The Mindset Difference Between Pro & Recreational Players #106

[00:00:00] And a 3, 2, 1. Welcome back everyone to the Briones Pickleball Podcast. I was almost going to say Blast Off. I'm here with Elliot Schupp. Elliot! Como? How we doing? What's up man? How you doing? Good, doing good. Good. What do you think? Actually, one of the comments on our Real Pickleball channel, it's our channel where we have Matchplay, go check it out.

[00:00:24] But one of the comments said, fault because they didn't say Blast Off after calling the score 3, 2, 1. The off speed actually got me. Score guys? 3, 2, 1. 3, 2, 1. Blast Off. We call this a Blast Off score here. What do you think about when people do that Elliot? um, I personally can't take it. I cringe anytime I hear Blast Off. But for a podcast I think could work.

[00:00:53] Okay. I think it could work. We could start starting with that. You know, when I first started playing, um, you know, probably before you were born. Yeah. Um, I, uh, there was a, I remember there was a whole bunch of different things. So there was 3, 2, 1 Blast Off. There was a 4, 1, 1 Information. I've never heard that one. 9, 1, 1 Emergency, obviously. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I don't know. I can't remember. But there was, um, oh, what is the, what is the good buddy one? What is the good buddy one?

[00:01:22] Anyways, there was a whole bunch. There was a whole list. There was a whole bunch of things that you can, you can do. Okay, okay. I don't know. There we go. Um, the one that, the one that does, um, make me not cringe, but the one I don't like is the 0, 0 start. Oh, I cannot. Oh, no. Don't get me started on 0, 0 start. That is, that is rough. That's old school. You know what?

[00:01:43] But, but I, I could see, you know, why people would do that. I mean, back in the day, it was an easy way to, oh, we start on second serves. Yeah, it's, it's a good remember. I think if you've been playing though for, let's say, more than a couple months, I feel like it's, it's probably time to lose the 0, 0 start. Good tradition though. Yeah, there we go. Okay. So, um, elephant in the room, everyone, we ha we haven't been here in a long time. It's been a while.

[00:02:10] Um, the last podcast I actually did was with my son, Josiah. Oh, wow. Um, and, uh, you know, I told you that we would bring more and we have an update. We have a special update. We have more pods coming. Um, but a little bit, a little bit different format. We'll, we'll kind of talk about that to the, uh, towards the end, but I'm super excited about that. I have Elliot with me today. He actually just got signed by the PPA. Come on.

[00:02:37] So you're going to see him in a lot more, um, a lot more tournaments, a lot more tournaments, a lot more main draws, obviously. Yeah. Um, how does it feel? Elliot feels good. It feels good to get it on us. I'm excited to start grinding on the tour. Uh, I've been playing a couple of their events, uh, leading up to, to now really. Um, so it's nice to be able to start grinding points, grinding rankings and just really get going on the tour. So I'm, I'm really looking forward to it. It's going to be fun. Yeah. All right.

[00:03:04] So yeah, it's been a, it's been a while since we, um, did a podcast. A lot has changed. Again, we just talked about Elliot signing. Um, for me kind of been traveling a little bit more teaching. Um, and, um, you know, in the Brionis Academy has been growing. We have some changes going on there. All good stuff.

[00:03:24] Um, for those of you who are in Arizona or have been at the Academy, our, our head coach, Sammy Lee, he's actually, unfortunately moving back home. Yeah. Um, um, to, to be with, to be with family closer to family. Uh, he's done a, such a great job for us. Um, but amazing. Yeah. But we have, uh, another coach coming on board and, and, you know, and we're going to be, we're going to be growing that. So, um, shout out to Sammy Lee.

[00:03:54] Uh, if you're in Minnesota, uh, he's definitely someone I would recommend getting, getting some coaching. 100%. So, um, but that being said, uh, we are going to move on. We're going to talk a little bit about what really makes your, what can, what can accelerate your game in the, in the best way possible in the shortest amount of time. Um, and we're going to kind of talk through a little bit about, uh, Elliot's training.

[00:04:22] Um, I know, I know you may have heard some things, you know, how the pros train. It would be good to kind of get to, to know what you're doing today. Yeah. Um, but it's been since our last pod together, Elliot, it's probably been months. Gosh, it's been a long time. I can't remember the last one we filmed yet. Was it two months ago? Maybe. Yeah, probably. It's been a bit, uh, since a couple of questions since. Um, this is just a love to get your thoughts a little fireball. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:04:52] But since we last had our podcast, what's changed in pickleball strategically? Oh, strategically. Yeah. Are you seeing anything different today? Ooh. Um, not necessarily. I will say one thing I've seen a lot more short hops, intentional short hops and transition and at the kitchen line. Hmm. From a lot of pro play. So I've seen that increase a lot.

[00:05:20] Is that because I kind of told you about that? Maybe. Maybe I'm looking for it. No. Okay. But it's also like, I've been seeing it a life like a lot more from a lot of different people. Um, I also think the two handed resets. Okay. So a lot more platter resets. Uh, I've never heard that platter. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great term. Ryan Derwidger. And if you're watching, he's, he's amazing. He coined the term, but, um, yeah, the platter reset, I've seen a lot more and I think it's just really good for stability.

[00:05:44] I think whenever there's a ton of pace, like if you can stabilize with two hands, I also, I mean, it's just really good for consistency, but also like it's quicker. Like for me, I feel like I'm faster moving for reset. If I have two hands on the paddle versus one, I'm trying to stab out at it. Um, but those are the two things I've seen the most. I know they're both kind of defensive, uh, reset things, but that's what I've noticed. Yeah. The most recently. Okay. Um, maybe we'll just hop into this segment, uh, early. Um, but let's just talk strategy, um, for a little bit.

[00:06:14] I kind of want to get into the short hop because, um, for resets, let's quickly, um, run over that. The stability we get with two hands is much better. Um, obviously when you're resetting with one, you get more reach, you protect, you can protect your feet. Um, so, you know, I typically use two hands and put two hands on a paddle in transition. When I know it's going to be a fast, fast one.

[00:06:42] So obviously like chest high ball or something like that. But typically if it's below the net and someone's even flicking or attacking, I usually go one. Yeah. Um, that's just kind of for me. Um, just thoughts on that. Yeah. No, I think, I think the one handed back in, excuse me, you can get good feel with it too. I feel like, I don't know if the one hand I like, I like the feel better. Um, so I feel like, yeah, you said like if the ball's under the net and you have more time, it's not coming as fast. I personally like the one handed too, cause it's easier to time up for me and feel.

[00:07:09] But I think like you're saying the fast ones, when you need that reaction time, you need the stability and you need, you need basically to recruit all of your forces to get this ball back. Yeah. I think two hands is just the best option. Cause also it forces you to have to get low with two hands. Like sometimes with one hand, you can get away with standing up straighter and just kind of putting your hand down. But two, since you've got constricted reach, you have to get a lot lower for that ball and you have to use your legs and you get in a better athletic stance. Um, I think that improves the resets a ton too overall. Yeah.

[00:07:38] Um, and second thing I want to address is the short hop. What's really interesting as I, I study, you know, obviously amateurs play all the time because I'm teaching them, but obviously I look at the pro game a lot. One of the reasons that, you know, I'll give you kind of my answers. I'd love to get your thoughts, but let's talk about short hops at the kitchen line first. And, um, you know, even when I started pickleball again, a long time ago before I was born. Yeah.

[00:08:08] Before, before Elliot's, um, parents were born, you know, um, you know, the short hop is something, you know, I call it a dinking to your list and I still, I still generally. Okay. So caveat generally lived by this, but out of the air first taking time away, um, then taking the ball at the apex. Yeah. And then, um, taking it before the apex. So short hopping around the rice.

[00:08:32] Um, so when I started the game, not only the paddles didn't have as much grit, didn't have enough, uh, as much pace. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, so that being said, the aggressive dinks were not, were not what they are today. Yeah. Yeah. It's true. I put that on silent. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, if you're watching this, if you could put your phone on silent too, that'd be great. Okay. Quick PSA.

[00:08:59] No, but, um, so because of today's aggression, because of all that, um, I think before it was actually a lot easier to not any, to not take any short hops. Yeah. Right. I could actually, I could actually, you know, get the ball out of the air or I could shuffle my feet and then actually get in position to hit a roll back almost every time. Yeah. Um, and, uh, in today's game players are not only flicking, but they're, they're rolling.

[00:09:29] They're putting a lot of pressure and they're taking a lot of time away. And at least at, I would say the four Oh four or five above level, that's where strategically I think short hops come into play because you have to cover middle so much because of the speed up. Um, most short hops again, I have to look at this again, but just thinking just as I'm kind of throwing things out there, I think most short hops happen on the outsides of the

[00:09:59] court. So they don't, they don't, they don't happen inside because you can step back with your inside foot. So because you're leaning in to cover speed ups and middle, and then you have an angle of the cross court dink, whether you're on the right or left, that's where the short hops happen. And it just helps keep your positioning on a ball. And also again, diving deep in the strategy because let's say I'm playing on the left as a right handed player. I'm trying to lean in for my flick.

[00:10:25] I'm trying to lean in for offense, but I'm making that decision last minute. So what's happening is I'm trying to be offensive, but I don't have time to move my feet. So now I have to concede to a short hop. So it's actually a good thing that I'm leaning in. And if I don't have time, I'm short hopping that ball to neutral probably towards the inside foot just to gain some neutral ground. So that's just thoughts on that. Elliot.

[00:10:54] I mean, you kind of covered most of it, honestly. I'd say, I mean, like all of that, like a hundred percent. I feel like also one, one thing too, with the out of the air point, I feel like that's especially super important because a lot of people are taking more out of the air now. I think now, like you're saying with the balls being more aggressive, with there being more spin, more pace, more depth on these dinks, you almost have to take these balls out of the air. Otherwise you're going to get cooked. I mean, you're going to get destroyed on the kitchen line. And so the out of the air is super important. And so I think with that, the short hop is huge.

[00:11:23] Like if you don't have that short hop weapon, you either have to have really quick feet or you have to decide really fast. If you're going to be taking it out of the air or not, you can't really lean as much. You don't have that leniency, I guess, with that. So I think that's huge. And also I feel like a lot of times the court gets opened up a ton in the transition zone whenever you do get pulled out wide. So let's say someone rolls it aggressively and you're forced to shuffle step and get out wide. Now the whole middle of the court's open. So if you don't hit a good reset, they can just plug away and then keep on moving you guys around or throw one through the middle.

[00:11:51] And so I think that short hop is really good for just avoiding that. You short hop one, you're still maintaining your position. You're still in the middle. You're still defending. You're not going to get burned as much down those lines as well. So yeah, yeah, no good stuff. I do. I'm going to jump into my thoughts on the short hop in transition. I think again, just thinking it through right now, as you said it, I think the main reason

[00:12:14] for that is players again, aggressiveness at the feet, but specifically I think players are smarter in not aiming it, aiming their fourths or six shots. Yeah. Yeah. Waist higher above. That's true. So because of that, a lot of players will take pace off and it's a safer, more efficient shot than trying to go hard at the knee, at the knee level where, where players now can

[00:12:43] close and be aggressive in transition. So if you kind of aim, let's say you're coming in halfway in transition and I'm at the, I'm rolling my fourth out of the air off the bounce. It doesn't really matter. Yeah. But let's say you split and I'm aiming three feet in front of your, in front of your toe line instead of like at your shins or knees. Because if I kind of aim a little bit too far against players that are really quick, then

[00:13:12] they can, they can close. But if I aim, let's say a few feet, give myself some margin in front of you, you're forced to short hop it, which I'm okay with. And it's just a safer, more consistent shot. And I think that's why you see more players short hop in transition today. Yeah. I don't know. Thoughts on that? No, I mean, I think, I think you said it. Okay. There we go, folks. If you, if you haven't, go check out our YouTube channel, Brionis Academy on YouTube,

[00:13:42] because I think I'm going to do a short hop video just because, uh, there we go. Because that, you know, there we go. I like the sound of that. Yeah. There's a lot of, a lot of things going on. Oh, come on. Okay. So, um, let's go. So let's talk about PPA Elliot. Yeah. You got signed. Um, you know, there's a lot of buzz around signed and non-signed people. Um, what, what is the benefit of that?

[00:14:08] And what are you excited most about, um, kind of just playing more PPAs because you were pretty much exclusively APPs last year, I believe. Um, so you're, you're hopping into the, the other league and I don't know, just tell me about that. Yeah, no, I think it's, I mean, first of all, it's a really exciting step, but I think, I think the main draw to, to assigning the main benefit, uh, one thing a lot of people don't realize is you can't play with a, if you're unsigned, you can't play with the signed player in the top 50.

[00:14:38] So partnership wise, unless it's like a challenger event. Wow. So partnership wise. Yeah. Let's say I'm ranked 65, right? And I want to play with somebody who's top 42. I can't really do that unless I'm signed otherwise, or no. Yeah. I just can't, I can't play that. Now, even if they want to go to qualities. So, yeah. So you can go to qualities if you're outside the top 50. So let's say if I'm signed, I'm 65. I want to play with somebody who's not signed.

[00:15:05] We could go to qualities together, but since I'm outside top 50, it's fine. Once you get inside top 50, then you can't have that partnership. So you're not even allowed to go to qualifiers. Yes. Yeah. So. Wow. Yeah. So a big draw of the contracts is now you can open up the whole field for partnerships. So if you want different partners or better partnerships or anything along that line, you can, you can do it now. So it's kind of like all free, free ranges isn't the right word, but it's like, yeah, it's like a free for all in a sense there.

[00:15:34] Another part of it is priority for main draws. So now they rolled out the new system with WPR, the world pickleball rankings. So it's all based off of that. But if you're signed, you have priority over people who are unsigned for main draw. So let's say I have 50 points and a team under me has 30 points and they're not signed or let's say, no, they have 80 points, right? They got more than me. I also have priority in the main draw over them just because I'm signed. So you get better main draw access. It's easier to get different partners.

[00:16:04] And so all that is really, really great. And if you're going to try to grind on a tour, that stuff is kind of a necessity in a sense. Yeah. Cool. Awesome, man. So forgot to shout out in the beginning of the show, but this podcast is brought to you by Empowered by Yola. Hey. Hey, so thank you, Yola, for all you do. And again, not a sponsor yet though, but let's bring it together here. Yeah. Me and Jordan did not plan this by the way. No, no, no. No, no.

[00:16:34] Elliot has the Body Armor hydration. And this is just a hydration kind of segue here. I have the new Body Armor Fit sparkling sports drink if you like sparkling water. There we go. They're not even sponsors, but hey, if Body Armor, if you would like to reach out to us. Hit me up at elliot.gmail.com. That's not your... Don't do that. I'm not giving it to that. But yeah. Okay.

[00:17:03] So Elliot, you're on the pro tour. You are... You actually... We're going to talk about the challenger you just played. Yeah. Yeah. Realistically, I know you came from baseball and then started playing pickleball. Yeah. When did you think in your mind or mentally that you would actually... You actually had a real shot at playing like professionally? Yeah.

[00:17:31] This is going to sound funny because for the first like two to three years, I want to say, maybe use two years of playing pickleball, my only goal, my only goal was to get to 4-0. I was like, if I get to 4-0, my life is complete. Wait, really? I work is done. Yes. Yes. No way. I did not... I've never heard this. Yeah. I did not have any intention of going pro. So me and my grandpa, he was coaching me for a while. We did some local tournaments, started out at the 2-5 level for tournaments. I was grinding away.

[00:18:00] Then I got to 4-0 and I was like, well, I guess I might as well try to get to 5-0. So then we got to 5-0 and I was like, well, I might as well go pro. So it kind of escalated that way. So you... Yeah. You got to 5-0 in Arkansas still? Yes. Yeah. Was that duper or just like your... Like skill level. Like doing good at like 5-0 tournaments. Okay. But yeah. So my only life, my only goal in pickleball was 4-0. Wow, dude. So yeah, that's kind of what got me started with the pro stuff.

[00:18:30] That's crazy. So yeah. When you got to 4-0 from a beginner, obviously you're a young teenager. Yeah. From beginner to 4-0, how long did that take? I think it took two or three years. I want to say. Like that long? It took me a while because I wasn't playing that much. Oh, yeah. It was like maybe like once a week at the correct center playing with the local 2-5, 3-0 players. Wow. I wasn't really drilling. I wasn't really doing that kind of stuff. I was just showing up, having fun and playing. Okay. So very casual.

[00:19:00] Very casual. 4-0 to, sorry, newbie to 4-0 in two years, let's say. And what about 4-0 to 5? That took like, I think an extra year, I want to say maybe. Year or like half a year to get from 4-0 to 4-5. Okay. Or 4-0 to, yeah, 4-5 and then 5-0 kind of the same vein. So about a year from 4-0 to 5-0. Yeah. Yeah. Now you're playing like 6-0 pickleball now.

[00:19:26] What do you think that, how long did that take you from 5 to 6? That took me a little bit longer. I think, but it started like, it was almost like, I don't know what the name of it is. I don't know if it's a bell curve or something, but it started kind of slow at first. And then actually for me, I got better like faster. So like most people kind of get better at the start and they kind of slow down a little bit. Mine was a little bit of the opposite where I started off not insane. And then I slowly kind of got better and got better quicker.

[00:19:53] So I'd say like for the pro stuff, like to get from a 5-0 to 6-0, I don't think it took too long. I think it took maybe a year and a half, maybe. Year and a half, potentially two years. But I've been playing pro now for about three years. Yeah. So that's how long I've been going for that now. Okay. So when you started playing like pro qualies in events, you were still around 5-0 or under 5-5 then? Yeah. Under 5-5. That's kind of where I started out with the pro stuff.

[00:20:20] Because I heard from a lot of people like, hey, if you're trying to go pro, you should just play qualies. Because the 5-0 tournaments aren't going to do much for you. Like it'll be good like for confidence building, but it's not going to be great for seeing what you're going to be dealing with at the pro level. And so that was really, really good advice, honestly, at the time. Like I got beat up the first year in qualies. Like I didn't make it out of qualies the whole year. I think it took me a year and a half to get out of my first qualifier or something like that or no, there's one earlier on and made it through, but for that whole year and a half in the PP, did not make it out of one.

[00:20:49] But that helped me a ton with development too, and then getting better and then realizing what I had to work on, which was super, super important. So if you're going to go pro and you're on the 5-0 level, I would suggest just playing qualies. Play it. See the level. Get better from it. Learn what you have to work on. And that would be really good for progress. Okay. And on that, yeah, that's super awesome. I would like to ask you, and if you were to tier this, okay? So you tier this.

[00:21:18] From you getting basically, let's say around that 5-0 level to pro today and getting signed, do you attribute, what do you attribute that the most? Okay. Or what's your tier? Okay. Is it hard work and dedication? Mm-hmm. Is it the drill, like the drills and the training? Mm-hmm.

[00:21:42] Or is it being around some of the top players and playing and training with them? It's interesting. I feel like it's tough to rank these because they all go hand in hand for me in a sense. I feel like you're not going to drill if you don't have the hard work and dedication. Okay. Then you're also not really going to know what to drill on if you aren't exposed to the different players and the different game styles and finding your weaknesses through them. Yeah.

[00:22:08] So I feel like it probably all starts with the hard work and dedication for having the drive to want to get better and want to improve and try to fix all the little things. But I feel like they all three kind of come together in a sense where you can't really have a really good one without the other. Yeah. I think drilling-wise, you could, even if you don't, I mean, everyone knows, I think, a lot of what they want to work on or a couple of things they struggle at more. But having exposure to high-level play and have them actually expose your weaknesses and

[00:22:36] show you where you're weaker in, that is super, super valuable. Yeah. And I think that's huge because there's a lot of things that I thought I had to work on. And then when I play different tournaments or play different teams, and then they did this one strategy against me or something else, I was like, oh my goodness, I've never even considered this as a weakness, but they've been exposing me. I couldn't do anything against this. That kind of stuff helped me improve the most, I think. And that was just huge for growth. Yeah. So you obviously moved from Arkansas to here. I did, yeah.

[00:23:03] And you train at the Brionis Academy a lot. I do, I do. And yeah, you teach them classes and some privates for us. So hey, if you're in the area, you know, you could see Elliot here. Elliot at gmail.com. But I do think that, you know, looking at your growth and what you've done so far, I think that being exposed to the top players has been a huge role.

[00:23:34] Huge, yeah. And obviously, you know, it's not, again, it's not easy. It's not easy to get invited in the top groups. It's tough. But you worked your way up there. So that's been pretty cool to see. But, you know, what can you say about, you know, how to get into those groups? One of the things that, it doesn't matter what level, actually. It doesn't matter what level I'm teaching or coaching.

[00:24:03] It's always like, hey, you know, some players actually don't really know where they stand and what level. But, you know, I always hear this about, hey, how do I get into higher level groups? Or if I could just do this or prove myself or whatever. Yeah. How was it for you? Because, you know, there's obviously some top players in the world that live here. And you're in those groups now. So what was that process like?

[00:24:31] And do you have to just put yourself out there? How did you get into those? And, you know, now that those are your normal groups? Yeah. I feel like I could say more of this for Arkansas, just because this area, Phoenix, for me, has been super, super welcoming, inviting. Like everyone here has been super nice. It's like all the pros here try to build each other up and they're not just focused on personal growth. And so everyone kind of comes in and helps out. So here I haven't really had much trouble getting games, which has been amazing. It's been fantastic.

[00:25:00] But for Arkansas, that was when I had the first like grind, I think, to get into the good games. And for me back then, those were like four or five to five-oh games that were pretty tough to get in. Okay. And the thing I got in from, if I remember correctly, there was a couple of things. First off, main one is drilling. So there's typically in the group, like let's say there's a group you want to get into. There's one or two players that like to drill and they want to get better. But most other people don't like drilling. Yeah. It's just one of those things where a lot of people want to get better. They don't want to drill.

[00:25:30] You know, it may be boring and maybe too repetitive. Um, but I was totally down to drill. So I would keep on asking people they want to drill. And you're asking people in the groups that you want to get into. So, cause it's hard for them to find drilling partners, but they'll, they'll drill with somebody maybe a little bit lower level to them just to get reps in. Is that right? Yes. Yeah, exactly. Cause you can still get better during someone under you. Cause you just need touches. You need reps. If you're working on different shots, like you don't need someone that is your skill over a higher.

[00:25:59] I mean, if you, if you get that, that's amazing. Like it's really good, but you don't need it. So a lot of these people just wanted to drill shots or work on a couple of things. And so I was able to get in that way. And so I made, I made, I think it was only one connection through drilling. And then that's what got me in the groups. Cause then that one person invited me to games and then everyone else got to meet me. They got to see me play. Um, and then it kind of just snowballed from there. So I think drill with one or two people, if you can, I know it's easier said than done. Um, but you have to just reach out, um, and, and ask for it.

[00:26:28] I mean, it's, it's not, it's not fun, but if you want to get in, it's one of the things I think that has to be done. And also whenever you do get in the groups, be just be just fun to be around. I think a big thing too, like, at least for me, like, let's say there's a person that I've never met in a group and they're trying to make their way into it. If you're always just getting mad at yourself or you're getting frustrated, you're making errors and you're just, you're just having, you're not having a great time. It's not as enjoyable to be around in a sense, especially if you're new, because everyone

[00:26:57] in that group doesn't know you, they don't know how you normally play. And so you tend to think like, Oh, if I get frustrated in a sense, like I'll show them I'm better than this. I typically make this shot, but it's not really how it feels. It's a little bit more like, well, they're always frustrated themselves. It's just, they're not, they're not really trying to get better than having a good time. And I'd rather go play with this other person who's focused and working on stuff and, you know, kind of letting that stuff slide off a bit. So I think that's one of the tips too. If you get in the groups, just try it. It's tough, but try not to get as frustrated on mistakes.

[00:27:27] Try to have a good time. Yeah. Fun to be around, talk to people, just, just be loose. I think with it too. Yeah. No, those are good, man. Let's talk about just weekly training in a, in a pro kind of sense, you know, what it takes to become a pro pickleball today is definitely way different than it was when I started the game. Yeah.

[00:27:50] But drill days versus, or drill sessions versus play sessions and off court training, like weights, agility, all that stuff. Yeah. What does that look like for you? How many rest days? Just give a kind of a very, very concise. What does a weekly training look like for you? Yeah. Yeah. So I have one designated rest day every week, which is Sunday. I try not to do any playing, any training, anything like that.

[00:28:18] So I can let my body recover because first off, if you're training a ton, if you're not resting and recovering, your body is going to break down and you're, the quality of your sessions are just going to just plummet. So I think having one rest day at least is a very good thing to do. But for the other six days, I really aim for two sessions a day. So that's my goal. Two, two hour sessions a day. Definitely not going to do two, three hour sessions because I feel like after the two hour mark, the quality just dips up a lot. And so you won't get the same value from those reps as you will at like a two hour, an hour and a half range.

[00:28:47] So, so you're saying two, two hour sessions a day, but is that literally in six days a week? So is that literally 18 sessions a week? 18 sessions. Oh, you mean it'd be 12. 12? Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. My math. It's really early still here. Yeah. It's the morning. My math is really bad. Okay. Let's go. Let's go. Six times two is 12. Yeah. Are you getting a 12 sessions, a two hour sessions a week? That's the goal. Not all the time.

[00:29:15] It depends to like if people are here, like this week, for instance, there's not as many people here. So there's been, I think two days where I haven't been able to get the second session. And then yesterday I took that as like a, just a quick recovery day. So this week I'm not sitting at the same number, but two is ideal. And then ideally in a perfect world, it's drill in the morning and then play in the afternoon. So get reps first and then you put it into games, reps put into games. But it's not bad to go drill more. And I typically end up on that side anyways.

[00:29:42] Like most often my weeks look like probably eight out of those 12 sessions are drilling and then four games. Oh, so I thought it was, I thought it was like 50. So ideally it's not 50, 50. It's ideally for me, it's 50, 50. I want to get there, but it ends up shaping up more where it's eight and four for me. It's just easier to find games at times. Or, or, or you to find drilling, to find drilling. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. That made it a little confusing. Okay.

[00:30:09] So, so yeah, you'd like to be more 50, 50, but it's, yeah, it's, it's harder to get four people on the court all the time. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And then for the physical aspect, I am doing some personal training. Yeah. So like if you're doing four hours of on court, like what does that leave for off court or how does that look? Yeah. So generally now I'm also coaching, you know, like you said, the Brianna's Academy hit me up for lessons in the time slots of 12 and four.

[00:30:35] And so I try to get a session in from eight to 10 in the morning and then coach from 12 to four and then play from four to six. Um, but in, in that time, either before the eight to 10 session or maybe kind of in between, maybe under seven and nine, uh, in between that and 12, I'll try to get a personal training session. So it'd be like going to gym with a guy. He's local. His name's art, uh, Ryan Johnson, RJ performance. He is elite. Um, he's and that's, that's only like one hour though, right? One and a half. Okay. So it's like two hours here, two hours.

[00:31:05] So on court or training is probably five hours a day max then. Yes. And I only do it three times a week. So not every day, but, um, it's still a decent amount. Um, so it leaves time to recover, uh, to recoup from all the stress you're putting in the body and then still build all the right muscle and tendon stuff. Cool. I get this question asked a lot, but what let's, let's do one speed, agility, mobility, flexibility thing. Okay. That's all different kinds of things. Yeah.

[00:31:35] But let's, okay. So let's go one strength training. Okay. That's really helped your game. Okay. Um, exercise one speed, agility thing. And then one flexibility or mobility thing. And cause there's a lot of people that, you know, they don't know what to do, but just for you personally, what's really helped in those areas, um, in strength, speed or footwork and then mobility, flexibility. Okay. I'd say this, this one's tough too. Cause with a lot of the workouts, it's hard to attribute, you know, one thing to a certain

[00:32:04] exercise, but from what I've heard, um, and what I think is doing most of the work, I'd say strength training wise, actually the biggest thing is honestly, probably a normal back squat. So a back squat. So having your barbell on your back and then just squatting down. Oh, so just box. Okay. That's huge because my, the Ryan, what he always says too, is that if you can squat 500 pounds, you can sit in a dink position for a while. Oh, so are you going, I was going to ask you that.

[00:32:31] Are you doing a lot of reps or you're calling it really heavy, heavy for a few, and then trying to be explosive on the way up. So trying to be quick. So we're going slow down, quick up, uh, heavy for a few reps. And then, you know, combine that with some plyos or things like that as well. So I'd say for the, um, for the quickness and the kind of the agility stuff, I think just, just, um, just actually, you know, like, are you doing ladder drills? Are you doing cones or are you doing anything? I am doing a lot of that kind of stuff. But I think the biggest thing is actually just been plyos, like just like jumping.

[00:33:01] So bouncing up and down, um, and trying to go for a lot of bounce and try to be really like quick and explosive off the ground with your feet. I like to think of it as almost like landing on a bomb. Like as soon as you have the ground, it explodes and you're trying to get back up as quick as you can. I think that's helped me a ton, uh, with the agility as well. Um, and then you said the other one was what again? Flexibility and mobility. Yeah. Um, I'd say, I mean, just stretch, stretch and do mobility stuff.

[00:33:27] I'd say a big one though, is the 90, 90 position where you have your legs in a 90 degree angle on both sides and you're kind of, you know, flip flopping side to side on those stretching the, um, the glutes a little bit and moving those around. But that's just a great move for pickable. Um, cause you're always using your hips to move if you're in the right positions, the right, um, yeah, body positions. Yeah. So that's, that's been really, really key. Okay. How important is sleep for you and how much do you get?

[00:33:56] Very important. I should be getting more, but I aim for about eight hours. Okay. That's, that's my, that's my goal. I try to hit that. Um, ideally it'd be more. Yeah. But if I hit eight hours, it's still solid just because if you're training really hard, I mean, the recovery is probably more important because again, you don't want injuries. If you're tired or you're sore, sure. You could train four hours a day, but if you're tired and you're not getting the same value from the reps, it's almost not wasted, but you're not going to be as efficient with it as you could be. Yeah.

[00:34:24] So biggest recovery tool that you've been so that I know that there's a place right by the Brionis Academy, right? There's, I know there's cryo and there's all that, you know, but what, what has been, you know, for you, whether it's that or ice bath or sauna, like what's been really good for your recovery? I think generally cold plunges are like, I feel amazing afterwards. And are you doing that? Is that before or after? After, after. Oh, okay. Yeah. So it's like, once you're done, it could just, it cools down inflammation.

[00:34:53] It gets a lot of blood rushing to your legs system, which heals you really quick. Um, and then a lot other, a lot more science that goes behind it. I don't know that as much, but I just know it hurts for about three or five minutes and then you feel amazing afterwards. So I'd say cold plunges for just must muscular stuff is just huge. Like if you can, if you can do that, I'm, that's just going to be just skyrocketing your recovery. Yeah. And then last thing on just improvement. And for those of you watching, right? Yes.

[00:35:21] Elliot is training at a much different level and more intense, but for you out there, you can take some of these things and just start to implement something. Right. And this last thing that I'm going to ask Ellie about is something that everyone could probably work on, even myself. And that's nutrition. Oh yes. Well, what is, so what does that look like for you? And how, um, you know, honestly, when I was in my teens and my young twenties, I didn't

[00:35:50] really think about it at all. Yeah. Um, because I don't, I didn't think it mattered as much and I was in great shape, you know? And, uh, but how serious do you take that? And what does that kind of look like? Yeah. I need to be more serious with it too, but it's, it's a lot of the, the core principles I try to follow with every meal if I can is to get something fresh. So fruits, vegetables, something like that, get your protein and then get your carbs. If you can hit all three of those in each meal, you're going to be fine.

[00:36:20] Um, but the main thing I think for me is trying to really make sure I get enough protein and make sure I get that in because since I'm training so much, I'm breaking down the muscle so much. I need that protein to rebuild, uh, for the recovery process. So trying to get protein, trying to get all the fresh, uh, the fresh stuff, every meal, like for instance, what that could look like is for like a breakfast. It could be like, for me, what I do now sometimes is I'll do like, um, some eggs, maybe a little bit of bacon, um, an orange or something like that to kind of get that and then take

[00:36:48] some electrolytes or something with it. And then other times it could be, you know, berries or something like that to kind of substitute could be yogurt, berries, honey seeds, you know, that kind of stuff, um, for breakfast, but just trying to hit all three. If you can for each meal is huge. And then hydrating actually throughout the day, it's, it's hot here in Phoenix. You sweat a lot without even realizing it. And so like, I've been trying to get to like one and a half, two gallons of water a day to stay hydrated because if you're dehydrated, your muscles are dry, very injury prone.

[00:37:16] And there's a big risk of pulling something. So you want to really make sure that you're hydrated as well, drinking throughout the day, drinking when you first wake up, um, all that stuff. So body armor, if you're watching, it's like, it's another call to action here. There you go. Um, all right. So one part of your game, Elliot, that you think that you've improved the most, um, in the last, when did you move here? Have you been here a year now?

[00:37:46] Not a year. Yeah. I moved here last October. Okay. So it's close. It's close. We're almost there. Okay. So one, one part of your game that you're, you know, pretty proud of that, that you have improved in your game. I have to say, I have to say it'd be a decision making and going for more consistency. But whenever I moved here, I was that so sadly too. I had so many people tell me to do this because when I moved here, I was kind of just wild and crazy. I would speed up every ball.

[00:38:16] I would just go for some dumb shots and it would work a lot of times, but there's also more times it didn't work. Yeah. And I would just remember the ones when it did. And so I'd be going crazy, drive every ball, speed up everything, think maybe two balls max and just go crazy. So it was very fun style of play, but not built for winning. So I think being a little more consistent, choosing my times and my spots better has helped a ton. Yeah. And on that, we're going to actually kind of maybe look at some decision making. Oh no, no.

[00:38:45] I know this was a while ago. It froze me. But okay. So decision making, I know me and you talk about that and we look at a lot of things at times, but yeah, really important part. What shot took you? Everyone's working on something, but just comparative to all the shots that you've had to work on, what shot took you the longest to develop and why? Why you just think for yourself? I don't want to give away any secrets here.

[00:39:14] I'd say, honestly, I'm actually going to go back in a sense to what I said about the decision making is actually developing shots under pressure. So I feel like a lot of times I coach a couple of people that do this too, is like we can work on one shot for a long time. We get built to muscle memory. Then whenever we get to a tournament or a game or something where there's a little bit more pressure and weight on the scenario, we tend not to go for it as much. And so we actually don't develop it.

[00:39:42] So I like to think about practicing a shot and then developing a shot. So the developing comes from getting under pressure, hitting it when you're tight and you're nervous, when you don't want to miss and working on it and developing it in those high pressure situations, practicing, just getting the shot down. So what I did a lot was I would drill. You drill dinks a lot, right? If you're, if anyone's ever drilled, you know, you're going to hit dinks for a while. But with my decision making, I wasn't hitting dinks in tournaments. And so my dinks were great in practice. But then when I got to the tournaments, I never was developing that shot.

[00:40:12] And so it took me a while to actually feel comfortable with it. So what's the, what's the, give us a little process or, yeah, the process for that. Because, you know, that happens with everyone. You know, you hear this all the time. Hey, my third shot drops are great in practice. Yeah. But like then they break down or it doesn't happen. So how do you actually, how did you go from working on a shot and drills, feeling comfortable with it and then actually take it into tournament play?

[00:40:39] Just, just a really quick, like what did you do? Yeah. So the first thing I had to do was redefine what success was for me in the game and the shot and anything. So before success for me was winning. I was like, okay, if I win, that's a success. If I lose, it's a fail, which is, you know, a lot of people's mindsets, I think. And it's the very, it's very natural. It's very, it's yeah, it's, it's instinctual to do that, but it's really harmful because if you just think of wins and losses, you're going to go with the safest play, right? I don't want to miss this ball.

[00:41:08] So I'm going to go back to what I was doing before and go back on old habits because I want to make sure I win and to win, I have to make this ball. If I miss, I'm going to lose. So that is a very tough mindset to be in. So what I ended up switching it to was switching from success being winning to success is me going for this shot when I'm tight. So if I'm really tight and I don't want to miss this ball, success for me is actually going for this. An easy example of that is serves, right? I feel like for everybody, you can kind of relate to this. Whenever we get tight, it's a game. Um, it's very hard to hit a hard serve.

[00:41:38] Like I feel like a lot of people serves will get a lot weaker. That was me yesterday, but it's tough. It's hard to hit a hard serve whenever you're tight. So that was the first step for me. I was like, okay. Like when I was starting out with all this, I was like, if I can just hit my serve hard, I don't care if I miss a ball, that is a success in this tournament, in this game, whatever it is. And so it started that way. So then slowly I would do that to all the other shots, right? If I can hit this slice stink and be okay missing it, that's fine, right?

[00:42:05] I like to think about it as it's actually a bigger win to miss a shot going for the right technique than it is to make a shot with the wrong technique. So let's say if I'm working on a two-handed backhand, if I'm pushing the ball versus getting topspin on it, sure, I may make it, but I consider that now as a failure. I don't want to do that. If I can miss a ball that's in the top of the tape, maybe it's long, but I'm trusting my shot going through the right technique. That's a win because overall it's going to like, oh, eventually it's going to compound. You're going to feel better with the shot. You're going to get more comfortable. And that's how you actually develop that shot and actually add it to your game.

[00:42:35] So that's what helped for me a ton with all that. And that's been, I think, one of the biggest shifts in my mindset, especially moving here to Phoenix and being able to work on all this was just redefine what successes in your games and your practices, all that. And you're just going to skyrocket from there. Yeah, I like that. And I just think the growth mindset, being willing to miss, I like that because, you know,

[00:43:04] again, I take pretty much the same approach. You know, I've had to work on different things. My game, obviously, I'm not competing all the time anymore, but even bringing things from drills to rec play and then to tournament play, I think that's a natural progression. You got to be honestly willing to miss shots in practice. And it sucks. It's terrible. It sucks to miss shots that you can make another way or change your decision making for whatever

[00:43:33] reason. But again, it's just about thinking long term versus short term. So yeah, 100%. Yeah. So on that note, for those of you watching and listening, obviously bringing the podcast to you every week in the studio is really tough. There's a new format that kind of I'm excited about.

[00:43:57] And we're going to kind of show you a little bit of kind of what we what we plan to do. But, you know, the whole purpose of this podcast is to give you education and also help you become a better pickleball player. That's why I've had several pros on this podcast talking about strategy. We always talk about different things. But one of the things we're going to try is we're going to start interviewing people and

[00:44:25] breaking down their their match footage live and also just talking through different strategies and tactics. So I'm super excited about that. And that is going to to start pretty shortly. Let me know your comments below or or wherever you can. But Elliot, now on that decision making. Oh, no. Let's kind of we're going to pull in. And again, let's just see. This is let's just see. May 10th.

[00:44:54] Oh, OK. There we go. May 10th. But we filmed this way before. So this is beginning of this year, probably. Yeah, this is this is. So it's been it's been like eight months, probably eight months or so. Yeah, it's actually good to see to see the progress here. But what we're going to do is we're going to kind of look at we're just looking at shot selection decision making. These are kind of things we're not going to talk too much technique, but we'll look at positioning.

[00:45:23] Obviously, these are all really high level players. And actually, before this, Elliot, you did play challenger in Seattle. I did. I did. And he actually got bronze with Kyle. And yeah, so I just I know we kind of like totally missed that. Yeah. But it was it was a fun one. It was very grindy. We are bracket.

[00:45:50] We ended up playing about 13 hours for the entire day. We played nine matches, 13 hours. We were grinding. You're talking about from their first match to our first match. So ridiculous. It was crazy. It was a long day. So it was really we're super, super stoked to get the bronze because it was a great just great, great tournament for endurance and mental strength. So it was it was awesome. Yeah. So shout out. Shout out to you and Kyle for that.

[00:46:15] But Kai and who am I missing here? Riley. Yeah. There you go. Hi, Riley and Sam here. Sam. I don't think it was there. Oh, wait. Sam was there. He was. Yeah. All these guys were also at the challenger and Kai and Riley had a great run. I did. They did have a great run. We played him in the round of 32. So it was like crazy. It's an early matchup and we had a match with them. It was an hour and a half, 13, 11, the third.

[00:46:42] We weren't able to get it, but they were playing some really, really good pickleball. They were getting tons of stuff back. Their hands were great. They were they were playing really, really well. Yeah. That tournament. So kudos to them for that. Yeah. And speaking of hydration, unfortunately, Riley is a good friend. So I could say, but I guess full body cramps. Yeah. So quarterfinals. So that really sucks. But they did well. OK, so let's let's jump in. All right. So let's talk about a little bit decision making here. Let's just see.

[00:47:11] This was eight months ago. It's going to be tough to watch. We'll just watch a couple of points here. Oh, there we go. There we go. Oh, OK. That's a good start. All right. Quick points. Let's just talk about just real quick. This opening point and the opener. Right. We'll call it. We'll call it that. What is your mindset if you're the serving team versus the returning team? Yeah. So tournament. Right. The opener. Let's talk about Riley as he serves. And again, this is more this is competitive play. But, you know, this is more back play. Yeah.

[00:47:41] What do you think it has on serve? On serve. It's fine. I have the same mindset for both. Serve is hit your serve and go for it. OK. Return is go for your return. If I get even if you start the match like and by missing a shot, at least as long as you set the tone for yourself. Yeah. I think it's really good because what's hard to is like, let's say you start this match and I'm like, OK, I'm going to go. I'm just going to make this return. Yeah. Then you're setting the tone for the rest of the match. So you're in just the survival mindset versus. All right. I'm going to try to go for this.

[00:48:10] Now you're in again the progress mindset. You start off on the right foot. I think that is that's huge. That's that's what I like to think here on these. OK. So Riley goes for. Goes for pretty good serve. Great return here. Just a little bit high there. OK, so let's I want to I want to. Talk about this. What do you think about Riley's decision making after this drop? So he goes for a two. You're leaning in. OK, it's it's clearly out of the air here.

[00:48:39] Riley takes a step into the court and it's just a good flick to his right foot. What do you think decision making there? I don't think it was bad. I think I mean, first of all, his drop decision going to me was, I think, smart because I just hit the returns. I was on my way into the kitchen. Yeah. So I think it's always smart dropping to the returner. I think with that, Riley's got really, really good defense. And so I think for him specifically, he can get away with coming in a little bit. I think, again, start of the match, you're just warming up. You're just kind of getting loose.

[00:49:08] So, you know, I think part of it could be attributed to that. But yeah, I don't I don't I don't mind it from him. OK. All right. All right. Here we go. Now, this is your first serve of the match. I better rip this. Come on. Oh, OK. Oh, there we go. Oh, no. Let's talk about that. This is well, this is Kim. Well, this is interesting here. I would love to get your thoughts about this. Yeah. Yeah. And I'll give you mine. But big serve to start. Love it. OK.

[00:49:36] Well, we just talked about about the returner coming in. So you set up for a drop. Yeah. And what do you think? What do you think about that choice? I had a bad decision. I yeah, definitely. It's it's aggressive. So going down the line here back to Sam's backhand. A couple of things I can win from this. First off for me, anyone playing the left side against me is always going to be a righty. So if I get this ball to drop, it'll be kind of like a short hop for him on his backhand side.

[00:50:04] So there is that's kind of the win there. Also, it's easier for us to approach. I think we've got it in the corner. But downsides is a very tough drop to make. I've got the smallest amount of kitchen in front of me there. And also, Sam's already set and ready. So he's ready for the ball. He's not moving. He can also Ernie this if he wants to. Whereas Riley, as you see here, by the time I hit it, he's still not in the kitchen. So if I go to him, it'll be much safer. I've got more kitchen to work with. I've got more time to get up because there's more there's more space.

[00:50:33] And he's just not set and ready. So those are kind of the pros and cons. Yeah, so that drop, I would love to see that maybe more middle or cross. Yeah. But again, Sam did a good job kind of flicking there. Okay, so we got Kai to serve now. We're going to watch just a few more points here. That's a good drop, Kai. Wow. There we go. Now we're getting into a point here. Oh. Miss communication in the middle. Nice.

[00:51:03] We got to fix that forehand for him. Oh. Okay. We're all off in that court. Okay, so I mean, overall here, you know, there was some great dinking. This is good patience on the third point. You know, I think one of the things that you pros do really well is just leaning in, taking balls out of the air when necessary, and applying pressure out of the air.

[00:51:27] And I always like to tell players and I always teach that, you know, being aggressive and applying pressure doesn't mean speeding up. Actually, we talked about that a while, a while back. But it just means just even just taking time away, hitting a volley dink, right? Make them uncomfortable. I like to think, too, when you're at the kitchen line, your job is to make them uncomfortable. Like, you don't want them to feel like they can get in a rhythm. And, like, taking balls out of the air is huge for that because it saves you footwork. You don't have to move as far. It takes away their time.

[00:51:56] And also, you get people scrambling a lot. Like, if you pull someone out wide and they're kind of approaching the middle, if you take it out of the air and go back, they got to really quickly now change direction and go back. And that's how you get people scrambling and moving around the line a lot. Yeah. So, I think just think, just try to make people uncomfortable. That's more aggression versus just speed up every single ball you can and try to put pace. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. Last point here. Maybe it's a good one. We'll see. Ooh, big serve by Kai. High serve. Ooh, big drive. Oh, what are we saying? Come on, we got to win.

[00:52:26] We're going to talk about that one right there. Oh, my gosh. Oh, no. No. No, I got cooked. No. I got so cooked. Okay. We have to end it on this one, Ellie. Oh, a bag. A bag. Okay. So, big serve here by Kai. So, I love it, man. He has big serve, big forehand. Okay. So, good. Pretty high volley. We're going to look at your approach here when Kai is driving. Okay. So, Kai is behind the baseline.

[00:52:56] I mean, he doesn't have momentum moving in. Yeah. And you're seeing that. So, again. So, Kai does leave his drive really high. Kai, obviously, he has good drive. So, you come in. What are you looking for here? And just looking at this kind of sequence. Good, bad, mediocre decision making. What do you think on that? I think decision making was good. My positioning wasn't. I think I was looking for a crash here. Because, yeah. Knowing Kai is a great drive is huge. Because he hit a really good serve. So, I know Riley is going to be further off. It'll be taking him longer to get to the line.

[00:53:24] So, if Kai gets that drive down or really rips it, I have a really good opportunity for a crash here. So, what I should have done, though, differently is my route was bad. If you go back a little bit here, go backwards. Let's go back here. I kind of run around. So, instead of going straight to the middle here. First of all, I give Kai space. I don't mind this. But I almost gave him too much space. And then, see how far off the court I am here? Yeah. Now, for me to crash this ball, I should be taking a beeline straight across the middle. But I don't.

[00:53:53] I kind of go straight here. Expecting, like we'll say, if it's a pop-up to do a last-second lunge. Which puts you in a really bad position. So, what I should have done there. I should have already been aiming towards Kai's side of the court to get more central and more middle. Yeah. Because nothing kills a crash faster than you not actually being in front of the person and putting pressure on them. So, that's first of all, the first decision making. Kai, or Riley hit a really good ball. Yeah. To my inside foot. He did a great job handling that drive. And he got it right to the toe.

[00:54:22] So, honestly, there's that short hop we were talking about earlier. Kind of saved me on this one. Yeah. Because I was in a bad spot. And luckily got that shank to get over the net. Yeah. So, really quick. For those of you kind of just listening. Again, Kelly. Kelly. Kelly. Oh, my gosh. I said Kai. Kelly. Yeah. Kelly has a team. Kelly. Oh, no. So, they hit a big drive. A big serve. But, yeah. I really like that. You have to kind of create space here.

[00:54:52] But here's my thoughts even looking at this. Like, if you kind of beeline right to the middle right now, you don't know if Kai is like driving to Sam. Because that would kind of get in your way. Right? If he drives this way. Yeah, I could. But just playing high percentages. Yeah. He's probably going to drive to Riley. So, I think the play here would be to kind of just shoot middle. Yeah. Yeah. Like you said. So, I think. Yeah, man. I think that would have been good.

[00:55:19] And either way, even if you did hit middle, I think that volley would have been still a tough one. It would have been hard. But, yeah. It could have applied more visual pressure, though, too. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. You're right. That's also a thing is visual pressure. If people see you lean in for balls or they see you as, like, an opposing figure, that adds pressure to the shot. So, for this one, Riley had tons of space. Right? In front of him open. I was kind of off the side. So, there wasn't any pressure for him to make a good ball. Which is probably why it's easier for him to make a great shot like this.

[00:55:47] And I'm not saying he wouldn't hit it if I wasn't there. But if I'm more in the middle and I'm looking to attack, that will put more pressure on him. Or maybe he pops it up at that point. Or maybe there's more of a weaker ball that I could get. So, even just visual pressure and being in the right spots can add a ton of, I mean, I have to say it again, but pressure to your opponents. Yeah. Okay. So, let's hop into this. You save it. And then we're just going to just hop into the last. Last. Oh, no. No. Oh, my gosh. Okay. Just cooked.

[00:56:17] That was a great speed up by Sam. So, okay. So, Sam has a down the line setup here. Okay. So, he's not even super wide here. But what do you... So, you're a lefty on the right. So, what are you looking for here as somebody is contacting the ball outside here? Yeah. I mean, I should be looking to counter. That's the first thing. Well, you are. You are. Yeah. I think so.

[00:56:44] But in this case, I rather not sit on my counter. So, I know a lot of people like to sit all the way backhand or sit forehand or kind of guess what side. I like to sit neutral. So, I don't sit anywhere. So, I'm kind of just reacting to where the ball is going here. And I don't know if I was ready for the speed up or not. I know Sam disguised it really well. Like, if you go backwards again, go back a little bit. His first initial dink, look where he starts. So, just keep that in mind.

[00:57:12] And when he speeds up, it's basically the same position. So, I think he fooled me on this one where he got me when I wasn't really expecting it. He disguised it really well. And it looked like, honestly, on this one here, Sam isn't actually in the best position to speed up. He's not super balanced. He's a little bit leaning. So, I think this is him taking a little bit of a risk early on. It worked out. I mean, it fooled me. He disguised it really well. And then he also picked a good spot, right?

[00:57:41] He went to a shoulder or hip, that kind of chicken strip area, which is often very awkward to counter in. And, oh gosh, we don't even see that in slow motion. Oh, gosh. Let's just see 4K. Oh, it's a bag. That's such a bag. All right. We won't see it. You know what? We won't just pull that up ever again. We could burn those files. And I would love to see Sam try to speed up to you now, eight months later. Oh, man. That would be fun.

[00:58:11] We got to run it back. We got to run it back. I'll just invite Sam to say and feed him like 10 balls and have him hit the same spot and see what the progress is. Oh, man. That would be fun. Yeah, no. But it's good to – it's always good to kind of watch match film back. And I don't know. In your opinion, Elliot, why is it important to kind of watch film? I know this was kind of a fun one to watch. But, you know, why is it important to you and what do you take away from it?

[00:58:41] It's just huge. A lot of times, too, you can be hitting a shot and you can feel like you're doing something. You can feel like you're doing a certain technique, but until you watch it on the film, you don't actually know it. Like there's been so many times I've coached people. And it could be something as simple as like, hey, on all your speed ups, you take a way bigger backswing than whenever you dink. And people are like, wait, really? And then when you do a couple of cues and they can physically feel it, it's like, oh, my gosh, I never even noticed that.

[00:59:09] Like there's so many things that you can see on the film that you'll never be able to pick up in person because it feels so natural to you. Yeah. And then also with strategy stuff, you can see court positioning better, right? If you're playing, you only have a certain field of vision. You can't see all the time where your partner is, where they are, where they are, or all the spots on the court as well. Then whenever you go to the film, you're like, okay, you can see everything. You can see everyone's little like where they're sitting. You can see what happens when this ball goes here.

[00:59:35] And it's much easier to get an idea of the game, get a better idea and more understanding of pickleball and strategy, but also just your own technique in your own game. So I feel like it's if you don't, especially if you don't have a coach, this is the best thing you could possibly do for your game. I think as far as knowing what to improve on, it has to be film review. Yeah. I love it. And speaking on that, where is a place that you can actually send your footage and your match footage is the Pickleball University. Go check that out. Okay. There we go.

[01:00:02] But we're still running that and we have a great community there. We actually analyze matches just like this and that's going to be kind of the new podcast format. Really going to really show you guys and gals as you watch this, how to actually break down film. We're going to really talk about strategy, what to work on, how to actually apply drills to your own game and things like that.

[01:00:28] So I'm super excited, but Elliot, thanks for watching or thanks for watching. Thanks for watching. And also thanks for, you know, letting us see you get bagged every once in a while. Yeah. No. Okay. Anytime, anytime, anytime for you to work. Yeah. But I don't know, Elliot, you want to close this out or any, any last comments we talked about, you know, training. We talked about just doing your best to improve.

[01:00:52] We also talked about, you know, how to get into higher level games, just outlook on changing your mindset of what is success, right? Just anything you want to kind of just end with. Um, I think go out there and drill more, watch your matches, reach out to people too. It's the scariest thing, but if you want the games, reach out to people. I'm telling you not as many people will say no as you think. And yeah, go, go, go get grinding over there. All right. All right. See you guys. See ya.