Pickleball's Stiff Dink Anthem & Mom Guilt Margaritas | Miguel Enciso w/ Sherwood Country Club

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Guy: Oops, I did it again. And if you want to know why I'm singing that, you're going to have to go over to our socials and see Paddle Princess's hair for this episode.

Now listen up, lean in, get close, put your ear up to your speaker. If you're driving, pull over and do it. We are sponsored by Dink and Dash. It's a pickleball app — but it's not about stats. It's about people who play for the fun of it. That's you. The ones who care more about the chaos of rec night than their DUPR rating.

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KITCHEN TALK — CINCO DE MAYO & MOTHER'S DAY

Guy: Connect with us — we're celebrities. This is the official podcast of pickleball. We've got a couple of events coming up tonight. We have Cinco de Mayo, which is the day of this podcast — where the ship off the coast of Mexico sank with a bunch of mayo on it. It's a dad joke. And Mother's Day on Sunday. So you two are mothers. Tell us about Mother's Day, mothers.

Stephanie: I enjoy Mother's Day.

Paddle Princess: Mother's Day is either a hit or a miss for me. Either I get to actually relax and do what I want to do, or it's planning everything, doing everything, making sure we have what we're going to have for dinner and doing the whole event. By the end of the day, I'm just exhausted, like — was this really a day for me, or was this a day to make sure everybody else has a day?

Stephanie: We were trying to plan our Mother's Day. We usually go over to my parents' house, and my sister and I were like, "Well, what is she going to make for dinner?" And then I thought, that's not fair. She's our mom. And then I was like, well, I'm not making dinner. I'm a mom. So I texted Guy and said, "Y'all are making burgers."

Guy: Your dad and I are on grill duty, as it should be. I think Mother's Day is a great opportunity to figure out how much your kids love you. And it goes by age — if you've got kids in elementary school, you're getting something with a handprint or macaroni on it. Or both. If you've got kids in high school, they're probably going to forget the whole day unless you go to brunch.

My son asked me today, "Can you pick up the mail from the mailbox?" And I said yes. And he said, "But don't open up your gift." So he got me something. Not quite sure what. Didn't say Temu on it and it wasn't in an orange bag.

Paddle Princess: We're winning already.

Stephanie: He's very thoughtful. The girl child is still suspect. She does a lot of crafting.

Paddle Princess: I think it's the age. My son is two months apart from yours, and he's just like, "Oh wait, it's Mother's Day. What do I need to do?" He does not care. He just wants to do his own thing.

Guy: But I know for a fact that Paddle Princess loves Cinco de Mayo.

Paddle Princess: Tacos and a margarita. Who doesn't? I will be there every time. If I'm grouchy, I don't need a nap and a Snickers — I need a taco and a margarita with extra salt.

Stephanie: But do we really need a day to tell us to go eat tacos? I could eat tacos any day. I could eat Mexican food any day. But I also look for every reason to have a celebration. I have specific margarita glasses that are swirled that we only use on Cinco de Mayo. I have platters and tower platters for the dips. I set all of that out because it's fun.

Guy: And you wear your dress from your quinceañera. And your sombrero. Look at you, rolling your R's. We've gone international here at the BDE Podcast.

Paddle Princess: It depends what day of the week Cinco de Mayo falls on. During the week, it's not as fun — one margarita and you've got to go to bed because you've got work in the morning. But on Mother's Day, you don't have to work, so I can start mimosas at 11 o'clock. We break out the champagne and the orange juice and we have several bottles of champagne waiting.

Guy: She's not an alcoholic.

Paddle Princess: I'm not. It's orange juice. Of course that's morning stuff.

Guy: Cinco de Mayo is an American drinking holiday disguised as Mexican heritage. It's kind of like St. Patrick's Day, but with better food and drinks. And it's different based on your age. The over-40 crowd is doing Cinco de Mayo differently than 25-year-olds.

Stephanie: We're not getting piñatas.

Paddle Princess: I would love a piñata.

Guy: You'd want wine to come out of it though.

Paddle Princess: Tiny little bottles. Little Jack Daniel's bottles. I would love that. Guy, if he did a piñata, would want ibuprofen.

Stephanie: Last year we took my daughter to the water park for her birthday and dropped her off with her friend. We were like, "We'll just go grab some food." Went to a Mexican restaurant and realized it was also Cinco de Mayo. Got in right away though. We celebrated without even knowing.

Guy: Get up in our socials at bdepodcast.com and tell us about your Mother's Day. Best gifts. Show us your gifts. Take pictures. Cinco de Mayo, tell us about that. If you have pictures of people passed out drunk, send us that as well. Let us know how many margaritas you had. We're giving all this gold to you for free — give us something back.

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FAN MAIL

Guy: All the way from the bottom of the fan mail mailbag, this is from our buddy Noisy Pickleball — @noisypickleballz with a Z.

He says: "Love this. Listening to the episode — thank you guys for featuring the tip. I have to give credit where credit is due though. It came from my doubles partner Mikaela, and it's been a game changer. Special shout out — Guy, my bum says thank you for the compliment."

Of course, Noisy. One of the best butts out there in pickleball.

That could be you. We could be reading your fan mail, your love letters to us, if you get up in our socials at bdepodcast.com.

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JUST A TIP

Guy: Just a tip — quick pickleball wisdom, in and out before you know it.

This one comes from Fearless Pickleballer — @fearlesspickleballher: "This was huge for me when I started. If you're scared of bangers, don't avoid it — control it. Practice with someone you trust, start far away, work your way in, and get comfortable. Wear any gear that makes you feel safe. Because once the fear goes away and you start playing soft, the game slows down and everything gets easier."

That could be sexual as well.

Stephanie: I don't think that's what she meant.

Guy: Thank you, Shawna at Fearless Pickleballer.

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INTERVIEW — MIGUEL ENCISO

Guy: This is a great one. I'm really looking forward to this. Our guest has spent most of his life as a television production director, and then — if that wasn't enough — pivoted to pickleball. He's got a video over 28 million views. The unofficial pickleball anthem, "The Pickleball Life." A thriving coaching career at Sherwood Country Club out in California. Miguel has been playing since the late '80s and he's here to talk about all things pickleball from Los Angeles. Miguel, thanks so much for being on the Big Dink Energy Podcast.

Miguel: I'm excited to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

Guy: One of the first visions I have of you is pickleballs on a string.

Miguel: I can tell you that story. My wife is a teacher, and when COVID hit she ended up teaching digitally. We were all stuck at home, my pickleball community was locked out — literally locks and chains on the courts. We had a big community of players and I felt an obligation: how can I keep them entertained during a really difficult time?

I said, "What happens if I put a ball on a string?" I took some painters tape, put it on my ceiling, and I said, "Well, that could work." It was boring with one ball. Two balls — a little more challenging. Three balls. Then four balls. Then four balls while standing on a Bosu ball.

I was doing stuff in my garage, playing silly games, using my wife to help with videos. On my YouTube channel, I used to do a thing where I was on the phone with Pickleball Anonymous. One of my friends from the community was the voice of the operator, and the camera would always find me on the phone coming out of our pantry, hitting pickleballs.

It was a bizarre thing — I posted it online and it just blew up. It became my thing. I'm a teacher, yes. I love pickleball. Am I a great player? A lot of people would argue no. And that's okay. But those videos bring joy to people. And it's more difficult than people think. People try four balls just on solid ground and they have trouble. Some days on the Bosu, it takes a while. I'm close to breaking an ankle. But there are times I've literally jumped on the Bosu, set the camera, and nailed it in one minute.

Guy: That TV production background — does it help?

Miguel: I think it did early on. In my old world of television, there was a sense of wanting it perfect, doing take after take. What I've found is people want authenticity. It's not perfect if I'm falling off the Bosu. If I'm about to screw it up at the very end, I just say, "You know what? It's real." Authenticity plays a lot in the success of those videos.

But for instructional content — lighting, audio — people get frustrated if they can't hear or see something. If I say it, people want to see it. And I try to connect with the familiar. When I'm teaching a serve, I talk about bowling. That's the motion. I try to help people connect to things they already know.

Guy: I like that parallel. You don't want to break your wrist a lot in bowling either.

Miguel: One of the things I tell students — if your target is the 10 pins, that diagonal rectangle across the way, you want to follow through to that diagonal rectangle. If you're bowling on lane 11, that ball is going to lane 11. If you hit it like this or like this, you're going out to lane 16 or lane 5.

You've got to be able to serve. Players are forgiving at community courts and clubs — they want to play. But if you can't get your serve in, it's tough. Forget the competitive aspect. You can only score points when you're serving, but it's not even about that. People just want to play.

Guy: Pickleball is more forgiving than bowling. If you send your ball to lane 16 in bowling, you're going to be asked to leave. But you've been playing with your brother in the backyard since the '80s. Talk about that evolution.

Miguel: My brother Alfie — God rest his soul — was a great athlete. We're a basketball family. He came home one night in his early 20s and said, "Hey, I just learned this game called pickleball on the rooftop of the Glendale YMCA." We were like, "Yeah, that's great, Alfie."

Literally the next day, he took a sledgehammer to our cement basketball hoop pole, talked my dad into more cement. We had 46 feet of concrete — so on each side we literally had this much before the end line, because the courts are 44 feet. He found an old volleyball net, strung it across, and we had some of the most wicked games back there.

It's funny now — when I teach, we talk about underhand serve, don't volley in the kitchen, bounce-bounce rule. Forty years ago, I don't recall any of that. We just knew you had to let it bounce. Now the mantra is "bounce-bounce." Back then, we were bangers way before. Then there was an era of dinking. But as brothers and sisters and our friends, it was all about smacking the crap out of the ball.

Guy: The body bag is made for siblings.

Miguel: My folks — my dad was active with us, Little League, basketball. He didn't participate much in pickleball. We had a very modest home in Southern California, even with that 46-foot slab of concrete. But it was the happening backyard. Everybody wanted to come. We were lucky to have a pool, so on hot summer days we'd play ferocious pickleball and jump in the pool. With eight sisters and two brothers, there was always somebody to play.

Guy: You got away from it for a while but got pulled back in when your son came home from college.

Miguel: The game got quiet. Nobody knew about pickleball. I tried to get my son to play through high school — he wanted to play basketball. He came home from college and said, "Hey Dad, do you still have that pickleball stuff?" We went down to the local elementary school, spray-chalked lines on the parking lot — not spray paint, I promise — and had some ferocious games.

Then one day I was walking my two dogs at the local community park and saw all these people on one side of a tennis court. As I got closer, I could hear the sound of pickleball. I went over to say hi and they were so excited to introduce me. I said, "Hey, I'm familiar." This was seven, eight years ago — they were begging somebody to come fill one court on a Saturday morning.

I said, "Sure, I'll come out." A wonderful core group of us built that community into over 200 players. Now they have six dedicated courts. That was Oak Park. I was the USAPA ambassador for Oak Park. The Deer Hill community was wonderful — my first pickleball family.

One of my students said, "Hey, Westlake Athletic Club is putting in dedicated courts." My eyes lit up. I beelined down there and met the great John Sutcliffe, the general manager. He walked me out to where the courts were being built and hired me on the spot.

Guy: I want to pivot to something near and dear to my heart — your hearing loss. Pickleball is a social game, the connections, the laughter. A lot of our audience is over 40 and may suffer from this or will. Walk us through that journey.

Miguel: I was approached by a company called Widex to try hearing aids. I never really thought about it. For anybody in my age group, we never want to admit that maybe things aren't working the way they used to. I did some tests, and they sent me information about what hearing loss can do. One thing that resonated — people with hearing loss become anti-social and depressed because they don't want to go outside.

When I first tried the hearing aids, the high pitches — the sound of the ball on the paddle — were really tinny. I went out on the courts and was like, "Is this ball cracked?" We made adjustments, and I was able to play normally.

It's such a social sport. That's why we've been so popular, especially with the older set. The idea that people weren't going to play because they couldn't communicate, or out of fear or embarrassment — that hit me. The Widex group has been wonderful. I have a great set of hearing aids, easy to manipulate, easy to use. And my wife, who was always saying "Can you turn the TV down?" — yes, yes, yes, now I can.

Guy: I suffered hearing loss too. The Army is really good at doing that for you. They gave me hearing aids — top of the line for service-connected disability — and I was amazed at the things I wasn't hearing. I'd dealt with it for so long, with the tinnitus too, that I just thought, "This is how it is." There's no embarrassment in getting yourself help.

Miguel: There were things — just driving in my car, tapping on the steering wheel, hearing sounds around me. I had more people reach out in my local communities saying, "I have hearing aids too." It's not as uncommon as we think. Especially for men — we're so self-conscious about appearance. God forbid we admit we have a weakness.

If that message resonated with one person who said, "I wasn't going to pickleball because I can't hear everything" — having a hearing aid is nothing to be ashamed of.

Guy: I'm right out back of a large military base. Every third dude my age or above has hearing aids. No stigma here. You're losing so much by not just putting them on. Now — from the '80s till now, the coaching, the trips to Italy — are there things you wish we'd do more of, or less of, as a sport?

Miguel: On the pro level — I worked a stint in my youth for ABC Sports. I did the '84 Olympics in Los Angeles. I'm a sports guy. When I watch sports, little things matter — like the score not being correct on the screen during PPA Tour broadcasts. I'm not sure what's happening behind the scenes, but as a viewer, when I know what the score is and it's not on the screen, that's frustrating. The sport needs to correct that.

Line calling — you can't have an Olympic sport on the honor system. You just can't.

The other thing — PPA is going to be mad at me. They do a wonderful job for the amateur player, and the pros are great. But what frustrates me: we get to watch the grandstand and main court games — big, wide courts where you can do ATPs, jump across, do Ernies and Berts. But all the earlier-round games? They're on the courts you and I play on. Four courts on a tennis court, alleys only five feet before you're on the next court.

How does Christian Alshon — long, lean, athletic — or Hayden, Hurricane, all these athletes who jump way outside the lines to defend, how do they play on those smaller courts? Then someone calls interference. That's not true to the sport. It's like the NFL saying, "On earlier playoff games, you're only playing on a field 35 yards wide and 96 yards long." That's not football. To me, that's not great pickleball.

I was disappointed when 2028 didn't include pickleball in the LA Olympics. I hope 2032 makes it. Come on — flag football made it.

Guy: Yeah, there's just too much fractional stuff at the C-suite level. Two organizations, splits. If we could come together on that, it would solve some of the problem. Now I can't get out of this podcast without addressing The Pickleball Life song. Where did that come from?

Miguel: I love this story. There was a part of my journey where I wanted to write country music songs. I was 58. I'm 67 now. I told my wife my goal was that on my 60th birthday, I'd get songs professionally recorded — not necessarily on the radio, but recorded. I wanted to play my music at my 60th because nobody else was going to hear it.

I met a guy in Nashville who produced a song for me. I had a chance to perform in Nashville — I won a songwriting contest during a convention called Measure of a Man, about my dad.

During the time pickleball was starting to grow, I saw a video — an older gentleman wrote kind of a corny song about pickleball, his grandkids. It was slow. I said, "I could do a song with more up-tempo."

I called my friend in Nashville: "I have this song. No one's going to hear it. I want to break all the rules. I want two different choruses. I want three verses." When you're following the songwriting journey, they say verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus, and you're done. I said, "I don't care about any of that."

I wrote it in two days. I had this idea of a John Wayne character — "Let's go, partner. Paddle up." Whipped it into a two-stepping frenzy. One of the lines says: "When the day's over and it has you reminiscing, I sure could use a stiff dink."

The voice on the song is Adam Cunningham. Adam was a finalist on The Voice on Adam Levine's team, and he was a session singer for my friend in Nashville. I knew they were recording it. I'd written the lyric sheet, and I overemphasized "stiff dink" — I wanted to make sure they sang it properly.

I called in the afternoon. My guy Gary and Adam were sitting in the studio, relaxing. Probably had a whiskey or two. I said, "How'd it go, guys?" They said, "It went great. We had a lot of fun with it. We just have one question for you." I said, "Yeah, what?" They said, "What the hell is a stiff dink?"

I had to explain — it's a shot. It's called a dink. Anyway — it's out on Spotify.

Guy: Where can everybody find you?

Miguel: On Instagram, I'm @miguel.pickleballcoach. On TikTok, I'm @miggy.pickleball — Miggy with two G's.

Guy: Go find my friend Miguel. There's a lot of great content out there. Go on Spotify, listen to the song, put it in your playlist. Miguel, this has been amazing. Love your journey, love your story. I know it'll really resonate with our audience. Thank you so much for being on the Big Dink Energy Podcast.

Miguel: Thanks, Guy. Thanks for having me. Be well. And like I always say — be kind to the beginners, and always paddle up.

Guy: Paddle up. Love it.

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PICK SIX — THINGS MOMS SAY THAT ALSO WORK IN PICKLEBALL

Guy: This is where we take one question and we each bring two answers and immediately regret agreeing to this segment. Today's Pick Six, in honor of Mother's Day: things moms say that also work in pickleball.

Stephanie: We are not doing this right now.

Paddle Princess: You need to worry about yourself.

Stephanie: We've got pickleball at home.

Guy: Don't make me come over there.

Paddle Princess: Don't make me repeat myself.

Stephanie: Don't touch that, that's not yours.

Guy: Tell us your Pick Six things moms say that also work in pickleball. Tell us what you think at bdepodcast.com.

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NEWS YOU CAN USE

Guy: 122 shots. The pros forgot how to end a point in the men's doubles final at the Veolia Sacramento Open. Ben Johns and Gabe Tardio survived what might be the longest rally in PPA Tour finals since tracking began — a staggering 122-shot war full of dinks, resets, lobs, and pure willpower.

Paddle Princess: That's a long time. Six is long for me.

Guy: Six is long for most people. That's average.

Paddle Princess: 122 — I'm gonna have to hit YouTube up.

Guy: They eventually edged out the win, but not before everyone watching questioned if pickleball had turned into a staring contest with paddles. It went viral because it was less an athletic showcase than what we typically see — two pairs of pros politely refusing to lose.

Stephanie: I couldn't imagine that many going back and forth. 122. That's crazy.

Guy: Way to go, guys. Setting a new standard out there. News you can use for around your water cooler at work.

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OUTRO

Guy: One and done.