Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Big changes in pickleball this week.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: What do you mean?
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Well, Duper has announced another algorithm.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: No way.
[00:00:13] Speaker A: Proving that they are not. But we are.
That's right, Sky. We're ahead of the game. But doggone freaking Duper's not. However, it looks like what they've done is, I think, better than where they've been.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: I actually did read about this today, and it seemed like there was mixed messages.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: Teach me.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: I don't know if I can.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: What'd you pick up?
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Okay, so I think that they're gonna have to spell it out a little better for me, but from what I understand, this is going to be similar to what I've heard about before when it comes to playing based on the algorithm's expectations of how you should perform.
[00:01:08] Speaker A: Instead of just winning and losing, you mean?
[00:01:11] Speaker B: Yes. So instead of winning and losing, the algorithm, I guess this mythical creature, that's what they call it, decides how you should win or lose compared to somebody or another team, and their average score.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: Okay, let me add to that some clarity, please. The algorithm says, sky, you and Kevin are playing against Paul and Cheryl. You should lose 11 to 8.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: If we lose 11 to 4, we lose worse than expected.
Our Duper probably goes down. Paul and Strolls probably goes up.
If we lose 11 to 9, theirs might lightly drop because they were supposed to win 11, 8. And ours might lightly go up because we were supposed to lose 11, 8.
If we beat them, ours should go up much more. And theirs should go down much more. But it used to be if you won a game you were supposed to win, then I guess, congratulations, you aren't going to go down, you're going to go up. And if you lose a game you're supposed to lose, congratulations, you're going to go down because you were supposed to lose, which is the stupidest way to do an algorithm, because if you're a 3.5 playing a 4.0, you're supposed to lose every game.
[00:02:31] Speaker B: That would be what I would expect.
[00:02:33] Speaker A: Yeah, but sometimes you played 10 games in a row and now you're a 3.2 instead of a 3.5 just because you got beat by a 4.02 times in a row.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: Well, how do we know how fast it's going to go up? And my other question is, will there be a floor?
[00:02:48] Speaker A: I have begged for floors and ceilings, but Duper doesn't care about me or who I am.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: I know they probably don't listen to our podcast.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: They should. Duper, you're still in the pooper.
Let's move on. You and I, we missed last week. We're sorry, everybody.
[00:03:09] Speaker B: Yeah. But we're traveling. And guess what? We have visited over 35 different pickleball facilities or sets of courts in the.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: Last 30 days, and we've already driven 5,800 miles.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: There are so many different types of courts and facilities out there. We're not going to dive into all of them. But it's been a lot of fun, I have to say.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: Yeah, we've been on the road together a lot, and we don't hate each other.
[00:03:40] Speaker B: We've had moments, but most of it has been a lot of fun.
And I was thinking today that we only played on three or four of the courts that we visited. And this trip would have been a lot longer if we had tried to play on every court.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: And I'd be a lot more sore. Here's the thing. We didn't have enough time.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: We didn't.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: We really had. We would drive to a city, we would hit as many places as we could, five or six places. We'd crash for the night in some weird bed at some hotel, and we get up the next morning early and drive to the next city. I mean, 5,800 miles. We're going to be on the road a total of 22 days.
So we're averaging 260 miles a day, something like that.
The thing is, some of those days were spent in one place. So for instance, we're going to be in Beer City Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We were in Denver for a couple of days. We were in Oklahoma City for a couple of days. We were in Branson, Missouri for a couple of days. So if you really look at the days that we drove, we probably averaged closer to 450, 500 miles per day.
[00:04:41] Speaker B: We also figured out that our favorite pillow is something we'd never heard of before, thanks to all of our hotel stays. More on that later.
[00:04:49] Speaker A: I mean, more on it now. What the heck?
We rolled over in the morning in. Where were we?
[00:04:55] Speaker B: I don't even know.
[00:04:56] Speaker A: I feel like we were in Amarillo and I was like, man, that was a good night's sleep for a change. Because the hotel beds are depending on the chain, but they've been upgrading them a lot lately. And they kind of have this millennial slash Gen Z target, which is this thin, hard, but it looks like it came from Ikea or what, you know, some kitschy place type mattress.
And the pillows always suck at hotels. Let's be honest. Unless you love a feather pillow that you can smash into A tiny little marshmallow. Like, the pillows just suck.
Well, that morning we woke up and I was like, man, this pillow was great. That was a great night's sleep. And you said it was. I want you to take a picture of this pillow. Maybe they sell them downstairs.
I was like, well, we can check. So I took a picture of the pillow. They did not sell them at the hotel. But great news. Walmart's delivering it to our house before we get home.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: I feel like we've been at a hotel before where they actually sold the pillows. Was that the Conrad?
[00:05:48] Speaker A: Yeah, a couple of fancier places. Conrad.
Some of the International Hotel Group hotels and a few others, but not the Homewood Suites or whatever.
Whatever Hilton brand we were staying at. We're Hilton snobs. I'm a lifetime member. So we've been at Hilton brands the whole way. But, like, Tru and Home, too. They're just too new. They're too. They're too not my style. I want an omelette in the morning. I don't want a little goodie bag with an apple and a granola bar. Right. That's just not who I am.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: So we know you're a foodie.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Yep.
All right, so here's what we have found. I think we should talk about what.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: We found, if you want.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: We have found some amazing places to hold tournaments.
We've also just met some incredibly cool people. So I'm going to share one story. Do you have any stories you want to share?
[00:06:39] Speaker B: No. Share yours.
[00:06:40] Speaker A: So we're sitting in Amarillo, and Sky has gone in to talk to the people that own this Tennyson pickleball facility.
So I'm sitting in the car waiting for her to come out. I'm working on some emails, and I see two little lovely old ladies come out towards their car, which I'm parked right next to. But there's only like four or five cars in the whole parking lot, which is huge. And. And the two of our cars are the only ones kind of in that area. I'm not parked by anybody else.
I parked there for the shade. Just so we're crystal clear.
They come walking, and they're coming between our two cars. I roll down the window and I go, hey, ladies. And then one in the back turns around and just starts to walk away. She's definitely like, who is this dude that's saying, hey, ladies, here in the parking lot by ourselves. And it was daytime, so whatever. I appreciate her concern in her taking care of herself. The other lady's like, hey, And I'm like, can I ask you a question? So I ask him a question. She answers my question. I go, thank you so much. I tell her where you are. I roll the window back up. I'm not opening the door. I'm clearly not a threat. She goes back to the back of her car and I jump back onto my emails. I'm answering emails and all of a sudden I feel this, like, presence to the left of me. And I look to my left and through the window, like she's right by the window holding a huge zucchini. I look up, she scared me too. So I opened the window and she goes, you want a zucchini?
Yeah, I want a zucchini. So, man, I love pickleball. People everywhere. And don't they call her the mother of pickleball?
[00:08:07] Speaker B: I think they call her the mama of pickleball.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: Yeah. So the mama of pickleball gave us a zucchini that I think my sister probably turned into some amazing zucchini bread. We didn't have time to hang around and find out.
I gotta tell you though, and this is the coolest thing, this again, nothing to do with the tournament stuff. I will just tell you right now that, well, it has to do with tournament stuff, but not PB time.
We found that. And this is no joke when we say we're ahead of the game.
Indiana, folks, we're on the map for tournaments. We are advanced in terms of the tournaments we have the numbers of players in them, etc.
[00:08:44] Speaker B: Number of courts.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: I, I honestly, the only other state I think this is, correct me if I'm wrong, the only other state I can recall. And we hit Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: Did you say Nebraska?
[00:09:04] Speaker A: I did. So we hit eight states. We're gonna hit our ninth state, I kid you not. Other than Bear City Open, which is coming up, there was only one other state that had a tournament that had 450 players in it.
We've had three plus tournaments with 450 players thanks to Shannon's work and our work at Hunger Games and Frey Fracas. So these guys were like, hey, we run big tournaments here. We're like, oh, like, help us understand what that means. Oh, 200, 250 people. We're like, okay. Then they would be like, we'd be like, yeah, that's a good tournament. They'd say, well, what's your tournament size? We'd be like, well, the smallest has been 400 plus registrants. They're like, what?
Like it Literally is blowing them away.
But I'm gonna tell you why we're somewhat spoiled.
We have multiple locations with 10 plus indoor courts.
Four of those places come to mind on the north side of Indy right now, dedicated pickleball courts.
24, 7. Third shot. I don't even know how many Pickle and Pen has both.
You know, both Picklers, folks. We found very few places with more than eight courts indoors in any given city. Here's some exceptions. St. Louis, a lot of courts. They have a place with 25 indoor. Another place with 15 or 16. We didn't get to see that one. So St. Louis, good job.
Colorado Springs, shocker. One place, 25 courts. Outside of that, I don't remember any of them being over 8.
[00:10:33] Speaker B: Third shot is adding a facility in Colorado that will have 16.
[00:10:39] Speaker A: Okay. That'll be the only one besides the springs. I think that's over 10. There might have been a place with 12, but it was really.
The nets were droopy, the lighting was bad, there was air conditioners hanging down. Whatever. Just.
[00:10:51] Speaker B: It was a.
No, it was a good place. And we've covered that already.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: Yeah. But anyway. Oh, that other place with the big fan, that was good. But. But not many. And so we're really ahead of the game here in Indiana. It's really awesome. So props to our city for our state, for rocking it on tournaments.
What else did you pick up on the road that our friends in the pickleball world might want to hear?
[00:11:13] Speaker B: Well, we've covered this before when we've talked about pickleball facilities being built. And one of the things that we've seen all over the country is that pickleball entrepreneurs are taking old buildings, whether it's a mall or if it is a box store like Home Depot. And they are adding a pickleball facility to that location, which I love, because it's taking something unused.
They don't have to create it from scratch. And then they make something better out of it. And that helps the entire community, even those who do not play pickleball.
[00:11:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I love that. And I think there's plenty of that available.
You know, there's empty. Empty buildings all over the freaking place.
Some of those that meant that polls were in bad spots, but honestly, I think people are starting to figure it out and doing a better job.
I think that in the newer facilities we saw, we saw less of those mistakes.
You agree with that?
[00:12:11] Speaker B: I do, I do.
And speaking of being spoiled, we heard, I think today that Pendleton is building outdoor courts. Pendleton, Indiana.
[00:12:22] Speaker A: They are. If you did not hear. We're getting unspoiled because chicken and pickle is not going into Fishers after all.
Honestly, they just started too late because once you got those other people that we mentioned in place, like, that's a lot of competition. And they're all good, dedicated courts, so we kind of lose there, which is a bit of a drag. I would have loved to have had chicken and pickle, but, you know, bigger opportunity for existing local companies, which is kind of cool.
Pendleton. So they're putting in six outdoor courts. At least we currently think it's six outdoor courts.
I saw a post on it today on Facebook. I jumped all over it and said, hey, I'd love to meet with you guys. And they were so cool and said, yeah, we'll meet with you guys. So I meet with them on Tuesday next week, which is.
Well, I don't know what the deal is. It's the 15th.
So just to kind of put a time frame on it. July 15th.
And they've been very open in our conversations and eager to hear what suggestions I have for them are. And truthfully, folks, I know I'm not the king of this, but I gotta tell you, like, I know not to put benches in the wrong place. I know not to put light poles in the wrong place. I know to go north and south. I know about fencing. I know about soundproofing. So, like, I'm not gonna control the court surface. I'll do my best to help control the court dimensions, But I think I can make some inward in ways. In ways.
Inroads. Inroads. I think I make some inroads with some of the other areas. So we'll do whatever we can. I promise Pendleton to try and get you the best possible outdoor courts we can.
Speaking of outdoor courts, man, do I love to play outside.
We played in a friend's backyard in Kansas City.
Single most dangerous place I've ever played pickleball. Yet if you were over a foot outside the line on one end of the court, you are going over. I can't call it a cliff, but a pretty steep hill that you have to, like, walk slowly down to make sure you don't fall on your way down.
Probably about a 9 to 10 foot drop.
So balls went over the edge. Of course, as much as you can imagine, they went over the edge. I did not.
On the back end of the court was like a cement lip, like a big curb, like a tall curb, 8 or 10 inches that you had to step over. If you're going backwards to make sure. You didn't get tripped and fall out the back.
You would have, you know, smacked your head on a, on a shed or on the ground. You would have been probably okay, but. And then on the other side, there was a big like stone wall all the way around it. So literally the scariest place I've ever played pickleball. And to top it all off, it rained.
So we're, we're doing all this in the rain and on the wet court and at some point I'm like, I am just done.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: But tell them who you played with.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: I played with my buddy Chris, who apparently made a bet with the other team that we would beat them and if we didn't, that we would get our butts smacked with the paddles. But if we beat them, we could smack their butts with the paddles. Well, first of all, I want you to know I don't have a desire to smack any other guy's butt for any reason.
I mean, I might do it as a natural reaction from high school and it's like, good play and you smack them, like backhand him or something. But even then I'm like, that was no fun. So I did not lose.
I made sure that we did not lose, so we don't have to do that. But the guy who's, whose property it is, his house.
Just gorgeous. And just an amazingly generous, kind, really good hosted hostess, right? Good hospitality. He and his wife, they were just fantastic.
They fed us light hors d', oeuvres, but my gosh, it was deer sausage.
It was not bad at all. And then when we left, he sent us home with a deer sausage and some cheese. So the guy was just pretty cool. And then a friend of his as well joined in and the four of us went after it. And we were just guys being guys for an hour up there on a wet court, risking our lives and having a good time.
[00:16:13] Speaker B: And the amazing thing was that the gentleman who home, it was, it was only the third time he had ever played.
So you did have to, that's why we won.
You did have to give him some, you know, feedback on how to serve.
But again, just light hearted, great fun. And so when I asked him, you know, why did you build a core in your backyard? And he said, oh, for the kids.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: Such a great answer.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: And I loved that. I absolutely loved it.
[00:16:44] Speaker A: I will say publicly I took him as my partner the last two games to give the other guys a chance.
We won 12 to 11 9. So it's close. 12 to 119 is about as Close as you wanted to get, but I did not get my butt whooped.
[00:16:57] Speaker B: And then I left my purse there and our friends had to come deliver it to me.
So, again, pickleball people are incredibly generous.
[00:17:05] Speaker A: They are incredibly generous.
You know, we don't have much else to share with you. We're going to be at Beer City the next three days.
A bit of a drive tomorrow to get there. Six, seven hours of actual driving. Eight hours probably on the road.
But we'll. We'll try and put together a good report on what we see there, mlp and what we see at the actual event. It's. It's truly an awesome event.
Even outside that, even including probably the tournaments that I run. I think it's just my favorite tournament. Part of that might be that I'm not running it, but it's just an amazing atmosphere and it's electric, honestly.
So I know you've been before, and we're going in this year, so we're pretty stoked.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: We're very excited. It is going to be rainy for part of the weekend, so we're hopeful that everyone is safe and has a good time while they're playing at Beer City.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: Didn't we do an episode after Beer City last year talking about a business we were going to start?
[00:18:02] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: We have to go back and listen. I actually think we might have talked about starting a pickleball business at the end of Beer City last year because you were like, whoa, I get this now. This is really cool. I'm not sure it was a tournament business.
[00:18:14] Speaker B: It was probably this podcast, but we.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: Started the podcast in April of last year.
True.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: Well, we'll go back and listen. Hey, listen, thanks for being patient with us and allowing us to skip a week while we were on the road.
We truly love you all and appreciate you.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: Please, like, share and follow because.
[00:18:36] Speaker A: Well, because we want you to tell your friends that you're ahead of the game and so are we. That's backwards.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: We're ahead of the game, and so are you.
