Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: I do like the shirt, especially since it looks like the octopus is coming up from underneath your screen.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: It does kind of. Oh, yeah. That's kind of cool looking.
[00:00:09] Speaker C: What's up, guys?
[00:00:11] Speaker B: Hey, man. How are you?
[00:00:12] Speaker C: Good, man. I like the. I like the shirt. And sky talking to you. Nice to meet you in person or kind of in person.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: I think you might have been able to meet her in person at Beer City.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: Yes, I met you in person, but why would you remember that? That was a crazy time for you.
[00:00:30] Speaker C: Gotcha. Gotcha. Well, it's nice to see you again then, sky five.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: We're rocking it.
[00:00:37] Speaker C: Not a bad tournament for us. Hey, you know, if it's any consolation, we got the. We got to take one of the two titles, not the one.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: And you were so stinking close on this other one. Yeah.
[00:00:49] Speaker C: Oh, well, that's a good season. That's for sure.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: Really great season, bro. Thanks for jumping on here. I'm going to tee us up and get us going. I didn't send you any questions in advance. Cause that's my MO. I like that. Yeah, I think you. I. Based on what I see on your pod, I think you guys are similar. Right. Doesn't Thomas seem to do the work and you kind of get surprised sometimes?
[00:01:07] Speaker C: I get surprised sometimes, but I like to fly more by the seam of my pants. And I'm gonna make Murray shut up here for a second. Okay.
[00:01:16] Speaker B: I was gonna start with how the dogs and your lovely wife are, but let me. Let me get. Let me get us into a real groove here in a second. Thanks for joining. Seriously, brother, it's. This is pretty awesome for me.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: Like a bus. It's like a podcast. Dream come true. I told sky that story on the bus. Yeah. So we were in Dallas.
We were in Dallas, and I was meeting up with Zane because he had some signed battles for me.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: That was so nice of you as well. Thank you.
[00:01:41] Speaker B: Which, by the way, finally have value because I can start using them in my. In my tournaments in January.
[00:01:46] Speaker C: Here we go. Let's go.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: That the USAP is going to allow for assigned paddles to be used.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: Oh, really?
[00:01:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: I know there's not really a market for signed paddles by pickleball pros yet. I think there will be someday. But today there's no history to us.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: There will be.
[00:02:01] Speaker B: It's like, I can still get my own. I don't really need to buy yours, so give it 20 years, I think. All right. So anyway, I'm on the bus ride back to the parking lot because you have to shuttle. Remember, you went to the tournament with me?
[00:02:12] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: So we have to shuttle. I'm sitting in the front seat. It's almost closed. Some guy sticks his hand in at the last second to get on. He's the last guy on the bus and he's like, oh, perfect. And he sits right down with me at the front as we just start chatting. And I mentioned the pod and he's like, dude, I'll be. I'll be on your pod.
I have not stopped telling people about that.
[00:02:31] Speaker C: It was perfect too. Cause then we just went right over and like, we've been trying to coordinate getting. Getting you the paddle too. Yeah, no, it couldn't have worked better.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: Yeah, it worked out perfectly. All right, well, let me get you. Let me get you properly introduced. Sky. We have talked about having a special guest on this week. He is here with this. They've heard his voice, haven't really said his name. Some people know who this is just by his voice because he's really popular out there. I love that about you, Zane. Oh, wait, did I just give away some of the name? You did. Oh, well, here we go.
That's right. This is Kevin and Sky. We are here with Zane Navratil.
Zane, how the heck are you?
[00:03:15] Speaker C: Good, man. Enjoying a little bit of off season. We just had the. The final. I had my final event a couple weeks ago and then the final. Final event just happened this weekend. And yeah, I don't. I don't sit still particularly well. So I'm like, hey, let me come get on the. The Kevin and Sky podcast.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: Sweet lobs is what we call it. Neither one of us is really a lobber, but we just. My nickname for her is sweet love, so that's where it came from. Sweet love.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: I do like to lob.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:45] Speaker A: Strategically.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Are you not playing later this month in the.
[00:03:50] Speaker C: No, no, no. I had a bunch of people ask me to play Daytona because I feel like everybody's sort of scrambling for partners in that one.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:00] Speaker C: Respectfully, zero interest whatsoever in playing. I wanted, you know, a little bit of an off season and spend some time back home. We're actually going to be going to a Packers game. That so. Yeah.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: Back home in Wisconsin or near you?
[00:04:17] Speaker C: Yep, back home in Wisconsin. So we, Jenny and I take our two dogs and we drive all the way from Austin to Racine, Wisconsin, every Christmas and. And we wouldn't miss it. Get some family time back there.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: That's awesome. How is Jenny doing?
[00:04:33] Speaker C: She's great. She's Great. She's at work right now, so just me and the fur babies back here.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: Murray and Murray's adopted Arlo just fine.
[00:04:43] Speaker C: They're. They're getting there.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: His face.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: His face is like, Murray's the dude in. Arlo's the chick, and Arlo came later. So.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:54] Speaker C: They.
They play sometimes. Murray likes his space a little bit, too. So, yeah, he lets Arlo know when. When she's a little bit too much.
[00:05:03] Speaker B: Totally. Farazane and Jenny got married earlier this year. I don't know if you knew that.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: Oh, congratulations.
[00:05:08] Speaker C: Thanks.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: Huge congrats. About time you made an honest woman out of her.
[00:05:13] Speaker C: Yeah, well, we, like, we had been together for 10 years before we had actually gotten married. But it wasn't my fault. It was her fault because she competed in the Miss America organization, and in order to compete there, you have to be a miss. So everyone was like, zane, why aren't you putting a ring on it? I'm like, it's not my fault. I would have done it five years ago.
[00:05:32] Speaker B: So would it have if she'd have won? I mean, she was Miss Wisconsin, Right. So she'd won Miss America. Would that have delayed you longer, or would her run already have been done?
[00:05:41] Speaker C: I believe Miss America was, like, December of 2021 for her.
[00:05:48] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:05:48] Speaker C: And so her Miss America year would have run for. For one year from that period. So her. She gave up Miss Wisconsin title in June of 2021. Or maybe it was 2022, I believe. Yeah, it was 2022. And. And then.
So it would have delayed things only six months or so. In the grand scheme of things. We've been together now 11 years. It's.
[00:06:12] Speaker B: That's not horrible. Yeah, that's not horrible.
[00:06:15] Speaker A: How exciting.
[00:06:16] Speaker B: All right, well, there was a big tournament this weekend, and I wanted to jump in and get your opinion on this, but probably not the question you're expecting. Oh, no, this is not a trick question.
[00:06:24] Speaker A: Are you sure?
[00:06:25] Speaker B: I'll give him one later. Yeah.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:27] Speaker B: No, this is a good one. My guess is. And you didn't go. Is that right?
[00:06:32] Speaker C: I did not. Nope.
[00:06:33] Speaker B: I want to know what a pro thinks about the viewing experience when they're not at the tournament.
[00:06:37] Speaker C: Did you watch none of it.
[00:06:39] Speaker B: I know I watched.
[00:06:41] Speaker C: Okay, then. Our viewing experiences weren't the same. So, honestly, when I'm away from a tournament, I just get bits and pieces. I sort of stay up to date, but I'm not watching the ins and outs of of the matches. So the. I would say, like, the overall consumption experience was Somewhat, Somewhat difficult to follow even from somebody who kind of knows where to look. Right.
[00:07:06] Speaker B: Like, right.
[00:07:07] Speaker C: I was. Should I be looking at PPA's website for tweets?
You know, can I follow along in the brackets, I suppose? Instagram wasn't updated. The social media was, I think is normally the easiest way to find updates, but also wasn't like up to date, quite honestly. And Now I know pickleball.com did a really good job of following along, but that's a little bit more difficult if you're just on your phone scrolling and hey, who went won this match?
[00:07:35] Speaker B: And then there's what do I want to watch? Do I want the A game, the B game, the C game? You know, if I go to Pickleball TV I get one thing. If I go to YouTube I get another.
It's a little weird but what'd you think?
[00:07:46] Speaker C: How was, how was your experience watching Zane?
[00:07:49] Speaker B: This is my 50th experience of the exact same thing over and over again because I'm, I'm not at most tournaments like you are. Right. So it felt to me the same. It's disappointing, honestly. I think we would have 10 times the fans if we could do something more consistent with both the broadcasts like the video aspect of it and the. And the broadcasters aspect. And I'm not slamming. I love that you had. Wasn't it Fleming you had on recently?
[00:08:16] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:08:17] Speaker B: And you made him say that ridiculous phrase that ended up in purple Jesus.
[00:08:21] Speaker C: That's right. I think he ad libbed purple Jesus.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: He did. That's what you said. Yeah. No, he's real good. I just kind of wondered what it was like watching as a pro when you're not there.
[00:08:32] Speaker C: So yeah, honestly, like when I'm home, I'm, I'm home. I've, I've watched, I follow along. But I've watched enough pickleball. I really only watch kind of for work purposes. Like I was pretty glued to MLP Dallas because we were taking a look at who we were going to try and match up with, you know, what their strengths and weaknesses are, are. So like I, I view for specific purposes and not necessarily just to be entertained because, you know, I've got 10 years of watching, watching pickleball at this point too. So I've watched a lot.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: It's probably for your mental health too. It's nice to have a break.
[00:09:16] Speaker C: Yeah, 100% and yeah, yeah, definitely. It's nice to be. Nice to be.
Obviously I'm in it day in and day out and obviously I have A lot of work surrounding pickleball.
So when I'm. When I'm off, I'm. I'm off. So I'm not the per. The right person to comment necessarily on, like, what happened in one match or. Or another. But, like, big picture, you know, I'm very, very in the know.
[00:09:44] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
Well, you are an exciting player to watch. I have always loved watching you play. I'm going to tell the story real quick about how we met in person because it was.
It was one of the best ever in person meetings because it was unexpected. Here it is. Here's the short version. Yeah, totally. For me, of course. No, it's great for Zane. I'm sure.
[00:10:04] Speaker A: I'm sure he remembers every moment.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: So, Zane, I went backwards in our notes, my notes yesterday to figure out when the heck we actually met. It was around May 2020. It was on Facebook, I'm sure, some kind of chat, you know, whatever. And so we chatted a bit and then we had a, like hour, hour and a half long phone call where we just talked about business ideas with pickleball. Now, by the way, a bunch of those are already in place.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: Yay.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: All these wonderful ideas that we had, you know, four years ago.
So then a year later, it's May 2021, and we. He says he's going to be at the app Cincinnati. I'm going to be at the app Cincinnati. I'm like, I'll find you, bro. Like, no worries. Because I'm. I must speak candidly. I'm the not pro and he's the pro. So you don't tell the pro, like, hey, come find me.
[00:10:45] Speaker A: Right.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: I'm just being honest. Like, you know, it's kind of your job to do that when you're the person seeking out to speak to a pro.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: Makes sense.
[00:10:51] Speaker B: So I've looked for him. I'm looking for him. I'm looking for him. I haven't found him. I've walked around this, you know, the tent a couple times where the pros are all kind of hanging out.
[00:10:57] Speaker A: Stalking.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: Yeah, Yeah, a little bit. Because I want to say hi to him in person. I like the guy. I come around the corner behind the tent and I hear there he is. And I look up and Zane's staring at me and I'm like, that's pretty cool.
[00:11:06] Speaker A: That is so cool.
[00:11:07] Speaker B: I. I also met Sophie vandenbosch at that same event.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: Were you wearing a loud shirt?
[00:11:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, I always wear loud shirts.
I'm sure I was wearing a loud shirt. So the reason I wanted to tell a story is partially because, Zane, I think you've heard it before, but that was how I met you in person. And it was at that point in time to date the best but the best connection I made with the pro in person. But Kyle Yates one up to you.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: What?
[00:11:33] Speaker C: Let's hear it. Let's hear Kyle Yates one up in me.
[00:11:35] Speaker B: Okay, so. And it's a Beer City open, which makes everything better. I just. This does. Right back.
[00:11:41] Speaker A: Closest one.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: So I'm checking in at Bear City open at the hotel.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:11:45] Speaker B: I'm buzzing around the corner to hop into an elevator. It's shutting. I shove my hand on the door, it opens back up. I get on. Kyle Yates is standing in the elevator with his backpack that says Yates on it.
Oh, I don't recognize him. I look at him, I go, oh, I should know who you are, shouldn't I? He goes, yeah, yeah, you're Kevin Huff, right?
[00:12:02] Speaker A: What?
[00:12:03] Speaker B: I said, yeah, who are you?
He goes, kyle Yates. And I go, dude, I am so sorry. I said, I know I should recognize us. Little new the sport. I probably recognize Zayn and that's about it. Besides you and Zayn, maybe. Maybe a Ben Johnson at that point.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: Right, of course.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: And I go, how in the heck did you know my freaking name? He's like, oh, we checked in next to each other just a minute ago at the front desk. And it was like I was listening.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: Clever legend.
[00:12:29] Speaker C: What a legend.
[00:12:30] Speaker B: He is a legend.
[00:12:31] Speaker C: Kyle's, I think over in Denver now and he's traveling around the world doing, doing different clinics and get togethers and stuff. So he's, he's somebody who, I feel like he's done the PPA Australia and MLP Australia and whatnot. So he's really. I feel like playing pickleball to enjoy it now. There was definitely a time there where Kyle was like playing pickleball because he was one of the best and because he felt like he had to. It's nice to see him like back to enjoying pickleball and like, yeah, having a good time.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: I think if anyone enjoys their time out there as a pro, it seems to be you.
[00:13:11] Speaker C: Yeah, most of the time. Sometimes I get pretty pissed.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: Do you look forward to a time when it's more like what Kyle's doing now and you just kind of on the Zane tour nationwide and or worldwide and kicking it with people just playing pickleball.
[00:13:31] Speaker C: It's easy, I feel like, to look and wonder what pickleball is going to be like in a few years and where we will all be. But I was just sort of making a YouTube video for like 20, 24 year in review. And over the last few years, I. Over the last, like 12 months, looking back at everything that's happened this year, it really is like pickleballs. Like dog years. Seven years worth of stuff happens in a single year. And so, I mean, I always wonder, I always think about the future. But I feel like I'd be doing myself a huge injustice if I didn't take the time to appreciate like the crazy opportunities we have now. Whether it's interviewing Gary Vee or touring Wrigley Field playing pickleball in Central Park. Right.
[00:14:22] Speaker B: Like, weren't you there for the bell ringing at Wall Street?
[00:14:26] Speaker C: We did that a couple of years ago. Like, I mean, it's unbelievable. So, yeah, I mean, part of me wonders what it'll be like when.
When I can shed some of the negatives of praying playing pro pickleball. Right. Like being able to have more of a social life back at home. You know, being back at home with my wife and my dogs a little bit more. But at the same time, it'd be unfair to everybody who wants to be in this position and then unfair to my future self to not take every second of this and enjoy it.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: I love that mindset.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: Well, you've done a great job of marketing yourself. Oh, I'm in the camera. I have a little remote that I put my hand on. I didn't even notice.
[00:15:08] Speaker A: Something terrible with the buttons. Yeah, my hands.
[00:15:11] Speaker B: Back together, guys.
[00:15:12] Speaker C: Give me, give, give me.
[00:15:14] Speaker B: Do your thing.
[00:15:15] Speaker C: 30 seconds. Let me. I got something for you. I got something.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Oh, no.
Oh, here.
[00:15:24] Speaker A: We like puppies.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: Oh, yes.
[00:15:28] Speaker C: It's this kind of party.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: Oh, sky, you're being out now.
[00:15:34] Speaker C: No.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: What do you mean me? I think it's you.
[00:15:37] Speaker B: That is a fantastic shirt.
[00:15:40] Speaker C: Thank you. It is, it is. Tigers eating pizzas.
[00:15:44] Speaker B: You gotta fix it. Hey, you gotta fix your color.
[00:15:46] Speaker C: Zane, fix the collar. Oh, yeah, you're right. You're right.
[00:15:50] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: Tiger's eating pizza.
[00:15:53] Speaker A: Is there a story behind your shirt?
[00:15:56] Speaker C: A little bit. So every decade or so I get a new party shirt. I have a party shirt throughout college because I don't party very much.
But Jenny and I went to a concert at Red Rocks in Denver.
[00:16:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:11] Speaker C: And we needed a. We needed something to wear to like an EDM concert. And so we went shopping. We got matching, matching things. And it's pretty cool because this is like teal and kind of like a salmon and then hers Is like the same deal but like flipped. So, yeah, we went to a concert. We're rocking the matching pizza mashing.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: I freaking love it. You're going to get an octopus shirt soon, baby. Don't worry, I'll take care of you.
[00:16:39] Speaker C: Let's go.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:16:42] Speaker B: Well, you know, we jumped the gun a bit, but I'm going to say it now since he said he has something for us. We have something for you.
[00:16:47] Speaker A: Yes, we do.
[00:16:48] Speaker B: It's a thank you for being on the podcast.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: What we need to know is what's your favorite kind of like Tumblr? Are you a Yeti guy? Are you a different brand? What you do you have one with a bunch of lids laying around at home. You need to, you need to find a home for.
[00:17:00] Speaker C: You know, I feel like I have to say yeti because we're here in Austin and it's. Yeti's actually based out of Boston here.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:17:10] Speaker C: Two years without losing my staff. Alzheimer's now. Yeti bottle. So I'm pretty impressed with that. I feel like must be lucky then.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: We'Re going to get a Yeti year away that's going to have our Sweet Lobs logo on it. It'll look something like this.
Speaking of, stop Alzheimer's now. I did, I did not mention at the beginning of the call we're more. More of a family friendly podcast. Over there's a swear jar for Zane.
[00:17:35] Speaker C: Oh, I don't think I've actually sworn yet.
It's been so far so good.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: I just mentioned it now. Yeah.
Who's your favorite person hang out and play pickleball with for fun?
[00:17:52] Speaker C: My crew at the, at the lab. Carlos, Dolores been become a great friend of mine. Jack Monroe and I have great, great banter. Ryan dewidgeon, pickleballed.
He is always bring some entertainment. Sinkhole laughs at all the nasty jokes and everything that we tell. So there's few more over there too that I'm sure I'm not shouting out at this very second. Oh, Wyatt Stone is great because he bets on every match and then doesn't pay when he loses. So that's fun. And no, just the whole crew at the lab. It's really fun to, you know, obviously go practice pickleball at a, at a super high level. But then, you know, we're also talking crap to each other the entire time and screwing around a little bit.
[00:18:39] Speaker B: I'm sure you are.
[00:18:41] Speaker A: We have people that put up with him. He does some really naughty things like call time out right when they're in the Middle of a serve, and I.
[00:18:50] Speaker B: Follow the rules, guy.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: Zane, what's your favorite shot to hit?
[00:18:56] Speaker C: Oh, I said, that's a Rob Cassidy timeout. That's what. That's what he used to do.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: It is. And you know what? He. He is my other favorite player to watch. I love watching Rob Cassidy play, because if anyone's gonna scrape their legs up and leave their flesh on the ground, it's Rob Cassidy for sure.
[00:19:14] Speaker C: Yeah. You never know what you. You never know what you're gonna get out of Rob. That guy's gonna die. That guy's gonna play every point like his life depends on it. We need more of that pro pickleball.
[00:19:23] Speaker B: Yeah. And here he reminds me of you in this way.
He gets fired up, but he still has a great attitude. So I met him also at the Cincinnati App. I was sitting at the pro courts. We were sitting with my buddy Jessica. We were sitting there watching the games, and Cassidy had just lost, and we were just watching him. He came over. He's pissed. He throws down his bag. He's not happy. Sits down right next to me, and I don't know him at all. And I look at him, and I go, hey, is it a bad time to tell you that you're one of my new favorite players?
He's like, no, this is the perfect time to tell me that, because I'm not happy about how I just played. But, yeah, he probably left three pounds of flesh on the court.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: Ouch.
[00:20:04] Speaker C: About right.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: All right, so let's go back to favorite shot. Your favorite shot to hit.
[00:20:09] Speaker C: This is tough, nasty Nelson.
I do. I really like the tomahawk shot, where instead of hitting a backhand this way, you flip the paddle, you change the grip, and you can really brush the ball, and you get a bunch more reach kind of still. It's pretty deceptive to people.
And I'm convinced that that is a shot that. That pro pickleball players are going to be using very, very consistently when this sport is a.
[00:20:39] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:20:40] Speaker C: Pure sport, I think. Did. Did I see you hitting that shot a few times, Kevin?
[00:20:45] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. No question. I hit that shot in tennis, and my college coach coached it out of me. He said, you cannot use that shot in tennis. And I was like, it works.
[00:20:57] Speaker C: Yeah, Coach.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: Yeah. I would do it in tennis because people wouldn't expect it.
[00:21:00] Speaker C: I also just think, like, we're really, really weak in this position here.
[00:21:06] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:21:06] Speaker C: You flip it around. It's actually not a. It's not a tough position whatsoever. So I think just From a strength perspective, it makes sense. And then in pickleball where we all know how much reach is important, if you have, let's take this little pen for example. If my wrist is in front of the pen, I'm losing several inches of reach versus just flipping the, flipping the hand around and hitting the opposite way. Um, so I think it's stronger and I think it's also adds to your reach.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: Yeah. You did a YouTube video on that exact shot showing that exact thing with the paddle. I couldn't agree more. And if you think about the scorpion for a second, it's technically the same shot because you can now go right sideways. And so to me it's a no brainer shot and I've, I've used it for years and I just thought, well, I couldn't, I couldn't use it in tennis in college, but I can use it in pickleball because nobody's coaching me today.
But speaking of which, Zane, I think we're going to see a lot more shot types developed in the next couple years. Things that we don't normally see like we've talked about with or you've talked about your pods with the ping pong guys coming out or the more tense people coming over or the badminton people. That weird, you know, back flick that's just brutal to get to. And we're going to see some more cool shots come out from people, definitely.
[00:22:26] Speaker C: And then just, you know, changing strategies once again.
Yeah, I mean we're not close to this sport being a solved sport.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: No, gosh, no, not even close at all. You mentioned that one year is like seven years in pickleball, which brings up a different question.
You've been playing now for, I mean, competitively for five years.
[00:22:51] Speaker C: Yeah, I suppose.
Kind of 2018. Kind of 2019. And then I quit my job in 2020. And that 2020 is when I went full time. But I had played some pro tournaments in 18 and 19.
[00:23:07] Speaker B: But you played with your grandpa before that, right? You played for a few years.
[00:23:11] Speaker C: Grandpa? Just my dad.
[00:23:13] Speaker B: Oh, your dad. I couldn't, my fault. I couldn't remember the story. Okay, so your dad. But that was for a few years. You've been playing about 10 years now.
[00:23:19] Speaker C: Yeah. Coming up on, let's see. I first picked up a paddle in.
It would have been around this time in 2013. So.
[00:23:32] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:23:32] Speaker C: Yeah. What would that make that. That would be.
[00:23:35] Speaker B: That's 11, 12 years. Yes. Right in that range. Wowzers.
Okay. When you were on with Donald Young, that was one of your recent podcasts you mentioned taking ping pong lessons to help your pickleball game, which reminded me of, like. Like we would read about in the 80s and 90s. Like the Steelers wide receivers would take ballet lessons to help with their footwork.
[00:23:58] Speaker A: That's a question.
[00:23:59] Speaker B: I just want to know if ballet lessons are in your future. Or anything else. Or anything else. Anything else besides ping pong that you think might help your game?
[00:24:06] Speaker C: No.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: I'm curious.
[00:24:06] Speaker C: Like, yeah, I do think so. A couple interesting ones. I think video games actually are pretty good. I don't play a lot of video games. I used to, but in terms of just pure building reaction time, that's all those games are. And there's actually, like, I think a decent amount of hand eye coordination that goes into, like, moving these fine. These small, little.
It's not just mashing buttons. There's actual, like, coordination to aiming in games like Call of Duty or whatnot. So I do think that video games are good both cognitively as well as, like, physically. And then I think more traditionally, I think that mobility work is super, super important. So, like, you know, I used to do a lot of hot yoga and found that that certainly helped. And just like, you know, you don't have to be the fastest person, but if you can, like, reach really well because you're flexible, that's huge in pickleball. So those are. Those will be two uncommon ones for you.
[00:25:15] Speaker B: I did hot yoga once, but somebody farted in front of me, and I was never. I'm never going back.
[00:25:19] Speaker C: You're out? Yeah.
[00:25:21] Speaker B: My. My wife's a trainer. Certified trainer, nutritionist. What's the whole list?
[00:25:27] Speaker A: Yoga, continuing education hours. So the newest one is Pilates.
[00:25:33] Speaker B: She finished it last night. So I'm gonna have to do Pilates at home now.
[00:25:36] Speaker A: But yeah, as far as.
[00:25:37] Speaker B: That's a good one, though. Great for that.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: Strength, flexibility, and core strength. Absolutely. I can see it.
[00:25:42] Speaker C: Pilates has got to be, like, the most difficult workout I think I've ever done. I. My muscles, crammed, muscles I didn't even know that I had, were cramping when I went to Pilates.
[00:25:53] Speaker B: I have experienced that.
[00:25:55] Speaker A: He'll be like, no, I'm not doing this. I'm not doing this move. No.
[00:25:59] Speaker B: Well, I. Can I shift to some business questions for you real quick? I think when I talk to people that go, you know, Zane, can you tell me some of these things? And I go, I don't. I mean, I know who he is, but I don't know all these things. Let me. I'll ask Him. So here's a couple questions I get asked fairly frequently.
How much does it cost to hire a pro? And this is how they always say it to hang out with you, But I think what they mean is to spend a couple hours with you on a pickleball court. Is there a general range you can share with this? And I'm going to give you like, four or five of these kind of questions.
[00:26:29] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it depends on the. It depends on who this. This pro is. I think, you know, there are probably certain pros that are doing lessons for 100 bucks, 150 bucks an hour. I'd imagine it'd be more. It'd be difficult to find anybody that would want to do it cheaper.
I also know that there are pros that aren't doing anything for less than 10,000 bucks an hour, which is. Which is insanity. So, But. So anywhere between 100 bucks an hour and $10,000.
[00:27:01] Speaker B: Okay, that's great. That's a good range. It makes it easy. How do they engage somebody? Like, so when I reach out to you, and I reached out to you at several different occasions, sometimes I'll get like, hey, this is my blankety blank coordinator, or this is my so and so, such and such. And I've worked with several people, whether it's shipping me paddles or scheduling a zoom call with you or whatever. Like, how do they. I don't even know where to start.
[00:27:22] Speaker A: He may not answer that.
[00:27:24] Speaker B: Well, he wants to be contacted. He wants to get paid $10,000 an hour. Let's give him a chance.
[00:27:28] Speaker C: Oh, my price is not $10,000, but I think that probably depends on the pro. There are a lot of pros. I'd say actually the vast majority of them are just doing it all themselves and really limiting the amount of stuff that they're doing.
When you reach out to me, I've got my fingers in a lot of different areas between podcasts, between YouTube channel, between consulting for different brands on the business side, the clinics business that I've got, and I'm sure I'm forgetting selling paddles whatnot, and actually taking an inventory of those. So I have several different people that. That help me in terms for. For coordination. But I think the vast majority of pros, unless you're dealing with somebody who's probably top 10 in the rankings on the men's side or women's side, vast majority, I think you can probably just shoot them a message on Instagram and they will either respond or. Or ignore you.
I'd say Once you get into those top 10, I think like most of that stuff is going to probably go through their agency and they'll try to negotiate a, like a rate that way.
[00:28:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:48] Speaker A: I have a question that's not on your list.
[00:28:50] Speaker B: Hit it.
[00:28:51] Speaker A: So we love working with youth and we've taught people over the years how to play.
A lot of those are kids. So our last tournament we just ran, there was a 10 year old, I think she was 10 or 11, that won gold in women's singles.
And we all are keeping our eyes on her singles, three, five maybe. And she just, and she plays with her dad as her mixed partner. They're just fun to watch, just pure joy, aggravating to their competitors. But my question is about, you know, we all joke that she's going to make it to pro if she keeps going. And as a parent, you wonder, you know, is this a, is this a lifestyle that is going to be helpful for them? So what kind of advice do you have for kids who are looking at pickleball as an occupation, especially on the competitive side?
[00:29:54] Speaker C: Yeah, well, first and foremost, I would say don't go play pickleball just to have it be your career. If you're really obsessed with pickleball and you, and you love it and you just try and get better every single day, regardless of whether or not you're making money doing it, that's the main thing. Right? So, and I don't think this is a problem quite as much for children as it is for people who are just coming out of college and saying, like, I don't really want to go get a job. Maybe I'll try pro pickleball.
You're not going to make it in pro pickleball unless you're pickleball obsessed, regardless of your racket sport background. So I would say, you know, as a kid, you can, or as a parent to one of those children, you can sort of help to cultivate that obsession in a way, in a healthy way.
Surround. Attempt to surround yourself by people who are professionals in whatever they do. You can learn from that. I mean, I learned so much that actually translated over from my time at Deloitte as a CPA to pickleball. And obviously, at face value, you're probably like, what the hell are you talking about? But just certain time management principles from, from managers and seniors and partners at Deloitte, to be able to get everything done that they need to do in a given day and do it effectively and efficiently was something that like, okay, well, I'm gonna try and bring that level of professionalism to my new job, which is pickleball. So I think the opportunity to surround yourself with highly successful people is incredible. Obviously, both for the pickleball game, but those are life skills that you're going to carry with you for forever. So to summarize, I would say feed the obsession. Try and learn from the awesome people that surround you in the pickleball community, because one way or another, you will learn some lifelong skills, regardless of whether you end up becoming a pro pickleball player or not.
[00:32:05] Speaker A: Thank you. That is so helpful. I would say growing up in sports, I learned more about life and my potential limits from sports, as I did from my edge, my formal education.
[00:32:21] Speaker B: More.
[00:32:22] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely more teamwork, for sure.
[00:32:25] Speaker B: It's a big deal.
[00:32:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:27] Speaker C: It's more instant sort of feedback. Right. You know, in work, you might go a year and maybe you get a promotion at the end of the year. Sport is nice because you have feedback on how you're doing every time you get out there on the court and you can make adjustments, which is great. So helps you. Helps you sort of understand what works, what doesn't.
[00:32:53] Speaker A: So true.
[00:32:54] Speaker B: Instant feedback. Well, I've tried not to ask you questions that you get asked a lot because I. I have heard a lot of times that people are like, I miss the good old days when all the rogue, you know, people are out there with their cameras shooting videos of the pros and getting another personal stories. So I want to ask you at least one or two more personalish ish type questions, I suppose.
Well, at least more about Zane. Right. When I watch your podcast and the pickle pod and you and you and Thomas. So they're doing your thing and then you say something funny.
You look off to the right at somebody. Who the heck is that?
[00:33:30] Speaker C: It might be Thomas. Maybe he's flipped on that. He's on my left side.
[00:33:34] Speaker B: He's on your left and you're looking to your right. Is there. Is there a camera person or a tech girl?
[00:33:40] Speaker C: There's nobody to my right in that. It could be the way that the cameras and the. The mirroring is set up. So it might be Thomas is the only thing that. Either that it's either I'm looking at Thomas or I'm looking at the wall. There's nobody else in there.
[00:33:56] Speaker B: Okay. All right.
[00:33:57] Speaker A: He's been thought.
[00:33:58] Speaker B: It's. Yeah, it's just. I was like, I wonder who's over there. Like Zane's. Zane's over there. Got him laughing and it's kind of.
[00:34:03] Speaker A: Everyone going, there's an audience.
[00:34:04] Speaker C: Like, there's a live audience or something out there.
[00:34:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that question failed fast.
Every once in a while, I think you're funny. I agree. When are we gonna see Gucci safety glasses on your face?
[00:34:22] Speaker A: Maybe I should.
[00:34:23] Speaker B: Oh, did you catch that one?
[00:34:24] Speaker C: Oh, I thought. I thought you were talking about Gucci, like, because people used to call me Gucci Zane. So, like, Gucci brand.
[00:34:31] Speaker B: Yeah, Gucci Zane. I wonder when we're gonna see Gucci, like, branded safety glasses on you when you're playing. Will you go to. Will you ever go to glasses?
[00:34:39] Speaker C: I've thought about it, but I would love a pair of glasses that just doesn't distort anything. And I've yet to find something that doesn't fog up or, like, slightly impact my. My vision or. Or have a glare. So if anything, I might wear some. Some glasses with the. The lenses poked out. Um, yeah. Yeah, it's not a bad.
[00:35:07] Speaker B: That's what we did playing racquetball.
[00:35:08] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:35:09] Speaker B: Yeah, we did that playing racquetball. When I played competitively, we had those, like, square. But the problem is you still lose a part of that. You know, there's, like, blind spots all around you.
[00:35:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Referral.
[00:35:17] Speaker B: And there's just such that fast reaction. Oh, speaking of fast reactions, go back to video games. I loved your comments on that. I have an Oculus beat Saber. Nothing has changed my reaction time better than that game has.
[00:35:29] Speaker A: It's pretty funny to watch from afar too.
[00:35:32] Speaker B: Whatever.
[00:35:32] Speaker A: Don't get too close.
[00:35:34] Speaker C: Yeah, Yeah. I mean, like, think about. I'm pretty sure, like, Gabe Hayden, the. The kids that are playing, they play a lot of video games.
[00:35:43] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
All right. You like to stir the pot. Is there a pot you haven't stirred lately that you. That you would love to give us a little nugget on over here?
[00:35:52] Speaker A: Are you saying. Is he holding back?
[00:35:54] Speaker B: Yeah, he's not holding back. There may be something new out there he wants to share. Who knows?
[00:36:00] Speaker C: You know, contrary to common belief, I don't say inflammatory things just to be inflammatory.
[00:36:09] Speaker B: He's not stirring his own pot right now.
[00:36:12] Speaker C: Yeah, that's funny. I am.
There's nothing that necessarily comes to. Comes to mind.
I guess sometimes when I do share my full opinions, I don't even realize some of the things are. Are inflammatory or either. It's. It's a combination of not realizing and also not caring.
Because, you know, I think. I think I get away with saying inflammatory things because generally, I stay completely out of rumors and. And whatnot like that's, that's one. I don't want to be a journalist. I don't want to be dropping any new news. I comment on things that are already out there in the pickleball world and then I try to say only things that I would say to people's face. Right. If I'm, if I'm writing a letter about Colin's performance, it is all stuff that I would say to him in person. And so being comfortable with what I'm saying in, in those three spaces, you know, if somebody gets upset at me because of something that I said, honestly, I, I, you know, I can sleep at night. I'm okay. I can't be everything to everyone. I'm not intentionally trying to offend anyone but people ask me for my opinion and then I'm going to, I'm gonna give it.
[00:37:42] Speaker B: I love it.
You've been growing your hair out.
Are we gonna see a Tyson McGuffin esque flashback? You know, mullet, mullet headed Zane next year.
[00:37:54] Speaker A: He's in the off season. He's probably like hey, I'm just.
[00:37:56] Speaker B: No, he said, he said Jenny likes it. He told me.
[00:37:59] Speaker C: I know Jenny's having me grow my hair out. I'm honestly like I'm fidgeting with it all the time.
I'm going to give it another little bit of time. She, she has a vision.
I'm not a huge fan of it because I feel like it just gets hard to keep in place and all that stuff. So I might do the Kevin haircut. I don't know. I like what you say.
[00:38:23] Speaker A: Kevin might be living vicariously.
[00:38:24] Speaker B: It takes no effort.
[00:38:25] Speaker A: Bro hair.
[00:38:26] Speaker B: I have bought my last bottle of shampoo. Let's put it that way. It'll last me the rest of my entire life. One drop. One drop weeks. About all I need.
[00:38:34] Speaker C: There we go.
[00:38:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:37] Speaker A: The more it gets onto his face.
[00:38:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
I want to ask you about PPA real quick and then we'll get you off of here. Thanks for being on anyway. For how long? It's already been 45 minutes or so. But you know, you're. I don't want to put words in your mouth but fairly contractually bound to ppa. There's certain things you can and can't do right. Because of your contract with them but you have your hand still in a lot of different pots and most of that's not conflict with ppa. Or do you have to go to the PPA every time to kind of get approval?
[00:39:04] Speaker C: No, I mean it's not.
I Don't think I do anything that's conflicting with ppa. Most of the PPA things that would be of conflict would be basically supporting any other tour and supporting it primarily with my, my presence. So the main thing that these contracts protect against from the PPA side is just me going and playing, you know, a, an app event or a competing event.
Other than that.
[00:39:39] Speaker B: Right.
[00:39:41] Speaker C: Very few, you know, I haven't had any, any issues with, with that whatsoever. And in fact, you know, going back to being inflammatory, I haven't caught any flack from the PPA for saying any of the things that I, that I have on, on the PPA around September of last year during Tour Wars. And it's also conversations that I've personally had with Connor, and I feel like Connor and I are actually in a very, very good spot. We talk regularly, and I've given him a ton of credit because the issues that I had with them in last year are pretty much all things that have been taken care of at this point. And so I've got nothing left to gripe about. Obviously there's the week in, week out, like, hey, the courts were pickle roll this week or whatever. But on a larger scale, I would say the things that I said last September I think were true at that point. And the ppa, upa, MLP have come leaps and bounds since that point and addressed pretty much everything on my list of complaints. So credit where credit is due.
[00:40:56] Speaker B: So if I want to go out to Indiana to not play in a tournament, but support a tournament, it's not a tour, right. It's just a weekend tournament that's at least on the table from your contractual.
[00:41:11] Speaker C: Perspective, it's surrounding professionals.
So I think there are certain people, or I've heard, and I don't know this for a fact, but from what I understand, it's like, you're not allowed to play in an event if there's a bunch of other professional pickleball players around. And it's not a UPA event.
[00:41:36] Speaker B: Essentially, yeah, okay. Yeah, we have a big event called Furry Fracas. We raise money for a local humane society. And I'm like, we need to bring some pros out to something like this. Not to play in necessity, but just to be there to like, you know, a 3andMe type deal or, you know, have some fun beforehand or after hand or. I told somebody once, I'm like, rob Cassidy watched me play a game of football one time at Beer City Open, and it made my day because he was, he was online cheering me on. Yeah, like that was just really cool. So that is awesome. Anything we should have asked you today, Z?
Let's see that shirt.
[00:42:11] Speaker A: Great.
[00:42:12] Speaker B: I'm eating that shirt up.
[00:42:13] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:42:14] Speaker C: I'm glad you like the shirt. Anything I should. I'm bad at open ended questions like that. That's not the way that my brain works, unfortunately.
[00:42:24] Speaker B: All right, perfect.
[00:42:24] Speaker A: Well, I always feel like he's, he's getting me on the hook for something when he asks me an open ended question like what do you want?
[00:42:31] Speaker B: I suffer from running a sales leadership business so it's our way.
[00:42:36] Speaker A: He does. I always feel like don't do that to me. I know there's something behind this.
[00:42:40] Speaker B: That's because we want to hear from Zane, not from me.
All right, bro. Well, thank you so much for being on here, man. I appreciate you more than you know. I look forward to seeing you the next time, whenever and wherever that is.
[00:42:50] Speaker C: Guys, it was, it was nice chatting with you. Sky, Nice to chat with you a little bit more. I've chatted with Kevin plenty of times and, but never enough. But this is fun and you guys do do a really good job of again not, not asking those, those normal like those basic questions. So hopefully not to listen.
Enjoyed. And I'm sure, I'm sure if they're regular listeners, I think, I think that there's some connection there between, between you guys and the audience and I'm excited to see where the, where the pod continues to go. Following your curiosity, I feel like is the main thing that makes a great podcast. When I'm on there with a guest I'm mostly, I'm mostly in it for that conversation for me and if other people want to listen and we put it out there like that's great. So follow your guys own interest and you're going to have an awesome, awesome. Continue to grow an awesome fan base.
[00:43:48] Speaker B: Thank you. We are up to eight listeners and that's an inside joke on our end.
[00:43:52] Speaker A: From five to eight.
[00:43:53] Speaker B: Yeah, we had several people say something this week so we actually are around 2000 listens. Not listeners listens.
[00:43:58] Speaker A: True.
[00:43:59] Speaker B: But we're on the way and it's a lot of fun and you're right, Zane, if we find it interesting, someone else probably will too.
[00:44:04] Speaker C: Exactly. Exactly.
[00:44:06] Speaker B: All right, brother.
[00:44:07] Speaker C: Thank you guys.
[00:44:08] Speaker B: Till next time, buddy. Great to see you.
[00:44:10] Speaker C: Yeah, take it easy guys.
