Dinking Around 114 - Webby Has Had Enough And Is Speaking Up!

[00:00:12] We're Dinking With Eddie and Webby Tonight Oh yeah Hey Magic Pickleball, I really feel like my skills are improving and I think I could win a 4.0 gold medal one of these days. Do you agree? It says just drop it. Oh man. Oh hey, how's it going? This is Webby, not Eddie.

[00:00:41] And I'm Eddie. And this is our 114th Dinking Around. Oh yeah, episode 114 and it was not that long in between episodes this time guys. Can you believe it? I know, wasn't it just two weeks ago that we released our last one? It was and I thought it was a great one. I've gotten a lot of good feedback about it and it's great to be back. Yeah, that was some pretty cool topics man. You're relieving your Pacific Northwest Pickleball dream trip.

[00:01:10] Such a fun time. I still just I gotta pinch myself when I think about it. It was such an epic trip. You know, it's funny. That recently came up in conversation with someone who I work with who is not from America. And the CEO of our company said that it was a pinch myself moment. She had no idea what he was talking about. Apparently that is more of an American thing that I realized. Oh really? Yeah. Interesting. I did not know that.

[00:01:37] Well, Webby, what I'm pretty sure you did know is that our friends over at Valera make some pretty incredible pickleball paddles. And we've been playing with them for quite a while. What have you been playing with lately? Well, they recently sent me the CMD hybrid paddle and I've got to tell you what I have been absolutely loving it. It has an amazing amount of grit so I can put a lot of spin on the shots, but it has really good power and control.

[00:02:01] I feel like a lot of people used all those adjectives when describing paddles, but I'm telling you what I have been feeling great in all of those areas with that paddle. So I definitely recommend that one. Hey guys, you got to get your hands on a Valair pickleball paddle. No matter what your skill level, they have a paddle for you. Check them out, Valera.com. And guess what? You can use coupon code PB4Life to get what Webby?

[00:02:23] Well, you're going to get yourself 10% off your order and you're also going to show us some support in the process. So we always appreciate that. So thank you very much. Yes, Valair.com, coupon code PB4Life. Just do it. You won't regret it. And something that I am not going to regret is finding out... What in the world is in that drank? What you got in that drank?

[00:02:46] I was at Publix the other day and I wanted so bad to pick up a six pack of one of my favorite types of beers and I completely forgot. And that is an Oktoberfest. There's so many American companies and German companies that make incredible Oktoberfest beers. So today, I'm not drinking any of those because I forgot to pick it up. So maybe my next show I'll have it. So I'm going to go with a good old standby and that is the Voodoo Ranger Juicy Haze IPA. Nice.

[00:03:11] It's always a good one. I enjoy sipping on it. And yeah, you guys should get your hands on some if you can, if you've never had it before. Most beer drinkers have had this beer because it's kind of a good standby. But anyway, that's what I'll be sipping on. What about you today? Well, I typically like to sip on a nice local craft beer made here in the lovely state of Michigan, but that is not what I'm going to do today.

[00:03:34] I'm going to drink something that actually wasn't sold in Michigan for many, many, many years, decades even. It just recently started being sold in Michigan late last year. And this is Yingling traditional lager. This is something that I always pick up when I go to Ohio or anywhere more south of the border of Michigan.

[00:03:59] But I no longer have to do that. I can buy it in my own state now. So I am a big fan of this beer and that's what I will be drinking tonight. I agree. I think Yingling is an incredible beer. Typically, if I'm out at the bar and I want something kind of easy to sip on while I'm having dinner, Yingling is a go-to for me. And I'm lucky because since I moved down to Florida 12 years ago, it's been down here the whole time and I've always enjoyed it.

[00:04:23] Yeah, I'm very happy that we can finally buy it here in Michigan. But cheers, Eddie, and cheers to everybody tuning in. If you guys are sipping on anything tonight, let us know down in the comments below. We'd always love to hear what kind of drinks you're having while listening to us. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Oh man, my watch is beeping and it's telling me it's time. Now it's time for Topics of the Week.

[00:04:51] That's right. Topics of the Week where Eddie and I each bring a topic to the table to discuss. So Eddie, let's start with you this week. What do you got for us? Webby, when you started off in your pickleball journey, do you have one or maybe a few people that were clearly a higher skill level from you, but still decided to play with you and kind of help you grow into your game? Yes, there are a couple of people that come to mind as a matter of fact. I definitely had some of those as well. And I think most people do.

[00:05:21] I mean, obviously, you know, getting the chance to be on the court with Simone when we were getting video footage or before and after, that was an unreal experience that most pickleball players, they'll never have the opportunity to be able to play with, you know, that high level people. But there were also a lot of other people who maybe weren't at that top tier level. Like in my old community, there was a group of 4-0 and 4-5s that they would invite me into play. And still to this day, the fact that Phil Metz plays with me is crazy.

[00:05:50] He's just he's so good and and would demolish me, but he still plays. I mean, you got a chance to play with him right before the US Open. Like, you know, he's just he's incredible. Yeah, great player. Very great player. Well, it started to make me think a little bit about playing with lower level players. And I kind of want to cover two topics here. Number one, it's how do you get invited to be able to play with higher level players? And I also recently have been playing with people that are at a little bit lower of a skill level as well.

[00:06:21] And the first thing is, how do you get to play with higher level players? And my question for you, Webby, is so let's say we have an opportunity to play with someone who might be, let's say, around like a 3-5. But they're only a 3-5 because they haven't had the reps yet. They're not as consistent. But their style of play is very much like a 4-0 level style of play, meaning they're very strategic with their thirds. They have a good soft game. They dink. Would you enjoy playing with someone like that?

[00:06:50] Oh, absolutely. I would love to play with somebody like that. And that's what I think that a lot of people need to focus on. If you want to get brought up and play with higher level people, I think it's important that you look at their style of play and you try and emulate that. You might not be perfect. You might not hit everything. But you should understand when you should drop versus drive. You should understand that there's value to the soft game.

[00:07:16] You should realize that popping the ball up is not something you should focus on and you should try and mitigate that. And I think if you play that style of play, even though you might lose because you don't have it mastered yet, I believe that having that style of play is going to help you continue to get invited back by the higher level groups of players. Would you agree with that? Yeah, I would definitely agree with that. Well, I think it's also important, too, that I'm grateful for the people who played with me as I was coming up with my journey.

[00:07:45] And I'm nowhere near the top, obviously, right? But to maybe like a 2-5-3-0, they kind of feel the same way about playing with people at our skill level that I felt with playing at the higher skill level when I was starting up. And I've had a chance within the last few months to play with some people that are at that level on a somewhat regular basis. And I think it's been fun.

[00:08:10] But I think there are certain things you have to do to kind of make it fun in order to kind of set up the right expectations that I wanted to be able to talk through, too. So let me ask you this first. Do you get an opportunity to play with lower-level people on a regular basis? It's funny you say that. Actually, this past weekend when I played, there was somebody that was pretty new. He had only been playing for three months that I got a chance to play with.

[00:08:36] And I still really enjoy helping newer people find that passion for pickleball. So honestly, it doesn't happen a ton, but it did happen this past weekend. So the timing of this topic is pretty cool. It's interesting that you recently just had that, too. And I've been thinking about why has it been much more fun recently than maybe in the past? And I think one of the first things is you have to adjust your expectations, right?

[00:09:01] If you're in tournament prep mode, if you're trying to go to maybe work on some high-level shots, see some challenging balls and situations that you need to get yourself out of, you're probably setting yourself up for failure because you're not likely going to see that. In fact, you're probably likely going to see shots that you would never see on the 4-0 courts, like drives right at your forehand, like not coming up to the net, all of these things that you're used to.

[00:09:29] And that can also get frustrating if you're not prepared for it because sometimes if I'm up against a player like that, they're going to get a shot on me that I am not expecting at all. And because I'm not expecting it because it's such a bad shot, it actually works. Does that happen to you? Oh, for sure. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. So I like to go into it thinking, okay, what can I work on this time? So a lot of times I'll go there and I'll say, all right, I want to work on ball placement.

[00:09:54] I want to work on patience, on resets, and I want to work on my footwork. And just focus on those things. Don't focus so much on exactly what strategy you're going to go in. Just keeping the ball in play, making sure you're choosing the right shot and kind of going from there. But also making it fun and making jokes with the other players.

[00:10:14] I have found that if I'm playing with someone that might be a little bit lesser skill but knows it, they might be feeling a little insecure and a little tense about it. So I like to do things like make jokes, have fun with it, and really kind of rip on myself. So it's almost like sometimes I'm excited for hitting a bad shot because I think it kind of just takes that pressure off of my partner and makes it more fun and loose. What do you think about giving tips or advice in those situations?

[00:10:44] Oh, man, that's a touchy one for me because I feel like it depends on the person. I really think you should ask somebody before playing, like, are you good with getting some advice while we're playing? Or would you rather wait till the game is over and then I can point out anything that I noticed? Stuff like that, because I know some people hate getting critiqued in the middle of a game. And sometimes it's just kind of like, it's so demoralizing to them, they just kind of almost shut down and just play even worse. Yeah, same boat with me.

[00:11:14] Usually I'll ask or I'll wait till they ask me and I'll just kind of shut my mouth. I think it all depends on the circumstance, but I'm kind of right there with you. It really depends on the individual. What about playing close balls or out balls? I feel like I am very generous with my line calls. Like, if it's close and it might have been out, but there was maybe a slight chance it could have been in, I usually will still play it.

[00:11:40] However, if I know for sure the ball was out, even if they're newer, I'm not a big fan of playing it because it was close enough. For me, it's just like, if it was questionable, if it was in or out, I definitely count it as if it was in. But I am not a big fan of playing it, even if I know it was out, but it was super close. Like even in rec play? Yeah. Like, to me, I would rather, I don't know, I think it's a bad habit for people to get into,

[00:12:08] like if they're ever going to do tournaments to keep playing a ball, even if it's out, because they might not call it out during a tournament when they should have. That's just me. I mean, maybe I'm just being weird about it, but I don't know. I just, I'm not a big fan of, uh, of playing it. If I know a ball was out. A lot of times what I'll do in that situation is if I can return the ball, if I can get to the ball, even if it's out, I'll typically do that. And if it's blatantly out, I'll actually do that and then say, let's play it. Let's play it.

[00:12:36] Like I'll repeat that a couple of times just to kind of keep the rally going. Because for me, I agree with you. I don't think that we should be in the habit of playing out balls all the time. But at the same point, typically when you're playing with lower level people, it's hard to get a good rally going. And so if you know that you can keep that ball in play, I'll almost always just roll with it. And if it's blatantly out to where you could see, they might like call it out on themselves. I'll just say, let's play, let's play. And, and, you know, keep it going.

[00:13:05] So last piece of advice, and it's actually going to start off with a question for you. So when you were starting off, did you understand that if your opponent across from your partner ripped a hard forehand winner right at their feet and they didn't get it back because you popped the ball up, that that wasn't their fault? Like, did, did, did you get that right away? Or did that take a little bit for you? I feel like I, I got that pretty quickly.

[00:13:32] Um, but I've definitely played with people that didn't get that for a long time. Well, I'm starting to experience that a little bit where the, the, the way that we play at Naples pong when we have, cause it's just one court. If there's like 10 people, you basically, everybody like four people are on the court playing. And then if you screw up, you leave and the next person comes into your place. So every point somebody's leaving and coming in. Right.

[00:13:57] And I've had a hard time in my head wrapping around, like what should quantify screwing up? Because if I'm playing with someone that's low level and they're in mid court and they're just lobbing a ball up at, you know, my opponent right across from me and they rip a winner at me. Whose fault is that? Definitely the person who lobbed the ball up. Right. But they're not understanding that and they don't get that. So my question for you is when you're playing with these lower level players and they do pop

[00:14:25] the ball up, do you typically rip a winner from it? Do you just hit it softly back to them? And I'm kind of trying to figure out where you stand on that and why you would choose what to do in that situation. Yeah, that, that totally depends on my opponents. If, if both the opponents are newer, I won't rip it super hard at them. Unless they keep doing it. Like if I, if I pointed out to them at some point, like, Hey, just so you know, like you

[00:14:52] want to avoid that as much as you can, because your opponent is just going to crush the ball at you. And if they, if I say something like that and they continue to do it, that's when I'll be like, okay, maybe they need to learn from example. Then I'll smash it at them. But for the most part, if I know they're newer, I'll take it easy. If I don't know they're newer though, I'm probably going to instinctively smash the ball at them. I, I'm kind of with you, but I don't even give them an opportunity to see if they understand or not.

[00:15:19] I think that in those situations, you're doing your opponents a disservice. If you don't, if you don't show how bad of a shot that is. Right. Yeah. And so I will rip, I'm not going to rip them hard. I'm talking like 50%, you know, kind of smack at their feet, make sure I don't hit them with it. Uh, but I will punish them for it. And I think that the reason I do that is because they don't see it there. They're when they're playing their style of play, they don't get punished by those shots. So they don't change it. They don't understand why you wouldn't hit that shot.

[00:15:48] And so I think by kind of speeding those balls up back at them, quote unquote, punishing them. Right. I think that that's going to help reinforce like why that's such a bad shot and why they need to learn how to hit a drop shop or, you know, figure out like different places to, to, to play the ball against their opponents. So that's it. That's my topic. Any other advice that you have for, for people that are looking to maybe play with some lower level people or someone who wants to be invited to play with higher level people?

[00:16:19] Not too much. Really. All I would say is just be receptive of advice that people do give you. Like, um, I know sometimes people might come across as being kind of a douchey when they say like, oh, you should do this or you did this wrong and stuff like that. But try to listen to what they're saying and work on it. And if you're receptive to things like that, I do think that'll help you get accepted into the higher level groups much quicker. Um, if you just always get defensive and be like, oh, well, I scored the points.

[00:16:46] You were the one that messed up after I popped the ball up that you didn't return that ball back and stuff like that. If you're, if you're that style of person, like you're probably not going to get invited. By the really high level players. Yeah. I can never imagine being like, I popped the ball up and it got ripped at somebody's feet. They're like, well, you're, you didn't get it when it was ripped at your feet. Like that was, that was your mistake. Not mine. Could you imagine that? You didn't get the ball back. I got the ball back. It was a huge, like I popped it up and it was a perfect pop-up. Yeah.

[00:17:15] Like I popped it up exactly where I wanted it to go. You're the one that screwed up. You're right. Right. I have played with people though, that like, it's basically they're lobbing almost every shot and it's like, they're back at the baseline. I've ranted about this before though. Like lobbing from the baseline is one of my least favorite things anybody ever does ever because it's such a low percentage thing and you have to be so perfect for it to actually work out properly. And you're just setting your team up for failure.

[00:17:40] But yeah, I just, I can't stand when people just lob after lob after lob. And the funny thing is they think they're doing good because they got the ball over. Yeah. And I mean, at the end of the day, if you get the ball over the net more times than your opponent gets the ball over the net, you win. But that's what I'm talking about is that it's focusing on your style of play rather than necessarily how successful you are at your level with your bad shot selection. Yeah. No, that was good though. I think that was a very good topic. I think people could get some value out of this.

[00:18:10] Hopefully. Let me know guys. Do you have a differing opinion? Do you agree with us? Let us know down in the comments below. We'd love to hear. And Webby, time for your topic, isn't it? It is. And as most people probably know by now, I typically like to focus on the more fun and positive side of pickleball. Oh, really? I'm not one of the types. Yes, Catherine, really. I'm not one of those types that likes to focus on drama all the time. Except for on today's episode, I think I am going to get a few things off my chest.

[00:18:40] And maybe do a couple of little rants here that have been weighing on my mind. Webby, how much have you had to drink yet? I want to know the level of rant that we're about to get. Got this much left, so I drink a decent amount. Let me take a couple more big sips. Yeah. Webby rant. Webby rant. I love when Webby rants. I think it's great. Webby rant. So I have two things I want to bring up. For the first one, this goes back to the episode before our three-month hiatus.

[00:19:10] Oh, back in June. Yeah. We like continuity on this podcast. We like to tell a story, even if it's a long-term story. But anyways, so we were talking about pickleball movies. And one of the movies that we had high hopes for at first, but the trailer kind of knocked it down quite a bit to where we had kind of low expectations was The Dink.

[00:19:35] That was the movie that Ben Stiller produced, and it had Jake Johnson and Mary Steenburgen starring in the movie. We saw a trailer that we didn't love, and it made us a bit nervous. But over the summer, I did get a chance to see the movie. And I actually thought it was really funny. I was thoroughly entertained by it. I saw it with my wife and my daughter. They both thought it was hilarious. They really enjoyed it a lot.

[00:20:01] And I want to play a clip of somebody who is a longtime friend of ours. He also has a pickleball podcast that I am a big fan of. And that is our good friend, Gucci Zane Navratil. Does anybody still call him Gucci Zane? I feel like I haven't heard that in a long time. I haven't heard that in a long time. And I've run into him a few times over the last few years. And I think I'm the last one to call him that. And he probably is like, shut up, Eddie. Like, we're not that close. Like, why are you calling me Gucci? But whatever.

[00:20:30] So Zane posted something on Instagram talking about his thoughts on the movie. So I'd like to go ahead and play that right now. Dink is a bad movie if you like pickleball. But even worse if you like comedy. Pickball's first mainstream movie hits select theaters and Apple TV today. The trailer didn't look promising at all. But it was produced by Ben Stiller. So there's a small part of me, very small part of me, holding out hope for another dodgeball. There's so much opportunity for poking fun at pickleball players.

[00:20:59] So I went into the theater ready to have a laugh at myself and at pickleball. Unfortunately, I also left the theater ready to have that laugh. The best part of the movie was stacking popcorn on AJ's head while he fell asleep. And we desperately searched for ways to stay entertained until the movie finally ended. The dink had a couple moments. And I guess if there's a bright side, it's that pickleball is big enough to have crappy rom-coms made about it.

[00:21:28] So anyway, send this to your pickleball group and subscribe for more movie reviews. Okay. Honestly, I thought his review was very unnecessarily harsh. And I almost think that he wasn't paying attention to the movie. And he, I don't know, for whatever reason, wasn't focused on watching it. And just wanted to come up with an outrageous post for social media to maybe possibly rage bait people.

[00:21:56] I mean, maybe he legitimately felt that way about the movie. But honestly, everybody that I've talked to so far thought it was a really funny movie. Now, don't get me wrong. It's not a great movie. It's not the most funny movie I've ever seen. But for what it is, I thought it was very funny. It was a rom-com, like he said. It was actually a bit edgier than I thought. I thought it was going to be more of like a PG or PG-13. It was a PG-13. But there were some edgier moments than I expected that it would have.

[00:22:24] And there were some legitimate laugh out loud moments. And even my daughter that doesn't play pickleball and has no interest in pickleball at all, she watched it. And she thought it was really funny. Her and her boyfriend, neither of them play pickleball. They thought it was funny. So that's four people in my household. We all thought it was really funny. So I'm just, it surprises me that he was so harsh about the movie and said like, it's a bad movie if you like pickleball. And even worse, if you like comedy.

[00:22:51] Like, that just seemed like such a harsh review for a movie that I thought was actually really funny. And almost everybody I've talked to thought the same. So it just makes me wonder, do you think Zane is just a little butthurt at the fact that this mainstream movie is ripping on pickleball? Because I mean, it wasn't nonstop ripping pickleball. Basically, all the tennis players in the movie like really ripped on pickleball badly. But that's realistic. That's how life is.

[00:23:18] I mean, most tennis players that I know, they despise pickleball with a passion without ever even playing it. And then usually once they play it, then they start liking it. But I mean, I don't know. To me, it was hilarious. I thought when they ripped on pickleball, it was funny and legitimate things that people that don't like pickleball say about it. I don't know. What are your thoughts after hearing that? I know you said you haven't seen the movie yet, right? No, I haven't seen the movie yet.

[00:23:43] And I think that that's kind of an indication of the fact that I don't have big expectations for it either. I think that from the outside, pickleball is seen one way that is so different than when you're on the inside. And unless you're on the inside and you're experiencing the culture, you're experiencing the community, you understand the pros, you understand the game, you know the history. You're probably not going to represent it properly in a movie.

[00:24:13] And as much as I agree with you that I think you've done a good job of setting the expectation for me for what I'm going to experience when I go into it, it just seems to me like because pickleball players are so obsessed with pickleball that if you have a movie about pickleball, you better do a damn good job of capturing what it really is like. Where if this was a movie about, I don't know, cornhole, I'm not in the cornhole community, so I could probably find it funnier because I'm not in that community.

[00:24:42] But because we're in the pickleball community, I think we're probably a little bit more skeptical of what is being said about it, what is being portrayed about it. I don't think it's sensitive. I think it's just a little bit more skeptical of like, yeah, that's not really how things are or that's not how it's perceived from my experience. And if the movie is trying to make it funny about a perception that in your world doesn't exist, I could see it being like, yeah, I don't think it was funny. I think it was stupid.

[00:25:11] And honestly, to me, the worst scene in the entire movie was the scene that was in the trailer that they released. Do you remember we were joking around like, oh, maybe they said, let's show the worst part of the movie. And then when they watch the movie, they'll be surprised because we actually have good stuff in the movie. I actually think that's what they did. So they took the dumbest scene because it was like stuff about that. Like people don't actually do when they play pickleball. Like there was an old lady who hits the ball and she's like, dink, like as she hits the ball.

[00:25:40] Like nobody does that when they're hitting the ball. And just certain things like that. Like seriously, what they showed in that extended scene trailer was the worst part of the whole movie to me. Everything else I thought was funny. And that to me, I think kind of speaks volumes to perhaps my skepticism of the movie and maybe what Zane was kind of conveying. But I mean, for him to say that if you like comedy, it's a horrible movie. Like, I don't know.

[00:26:06] That just seems so outrageous to me because there was a lot of very funny moments. And to me, like when that clip of him with putting popcorn on people's hats and stuff like that, to me, that just looked like so childish and like something that we would have done like in high school or something when we were somewhere we didn't want to be and just weren't actually paying attention from the beginning. So I don't know. To me, it just came across as somebody who really wasn't there to try to enjoy the movie and was just there.

[00:26:36] I got the impression he felt like he had to be there and didn't want to be there and didn't pay attention and didn't even give it a fair shot. That's just me. I mean, maybe that's not what happened. That's the impression I got. Clean it up, Zane. Come on. Do better. Do better. But for your homework for the next episode, Eddie, I want you to watch the dink and see what you think of the movie. See if you think more like what I said about it or if you lean more towards Zane.

[00:27:03] Do you think that's a realistic expectation for the next episode? Probably not by the next episode, but the next time I'm on a flight, which is end of October, I'll download it to my iPad and I'll watch it on the flight. But yes, I definitely do want to watch it. Even if Zane is right, I still want to experience it. And then everybody tuning in, let us know what you thought of the movie. Did you think it was horrible and a slap in the face to anybody who likes comedy like Zane said?

[00:27:28] I mean, he didn't say those words, but that's the kind of like what he was kind of getting at. Or were you like me? You didn't think it was the best movie ever, but it had a lot of really funny moments and it was very entertaining. Let us know down in the comments what you thought. Yes, please do. But that's not the only thing I want to get off my chest. This thing actually bothers me way more than the whole Zane movie critique thing.

[00:27:54] This is something that I have heard has happened a lot with a certain big social media pickleball company or whatever you want to call it. I'll just flat out say it. The Kitchen, The Kitchen Pickleball on Facebook and Instagram and all those things. I mean, there's no doubt about it. They're the biggest social media pickleball platform out there.

[00:28:20] They do post a lot of great content, but I have always heard that they steal other people's content and make it seem like it's their own. And we kind of had a little taste of that recently. The video that we featured in the previous episode, the then and now of Annalee Waters doing the rap from Pickleball for Life, the song that we released back in 2019. We did a video of her singing the rap in 2019.

[00:28:47] Then fast forwarding to 2026, there is an updated version of her doing the rap. It was very fun, cool little look at then and now. And we got a message from The Kitchen on Instagram and they said, hey, would you be cool with us posting it? We'll tag you, of course. So I said, we'd be cool with that as long as you just say somewhere in your post that the video came from our Pickleball for Life music video. Reasonable, right? Yeah. And the video that we posted, it has that text on the screen.

[00:29:17] Like it says from Pickleball for Life by Eddie and Webby, 2019, blah, blah, blah. And they responded and said, sounds good. And then they posted it and they did tag us. Like I got an alert that we got tagged. And then I go to watch the video on their post and nowhere in the post does it mention us or anything about the music video. And honestly, I had to click around to even see the tag.

[00:29:46] It wasn't like because other people have also posted it almost as if it was their own. But they did a shout out to us just to show that it came from us. So, I mean, it would have been cool if they asked for permission, but they did tag us to where people could click on it. It'll go to our account. It's visible like that. They gave us photo credit or video credit and stuff like that. But The Kitchen didn't even do that. Like they you have to click on a certain spot to see who's tagged. And then it shows us. But that's not even what bothers me the most because I want you to see what we posted.

[00:30:16] And then I want you to show what they posted and see if you notice anything. So here's the version that we posted on Instagram. This is Anna Lee and I'm a pickleball junkie. The addiction is real, yo. And that ain't funny. I tear it up on the court. Yeah, I'm courageous and bold. So there was the titling at the top and the bottom showing where the video came from. So let's go to the kitchen where they posted it. See if you notice anything.

[00:30:43] This is Anna Lee and I'm a pickleball junkie. Okay, you can stop it there. So what do you notice? The text is gone giving us all the credit. Talking about where the video is linked to. So I want to retrace the steps again just to make sure that I'm totally clear. We post this video, which is an incredible video. And I'm so grateful that we had the opportunity to do this with Anna Lee Waters back in 2019 and again in 2026.

[00:31:11] The kitchen reaches out to you, asks if they can share the content. You say, absolutely. Just please have them reference Eddie Webby and link to the original music video from 2019. Is that right? Yep. So they agreed to it. They said, sounds good. Sounds good. And this is what they post. And that's what they post. They removed the text that we already had on the video. All they had to do was post to the video. And they actually, they took our video and physically removed.

[00:31:41] They took the effort to remove the text that I already had on the video, which is basically all I wanted them to do is just make sure that the credit was given to the source of the video. And that's what they did. Can you believe it? Well, okay. Here's the thing. I can believe it. But I also think this is BS. And look, the kitchen has had a reputation of doing stuff like this in the past.

[00:32:07] We've had our differences with them on a couple issues that we've talked about publicly. But I got to tell you, Webby, this is the straw that broke the camel's back for me simply because they agreed to it. And then they went back completely on their word. So what do we do? Can we ask them to remove this now? Can we reach out to Instagram and state that this was stolen content? They didn't follow through on their commitments? What can we do at this point? I briefly brought this up in the previous episode. And you said, let's name names.

[00:32:37] Who did this? And I was like, you know what? This is still fresh. Let's give them a couple weeks. So after I realized what they did, I responded to them and I said, we got alerted about getting tagged. But I don't see any indication that we made the video or any mention of the music video on the post. In fact, I see you actually altered the video to take away the part that says the video is from our Pickleball for Life music video. Unreal. So you know I'm not happy if I say unreal.

[00:33:07] But yeah, so I made it clear, like not super happy about them not doing what they said they were going to do. And two weeks has gone by and they haven't even acknowledged that I was not happy about what they did. So here we are. And I don't feel bad about bringing it up during the show now. Yeah, I mean, look, this is running rampant. And we're in the Pickleball space. So that's the only place that I see this.

[00:33:35] But this isn't the first time we've run into basically having our stuff ripped off or claimed as its own, right? We had our freaking podcast name ripped off by the guy who is running Proton and had to almost freaking sue him in order to stop using it. And that was a disastrous conversation. And I realized that he's a turd, man. He's just not a good guy. We had the issue with the PPA where they claimed, what, 200 copyright strikes on our content.

[00:34:04] And thousands of other people or thousands of other claims went across to other content creators where the PPA was claiming that stuff that aired on our, the Eddie Webby commercial on our YouTube channel, they were claiming was their content that we had to spend all that time unwinding. And then this. And then this. So look, I don't know if this is just how it is across all social media.

[00:34:30] And just because we're in the Pickleball space, this is what's most prevalent to us. But it does seem like there's some kind of just shady crap going on here. And it sucks. And it really sucks. Because we work really hard at the content we put out there. You especially work hard at editing these videos, coming up with the songs. I can't even imagine how many hours you had into the original music video there. And then for it just to be taken as your own content, come on. Get out of here, guys. That's literally theft.

[00:34:59] That's when it hurts the most is when that much work gets put into it and then somebody tries to post it as their own. Look. The Kitchen. Do better. Do better. I could see them being like, but bro, we tagged you. But it doesn't do anything. It doesn't tell anybody that we made the content. All it could be doing is like, hey, Eddie and Webby, check this out. Maybe you're showing it to us to feature on an upcoming segment of Memes of the Week or something.

[00:35:26] That'd be like you and I making an agreement like, all right, I'm going to give you 50 bucks and you clean the house, right? And you say, okay. And I give you the 50 bucks and then I come home and you cleaned up the kitchen and forgot the entire rest of the house. You're like, but I cleaned the kitchen. It's like, doesn't matter. You didn't follow through on what you agreed on. Otherwise, we wouldn't have given you the 50 bucks. Just like in this situation, we wouldn't have given you the permission if we would have known that you were going to basically completely cut us out of it. Yeah. Pretty crummy if you ask me. What do you guys think?

[00:35:54] Do you think we're blowing this out of proportion or do you think this is just absolutely horrible and absolutely wrong on the part of the kitchen? And should we try to do something about it? I don't know. Let us know. Write down in those comments below. Webby, I love it when you rant. I absolutely love it. I think it's good. Been a while since I was fired up enough to rant during the podcast. It's funny too because the stuff that fires you up, I love it. I think it's great. And, you know.

[00:36:21] Watch this all end up being something that Eddie motivated them to do just to get me fired up for the podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Jared Paul. You and I. I got. I'll send you your money pretty soon here. Two first names. Pick a name. You get one first name, not two. Come on. Oh, man. But yeah. That's my topic for the week. Well, Webby, that was a great topic. And this has been a great episode. And guys, if you like this content, please give it a like.

[00:36:50] Please consider subscribing if you haven't already. We're not just on YouTube. Our podcast is available where you can get all of your podcasts. So check us out there. But we have a lot of good video content on YouTube as well. And we encourage you to check that out if you haven't already. And we like comments. We like conversations. Throw it down in the comments below here and take a dip in the comments. We'll have some good conversations. That's right. We also have a lot of good training videos, too.

[00:37:16] People might think that we're all just about fun and games and music and wacky things. But no, we've actually had some really good training videos over the years. So check those out. Just look at our playlists. We have so many different types of playlists. There's sure to be something for everybody. That's right. If you love pickleball, then you love Eddie and Webby. And on that note, I'm Eddie. And until next time, this is Webby, not Eddie. Signing off. See ya.

[00:37:46] We're dinking around with Eddie and Webby. Dinking around with Eddie and Webby tonight. Oh, yeah.