Blazing Paddles - A Pickleball Podcast
Join us, John and Karen, for a married couple's take on Pickleball. Avoid "Pickleball Divorce," saddle up and have a cocktail, have a laugh, and enjoy guests and influencers in this unbelievable explosion of a sport the likes of which we've never seen.
Let's talk about the impact pickleball is having on our culture. From Boomers to Zoomers, every generation is discovering a new passion. A game that wasn't on the map three years ago now has millionaires playing, billionaires jousting, and people scrambling for some piece of the pickleball pie.
Put your ears on and have a listen, you'll be glad you did.
Blazing Paddles - A Pickleball Podcast
Faith, Family, Work: The Kingdom Philosophy
From college football dreams to pickleball excellence, Dorion Brown's journey to becoming head pro at Pickleball Kingdom in Plano, Texas is a masterclass in perseverance, emotional intelligence, and dedicated practice.
The second part of our conversation with Dorion dives deep into what transformed a recreational player from Wilmington, North Carolina into a 4.8-rated competitor with professional aspirations. With nearly 56,000 teaching hours under his belt, Dorian shares the "neurological hacks" that have helped him elevate countless players from 3.0 to 4.5 ratings through focused training techniques.
At the heart of Dorion's philosophy is a refreshingly humble approach: "Pride always comes before the fall," he reminds us. His emphasis on selflessness extends to his training methodologies, where he advocates for deliberate practice on hitting walls, using sweet spot finders, and understanding your optimal striking zone through concepts like the "one-foot force field." These aren't just technical tips—they're mindset shifts that transform how players approach the game.
Particularly fascinating is Dorion's stance on the power versus placement debate. "Placement over power wins," he insists, encouraging players to "live for another shot" rather than forcing high-risk plays. His advocacy for rally scoring during practice creates accountability that traditional scoring lacks, preventing players from repeating the same mistakes without consequences.
What truly distinguishes Dorion is how he's woven his faith and values into his coaching approach. The transition from "Team Dorian" to "Team Pickleball Kingdom with Dorion attached to it" reflects a maturity that extends beyond the court. His commitment to the facility's core values—"faith, family, and work"—creates an environment where pickleball becomes more than sport; it becomes community.
Whether you're battling the yips with your serve, struggling to find consistency in your dinking game, or looking to take your skills to tournament level, Dorion's insights offer a roadmap to improvement through intentional practice and mindful play. Listen now and transform not just how you play, but how you approach the mental game of pickleball.
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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.
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And, once again, pride always comes before the fall. You know. So if you can put yourself aside and understand to be selfless, you are your best version. You know, because maybe you're 80%, someone's 150. And that's what we live by here. Once again, brad tells me all the time Dorian, if you don't walk in with your hand up, walk back out. And I take that seriously. Once again, he's teaching me how to deliver on a daily basis and for the last eight years of teaching, I have close to 56,000 hours under my belt and, with that being said, I was always Team Dorian. Now I have a great franchise behind me, backing me every day, practically helping me be the best version I can be. So it's no longer Team Dorian, it's Team Pickleball Kingdom, with Dorian attached to it, and I give my life to this place.
Speaker 2:Once again, I am honored and blessed to be here and just meet individuals like you two. Hello, picklers. Here we go with part two, as we speak with Dorian Brown. Dorian is the head pro Pickleball Kingdom in Plano and he spent some time with us after the boot camp was completed and we really got a chance to learn more about his story. It's a really neat origin story for a guy who just picked up a paddle for the first time eight years ago in Wilmington, north Carolina and you know, fast forward seven and a half years.
Speaker 2:He's in a car driving cross country to accept a job out in Texas, a place he'd never been before Plano, texas as the head pro at Pickleball Kingdom. So he's a great kid. He has such an amazing attitude and I think you'll leave this episode feeling better about your game and better about the habits that you form while you're practicing on your game. So why don't you put your ears on, have a listen, saddle up You'll be glad you did. Got a treat. Now we're going to sit down with Dorian Brown. He's the head pro out here at Pickleball Kingdom Just finished the boot camp. Dorian, before we get into the boot camp itself, tell us a little about your story.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So I actually just relocated here from North Carolina in February with the thought process of taking it to the next level. So I've been playing eight years all in Wilmington, north Carolina, where I picked it up in 2016, instantly fell in love with it.
Speaker 3:How did you come?
Speaker 1:across pickleball in 2016?
Speaker 1:Honestly, it was an option after collegiate football, so I had a full ride to play division two in Ohio at a school called Hiram. It was very small but I did not make it and it was due to the fact of not giving my all. I was granted an opportunity in Wilmington, north Carolina, with a couple of friends, picked it up at a recreational park and I said you know what? I think I can go a long way with this and I took it head on, started teaching initially and I got PPR certified and fell in love with helping people, not only mentally, but emotionally, oh, I like it.
Speaker 3:Can you help my husband emotionally on the pickleball court?
Speaker 2:I need an emotional support animal out there with me the whole time.
Speaker 1:Anytime you're ready, come to Pickleball Kingdom Plano.
Speaker 2:So you do your lessons now.
Speaker 1:I do so. I work full time being the head pro here at Pickleball Kingdom Plano. Currently I've been here three months teaching close to 70 lessons Wow, and once again, just helping so many people. We have a big following here. We have close to 800 members, which are all in different ways we have golden memberships, we have ace memberships and we have team memberships. So we offer an arrangement of opportunities just so you can come in and teach and learn from us, and we have so many coaches here to supply knowledge.
Speaker 2:You know we were talking about this on the way to. Sorry to cut you off, but you know there's a glut. Of all the facilities were opening up, I mean as the pickleball boom was just going, and there's going to be some that make it, some maybe not, we've seen. One of the most difficult things is figuring out that price point. You're just talking about memberships. Were you involved in trying to? What's going to work here and how are we going to draw members? We're not going to overprice it. How did y'all figure that out?
Speaker 1:So it's pretty ironic. Actually In Wilmington, north Carolina, our annual membership was $300. Annual, yeah, annual, that's nice and it was nothing. It was a very small town retirement community so you would imagine a lot of people are on fixed incomes. Here it's a little different. The price differential of the income annually is much more. So you have individuals here with money maybe to offer or to give away freely to where in wilmington they were sort of set in their way, um, so it was a little different moving here. There are so many clubs. You have the pickler, you have pickler universe, uh, you have dill, dinkers and denton. There's so many places to compete, but what sets pickleball kingdom apart? We are a family and we offer people, community.
Speaker 3:Okay, so they're not all individually owned.
Speaker 1:So we actually have one franchise. We have one franchisee with us, so we own this facility in Plano. We have Dallas North location next to the Gallerio. And we also have the Fort Worth location opening up June 7th.
Speaker 3:I know and I just talked to, is it Gustavo? Oh yeah, and I was like, when is my Colleyville one coming?
Speaker 1:And we've been bumped on the list a little bit, so I'll tell you that's actually one of the reasons why I moved here, not only for the play and reaching a competitive sense, but because of the backing of the individuals ahead of me. So you have Brad Stanford, you have Amber Stanford, you have Dan Jenkins, you have Gustavo, I mean his wife Barbara. They're all phenomenal and they will take you to the next level.
Speaker 3:Nice, nice. So when you said emotionally, what do you mean?
Speaker 1:So I feel as if a lot of people in general in life, a lot of people in general of life, they don't understand how to control emotions. And then your physicality lacks why are you looking at me? Your mental lacks, and now we can't understand ourself for who we actually are because there's some sort of bridge not merging the two. So I help people understand emotions, I allow you to understand. There's neurological hacks to process with the game itself, to take it to the next level, whether you are a beginner, intermediate or an advanced player let me ask you this, okay.
Speaker 3:So I went through a really bad um, how yips a period of of a serving, a year with the serve? The worst thing that you could I I, it was totally a mind thing total mind thing.
Speaker 2:Sure, head game for sure have you have you had people with the yips.
Speaker 1:have you gone? I've even had the yips, Really Right. So I believe pickleball is an easy sport to learn but a hard sport to master. We say that all the time.
Speaker 1:So at the end of the day, if you're never growing, I tell people you either fall in two different parties. You're a fan of the sport or you're a student of the sport. I'm the student, so an exercise I'll have you do. Obviously they can't see it, but I do it with you to raise your hands Now, raising them all the way up. I ask people to give that much effort.
Speaker 3:Yes, this is what I want you to give every time.
Speaker 1:Now do jazz hands.
Speaker 2:Stop, oh, I'm here with you, come on. Come on, I can't do it, I can't.
Speaker 3:Oh, no One of them can.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you're. I'm sure you're great in many other facets. Come on, girl.
Speaker 3:Come on, I can barely high five you with my left hand. It just doesn't work, no matter how hard I try.
Speaker 1:But I've had the yips. So one thing that I always tell my athletes is to train. It's one thing to play on the court, but it's another thing to work skill-based techniques to get to the next level. So we offer four hitting walls here, which two are regular, two are simulated. I've never seen simulation-based hitting walls before which they work new skills. Never seen simulation-based hitting walls before which they worked new skills, new tips and new tricks for you to take on the court. You have a simulator here. Oh, absolutely which one? We have two of them actually upstairs on the mezzanine.
Speaker 3:Do you know the name of it?
Speaker 1:Oh man.
Speaker 3:Is it PlayCow?
Speaker 1:You're going to draw a blank. I'm going to go look at it.
Speaker 3:Shame on Dorian, I think we're going to the PlayCount facility next week to cover them on the podcast, so I'll go check that out. So it's about not playing the game. It's what you do, not playing the game, it's the drills and the training.
Speaker 1:So to be your best version. It always takes 10,000 hours to master something. Everyone has that understanding. But it's a big misconception because 10,000 perfection hours takes mastery. So it's all about practicing, it's all about putting in what it is off the court to be the best on the court.
Speaker 3:I like that, so okay. So then, how do I get out of over, over, over the yips?
Speaker 1:Over the yips, One believe in yourself.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Believe in. Whatever you do, whether it's on or off the court, you have to be your biggest cheerleader. Whether you have a great husband behind you, whether you're a phenomenal wife, you have to support yourself. That's number one. Confidence. Confidence is key. You have to get out of your own way. Everyone wants to be in their own way and they cause their own issues to occur, to where, if you take a step back and look at everything in a macro lifestyle, you will start to understand and build the micro levels properly to get to the next level you will start to understand and build the micro levels properly to get to the next level.
Speaker 3:So you know what I resorted to was going to this um, really bad. Serve that I when I say bad, it's just not, it doesn't look good, but it's, it's 99.9%.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you this Are you bouncing the ball off the ground or are you taking that I am?
Speaker 3:And trust me like they're. Like you said this, this game is so hard to master that I have other things that I'm working on. And besides, I watched the pros the serve is not. They're not winning on their serves. You know, that's happening in rec league. I don't care about my serve Like it's in fact, I get a kick when I do my stupid serve and and somebody misses it and I'm like wow.
Speaker 1:Sure. Well, most of the time it's what comes after that, that counts. Well, most of the time it's all in preparation. I tell people all the time if you're prepared, you never have to get prepared. So it's all about hand placement. Where's your paddle? What I teach is always have your paddle south. You want to have it towards the ground to gain that top spin curvature, because if you don't, now you're preparing with the paddle north, going south, trying to look for perfection rather than already looking at the perfection.
Speaker 3:Dorian, there's no way. My ball is facing that net, my paddle is facing that. There's no way to miss this. It's there like there. So it's going in one place and it's going right there and it's going in why I challenge you.
Speaker 1:if you give me five minutes of your time, I could fix your serve. I will. I would love that I would challenge. I seen your husband looking at my backhand. He said wow, what is?
Speaker 2:this, yeah, cause I, I mean that's all right. So quick, quick story. I'm a natural lefty. Okay, tore, my bicep playing pickleball. Sure, so learn to play, righty, tore, that bicep playing pickleball. And I was going to go back, but she was, like you know, you're actually more consistent righty, but I don't have some of the natural instincts, including when I'm at the net, that the jab, the punch, the defensive thing. Sure, I'm off, I'm popping it up or I'm putting it in the net or whatever.
Speaker 1:I'm going to tell you something very ironic. The best player I ever played with was a 4.0 player in Wilmington, north Carolina. His name is Jared Ingersoll and he was ambidextrous. We would call this guy an octopus. He had a backhand punch with his right hand, but better putaways with his left hand, and this guy you couldn't get the ball back and he would beat 5.0s, 6.0s and you've never seen it coming, never.
Speaker 3:And we've talked about that, but it comes down to a confidence thing too. So in practice, like taking those things off the court and practicing them, and that's just what we're going to have to do.
Speaker 2:Well, you mentioned like you have four hitting walls. What kind of drills do you do on a hitting wall? So it's not just I mean you have a plan right, because you're saying 10,000 perfection hours. I like that, as opposed to just going out and whacking them all. What do you do on a wall.
Speaker 1:What's the exercise? So I'm going to be completely honest with you. Number one you have to be selfless. A great leader is always selfless. If you're a selfish leader, your time will fall short. So it's all about taking others with you one, but taking yourself there as well, because sometimes, when we put ourselves on the back burner, we will never be our best version.
Speaker 1:So I am brand new to the area, once again moved here in February from North Carolina and I have no friends, no family, but I treat everyone here as my family and those hitting walls are my best friends. So I hit every morning for 30 minutes. If you are a beginner to intermediate player, even an advanced player, I would get a regimen set in place and I would drill at least three to four times a week for 30 minute increments on the hitting wall, why you understand the pace and the acceleration you give off and what is coming back to you so you can work dinks. I work a lot of lateral dinks. So going straight, understanding how to keep the ball on my right side, understanding how to keep it on my left, taking it up a step, a lot of 4-0 plus players. We believe in a triangle system If you hit the ball to your left side, your backhand's always countering, compared to if you hit a backhand to your right side, it's always countering with the forehand. Learning those basic tendencies and techniques will take you to another level.
Speaker 3:I foresee a backboard in our future.
Speaker 2:I'm a wonk, I'm a former, you know, you grew up playing sports outside and I would almost sometimes I'd rather practice, go out there, just grind it and then I get out in the games and sometimes it doesn't translate, but I'd really like to practice. We should get it.
Speaker 3:But that's the thing is like. I told him he needs some work technically, which I sought out and got, and the guy who taught me a good serve now sees my serve and says I slid back, but I told him hey, I've got all these other things I'm working on, and he was like I'm making improvements here. I'll work on that one later.
Speaker 1:If you're hitting, if you have the wrong technique and you hit 10 000 balls. Yeah, the wrong way. How's that going to help you? It?
Speaker 3:will never help you. I and I don't think that a lot of people have seek. They seek help in their play. But let's go, let's take a step back and look at mechanics well, it goes back to the exercise based upon raising your hand.
Speaker 1:Everyone wants to be a fan of the sport. Everyone loves Anna Lee Waters, ben Johns, gabe Tardio but no one wants to mimic their way. So if I had any advice for someone, it's to be a master, mimic, understand tendencies of what players use and master that Because they're doing something right and they're at a whole different level. If they can hit 10 balls in a row, a beginner might be satisfied hitting one ball in a row. Learn how to hit consecutively, learn how to understand yourself and what you're good at. Write them down and tackle what you want to achieve.
Speaker 2:I like it we're gonna write this down a lot in uh about grip pressure lately, sure, sure. Now, what do you? What is your basic philosophy of grip pressure?
Speaker 1:It depends on where you're at on the court. So imagine if you're at the baseline. We have three different types of grips we can utilize. We have a five grip, which is very hard, so it's imagine squeezing your hand until you have just blood racing. You have a three, which is a handshake, very moderate. Then you have a one. Say, you spilled your favorite cup of coffee At the baseline. I'm more a one Because you want to be loose, you want to understand the stroke itself and work in motion rather than forcing a bad shot. If I am up at the net, I might be more of a three Because I want to understand how I can add power with the set paddle. Because you have to understand the paddle is not hard at all. It's a piece of wood, honey core.
Speaker 1:Right Now, the technology is changing. It's like brand new iPhones. Someone can come out here with an iPhone 6 compared to playing with an iPhone 16. Two totally different ball games. But you want to understand when and why to use those grip pressures. Ie same with the grips. Either use Eastern, continental or Western. Okay, how about yourself? Varying grips? I use all of them, do you really? Yeah, okay, there's some pros that use one, kwong Dong, for example. Love.
Speaker 2:Kwong Dong. He uses a.
Speaker 1:Western. That's why you hear him grunt so much. My mentor actually, back home, his name's Christopher Williams, great guy, great guy. He uses a Western, but he also comes from 40 years of tennis. Okay. So a Western is it's more open. Western is maybe like imagine taking a pizza out of an oven and serving it to all your friends. It's a flat hand, looking at the palm or the back of your hand up, palm down, okay. And Continental is more of an Eastern. Eastern's a handshake. Continental is more tilted, yeah, okay, which gives you more access to a topspin. Right, and that's what you would want essentially. A lot of people get carried away with it, but a topspin's the best way to go about it. My new coach, kevin, right here, probably has the best two-hand backhand I've seen, really, and he uses Continental, really, yeah.
Speaker 1:Now, what were the skills going back to this PCD bootcamp? What were the skills that they were the ladies were working on today? Oh man, they worked a lot. So we had five courts designated for the women to learn whether it was serve and return, drop shots, a backhand punch for defense, which is really important because let's say someone, let's say you hit a dead dink and you're just sitting there expecting the ball to come. How do I prepare for that? We had what transition zone? Learning how to move through transition, whether moving progressively or taking a step back, preparing for the next ball. And the best part about it is we actually designated a court for point play, but I did it differently. Everyone likes to play traditional scoring. I'm a fan of rally scoring.
Speaker 2:Hey guys, I know one of the overriding messages we heard from Dorian score. Hey guys, I know one of the overriding messages we heard from Dorian especially is the need to practice, the need to drill and to ingrain good habits instead of bad. I can tell you, one of my bad swing habits I have is I'm a little too wristy pickleball. I don't know if any of you are challenged with that, but I stumbled across a product called the Dink Drop Trainer and I'm loving it. I'm using it to drill. It's going to help me restrict my wrist a little bit more, use the shoulder as a lever and I'm going to use it all my drill sessions until I can build a little bit more muscle memory. So if you're interested, go to DinkDropTrainercom. Check it out. I think you're going to be real happy with the results. So let's get back. Talk to Dorian. You're on Blazing Paddles, season 2, episode 1, part 2.
Speaker 1:Everyone likes to play traditional scoring. I'm a fan of rally scoring. Oh, me too so rally scoring means you're holding yourself accountable and you are never giving up. So you can lose a point on offense and defense To where traditional scoring. It can go for 30, 45 minutes and you're making the same mistakes. I believe that's the way the players are getting better in the pro world, such as the MLP.
Speaker 3:You know I agree with you because I'm in a new league. It's called paddle battle, something like that. It's on Thursdays and it's it's rally scoring to 15. You freeze at 13. We played yesterday. I played partnered with my captain. We made up a line, that's. The other thing is that we could make up a line. We had to reschedule game. Only two. We could only get two lines. We were, we were able to. So I love the flexibility. But in that game conservative 70% power placement, overpower worked really well.
Speaker 3:It limits doubt. It limits the unforced errors, because if I make an error I've just cost our team a point.
Speaker 1:Without a doubt.
Speaker 3:And when you get frozen at 13, and I don't care if they're at a four that number can start creeping up. And now we're at 13, 12.
Speaker 3:We're at a risk of losing this because I've gone overboard and overpowered when and I think that that, um, in talking to a lot of individuals and maybe get your opinion on this, but once they recognize that and dialed down and started and I saw this on a, on a, on a video too from one of the pros but dial it down and hit it a 70% and improve your accuracy.
Speaker 1:Without a doubt. So I teach all of my athletes placement over power wins. There's a time and place to use power, without a doubt. But sometimes you're forcing your own error, which means you're in your own way Right. Why, why, why? But on the flip side of that, when you're using placement, do not look for perfection. If you look at the percentages of pros who actually shoot drop shots, they don't look for the best shots, they're not nipping it over the net, they're just getting it over and preparing for the next shot, which is the rebuttal to make it progressively towards the net.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, I see that a lot in their dinking too.
Speaker 1:I'm like, oh, they could have spread that one.
Speaker 3:Oh, but it wasn't. Maybe their footing was off, and that happens with me. I'm like, okay, so my points. I'm more of a keep the ball in play, so a lot of our games go a lot longer, right, sure, and I'm really mobile, so I can get to a lot of balls that others would let go, so I can keep it in play. But it is about that. Oh, shoot, I lost my train of thought. That never happens. Shoot, I lost my train of thought. That never happens.
Speaker 1:I know what were you saying. Do I say placement? Place over power, right right.
Speaker 3:Like you're not always gonna make perfect the perfect shot, there could be off balance issues or you just did.
Speaker 2:I just went out wide for a ball, just get it over, just get it over.
Speaker 3:So sometimes my point is just live for another point that's all.
Speaker 1:It is live for another shot. Another shot's all it is Live for another shot.
Speaker 3:Another shot.
Speaker 1:That's what you want to look at Right. When you look for another point, now you can get behind the eight ball. You're right. If you look for another shot, it's always being prepared once again, so you don't have to get prepared.
Speaker 3:Right, that's what I teach people. Yeah, no, I love that.
Speaker 2:I love that, say placement, overpower and stuff. Some people were saying the dink is going away because the power in the game is getting so much with technology and everything else. Do you think the dink is being phased?
Speaker 1:out, I mean. So there's um, there's a give or take with that so let's say percentages of women who play pros pro doubles.
Speaker 1:Okay, women speed up off of the bounce more. Yeah, men never speed up off of the bounce. Men typically speed up out of the air. Right, they do flicks, they do rolls. Um, it's, it's a different ball game. Why is that? I'm not discrediting the power of a woman, but I'm saying it's easier to speed up to a woman off of the ground and rebuttal their counter rather than a man. You speed up to them and they're putting it away, yeah, right, so that's just a different percentage. So the dinks are more prevalent in men. Women they speed up more. They might get lower in their stance to take the ball out of the air more, take more high risk shots. Men typically know the area in front of them to where, let's say, if your distance in front is two feet and that's a stretch you might take it at one and a half feet or one foot, you might give yourself a balance. I call it a cushion so what are you saying?
Speaker 1:that knows the distance? I'm not sure. I'm saying that you don't want to reach too much. If you're reaching, you're going to pop up, okay. So I like to say think of it like a force field. You have a one foot force field. A drill that I work with all of my athletes is I place a cone, a foot in front of them and I say everything behind this cone, attack everything. Everything behind the cone, everything in front of the cone would be a ding you attack so if it's still in the air, then you attack it.
Speaker 2:If it's still in the air and it's gonna, then you attack it. He's saying you don't wait, absolutely so.
Speaker 1:Say I'm at the non-volley zone and there's a cone at your foot. I want to attack everything here right, right right but if it's in front of there, I need to go in the kitchen or the non-volley zone to take an appropriate dink, to set up that next shot, which would be an out the air, attack right, attack Right, or play it more conservatively.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:And that will take your game to another level. If you work that and understand how far you can reach in without popping up game changer.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Game changer. I've taken people who were constant 3.0s here when I first got here, took them to 4.5. Really, Just with that one skill, that sounds like a good one. You could work on the wall too. Oh, my goodness, the wall is once again my best friend. And we actually have a deal with Master Athletics and they are a phenomenal company. They're out of New York, Phenomenal paddles, but they actually have training paddles which are sweet spot finders. I training paddles which are sweet spot finders. I'll go up on the hitting wall just with my, my mini paddle, and just work the sweet spot.
Speaker 3:Understand how much I can go inside the kitchen understand what's too far, what's not too far and give myself that grace.
Speaker 1:So if you do not have a sweet spot, finder, find one. That's the little one. It's the little one.
Speaker 2:Okay, man, that would be good for me, because I get in these ruts where I feel like I'm hitting everywhere on the paddle. But the sweet spot yeah, it's maddening.
Speaker 3:Some of that's not watching you need to absorb some of what Dorian's saying here about your mindset, because a lot of times when we get out there and you start dinking, you're like I can't do this, I can't even hit a ball Right away you've lost.
Speaker 1:And once again that goes back into the neurological hacks, and I did not have that until last year. I was so blessed to have a coach and his name was John Louie Helped me out. He's actually from France and he would come back to Wilmington, North Carolina, occasionally and train me and he worked with me with breathing techniques. He worked many different variations to help me get to the next level of where I'm at now and it has changed my life completely. And what is your rating right now? Oh man, I'm the best two five. I'm the best two five Currently. Right now, my duper sits at four, eight, four, eight, four, eight. So I'm doing a documentation on my Instagram. Uh, you can find me at Dorian brownpb or pickleball Um, and I'm doing a roadbrownpb or pickleball um and I'm doing a road to five. Oh, so I'm actually playing an event at dill, dinkers and denton tomorrow yeah, I saw the notice today that it's closed for that so you want to go pro, right, I do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's my dream.
Speaker 1:So last year, I played 33 tournaments. Did you really given a lot of time to pick a lot? I've traveled all over the united states, gave myself the opportunity with a lot of grace. Once again, if you, if you're not losing, you're not learning, and I'm just as long as pickleball takes me here, I will be here.
Speaker 3:Hey Lou. I don't know if you know all of the pros, but Sam, what's her last name? Parker?
Speaker 1:Sam Samantha Parker. Sure, sure, she's our hometown girl. She plays at dip.
Speaker 3:She does, but she's also. We've seen seen her walk from like you know, just playing a really good player to now being on the Orlando squeeze and it just watching her dedication to just the practice and then having it pay off. You know getting on the team and she's just the sweetest person. She's got a great mindset.
Speaker 1:What gave me the challenge to actually make it further was just the people I would get beat on by. Last year, so once again, playing so many tournaments, we actually had a kid from NC State. His name was Colin Schick, phenomenal player. He actually beat Ben Johnson singles two years ago. Phenomenal he would come and play our money balls. Washed us, washed us. But just to understand that experience, we had a pro, henry Boyle, phenomenal player. He's a 5.7 player, sponsored by hirachi paddles. Uh, I think. Uh, there's a lot of pros actually now using those paddles, but he was one of the first I've ever seen. But having those players challenge me to take it to the next level, once again being a 3-5.
Speaker 1:I've been pickled many times, especially the tournament against khan shik. I could probably count on my hand six times, five times times. If that, I'd give them six. Go for it that. I've been pickled and there have been many times where I want to say you know, it's pickleball for me. What is my journey with this? But, once again, just learning through the obstacles and the trials and tribulations I've been given, I just stuck with it. Now I'm in Dallas, texas.
Speaker 2:You probably saw this the other day, I think Riley Newman and his partner got pickled twice by Ben Johnson and Annalie it can happen to anyone.
Speaker 1:I tell people all the time anyone can have a great day, but also anyone can have a bad day, so I don't beat myself up much. Once again, I give myself a lot of grace and that's what I would tell any player Work with yourself. If you want to get better, train yeah. If you want to seek instruction, find an instructor. You don't even have to be the most highest rated instructor, you just have to care, and that's, once again, pick a walk. I know we are a community. We treat everyone like family and we love everyone as they are as soon as we walked in and you're, you greeted us.
Speaker 3:I I just you have something about you that's just very makes you want to know you and you're very personable and approachable and I don't.
Speaker 1:I don't want to like get us canceled, but it's God.
Speaker 3:God, that's never getting you canceled with us.
Speaker 1:It's God, yeah, 100% you know honestly, I trust in my entirety and his will is my way and whatever he wants me to do, I will. I love that I'm here and once again, our values here are faith, family and work.
Speaker 3:I saw that. I didn't see that.
Speaker 1:Work is our last priority. We pray before meetings. We do daily devotionals I. We pray before meetings.
Speaker 2:We do daily devotionals.
Speaker 1:Once again, our community here. I would not be here without, once again, brad Stanford, amber Stanford and Gustavo. They are phenomenal and they just help me be the best version I can.
Speaker 3:That's incredible and I'm so glad that you brought it up. I mean you're faith forward for sure. I mean I wake up every morning and I say Today is the day that the Lord gave me Make the most of it right and I start my day without looking at my phone and going to my devotional there he goes. And that is being, and then reading the verses that are at the bottom of the devotional, because that word in my head sets my day.
Speaker 1:So I'll actually one of my friends here. She's actually from Ohio, her name is Vicky Okay, Vicky Bates, and she gave me this wristband. Yeah, and I have a wristband that says what would Jesus do. Yeah, and she gave me this one and it says what would Jesus do? He would love forever. And the cool part about it is, if I scan my phone?
Speaker 2:Yes, he has one too. I've got a yappy Right If I scan my phone.
Speaker 1:It gives you a daily verse every day and once again, it's just understanding and keeping yourself grounded, because most of the time we get in our own way and our decision might not be the best decision. And once again I'm around such a great co-staff here to where they teach me to be an owl Just sit back and observe, listen and understand the direction going forward rather than being a parrot going with it. Right, you want to understand from a back or from a point of view, not being involved, rather than just being in the mix every day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know I even have just started to cause I, I, I'm super competitive and that used to cloud my behavior on the pickleball court and I had to have a real good talk with God on this one. You know, letting his light shine through me no matter the circumstances. So sometimes I won't, you know, I may not be as bubbly because I can't do both Like sometimes I can't focus and be the bubbly self, but always be light, the light right and let that shine through me. And it takes intentionality sometime to say, okay, holy Spirit, just come through me in this, because you know my competitive nature wants to take over and I can't, I can't let that right.
Speaker 3:That's not. That's not who I want to be projecting.
Speaker 1:And once again, pride always comes before the fall. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Totally.
Speaker 1:You know. So if you could put yourself aside and understand to be selfless. You are your best version. Yeah, you know, because maybe you're 80%, someone's 150. And that's what we live by here. Once again, brad tells me all the time Dorian, if you don't walk in with your hand up, walk back out.
Speaker 1:And I take that seriously Once again he's teaching me how to deliver on a daily basis, and for the last eight years of teaching, I have close to 56,000 hours under my belt. Wow, and with that being said, I was always team Dorian. Now I have a great franchise behind me, backing me every day, practically helping me be the best version I can be. So it's no longer team Dorian, it's team Pickleball Kingdom, with Dorian attached to it, and I give my life to this place. Once again, I am honored and blessed to be here and just meet individuals like you two, you know what they are blessed to have.
Speaker 3:You, you're true light and I can't believe that we've had the opportunity to talk to you.
Speaker 2:Well, we keep doing this too. We keep bumping into people via Pickleball, whether they have another business, or people like Lisa Sure.
Speaker 1:People up another business, or people like lisa sure it's people like francine to it, if it's cole whitaker kevin, kevin this guy, crown, crown people, people in this.
Speaker 2:Maybe it's the sport it lends itself. It's a little bit lighter, it's friendlier, but everybody seems to it's like a. It's a community yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:Well, I definitely, I definitely take a spin on it. I've never played tennis, never played racket sports, but it's a different, it's a different energy in tennis. You can see people, they're very, they're hard right, and maybe that's because some people had the opportunity financially to be in a country club and some people did not. So now you have the people that weren't in country clubs kind of bitter and full of animosity towards the people who may have had opportunities, you know. So I give chances to anyone. I feel as if, whether you have everything or nothing, I treat you as if who you are and I just want to offer the best.
Speaker 3:Well, you're taking the command to the next level, the right to love others, and that's sweet, and I think it's cool that you're the first person I've met that knows where I'm from.
Speaker 1:Randolph Ohio. I mean nobody knows that, but it's funny because Lisa did too. Let's try this again. O-h, ohio, come on. Oh, you did it wrong. I'm from.
Speaker 3:Ohio. Come on, come on. Well, thank you for sitting down with us, dorian. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:You guys got to visit this facility. We'll put this out and we'll make sure we tag you with this beautiful facility right on. You've got your uh, your key, uh, the values that are on the wall.
Speaker 3:You see, I can't wait for the one to open up near us, that's what I've been waiting for.
Speaker 1:Until you see more, I'm not going to give the deets away I know what they need. That one in the dfw area is going to change once pickleball kingdom hits the scene yes, I love it once again, it was my pleasure to be here with you and wish nothing but the best.
Speaker 3:Well, we wish you nothing but the best and we're going to call on you to help us out with a birthday party Right on, all right. Thank you Awesome.
Speaker 1:Thank you, god bless.