Meet Mackonner Dy, a 16-year-old junior pickleball player from Vancouver, BC, and one of Canada’s rising young talents in the sport. Already a Canadian National Champion and PPA Tour competitor, Mackonner is balancing homeschool, daily training, tournament travel, and a serious dream of going pro. In this Smashing Plastic Pickleball episode, Coach Tommy digs into Mackonner’s competitive mindset, pickleball drills, mental toughness, faith, family support, and what it really takes to level up on the court.
Mackonner shares how he went from basketball and casual family pickleball to winning gold in his first tournament with his dad—and realizing pickleball could become his future. His journey has already taken him onto the professional stage, including a recent run to the Round of 16 in Men’s Pro Doubles at the PPA Texas Open with fellow Vancouver player Armaan Jiwa-Mawji, where they faced one of the top teams in the world. Known for his quick hands, creative shot-making, calm composure, and advanced court awareness, Mackonner represents the next generation of Canadian pickleball players pushing the sport forward.
This episode also explores Mackonner’s development, from training through Vancouver weather to improving drops, building consistency, managing pressure at 10–7, and learning that there is no single magic shot or drill that makes a great player. He also shares the importance of family, including how pickleball began as a family activity and grew into a serious competitive pursuit.
Packed with advice for junior pickleball players, competitive rec players, parents, coaches, and anyone chasing the next level, Mackonner’s story is a powerful look at discipline, hustle, faith, family support, and the future of pickleball.
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[00:00:24] Good morning, good morning. We are live, proud and loud with Coach Tommy from Smashing Plastic Podcast and the greatest pickleball podcast in the history of the world. Mackonner, these people don't know who you are. I know who you are. Can you do me a favor, introduce yourself for a few seconds and let everybody know the guests that we have on today's podcast. All right. Thank you. My name is Mackonner Dy. I'm from Vancouver, BC. I'm a 16-year-old junior pickleball player and I love pickleball.
[00:00:54] So I'm going to unpack it a little bit, but most importantly, one of the things that you left out there is Rockstar. Because if you don't know, Mackonner Dy is an absolute animal and he is on the prowl. He's out of Canada. So that's what that BC stands for. To make a long story short, he's cold, he's bitter, and he's learned how to play pickleball extremely well so that he can get out of the cold and the bitter. Right, Mackonner? Very, very quickly, you're going to be out of there. I have no doubt. That's correct.
[00:01:20] 16 years old. What grade are you in? Are you homeschooled? Tell us how that works when you're 16 years old and you're chasing down, you know, this pro thing. Yeah, so I'm 16. I'm currently in grade 10. And balancing pickleball and school is hard. But right now I am currently homeschooled. I've been homeschooled my whole life. So this is not something that I found because of pickleball.
[00:01:48] It's just something that my family have always believed in. Something that I've just done. But in terms of balancing that life, because obviously we have training, we have tournaments, we have rec games, all this stuff.
[00:02:05] So being homeschooled, that allows me to have a lot of flexibility to work around my schedule. So let's say I have rec games at 2.30. I'm not going to put my school in that time. I'm going to bring it around it. I'm going to work my way around my schedule.
[00:02:25] So the only day that is set for my school will be Thursdays. So that's the only day that I have school set with a teacher. The rest of the days, it's up to me how I would need to work around my pickleball schedule and my training.
[00:02:39] So you make the forefront right now, obviously, of what you do. We'll say your big rock of your life is pickleball. So then what that gives you is the ability to work everything scholastically around that big rock to make you get done what you need to get done in order to make sure that you actually know how to spell and add and all of that fun-filled stuff. That's really right. Yeah. So I'm going to navigate you through for a couple of things. So as you know, I'm a coach. I'm going to pick your brain on some coaching stuff because as a 16-year-old, one of the things that I love about
[00:03:07] young stars especially is you guys are so neutral to how you think about pickleball as opposed to somebody that's played it for 5, 10, 15, 20 years. Let me start by this. Mackonner, have you played other sports as well? Do you play other sports or just pickleball? So previously, I had played mainly basketball only. That was my main sport. I dappled in a little other sports. I know how to hit a tennis racket.
[00:03:37] I know how to hit a ping-pong racket. But right now, it's really just pickleball. It's just pickleball. Yeah. Okay. In the basketball world, how long did you play? Is that something that you recently stopped or is this like many years ago when you were playing basketball? Yeah. So I played basketball for as long as I can remember. Okay. But I stopped playing maybe three years ago because I just started to love pickleball. I started to take pickleball more seriously. Right.
[00:04:06] And basketball being such a contact sport, I wanted to avoid injury as much as possible. You've answered my question that I was going at because that to me is where the biggest – and so I coach baseball as well. And one of like the faux pas that we have when we coach our baseball players is like we can't do pickup basketball anymore because of a rolled ankle or whatever. But one of the things that I do love is that when I get players that have a basketball background, pickleball especially, your lateral movements are really, really good. But more importantly, like you go to the ball, right?
[00:04:35] Like in basketball, you're taught like, hey, we're going to where the ball is going to be. In pickleball, it's very similar, right? Mackonner, like you find yourself, hey, I'm going to anticipate that when I play against Coach Tommy, he's going to pull me out wide. So I'm going ahead into starting to move wide before I even place my paddle near the ball. That's why I love so much like when I coach other players that have other sports backgrounds, it gives them a one-up because they have an innate ability to understand how ball movement works. Pickleball is no different, right?
[00:05:04] So that's good to know. So basketball background a little bit. Now it's solely pickle. So let's walk us through that journey. Everybody loves the journey of pickleball. How in the world did you come into pickleball? Yeah, so in my local park, I was playing a little recreational tennis with my friends. And I saw the courts being built like five years ago. Okay. And I thought, why not give it a try? So I gave that a try.
[00:05:32] And if I'm going to be honest, the first year, year and a half, I only played with my family. Okay. And I didn't think much of it. I didn't enjoy it too much. Right. I didn't think it was too hard, too competitive. It was too easy. Right. Because I was just playing my family. Sure. Then that all changed when I played other players. Okay.
[00:06:00] So here you are thinking that, just like anybody, right? You're the best in your family probably a month into this thing or two months into this thing, right? Because you're an athlete. Yes. You're young. And then all of a sudden you start, okay, well now you show up in the park one day. I know how this goes, right? You start playing people that are not related to you. And you start finding out like, holy crap, there's people that are legitimately better than me. And then your competitive little part of your body starts going, hey, I like this, right? This is something that I can see being a little bit challenging.
[00:06:29] But more importantly, you can start taking pride in the fact that you really are good, right? That's a big deal, right? Right. All right. Well, then I've got a follow-up question to that. When did it become evident of how good you were really becoming? Because now, I mean, you're on upper levels of some of the best players literally on the planet. But how and what did it come up to where you're like, one day you woke up, you're like, hey, mom, I'm really good at this thing. Yeah. So, I mean, I've always been a competitive person. Okay.
[00:06:59] And that translated. Once I played other players, played other seniors who whooped me, taught me so many lessons, I realized that it's something I enjoyed. So, I joined the tournament with my dad, a 3-5 tournament. My first ever tournament. We won gold. I was shocked. Okay. And at that moment, I was like, you know what? This is something I enjoyed.
[00:07:27] And I really believed that I could take this far into the future because I've already have a good foundation with it. And a lot of juniors don't have that because this was three, four years ago. Right. So, that journey has now been, you're into your, what, fourth year on this? Basically, after you started 3-5s. I mean, you're kind of on year four. How different is your mindset do you think now as opposed to like when you're winning a 3-5 tournament with your dad?
[00:07:54] Like, the way that you think about pickleball now is composed to then. Is it night and day differently? I wouldn't say night and day. But it is definitely different in the aspect that before I was just playing it for fun. Okay. Like, really, just mainly for fun. I mean, I still love the sport. Sure, sure. I still try to have fun. But there's more of that seriousness, more of that competitiveness in this sport now. Now, I'm really trying to chase after that dream of being a pro player.
[00:08:24] Like, that's a reality to me now. Before, it was a fever dream. Right. So, just that sort of mindset just shifted. So, I just got out of a camp and clinic with Dane Greenridge. Shout out to him and Jill, who's known as Pickleball Yogi. I'm sure you've seen their stuff. I just got out of a clinic with them for a couple days here. So, my mind's wrapped around this mindset thing more so than ever. Even as a coach and even as I would consider myself a good player who's played a lot.
[00:08:51] I'm now like the world is spinning on how different I see it. One of the things that I want to bring up that he teaches and that I'd love to get your opinion on is how important it is for you to study the opponents that you're playing. Way more so than it is even focusing on Mackonner's shots. So, for instance, when you're thick into a battle, say you're going to play against me and Sean, right? He really emphasizes that the first few shots that we go through, in fact, even in the warm-up,
[00:09:21] you should really be focusing on what is my superpower? Like, when you're looking across the net at Coach Tommy, what do you see that I do that you know for a fact is really, really good? And then you do your best. I don't want to say to avoid it because that's the wrong mentality, but more or less, if you know that I have a very good counter backhand, well, then you're going to want to play to my forehand side. Does that make sense? Yeah. I would love for you to expound as a 16-year-old phenom, because I'm going to use that word.
[00:09:49] How and what do you think about that? Is that something that you, at 16 years old, cognitively already think about when you're playing people on the level that you're playing as well? Probably not all the time. It doesn't come naturally to me, but there's times when I feel myself from personal experience that when I'm in a tight situation, let's say 10-7, and it's their serve and they're winning, and I'm trying to hit a passing shot,
[00:10:18] I'm going to go to my favorite shots rather than something that I'm less comfortable with. So putting it into that perspective, like you see patterns that if it's 10-7 and you don't want to give them their favorite shot, like you said, your backhand, right? If that's your favorite shot, at 10-7, I'm not giving that to you because that's your favorite shot. So I'm going to give it to something that you're less comfortable with because at 10-7, you're usually really tight.
[00:10:47] So just seeing that in a different way. So cognitively, I don't think that I would generally think that way, but it is something that as I grew as a player in experience and skill, it's something that I learned a little bit. So I'm going to take a few seconds to expound on that for our listeners because what you just talked about and what I just talked about, in all honesty, out of everything that you do with Pickle will be the way that you can improve your game
[00:11:17] so much more faster than you going and dinking 500 times or hitting 400 forehands or even for working on your footwork. All of those things matter. But the most important part of this is, one, you can't change who you are. So McConnor is a really light-footed, good forehand player. That is his superpower. That's his strength. That's what he's going to move, his shapes, his shots. That's what he's literally looking to attack with. And me as almost the complete opposite. I'm 43 years old.
[00:11:45] I've got a knee that makes me want to cry on Wednesday mornings. There's things that are different than me, but my superpower, per se, would be my backhand counter. So I'm going to build my shots and my routine to do my very best to get McConnor to feed that. And then I'm going to do my best to work with that. And he's going to do the exact opposite. And there's still methods of winning. That's so much what I love about Pickleball is it really is, you hear this all the time. And I know this is not my saying, I wish it were, but it really is chess.
[00:12:14] It's not checkers, especially when you get to the level that you're at right now, because everybody's good. Everybody's talented. Everybody's working, right? Like really at the end of the day, it's who figured out the puzzle first before the clock went out. That's the way I look at it. You know, who got to 11 for by figuring out the puzzle. Sometimes it's a run. Sometimes it's just errors. And in all honesty, McConnor, I think you can attest to sometimes it's just a bad day. Some days it feels like it's like an unfolding lawn chair. You know what I mean? Like I can't describe it.
[00:12:42] And then other days it feels like you can't miss a shot. So the mind frame is the one thing that I constantly consistently am working on so that when you're in the matches, especially like you said, when it gets tight, why on earth would I change what's my superpower when I am a 10-7 about to win a game, right? Like why would I do that then? But so many players do. They try to hit some crazy winning line shot. You know what I mean? When they haven't hit a line shot the entire match and then before you know it,
[00:13:12] the match is over on shots that they had no, they had no business playing anyway. You know what I mean? Like it's not what got them to 10. So I love it. I think you nailed it on the head. I'm very, very excited to see how your mind continues to warp through, you know, figuring the chess over the checkers because obviously athleticism is without a question a physical thing that you've been blessed with. And now it's going to be unpacking all the other stuff. With that being said, we're going to, we're going to tear in a little bit. So let's, let's get about you a little bit.
[00:13:41] A couple of things, a couple of questions came in, but Connor, that I want to feed you. And then I want you to kind of expound upon so that you can, you know, hopefully help some people that are not only in Canada because we love us in Canada, you know, maple syrup and hockey. But also for folks that are driving right now in the midnight hours, listening to a rock star coming up. You ready for this? A couple of questions. Okay. Yeah, let's go. All right. So if you had 30 minutes to train today, what would you be focusing on first? My drops, 100%. Your drops. Okay. I'm filling this in. So drops.
[00:14:11] Walk us through that. Walk us through that. So usually I try to train what I found my weaknesses to be were in this past week, this past month, this maybe even just yesterday. So this past week, I've tended to realize that I've missed maybe 30% of my drops would actually be making at least 90. Okay. Okay. I like it. So I had 30, 30 minutes right now, 30 minutes after this,
[00:14:40] I would hit some drops. Hit it till I don't miss. I love it. In theory. All right. Let's see. What is one daily habit that you've got right now that you didn't have when you had this dream of becoming a professional pickleball player? What's one daily habit that you're doing right now that you're like, you know what? This is because I want to do this. Waking up earlier. Waking up earlier. Okay. Yeah. Right. Listen. All right. Walk us through that. Why are you waking up earlier? There's got to be a reason. What are you doing with it? Yeah.
[00:15:09] So before I used to probably go to bed 12 p.m. Sorry, 12 a.m. Maybe later. And then waking up around 10, 11 ish. I mean, that's a lot of good hours. Sure. Sure. But that's a lot of wasted time in the night, in the nighttime when I don't do as much or in the morning where I could have done a lot. So just fixing that sleep schedule to around maybe 10 p.m. waking up at 8 a.m.
[00:15:39] I think that helps a lot because first of all, I can do a lot more in the morning. Right. Right. It makes me a lot more productive. And then second of all, I think my body just, I think it's such a more natural time clock to just sleep at 10 p.m. and wake up at 8 instead of sleeping at 12. I love it. So it gives you the ability, and you're right, like you're burning daylight hours, right? So if you have the ability to get up and get after it, then it starts, I don't know, it starts feeding your soul just as much as it starts feeding your body that you're doing. You know,
[00:16:09] you're chasing your dream, right? Like it's a really big deal to be able to chase that dream. Yeah. How do you personally structure your practices right now as opposed to like literally just quote unquote hitting balls or going in a wreck, right? Like right now, I'm assuming with the level that you're at, you're probably got some sort of structure. Is there something that you would share with our audience that you're doing that you have found that helps you? Yes. So I have less structure than you might realize because being in Vancouver, also known as Raincouver, the weather here is horrible.
[00:16:39] It's brutal. Dude, the rain is just crazy, especially in the winter. So having like a set schedule is not feasible. Okay. Because you never know when it's going to rain even though the forecast said pure sun. And I guess we could bring up indoor courts, but here, at least in Vancouver, they only started popping up at indoor courts, I mean, maybe like a year ago, six months ago, maybe just three months ago.
[00:17:07] So we've only had indoor courts courts and not many for not a long time. And even now, indoor courts here are quite expensive. Right. And with the amount of hours that I practice, like two hours per day, seven days a week, maybe more, probably more. It would add up to being a lot. So playing, and I love playing outside. So that's terrible. And most of the tournaments that you play in, obviously, right? Like most of the tournaments that you're playing in,
[00:17:36] especially if they're APP or PPA, like those almost 98% of them are outside, right? Almost all of them are outside. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. So just getting used to the elements really helpful. What skill do you think that most players in rec overvalue as opposed to what you, you know, value? So for instance, is there particular shots that you think that rec players don't pay attention to that they should in order to become a 4-0, a 4-5, a 5-0?
[00:18:06] Like what are they missing that you know about? They're missing in their rec games and they're, usually I would tell them the drill. That's number one if you want to get to the next level. But if you really intend on playing rec games, I think it's not a certain shot that would get you to the next level but your focus. Okay. More often than not, I think that when I'm playing rec games or at least before, I would just go out and be really lax,
[00:18:35] wasn't focusing on any certain shots, just wanted to win the game and didn't care if I lose. I think you're, I think you're way more accurate than what you think. So we had Juan Benitez. I don't know if you know who that is. He's a dog. Yes. Like freaking. So good. So good, right? Such a good player. We had him on last week and that was one of the things that he talked about even as a coach for his players that he coaches is like you can't, more or less, you can't fake this. Like when you're on court, you have to be intentional about what you're trying to do with each shot
[00:19:04] and most recreational players and there's nothing against that, but they don't, they don't have that mindset. They're there to have a good time, be social, sunshine, play with their friends. But if you really want to get better, like if you truly want to hold yourself accountable to becoming better today than I was yesterday, you're going to have to have intentionality about that shot and about that game plan of what you're trying to do on each entire, even, even, even match, right? Like you need to have a true focus of what your game plan is playing. If me and you were going to play against Juan Benitez and Sean, our producer, it would be wise
[00:19:34] for you and I to have a 30 second conversation at the net before we got rocking to, hey, here's what we're going to do. Juan Benitez is probably one of the best players in the world. Sean is a podcast producer. We are probably hitting 98 balls to Sean and allowing Juan Benitez to get frustrated to the point where he's not going to beat us, right? Implement. So many players don't do that. They do not do a 30 second overview of just how to play the match.
[00:20:04] It's just whack-a-mole lets you get the ball going and then they get frustrated why they don't have the results. So if you're listening to this podcast, I'm telling you, it will behoove you whether it's a recreational match or you're playing for the gold for Bubba's Bait and Barbecue Championship. You need to have some sort of plan and you need to stick with the plan until the plan shows you that it's not working and then you audible it. You know what I mean? Like that's what we've got to do. We've got a change on the fly here too. So I love that. Good answer. Very, very, very good answer. What is one drill that you swear by
[00:20:33] that translate to you becoming a better player? Is there one particular drill that you really like McConner that you're doing now that you know is making you become better? No. No. Because there's not one shot that makes you a great player. That I agree with. You have five, little five, five, six, so. Right. So you got to have an arsenal of it, right? You got to have a couple of each.
[00:21:03] You got to be an all around player. Yeah. I think one of the things that I've done as of late and I don't know if you do this or not, but one of the things that I've done with the students that I've got, I have really started implementing a lot more of the skinny singles drill. I like that for so many other reasons other than the fact that you can competitively drill and hit shots that you wouldn't necessarily hit in doubles and it starts making you start think a little bit better about, hey, I can't hit that passing shot because that angle is really weird right there. Or, hey,
[00:21:32] I need to bring him up to the net because in all honesty he's not moving really well. So if you're listening to this, one of the things that I would incorporate you, and if you don't know what this is, simply DM me or message me and I'll get you a video on it. But there's things called skinny singles that I would highly encourage you play, especially if you only have two of you. It's a great way for you to get all of the drills that McConnor's talking about implemented in a very short setting and it tightens up the perimeters, right? Like, it makes it tight. So you have to really become sharp with that drop. You've got to really become sharp with that serve.
[00:22:02] Like, I really like that, man, and I can see instant improvement because then when you open up the court, like, let's just say hypothetically we'll play 10 minutes later after that we're going to play doubles. Now all of a sudden the court has doubled in size automatically and you're like, wow, I can do this, right? Like, this makes me feel better like I can get in a shot that I didn't see. How are you tracking your progress without getting discouraged? Because that's one of the things as a 16-year-old, right? Like, you want to wake up tomorrow and be, you know,
[00:22:32] Hayden, right? Like, that's what you want to do, right? Like, we all want to do that. How do you keep yourself grounded and not getting discouraged in what you're doing as far as chasing your dream right now, McConnor, as a 16-year-old 10th grader? That's a very good question. I think we're, again, we're coming back to the mental side and I think that's something I've been working on a lot because it's not just, everyone around me is telling me that it's not just the skill, not just the talent that's going to get you
[00:23:02] to the next level. It's your mind, it's your mental, right? So, with my coach, Sean, I've been working on a book called Compete, Learn, and Honor. And what it talks about is just compete with all you have, just compete with all you are, with all your effort, and then learn from your mistakes. So, I think this is an important one here. Nobody likes to lose. It's just innate human nature to want to win
[00:23:31] every single game. But, if you're not Ben Johns or Hayden Patrickan, that's just not possible. So, I think what keeps me grounded is my faith. I believe that even if I lose, God 100% has a plan for it. And knowing that, I come back stronger, I get back up, train harder, and I just come back to the next tournament wanting to beat the same people or beat new people. For me, that's just
[00:24:00] how I stay grounded and just continue. And for the last one, it's compete, learn, honor. It's just honor the game. Right? Respect the game. Just because you lose doesn't mean the game's that blind. Right? Love it. You want to continue to love the game for what it is and just because you lose, that shouldn't stop it. So, that's how I would stay grounded. So, lots to go over there. First and foremost, awesome.
[00:24:30] Here's where, here's where perspective has me over you. You and I could play all day long and I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, Mackonner, you're going to wipe the floor with me because you're better physically as far as what that comes. But I'm 43 years old so I have the ability to have perspective over I can see things that you can't see because I'm further down the path. What I would encourage you as if I were coaching you because Sean's a great coach so you're in great hands with that. But what I would encourage you that is how in the world would you know
[00:24:59] how good winning is if you don't experience losing? And I talk to my players about this all the time to where, whether it's baseball or whether it's pickleball or whether it's whatever, me and you can play rock, paper, scissors. I cannot understand or value the win without going through the loss. And I will always learn more about myself and my team in a loss than I ever will in a victory. Right? Like you always will. I can promise you, Mackonner, you and I can have a three-hour conversation about matches that you've lost
[00:25:29] and there would be three-minute conversations about the matches that you've won. You'd be elated, you'd be excited, hey, listen, I took down whatever, you name a guy. I took down this team, it would be a three-minute conversation, you would smile. But if I said, well, hey, walk me through how you lost to Hayden and Ben, you would give me a 45-minute dissertation of what you would do differently. So, I feel like there's way more victory in quote-unquote losing than there ever will be victory in victory
[00:25:58] because you gain so much more perspective when you go through a loss. So, I would encourage you on that to where if you can have the perspective of understanding that you couldn't value the win without going through the loss, period, no matter what you do in life, business, whatever, I'm telling you, take it from somebody that knows you will always learn more about your losses than you will your wins. Two, your faith. Love, love it that that is your foundation. Love it. And I'm going to have you expound upon that. So,
[00:26:28] walk me through this. You're a 16-year-old Christian. Obviously, you profess, so you've literally just told the world that you're fully relying on God. How does that, what does that look like right now to you? Like, do you have daily quiet times? Are you in the Word? Are you praying? Church? Like, all of those things as a young student-athlete who is founded in faith, is it tough? Is it not tough? Like, I would love for you, man, if you can, to lean into that a little bit so that the world can kind of, because I promise you
[00:26:58] you're not the only one. How does that look? You know what I mean? As a 16-year-old up-and-coming star with faith as your foundation? Yeah, for sure. It's tough, not in the way that, like, pressure around the world. Like, it's not tough in that way. But I think it's tough in the way of time management. So like you mentioned, quiet time, Bible, Word, church. If we're, like, if I'm waking up at, usually I have my Bible and quiet time in the morning.
[00:27:28] Okay. But let's say I have a tournament at like 6 a.m. It's difficult for me to wake up earlier than I'm supposed to to read my Bible or pray. So, during those odd times, like times I have to wake up early for a tournament or something, I'll have to work around that and do it later in the day or when I can find a little free time for myself. But prayer is usually, obviously,
[00:27:57] as much as possible all the time. But at night is usually my time. So, there's not much conflicting with that. But in terms of church, that's where it gets a little harder. Sure. Because, right, church isn't just a building. It's not just a sermon. It's big on community. Right? Sure. And, I've thought about this a lot, but almost every tournament besides the PPA is on a Sunday or on a weekend. Right. Right? So,
[00:28:27] you have a choice. You either miss the tournament or you miss church. Right. So, I think, again, we're having to work around that because, yes, God first, but, I also think pickleball is important. So, having like wide times, that's number one. So, your personal time with God, that's 100%. And then having that community aspect with the church, that's something you can do, let's say, for me, that would be youth group. Right? Friday nights.
[00:28:57] Or if you can't make it to Sunday service, go to Saturday nights. Saturday night service. It's just working around that, but making sure you still have that community part in your faith. I think that's really important. No, I think you're, I think you're definitely onto something there and there's a, there's a lot there. You know what I mean? Like, it's not just pickleball. In fact, youth sports in general, right, are consuming of a weekend, right? Whether it's baseball or softball or a basketball tournament or whatever it may be,
[00:29:28] it is, it's worthy of note of a conversation of how much the Sunday, you know, our Sabbath, the day of rest has become now a prominent, dominant, like championship day in just about every sport there is. Yeah. And it really does present some challenges and some conflicts for those folks that are of faith. And I don't have the answer that's way above my pay grade, but I will, I will acknowledge and say this,
[00:29:57] that because you are at least saying, hey, listen, I got to work around this then, right? I got to figure out this thing on a Saturday night. I got to figure out my Bible study on this day. I got to figure out maybe I'll go to Wednesday night. You're doing your very best to be obedient, right, in what you are called in order to do because at the end of the day, I kind of look at it like our faith, almost, the foundation of being around other believers is a really big deal, right? It fuels you, right, for you to get around other folks that are able
[00:30:25] to have the smoke on them, per se, of their faith is a really big deal and it's what helps grow and expound upon you and your faith. So I definitely want to encourage you to keep doing that, right? Find the ways to be able to be in community, but also there might be some opportunity there for you to step up, McConaughey, somehow, some way and sort of lead. Like, it sounds crazy, but McConaughey, you could have an amazing Bible study that's on Sundays in and between tournament times or after tournament times or something and you would be amazed
[00:30:55] at how many other believers would come to you for that. You know what I mean? Or there might be somebody already doing something like that. We used to do this with our baseball team. We would actually have a small service with our baseball team on Sundays prior to tournament. We would do communion the whole nine yards. We'd have, believe it or not, our players would be the one that would read scripture and stuff. It was really cool and to this day it's still some of the best Bible time and some of the best teaching time that I've ever been a part of to see a 12-year-old or a 14-year-old
[00:31:23] give their perspective on a scripture. You know what I mean? And lead others which was a really big deal. So kudos to you for doing that. Kudos for you for leaning into that and more importantly I'm excited to see how your faith grows for all of this because your foundation by default is what has framed the world. So I have no doubt it will help you through your dinking, dropping, and driving. I have no doubt if that makes sense. Yeah. Hey everyone, Coach Tommy live
[00:31:52] here from Smashing Plastic Pickleball. Some of you know this, some of you don't but I actually own a construction company by the name of First Class Painting and Restoration. One of the things that we have ventured into over the last couple years is court building. Believe it or not, we've done it for municipalities, we've done it for homes, we've done it for businesses. So if you are in the need or in the desire I should say of having a court either built or resurfaced we would love to give you an estimate. Come out and take a look at that project. If you would, just simply shoot an email, DM, or you can text us and we'd be more than happy to get out there and line you up
[00:32:22] for a fantastic, beautiful First Class Court. Talk with you soon. Coach Tommy out. All right. So now we're going to try to get this thing. I could talk with you for hours and hours. So before we go and we get you into coach time, I got a couple things. You got to give us some flowers. So who's helping you out right now, right? You got to give some attaboys to some of this team that McConaughey's got. So sponsors and coaches and mommies and daddies and all of that kind of stuff. Give them some flowers, man. Walk us through that team
[00:32:51] of McConaughey and what that looks like. Yeah. So obviously my family has been the ones supporting me from the get-go. They, my dad was the first person I played with for a tournament. That was very special to me. That's awesome. Um, so, and they've always traveled with me when I go international, like PPAs, APPs, or even just two hour, two hour, three hour, four hour, five hour drive. They've always been with me there, which is awesome. I love it. Um,
[00:33:21] and along with that, I have coach Sean and Dr. Jeff, who are helping me both on and off the court. They're helping me physically with my health, uh, and my coordination. Okay. They're helping me on the court, both on the mental side, and they're also coaching me with drills or full work, stuff that, or conditioning. Sure. Right. Keeping the body strong. Sponsors.
[00:33:50] I'm currently with Salkirk. Okay. Um, and I love Salkirk. They're a great company and I think they, I've been with them for a long time. Okay. And through that time, I think they've, they've done a lot. They've done a lot for me. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. I will make sure that Sean, our producer, has those links, those bios and the stuff so that we can make sure we get them some attaboys, you know, for, for thanking them big time for, for all that they're doing for you. I assure you. Um, I'm actually, believe it or not, from Smashing Plastic
[00:34:19] going to send you some goodies. So while I have you here, I'm going to, what color cap would you prefer? A black, a pink, or a white, McConnor? This is a big question. Okay. I need you to lock in right here. Pink, black, or white. What are you rocking here? I just lost my white hat. So, uh, I was doing white. Done. All right. So white hat's coming your way. I'll send you some other goodies, man, for, for being on the podcast because you're a rock star. All right. So you're in Canada. I don't know many people from Canada, so we're going to help some people in Canada. We're going to say that Chris is in Toronto
[00:34:49] and he's still crying because my Los Angeles Dodgers slapped the floor with the Blue Jays. We're going to say Chris needs some, some tips. So let's go with McConnor Dye. He's a three, five to four. You got one thing that you can help Chris with. What are you going to for? We're going to call you Coach Connor. How about that? Coach Connor, how do you help out Chris real quick, man? Is this like on the court skills or just in general? I'm going to go with on the court skill because people want to know how they want to know. They want to know on the, you know,
[00:35:18] everybody wants a microwave fix, right? Everybody wants to fix it in 20 seconds. So give them a, give them what do you think on court? The typical three, five to four Oh guy needs help with. Every player has their strengths. So there's not a one thing that fixes it all, but for every player, every single player on the planet, whether it be Ben Jones or me or someone else, it's consistency on your shot. If you can practice your shot to consistency, you can never miss. If you can get your ball
[00:35:47] over that net to your opponent every single time, I can promise you that your opponents are going to get so mad, even if it's not a good ball. Practicing hustle. Like just, if it seems far, seems like you don't want to get it, let's go get it. Go get that ball because it shows that it shows effort and number one, that scares your opponent and number two, that's just a good pickleball to always get it back, right? Sometimes you, sometimes they'll get it back. Sometimes you won't. Sometimes they'll kill the next ball. Sure.
[00:36:16] And sometimes they'll, sometimes they'll whiff into the net. So just making sure you're always trying to get that next ball. Again, staying focused, wanting to win, but also being ready to lose. Wanting to win. So just grabbing every single ball. I think that will get you to the next level every single time. I love it, dude. But Connor, you're a rock star. You killed it. I cannot thank you enough, man, for being on the pod. We're going to stay in touch with it. If you don't mind, I'll follow up with you, you know, in a couple of weeks, couple of months, see how you're doing. You know what I mean? If you come across, you know, some,
[00:36:46] some revelation to change the world, you let us know first. We'll make sure it gets on the gram. Hey man, thank you so much. Good luck and looking forward to seeing you very soon, buddy. Appreciate you. Thank you. Hey everyone, Coach Tommy here. Thanks for tuning in to Smashing Plastic. Big shout out to Sean Monahan for the music, production, and editing. Don't forget to hit the like and subscribe for more awesome content and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Those links are in the description. Now let's get out there and smash some plastic. The Smashing Plastic. you