HUGE Briones Pickleball Update!!! (I'm Finally Back) #105

[00:00:00] 3, 2, 1, welcome back to the Briones Pickleball Podcast everyone. I know it's been a while, it's been a long time. I have a special guest with me today. I'm going to introduce him in a second, but it's been a long while. For those of you who haven't seen a podcast recently, sorry about that. I'm going to actually update you on life, family, and everything we're doing here at Briones Pickleball.

[00:00:29] We're super busy, busy season for us, but we're super excited and we haven't gone anywhere. We've just been a little bit busy. Today, with me, I have my oldest son, Josiah. Hey, Jo. Hi. Okay, Josiah is 9, he's almost 10, and we're going to get into some exciting things that he's been doing in the pickleball world.

[00:00:59] And again, you don't have to be shy. Is this your, no, you've done a podcast with me a long time ago, right? Yeah. Okay. It was a while ago. Yeah. So, Josiah, how old are you? Nine. Nine, and when do you turn 10? August 19th. Okay. All right. So, Josiah has been playing pickleball for a few years now, and he's getting into tournaments. And yeah, I'm super proud of him. He's been working really hard.

[00:01:30] But before that, we are going to, I'm just going to kind of just, I just want to say thank you. Thank you to all the people and players that kind of watch our videos, share our videos, have purchased some of our courses or came to our intensives.

[00:01:47] I mean, those players, a lot of people have trained with me in person. I really appreciate you all. And yeah, just appreciate the continued support. Just want to let you know we haven't gone anywhere. It's just been a busy season here. We're out of school. Josiah, you're out of school. So he's actually training a ton. How many times are you playing a week, Jo? Six. Six. Six times? Yeah.

[00:02:14] Okay. So he has a rest day in there. Do you like rest days or no? No. Okay. So he'd rather play every day. We try to give him a rest day. But I just want to genuinely appreciate and thank all of you who have been watching and following our journey.

[00:02:32] Uh, again, we're in Arizona and we, uh, it's hot here. So I'm doing some traveling and teaching. So I might, I may actually be coming to a city near you teaching and instructing, uh, players just like you. So go to Briones Pickleball.com or actually we'll, we'll leave a, there'll be a QR code or there'll be a link in the description so you can join one of our intensives.

[00:02:57] Okay. So, um, life updates. So what's been keeping me busy? Well, um, Josiah, we have a busy family. How many siblings do you have? Three. Yeah. Three siblings. And, uh, what are their ages? Eight, six and eight months.

[00:03:18] Yeah. Yeah. So Josiah has three siblings, uh, and we are pretty busy this summer, uh, as they're out of school, it's definitely warm here in Arizona. So we're going to be taking some trips to be doing some family stuff and teaching stuff. So we're super excited about that. Um, the Briones Pickleball Academy is still growing. Shout out to our head coach, Sammy Lee, um, at the Briones Academy here in Gilbert, Arizona.

[00:03:44] If you're ever in town, uh, we would love to, to meet you, to see you. And, um, yeah, we have, uh, for those of you who live in Arizona, we have weekly classes, uh, lessons and things like that. So make sure you check that out. And, um, yeah, we have some, uh, projects behind the scenes we're working on.

[00:04:01] Uh, super excited about, um, join our email list. Um, one easy way to do that is just to go on our website. Um, and, uh, you can, you know, you can join that and let us know, you know, what you're struggling with, what you're working on. We would love to help you there. Um, yeah. And coaching.

[00:04:21] So coaching has been a big part of obviously my time and, uh, also with Josiah now working with him more one-on-one and as he's taking it very seriously, I'm super excited, um, to dive into that more.

[00:04:37] And also, uh, we're going to be starting some junior programming, um, here in the Arizona area. And for those of you juniors or grandparents out there that know juniors that play, uh, we have Academy here in Gilbert, Arizona, and we are going to be expanding that and we're going to be doing more camps and things like that. So feel free to email us, um, at support at Briones Academy.com.

[00:05:03] Um, if you want to join our email list and see what we got going on, or you're interested in our junior Academy support at Briones Academy.com. Okay. Josiah, this past weekend, I'm super proud of him. You played, um, national pickleball junior tournament, uh, here in Glendale. He did a great job. Um, and, uh, shout out to national pickleball juniors. Is that how you say Joe? No. Okay. National. What is it? Sorry.

[00:05:33] Yeah. I always get that confused. Shout out to national pickleball. National junior pickleball. And JP national junior pickleball. Yeah, you're right. Just eyes. Right. Okay. So, uh, Courtney and her, her team, um, do a great job. And, um, Josiah actually happens to be one of the, the top 10 and under players in the nation. So we'll talk about that, but he actually just triple crowned.

[00:06:02] We'll show some pictures here. We'll show some pictures here. Super proud of him. Um, and, um, here we go. So this is a picture of Josiah. He, uh, what did you win golden Joe? Um, singles, men's doubles and team like MLP style. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we got golden three events. Um, and then let's see, I think I have a picture of his team. These are good friends of his.

[00:06:30] And, uh, if you're just listening to this, sorry, you should watch the YouTube video, but, um, from left to right, we have Hans, Justin, Josiah, and Aiden. So good friends of his. And then again, they got gold here and there's some, um, other people who you've gotten to know. Well, to Josiah, we got, uh, Arden and gall who's here. Um, and I train, um, once in a while here. Okay.

[00:06:58] So, um, Josiah, what did you learn? Um, you, you played 10 and under and you got golden three events. It's definitely the first time that you've kind of triple crowned. Um, you've been really, really working hard on your game. So I'm super proud of you, but what did you learn, um, about yourself or anything? What did you learn from the tournament? Well, I learned that like, I have to focus. I have a, I have to have a good attitude and, um, I have to have a strong mental game

[00:07:27] to beat them. Um, and yeah, I just have to stay confident and have fun. Yeah. I love that. Okay. Great job. All right. So we're going to, uh, actually, we're going to kind of dive in into kind of what Josiah has been working on and hopefully this can help you out. So if you're listening to this right now, this next segment, we're going to talk about, you know, what you could be working on and what you could be focusing on today.

[00:07:54] But Josiah, you've gone from pretty much, uh, I would say, you know, he's definitely playing at a four Oh level now. And he's getting, he's getting better and better. And as he goes, grows older and get taller, it's going to be easier, but not too long ago, you were, you know, three, five or even, you know, less than that, probably less than a year ago. So you've, you've, uh, you know, definitely made a lot of progress. Uh, what do you attribute that to Josiah?

[00:08:22] Like, what do you, how did you get so good or what have you been just focusing on the past few months? I've been focusing on like thinking my transition and like my overheads, my counters and stuff to get to four Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So what are the main three things you say you play a lot of players now? So, uh, if you're a four Oh player, you have to have good, what three things?

[00:08:53] Dinks counters and transition. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So what's one tip that you can give players? Josiah, uh, we've been working a lot on your dinks. Okay. So let's start with that. What is one little tip for maybe a kid like you, or maybe somebody that's just at three on three, five that you, one little tip for your dinks that really helped. One tip for my dinks that really helped.

[00:09:16] I used to always go cross court, but, um, now I try to mix it up from going cross court and then hitting like the, like a middle ball pulled out wide or sometimes when I'm even not pulled out wide. Good. Good. And what, and what does that do? Um, stretch each strategically. It like makes, it makes them like move a little more if you're going like middle and then pulling them cross court and middle again. Great. Yeah. Cool.

[00:09:46] Great job. Um, and then you, so you mentioned counters and, oh, sorry. Um, dinks. We just talked about, so counters, what's one tip on counters and why are those really important? Um, one tip on counters is like some people, their backswing is way too big. So then they hit it like out sometimes or maybe to the side out. So you want to keep like short, like, like you don't want your paddle to go past your shoulder

[00:10:15] or else it's like a, yeah. Or else it's like too big of a swing. Good. Okay. So counters. And then lastly, you mentioned transition. We've been working a lot on his drive drops and his drops and his reset. So what is the one key tip just side that we've been working on with your transition? Um, I used to like either drive and run in or drop and run in, but now what I do is I drive

[00:10:42] and I take my time to split step because sometimes when I would drop or drive and run in, I would get caught. Yeah. So I'm learning how to split step. Good. Yep. Josiah's, uh, made, made huge progress in his game. Um, you'll probably see him. Uh, if you haven't, you'll see him in more videos here coming up on our Brionis Pickleball channel. Um, okay. So, um, hopefully, you know, that kind of helps, um, Josiah and I, obviously I'm working with

[00:11:12] him, uh, once or twice a week. And then, uh, what is, what is his drilling schedule look like? Or somebody who's really trying to progress in pickleball. Josiah, you said you're playing six days a week. Um, tell me what your normal drill session is like. And I know you work with dad, uh, you work with me like, you know, a couple of times a week, but what do you do the other days? I either drill with somebody else or like play rec games. I'm in either like a league or something. Yeah. And are you the only kid? Are you these kids leagues or adult leagues?

[00:11:42] Adult leagues. Yeah. What do you, um, what do you like about, uh, or how is it just kind of always, you know, when you play the junior tournaments is really fun with your friends, but how is it like playing with adults? It's fun. I get to know all the adults and, um, yeah, it's knowing all the adults is fun. They're all nice. And yeah. Yeah. Great. Okay. Here we go.

[00:12:09] Um, some rapid fire questions, uh, for you to know Josiah. All right, here we go. Uh, Josiah favorite food. Pizza. Favorite dessert. Probably like cookies and cream, ice cream or something. Okay. Favorite pickleball player. Um, uh, Tom. Oh, okay. Tom. Shout out to Tom. Favorite paddle. Cosmo. Yeah.

[00:12:39] Oh, let's actually kind of go over that. Josiah here. Um, Josiah is actually using the Federico statue cosmos by Yola. What do you, what do you like about that paddle? Joe? Well, it's, I like it because it's like the Perseus is like longer and I like it kind of shorter. Yeah.

[00:13:02] It's like, so like when I try to hit like a roll or flick, um, the Perseus is wider. So it's like, it's a little bit wider. So it's like heavier when I do like a flick or something. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Good. You think it's a good combination of power and control? Yes. Yeah. So Josiah is using that here. I'll take that button. And then I'm actually using, um, so I use a combination.

[00:13:30] I do, I have been using the pro four and the pro five. Um, but, uh, I, I'm kind of just experimenting with the Perseus three S dual, uh, certified, um, 16 millimeter. So the three S is a great battle and it's actually, uh, about a hundred dollars cheaper. So check that out. And, uh, yeah, you might like it. It plays very similarly to the four and five. I think it's a good mix, but that's what I'm playing with a favorite shot.

[00:13:59] Josiah favorite shot. I really like, um, like, I like a lot of shots. Like I like to Ernie, like to hit tweeners and yeah. What do you think it's like your most consistent shot? Um, probably like my, my drop. Okay. Forehand or Becca? Both. Okay. And then, uh, your most, um, aggressive shot.

[00:14:29] Uh. Like a high forehand maybe. Yeah. I would say your dinks are really good too. Tooie dinks. And, uh, and your flick when you make it is really good. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, here we go. Some questions as we're maybe, you know, as you've been working with me, what is one thing that dad has kind of taught you, um, about, you know, what's one thing that comes to mind

[00:14:58] that dad taught you about pickleball or playing or competing? He taught me to have, he taught me a lot of things like having a strong mental game, taught me how to have a strong mental game to refocus. He taught me how to split step and when I'm doing drive drop and yeah, I don't, I don't think I could think of anything. Okay. Good. Um, what is, uh, do you get nervous before tournaments?

[00:15:28] No, not really. No. I like tournaments. Yeah. So what do you, what do you feel? Cause some players get nervous or, or what do you feel like when you, I don't know, before a tournament or right before you serve or something right before I serve, I don't really feel anything. I like safe. I stay focused and I like to play tournaments and yeah. Good. Okay. Um, let's see here.

[00:15:58] Here's a good one. What is something that people might not know about dad, about me? That is, I don't know, interesting or something. Um, he, he did, my mom used to play in like a college tennis thing and then dad would just be there.

[00:16:24] He's not, he actually, he actually wasn't part of the team, but he was just there to hang out and play against the people who were on the team. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, his, um, my wife, just, his mom, um, was on the tennis team junior college in California. And I, I, uh, I actually was playing quite a bit of tennis back then. I wasn't on the team, but I was always practicing with the team. So that was cool. Uh, good, good one. Good one, Joe. All right.

[00:16:53] So that's kind of what's, um, what Josiah has been, uh, kind of working on and also kind of getting to know him. So you might, uh, you might get to know more. We're going to be doing more stuff. But again, uh, a lot of you who watch this, I probably wondered where I've been and things like that. I just kind of wanted to give you an update. I wanted to make sure that you know that I really appreciate you all.

[00:17:20] Um, again, if you're not on our email list, get on there and that's how we can stay connected. Um, okay, here we go. Um, just, I haven't, I have a couple other questions for you and maybe, maybe this will be good. This will be good. When did, and I know this, but when did you actually, uh, take pickleball seriously? Um, people ask me this a lot. Like, Hey, did I push Josiah and make him play? What would you say to that Joe?

[00:17:49] Did I make you play pickleball or did you find it? I found it. I was born to play pickleball and I started, I was competitive and started playing seriously at like seven and a half or something. Yeah. That was the first time we went to Idaho and it was an NJP shout out to national junior pickleball. And, uh, you know, he found it there and he loved it. Um, why do you love pickleball so much? It's a fun sport.

[00:18:17] I get to meet a lot of new friends and yeah, it's the sport. It's, I was born with the blood to play this sport. Cool. Um, favorite part about tournaments. Um, you said, you know, you don't get nervous, which is really good, but what's your favorite part about, um, playing tournaments? I like, uh, my favorite part is I love, I, I obviously like winning and I like to see my friends. Yeah. Yeah. That's super cool. Um, least favorite part. Uh, losing.

[00:18:48] Losing. Okay. What happens? Uh, what did, what did dad kind of tell you or what do we talk about if you do lose? Cause even the top players lose, like what can you take from that? Well, every time I lose, I get better and there's always a new tournament I can play. So yeah, I always have another chance. Yeah. That's great. Okay. What do you think, um, is the biggest improvement that you've made in your game?

[00:19:15] Cause you've been, uh, you've been, uh, working on a lot. Probably like transition and counters. Okay. What's one drill that you hate to do? Uh, or do you not hate any drill? I don't really hate any drill. Oh, your favorite drill. So for those of the, those of you who are watching, uh, maybe you could give them an idea. What's one of your favorite drills? Drive and drop and come in and you play it live.

[00:19:45] Okay. Why is it important to, why is it important to drive, drop and not drive, drive or drive, drive, drive? It's important to drive, drop because like if you drive, drive, drive, it'll either come short and then you'll just drive it into the net or they'll, if, if your opponent has really good counters and you drive it like the first or second time, it'll just land right at your feet. So you can't drive it again or else you're like miss it. Yeah. Good.

[00:20:15] Um, let's see. What would becoming a pro mean to you, Joe? I mean, that's, that's kind of like what you really want to do. What would that mean to you? It would mean a lot. Like I would love to come up row and get sponsored and play and have a lot of fun. Yeah. Great. What is it like, um, having me as a coach, as your, your, your dad as coach?

[00:20:44] I like having you as a coach. It's, it's definitely nice. And just getting then like my friends, like sometimes they get like a random coach and they have to get the coach and having a coach, having a coach and my coach and my dad, it's great. Oh, that's great, buddy. Is it ever, is it ever hard or am I, is it ever hard or difficult to have me as a coach?

[00:21:15] Sometimes I don't understand, but yeah. You don't understand what I'm saying sometimes you mean? Yeah. It's, yeah, sometimes it's hard to understand because sometimes I'm not focused or like, or like I'm maybe I'm not playing good or maybe I just don't understand. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We work through that. That's good. What's the biggest lesson that I've taught you?

[00:21:43] Oh, these are good questions here. Thank you team. Uh, what is the biggest lesson I've taught you? Um, out, maybe not directly related to pickleball, maybe outside of pickleball. Um, uh, to maybe like probably to, to be nice to my siblings and, and, um, I have to be a

[00:22:11] big, I have to be a big brother, like a nice big brother and yeah. Yeah. Good. A role model. Yeah. That's great. Okay. Well, um, yeah, Josiah, thanks for answering those questions. Um, again, Josiah is a big part of what we do and, you know, as he's been getting more and more into pickleball, it's been super exciting to see him grow in his game. Again, he turns 10 in a month. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:22:40] He turns 10 in a month and, uh, um, shout out to NJP because they put on great tournaments at some point. He's going to be playing a lot of PPAs. That's probably going to be next year. Um, but, uh, yeah, he's going to be, you know, doing a lot of tournaments this year. He's going to be traveling to different places. It's pretty cool. Joe, you'll be going to Florida. You'll be going to kind of different parts of the country.

[00:23:05] So I know that he's super excited about that, but, um, yeah, let's see. Let's see. Let's see. Let's see. Josiah. Um, what else, what else, what other questions do you think that people would want to know what's going on? Um, uh, I mean, we're just kind of, you know, again, I just want to shout out, I guess this would be a good time to shout out to our sponsor Yola. I just, I, I, we just learned that he loves the cosmos, right? Great paddle.

[00:23:35] I'm playing with the Perseus, um, three S and, uh, yeah. Yola is a big part of what we do. And, um, they're just a great company, great paddles. There should be a link in the description below to, to try to purchase, uh, anything that they have, um, whether it's a tire or paddles or anything like that, or we're super appreciated, uh, appreciative to them. Um, we couldn't do what we do. They actually sponsor our Academy and, uh, they sponsor our YouTube channel, everything we do.

[00:24:05] So super appreciate that. And, uh, I just quickly want to remind everyone, um, you know, you can watch YouTube videos, you can, you know, try to learn from yourself. But if, if you don't have like expert eyes on your game, um, that is one of the ways that you can improve very, very quickly. Uh, we have a online resource, the pickleball university. I just want to remind you of that.

[00:24:30] A QR code will be below or it'll be in the description, uh, where myself and my team could coach you directly. You could upload footage of you hitting, um, back end flicks, or you working on a transition game, or you can upload footage of your matches and we can help diagnose. What you can work on. And, um, it's just an awesome resource for you. Check it out. The pickleball university.com. Um, or if you would like to train with me in person at one of our two, three or five

[00:24:59] day intensives, there'll be a link below, or you could go to brionispickleball.com. And there's a way that you can, um, a tab somewhere there. You can find live trainings. Josiah, you've actually been to a few, uh, or been a part of and competed a little bit on some of our intensives. Right. Um, what are you, uh, I don't know, from your perspective, you haven't been involved in a whole one yet. Cause you've came in and kind of hung out and, and kind of saw dad teach some of them,

[00:25:28] but you've, you've played with some of our players. What do you like about them? What do you think would be fun? They're nice. They're nice. I like to play with them and they, yeah, they're just really nice. And they're, I get practice. I get good practice with them. They like, they laugh and yeah. That's cool. Cool. All right. Lightning round. Quick hands round, Joe. And then we're actually going to the way pool after this with some friends, right? All right. With jump size friends, but lightning round. Okay.

[00:25:58] Ready forehand or backhand? You got to pick. Forehand. It's going to be fast. Dink or drive? Drive. What was that? Drive. Okay. Attack or reset? Attack. Singles or doubles? Singles. Indoor, pickleball or outdoor? Indoor. Pizza or burgers? Pizza. Nike or Adidas? Nike. Morning, pickleball or night pickleball? Night.

[00:26:28] Gold medal or huge trophy? Huge trophy. Pickleball, local pickleball tournaments in Arizona or travel tournaments somewhere else? Travel tournaments. Ooh, okay. Would you rather play with Ben Johns or play against Ben Johns? Against Ben John. Would you rather never miss a serve ever again or never miss a dink? Never miss a dink. Ooh, good one.

[00:26:59] Would you rather make every ATP or make every Ernie? Every Ernie. Oh. Would you rather be the fastest player in the world or have the fastest hands? Probably the fastest hands. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Why is that? Um, so I could just speed up any time and win the hands battle. Yeah, okay.

[00:27:25] Um, would you rather play singles pickleball forever or doubles pickleball forever? And you couldn't play the other one ever again? That's hard. I think singles. Really? Yeah. Wow, okay. Um, all right. Would you rather only be able to drive with your forehand ever again or only drive with your backhand ever again? Only drive with my forehand.

[00:27:56] Okay. All right, cool. Do you have a, um, do you have a fun, do you, or a fun, or do you have a, um, a tournament story for us? Like something that's funny that happened or fun at a tournament? Um, no, not really. No? Well, I was practicing with my friends once and then, um, we were playing singles. He allowed me and I hit a tweener winner and that was pretty funny. Yeah.

[00:28:25] And the kids that were watching were just so amazed and then they said, oh, can you start my paddle? That's funny. Cool. Yeah. So, uh, again, I think we're going to wrap up here. I just, I really, really appreciate each and every one of you. Again, um, I, I do want to, I do want to bring the podcast back. Uh, I'm, I'm thinking about different ways that I can do that efficiently with our busy schedule.

[00:28:53] Um, please let us know in the comments, please, please, please. If you enjoy these podcasts and if someone's out there, I know someone's out there listening. Um, what would you like? Maybe it's just shorter pods. Maybe just straight to the point. I could share a few things that can help you improve maybe, or we can talk through strategy that's happening. New strategies that are happening in today's game. Um, let me know.

[00:29:18] I would love to kind of get, uh, get into your brain on, on what, you know, you would like me to do. Um, but for all the people that really follow us and, um, support us, I know you listened to this podcast. So I just wanted to say thank you again. Um, Josiah is going to be training a lot on traveling a ton. Uh, probably be, probably be posting a lot of that. Uh, his Instagram will be linked below. Maybe you could follow him.

[00:29:46] Uh, cause he's going to be, oh yeah, you're going to be making more content. Yeah. That'll be fun. Yeah. We're working on his sponsorship stuff and, uh, you know, as he's, uh, developing his game, he's, uh, going to be growing that side of, um, you know, what he does and we're super excited. Josiah, do you want to end it out? Close this out. Thanks so much, everyone. We'll see you next time. Bye.