USA vs Asia Pro Pickleball + Silver Medalist Interview with Elliott Schupp #104

[00:00:00] A 3, A 2, A 1, welcome back everyone to the Briones Pickleball Podcast to my right, Elliot Schupp. Elliott, what's going on dude? You know, not much, just got back from two tournaments, two back-to-back tournaments. Yeah. It was fun, it's good to be back though. Yeah, and looks like you medaled in one of them, we'll talk about that. Actually, to start off, you're looking at, or maybe you're listening to, an APP Silver Medalist, Elliott Schupp. Give it up, all right, give it up. Let's go.

[00:00:30] So Elliott, it's your first pro medal, I believe, right? Yes, it is, yeah. Yeah, how does it feel, man? How does it feel? It feels great, it feels great to get that, you know, it came a lot quicker than I expected, but it feels really good to, yeah, to get that accomplishment, but it definitely showed a lot of things I got to work on, which, you know, every match will, and especially a match under that kind of pressure, right? Like, first time I've been in a Championship Sunday, and you have people watching and those kind of nerves,

[00:00:56] and so it's good to get that and expose a lot of things that I want to work on, so it was good. All right, man, cool. So where was it again, APP? It was in Seattle. Seattle, okay. So we'll get more into that, but welcome everyone, welcome back to our podcast here. Sorry the desk is a little messy, it's a little visually unappetizing, but what is appetizing? Oh, what a segue. I think Elliot, this might be his favorite pod yet, because we have a special food for him to try,

[00:01:26] and Elliot, you've tried maybe some Thai, I mean, maybe not really. I've had some Pad Thai before, yeah. Oh, you have? Okay, all right. But that's about it, that's all I have. Okay, well, that's the staple that we got, and it's one of my favorite places around, and as Elliot knows me, we've had some food together, and I know my food. Well, well. You know, I will say, I will vouch for Jordan if nobody else does. This man has some of the best recommendations for food I've ever witnessed, actually. Okay.

[00:01:56] I do the 10 out of 10 every single time, so I'm super excited. Well, I want to make sure that you're not disappointed. Well, we'll see, we'll see, and I try to drive here really fast, so if it's not, I don't know if you're going to dock points for not being hot, but we'll just try. But anyways, hit that subscribe button if you aren't subscribed, and Elliot, next week we have a five-day intensive. Why don't you tell the viewers kind of just super short about that,

[00:02:26] and what are you excited most about next week? Yeah, no, I'm looking forward to getting back on the intensive grind per se. It's my favorite coaching experience ever. I think I've mentioned that a couple times in the pod, but it's great. I mean, we spend five days from eight to two every day, and we're just working on skills, right? Fundamentals, other shots, work individually with people, and it's really good because by the end of the week, you know, we know each player so well, and we know their game style so well, so it just gets more customized the more we go through the week.

[00:02:53] Then we really can pin down those tendencies, can work on the bad habits, and I think it's super fun. There's a good, like, team bonding experience. Yeah. Everybody, like, a lot of those people I know, they'll, like, reach out to each other, I think, afterwards, right? Yeah. There's a big community around here. Yeah, it's a super awesome time. If you would like to come and train with Elliot and I, actually, this summer or in the future, click the link in the description below, and we'd love to see you. Now, for the opener, I should have started in this,

[00:03:23] but there's a lot going on in the pickleball space right now. We have Yola suing 11 or 12 other companies. 11 companies. Crazy. For their proprietary inner working in the paddles, so we'll talk, I'll get your, just view on that. Yeah. Obviously, the PPA went to Asia, went to Vietnam, Hanoi, this past week or so, and we'll talk about Christian Alshon's possible hook

[00:03:52] and also just the level of the team in Asia. I think it was incredible. And we're going to go over your tip of the day, so make sure you stay tuned. Shout out to our sponsors, Pickleheads, Yola, and the Briones Pickleball Academy. And Elliot, you actually just came off of the court teaching a class. I did. If I look a little bit, what's the word? Out of sorts? Yes, out of sorts. I don't know. If I look like I've been playing pickleball, I have.

[00:04:21] I just got done with a rec session and a drill session, so we are fresh off of that. Yeah, so Briones Pickleball Academy, we're here in Gilbert, Arizona. Come through. Yola, thank you for all you do. And Pickleheads is a wonderful app to connect with players, find new places to play. Go check that out. So really quick, we're going to jump right in. Before the food gets too cold here, Elliot, see, I didn't know you tried Pad Thai before. You were like, you kind of. Actually in Seattle for the first time. Okay.

[00:04:51] What did you think of it? I thought it was amazing. Oh, okay. Well, you've only had it once. Or maybe twice. Twice, actually. And did they taste, because they actually taste different. They did, yeah. In different places. Yes. But I've had probably 15 to 20 different Pad Thais here in the area. Okay. And this is definitely my personal favorite. So again, it's kind of, some people like it sweeter, some people like it a little bit more savory.

[00:05:19] Comment below if you like Pad Thai. Shout out to Thai food. And I actually got drunken noodles. So I actually might give you some on a plate, just so you can try. I would love to try it. Go ahead and, Oh, you mean to open? No, no. Go ahead. So Elliot's going to, if you're visually watching this, he's going to just try it. And then he's just going to, Oh, that looks amazing. He's just going to give me a little rating. That looks amazing. And I'm going to continue with my tip of the day. Go for it. Go for it. All you. All right. So we're going to start with the tip of the day

[00:05:47] before we get into the pickleball news. As Elliot tries, I think the best Pad Thai in Arizona, but we are going to talk about balance. Okay. We're going to, I'm going to let him just soak that in. We're going to talk about balance because balance is probably one of the most important things that you could focus on, on the court, not only in transition, not only at the non-voice online.

[00:06:16] And I see a smile on his face. Hold on. Hold on. Elliot. What's going on here? Speaking of balance, this is some perfectly balanced flavors right here. It's amazing. Jordan, I got to say, this is probably the best Pad Thai I've had so far. It's definitely top three for sure. And I think now it's top one. I think you got top one. That's good, huh? That's pretty good. Yeah. It's good. Yeah. I don't even know how spicy they made it, but I just, I just love it, dude. I love it. Do you like spice? Oh, not a lot. I would like to say I would, but then when I get spicy food,

[00:06:45] I don't like it. So I think I'm like kind of medium. Okay. Okay. So I'm glad I got a regular. Perfect. Perfect. All right. So, Hey, enjoy that frequently. Whenever we're not, you're not talking, go ahead. Elliot's a hungry, a hungry growing man. So, all right. So a balance is super important, obviously in every scenario, but when you're dinking, when you're countering, when you're hitting drives, third shots, you will, um, you'll typically hear coaches and players say, Hey,

[00:07:15] you don't want to hit off your back foot. You don't want to hit leaning back. You want to be balanced. Um, the split step in transition, obviously. But one of the things that I think if you would focus on whatever level you're at, if you can just prioritize getting into position early and hitting the ball with both your feet on the ground and not swaying one way or the other, that can really benefit your game. It's a simple tip. Um, it's not super technical, but it's just a reminder.

[00:07:45] Elliot, just thoughts on that. On what? The pad tire balance? Both. Okay. Pad tire. Very, very good. Uh, but yes, like balance is huge. And like one thing I tell a lot of people I'm coaching now too, is you could have like the best stroke in the world. You could be, you could have a Ben Johns forehand, but if you're off balance, it's just not going to be good. The quality is not going to be there because if you're off balance, everything goes with it. Right. If like, we always talk about feet first here. Yeah. If you know, it all starts from the ground up footwork. First, you get to the ball,

[00:08:15] you're stable, you're unbalanced. Now you can hit a good proper shot. If you're off balance though, technique can go wild. It's just very unstable. It's hard to get consistent feels with that. So yeah. Yeah, no, really good. So, one of the things that, um, you could think about when you're balanced at the line and transition at non-volume zone line, um, just have your knees bent at least a little bit. Obviously there's different contexts there in transition. You're going to be lower, but if you have your knees bent and you feel those, um,

[00:08:44] that weight on the balls of your toes on both of them equally, that's a good place to start. Um, as Elliot is eating this amazing pad Thai and shout outs, I'm going to shout out soda bun Thai. That's actually what it's called in, uh, in Chandler, Chandler, Arizona. Check them out. Um, we'll try, we'll link them. We'll link them, uh, in the description. Maybe we got a sponsor from a Thai spot, dude. I would love that. Elliot would encourage, um,

[00:09:13] a lifelong sponsorship to Thai food. If you're watching this, any Thai place in the area of Gilbert Chandler, Mesa or Tempe, please reach out to us. Okay. All right. So as Elliot is, uh, eating a few more bites, uh, I'm going to have him talk about and think about really quick. His tip of the day. Uh, you know what? I'll do this so you could continue to eat Elliot. Just give me a phrase. Give me your tip and I'm going to expand. We'll do, we'll do that. Go Elliot. All right.

[00:09:43] He's swallowing his food here. There we go. All right. Contact point. Oh, okay. Uh, any context or just, yeah, mainly with, uh, moving through shots. So it kind of goes into balance and stability a little bit, but I see a lot of people missing balls more with like shanks or they're hitting the frame. A lot of times cause they're moving their heads moving that kind of stuff. So consistent contact point. Okay. So contact point, um, you can make this in, this is great by the way. I love this.

[00:10:09] We could talk about contact point in a whole bunch of different contexts. Uh, we just, I actually just filmed today. There's going to be a video coming out in the future on the two-handed backhand for those of you who are trying to learn it. But one of the things, and this is going to segue good, hopefully, but, uh, one of the things for the two-handed backhand, your contact point is so important because if it's too far away, too jammed up, you're not going to hit a great shot. So, uh, on the balance part on the contact point,

[00:10:39] I think a lot of people actually miss hit and miss frame their shots because yeah, they are moving head is all over the place cause they're not unbalanced. But I think a lot of people miss the ball cause they're actually looking at where they're, they want to hit. That's my experience with a lot of players for a blow. So if you're a four below, especially on soft shots, like drops and, and dinks and things like of that nature, if you're missing, you're probably, um, lifting your eyes a little bit early.

[00:11:09] Yes. And that's what I was going to say too, is I actually noticed a lot more people. I'm looking for it more now, but a lot more people actually like, and it's, it's common knowledge, but more people aren't actually looking at the ball when they're hitting a shot. I'm noticing a lot more people. They'll kind of glance at it. It was like a quick look. And then you kind of look forward before you even hit a shot. So I think just keeping your eyes on the ball, right? It's, it's overused. Everyone says it, everyone knows it, but if you actually do it and you apply it, it's going to make a massive difference to your game.

[00:11:36] And a very easy way to think about it is think about looking at the ball, or at least where the ball was, even like a split second after you contact it. Cause that'll almost make sure that you are looking at it through contact and then you're going to get it down. Now, some shots, obviously like counters, you can't really do that. You don't have time. You don't want to be looking up and down the entire time. Otherwise your vision is going to be blurry and you're going to get bagged. But on the shots where you have time, so, you know, serves, returns, drops, drives, sometimes resets, sometimes,

[00:12:06] or even a little bit of dinks, like look at the ball, just see it. That'll help you get a consistent contact point. And I guarantee your shots can be a lot cleaner. And they're going to be hitting that sweet spot of the paddle way more often. Yeah, no, that's great. Elliot, I'm actually serving you some drunken noodles here. I actually want, I actually want Elliot to try another Thai dish.

[00:12:28] Comment below if we're going to have a drunken noodle versus a pad Thai battle. So comment below what you like more, but I'm going to have them taste this. So again, this is beef. Let's go. Drunken noodles. I would say as flavor, it doesn't punch you as much as a pad Thai, but it's a little wider noodles. I've never had this before. So this will be a good, good first experience. Let me turn this microwave though. So I'm not chewing. Okay.

[00:12:57] As Elliot tries, guys, the drunken noodles here. Yeah. So we just talked about contact point. I want to move into, before we get into the pickleball updates. I actually want to remind everyone of the new channel that we just kind of relaunched launch. It's a Briones pickleball breakdowns.

[00:13:25] It's a Briones pickleball breakdowns. So Elliot, what do you think about drunken noodles? I mean, there's no,

[00:13:52] there's no actual things to make you drunk in there. Hopefully. Cause if I could eat too much of this, that would be bad. So I don't know. I just, I think it's very good. I like the thick noodle a lot actually. Yeah. Okay. It's a different taste. It is. It's a different. I think I'd put it under pad Thai though. Okay. Okay. I think I would, but it is very good. And I would order this for sure. Pad Thai is, has just a little bit more, a little bit more stronger flavors. There's just more. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Okay.

[00:14:24] So now that being said, let's just talk about, and stay tuned. Cause we're going to get Elliot's thoughts on his gold medal match and his mindset. Again, his first pro metal. But before that, I want to get your thoughts on just the situation, right? You're, you're not biased at all. You have nothing to do. You're not signed with Yola. I'm not officially. So you're a good one to ask, but yeah, you know, intellectual properties.

[00:14:53] I mean, you know, the thing about patents, it's, it's very difficult to patent things at times, but obviously Yola's came out with their letter that they are taking some action on a lot of companies that kind of use their inner core. Just, just, just thoughts on principle. Elliot, do you think it's valid? Do you think it's not? What do you, what do you think? I, I think with the pickleball market, it's very hard, you know, with a lot of these paddles too, like they're made in the same factories. They're made very close to each other. And I think in a sense of patents,

[00:15:23] like I could be wrong on this, but with a patent, it, let's say if I patented, um, this hats, right. With like, man, no, it's salt on the hat, but let's say, let's say with like white designs, um, and let's say you made the same hat without the white designs. Would that means, would that mean that I couldn't sue you for that? I guess like would that make the patent invalid? Like, could it be that small of a difference or is it protect a lot more? Yeah, no, I think, I think we're good on that, but, but, um, I was,

[00:15:52] we were getting some, uh, choppy interference, but, um, on that Elliot, I think that, uh, I think it's more to do with performance here. Like not looks, right. Like what you just said is, uh, yeah, that, that would be like a more design thing or if a logo or like a, a print, it's a name or something, but you know, we're talking about the inner works. I think the actual, um, the actual framing of the foam of the horseshoe is what, what actually was patented. So, uh,

[00:16:22] the other companies did the same exact thing. So that is what actually got them into trouble. So I don't know. We'll see. We'll see. But, but you know, you're working on some stuff, right. Kind of on the side and, uh, you know, making some stuff and, you know, if you came up with something really, really good and others, you know, and you could patent it. I don't see why, why you wouldn't. Right. I could. Yeah. The heart. I mean, yeah. Yeah. And I guess you might as well,

[00:16:51] like if you have the money to do it and you really want to protect the design, you could, it's tough. I wonder too, with all these companies, they probably wouldn't think that Yolo would come after them, especially when there's this many. I feel like, and this kind of thing, like let's say I'm one of those companies. I'm like, Oh, everyone else is doing it. Like they're not going to go after me. Right. And so I think whenever they suit 11 companies, that's just like a big, I think it's like a warning shot too, for a lot of, a lot of the manufacturers out there. Yeah. We'll see. We'll see what happens, but, uh, yeah.

[00:17:20] Thank you for your thoughts there, Ellie. We're going to move on. Um, I just want to, I want to talk through Vietnam and just pick a ball in Asia. We had PPA, uh, Hanoi. Um, and, uh, you know, it was pretty awesome to see Anna Lee there for the first time. I know it's Ben's second time and Alshon second time in, in Asia, but Federico and Hayden were there for the first time. Um, in men's doubles, we'll just go over that. Tardio and Ben, they, they beat, um,

[00:17:50] Federico and Hayden in the final. Is that right? Yeah. I'm pretty sure. I think so. Okay. Yeah. I believe. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure on that. But, uh, again, that was a good win. And then in singles, I think here was a more surprising thing. We had two Vietnamese players in the final and, um, coming out on top and, um, Christian Alshon had a little hook call there. Again, the angle wasn't the best. I can't really speak of it.

[00:18:20] Shout out to Zane Navratil and his podcast. He does a lot of updates, but he goes over it. I don't know. Just thoughts on that. Yeah. Yeah. The, that one call, it's hard. I mean, everyone, if you're watching this, you've probably seen the call by now. If you haven't though, um, I believe there's this player that's playing Christian. I'm going to butcher the name if I try to say it, so I won't. Um, but it was game three, I believe it was 11, I believe it was 11, 10 in the third and Christian hit a return. It was very close and he called it out. Now from the angle that we had, it looks very in, but Zane made a couple of good points on a call earlier,

[00:18:50] different tournament where this certain angle can be very deceptive. Now I did see a different angle though, from the back of the court and higher up on a phone. Yeah. And they both still looked, at least to me, they look slightly in. I was very close, but I mean, unless you're there in person or unless there's a better angle down the sideline, it's, it's really tough to tell, um, on that one. Yeah. So, um, unfortunate, I don't know, maybe they'll improve their line call situations there. But, uh, again,

[00:19:20] Alshon loses to, yeah, it's, uh, Nam Lee. I'll say the last name. Yeah. And then, um, Federico also loses to, uh, Truong. Um, definitely don't know how to pronounce Vietnamese names. Maybe I'll get better, hopefully. But, uh, yeah. So two Vietnamese, um, go, uh, Duke it out for, um, gold and silver. And I will tell you that, uh, at least in my impression, watching those finals, um, man, Asia, I mean,

[00:19:50] for singles, they are right there. They are right there. Now for doubles, I think that, I think our top four players, top five players in America, Elliot are just really, really good. And I'm at another level, but I do see Asia as a huge threat in a good way. Uh, a huge threat as in, um, their talent is coming. Yeah. And I think it's great. I mean, it's fun having all these countries playing out. Cause that just means the, the talent's going to get so much better. Everyone's going to get better because everyone else they're playing.

[00:20:19] That's such a high level that the sport's going to progress very quickly. And you're just going to get a ton of different styles. Like, I love to see the different styles of play from different like countries. Like, I think like a lot of the, uh, like those Asian players in singles, they had like a unique style to how they're playing singles. I think was a little bit different in some ways, like a lot of cat and mouse. They almost force it in a way where it's very hard to pass them, uh, ways they set it up and they're very good at it, which it's fun to see cat and mouse pickleball again for singles. Like I've kind of missed it a little bit, honestly. Yeah. Um,

[00:20:48] obviously so Federico and Alshon was there. Federico, I think is number two or three. Uh, the only top players that weren't there and top three, a hundred Johnson and, um, Chris Hayworth didn't go. So it's kind of hard to, it would be great to see them in that. Yeah. But I'm telling you, I think those guys would, they would be so close. Their game is, is really, yeah. The cat and mouse is just huge. Those guys are just super quick and athletic. And I did, um, uh, some research at least by, you know,

[00:21:17] you know, watching it and listening, but the winner, uh, the winner of the PPA Hanoi, um, he actually is no slouch. None of these guys are slouches. What I mean by that is he actually played high level tennis and he won juniors Wimbledon doubles. So that's an achievement. So we're talking about, and I think he was a ranked up, up to two, uh, hopefully you could put his name here and his accomplishments, but I think it was ranked up to 200 in the world and tennis.

[00:21:46] So we're talking about super high level. That's yeah. So, um, it's, it's, uh, it makes sense. It makes sense that these guys are, are these, these guys are incredible. So, yeah. But yeah. Are you going to say something? No, that's awesome. All right. He just wants to see it. Let's see it. Yeah. He's just enjoying his food over here. Yeah. all right. So go ahead and take another bite. I'm going to, I'm going to tee it up. You're going to take over this next segment. Yeah. Well, yeah. So we just talked about Asia pickleball. Um, and, uh, yeah.

[00:22:14] Comment below if you watched a PPA Asia or PPA Hanoi, um, and comment below what you liked about it. Um, yeah. Next segment. Uh, we opened up the pod talking about how Elliot, um, Schupp here is a brand new pro pickleball doubles medalist here. He got, uh, he got, um, silver with Andre Mick, I believe. Right. Um, and, um,

[00:22:44] it was a good turnout there in Seattle. Some really good, strong teams in APP, but, uh, you want to quickly just kind of talk about your run, your, um, partnership with Andre and, um, yeah, man, just, uh, just get like to get your insight on it. Yeah, no, it was a great tournament. And this is the, I want to say this is the third or fourth tournament I played with Andre before. And I think the biggest difference is, and he's a, he's a great partner, by the way. I love playing with him. He's got very good energy on court,

[00:23:14] which is great. And I, I play better when our team gets hyped or excited about winning points. And it's just, it, it helps me play better and focus more. And so he's a great partner for that. Um, but I think the biggest difference too, in this tournament for us in previous tournaments is our decision making was a lot better. We made better decisions on when to speed up, how to set up our speed up patterns. Um, but I think we're both very offensive players. Yeah. We're using a lot smarter in this. Cause I've talked to Jordan a lot about this recently, and he's been helping me a lot with kind of when to hit what balls and,

[00:23:43] um, what to do with all that. I've talked to a bunch of other pros in the area as well, trying to get people's thoughts. And this is the first time I got to really use it in a tournament and it, it worked and it went really well. And I think the, the big thing too, between the rest of the matches in the finals is, you know, like I was saying earlier, first finals, right? First, first kind of pressure with that. Like how was your, how was your mental? How was your feelings inside? Was it, did you feel a lot of pressure or did you, how were you doing? Yes. I, I thought I wasn't actually because the semis,

[00:24:13] there was a lot of people watching too. It's like, Oh, okay. I've been through now the center court experience. I've done that. I'm good. But I don't know. There was something about just the, the finals day, but I, I got very tight and very, very nervous. And I think the biggest thing that I forgot to do, and this is something that I've learned from a lot of people's area, especially with Jordan is whenever you get very tight or you try to, you know, you, you're going for a lot, you really want to win. And you're just not thinking about the match as much. Less is more like whatever you're tight.

[00:24:41] Don't try to do more because you don't want to lose fast. Yeah. Right. Every point. Like if I, let's like, there's some points in there. If you guys watch it back where I was making some speed up decisions, I normally wouldn't make. And a lot of that was because of that pressure. Where in that instance, what I should have done is taken a breath, mentally reset. And I teach. It's so funny. I teach all of my students this for tournament play. I'm like, Hey, each point, deep breath, reset, all that stuff. I didn't do any of it. I didn't do any of it in the final. I didn't send these, not the final though.

[00:25:10] And that was a massive difference is because I got tighter and never kind of fully released that tension. So I think mentally resetting, slowing down and just, just making balls, just doing more, just get, just getting more consistent. That builds the confidence as well. Yeah. And the more touches you get, the more chances you get to hit out the nerves. Like whenever you make bad script decisions, that's one less shot you could have got nerves out too. Yeah. So I think that was a big one. It's really good, man. Really good awareness there. And, uh, I know you're working hard every week. So, uh, you,

[00:25:40] you are one match away from gold and hopefully we see some more opportunities in the future. Yeah. Yeah. That's the goal. Yeah. Awesome, man. So yeah, that was that. And then, uh, right after that was a PPA challenger, uh, which, uh, you played. And I believe, uh, it was actually, it was tough draws there too. It was a very hard. I know. I know it was a challenger, but we had all gig gun the draw. I mean, we had some sign pros in there. I don't even know how that works, but, uh, but you guys made it to the semis. You guys made the semis of the winners, um,

[00:26:09] bracket and, uh, you ended up, uh, with fourth, I believe, right? We did. Yes. Yeah. We, uh, yeah, we made it to semis. Uh, it was a long day. It was a good, it was a good tournament too. There was like, I think we played seven matches overall. So it was like a big challenger. Um, I made semis, uh, lost in three to that one. And we had to win one more match to get to the bronze and then ended up losing to, uh, yeah, Agui gun and Carlos Laura, uh, eight, 11, nine, nine, I believe. So it was close. A couple of things we could have done a little differently, I think, but we'll, we learned a lot for that for next time. Yeah.

[00:26:39] And, and, and Agui obviously lives here. Shout out to you, Agui. Awesome. Very good. Awesome guy. Awesome player. But you play with him pretty often. So, you know, you know his game. Exactly. Uh, but that was, that was pretty cool. We had to, uh, a few Arizona, um, Arizona actually showed out for that one. I think all of the, if I remember most of the quarterfinals were all people from Arizona. Yeah. We had Rio. We had, yeah. Rio, real Matt Barlow. We had Sammy Lee and, uh, Mo Alhouni. And we had, I don't know why I forgot about Sammy.

[00:27:09] Oh my goodness. Okay. Pro here. Sammy head coach of, here at the Brionis academies. Here's all the time. Um, but yeah, he, so we made the quarter. Oh yeah. Yeah. You guys played him. We played him at the court. So Elliot and his partner played Sammy and, uh, his partner. And, um, yeah, you guys took him out in two, but dude, I know. I mean, I know, you know this, but Sammy doesn't get to train as much or as far, not even close to what you're doing.

[00:27:39] And dude, he's just, I mean, what's impressive to me is just how solid he is. Uh, in, even in tournament situations. I mean, he, he definitely has the game to go a long, long way. And that was cool to see him make it the quarters and play against you guys. It's fun. Yeah. Like, like, and that, and he made a really good run to get there. He beat a lot of good teams, I believe. He's very consistent. Like he's, um, I think he modeled it after Ben Johns and like, you can tell by his, his game style,

[00:28:09] but he's very consistent. Um, I mean, yeah, I really like Sammy. Great guy on off court, but it was, it was fun playing in the quarters. Yeah. It's good. Okay. All right. So there's the two tournaments there. Uh, we talked about Asia. Yola. Um, I don't know, man. If it felt like this, uh, pod went kind of fast. We just wanted to update you. I know it's, it's kind of messy here. There's a little bit of food on the table. Good food though. Shout out. Yes.

[00:28:36] Let us know in the comments what you want Elliot to try next. I just want the genre. Is that the, that's not the right word. It's kind of the right word. the cuisine, the cuisine. Okay. The cuisine. And then maybe directly to the dish. Okay. But let's go cuisine first dish right under something, something not normal. Okay. Don't, don't hit me. Don't hit me with a cheeseburger marinara, uh, with, uh, with noodles. Okay. All right. Uh, you know,

[00:29:06] maybe we'll try, we'll try some different things here with Elliot and then I can give it a try too. If I haven't tried it, I mean, I'm pretty well versed in, uh, I'm pretty, I've explored. It's more experience. I'm more experienced. I mean, I'm like, I hate, I don't like to brag, but you know, six, seven duper. I'm up there, bro. Okay. I'm up there. Elliot's like a four, three. I mean, he's born and raised in Arkansas. I mean, I mean, you don't, there's no,

[00:29:35] no one over four or five in Arkansas. Wow. That's a bold statement. I mean, can you, can you disagree? Yeah. Oh, we'll see. We'll see. We'll see. All right. But now Elliot being here, you've tried a lot of different new stuff. I still have yet to, uh, take you to my favorite Korean barbecue place. which I'm looking forward to that so much. We still have that on the table. Dude, I think it'd be cool to actually do the podcast there. At a Korean barbecue restaurant. That could be, I mean,

[00:30:04] actually let us know, would you want to see this at a Korean barbecue restaurant? Or would you rather be here at the pickleball backyard venue? Both are very good. If we get like, but if we get like 10 comments plus, say yes, do it at the Korean barbecue place. We might just have to just roll up our shop here. I'm not going to take it over. And I, if there's one person that won't complain, it's Elliot. Yeah. It'll be a food podcast podcast with pickleball talk. Yeah. But, uh, yeah.

[00:30:33] Congrats to Elliot on his first, uh, pro metal, super exciting stuff. continue to follow him, follow him. We'll put his, uh, Instagram right here below. And, I don't know anything else coming up. Do you, that you want to mention before we sign off Elliot? Uh, no, that's pretty much it. All right. So remember, stay balanced, have a good contact point, check out Brionis pickleball breakdowns, our new channel. And if you want to train with Elliot and I this summer,

[00:31:02] we're coming up at a five day intensive, make sure you click the link below, go to the description or just go to Briones academy.com. You'll see in-person trainings or something up there. You'll find it. Thanks so much. Elliot sign us out. All right. Have a good day. Okay. See you guys.