Episode 82 - Stop Pickleball Injuries Before They Happen | ProAlign Chiropractic

[00:00:00] Thank you for joining in. I'm Mike. I'm Chrisana. We're the Pickleballers Next Door. Hello. Hi Mike. How are you doing? Good. This is Chrisana and this is Mike. This is Mike. I think I'm Mike sometimes. I don't know. I'm Mike. And we're with Pickleballers Next Door and we are here. We have LaMarcus from Pro Align Sports Chiropractor Sports Chiropractor and we met him at The Picklr Littleton in Littleton. Do you remember that? Yeah, it was the grand opening. We were watching him play. We didn't he

[00:00:30] We were creeping on him. Amazing. He was right. We were our podcast studio was right behind him. He was moving good. Whoo. Right? Yeah. Mike was creeping on you. I was creeping on you. Sorry. Oh, don't even. You were creeping. So, but he, um, yeah. So we saw him and we're like, we got to do a podcast with him. He just a really nice guy. Yeah. And so here you are. And, uh, this is LaMarcus. Yeah. Hello. How are you doing? I'm doing good. I'm doing good. I just want to thank y'all for the kind words and everything too. Hey, that's me and Sam.

[00:00:59] I understand the kind words. You get that one. You got to watch. Come on. You got to watch it. I'm always nice. She is nice. She is nice. And now we're being nice. Like nice. So Marcus, give us a little, uh, some lowdown on your pickleball. Yes, sir. So, um, started actually playing pickleball. I actually fell in love with it about a year, year and a half ago. Um, really, to be honest with you, probably about a year ago was when I actually started playing.

[00:01:28] You've only been playing a year. You're four Oh plus and a year. You got to look at his build. I wish we had our cameras on. Yeah. We'll get in some details about some of his sport, but yeah, he's, he's in a very good shape, but a year. Come on. I'm four years and I, I, I look not that good, but were you, were you an instant four Oh, I mean, come on. You were born a four Oh.

[00:01:57] We'll go one morning. Like an insta drink. What ended up happening actually was the first time I played and I, I take it how I've like always done with football. Cause I like, I grew up and I wasn't like the most athletic at first. And so what ended up happening was all my friends that started playing like football at such a young age. And I started at like 14, 15 years old. And so seeing how they progress so fast and I was working so hard, so hard.

[00:02:24] And I never could get the edge on them because they had, they had a little bit, a lot more IQ than I did. And also they were more athletic because they had developed all the muscles. And so it's same, same scenario. I ended up jumping in a pickleball and I actually played, my first game was against two girls. And so I get out there and in my head, I'm like, Oh, I might take it a little easy. Like what I wasn't going to say that out loud, but I was, that's how I was thinking.

[00:02:52] You're like going, Oh yeah, exactly. Exactly. So I get out there and I'm, I'm hitting the ball around and you know, they get up, they get up to zero and I'm like, okay, I can't look like I'm like terrible. So I get out there and I started playing a little bit. This is before I knew all the rules. So you're making your own rules kind of too. Basically. Yeah. I'm making up everything. And so I get out there and I started hitting the ball a lot harder and they're just at the net, just hitting it back. And I'm sitting here like, okay. Um, and this is before I knew what a drop was. So I'm just, I'm consistently just banging. Boom.

[00:03:21] Yeah. Hard as you can. Hard as I can. And then they started moving out the way in. And, and so ended up the score ended up jumping from, um, zero two to zero nine really fast. And so like me and my friend, um, that was playing and he, he didn't play much either. He was like, bro, we can't, we can't lose though. And I'm like, no. Can't lose the girls. Exactly. I was like, we can't lose the girls. And I'm sitting here like, okay, look, we, we had to come up with a game plan. We call a timeout and we at Rick play. Timeout here. You got the whiteboard out.

[00:03:50] Exactly. And so I'm like, Hey bro, we got to figure this out. So they ended up beating us 11, zero. They pickled you. Yeah. They pickled us from the get go. And I was sitting there and I remember, I remember getting up and telling my friend, I said, Hey bro, this is going to be the last time I lose. Like I lose 11, zero. And he was like, what you mean? I said, bro, I'm going to take this high and do football. I said, I'm coming out here practicing every day. I was watching YouTube videos. I was coming.

[00:04:19] I was calling people. I was like, Hey bro, you trying to go out here to the court? I learned what a drop was like four weeks in. I said, okay, I gotta, I gotta try to perfect this drop. It wasn't easy at all. Cause I was so used to being such a hard hitter. That was tough. And yeah. Like I said, you come from football. So your, your, your mindset is where's the ball. I'm going to the ball. So when you see that ball, you go hit hard. I'm going. And so that's why, that's why singles has been a better game for me in comparison.

[00:04:47] My patience level is absolutely terrible. And I know that. So, and that's something I have to work on. Well, you play well. I mean, we watched you play there for a while. We, we had, we were sitting right there. So it, you look good. Wow. I mean, but you're athletic. I mean, it does help. It helps. Oh my gosh. It helps a good. I watched him do a drop and you were at the back lining. And I was like, how did he get that? He were there. I was like, done. Like smoke was behind you. That's because of your background in football too. That has helped out tremendously.

[00:05:17] How much do you play pickleball? Do you get out there quite a bit or? So to be honest with you, I had played at one point in time. I was trying to go on tour. I had, I had made my mind up and I said, Hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna try to go on tour. And it's still, it's still there in my head. So I'm like, I want to go on tour. So I'm a practice almost every day. And really it wasn't almost every day. I was in there every day because I had originally worked at Epic pickleball. And so it was perfect for me because I got the practice.

[00:05:45] Like I would go to work, get off work at, um, like I'll go in at seven, get off work around like three and then practice from three to like seven. Love it. And then like, I would, I appreciate you. So like Monday through Friday, that's all I did. And so on, like, I still had to make time for my girlfriend and stuff like that too. So like, I tried to get her into it so I could, like I tried. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Hey, let's go do some pickleball. This is hanging out. Exactly. And does she do it? She does it a little bit.

[00:06:14] Oh, she, she enjoys it whenever she enjoys it. When it's like a community based thing. Yeah. Fun. It brings friends and stuff like that. And that's, I enjoyed a whole lot because of pickleball is like that. But at the same time, I have that halfway halfway. You're competitive. I want to win. And so like, I want to be really, and whether, whether I win or not, sometimes, like I do want to win. You ever had one of those games where you played exceptional, like really, really good.

[00:06:42] Like you had an exceptional day and you played really well and you still lost. Oh yeah. That is, I'd rather play terrible than, than like lose a game that I played really good. Because then I try to find out every, my problem is I try to find out every bad thing that I do. Analyze. Analyze. Yeah. I analyze. Yeah. I analyze everything. So like when I'm, when I'm playing or doing anything like that, I overanalyze even while

[00:07:07] I'm playing, I'm sitting there watching because at one point I was, quote unquote, how they described me. I was blind. Like I was, um, how did, like I was a case that I was blind. Sure. Sure. And so I didn't know this. So like when I was growing up playing sports, I played baseball, football. Um, I was actually like really better baseball player than I was any other sport. Um, so like they hit a ball to the outfield. That's when I knew I was blind. So I was going based off of sound.

[00:07:36] So like when I would hear the ball get hit, like I could see like shadows and stuff like that. Cause I'm like really blind. I would see the shadows and stuff like that, but I was basing everything. Cause I thought everyone saw like me. Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. I wasn't making any excuses for myself. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna go off sound. So they would hit the ball. I would hear it. And I'm like, okay, that's an outfield hit. And then, so like when the ball would go into air, I would see the little shallow shadow. And then I would guess the trajectory of the ball. And so like, yeah, it was kind of crazy.

[00:08:06] Like it was actually really crazy. Well, and in pickleball, I play the same way. I listened from noise. So these people are playing with those new paddles that make no noise. Yes. It messes me up because I can hear when you snap that ball. I can hear how you serve it. I really listen. And maybe I'm getting older, a little bit older. Don't even go there. Yes. He's the oldest. But you know, when you, uh, I listened, I'm on the same way. If I can tell that soft hit or they're speeding up on me, you know, I really go by the sound.

[00:08:35] So it really does help. It helps out. It does. A lot. But what do you do in pickleball? Then you wait, you hear it the same thing. So what ended up happening when I noticed people started using that new, um, that new silent paddle, whether it's the aisle or. Yeah. The aisle. Yeah. Oh my gosh. When that, when I noticed it, because I had used it at one point in time for a little bit just to see what it, what it felt like. Um, but when I noticed them using it, I look at the arm. Yeah.

[00:09:01] So when I see, when I see how hard the arms swing, because like in the, in the chiropractic realm or like anything like that, I'm looking based off of movements. And so safe instance, if they swing, if their hips, you can't do anything without your hips. Oh yeah. Absolutely. So if their hips turn a certain way and it turns at a select speed for me, I know they're, they're trying to speed it up. They, their hips move before anything else do.

[00:09:24] So when I see it speeds up at, when I see the hip automatically jerk, the hand is going to fall after it may be like 0.5 or whatever. It's amazing. 6 seconds after. But once it speeds up, I automatically know when my paddle was already ready. So like, I'm already ready to go, go at it. And so the whole time I'm not even looking at the ball at first. I don't look at the ball until this comes off the paddle. I'm looking literally at their wrist and their elbow, because that tells me a good bit when they wrist flick, I'm like, okay, it's there. Boom. Okay. Here. Boom. Okay. So let's keep going.

[00:09:53] Well, and that's, that's, that's what the level up. So when you start to level up to four or five to five Oh, or pro Kyle Yates is really amazing with this. Like he will play you. He'll let you hit a few balls. Once he knows that as humans, we are consistent of doing something. We like a favorite shot. We like, we have our, we have our move. We call it. Right. And, um, it was funny. We were out in a steamboat and we were talking to this kid that played Kyle Yates. He's just a brand new, he got to play with Kyle Yates. He's incredible. And the kid's like, I just don't get it. Why did he stay back at the line?

[00:10:22] And I said, because he doesn't play with the, he knows how to hit the ball. He knows where to put the ball. He knows where to be on the court. He's waiting to see what your consistency is. And then he's going to take advantage of that. And that's what he did. Yeah. He did do that. Exactly. It's a very pickleball tennis, uh, golf, like sports that requires so much rotational movement. And it's, it's, it requires finesse and it requires a lot of IQ. And a lot of people like when I first started playing, I tried to over athletic this game. Oh yeah.

[00:10:51] And the problem is you get away with it with a game like football or basketball or something like that, where you can jump out there. And like, I have a friend, Kevante Turpin, he can wake up in the morning and run 23 miles an hour. Like he can, he don't have to, he doesn't have to stretch, but with a game like this, where you have to like strategize, you can hit a ball consistently in that same spot. And that guy's going to consistently hit it back. The problem is if you start to, you have to, how to describe, you have to make them play your game.

[00:11:21] You do. You do. This is about this game. This game. It's sad. When I started, it was still dinking. It wasn't all the, a lot of more tennis players have come in, which have caused the, the banging, you know, bam, bam, bam, bam, you know, and they got the top spin so they can keep that ball in. Yeah. And that's made it really difficult, you know? And so it's a lot harder game. So yeah, you have to, you have to be, you have to be patient still. And you want them to make that mistake. You really do. It's not about you winning.

[00:11:47] Now, when there, there will be a point that you're ready to win the point, that's when you take it, but you can't try to win every point. And that's, and that's the, that's the biggest downfall of not even just anybody else. That's the biggest downfall of me too. I jump ahead of too many shots. Like I'll see a winner and I'm going for it. Like that's the, that's the, even though I didn't play tennis, that's the tennis in me quote unquote. Like you, you see a winner, you're like, I'm going for it. And when they, and when they hit a shot back, it's like, oh, I wasn't prepared for that.

[00:12:16] Like it's just, it's, and so I kind of get away with it sometimes cause I'm fast and I can, I can maneuver and get the ball. Sure. Um, but it puts me in such like bad predicaments because of the fact that like, I'm used to, if I hit a winner, I'm used to winning that point. Oh yeah. You get to those higher levels and play people like Miles Hoover, you play like, they're going to get that back. And you're like, oh, like it's coming back twice as hard. Exactly. It's always, you're, you're going to be surprised when it's right there back on you. You know what I mean?

[00:12:45] So yeah, you, it's a different game when you get to the upper level and it's neat that, you know, yeah, it's no more, it's none of that anymore. You're just like you were saying, that's, what's making you a four plus is you're watching the player. You you'll see the ball when you're, once the ball comes up, you know what to do with it. We also watch for the return, right? If they're leaning on their right foot or they're leaning, where are you going to put the ball? Exactly. If the partner's right there, I'm not going to hit it. So he hits it back at me. Exactly. Exactly. I do. Well, and that's what I love playing her. Cause then I just body bag her.

[00:13:14] I'm a beginner. So I'm like, okay, well I'm trying, I don't do any of that. So I got to learn that. Like watch people and know where, you know, you know, they're moving in and I know you're really good at that. I'm like. Yeah. I, if I see you move, I'm, you know, if I see you leaning or you're still moving forward, guess where that ball's coming. I'm catching you while you're moving forward. Cause I know that your eyes and hands coordination, you can't get it all together by the time you're there. You might get lucky, but 90% of the time you're going to whack the ball out. You're going to miss it. Or you're going to get body bagged. And the biggest thing.

[00:13:44] Which I've done. No, I haven't. Well, actually I did body bag somebody, but I usually get body bagged. She gets body bagged. Hey, it happens. I done got body bagged so many times. So many times. Oh, when you play at your level? Yeah. They do it on purpose. Yeah. I, um, one thing as a beginner that I ended up learning really, really quickly. And it, it also came from football was playing. Like you can, you can do a lot of teaching and you can, um, learn a whole lot, but playing actually makes you a whole lot better quicker.

[00:14:14] You may have, you may, I'm going to be honest with you. You're going to develop a lot of bad, a lot of bad habits. Yeah. So you have to have that halfway point where you have to be able to like, want to learn at the same time. You have to play a good bit too. So you have to take whatever you've been taught and go, go and do it a whole lot. It's, it's repetitive motion. That's, that's really what it is. And like we said though, we consistently, like Kyle Yates noticed, we consistently learn what our good shots is and we consistently hammer at it.

[00:14:41] The, like the better you get though, the more you get very deceptive. And what we, what we ended up, um, it was the same thing in football. A good, like, cause I play wide receiver. A good receiver is a good deceiver. Oh yeah. Yes. Yes. That's a good one. Yeah. Yeah. You able to kind of line up in a certain area on, even on the pickleball court, you able to deceive them a little bit. You can scoot over a little bit to the right. They think from, from the get go, they automatically like, oh, I got it down the line. Right. You automatically know they finna hit it down the line because they consistently have shown

[00:15:10] that same shot three times in a row. Oh yeah. Right. You scoot over and make them feel like they won it because that little split second of them thinking they won. Nine times out of 10, they ain't running as fast as me. Yeah. So like they are not getting to that ball after you hit it because when, when you scoot over to the right a little bit, they hit it down the line. They like, oh, I won. And you done hit it back. You hit a smile. Uh huh. Yeah. You're able to kind of, yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. My famous shot, I got an inside out. Oh. My inside out. You think it's coming to you and that thing is just flipping to you and you're the other guy. It's an inside out. Inside out.

[00:15:40] Just to kind of let people know what it is. Do a twist and do the, you show them your ankle and then no. I mean, you're basically, you're taking your paddle and you're swinging in. Like you're going to hit it. Like you look like you're just getting a backhand, but I'm flipping the ball and I'm flipping it to the other player. So it looks like I'm looking at you and boom, it goes to the other player and he's just surprised. That is a disgusting shot. I'm going to be honest with you because the problem with that. Disgusting. Did you hear that?

[00:16:06] The problem with it is so tough too, because whenever you hit it, the spin, the spin takes it on out. And so you think it's hitting right in the kitchen in the area, but it hits it and it shoots because it's spinning. It's so hard. And if you're able to kind of notice the shots, you're able to get to it, but even then you almost have to hit an ATP to get it back because it's going to jump out so fast. Yeah, you're right. No, that's awesome. But that's why you play well.

[00:16:35] I mean, you're an athletic, so that helps. That helps a good thing. You know, I mean, we're athletic, but we're old. Well, I don't know if I'm athletic, but you know, I am old. You're athletic. But that's what's fun with pickleball, right? Anybody. That's the fun part. You want to talk about, you were talking about playing with those girls, right? Have you had the experience of playing with a nine or 10 year old that's five O's? Man, you go on the court and you're like, I'm just going to help them and teach them something and they whip you. Like they just cremate you.

[00:17:04] Mike's usually in the corner. I am. I am. It's happened to me several times. Like, no, these kids want to play. How nice. Right. They're so cute. Oh my gosh. Two of them come on the court. They're not cute. They're not cute anymore. Did this say adult court? I'm sorry, guys. You got to go to that other court. Yeah. You got to go to the other one. Yeah. We want to, we want to spare y'all. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. These youth that are coming up in it. Amazing. Oh my gosh. They're insane.

[00:17:31] Because they know nothing better but to win and they're fast. I mean, it's nuts. It's crazy because it's almost like not, you know how when you play a bunch of sports growing up and you got so much filled into a cup, their cup only is pickleball. Yeah. So like it's all pickleball. So like in their head, they have their bad habits are nonexistent because they didn't come from any other background. Like they didn't like, no, they know nothing. They know nothing. So they have no bad habits. It's only pickleball.

[00:18:01] So like when they hit a certain shot, it looks, it looks so effortless. Oh my gosh. It was, it's so crazy to see because it's like, dang, that looks smooth. But when I swing, it's like, it looks rigid. It looks smooth. I mean, you know, I mean, we're looking good, but some of us, I mean, yeah, well, but you know what's scary with them though. Look where their eyes are. They're right at the net. That is a scary, that ball's coming fast and hard over that net, but they're there. Yeah.

[00:18:28] It's crazy because even like little Caleb, Caleb gets to the kitchen and he's having fun at the kitchen. And I remember when I first played him because he's like right there. I took it a little, I wasn't going to hit it hard because I was like, I'm like, if I hit it too hard, it hit him in the eye. Oh man. It's pretty bad. And you would have felt really bad. I would have felt terrible. And so like I hit it towards him and he is so funny because he does not mind body. Oh no. And he's a, he's a talker. Yeah, he is. He is.

[00:18:58] So like I hit the ball towards him and he hit it back so hard and he looks at me. He was like, got to keep those hands up. I was like, okay. Now I get it. Now I get it. He's a good player. He's a really good player. Yeah. He was, he was really cute when we did the, uh, we did put him on the podcast there too. He's a smack talker. Yeah. Oh yeah. He's a hundred percent. But that's what's fun too, you know, to have that. So you have to think, think about the, his nerves.

[00:19:27] I mean, he has to do something, right? You're playing with 40, 30, 20 year olds. I mean, he's a little kid. Yeah. So he's got to have some little smack talker. He got to have, he got to have a little bit to him because the thing is, I like to tell people all the time, no matter what sport you play, you can be playing pickleball, baseball, basketball, football. Confidence goes with a lot of stuff. You can win a lot of games just off of being confident. Oh yeah. You may not even be the best player, but they won't hit that certain shot because you so confident that you'll win it back. It's intimidating. Right? You got to give them the stink eye or something.

[00:19:58] It's wild. No, seriously. It is crazy how much confidence goes with winning. It really does. It does. All right. Well, that's awesome. We can't wait. We haven't got to play with you yet. So we're going to get to hopefully today or we're going to set up some times. Yeah. Go up to our court, but give them a little background where you come from in the sports world. I mean, you, you're quite an athlete. Oh my gosh, this guy, there's not an ounce of fat on him. And what you're doing now, like your background, why you're where you're at. Yeah. I don't know.

[00:20:25] So, um, I came like, so I first started, um, just in general, I was born in a little small town in Mississippi. Um, grew up playing football, baseball, and basketball. Basketball was by far one of my like worst sports that I played. Like far as I'm, I'm pretty good at it. Like, as in I would, like, I can score a good amount of points. I can do pretty well. But in comparison to all the other sports, like football was second, baseball was first. And so baseball just was one of those things.

[00:20:52] I ended up going to an all-star game, seeing a guy throw 95 at 17 years old was crazy. And so I was 16, he was 17, and I'm watching this. And he was like the number three recruit in the world, like, like not even just in the country, in the world. It was kind of crazy. He was from Puerto Rico. And so seeing him, I was like, ooh, this is, this is crazy. I said, but you know me, I'm going to jump up there and try to do it in general. Um, try was the key word because he, he was, he was ridiculous. Ended up jumping, um, fast forward.

[00:21:20] I ended up, I told my mom like that I really wanted to play football. Football was my passion. Like I truly enjoyed it. Um, it was, it was one of those things that I was able to, it was, it was a harder sport for me. I think that's why it was baseball came a little bit easier. Yeah. Football was a harder sport for me because all my friends were just so much better than me that I did not like it. Like I did not like the fact that they were so much, like it, it's okay to like, in my opinion, it's okay to compete, but have a healthy competition with like with your friends.

[00:21:50] I want to see them succeed so bad. Sure. But at the same time, I want to be, I want to be in that same boat where we pulling each other up. Like if I, if I end up being better than you, now I'm helping you out to get better. And we continue to pull each other up instead of stepping on each other. And so that's how my mindset was in football ended up, didn't actually start until my 11th grade year. Wow. And so ninth and 10th grade year played JV ended up, uh, starting my 11th grade year played defensive end. Ooh. Play defense. I was a buck 30.

[00:22:18] Like, I mean, that's amazing. But you're probably fast. I was fast. That's what you, so it helped, it helped me out. So I ended up, um, I was in the state, I was ranked like five, like fifth or something like that in defense end, but I didn't have any weight to me. I had like 120 tackles. It was crazy. And so senior year ended up moving the cornerback and receiver. That's where, that's where, that's where I wanted. That's your build, your speed. Yeah. You look like that. Yeah. I can see that. That's where I wanted to be at.

[00:22:46] And so like, I ended up playing pretty good. Um, ended up giving up one catch my entire senior season. Wow. And I was targeted 63 times. Wow. So people were throwing a ball at me, but they just couldn't, like I had two interceptions. Um, I had like 60 pass breakups. Like it was like, no one could complete a pass. The only pass I gave up though was a touchdown. I was, I was so upset. And you can tell people were very used to me, like not giving up a catch because the whole sideline turned on me.

[00:23:16] Like it was immediate. Like it was immediate. Like, so when I came to the sideline, it was during a playoff game. We were up by like 20. And so, so like I came on the sideline and, um, everybody, you know, I'm, I'm already kind of down a little bit because I'm like, yo, it's my first catch I gave up and it's a touchdown. This is crazy. And so come to the sideline, everybody, you can hear the crowd like, oh my gosh, Marcus gave up a touchdown. This isn't a third. You can hear them. Oh yeah. And not helping. Yeah. It's not helping it. I knocking everything down a little bit.

[00:23:45] Then what made it worse was a dude from the, um, a dude from my team. We weren't necessarily friends, but he came up to me and he was like, Marcus, you got to step it up. You got to step it up. And I'm sitting here like, I'm sitting here like, dang, I gave up one catch and I got to step it up. That's crazy. Yeah. I was like, well, I was like, you know what? They, they used to see in a certain area. Well, you, you've always given them your everything. Exactly. So I get out there. We ended up winning the game. I ended up getting only a division three scholarship from that.

[00:24:12] And so, um, because I was above 30, I ended up talking to a lot of like colleges, but no one, I had a college coach come up to me. We were in the gym and they were recruiting me. It was a D one school. Um, I ain't going to throw out their name or nothing, but D one school that came up to me and they said, um, they looked, they was like, where's the market? And I'm standing right there and they're like, they look at me and they say, Oh, you look way bigger on film and, and turns around and talks to my friend.

[00:24:42] And I was, I was a little, I was a little upset about that, but I went home. I'm gonna be honest with you. I, I cried a lot. Yeah. I went home. I'm, I'm 17 years old. Get all your heart into this. This is your heart. Exactly. So like, I went home and told my mom, I was like, mom, I don't know what I got to do. I got to gain weight. I got to gain weight. I'm going to eat a thousand like sandwiches. I need to, I need to. And so, um, long story short, I ended up going to the D three school cause it was the only one that had offered me. And so, um, get there run track as well.

[00:25:12] So like play football, run track freshman year, did decent, didn't necessarily play sophomore year was where I like, where I broke out at though. Like sophomore year, fourth game of the season. It was a guy, um, really fast for two guy came from Florida for two guy. He was a receiver. He ends up getting into it with the coach, but right before the game, I'm talking about like five minutes before the game. And I'm the second, I'm second in line. Yeah. And so he was like, coach comes up to me. Hey, Marcus, you starting this game. Woo. I'm like, you're right. I'm like, let's go.

[00:25:42] Let's do it. I've been waiting. Yeah. You're happy. He got into it with the coach. Yeah. Here's your chance. Here's my chance. I get out there. First game I ever played score four touchdowns. Woo. All right. Nice. Had 150 yards. And didn't look back. Next game. I had two touchdowns. Next game. I had three touchdowns. Wow. So your adrenaline, but your adrenaline was up at that time. It was. There was nothing but your winning. Exactly. And that's how my mindset was. Junior year come, I ended up getting injured.

[00:26:09] And I know this is a long story, but I ended up getting injured. I ended up missing the whole season, end up having dis herniations in my lower back. Oh my gosh. So junior year come, I'm thinking, I'm like, this is, this is my all American year. This is where, you know, I had talked to a couple of teams and I'm thinking I'm going to the NFL. Like, you know, that's how my mind was. Yeah. This is it. Yeah. And so at a D3 school, it's hard to get in the NFL. So like, I'm like, yo, I'm like one of the only guys in the whole country that's at a D3 school that's getting talked to by the NFL. So I'm thinking, I'm like, yo, I'm going to make history. Yeah.

[00:26:38] And so junior year come, I'm still working out hard all day, every day. Junior year come, I ended up getting injured. Dis herniation in my lower back. And it didn't happen from playing. It happened from lifting. Oh, yeah. Lifting in the weight room in the spring. Ended up talking, ended up getting injured. First week, I was like, oh, you know, a little bit of back pain. It wasn't nothing crazy. As the weeks progressed, it got worse. I couldn't run, couldn't jump.

[00:27:04] Ended up going into, ended up having to go to every doctor underneath the sun. They ended up telling me like, hey, junior season is over with. Wow. I'm, you know, crying. Senior year comes, I'm like, well, I'm probably going to miss this too. So like, I'm going to just be the manager. You know, I want to support the boys. You know, I'm still upset. Sure, sure, sure. But want to support at least, you know. Sure. Because they supported me all the way through it. Senior year comes, my athletic trainer comes up to me. Her name is Macy and I appreciate her so much.

[00:27:31] She comes up to me and she was like, hey, you know, we don't have anything else. I'm going to send you to a chiropractor. Didn't know what a chiropractor was. Go into the chiropractic office terrified because I had seen all kinds of videos. And so what I thought chiropractic was of what he was doing. He did functional rehab. He did chiropractic. He had acupuncture. He had everything in there. And so that's what I thought it was. And I originally was going to go to PT school and medical school at that point in time. He ends up telling me, hey, Marcus, you know, you'll be good in like four weeks.

[00:28:01] You'll be able to run. I'll look at him and say, sir, like no offense to anything you've said. I said, I've cried almost every day. I said, I'm not telling you that you can't do that. I said, but I've been to every doc. And you're going to tell me something completely different than everybody else has told me. And so he was like, no, just trust me. Two weeks in. Wow. I jump off the table and I'm like, yo, I feel kind of crazy. So I didn't tell nobody. Three weeks, like the next week, I feel extremely good. I call coach. I'm like, coach, I can run.

[00:28:30] Like, I feel like I can run. We go out there. We test my 40. Ended up going from, I was usually a 4'6 guy. Yeah. Like, which is around, maybe around like 20 miles an hour. Yeah. Yeah. Jumped to a 4-4-1. Wow. Amazing. And he asked me and like, I'm at like 22 miles an hour now. So he's asking me, he's like, yo, what did you do? And I'm like, coach, all I went to was a chiropractor. Like, I don't know. And so that guy doesn't know it, but he changed my whole outlook on how the human body works

[00:28:59] and how I could change people, change people's lives. Wow. So like, I had fun with football, but this has been my ultimate dream ever since I met that man. And that's why you're here doing. And that's why I'm here doing. That's why I'm doing 4-4-1. Yeah. He changed my whole thought process and he kept me playing for an extra six years, but I've met so many people in the process, but he doesn't know how big of a difference. It gets me a little emotional because I truly love seeing people do well and I've always

[00:29:27] wanted to change people's lives, but I didn't necessarily know how I was going to do it. And it was almost like I was thrown into that to be able to figure out like what I wanted to do with my life. It was a purpose that you were with him. Yeah. It was. And like now with my business model and everything that I got going on, I love seeing people get better faster because time is of the essence. We take time as like it goes here and there, but time is so precious.

[00:29:56] It's so precious to us. And like we may want to go pick up our kids, play with our kids. It's like we may want to go run, jog, little moments like that. That we don't never think about. But that little moment of you going to run, you might end up meeting a kid that you able to speak to about what you did the day before. Now that kid goes out and tells their mom about it. Now their mom is inspired. Now it's like steps to it. So like you, you never know what you may do.

[00:30:24] And that's why I love what I do so much because I get people faster, like people better faster and stronger. So they don't have to, like have to need me for so long. I want them to be able to do whatever they want to do on any given day. And I get very passionate about it because I knew how I was when I was down and I was mentally going through so much playing football and I thought my life was over with. It just was, it was very, it was, it's very emotional moment for me, but like it changed my life. So, well, yeah, I mean, it's, it's awesome.

[00:30:53] And you know, we just make, I, I, again, I don't want to keep saying I'm older and don't you do it. Don't I see your eyes over there. That'd be nice. I got to watch her. But, um, we just start making excuses for these problems. Don't you notice that? I mean, you live with the problem. You live with the problem. Oh, I'm just getting older. I must've turned funny that day. And I mean, knowing somebody like you, yeah, I mean, I might be, we're going to be best friends. Are we doing the podcast here?

[00:31:22] No, I'm here for, uh, I need a little adjustment. Your brain probably. Do you work on that? Hey. I told you. I love it. I love it. I love it. Oh my God. This is it. But, but this is incredible. And you know, the reason we're so excited about this is, do you know, right now in the world, Piquel has more injuries than any other sport in the world. I did not know that. That is the truth. Yeah. I mean, cause you get 2.0 is on there and they just, uh, they don't warm up and you

[00:31:51] know, you see what the warming is when you get, when you go to the court, right? You meet your buddies there. You're like, and they're already on, right? You're running like a minute late. You don't want to hit a few balls. They do it all the time. You hit your balls and you think that's, and then you're going to take your body from zero to a hundred. Now, what do you think the body is crazy? Yeah. Why do you think everybody's warm up? I do. Okay. Well, yeah, you, I mean, you know, as a pro athlete, cause that's what you are, you know that if you don't do that, what's going to happen. Yes.

[00:32:20] You even look at all the, even with all the work you did and now you're pressed to the limits when you're doing, when you're going to the level you were going to, they are pushing you harder than your way past your body can do because they want to know, is he, if we take him to the pros, is he going to be able to hold up to this? I mean, I think that's on it. I've heard talk to other pro athletes. Yes. That's a very straightforward, like, to be honest with you, that's exactly what ends up going. They press your body to the limit and it's, and it becomes, it becomes more mental than it becomes physical. I thought, wow.

[00:32:50] Like you, you soon figure out how strong your mind is when you get pressed to those limits. Oh yeah. And, and to be honest with you, a part of me kind of loves it. It's so, it's such a weird dynamic. It's ejecting. Oh no. It's such a weird dynamic, but a part of me loves being able to push my body to limits because at the end of the day I can sit back and I do a lot of stuff on my own, on purpose, just so I can go back and tell patients that it's possible. Yeah.

[00:33:15] Like if a patient is like, for instance, I'm going to go rock climbing just because I have a patient that does rock climbing. Like I want to see what kind of injuries that you can get from this. I like to, anytime, anytime a patient comes in with stuff, I go and do it multiple times. Like that's how my mind goes to, because I want to see the limits that you push your body to. And I want to tell you that it's possible. And I want to tell you not only that it's possible just because I feel like it is no, because I've done it.

[00:33:42] Well, like, and I think, I think, I think the better end of this is too, is, you know, I know we need doctors. I know we need them. We have to have them. Right. But this medicine thing's kind of out of control a lot of times, you know, and, and, and I understand the doctor's point of view, you know, now that we we've interviewed and now we talk to doctors and stuff. And, you know, it's neat that we get to meet all these great people by the podcast. But the thing that happens is, is the patient doesn't always know and they don't have the money to invest in the time to help them.

[00:34:10] So let's just get rid of the pain by numbing it and then doing something else. Yes. And what I like, what you do is like, we don't want to just numb the pain. Let's fix the pain. Yes. You know, and you'll let them know, you know, and I'm sure there's times you have to say, listen, you're in this place that you're going to need some probably surgery or something. And that's, that's a big thing. That's a humongous thing. And that's, I think that's a, um, I can't, I can't say it's just necessary. I, I can't say it.

[00:34:35] I feel like that's a problem sometimes with practitioners and not even just me saying this because it's me. Um, we tend to sometimes have a pride issue. Yeah. And so, uh, as doctors and stuff like that, we tend to have a pride issue. A lot of, and as humans, we tend to have a pride issue. Oh yeah. And so it naturally reflects into us being doctors too. So whenever we had that pride issue, sometimes, uh, sometimes like a patient would need surgery

[00:35:02] and when they come to my office, just in general, we'll be talking 99% of things I can, I can, I can get you. Yeah. I can get you good. That 1% is you have to put your pride to the side and be like, Oh, look, okay, look, you need surgery. This is something a little bit above what I can help you with. Because at the end of the day, they come in and they trusting you. They trusting you with their body. I, that's a huge thing. Like they're trusting, trusting you with your knowledge, with their body, with their time.

[00:35:29] You have so much other stuff outside of just being like, yo, um, you know, you end up paying for this. We're going to put a bandaid over and now you coming back a month later, two months later and now it's worse. Oh yeah. Cause that's usually what ends up happening. It's way worse. If you put that bandaid on it, yeah, they'll come back. And it's going to come back. Yeah. So we have a pride issue when it comes down to surgery. I have, you know, sometimes I hear chiropractors say, Oh, surgery is absolutely nonexistent. It's terrible. And then I hear other like, like surgeons, Hey, you know, you, you need surgery here.

[00:35:58] You need surgery there. So it's, it's, it's not only like an issue with just the, uh, like it's not only issue with chiropractors, PTs, um, surgeons. It's an overall issue because we always, we fight in a battle amongst each other. And it's crazy. It's crazy to me because it's not, it's not the patient's fault that you want to fight that battle. Yeah. Like, and I get very upset about it because the patient is trusting you with their body

[00:36:27] just cause you feel like, or just because you want to tell them to go do surgery. Conservative care is always like what you should try first anyway. But if you want to push them to surgery, give them the reasons why. Don't just tell them like, okay, you need this, this, and this. They deserve to know what's going on with their body, just like anybody else does. And so the more you tell them and the more you dive into it, they can make that educated decision to be like, okay, I do want to do surgery. Sometimes you can't prevent people from getting it. Sometimes that's what they want. And you is. So yeah, I'm sorry.

[00:36:56] But I know, but I think the other part is a preventative care. I'm going to say this word is when you feel those pains and those problems, if you let them go, guess what's going to happen? Surgery. Surgery. That's when surgery becomes because you keep putting a bandaid, you keep putting a wrap around it thinking that tomorrow I'm going to wake. And then you have two wraps and then you're icing it and you got the machine. Yes. Yes. You got the cupper. Oh yeah. Yeah. Don't. Yeah.

[00:37:22] My wife, we got one of those cupper things that, you know, that it airs itself. It's an actual battery operated. Yeah. My wife thought it was funny and it has settings on it, but she didn't read. She goes, let's just try this. And of course she puts it on the number one. I mean, it looks like somebody just beat my arm. So, but I think in your case, and this is what I want to pickleball people to hear is preventative care. Get in when you're having a little back aching problem. Let's get it fixed.

[00:37:51] Now don't wait and keep wrapping it and putting creams on it. Get it. Take a look at it. And then this gentleman, you know, he is going to tell you, hey, this is what you can. These are the options you have. Yes. And that's what I love. I love this. And like with pickleball just in general, majority of the stuff that I see is shoulder issues. Oh, my gosh. Like a lot of shoulder issues. And it's so many different things that you can do before having to go down that rabbit hole of thinking about having surgery and stuff like that.

[00:38:20] Because I've seen shoulder issues and quote unquote, we call it pickleball elbow now. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Because that's what I got sometimes. Yeah. So like you can go, you can, conservative care is always the best option first. Sure. And also. Why not try it first? I mean, that doesn't hurt anything. Exactly. Right. And on top of that, it's also like when people think about it, like when they, because they start to put finances with it. And so when they think about finances, you end up getting a better result from the conservative care than going to get surgery.

[00:38:49] Because what's going to end up happening with surgery is the whole body's connected. So say for instance, you get shoulder surgery. Now the left shoulder starts to hurt because you're overcompensating so much on that left side. And then after that, shoulder, our body is like an X. So you end up having a shoulder on the right. Now your left side of your low back hurt. Now it goes down to your hip. Now it goes down to your knee.

[00:39:08] Now it goes down to your knee. And because I'm younger, she automatically assumed that I wouldn't be a good dog.

[00:39:33] And so she comes in and she asked me or she was just like, hey, you know, I just want a basic adjustment or whatever's going on. Because this is at the place I worked at before. Sure, sure. And so I was like, okay. And so I asked her what was going on because I do that every time. Every time you come in, you're probably going to be annoyed by me. But I'm going to ask every time what's going on because that's a very missed thing. People just be like, get on the table. And that's not a thing for me. I'm going to ask you exactly how it's feeling because if I need to change up something little just to make a major improvement in you, I will.

[00:40:02] And I'm good with changing stuff on the fly too. So like with this woman, she comes in and she's having breathing problems, shoulder issues, and also she also plays pickleball. And so she's having problems swinging. Everything's hurting on her all the time on the right side. I ended up, you know, working in different areas. I was doing a little bit of muscle work. Wasn't supposed to because of the place I was working in, but did a little bit of muscle work.

[00:40:32] And then adjusted the area. And this woman jumps off the table. This is the moment. This is like I'm freshly kind of out of school. And so it kind of scared me. I'm going to just be like, what did I do? So she jumps off the table and she's like breathing hard. And I'm like, are you okay? You know, freaking out. I'm like, are you okay? And she was like, she busts out into tears. Wow.

[00:40:59] And she was just like, this is exactly like what I needed. She says a little sore, but I can breathe. I can swing my arm. That's amazing. And so I'm looking at this and I'm like, I asked her, I was like, have nobody else ever checked this area on you? And she was like, no, because they always think it's my hip because of this, this, and this. And I was like, well, the body's connected here, here, and here. So this made sense for me to do this because I think about sports because I've been playing for so long. And so I was like, it makes sense for me to adjust this area and do this.

[00:41:27] And that'll open up every other thing else. And she was just like, she didn't have, like she was doing like a pay as she go type deal. She was just like, I only want to come and see you. What are your days? And that became a normal thing. Like I went at that place that I was at. But I went from when I, my first week being there, I went from seeing, I was seeing like 20 patients at the time. Two weeks in, I was seeing 60. And then I saw like 70. And then I saw 80. And it started jumping. I was only there for like two and a half months. But like. Wow.

[00:41:57] But like it started jumping consistently. And I also was telling them like, okay, look, you don't need. My problem is I'm like, okay, you don't need 1,500 adjustments. Seven to do here. Like, or 88 here. Or this, you know, I would give them a select number. And I was like, you should feel at least at 60, 70% here. And if you feeling at 70% here, then we can increase it to 90 to 100. I need to see where your body kind of transfers at to kind of know what goes on. You don't need to be coming in 24 times.

[00:42:27] Like, and that's where I kind of, that's where, that's where it became a thing for me that I was like, okay, I want to get my own so I can be able to tell them that because like. Well, it's hard when you work for somebody because they, you know, they have, they're a business, right? They have strict things. And you do your thing. You want to, you want to take the patients and you want them to feel it and you want them to be able to not have pain. So, and he runs a really, he runs a really, really great practice just in general. And he does really, really well with his patients. It's just our stuff just didn't align.

[00:42:57] Everybody's different. Everybody's just different. That's really what it ended up coming. You have a vision. You know what you want. And coming from your background and what has happened to you with the story was incredible. I appreciate that. That this is what made you who you are. And this is why you're here today with us. Cause we, this shoulder thing, the funny part with pickleball is a lot of movements don't go with our shoulder. Like a lot of the backhand stuff that we do. Yeah. It's not made. Our, we're not made to rip this across our body like that. These overhead, these things that people love, which are fun. I do too. Yeah.

[00:43:27] Oh, I love smash. Oh yeah. But when you overextend that shoulder and you're putting all that pressure and you're over hyperextending it, which I'm thinking I'm saying this right. No, you are. You are, you are messing some stuff up. Yeah. You, you, you cramping a bunch of stuff up to get out. Yeah. So you're, and it feels so good, but then when you leave there, it doesn't feel good, but you're going to take care of that for our listeners. So that's what we're excited. So how did we come to you? How did we get a hold of you? Yeah.

[00:43:58] We're going to come do private down here. So we, um, so I have a, um, I have it like a website. I also have like a app too, that you can like get on, um, I have it on my Instagram. Um, it, you go on www.proalignesportschiropractic.com. Um, and then it pulls down everything that you can see. Like it tells you all the stuff that you're going to get with, like with the 60 minute session. And on top of that, if you end up calling me or anything like that, I'm very open.

[00:44:27] Like you call me, we get on the phone cause we do a free discovery call before anything. Love it. Just so I can customize it to your needs. You're not coming in and getting the same thing somebody else got. Like that's not a thing. That's not my thing. Everybody's body works different and everybody has different types of injuries. I love that. So like we customize it based off of what, you know, what your needs is and getting you back better. So you don't end up having, like I said, to need me for a long period of time. I want you to be able to want me like as in like, okay, you're coming in for preventative types. Sure.

[00:44:57] So like you, you have that all on there. And also I'm starting acupuncture. So like you, you go, go through that whole thing. You click book free discovery and it pulls down everything. Love it. And when we get on a call, we'll talk for 15 minutes. It may go a little longer because I'm a talker. Y'all can see. Yeah. He don't talk much. He's quite quiet. Very quiet. I think this is his podcast. You do great. You are, you are a natural. You are a natural.

[00:45:25] But yeah, this is listeners. You know, you, you want to reach out. He said for any pickleball people that, you know, especially with us, the pickleballers next door, he's going to definitely do some specials for you. Again, he's here to help you guys. He's not here. It's not just about the money. This is about his life. He wants to make people's lives better. Yes. And we see that. I mean, when we talked to you, we were talking before the podcast, you, you know, we talk about just what you do for people and it makes you happy and it helps people.

[00:45:55] It makes me so happy. Yeah. And we've seen, we've seen you talking to people there at this grand opening that we're at and you're already in there. Somebody's, Oh, let me take a look. And you're already being a doctor right at the pickleball place. It's so, it's so much fun for me because it's bigger than it is. It's bigger than myself. Yeah. And so every, every day I wake up and it's funny because my girlfriend talks about it all the time. Every day that I wake up, I like look in the mirror. I don't, I don't say it out loud.

[00:46:20] Sometimes I look in the mirror and I literally ask myself, like, what is one, like who is one person's life I can change on a day? That's awesome. And you changed more than just one. I appreciate you. And that's, and that's, that's the biggest part. It's so big. Just meeting him and his smile and who he is. You're going to love him. I mean, we, we fell in love with him the first time we met him. So he is a incredible man. We thank you so much for being on the Pickwellers next door and you're going to hear a lot more from him. So we're going to, we're actually going to be at a studio doing a live.

[00:46:48] He's going to give us some tips here. So we're going to see, you're going to get some tips and Dr. C, right? Dr. C. I like, I like that too, you know, but he's going to, he's going to help our listeners out there. And we hope to have a long relationship with them and help you guys out out there. So don't be scared to call in. We'll put them on our website too. So that you can find him if you missed today or anything, but he is the, he want to see him. If you feel that ache, you feel that pain or that pull, stop wrapping it. Stop putting lotion on it.

[00:47:19] Come see the man. Come see Dr. C. He's going to take care of you. Pro Align Sports Chiropractor. I love your name too. What a name. That was a good name. Your shirt's cool. I mean, you're cool. Right? So yeah. It's almost cool as me. You know what? Not quite saying it. You know what? This is the cool side of the table. Oh. Right? I do like this side. I got my own side. Well, we won't call it. We won't tell you what that side means. But we don't leave that one alone. Well, thank you so much. Thank you.

[00:47:48] You were such a joy. Yes. Love you. And love what you're doing for people. Keep doing it. Keep it. Keep your head up. Keep running hard, which I don't see it. And we're going to play some pickleball because I got to, I guess I'm going to get some lessons. Four years. He's a 4.0. I'm still fighting to get to the 4.0. So love it, man. Have a great day. Thank you so much. No, thank y'all. Y'all have been a blessing. Thank you. Thank you.