October 22, 2024 • 40 mins
Join Mark and Pat, for an fun episode of Pickleball Today, where we talk pickleball on cruise ships, reveal Mark's dinking secrets, and even have a paddle giveaway! Don't miss out on all the pickleball fun in this episode!
00:00 Introduction
03:02 Travel Adventures and Personal Updates 09:11 Pickleball on Cruise Ships
19:21 Dinking Secrets Revealed
32:52 Paddle Reviews and Recommendations
37:37 Upcoming Changes and Special Guests
39:34 Outro VIdeo
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey Mark, how are you?
I'm doing good, Pat.
How are you doing today?
I'm doing great.
We're, hey, we're ready finally to get back and do episode 17 of Pickleball Today, thepod.
I'm excited about it.
This is Patrick Batty, Pickleball Today, and I'm with...
Mark Bedorf.
Mark Biddorf, Mark is a coach at Court Pickleball Center in Kitchener, Ontario.
(00:27):
I'm a level one trainer myself, I am a founder of Cambridge Pickleball Club, Cambridge,Ontario.
For those who are new to us today, Pickleball Today is Canada's national pickleball newssource and podcast.
But Mark, I don't know if you've known, but our stats are showing.
(00:48):
Two-thirds of our audience now is in the US.
Isn't that interesting?
We've never...
Yeah, I mean, we know there's, you know, obviously 10 times the population and pickleballis a bit ahead of us, but we've never particularly aimed at the US.
We've talked about the US because we talked PPA tour and things like that, but two-thirdsis in the US.
(01:11):
So thank you guys for listening to us.
If you're in the US, thank you.
Those are in Canada and across Canada.
and we have some around the world.
So appreciate all of you.
I just want to, we want to tell you a little bit about why we've been away for so long.
I think our last podcast was six weeks ago, a little bit of lack of planning on my partand then things that we couldn't avoid.
(01:36):
So first of all, Mark, you've been traveling a lot, haven't you?
Yes, I had some family trips.
I went to New York City with the big family, the extended family.
And then after touring New York City for a bit, went to on a cruise for a wedding.
So that's why the whole extended family and everything, cousins, aunts and uncles weretogether.
(01:58):
My aunt got married on the cruise ship.
So that was a very fun adventure.
and then came back, coached a few lessons here and there and then toured out east again toRhode Island.
Then I went away again.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, know, Pat's injured.
Pat's injured, couldn't play.
(02:19):
was like, man, I need to get out of here.
So I went back out.
Yeah, so did Rhode Island.
man, Rhode Island, where else?
Yeah, Rhode Island, Cape Cod and Boston.
So I went to a Jays game, Boston and Red Sox against the Jays at Fenway Park there.
(02:41):
That's a very cool experience.
Just the atmosphere there.
I went to my first polo game, USA against England.
That was again, very cool experience.
Where was that?
That's in Newport, Rhode Island.
that's where the, yeah, the Team USA plays out of there.
So I would definitely go back to a polo match again.
(03:04):
Like I'm hooked after one.
Like that's a lot of fun, a lot of fun.
Yeah, I've been to a couple myself.
They used to do them and I don't know if they do now, north of Toronto.
And there's a polo field up there.
I don't know if it's there anymore with all the building that's gone up there.
I wouldn't be surprised that it's been made into a subdivision or something like that.
(03:25):
Yeah, probably.
Yeah.
Anyway, I don't know.
I'm not sure.
I've been away as well a little bit, but not as much as you.
You mentioned you were on a cruise ship.
I've been on a cruise ship.
That's actually going to be one of our topics today.
I didn't mention our topics, but we're going to talk about pickleball on cruise ships.
I went at the end of what was it?
(03:47):
End of July?
Yeah.
no, pardon me, end of August and yeah, end of August and a lovely cruise through the St.
Lawrence River, multiple stops in Canada along the way in Quebec, up over Newfoundlanddown to
St.
John's, Newfoundland, then a long ride, two days and one night through the end of ahurricane, lovely experience, on the way to Halifax, Nova Scotia, then went down to
(04:21):
Providence Road, Providence, no, Portland, Maine, and then ended up in Boston.
And through all that, I played pickleball on the cruise ship.
We'll talk about that in a bit.
And then on very, very last day in Boston, I walked about 20 kilometers and I did in mygroin, lifting my bag, I did my groin injury in again, lifting my very heavy cruise ship
(04:47):
bag onto a water taxi.
So that set me back another almost month.
So that's why I haven't been able to play for such a long time.
Anyway, as well as that, we had a...
I won't even get into some of the other things.
But the key thing is we're back.
And it's been a nice summer other than an injury.
(05:10):
I haven't been able to play for the better part of two and a half months.
I had big plans on doing more lessons with you all summer, whenever you weren't on acruise.
And...
And know getting in a couple tournaments and all that all that went away.
(05:31):
I'll tell you what so you don't want to grind injury but And then We'll get into somestretches.
We'll do it in a future episode But we'll get into some stretches that are specific tohelp prevent it and I didn't do mine by the way Playing pickleball.
I did it in another inventive way Anyway, why don't we talk?
(05:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah
do it during pickleball, but then you couldn't play pickleball.
and then I couldn't play pickleball and pickleball is a little bit of, has been myobsession for a year and a half since my wife's hospitalized with Alzheimer's.
And it gives, you know, as much as I visit her a fair bit, I also, and I still work alittle bit, but it's on my own and it's not a lot of time.
(06:20):
So I still have time in my hands.
I want to get out, I want to socialize, I want to get, keep exercising.
And pickleball was my sport of choice and it still is.
But not being able to play for six months kind of means it's time to get back.
Time to get some of this weight off that kind of kind of piled on over the last couple.
(06:42):
Well, a week on a cruise ship doesn't help neither.
But yeah.
So speaking of cruise ships, I'm going to talk a little bit, Mark.
Now, you didn't have pickleball on your ship, is that right?
That is correct.
I didn't pick the ship, clearly, because that would have been a requirement.
But yes, I did not have pickleball, so it was just a week of no pickleball and just, youknow, relaxing by the pool more.
(07:08):
More that style.
What cruise line were you on?
Norwegian.
Norwegian, okay.
And I'm certain some Norwegian ships would have it.
So I've been exploring the topic a fair bit.
And I explored before I even picked a cruise to go on.
(07:31):
And first of all, pickleball on cruise ships is getting very, very popular.
There are many different classes of cruise ship.
are many different demographics of people that go on cruise ships.
And some cruise ships aim at certain demographics.
In other words, like Disney aims at parents with kids.
(07:52):
And I can't imagine too many seniors like me on their own would go on a Disney cruise.
Not that I don't like kids, I like kids.
But I'm not going to go on a Disney cruise and be surrounded by kids.
So demographics like me.
(08:12):
Holland America is a big one oriented, you know, to the 45 plus crowd, I would say, maybeeven 50, 55 plus crowd.
Holland America has got a pickleball on every single cruise ship and even older ones andeven their smaller ones.
(08:33):
So that's kind of cool.
And that's the cruise line that I went on.
In fact, I went on what is the oldest
And a lot of people like it.
A lot of people really love this ship, but the oldest and smallest ship on their line.
A lot of people like the smaller ships because, well, it's not 5,000 people.
And you kind of get to know everybody a little bit, right?
(08:56):
Now this wasn't tiny.
It was still 1,200 or 1,300 people or something like that, guess.
But it's not a massive, massive ship.
Yet they had Pickle on that.
In fact, they had two courts.
The ship that I went on is called the Volendam.
Each one of their ships ends in damn.
They just call them the damn ships.
(09:21):
it's quite a cruise line.
It's a nice cruise line.
It's a bit of an upscale one, but not super, super premium like some.
In fact, I went on a standby basis.
And if you look up hollandamerica.com slash standby, this is not an affiliate link.
promoting them, you'll see that you can get on a cruise fairly affordably through theirstandby program.
(09:47):
But you need some flexibility because you're only going to get about three or four daysnotice before the cruise departs of whether you're actually on or not.
Most people like to know in advance, right?
So, but I got on and it was great cruise.
Now they had two pickleball courts on that cruise ship.
And this is their ship is the only one I can comment on that I've been on, but I've lookedup a lot of the others.
(10:11):
The bigger ships tend to have more courts.
Some other cruise lines tend to have a big complex with six courts.
This is not a massive cruise ship, so they didn't have a single area where you could havetwo wide.
So they had two back to back on one side and one on the other.
(10:32):
Pardon me, it was just one on each side.
I apologize for that.
It was one of their other ships had the two back to back.
The courts are full dimension.
The outer walls are glass so that the wind is not blowing up about eight feet high, Iwould say.
But the wind is blowing when the ball goes above that.
(10:56):
Which makes for interesting play.
I enjoyed playing on it.
Number one, I met people because I was traveling by myself, which is different.
I met people that were really nice.
We had things in common.
We had drinks afterwards.
Drinks are free, or you can get a package where they're included.
(11:16):
it was a good way for a solo traveler to meet other people with a similar interest.
Some of the players were very good.
And some were new.
Some were tennis players that had never played before.
But I was quite impressed at how fast they were picking it up.
(11:40):
I truly enjoyed it.
Not that I'm going to go on a cruise to play pickleball, right?
You know, you're not going to spend a couple thousand dollars to go on a cruise and spendall your time on a pickleball court.
But it's a nice thing, especially if those if you're not going to do a day tour that day,an excursion or whatever it is, or it's a day at sea, not the day at sea that I had
(12:05):
because the boat was rocking in that end of a hurricane.
But
A day at sea, you know, got lots of time to kill.
You want to get some exercise in, right?
There's a gym on board.
You can walk the promenade decks and go around the ship.
And which was interesting in that you might have wind on one side of the ship, but not onthe other.
(12:27):
And our tailwind as you're walking around one way and then you get to the other side ofthe ship and you got a 25 knot wind in your face.
Hahaha
which again means the pickleball can be quite different on one side of the ship than onthe other side of the ship, right?
Because of the wind.
So at one point when we played, I hit a shot that was a little higher, like a lob, notquite a lob, but up there, and it got above the wind, the glass windscreen, and literally
(13:01):
the ball just went up and then took a right turn, like a 90 degree right turn.
as soon as it hit the wind.
Do they have a netting up there just in case the wind just takes it right over?
netting.
Yeah, you're not going to hit the balls off the ship, but you'll hit them into the wall onthe other side.
(13:22):
And that's what mine did, is it hit the, it was blowing in and it took the ball.
Literally it was going straight like towards the center of the court, straight on and thenpoof.
So that's a little different.
The other thing is on a retrofitted ship like this, as much as they have the room or they
(13:43):
on this ship they did have the room for full-size courts.
They don't have a lot of room surrounding the courts.
So you have to be careful.
And you've got a solid, you know, iron wall or steel or whatever they used these days onone side and glass on the other side.
either one is hard or plexiglass.
(14:07):
And even on the solid wall, ships have these red
emergency boxes that stick out about a foot.
So you wouldn't want to run in, know, with, you know, solid corners, know, sharp cornerson them.
And that's what the, you know, a fire extinguisher is in or break glass and whatever.
So you got to be careful.
(14:27):
So what we tended to do is if we hit a ball really close to the line and it put anybody ina dangerous position, we just all agreed that no, no point.
We're not trying to kill anybody here.
and we're on a cruise.
We don't want anybody getting injured on a cruise.
So we just played over.
(14:50):
Naturally, there are some people that are ultra, ultra, ultra competitive and others arenot so much.
But that went pretty well.
And anybody who hadn't heard of that before, I even explained it before we play, that wedon't want to get hit by the...
I've told you about my first week playing pickleball running into a wall.
(15:10):
Yep.
Yep.
years ago.
So I'm cautious of that.
Fortunately, that's the only time, but it was like day one or two.
But anyway, I enjoyed it.
And I've actually booked another cruise in February.
So and it will be it's on one of their newer ships and obviously has pickleball as well.
(15:32):
But I enjoyed Holland America.
I enjoyed the pickleball on it on, you know, on that cruise line.
I'd say, like the players I played with would be, I would say between 45 and my age andmaybe one that might've been a bit older.
So on the other cruise lines, like Carnival and all that, they have it, but those are moreoriented to a younger demographic in general.
(16:02):
Carnival owns Holland America, but they just build.
lines of ships and focusing on different demographics.
So, but Pickleball on a Ship was fun and it introduces some challenges, it introduces somethings that you don't run into at home, even if you're outside, you know, you know, in
(16:24):
other words, the wind, it may be windy, but it's consistent.
It doesn't go from none to bang, you know, to gale force winds.
So that's different.
And I, but I enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to it again.
I'm going to be going in February.
So let's see what.
Yeah.
that one cruising out of?
(16:45):
Because you got a different spot I'm assuming in February.
okay.
Lauderdale, but it's to the Eastern Caribbean.
So it's a full day travel before you even hit any, and then it's a bunch of like St.
Thomas and out that way.
And there's some of the islands, or a number of them ones I've not been to, likeMartinique and a few of them.
(17:08):
St.
Vincent, St.
Kitts, is it?
I can't remember them off the top of my head, a new one for me, because I've been toJamaica and Bahamas and Cuba, things like that quite often.
So I didn't really need to take a cruise that went to them.
Yeah.
I got a question, what was the wait time to play Pickleball on the cruise ship?
(17:31):
Were there long lineups or...
No.
that's good, done.
at most there was eight people, you know, at one point, now in one side of the ship, butalso if they're awake, they can go look on the other side and see what it's like up over
there.
So I never had more than a five minute wait, 10 minute wait maybe.
(17:54):
Yeah, it wasn't massive.
did you just play a game to 11 and everybody comes off sort of deal or how was therotation?
If there was two people waiting, two came off.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We didn't, you know, we tried to balance teams and things like that.
But, you know, you never, we didn't know who was going to be there.
And there was, I think we had a foursome one day that said, let's play again tomorrow.
(18:18):
And so at least we, we, did that, but it was a, it was a mixed bag.
It was fun.
I enjoyed it.
I didn't know what to expect.
I was pleased.
and it's.
Holland America is the official pickleball cruise line of the PPA tour.
So the one side, big sign of it, So obviously they, and you'll see their ads on PPA.
(18:45):
When you're watching the PPA tour on TV, they'll have it on their signage or theirbillboards.
And they have one on the ship on the side of the wall as well.
So.
So they're the official ones.
So if you like to support the PPA, that's the cruise line.
In my case, I like to support, I wasn't worried about, I wasn't worried about that, but Iam a PPA fan.
(19:06):
So it doesn't do any harm that the tour gets some money because, you know, they lost afortune over the last few years, so whatever.
Anyway, let's see, what do we have next, Mark?
Do you wanna get into your lesson?
We talked about a lesson, would you like to get into that?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
So right now I'm doing coaching.
(19:27):
So sorry to interrupt you.
And then we're going to talk a little bit about the panels we've been playing after yourlessons.
Okay.
Yeah.
So right now I've been coaching, usually Monday, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and then theodd weekend here and there at a court and Kitchener and just doing the skills and drills.
They've really filled up.
I'm getting requests for, know, individual ones with groups of four people and stuff likethat.
(19:52):
So that's been good.
one thing that, I was coaching the other day, so I wrote it down just for you, Pat is,dinking patterns.
and looking to level up your game.
So this is for somebody that's probably at like the three to three five area and they'retrying to get up to that higher three, four, type level.
You have to start to get in your mindset what you're looking to do with the ball.
(20:17):
So when you get up to the kitchen line, everybody, all four of you are up at the kitchenline.
What I'm trying to teach is you're not trying to win the point by dinking.
I find that people hit their dinks way too hard.
and it almost, you know, they hit into the net or they're hitting them out or then theother person can attack them easily.
(20:38):
Like, so work on a soft dink, but then work on the pattern of your dinks instead of thespeed of your dinks.
So all I teach is think right foot, left foot.
So when I'm dinking against somebody, I think, okay, I'm going to hit this ball over thenet and they have to step with their right foot to be able to hit it back.
(20:58):
And then I hit the next one, they have to step with their left foot to hit it back.
And the idea is to just get them going side to side.
Cause as soon as you get somebody going side to side, they're just naturally going to makemore errors.
If you have to take an extra step and swing to hit the ball, it just creating moreopportunity for them to either hit it into the net or they'll pop it up.
(21:20):
And then we look to smash and put the ball away.
But when you're just dinking normally, I'm not even trying to win the point on dink.
You're not gonna get a dink past somebody.
to the diagonal?
Are you generally going at the diagonal player?
Yes.
Yeah.
I'm usually playing cross court with this.
It allows more room for air, dinking over the middle of the net.
(21:41):
And you have a longer distance to play with to be able to move that dink around.
And you can move them side to side a lot easier too.
So you pull somebody out and then you put something more towards the middle and then theycome back and you, after you do that, you know, two or three times, you'll just see them
start scrambling and you're just like, then you're just sitting there waiting.
(22:04):
just waiting for your opportunity to then put the point away.
So a tip with that is after you dink, you have to make sure you bring your paddle up tothe ready position because we are looking for the smash or the quick scorpion hit that
sort of thing to, to attack.
Now it doesn't have to be super fast attack.
It just needs to be quick, but I mean, it doesn't have to be super hard.
(22:29):
It just needs to be quick into a spot that they're not ready yet.
Ready for so just to the open area essentially.
Yeah.
super hard, chances are you plow it into the net.
Yep.
Yep.
is so close at that point, it just needs to be quick into an open area.
You know, ideally going for the feet or the open area is the two spots I'm always aimingfor.
(22:54):
If it's one of your really good buddies that you enjoy drinks with afterwards, then goright for the chest.
Tattoo parlor.
Welcome to the tattoo parlor, buddy.
Yeah, yeah.
So when we're practicing this, this drill in the games, that stuff like that, you have tobe 100 % patient.
(23:21):
So you're not allowed to speed anything up below your chest sort of deal, right?
You're you can only hit high balls.
anything below your waist or down belly button or down, you return it soft again, no speedups.
The idea is just learning patience, learning to control and move that body for that ballfrom side to side, side to side.
(23:45):
Now, if you get no
so relevant to me, by the way.
Yeah, yeah.
So the idea is once we get moving them side to side, then we look for our opportunity.
Now you can use this same strategy, not just thinking at the net.
Like if you're at the kitchen line and your opponent's deep at the baseline, same idea.
(24:07):
Hit one to their right foot so they have to step to the right.
Hit one so they have to step to their left.
Like you can use this against any opponent in the court anywhere.
The idea is
If you want to level up to that 4.0 type level, you need to start looking at the court,looking for opportunities.
Where's the court open?
And just say to yourself, I need to make sure they have to step either right or left toreturn my shot.
(24:33):
And you'd be surprised how many more errors you're going to see coming your way.
And you'll just start winning just by on their errors instead of you making the errors.
So while you're learning this though, we're not smashing it super hard.
We're more focused on the placement, the control of the shot than the pace of the shot,you could say.
(24:55):
So.
the takeaway I'm getting, first of all, you're always hitting cross court.
It's pretty hard to hit a good dink straight ahead without putting it too high.
Yeah.
so cross court gives you a lot more room for error than you're hitting to alternate sides.
(25:18):
You are not rushing the play trying to win too soon.
You're letting your partner make the mistake.
You're letting your opponent make the mistake, whereas you're just biding your time untilthey do it.
And then when they do make the mistake and have your paddle ready, and then just put it towhere they ain't at that point.
(25:42):
And as you said, you can use that even if they're back.
I like it.
I like that a lot.
As you're talking about it, I'm listening, but I'm also thinking about, yeah, this isright now for me.
So it's, that's gold, Mark, I do appreciate it.
I think that's really, really worthwhile.
(26:04):
And, yeah.
So yeah, like a lot of the focus lately has been more on footwork and mindset in mycoaching.
Especially the people that have been coming back a few, they've been coming back a fewtimes and they're, learning the skills.
They are able to make the shots now.
And now it's now we're talking about, can you control where your shot is going?
(26:25):
So when we're doing the drills now, I'm picking exact spots.
I'd be like, okay, you need to be able to hit this sideline.
And then your next shot that comes back has to hit the other sideline.
You need to be able to move your feet and line up and keep putting stuff side to side.
That's the next level to get you up to that 4.0 level is you need to be able to move thatball around confidently on the court.
(26:47):
Hey, great lesson, great lesson.
Really relevant.
I think really relevant to any intermediate level players, beginner level, well, obviouslybeginner level players, but I think a lot of intermediates aren't doing that too.
So thank you.
Okay, next item.
want to mention our pickleball paddle giveaways.
(27:07):
We've done a number of them and given away a paddle when we had them.
I hadn't had it on in the last while while I was away or while we were.
on hiatus, but we'll turn it on again now today.
And so if you want a free pickleball paddle, there's an opportunity.
Go to pickleball today, our website, pickleballtoday.co slash win and just follow theinstructions there.
(27:32):
There's opportunities.
You can get multiple opportunities and it's all basically on social sharing, liking,commenting and things like that on our videos or podcasts or
blog posts or whatever.
So it helps us spread the word.
All that matters for us to reach a wider audience and we have a lot of paddles.
(27:53):
mean, I literally lost count and we've all the paddle.
Yeah, we all the paddles we have given away have been a values of 180 to $250.
So, yeah, so, so maybe even.
Maybe one was even 300.
(28:14):
anyway, so paddles have been going up in price and now we tend to promote a lot thataren't not ridiculously expensive, but I think we found a sweet spot in the market where
we think Mark and I in general think paddles that are in the $100.
Once they get above 100, if they're a carbon fiber type paddle, you're getting into a goodenough paddle that is
(28:41):
pretty much could be good for anybody, then if you want to spend more, if you want tospend more, can.
Lots of different brands.
I know we've talked a lot about 6.0.
We've talked a lot about Selkirk.
I like the bread and butters.
Those have been, yep.
(29:02):
I'm hitting the show gun right now.
I've had it for a little while now and I really like it, yeah.
on our site.
Bread and butter, by the way, is coming out with a new one in the next few weeks.
I even saw it this morning, and I can't remember the name of it.
But it's another one, really wild and crazy stuff.
(29:23):
This one is multi-layers of fiberglass inside and then multi-layers of carbon outside.
Fairly poppy type paddle.
It's not what they'd call a gen three, but they're saying it's going to hit pretty hard.
So I apologize for not remembering the name.
I'm not going to take time to look it up right now.
So anyway, if you want to win a paddle, to pickleballtoday.co, pickleballtoday.co slashwin.
(29:52):
and just follow the instructions there and that will be active before this video is.
So the next thing is what paddle have you been playing that bread and butter lately?
Yeah, I've been using it the last month or so.
The Shogun, that's been my favorite.
You also, yeah, you're playing with something right now.
(30:15):
Something different, aren't you?
Well, yeah, because I've been getting paddles in while I couldn't play.
So I was really dying to try.
I always liked the double block diamond, which was like the 2023 paddle of the year.
And that was one of the early thermo formed, maybe the first, thermo formed carbon fiberpaddle.
(30:38):
A worldwide, you
best seller and but it didn't have a very long grip.
They didn't have an extended length version of it.
Well, they've come out with one now and I like I like a two handed grip.
In this one, I can put two full hands on it very comfortably.
And I do have a grip for my back end because I can really control it.
(31:00):
I could put top spin on it.
I almost hook it if I wanted to, but I really feel like I have a lot more control with twohands on my backhand volleys than I do on, or even ground strokes than I do with just one
hand.
But this is a longer extended length paddle with a little extended length grip.
(31:20):
So I like it.
It feels good.
It's not up.
Well, it's powerful only more so because it's longer, I would think, which is giving it alot more velocity at the head.
at the top than a shorter paddle, but it's not an ultra hard paddle.
So it's still an easy paddle to control.
(31:43):
So I've gravitated to this recently.
They also have a double block diamond edgeless that I like as well.
But this is the one that I'm trying to not be playing a different paddle every time I goplay.
And I think this will be one that I'll be using for a little while.
(32:03):
just to get used to it.
This 15 millimeters thick too, so it's a kind of a hybrid thickness.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So probably a little...
yeah, I've noticed a bunch of companies are coming out with 15 now.
They're trying to, instead of 16 or 14, they're doing just a 15.
(32:27):
Yeah.
the softer ones and the 14s were pretty hard and I found some 14s to be very hard.
but I like that.
To me, that's a good one for me.
You know, it won't be the be all and end all with so many paddles coming in, but I'm gonnatry to play it for the next month and just see what it's like to play one paddle for a
(32:51):
month.
nice.
despite what we get or what comes in.
Other than doing reviews and things like that.
I haven't even put up a review.
And again, this is one of the reasons we haven't done anything because I couldn't play.
couldn't do any reviews.
I don't like to review a paddle without having played with it.
That's not right.
(33:11):
We try to be honest about what we're saying.
And if I haven't even played with something, it's hard to give any kind of honest feedbackabout something.
We don't do ultra-scientific reviews the way some guys do, but it's generally, does itfeel good in my hands?
Does it feel good?
Can I play well with it?
(33:32):
Is what counts to me.
Now, you're not me.
People watching are not me.
recommendation to different levels of players is kind of where we focus, especially beinga coach and stuff like that.
You always get asked all the time, like, Hey, you know, I'm going to be a 3.2.
I'm trying to get better based on how you play your game.
You're a banger or soft player or whatever.
(33:54):
I'd be like, okay, this paddle is probably where you want to go.
If you're ready to upgrade, I would try this one out based on the style that you play.
We focus more on style of play and what level players are at sort of deal than all thenitty gritty insides of a paddle.
And I'm a little bit that I've been doing lessons again with Cambridge Pickleball Club fornew players because we've opened up to new.
(34:18):
So I didn't have to do it for a while because the club was full and gradually everybodywas trained and playing OK.
And I'm only really I feel I'm only qualified to teach beginners or a little bit beyondbeginner.
So but now we've opened up more our membership again.
And so now I have more, though.
So on Thursday nights, I'll tend to be.
(34:40):
doing a beginner lesson.
again, every time we're there, I'll take a few different ones, let people try them out,things like that.
and people, and they try to, even as part of a beginner X lesson, take two minutes orthree minutes to explain the difference in paddles.
You know, people often, yeah.
(35:01):
too.
When you're joining, there's so many paddles out in the market and people are just like, Ihave no idea what to buy or what to look for.
And as a coach like us, we can usually recommend a couple that are in the right area orright price point for what the person's looking for.
Yeah.
they tell, mean, inevitably a new player comes in with, I've had people come in withwooden paddles, plastic paddles, and then most so, know, $29 Amazon paddles, which are,
(35:33):
you can play with, but they're hard as a rock and you can't control them very easy, right?
They're fiber-loss.
So, it's making the game a little bit more difficult, but if they don't know if they'reever gonna play again, I understand that that's the point.
no, that's a good point.
Yeah, I feel like it's yeah, I feel like once somebody is going to start playing at leastonce a week, you need to spend probably at least 80 to $100 on a pedal for you to actually
(36:03):
enjoy it and and and start to learn the shots and the touch and the techniques and stuffyou need to spend around there.
Yeah.
Yeah, you know that things like you mentioned the $80 ones the jelly bean from 11 624 wehave it again on our website.
The the courts from 60 they're 89 each of these is $89 60 even ships to Canada for free 89us but we get it give you a discount and if you buy a some tape or something you'll get it
(36:37):
over 100 and they ship for free.
By the way, they will be
shipping from Canada in the near future.
So we won't be contending with duty or anything like that.
There's no official, I know the date, but I don't think I can announce it.
but I was talking to the owner of six zero the other day and he told me about it a whileago than I hadn't heard.
(37:02):
So I just sent him an email and we got back and he filled me in, but it's not, theyhaven't made it public yet.
So I.
I've just leaked a little exclusive news that the neat thing is that means that we will.
Yeah.
So he didn't say don't tell.
So but you know what?
I know their shipment of paddles is on the way to Canada, which means when it gets hereand they finalize the logistics, but a container, a container of paddles is on the way.
(37:35):
So and that means that.
you know, when our pricing then is technically a little bit cheaper than a retailerbecause we've got the discount that we can try.
So anyway, but anyway, if anybody wants one of our paddles, we'll have it in our shownotes.
One of the paddles we've talked about, we'll have it in the show notes in that.
(37:58):
And with that said, I think this may be one of our shorter episodes at 38 minutes, butit's good to get our feet back.
under us and get going again and we'll be back every week.
I didn't mention by the way we're going to be starting, I don't think I mentioned it onthe podcast, we will be having special guests coming on pretty much alternate weeks in the
(38:19):
future.
I'm not announcing any guests yet but I will next week and it'll make it, at that point itmay just be one of us and the guest or both of us and then we bring a guest on and one of
us gets off because three's kind of hard for a guest.
to deal with if we're both questioning.
But anyway, hey folks, thank you for joining us.
(38:42):
We appreciate it.
Anything you can do to help us spread the word will be here.
Again, we're covering pickleball in Canada, and there haven't been a lot of protournaments in Canada recently, so we didn't talk about it.
We often talk about PPA Tour and MLP and things.
didn't today.
We just had a lot to catch up on.
But with our US viewers, our Canadian viewers, we do appreciate you.
(39:06):
And again, enter our contest at Pickleballtoday.co slash win.
And you've got a good chance.
It's not like we have tens of thousands of listeners.
So you've got a good chance to win a good paddle.
So thank you again.
Thank you, Mark.
Good to see you again.
Good that we're actually back again and we actually get and I actually get to play.
(39:26):
So I will see you tonight.
OK, thanks, everyone.
Bye bye.
Take care.
Bye bye.
care.
Hey Mark, how are you?
I'm doing good, Pat.
How are you doing today?
I'm doing great.
We're, hey, we're ready finally to get back and do episode 17 of Pickleball Today, thepod.
I'm excited about it.
This is Patrick Batty, Pickleball Today, and I'm with...
Mark Bedorf.
Mark Biddorf, Mark is a coach at Court Pickleball Center in Kitchener, Ontario.
(00:27):
I'm a level one trainer myself, I am a founder of Cambridge Pickleball Club, Cambridge,Ontario.
For those who are new to us today, Pickleball Today is Canada's national pickleball newssource and podcast.
But Mark, I don't know if you've known, but our stats are showing.
(00:48):
Two-thirds of our audience now is in the US.
Isn't that interesting?
We've never...
Yeah, I mean, we know there's, you know, obviously 10 times the population and pickleballis a bit ahead of us, but we've never particularly aimed at the US.
We've talked about the US because we talked PPA tour and things like that, but two-thirdsis in the US.
(01:11):
So thank you guys for listening to us.
If you're in the US, thank you.
Those are in Canada and across Canada.
and we have some around the world.
So appreciate all of you.
I just want to, we want to tell you a little bit about why we've been away for so long.
I think our last podcast was six weeks ago, a little bit of lack of planning on my partand then things that we couldn't avoid.
(01:36):
So first of all, Mark, you've been traveling a lot, haven't you?
Yes, I had some family trips.
I went to New York City with the big family, the extended family.
And then after touring New York City for a bit, went to on a cruise for a wedding.
So that's why the whole extended family and everything, cousins, aunts and uncles weretogether.
(01:58):
My aunt got married on the cruise ship.
So that was a very fun adventure.
and then came back, coached a few lessons here and there and then toured out east again toRhode Island.
Then I went away again.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, know, Pat's injured.
Pat's injured, couldn't play.
(02:19):
was like, man, I need to get out of here.
So I went back out.
Yeah, so did Rhode Island.
man, Rhode Island, where else?
Yeah, Rhode Island, Cape Cod and Boston.
So I went to a Jays game, Boston and Red Sox against the Jays at Fenway Park there.
(02:41):
That's a very cool experience.
Just the atmosphere there.
I went to my first polo game, USA against England.
That was again, very cool experience.
Where was that?
That's in Newport, Rhode Island.
that's where the, yeah, the Team USA plays out of there.
So I would definitely go back to a polo match again.
(03:04):
Like I'm hooked after one.
Like that's a lot of fun, a lot of fun.
Yeah, I've been to a couple myself.
They used to do them and I don't know if they do now, north of Toronto.
And there's a polo field up there.
I don't know if it's there anymore with all the building that's gone up there.
I wouldn't be surprised that it's been made into a subdivision or something like that.
(03:25):
Yeah, probably.
Yeah.
Anyway, I don't know.
I'm not sure.
I've been away as well a little bit, but not as much as you.
You mentioned you were on a cruise ship.
I've been on a cruise ship.
That's actually going to be one of our topics today.
I didn't mention our topics, but we're going to talk about pickleball on cruise ships.
I went at the end of what was it?
(03:47):
End of July?
Yeah.
no, pardon me, end of August and yeah, end of August and a lovely cruise through the St.
Lawrence River, multiple stops in Canada along the way in Quebec, up over Newfoundlanddown to
St.
John's, Newfoundland, then a long ride, two days and one night through the end of ahurricane, lovely experience, on the way to Halifax, Nova Scotia, then went down to
(04:21):
Providence Road, Providence, no, Portland, Maine, and then ended up in Boston.
And through all that, I played pickleball on the cruise ship.
We'll talk about that in a bit.
And then on very, very last day in Boston, I walked about 20 kilometers and I did in mygroin, lifting my bag, I did my groin injury in again, lifting my very heavy cruise ship
(04:47):
bag onto a water taxi.
So that set me back another almost month.
So that's why I haven't been able to play for such a long time.
Anyway, as well as that, we had a...
I won't even get into some of the other things.
But the key thing is we're back.
And it's been a nice summer other than an injury.
(05:10):
I haven't been able to play for the better part of two and a half months.
I had big plans on doing more lessons with you all summer, whenever you weren't on acruise.
And...
And know getting in a couple tournaments and all that all that went away.
(05:31):
I'll tell you what so you don't want to grind injury but And then We'll get into somestretches.
We'll do it in a future episode But we'll get into some stretches that are specific tohelp prevent it and I didn't do mine by the way Playing pickleball.
I did it in another inventive way Anyway, why don't we talk?
(05:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah
do it during pickleball, but then you couldn't play pickleball.
and then I couldn't play pickleball and pickleball is a little bit of, has been myobsession for a year and a half since my wife's hospitalized with Alzheimer's.
And it gives, you know, as much as I visit her a fair bit, I also, and I still work alittle bit, but it's on my own and it's not a lot of time.
(06:20):
So I still have time in my hands.
I want to get out, I want to socialize, I want to get, keep exercising.
And pickleball was my sport of choice and it still is.
But not being able to play for six months kind of means it's time to get back.
Time to get some of this weight off that kind of kind of piled on over the last couple.
(06:42):
Well, a week on a cruise ship doesn't help neither.
But yeah.
So speaking of cruise ships, I'm going to talk a little bit, Mark.
Now, you didn't have pickleball on your ship, is that right?
That is correct.
I didn't pick the ship, clearly, because that would have been a requirement.
But yes, I did not have pickleball, so it was just a week of no pickleball and just, youknow, relaxing by the pool more.
(07:08):
More that style.
What cruise line were you on?
Norwegian.
Norwegian, okay.
And I'm certain some Norwegian ships would have it.
So I've been exploring the topic a fair bit.
And I explored before I even picked a cruise to go on.
(07:31):
And first of all, pickleball on cruise ships is getting very, very popular.
There are many different classes of cruise ship.
are many different demographics of people that go on cruise ships.
And some cruise ships aim at certain demographics.
In other words, like Disney aims at parents with kids.
(07:52):
And I can't imagine too many seniors like me on their own would go on a Disney cruise.
Not that I don't like kids, I like kids.
But I'm not going to go on a Disney cruise and be surrounded by kids.
So demographics like me.
(08:12):
Holland America is a big one oriented, you know, to the 45 plus crowd, I would say, maybeeven 50, 55 plus crowd.
Holland America has got a pickleball on every single cruise ship and even older ones andeven their smaller ones.
(08:33):
So that's kind of cool.
And that's the cruise line that I went on.
In fact, I went on what is the oldest
And a lot of people like it.
A lot of people really love this ship, but the oldest and smallest ship on their line.
A lot of people like the smaller ships because, well, it's not 5,000 people.
And you kind of get to know everybody a little bit, right?
(08:56):
Now this wasn't tiny.
It was still 1,200 or 1,300 people or something like that, guess.
But it's not a massive, massive ship.
Yet they had Pickle on that.
In fact, they had two courts.
The ship that I went on is called the Volendam.
Each one of their ships ends in damn.
They just call them the damn ships.
(09:21):
it's quite a cruise line.
It's a nice cruise line.
It's a bit of an upscale one, but not super, super premium like some.
In fact, I went on a standby basis.
And if you look up hollandamerica.com slash standby, this is not an affiliate link.
promoting them, you'll see that you can get on a cruise fairly affordably through theirstandby program.
(09:47):
But you need some flexibility because you're only going to get about three or four daysnotice before the cruise departs of whether you're actually on or not.
Most people like to know in advance, right?
So, but I got on and it was great cruise.
Now they had two pickleball courts on that cruise ship.
And this is their ship is the only one I can comment on that I've been on, but I've lookedup a lot of the others.
(10:11):
The bigger ships tend to have more courts.
Some other cruise lines tend to have a big complex with six courts.
This is not a massive cruise ship, so they didn't have a single area where you could havetwo wide.
So they had two back to back on one side and one on the other.
(10:32):
Pardon me, it was just one on each side.
I apologize for that.
It was one of their other ships had the two back to back.
The courts are full dimension.
The outer walls are glass so that the wind is not blowing up about eight feet high, Iwould say.
But the wind is blowing when the ball goes above that.
(10:56):
Which makes for interesting play.
I enjoyed playing on it.
Number one, I met people because I was traveling by myself, which is different.
I met people that were really nice.
We had things in common.
We had drinks afterwards.
Drinks are free, or you can get a package where they're included.
(11:16):
it was a good way for a solo traveler to meet other people with a similar interest.
Some of the players were very good.
And some were new.
Some were tennis players that had never played before.
But I was quite impressed at how fast they were picking it up.
(11:40):
I truly enjoyed it.
Not that I'm going to go on a cruise to play pickleball, right?
You know, you're not going to spend a couple thousand dollars to go on a cruise and spendall your time on a pickleball court.
But it's a nice thing, especially if those if you're not going to do a day tour that day,an excursion or whatever it is, or it's a day at sea, not the day at sea that I had
(12:05):
because the boat was rocking in that end of a hurricane.
But
A day at sea, you know, got lots of time to kill.
You want to get some exercise in, right?
There's a gym on board.
You can walk the promenade decks and go around the ship.
And which was interesting in that you might have wind on one side of the ship, but not onthe other.
(12:27):
And our tailwind as you're walking around one way and then you get to the other side ofthe ship and you got a 25 knot wind in your face.
Hahaha
which again means the pickleball can be quite different on one side of the ship than onthe other side of the ship, right?
Because of the wind.
So at one point when we played, I hit a shot that was a little higher, like a lob, notquite a lob, but up there, and it got above the wind, the glass windscreen, and literally
(13:01):
the ball just went up and then took a right turn, like a 90 degree right turn.
as soon as it hit the wind.
Do they have a netting up there just in case the wind just takes it right over?
netting.
Yeah, you're not going to hit the balls off the ship, but you'll hit them into the wall onthe other side.
(13:22):
And that's what mine did, is it hit the, it was blowing in and it took the ball.
Literally it was going straight like towards the center of the court, straight on and thenpoof.
So that's a little different.
The other thing is on a retrofitted ship like this, as much as they have the room or they
(13:43):
on this ship they did have the room for full-size courts.
They don't have a lot of room surrounding the courts.
So you have to be careful.
And you've got a solid, you know, iron wall or steel or whatever they used these days onone side and glass on the other side.
either one is hard or plexiglass.
(14:07):
And even on the solid wall, ships have these red
emergency boxes that stick out about a foot.
So you wouldn't want to run in, know, with, you know, solid corners, know, sharp cornerson them.
And that's what the, you know, a fire extinguisher is in or break glass and whatever.
So you got to be careful.
(14:27):
So what we tended to do is if we hit a ball really close to the line and it put anybody ina dangerous position, we just all agreed that no, no point.
We're not trying to kill anybody here.
and we're on a cruise.
We don't want anybody getting injured on a cruise.
So we just played over.
(14:50):
Naturally, there are some people that are ultra, ultra, ultra competitive and others arenot so much.
But that went pretty well.
And anybody who hadn't heard of that before, I even explained it before we play, that wedon't want to get hit by the...
I've told you about my first week playing pickleball running into a wall.
(15:10):
Yep.
Yep.
years ago.
So I'm cautious of that.
Fortunately, that's the only time, but it was like day one or two.
But anyway, I enjoyed it.
And I've actually booked another cruise in February.
So and it will be it's on one of their newer ships and obviously has pickleball as well.
(15:32):
But I enjoyed Holland America.
I enjoyed the pickleball on it on, you know, on that cruise line.
I'd say, like the players I played with would be, I would say between 45 and my age andmaybe one that might've been a bit older.
So on the other cruise lines, like Carnival and all that, they have it, but those are moreoriented to a younger demographic in general.
(16:02):
Carnival owns Holland America, but they just build.
lines of ships and focusing on different demographics.
So, but Pickleball on a Ship was fun and it introduces some challenges, it introduces somethings that you don't run into at home, even if you're outside, you know, you know, in
(16:24):
other words, the wind, it may be windy, but it's consistent.
It doesn't go from none to bang, you know, to gale force winds.
So that's different.
And I, but I enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to it again.
I'm going to be going in February.
So let's see what.
Yeah.
that one cruising out of?
(16:45):
Because you got a different spot I'm assuming in February.
okay.
Lauderdale, but it's to the Eastern Caribbean.
So it's a full day travel before you even hit any, and then it's a bunch of like St.
Thomas and out that way.
And there's some of the islands, or a number of them ones I've not been to, likeMartinique and a few of them.
(17:08):
St.
Vincent, St.
Kitts, is it?
I can't remember them off the top of my head, a new one for me, because I've been toJamaica and Bahamas and Cuba, things like that quite often.
So I didn't really need to take a cruise that went to them.
Yeah.
I got a question, what was the wait time to play Pickleball on the cruise ship?
(17:31):
Were there long lineups or...
No.
that's good, done.
at most there was eight people, you know, at one point, now in one side of the ship, butalso if they're awake, they can go look on the other side and see what it's like up over
there.
So I never had more than a five minute wait, 10 minute wait maybe.
(17:54):
Yeah, it wasn't massive.
did you just play a game to 11 and everybody comes off sort of deal or how was therotation?
If there was two people waiting, two came off.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We didn't, you know, we tried to balance teams and things like that.
But, you know, you never, we didn't know who was going to be there.
And there was, I think we had a foursome one day that said, let's play again tomorrow.
(18:18):
And so at least we, we, did that, but it was a, it was a mixed bag.
It was fun.
I enjoyed it.
I didn't know what to expect.
I was pleased.
and it's.
Holland America is the official pickleball cruise line of the PPA tour.
So the one side, big sign of it, So obviously they, and you'll see their ads on PPA.
(18:45):
When you're watching the PPA tour on TV, they'll have it on their signage or theirbillboards.
And they have one on the ship on the side of the wall as well.
So.
So they're the official ones.
So if you like to support the PPA, that's the cruise line.
In my case, I like to support, I wasn't worried about, I wasn't worried about that, but Iam a PPA fan.
(19:06):
So it doesn't do any harm that the tour gets some money because, you know, they lost afortune over the last few years, so whatever.
Anyway, let's see, what do we have next, Mark?
Do you wanna get into your lesson?
We talked about a lesson, would you like to get into that?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
So right now I'm doing coaching.
(19:27):
So sorry to interrupt you.
And then we're going to talk a little bit about the panels we've been playing after yourlessons.
Okay.
Yeah.
So right now I've been coaching, usually Monday, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and then theodd weekend here and there at a court and Kitchener and just doing the skills and drills.
They've really filled up.
I'm getting requests for, know, individual ones with groups of four people and stuff likethat.
(19:52):
So that's been good.
one thing that, I was coaching the other day, so I wrote it down just for you, Pat is,dinking patterns.
and looking to level up your game.
So this is for somebody that's probably at like the three to three five area and they'retrying to get up to that higher three, four, type level.
You have to start to get in your mindset what you're looking to do with the ball.
(20:17):
So when you get up to the kitchen line, everybody, all four of you are up at the kitchenline.
What I'm trying to teach is you're not trying to win the point by dinking.
I find that people hit their dinks way too hard.
and it almost, you know, they hit into the net or they're hitting them out or then theother person can attack them easily.
(20:38):
Like, so work on a soft dink, but then work on the pattern of your dinks instead of thespeed of your dinks.
So all I teach is think right foot, left foot.
So when I'm dinking against somebody, I think, okay, I'm going to hit this ball over thenet and they have to step with their right foot to be able to hit it back.
(20:58):
And then I hit the next one, they have to step with their left foot to hit it back.
And the idea is to just get them going side to side.
Cause as soon as you get somebody going side to side, they're just naturally going to makemore errors.
If you have to take an extra step and swing to hit the ball, it just creating moreopportunity for them to either hit it into the net or they'll pop it up.
(21:20):
And then we look to smash and put the ball away.
But when you're just dinking normally, I'm not even trying to win the point on dink.
You're not gonna get a dink past somebody.
to the diagonal?
Are you generally going at the diagonal player?
Yes.
Yeah.
I'm usually playing cross court with this.
It allows more room for air, dinking over the middle of the net.
(21:41):
And you have a longer distance to play with to be able to move that dink around.
And you can move them side to side a lot easier too.
So you pull somebody out and then you put something more towards the middle and then theycome back and you, after you do that, you know, two or three times, you'll just see them
start scrambling and you're just like, then you're just sitting there waiting.
(22:04):
just waiting for your opportunity to then put the point away.
So a tip with that is after you dink, you have to make sure you bring your paddle up tothe ready position because we are looking for the smash or the quick scorpion hit that
sort of thing to, to attack.
Now it doesn't have to be super fast attack.
It just needs to be quick, but I mean, it doesn't have to be super hard.
(22:29):
It just needs to be quick into a spot that they're not ready yet.
Ready for so just to the open area essentially.
Yeah.
super hard, chances are you plow it into the net.
Yep.
Yep.
is so close at that point, it just needs to be quick into an open area.
You know, ideally going for the feet or the open area is the two spots I'm always aimingfor.
(22:54):
If it's one of your really good buddies that you enjoy drinks with afterwards, then goright for the chest.
Tattoo parlor.
Welcome to the tattoo parlor, buddy.
Yeah, yeah.
So when we're practicing this, this drill in the games, that stuff like that, you have tobe 100 % patient.
(23:21):
So you're not allowed to speed anything up below your chest sort of deal, right?
You're you can only hit high balls.
anything below your waist or down belly button or down, you return it soft again, no speedups.
The idea is just learning patience, learning to control and move that body for that ballfrom side to side, side to side.
(23:45):
Now, if you get no
so relevant to me, by the way.
Yeah, yeah.
So the idea is once we get moving them side to side, then we look for our opportunity.
Now you can use this same strategy, not just thinking at the net.
Like if you're at the kitchen line and your opponent's deep at the baseline, same idea.
(24:07):
Hit one to their right foot so they have to step to the right.
Hit one so they have to step to their left.
Like you can use this against any opponent in the court anywhere.
The idea is
If you want to level up to that 4.0 type level, you need to start looking at the court,looking for opportunities.
Where's the court open?
And just say to yourself, I need to make sure they have to step either right or left toreturn my shot.
(24:33):
And you'd be surprised how many more errors you're going to see coming your way.
And you'll just start winning just by on their errors instead of you making the errors.
So while you're learning this though, we're not smashing it super hard.
We're more focused on the placement, the control of the shot than the pace of the shot,you could say.
(24:55):
So.
the takeaway I'm getting, first of all, you're always hitting cross court.
It's pretty hard to hit a good dink straight ahead without putting it too high.
Yeah.
so cross court gives you a lot more room for error than you're hitting to alternate sides.
(25:18):
You are not rushing the play trying to win too soon.
You're letting your partner make the mistake.
You're letting your opponent make the mistake, whereas you're just biding your time untilthey do it.
And then when they do make the mistake and have your paddle ready, and then just put it towhere they ain't at that point.
(25:42):
And as you said, you can use that even if they're back.
I like it.
I like that a lot.
As you're talking about it, I'm listening, but I'm also thinking about, yeah, this isright now for me.
So it's, that's gold, Mark, I do appreciate it.
I think that's really, really worthwhile.
(26:04):
And, yeah.
So yeah, like a lot of the focus lately has been more on footwork and mindset in mycoaching.
Especially the people that have been coming back a few, they've been coming back a fewtimes and they're, learning the skills.
They are able to make the shots now.
And now it's now we're talking about, can you control where your shot is going?
(26:25):
So when we're doing the drills now, I'm picking exact spots.
I'd be like, okay, you need to be able to hit this sideline.
And then your next shot that comes back has to hit the other sideline.
You need to be able to move your feet and line up and keep putting stuff side to side.
That's the next level to get you up to that 4.0 level is you need to be able to move thatball around confidently on the court.
(26:47):
Hey, great lesson, great lesson.
Really relevant.
I think really relevant to any intermediate level players, beginner level, well, obviouslybeginner level players, but I think a lot of intermediates aren't doing that too.
So thank you.
Okay, next item.
want to mention our pickleball paddle giveaways.
(27:07):
We've done a number of them and given away a paddle when we had them.
I hadn't had it on in the last while while I was away or while we were.
on hiatus, but we'll turn it on again now today.
And so if you want a free pickleball paddle, there's an opportunity.
Go to pickleball today, our website, pickleballtoday.co slash win and just follow theinstructions there.
(27:32):
There's opportunities.
You can get multiple opportunities and it's all basically on social sharing, liking,commenting and things like that on our videos or podcasts or
blog posts or whatever.
So it helps us spread the word.
All that matters for us to reach a wider audience and we have a lot of paddles.
(27:53):
mean, I literally lost count and we've all the paddle.
Yeah, we all the paddles we have given away have been a values of 180 to $250.
So, yeah, so, so maybe even.
Maybe one was even 300.
(28:14):
anyway, so paddles have been going up in price and now we tend to promote a lot thataren't not ridiculously expensive, but I think we found a sweet spot in the market where
we think Mark and I in general think paddles that are in the $100.
Once they get above 100, if they're a carbon fiber type paddle, you're getting into a goodenough paddle that is
(28:41):
pretty much could be good for anybody, then if you want to spend more, if you want tospend more, can.
Lots of different brands.
I know we've talked a lot about 6.0.
We've talked a lot about Selkirk.
I like the bread and butters.
Those have been, yep.
(29:02):
I'm hitting the show gun right now.
I've had it for a little while now and I really like it, yeah.
on our site.
Bread and butter, by the way, is coming out with a new one in the next few weeks.
I even saw it this morning, and I can't remember the name of it.
But it's another one, really wild and crazy stuff.
(29:23):
This one is multi-layers of fiberglass inside and then multi-layers of carbon outside.
Fairly poppy type paddle.
It's not what they'd call a gen three, but they're saying it's going to hit pretty hard.
So I apologize for not remembering the name.
I'm not going to take time to look it up right now.
So anyway, if you want to win a paddle, to pickleballtoday.co, pickleballtoday.co slashwin.
(29:52):
and just follow the instructions there and that will be active before this video is.
So the next thing is what paddle have you been playing that bread and butter lately?
Yeah, I've been using it the last month or so.
The Shogun, that's been my favorite.
You also, yeah, you're playing with something right now.
(30:15):
Something different, aren't you?
Well, yeah, because I've been getting paddles in while I couldn't play.
So I was really dying to try.
I always liked the double block diamond, which was like the 2023 paddle of the year.
And that was one of the early thermo formed, maybe the first, thermo formed carbon fiberpaddle.
(30:38):
A worldwide, you
best seller and but it didn't have a very long grip.
They didn't have an extended length version of it.
Well, they've come out with one now and I like I like a two handed grip.
In this one, I can put two full hands on it very comfortably.
And I do have a grip for my back end because I can really control it.
(31:00):
I could put top spin on it.
I almost hook it if I wanted to, but I really feel like I have a lot more control with twohands on my backhand volleys than I do on, or even ground strokes than I do with just one
hand.
But this is a longer extended length paddle with a little extended length grip.
(31:20):
So I like it.
It feels good.
It's not up.
Well, it's powerful only more so because it's longer, I would think, which is giving it alot more velocity at the head.
at the top than a shorter paddle, but it's not an ultra hard paddle.
So it's still an easy paddle to control.
(31:43):
So I've gravitated to this recently.
They also have a double block diamond edgeless that I like as well.
But this is the one that I'm trying to not be playing a different paddle every time I goplay.
And I think this will be one that I'll be using for a little while.
(32:03):
just to get used to it.
This 15 millimeters thick too, so it's a kind of a hybrid thickness.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So probably a little...
yeah, I've noticed a bunch of companies are coming out with 15 now.
They're trying to, instead of 16 or 14, they're doing just a 15.
(32:27):
Yeah.
the softer ones and the 14s were pretty hard and I found some 14s to be very hard.
but I like that.
To me, that's a good one for me.
You know, it won't be the be all and end all with so many paddles coming in, but I'm gonnatry to play it for the next month and just see what it's like to play one paddle for a
(32:51):
month.
nice.
despite what we get or what comes in.
Other than doing reviews and things like that.
I haven't even put up a review.
And again, this is one of the reasons we haven't done anything because I couldn't play.
couldn't do any reviews.
I don't like to review a paddle without having played with it.
That's not right.
(33:11):
We try to be honest about what we're saying.
And if I haven't even played with something, it's hard to give any kind of honest feedbackabout something.
We don't do ultra-scientific reviews the way some guys do, but it's generally, does itfeel good in my hands?
Does it feel good?
Can I play well with it?
(33:32):
Is what counts to me.
Now, you're not me.
People watching are not me.
recommendation to different levels of players is kind of where we focus, especially beinga coach and stuff like that.
You always get asked all the time, like, Hey, you know, I'm going to be a 3.2.
I'm trying to get better based on how you play your game.
You're a banger or soft player or whatever.
(33:54):
I'd be like, okay, this paddle is probably where you want to go.
If you're ready to upgrade, I would try this one out based on the style that you play.
We focus more on style of play and what level players are at sort of deal than all thenitty gritty insides of a paddle.
And I'm a little bit that I've been doing lessons again with Cambridge Pickleball Club fornew players because we've opened up to new.
(34:18):
So I didn't have to do it for a while because the club was full and gradually everybodywas trained and playing OK.
And I'm only really I feel I'm only qualified to teach beginners or a little bit beyondbeginner.
So but now we've opened up more our membership again.
And so now I have more, though.
So on Thursday nights, I'll tend to be.
(34:40):
doing a beginner lesson.
again, every time we're there, I'll take a few different ones, let people try them out,things like that.
and people, and they try to, even as part of a beginner X lesson, take two minutes orthree minutes to explain the difference in paddles.
You know, people often, yeah.
(35:01):
too.
When you're joining, there's so many paddles out in the market and people are just like, Ihave no idea what to buy or what to look for.
And as a coach like us, we can usually recommend a couple that are in the right area orright price point for what the person's looking for.
Yeah.
they tell, mean, inevitably a new player comes in with, I've had people come in withwooden paddles, plastic paddles, and then most so, know, $29 Amazon paddles, which are,
(35:33):
you can play with, but they're hard as a rock and you can't control them very easy, right?
They're fiber-loss.
So, it's making the game a little bit more difficult, but if they don't know if they'reever gonna play again, I understand that that's the point.
no, that's a good point.
Yeah, I feel like it's yeah, I feel like once somebody is going to start playing at leastonce a week, you need to spend probably at least 80 to $100 on a pedal for you to actually
(36:03):
enjoy it and and and start to learn the shots and the touch and the techniques and stuffyou need to spend around there.
Yeah.
Yeah, you know that things like you mentioned the $80 ones the jelly bean from 11 624 wehave it again on our website.
The the courts from 60 they're 89 each of these is $89 60 even ships to Canada for free 89us but we get it give you a discount and if you buy a some tape or something you'll get it
(36:37):
over 100 and they ship for free.
By the way, they will be
shipping from Canada in the near future.
So we won't be contending with duty or anything like that.
There's no official, I know the date, but I don't think I can announce it.
but I was talking to the owner of six zero the other day and he told me about it a whileago than I hadn't heard.
(37:02):
So I just sent him an email and we got back and he filled me in, but it's not, theyhaven't made it public yet.
So I.
I've just leaked a little exclusive news that the neat thing is that means that we will.
Yeah.
So he didn't say don't tell.
So but you know what?
I know their shipment of paddles is on the way to Canada, which means when it gets hereand they finalize the logistics, but a container, a container of paddles is on the way.
(37:35):
So and that means that.
you know, when our pricing then is technically a little bit cheaper than a retailerbecause we've got the discount that we can try.
So anyway, but anyway, if anybody wants one of our paddles, we'll have it in our shownotes.
One of the paddles we've talked about, we'll have it in the show notes in that.
(37:58):
And with that said, I think this may be one of our shorter episodes at 38 minutes, butit's good to get our feet back.
under us and get going again and we'll be back every week.
I didn't mention by the way we're going to be starting, I don't think I mentioned it onthe podcast, we will be having special guests coming on pretty much alternate weeks in the
(38:19):
future.
I'm not announcing any guests yet but I will next week and it'll make it, at that point itmay just be one of us and the guest or both of us and then we bring a guest on and one of
us gets off because three's kind of hard for a guest.
to deal with if we're both questioning.
But anyway, hey folks, thank you for joining us.
(38:42):
We appreciate it.
Anything you can do to help us spread the word will be here.
Again, we're covering pickleball in Canada, and there haven't been a lot of protournaments in Canada recently, so we didn't talk about it.
We often talk about PPA Tour and MLP and things.
didn't today.
We just had a lot to catch up on.
But with our US viewers, our Canadian viewers, we do appreciate you.
(39:06):
And again, enter our contest at Pickleballtoday.co slash win.
And you've got a good chance.
It's not like we have tens of thousands of listeners.
So you've got a good chance to win a good paddle.
So thank you again.
Thank you, Mark.
Good to see you again.
Good that we're actually back again and we actually get and I actually get to play.
(39:26):
So I will see you tonight.
OK, thanks, everyone.
Bye bye.
Take care.
Bye bye.
care.
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