough. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 6:So they're appearing outside of the mlp format too well, if they have to in ppa right no, I didn't know. But ppa, you choose who you want to play with. Oh well, I don't know. So I'm going to make this comment too, about um, light on me, it's the sunlight. Oh, it's coming into this. Um, I bet sam will find that people are going to start getting more tape of her you know, she's like I think she even mentioned it.
Speaker 6:I think this one girl I just caught her off guard. I had some stuff that she wasn't necessarily used to because, you know, these guys study each other and the more she plays, the more tape they're going to have. It's just like, uh, uh like if you're a rookie batter in MLB we had Evan Carter last year just go crazy in the World Series in the playoffs this year. He's struggling quite a bit, buddy, because now people know his weaknesses.
Speaker 3:That's why I would change it up all the time.
Speaker 6:That's right, it's exactly right.
Speaker 3:That's why I'm inconsistent. That's exactly right.
Speaker 2:What have you?
Speaker 3:changed. I'm asking her how she prepared for this. And they're just so carefree Working on my game.
Speaker 8:Working on my game, just because it's not life or death, honey.
Speaker 2:Something like crazy.
Speaker 3:I get more uptight going into a league match.
Speaker 6:You get more uptight in rec play if we lose a lead and somehow lose the game Because you didn't do our best you bend over, double over and look like you're going to cry. Oh stop.
Speaker 8:Abnormal. But yeah, just practicing when I can and just learning from getting the experience playing these top-level pros is very, very helpful.
Speaker 2:You don't have a coach.
Speaker 8:You don't have a coach, you don't have a no coach, no trainer go to no, I hop around if someone wants hopping around, oh really yeah, yeah and uh, I don't have a coach. I have. I have friends that like give me tips and everything and then, yeah, so friends to drill with.
Speaker 6:Uh, no, I don't have a coach I don't know what I was afraid of, but maybe saying something stupid he centered y'all on the camera, you know what makes you look so tan is your damn pink shoes, oh look at how you just handed the microphone to him and backed away.
Speaker 3:Oh, I did, I'm out. I'm so tired at this point.
Speaker 8:I was going to warm up a bit early.
Speaker 3:I was so tired of talking. I mean, listen to my voice. Today I'm losing it. It's like it's so hard to be on like that, to know you're on camera and hey baby, us in the industry we know that's cool.
Speaker 8:Tennis definitely helps more with singles than doubles Doubles. I've had to really focus on getting my soft game in that's so right.
Speaker 3:I can see that.
Speaker 6:You play singles you better forget about dinking. Right, so it's good to play both, I think.
Speaker 8:You were on point, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you, yeah, appreciate it, we're super proud of you, the whole club, the whole community. That Thank you. Yeah, we're super proud of you, the whole club, the whole community.
Speaker 2:Right, and that's what really pickleball is all about it was so hard to watch that, because you know I'm rooting for my home team but, you're like my home team.
Speaker 4:I know, I know, so I'm like you're hitting a good time.
Speaker 2:I'm like yes, oh wait, Dallas girl.
Speaker 8:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:I exercise through the day. I was there to root for my home team and yet she's my hometown girl, I know, but it was a struggle.
Speaker 6:It really shouldn't have been that big a struggle. Once again, you take things too serious.
Speaker 3:Okay, you married me, I did Well live with it 24 years ago.
Speaker 6:Yeah, live with that 24 years ago. Yeah, live with that, all right. And then he does another one here. He pulls over. Wait, you got a. Yeah, this is the one I missed because I looked. I I did a cheat sheet for my wife and I, so we would have some fun facts to just make sure, especially for her, because she doesn't like to do any prep.
Speaker 3:None no, because then it well, I learned about better than that last time.
Speaker 6:And then, um, one of the people I put on there I didn't know if he'd be there was, I mean, the, the gm of the orlando squeeze. Lo and behold. Yeah, by the way, I mean you and uh, ed chow. Better accept my linkedin requests oh, stop, so, stop.
Speaker 3:So I didn't even try on this one. I was like Al, you just take it. But it was really nice afterwards because he was like hey, who are you? My name's Amin and I was like it's good, so you know, it's great.
Speaker 6:But I didn't jump in on this interview because I was by the way, orlando Squeeze we're not like locked in the state If Not like locked in the state. If you have exhibitions out in Orlando and you'd like a little of that Texas flavor to come out there and cover your exhibition events, we're available as well.
Speaker 3:Oh wow, look at that plug. Nice, nice, nice, all right, so let's listen to Amin.
Speaker 1:The director of operations for the Orlando Squeeze, howdy, thank you for joining us. Thanks for having your team stick around an extra day here in Dallas. Absolutely, it wouldn't be anywhere else. I know there's a certain symmetry between the two clubs, so I think hopefully we're able to reciprocate when we're in Orlando on our next trip and we would love that you all had an event recently, right, your team? Yeah, we did Road trip.
Speaker 6:I just heard road trip.
Speaker 1:It's a little bit less serious more show, a lot of tweeners, a lot of engaging with the fans bringing kids on the court. Uh, people loved it. It was a lot of fun. Uh, we'd love to do that more, and the more we can have our mlp teams in home homes. Like that's, you get that college football environment it's.
Speaker 6:It's fun having people socialize and you know what a tweener is. No, he just mentioned it. You see a lot of tweeners, because that, uh, you know what that is. You know when these people are running after a ball that's lobbed over and backwards and then they hit it back between their legs oh tweener it.
Speaker 6:It's a pickleball term oh, it's a tennis term too. You can hit it. But you hear like tweeners yesterday watching that single or the match with the doubles ladies match, anna Lee, the most sick tweener you've ever seen. Not only did she hit a tweener, but it had like top skins, tweener, I don't know what it's all about.
Speaker 1:Oh interesting, Dallas started out with John on singles against. Tyson so y'all had a really good draft. Thank you, yeah. And then you executed the first trade in MLP, right? I mean, it was a, oh, look at that.
Speaker 6:I love a good trade.
Speaker 1:One-zero why? Not Look at Joe Nesner, it was a really cool opportunity presented itself at the time. You know we were very happy with the draft, as is with our team, but the chance was there to bring Tyson to Orlando and I can say no, oh, wow, so they picked Tyson. I was a huge fan of your logo and your gear last year, of course, okay. Well, I still am. However, I love the new Flash gear.
Speaker 4:I mean it was an upgrade for us.
Speaker 1:I'm not joking, I grew up a big DC fan, green Lantern was my favorite.
Speaker 4:There you go. And then I was like I saw the flash. Yeah, this is pretty cool. I always wanted to be running fast myself. Kudos to everyone that's going on here, Dude Amin's my guy.
Speaker 6:I was a Green Lantern and Flash guy myself. Good luck to you all this season.
Speaker 1:DC all the way baby.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it was awesome Amin try it.
Speaker 2:My name's Amin.
Speaker 3:Nice to meet you, yeah.
Speaker 6:All right. So what is the score? Here? You're on my live stream.
Speaker 3:So a lot of fun stuff.
Speaker 6:A lot of fun stuff and we wouldn't be remiss or we would be remiss without also saying all these pros, by the way, and we did get just brief interactions with some of them, longer with some other, david set you showed her pictures. It was like it was hilarious.
Speaker 3:Well, let's tell a story about that.
Speaker 6:Okay, so we're packing up and Trying to get people to sign our John comes up with this idea.
Speaker 3:He had brought permanent markers to the gold and silver Sharpies. Yeah, to have them sign our backdrop here, and so we've got. Let's see, we've got I don't know.
Speaker 6:I just know that one's Viv.
Speaker 4:That's.
Speaker 6:Georgia Johnson, and then there's a lot. Oh, there's JW Johnson.
Speaker 3:Okay, and then I had Al sign it. That has to be Al.
Speaker 6:Wow.
Speaker 3:Al. I think Al Foner's going to be famous, and then that is Tim Allen.
Speaker 6:Was Tim Allen there?
Speaker 3:No, is that? Oh, that's Tyra. Oh, that's Tyra.
Speaker 6:Oh, tyra, okay, yeah, that's Tyra.
Speaker 3:All right, tyra Black signed it, but when Vivian came up, we have an interesting story because in 2018. What 2022. Okay, 2022, we took the boys. Yeah, we weren't even on to pick. Well, 2018, we took the boys down to dreamland and we were just for the day. We'd heard that that was the pickleball facility. There, had no idea that their pros existed in the sport at all, had no idea of the mlp or ppa. Maybe we had an idea that they there was pro organization, but really knew nothing about it. And on the courts next to us were these players that were playing so incredible, and it was one girl and all these guys and she was holding her own and I was like man, we were just in awe. We were like that is so good. And in breaks, whatever, we're just eyes glued to this group.
Speaker 6:That's her yeah, and it was funny because I didn't know, for like, we didn't know who she was or anything like that. And then I saw something on instagram. I was like wait, that's, that's that girl, how do you do that?
Speaker 3:and you can't even remember what you, you know what, what you ate for lunch yesterday, I know, but I do remember.
Speaker 6:Very strange things. I could probably be a stalker if I really set my mind to it.
Speaker 3:Okay let's scratch that.
Speaker 6:No, I'm kidding, no, and just remember, because she smiles all the time. Everyone, everybody says that about her. She's a very happy, positive person, and we were. I think you were making a point too.
Speaker 3:You're like look how low, how low they get, because they do, and you get low she gets so low on her dinks and I remembered that this week and started doing it, so it was really cool to see it. I mean she's, I mean every time. I just got to remember that and that's what they say. She's just got to get low either at the net and when you're doing well at the net you are at the sorry at the net at the kitchen line, you are getting low for dinks and you're getting low for even block shots. So, anyway, told her the story, pulled up the pictures and she took her down memory lane. She was like, oh my gosh, that's so-and-so and so-and-so. And they weren't stalker pictures, they were pictures of us playing.
Speaker 2:But they were in the background, so it was really fun.
Speaker 3:I had to zoom in and show her. I was like, there you are, see, she goes. Oh yeah, that's me. That's hilarious, isn't that funny? So all right, so anyway, the last thing we want to talk about is MLP If you win two and two, if it goes two and two. So they played four games, they went two and two. And the last thing how you determine the winner is a dream breaker, and in a dream breaker, one person from each team plays singles against each other, switching every four points until someone gets to 21 and wins by two points.
Speaker 6:And thank you Squeeze, Thank you Flash, for making sure there was a dream breaker, because this was amazing Like this is the best this is.
Speaker 3:I've only experienced one in our club, so seeing it live was so cool, so cool, and I get it. And there's like a strategy session before, so one team gets to pick their lineup and then the other team has to react to that lineup. And there were some surprises in this one. Yeah, there was yeah, so all right. So first up was they put Isner versus Tyson, so their weakest male against their top male.
Speaker 6:Some people will do that Right. The only fault with that strategy, I think, is that your first player is probably going to play more points than any other player Because you keep rotating.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 6:So anyway, not to doubt anyone's strategy, that didn't work out. In this case, that didn't work out very well. I think they just didn't want JW to battle it off.
Speaker 3:No, it didn't work out. That did not work out that way.
Speaker 6:How so.
Speaker 3:Everyone went equal? It looks like no. That did not work out that way. How so Everyone went equal? It looks like no. Hang on, tyson was destroying him. No, I know, but I did Isner. No, I'm saying as far as how many times they got to go up, which is really interesting. So first it was Isner versus Tyson. Tyson got three points and Isner won. Oh, they did, they just ended with Tyra.
Speaker 4:I wanted to see this part and Isner won. Oh they did?
Speaker 6:They just ended with Tyra. Tyra didn't have to go all the way to the left.
Speaker 3:I want you to see this part.
Speaker 6:Oh, that's when Isner called one out.
Speaker 3:Hang on, hang on, hang on, because this is a to-cue point with Dave Fleming, because he was oh, here we go. Oh yeah, here goes.
Speaker 6:Dave, the voice of PPA.
Speaker 3:Oh, you're calling that are you Hi Dave, hi Dave. That's Dave Fleming.
Speaker 6:Dave Fleming with his ever-present Steelers hat.
Speaker 3:He is a Steelers homer. Oh, he loses so easily the very first point. The crowd's reacting, so you see here.
Speaker 6:Dave Fleming is actually recording this part. Nothing good-natured about that one, and then he hits it in the net. Nothing good-natured about that one. You know what I really could be a color man. Just don't put me on camera. I'm a behind-the-camera guy, hang on.
Speaker 3:Oh, let me know, while I was there, yep, they said it was out by the end. So they gave this to my.
Speaker 6:If you get the cert in this game, maybe what you're doing.
Speaker 3:There he is. That's when Fleming turned into oh no wait, that wasn't, that wasn't it, that is Fleming. I know, but that's not the point, sorry that's not the last point. That was a halfway point yeah, no, no, no, I wanted this one, hang on. Alright, this is the one, because this is the one where Isner gets one point fair and square, and it was. Everyone went crazy.
Speaker 6:Oops, can't be this one, is it? Yeah, no. I mean you just rewound it the whole time and we're back to the beginning.
Speaker 3:I know that's where I wanted to be was where Isner versus Tyson the very first time. That's what I'm trying to find. Well, we just watched it.
Speaker 1:There you go. I was like I saw the Flash series and I was like this is pretty cool.
Speaker 3:It skipped, it Just didn't Relax there he is right there. And this isn't the one we were just watching. We were just watching the second one. I'm trying to find the one where he actually gets an honest point.
Speaker 6:We got one, dave Fleming's, just in the background of so many of our shots. This is crazy. This is it. It's a meme.
Speaker 1:Last year. Okay, well, I still am. However, I love the new Flash.
Speaker 4:It was an upgrade.
Speaker 1:The thing I drove in the season was my favorite. There you go. I was like I saw the Flash series. This is pretty cool. I always wanted to be running fast myself. Don't we all right, don't we all? It's awesome. Well, again, we just want to say thank you for coming out tonight and great squad. Good luck to you all this season. I appreciate it. Bye.
Speaker 3:Take care Bye. Thanks, peter, nice to meet you.
Speaker 6:Hi, thanks, peter All right.
Speaker 1:Thanks, 2-1. Squeeze.
Speaker 6:Oh, he hit a net.
Speaker 1:Nice to get three on John. Hey, we gotanna, oh there wasn't a good one.
Speaker 3:I know I didn't get it on Okay, oh, it was when we were interviewing him. I see what you're saying Okay, so Isner gets one. Then we have JW Johnson versus Fed, which I think that was like high level. Now you got to remember Stax is the best.
Speaker 6:He was so proud that I wanted to. I think that was like high level. Now you got to remember, Stacks is the best singles player in the world.
Speaker 1:Thank you, you only missed. Let's see who we have on the clock. We had Amin from the Squeeze, we had Tyson McGuffin. We had Sam Parker.
Speaker 6:No kidding, yeah, you missed a lot. See what well.
Speaker 2:Al has been busy.
Speaker 6:All right, I don't know what happens on this one, mulfin, right there with the golden lightning bolt. That was a very shiny gold. That was awesome.
Speaker 3:And then up came Okay, wait, wait. This is the one where they confuse you. So at first, at first, it looks like they're going to send out sorry First.
Speaker 4:At first it looks like they're going to send out.
Speaker 3:Sorry, you thought they were going to send out Georgia, georgia, johnson and Sam.
Speaker 1:Yes, because look, steve Georgia, here we go, sam.
Speaker 6:I'm the dream breaker. They switch.
Speaker 1:Uh-oh, First took off her eyewear. Oh no, they switched it out.
Speaker 3:They switched it out and took off her eyewear. Oh no, they switched it out. They switched it out and in comes Vivian David.
Speaker 6:And it did not work out well. Georgia won all four. Georgia hit some shots in this four-point sequence that were just undefensible.
Speaker 3:Oh she slid. It's a long road to cover. I mean, see how she slid.
Speaker 6:It's a long road to cover. I mean, what's the point? Single's a totally different game. Vivian does a split, so I don't know if you remember. It was crazy you move one way, you hit it the other.
Speaker 3:Oh, into the net.
Speaker 2:Viv's lost three in a row. Did you see Isner and Tyson? Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, he won the first one against him. Did you see that? Yeah?
Speaker 6:Dave Fleming was recording it on his phone and proud of him.
Speaker 3:Okay so Georgia, so good.
Speaker 2:Oh, so good. Wow, just placed the ball wherever they went.
Speaker 6:The flash. That was a dominant performance by Georgia.
Speaker 3:So then out comes.
Speaker 6:Hurricane Tyra and.
Speaker 3:Sam and listen to what happens when Sam takes the court. Now, tyra, you can hear the crowd here definitely. Everyone goes crazy.
Speaker 6:And you know what? Tyra don't care. Sam's definitely not taking it easy on swings or anything else.
Speaker 3:Look at her getting back and forth. Amazing, but Tyra just was able to place it right in those corners.
Speaker 6:Not only did she put it in the left, but she had some spin on it. It was crazy.
Speaker 3:She cut the angle off so sharp that Sam just could not get there. She pinned her in that corner. Okay, so yeah, because she's running into the barriers.
Speaker 6:Well, yeah but Tyra has her running from one. Tyra's really showing a pro at work here too. There you go, sam oh man.
Speaker 2:But did you?
Speaker 3:see that. Sam hits a perfect shot and Tyra is running backwards and somehow hits it. Does a perfect shot and Tyra is running backwards and somehow hits it, does a lob shot, which gives her enough time to get Regroup, regroup, turn around and answer. Tyra is fierce.
Speaker 2:The next shot, oh my.
Speaker 3:God, oh no, which unfortunately Sam hit into the net, but she was prepared, she already got back and did you see how far she got she? Got to. Yeah, split step, split, step. Okay, yeah, I have to work on that. Um, they told me at the clinic I did the other day.
Speaker 6:Okay, Wow, just hang in for another day. Sometimes when that happens, then it worked. Sam was running that point for a minute in that point for a minute.
Speaker 3:9-6. 9-6.
Speaker 1:Oh, look at how she, oh she went for the ATP.
Speaker 8:No, did you see that?
Speaker 6:She tried to make the tee.
Speaker 3:No, but did you see Sam learn? Sam knew what she was going to do. That was Tyra's third shot to the exact same location. This time Sam was able to get over there and get a swing on it. I guarantee you. If those barriers were three feet longer, because I know I'm the kind of player like that.
Speaker 6:Look where Tyra went. Watch her and not Sam. Watch that same little clip again. Watch the lateral movement that you see. Watch her. Watch this. She's got her over there and now, she knows where she's going. Look, she was there. Who tyra she was. She would have been there if sam had pulled that shot off.
Speaker 3:Tyra was there oh, because she already backed out of the court. I see what you're saying. Yes, all right, that was just an amazing place and just show you why you know and they're thinking through it.
Speaker 6:She's only got what a few areas she could possibly hit that ball, unless it's a fluke.
Speaker 3:So she was back there immediately and again I got to think so yeah, she's reading what Sam was doing in response to her shot, which is what you do need to work on. Yeah, let's do that.
Speaker 6:You don't when you're not working. I just want you to continue giving me the gift of feedback. Wow, the girls, the sidewalls are a little close.
Speaker 3:The girls. Did you hear that? I said the sidewalls there he is the yinzer again.
Speaker 6:So then you know, we've got the girls of the first round. The flash dominated.
Speaker 3:Right, I mean that was like eight. He the smirk on Isner's face.
Speaker 6:Oh my gosh, he tried to call it out the smirk on.
Speaker 4:Isner's face.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh oh, was this when he wagged his finger.
Speaker 6:Oh, no, no, the next one it was the next one yeah, he did that to Kimmy Matombo, which John getting some good natured heckling here from the crowd getting some good natured heckling here from the crowd. Nothing good natured about that one. That's great commentary there.
Speaker 3:All right. Then, after this was so, jw Johnson versus Fed were at 10 to 12. So the flash is down now 10 to 12.
Speaker 6:I'm referencing our son as if you would take it seriously. He could be very good Both of them, for that matter. Jack plays like a spider monkey. Cooper hits low drives and is long, lanky and mobile, can get to everything. Jack's just faster than anything you can imagine. Gets everything. They'd be a great doubles team Because their styles complement each other.
Speaker 3:Okay, so I'm going to get to the next one, which is Tyra and Sam.
Speaker 6:This time, viv came back and got two or three, so it was a totally different. Oh, this is Sam. Yes, it's their second time around. You can see Tyson's glowing shoes there. I like them. Might be on my feet soon. Oh great idea. She knew it Come on.
Speaker 3:Sam.
Speaker 6:Great idea.
Speaker 3:Look at you giving support. That's what I do Gosh, I keep hitting myself on this. Tyler Tyra.
Speaker 1:That's what I do, gosh, I keep hitting myself on this Tyra.
Speaker 5:Tyra. Tyra hits a bad card. Same chance to get it.
Speaker 6:Tyra hits a bad card, that was cool.
Speaker 3:Just cool, hits right behind her. But this is greatness. The last point is great Sam finally gets her.
Speaker 6:That's Cooper. What's your name, thunder?
Speaker 3:Look at her backhand Two-handed backhand Beautiful. She places it. Look at that. She sends Tyra into a split. Did you see that? It was like a herky split too, where?
Speaker 6:one of your legs is like it's good to be young.
Speaker 3:Oh, that was greatness. And Sam just walks off the tape. Did my job, pick yourself up. That was awesome, all right, so now we're at 1818 no, no, sorry, 1814 at the end of that one and we get isner and tyson again and oh, this is where tyson called his ace because he had been taking it easy a little bit on his serves, because you know nobody wants to just watch somebody serve an ace.
Speaker 6:But he got a few points on Isner and then the last week he goes okay, this is going to be an ace, is that what it?
Speaker 3:means yeah, oh see.
Speaker 6:Wait.
Speaker 3:I thought it just meant I'm going to get this one.
Speaker 2:Is that?
Speaker 3:And you're better than me, so you're saying that, wait a minute, so an ace is like.
Speaker 6:I'm just going to hit one shot. An ace is an unreturnable serve.
Speaker 3:Is that a pickleball serve?
Speaker 6:Oh no, that's tennis. Great Well, I didn't come from the tennis world. Well, you came from this world, though. Right, everybody knows that, except for me, you're the number one or two player in the world in singles. See the soft serves, and that's what it is. And so Isner hits a beautiful return and Tyson's like okay, I mean he's like you shouldn't have poked the bear, maybe.
Speaker 3:And then he does and Isner hits it in the net.
Speaker 6:I know A shot at getting one there.
Speaker 4:Oh, this one's called an ace.
Speaker 6:And he fires it right in the den. Oh, he fires it long, not the same as a real ace, because he did get a return, it just went long. He called it. Does anybody strut like Tyson 18-18.
Speaker 3:Maybe me. All right, so now we're 18, 18, this thing's tied up and it's the first to 21, or but?
Speaker 6:you gotta win, by you, gotta win by two right so, karen, have you ever been in a tight dream breaker situation where you just needed one point? Yes, unfortunately, and did not turn you gotta own it and you got to own it and you've got to just digest it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, all right. So then we go to JW Johnson and Fed and they split, so it's 2020. And then you go back to Georgia and Vivian and it gets to 2120. But guess what?
Speaker 6:Chicken butt.
Speaker 3:Georgia doesn't close it out on her serve.
Speaker 6:Oh, that's right, she did 21-21. So now Sam is going to be on the court for the final part of it and does she close it out against the hurricane?
Speaker 3:What do you think? Dun dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun dun?
Speaker 6:I don't know, the weather was pretty bad.
Speaker 3:Not looking so bad.
Speaker 6:That might have been an omen.
Speaker 3:Okay, here we are Okay.
Speaker 6:I think they went 2-2. Here goes Sam Again. Very torn crowd. Everybody loves Sam, but everybody wants to support the locals. Oh, that is wicked. Got her on that one that return was wicked.
Speaker 2:Tyson throws his hat at her.
Speaker 3:Tyson threw his hat at her, yeah, because that was like sick. It was so good. Oh my God, that was a sick one. 23-22. 23-22. God knows this. 23-22.
Speaker 6:23-22. Man Tyra keeps it down, so low, wow, just misses.
Speaker 3:I believe that's game. Tyra hits a nice sharp shot and misses Jeez.
Speaker 6:That is game, that is the dream breaker. Dallas Flash will be victorious in this exhibition.
Speaker 3:Dallas Flash wins in a dream breaker by two points. This is why MLP is so cool.
Speaker 6:MLP is very cool and you don't want to be even cooler when it's not an exhibition. We need to go for the real deal.
Speaker 3:Oh, for sure.
Speaker 6:Because they really get fired up.
Speaker 3:I did have that in a conversation earlier, oh, with Ed Chow about when the MLP event will be here. So it'll be back here in November, so no plans for. November.
Speaker 6:So Thanksgiving out, and we figured this out.
Speaker 3:And it's not even a concrete, but I'm saying we're not going anywhere. No, in November.
Speaker 6:We're going to be there. We're going to be there. We're going to be there. Hopefully, that'd be great.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 6:It was kind of cool. We got people to sign our wall. It took us a while to clean up the place and get out of there and we had to drive home and we were whooped and exhausted. We'd do it again tonight.
Speaker 3:So 100%, just like Oktober.
Speaker 6:Here's to you, Boogaloo.
Speaker 3:Here's to you Happy 24th.
Speaker 6:Happy 24th.
Speaker 3:Who decides to do a pickleball podcast with their wife on their anniversary?
Speaker 6:No, you're supposed to say this. What has two thumbs and holds a podcast with his wife on his anniversary? This guy.
Speaker 3:Wow, did you practice that?
Speaker 6:You've never heard that before. We've really got to. No of. You've never heard that before We've really got to catch you up on some things. No, of course I've heard that before. Add that to ACE and some of the other things you've never heard of.
Speaker 3:Can you be any cheesier?
Speaker 6:Yes, I can Please don't.
Speaker 3:Anyway, thank you for coming up with this idea. Yes, and we have two more because of the last two remote podcasts we've done. We've got two more remotes coming up this next weekend on Saturday. We're double booked, so we're going to figure out how to get to both, but how fun is this.
Speaker 6:It's crazy cool. It's awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's like we're right there at the beginning. This is all the beginning, so can't wait to see.
Speaker 6:Can I tell you that while we were there last night, cooper and I got to play. They had all those demos out there. Did I tell you how much I like that sketch, or?
Speaker 3:lux. Yeah, you sent it to me. Is that a Father's Day?
Speaker 6:The silker lux.
Speaker 3:Is that a Father's Day idea? Oh, did I send that to you, yeah, oh, all right, pecklers, we're going to go really celebrate.
Speaker 6:Thank you for saddling up. What the hell does that mean? Holy crap, yeah, we're out of here, okay. Hey, we're glad you saddled up. We hope you're glad you did.