May 22, 2025 • 33 mins
From college football dreams to pickleball excellence, Dorion Brown's journey to becoming head pro at Pickleball Kingdom in Plano, Texas is a masterclass in perseverance, emotional intelligence, and dedicated practice.
The second part of our conversation with Dorion dives deep into what transformed a recreational player from Wilmington, North Carolina into a 4.8-rated competitor with professional aspirations. With nearly 56,000 teaching hours under his belt, Dorian shares the "neurological hacks" that have helped him elevate countless players from 3.0 to 4.5 ratings through focused training techniques.
At the heart of Dorion's philosophy is a refreshingly humble approach: "Pride always comes before the fall," he reminds us. His emphasis on selflessness extends to his training methodologies, where he advocates for deliberate practice on hitting walls, using sweet spot finders, and understanding your optimal striking zone through concepts like the "one-foot force field." These aren't just technical tips—they're mindset shifts that transform how players approach the game.
Particularly fascinating is Dorion's stance on the power versus placement debate. "Placement over power wins," he insists, encouraging players to "live for another shot" rather than forcing high-risk plays. His advocacy for rally scoring during practice creates accountability that traditional scoring lacks, preventing players from repeating the same mistakes without consequences.
What truly distinguishes Dorion is how he's woven his faith and values into his coaching approach. The transition from "Team Dorian" to "Team Pickleball Kingdom with Dorion attached to it" reflects a maturity that extends beyond the court. His commitment to the facility's core values—"faith, family, and work"—creates an environment where pickleball becomes more than sport; it becomes community.
Whether you're battling the yips with your serve, struggling to find consistency in your dinking game, or looking to take your skills to tournament level, Dorion's insights offer a roadmap to improvement through intentional practice and mindful play. Listen now and transform not just how you play, but how you approach the mental game of pickleball.
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Special thanks to Crown Pickleball for their support and sponsorship! Don't waste money on balls that break, Crown pickleballs rarely crack, are more visible and have a higher spin rate than the competitors.
Use our link to receive a discount on your next purchase! https://crownpickleball.store/blazingpaddles
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And, once again, pride always comes before the
fall.
You know.
So if you can put yourselfaside and understand to be
selfless, you are your bestversion.
You know, because maybe you're80%, someone's 150.
And that's what we live by here.
Once again, brad tells me allthe time Dorian, if you don't
walk in with your hand up, walkback out.
And I take that seriously.
Once again, he's teaching mehow to deliver on a daily basis
(00:22):
and for the last eight years ofteaching, I have close to 56,000
hours under my belt and, withthat being said, I was always
Team Dorian.
Now I have a great franchisebehind me, backing me every day,
practically helping me be thebest version I can be.
So it's no longer Team Dorian,it's Team Pickleball Kingdom,
with Dorian attached to it, andI give my life to this place.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Once again, I am honored and blessed to be here
and just meet individuals likeyou two.
Hello, picklers.
Here we go with part two, as wespeak with Dorian Brown.
Dorian is the head proPickleball Kingdom in Plano and
he spent some time with us afterthe boot camp was completed and
we really got a chance to learnmore about his story.
It's a really neat origin storyfor a guy who just picked up a
paddle for the first time eightyears ago in Wilmington, north
Carolina and you know, fastforward seven and a half years.
(01:14):
He's in a car driving crosscountry to accept a job out in
Texas, a place he'd never beenbefore Plano, texas as the head
pro at Pickleball Kingdom.
So he's a great kid.
He has such an amazing attitudeand I think you'll leave this
episode feeling better aboutyour game and better about the
habits that you form whileyou're practicing on your game.
So why don't you put your earson, have a listen, saddle up
(01:36):
You'll be glad you did.
Got a treat.
Now we're going to sit downwith Dorian Brown.
He's the head pro out here atPickleball Kingdom Just finished
the boot camp.
Dorian, before we get into theboot camp itself, tell us a
little about your story.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Awesome.
So I actually just relocatedhere from North Carolina in
February with the thoughtprocess of taking it to the next
level.
So I've been playing eightyears all in Wilmington, north
Carolina, where I picked it upin 2016, instantly fell in love
with it.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
How did you come?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
across pickleball in 2016?
Honestly, it was an option aftercollegiate football, so I had a
full ride to play division twoin Ohio at a school called Hiram
.
It was very small but I did notmake it and it was due to the
fact of not giving my all.
I was granted an opportunity inWilmington, north Carolina,
with a couple of friends, pickedit up at a recreational park
(02:31):
and I said you know what?
I think I can go a long waywith this and I took it head on,
started teaching initially andI got PPR certified and fell in
love with helping people, notonly mentally, but emotionally,
oh, I like it.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Can you help my husband emotionally on the
pickleball court?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I need an emotional support animal out there with me
the whole time.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Anytime you're ready, come to Pickleball Kingdom
Plano.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
So you do your lessons now.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I do so.
I work full time being the headpro here at Pickleball Kingdom
Plano.
Currently I've been here threemonths teaching close to 70
lessons Wow, and once again,just helping so many people.
We have a big following here.
We have close to 800 members,which are all in different ways
we have golden memberships, wehave ace memberships and we have
team memberships.
So we offer an arrangement ofopportunities just so you can
(03:15):
come in and teach and learn fromus, and we have so many coaches
here to supply knowledge.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
You know we were talking about this on the way to
.
Sorry to cut you off, but youknow there's a glut.
Of all the facilities wereopening up, I mean as the
pickleball boom was just going,and there's going to be some
that make it, some maybe not,we've seen.
One of the most difficultthings is figuring out that
price point.
You're just talking aboutmemberships.
Were you involved in trying to?
What's going to work here andhow are we going to draw members
(03:41):
?
We're not going to overprice it.
How did y'all figure that out?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
So it's pretty ironic .
Actually In Wilmington, northCarolina, our annual membership
was $300.
Annual, yeah, annual, that'snice and it was nothing.
It was a very small townretirement community so you
would imagine a lot of peopleare on fixed incomes.
Here it's a little different.
(04:07):
The price differential of theincome annually is much more.
So you have individuals herewith money maybe to offer or to
give away freely to where inwilmington they were sort of set
in their way, um, so it was alittle different moving here.
There are so many clubs.
You have the pickler, you havepickler universe, uh, you have
dill, dinkers and denton.
There's so many places tocompete, but what sets
pickleball kingdom apart?
We are a family and we offerpeople, community.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Okay, so they're not all individually owned.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
So we actually have one franchise.
We have one franchisee with us,so we own this facility in
Plano.
We have Dallas North locationnext to the Gallerio.
And we also have the Fort Worthlocation opening up June 7th.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
I know and I just talked to, is it Gustavo?
Oh yeah, and I was like, whenis my Colleyville one coming?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
And we've been bumped on the list a little bit, so
I'll tell you that's actuallyone of the reasons why I moved
here, not only for the play andreaching a competitive sense,
but because of the backing ofthe individuals ahead of me.
So you have Brad Stanford, youhave Amber Stanford, you have
Dan Jenkins, you have Gustavo, Imean his wife Barbara.
They're all phenomenal and theywill take you to the next level
.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Nice, nice.
So when you said emotionally,what do you mean?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So I feel as if a lot of people in general in life, a
lot of people in general oflife, they don't understand how
to control emotions.
And then your physicality lackswhy are you looking at me?
Your mental lacks, and now wecan't understand ourself for who
we actually are because there'ssome sort of bridge not merging
the two.
So I help people understandemotions, I allow you to
(05:34):
understand.
There's neurological hacks toprocess with the game itself, to
take it to the next level,whether you are a beginner,
intermediate or an advancedplayer let me ask you this, okay
.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
So I went through a really bad um, how yips a period
of of a serving, a year withthe serve?
The worst thing that you couldI I, it was totally a mind thing
total mind thing.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Sure, head game for sure have you have you had
people with the yips.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
have you gone?
I've even had the yips, ReallyRight.
So I believe pickleball is aneasy sport to learn but a hard
sport to master.
We say that all the time.
So at the end of the day, ifyou're never growing, I tell
people you either fall in twodifferent parties.
You're a fan of the sport oryou're a student of the sport.
I'm the student, so an exerciseI'll have you do.
Obviously they can't see it,but I do it with you to raise
(06:21):
your hands Now, raising them allthe way up.
I ask people to give that mucheffort.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yes, this is what I want you to give every time.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Now do jazz hands.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Stop, oh, I'm here with you, come on.
Come on, I can't do it, I can't.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Oh, no One of them can.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
I'm sure you're.
I'm sure you're great in manyother facets.
Come on, girl.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Come on, I can barely high five you with my left hand
.
It just doesn't work, no matterhow hard I try.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
But I've had the yips .
So one thing that I always tellmy athletes is to train.
It's one thing to play on thecourt, but it's another thing to
work skill-based techniques toget to the next level.
So we offer four hitting wallshere, which two are regular, two
are simulated.
I've never seensimulation-based hitting walls
before which they work newskills.
Never seen simulation-basedhitting walls before which they
(07:05):
worked new skills, new tips andnew tricks for you to take on
the court.
You have a simulator here.
Oh, absolutely which one?
We have two of them actuallyupstairs on the mezzanine.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Do you know the name of it?
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Oh man.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Is it PlayCow?
Speaker 1 (07:17):
You're going to draw a blank.
I'm going to go look at it.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Shame on Dorian, I think we're going to the
PlayCount facility next week tocover them on the podcast, so
I'll go check that out.
So it's about not playing thegame.
It's what you do, not playingthe game, it's the drills and
the training.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So to be your best version.
It always takes 10,000 hours tomaster something.
Everyone has that understanding.
But it's a big misconceptionbecause 10,000 perfection hours
takes mastery.
So it's all about practicing,it's all about putting in what
it is off the court to be thebest on the court.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
I like that, so okay.
So then, how do I get out ofover, over, over the yips?
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Over the yips, One believe in yourself.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Believe in.
Whatever you do, whether it'son or off the court, you have to
be your biggest cheerleader.
Whether you have a greathusband behind you, whether
you're a phenomenal wife, youhave to support yourself.
That's number one.
Confidence.
Confidence is key.
You have to get out of your ownway.
Everyone wants to be in theirown way and they cause their own
issues to occur, to where, ifyou take a step back and look at
(08:18):
everything in a macro lifestyle, you will start to understand
and build the micro levelsproperly to get to the next
level you will start tounderstand and build the micro
levels properly to get to thenext level.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
So you know what I resorted to was going to this um
, really bad.
Serve that I when I say bad,it's just not, it doesn't look
good, but it's, it's 99.9%.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
So let me ask you this Are you bouncing the ball
off the ground or are you takingthat I am?
Speaker 3 (08:41):
And trust me like they're.
Like you said this, this gameis so hard to master that I have
other things that I'm workingon.
And besides, I watched the prosthe serve is not.
They're not winning on theirserves.
You know, that's happening inrec league.
I don't care about my serveLike it's in fact, I get a kick
when I do my stupid serve andand somebody misses it and I'm
(09:02):
like wow.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Sure.
Well, most of the time it'swhat comes after that, that
counts.
Well, most of the time it's allin preparation.
I tell people all the time ifyou're prepared, you never have
to get prepared.
So it's all about handplacement.
Where's your paddle?
What I teach is always haveyour paddle south.
You want to have it towards theground to gain that top spin
(09:26):
curvature, because if you don't,now you're preparing with the
paddle north, going south,trying to look for perfection
rather than already looking atthe perfection.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Dorian, there's no way.
My ball is facing that net, mypaddle is facing that.
There's no way to miss this.
It's there like there.
So it's going in one place andit's going right there and it's
going in why I challenge you.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
if you give me five minutes of your time, I could
fix your serve.
I will.
I would love that I wouldchallenge.
I seen your husband looking atmy backhand.
He said wow, what is?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
this, yeah, cause I, I mean that's all right.
So quick, quick story.
I'm a natural lefty.
Okay, tore, my bicep playingpickleball.
Sure, so learn to play, righty,tore, that bicep playing
pickleball.
And I was going to go back, butshe was, like you know, you're
actually more consistent righty,but I don't have some of the
natural instincts, includingwhen I'm at the net, that the
(10:13):
jab, the punch, the defensivething.
Sure, I'm off, I'm popping itup or I'm putting it in the net
or whatever.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
I'm going to tell you something very ironic.
The best player I ever playedwith was a 4.0 player in
Wilmington, north Carolina.
His name is Jared Ingersoll andhe was ambidextrous.
We would call this guy anoctopus.
He had a backhand punch withhis right hand, but better
putaways with his left hand, andthis guy you couldn't get the
ball back and he would beat 5.0s, 6.0s and you've never seen it
(10:41):
coming, never.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
And we've talked about that, but it comes down to
a confidence thing too.
So in practice, like takingthose things off the court and
practicing them, and that's justwhat we're going to have to do.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Well, you mentioned like you have four hitting walls
.
What kind of drills do you doon a hitting wall?
So it's not just I mean youhave a plan right, because
you're saying 10,000 perfectionhours.
I like that, as opposed to justgoing out and whacking them all
.
What do you do on a wall.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
What's the exercise?
So I'm going to be completelyhonest with you.
Number one you have to beselfless.
A great leader is alwaysselfless.
If you're a selfish leader,your time will fall short.
So it's all about taking otherswith you one, but taking
yourself there as well, becausesometimes, when we put ourselves
on the back burner, we willnever be our best version.
So I am brand new to the area,once again moved here in
(11:28):
February from North Carolina andI have no friends, no family,
but I treat everyone here as myfamily and those hitting walls
are my best friends.
So I hit every morning for 30minutes.
If you are a beginner tointermediate player, even an
advanced player, I would get aregimen set in place and I would
(11:50):
drill at least three to fourtimes a week for 30 minute
increments on the hitting wall,why you understand the pace and
the acceleration you give offand what is coming back to you
so you can work dinks.
I work a lot of lateral dinks.
So going straight,understanding how to keep the
ball on my right side,understanding how to keep it on
my left, taking it up a step, alot of 4-0 plus players.
We believe in a triangle systemIf you hit the ball to your
(12:12):
left side, your backhand'salways countering, compared to
if you hit a backhand to yourright side, it's always
countering with the forehand.
Learning those basic tendenciesand techniques will take you to
another level.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
I foresee a backboard in our future.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I'm a wonk, I'm a former, you know, you grew up
playing sports outside and Iwould almost sometimes I'd
rather practice, go out there,just grind it and then I get out
in the games and sometimes itdoesn't translate, but I'd
really like to practice.
We should get it.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
But that's the thing is like.
I told him he needs some worktechnically, which I sought out
and got, and the guy who taughtme a good serve now sees my
serve and says I slid back, butI told him hey, I've got all
these other things I'm workingon, and he was like I'm making
improvements here.
I'll work on that one later.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
If you're hitting, if you have the wrong technique
and you hit 10 000 balls.
Yeah, the wrong way.
How's that going to help you?
It?
Speaker 3 (13:10):
will never help you.
I and I don't think that a lotof people have seek.
They seek help in their play.
But let's go, let's take a stepback and look at mechanics well
, it goes back to the exercisebased upon raising your hand.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Everyone wants to be a fan of the sport.
Everyone loves Anna Lee Waters,ben Johns, gabe Tardio but no
one wants to mimic their way.
So if I had any advice forsomeone, it's to be a master,
mimic, understand tendencies ofwhat players use and master that
Because they're doing somethingright and they're at a whole
different level.
If they can hit 10 balls in arow, a beginner might be
(13:52):
satisfied hitting one ball in arow.
Learn how to hit consecutively,learn how to understand
yourself and what you're good at.
Write them down and tackle whatyou want to achieve.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I like it we're gonna write this down a lot in uh
about grip pressure lately, sure, sure.
Now, what do you?
What is your basic philosophyof grip pressure?
Speaker 1 (14:09):
It depends on where you're at on the court.
So imagine if you're at thebaseline.
We have three different typesof grips we can utilize.
We have a five grip, which isvery hard, so it's imagine
squeezing your hand until youhave just blood racing.
You have a three, which is ahandshake, very moderate.
Then you have a one.
Say, you spilled your favoritecup of coffee At the baseline.
I'm more a one Because you wantto be loose, you want to
understand the stroke itself andwork in motion rather than
(14:31):
forcing a bad shot.
If I am up at the net, I mightbe more of a three Because I
want to understand how I can addpower with the set paddle.
Because you have to understandthe paddle is not hard at all.
It's a piece of wood, honeycore.
Right Now, the technology ischanging.
It's like brand new iPhones.
Someone can come out here withan iPhone 6 compared to playing
(14:53):
with an iPhone 16.
Two totally different ballgames.
But you want to understand whenand why to use those grip
pressures.
Ie same with the grips.
Either use Eastern, continentalor Western.
Okay, how about yourself?
Varying grips?
I use all of them, do youreally?
Yeah, okay, there's some prosthat use one, kwong Dong, for
example.
Love.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Kwong Dong.
He uses a.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Western.
That's why you hear him gruntso much.
My mentor actually, back home,his name's Christopher Williams,
great guy, great guy.
He uses a Western, but he alsocomes from 40 years of tennis.
Okay.
So a Western is it's more open.
Western is maybe like imaginetaking a pizza out of an oven
and serving it to all yourfriends.
It's a flat hand, looking atthe palm or the back of your
(15:34):
hand up, palm down, okay.
And Continental is more of anEastern.
Eastern's a handshake.
Continental is more tilted,yeah, okay, which gives you more
access to a topspin.
Right, and that's what youwould want essentially.
A lot of people get carriedaway with it, but a topspin's
the best way to go about it.
My new coach, kevin, right here, probably has the best two-hand
(15:54):
backhand I've seen, really, andhe uses Continental, really,
yeah.
Now, what were the skills goingback to this PCD bootcamp?
What were the skills that theywere the ladies were working on
today?
Oh man, they worked a lot.
So we had five courtsdesignated for the women to
learn whether it was serve andreturn, drop shots, a backhand
punch for defense, which isreally important because let's
(16:15):
say someone, let's say you hit adead dink and you're just
sitting there expecting the ballto come.
How do I prepare for that?
We had what transition zone?
Learning how to move throughtransition, whether moving
progressively or taking a stepback, preparing for the next
ball.
And the best part about it iswe actually designated a court
for point play, but I did itdifferently.
(16:36):
Everyone likes to playtraditional scoring.
I'm a fan of rally scoring.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Hey guys, I know one of the overriding messages we
heard from Dorian score.
Hey guys, I know one of theoverriding messages we heard
from Dorian especially is theneed to practice, the need to
drill and to ingrain good habitsinstead of bad.
I can tell you, one of my badswing habits I have is I'm a
little too wristy pickleball.
I don't know if any of you arechallenged with that, but I
stumbled across a product calledthe Dink Drop Trainer and I'm
(17:02):
loving it.
I'm using it to drill.
It's going to help me restrictmy wrist a little bit more, use
the shoulder as a lever and I'mgoing to use it all my drill
sessions until I can build alittle bit more muscle memory.
So if you're interested, go toDinkDropTrainercom.
Check it out.
I think you're going to be realhappy with the results.
So let's get back.
Talk to Dorian.
(17:23):
You're on Blazing Paddles,season 2, episode 1, part 2.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Everyone likes to play traditional scoring.
I'm a fan of rally scoring.
Oh, me too so rally scoringmeans you're holding yourself
accountable and you are nevergiving up.
So you can lose a point onoffense and defense To where
traditional scoring.
It can go for 30, 45 minutesand you're making the same
mistakes.
I believe that's the way theplayers are getting better in
(17:49):
the pro world, such as the MLP.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
You know I agree with you because I'm in a new league
.
It's called paddle battle,something like that.
It's on Thursdays and it's it'srally scoring to 15.
You freeze at 13.
We played yesterday.
I played partnered with mycaptain.
We made up a line, that's.
The other thing is that wecould make up a line.
We had to reschedule game.
(18:12):
Only two.
We could only get two lines.
We were, we were able to.
So I love the flexibility.
But in that game conservative70% power placement, overpower
worked really well.
It limits doubt.
It limits the unforced errors,because if I make an error I've
just cost our team a point.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Without a doubt.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
And when you get frozen at 13, and I don't care
if they're at a four that numbercan start creeping up.
And now we're at 13, 12.
We're at a risk of losing thisbecause I've gone overboard and
overpowered when and I thinkthat that, um, in talking to a
lot of individuals and maybe getyour opinion on this, but once
(18:55):
they recognize that and dialeddown and started and I saw this
on a, on a, on a video too fromone of the pros but dial it down
and hit it a 70% and improveyour accuracy.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Without a doubt.
So I teach all of my athletesplacement over power wins.
There's a time and place to usepower, without a doubt.
But sometimes you're forcingyour own error, which means
you're in your own way Right.
Why, why, why?
But on the flip side of that,when you're using placement, do
not look for perfection.
If you look at the percentagesof pros who actually shoot drop
(19:28):
shots, they don't look for thebest shots, they're not nipping
it over the net, they're justgetting it over and preparing
for the next shot, which is therebuttal to make it
progressively towards the net.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Yeah, you know, I see that a lot in their dinking too
.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
I'm like, oh, they could have spread that one.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Oh, but it wasn't.
Maybe their footing was off,and that happens with me.
I'm like, okay, so my points.
I'm more of a keep the ball inplay, so a lot of our games go a
lot longer, right, sure, andI'm really mobile, so I can get
to a lot of balls that otherswould let go, so I can keep it
in play.
But it is about that.
Oh, shoot, I lost my train ofthought.
(20:04):
That never happens.
Shoot, I lost my train ofthought.
That never happens.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
I know what were you saying.
Do I say placement?
Place over power, right right.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Like you're not always gonna make perfect the
perfect shot, there could be offbalance issues or you just did.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
I just went out wide for a ball, just get it over,
just get it over.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
So sometimes my point is just live for another point
that's all.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
It is live for another shot.
Another shot's all it is Livefor another shot.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Another shot.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
That's what you want to look at Right.
When you look for another point, now you can get behind the
eight ball.
You're right.
If you look for another shot,it's always being prepared once
again, so you don't have to getprepared.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Right, that's what I teach people.
Yeah, no, I love that.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
I love that, say placement, overpower and stuff.
Some people were saying thedink is going away because the
power in the game is getting somuch with technology and
everything else.
Do you think the dink is beingphased?
Speaker 1 (20:53):
out, I mean.
So there's um, there's a giveor take with that so let's say
percentages of women who playpros pro doubles.
Okay, women speed up off of thebounce more.
Yeah, men never speed up off ofthe bounce.
Men typically speed up out ofthe air.
Right, they do flicks, they dorolls.
Um, it's, it's a different ballgame.
(21:14):
Why is that?
I'm not discrediting the powerof a woman, but I'm saying it's
easier to speed up to a womanoff of the ground and rebuttal
their counter rather than a man.
You speed up to them andthey're putting it away, yeah,
right, so that's just adifferent percentage.
So the dinks are more prevalentin men.
(21:35):
Women they speed up more.
They might get lower in theirstance to take the ball out of
the air more, take more highrisk shots.
Men typically know the area infront of them to where, let's
say, if your distance in frontis two feet and that's a stretch
you might take it at one and ahalf feet or one foot, you might
give yourself a balance.
I call it a cushion so what areyou saying?
(21:56):
that knows the distance?
I'm not sure.
I'm saying that you don't wantto reach too much.
If you're reaching, you'regoing to pop up, okay.
So I like to say think of itlike a force field.
You have a one foot force field.
A drill that I work with all ofmy athletes is I place a cone,
a foot in front of them and Isay everything behind this cone,
attack everything.
(22:19):
Everything behind the cone,everything in front of the cone
would be a ding you attack so ifit's still in the air, then you
attack it.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
If it's still in the air and it's gonna, then you
attack it.
He's saying you don't wait,absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Say I'm at the non-volley zone and there's a
cone at your foot.
I want to attack everythinghere right, right right but if
it's in front of there, I needto go in the kitchen or the
non-volley zone to take anappropriate dink, to set up that
next shot, which would be anout the air, attack right,
attack Right, or play it moreconservatively.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
And that will take your game to another level.
If you work that and understandhow far you can reach in
without popping up game changer.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Game changer.
I've taken people who wereconstant 3.0s here when I first
got here, took them to 4.5.
Really, Just with that oneskill, that sounds like a good
one.
You could work on the wall too.
Oh, my goodness, the wall isonce again my best friend.
And we actually have a dealwith Master Athletics and they
are a phenomenal company.
They're out of New York,Phenomenal paddles, but they
(23:22):
actually have training paddleswhich are sweet spot finders.
I training paddles which aresweet spot finders.
I'll go up on the hitting walljust with my, my mini paddle,
and just work the sweet spot.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Understand how much I can go inside the kitchen
understand what's too far,what's not too far and give
myself that grace.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
So if you do not have a sweet spot, finder, find one.
That's the little one.
It's the little one.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Okay, man, that would be good for me, because I get
in these ruts where I feel likeI'm hitting everywhere on the
paddle.
But the sweet spot yeah, it'smaddening.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Some of that's not watching you need to absorb some
of what Dorian's saying hereabout your mindset, because a
lot of times when we get outthere and you start dinking,
you're like I can't do this, Ican't even hit a ball Right away
you've lost.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
And once again that goes back into the neurological
hacks, and I did not have thatuntil last year.
I was so blessed to have acoach and his name was John
Louie Helped me out.
He's actually from France andhe would come back to Wilmington
, North Carolina, occasionallyand train me and he worked with
me with breathing techniques.
He worked many differentvariations to help me get to the
(24:33):
next level of where I'm at nowand it has changed my life
completely.
And what is your rating rightnow?
Oh man, I'm the best two five.
I'm the best two five Currently.
Right now, my duper sits atfour, eight, four, eight, four,
eight.
So I'm doing a documentation onmy Instagram.
Uh, you can find me at Dorianbrownpb or pickleball Um, and
I'm doing a roadbrownpb orpickleball um and I'm doing a
road to five.
Oh, so I'm actually playing anevent at dill, dinkers and
denton tomorrow yeah, I saw thenotice today that it's closed
for that so you want to go pro,right, I do.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Yeah, that's my dream .
Speaker 1 (24:56):
So last year, I played 33 tournaments.
Did you really given a lot oftime to pick a lot?
I've traveled all over theunited states, gave myself the
opportunity with a lot of grace.
Once again, if you, if you'renot losing, you're not learning,
and I'm just as long aspickleball takes me here, I will
be here.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Hey Lou.
I don't know if you know all ofthe pros, but Sam, what's her
last name?
Parker?
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Sam Samantha Parker.
Sure, sure, she's our hometowngirl.
She plays at dip.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
She does, but she's also.
We've seen seen her walk fromlike you know, just playing a
really good player to now beingon the Orlando squeeze and it
just watching her dedication tojust the practice and then
having it pay off.
You know getting on the teamand she's just the sweetest
person.
She's got a great mindset.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
What gave me the challenge to actually make it
further was just the people Iwould get beat on by.
Last year, so once again,playing so many tournaments, we
actually had a kid from NC State.
His name was Colin Schick,phenomenal player.
He actually beat Ben Johnsonsingles two years ago.
Phenomenal he would come andplay our money balls.
Washed us, washed us.
But just to understand thatexperience, we had a pro, henry
(26:05):
Boyle, phenomenal player.
He's a 5.7 player, sponsored byhirachi paddles.
Uh, I think.
Uh, there's a lot of prosactually now using those paddles
, but he was one of the firstI've ever seen.
But having those playerschallenge me to take it to the
next level, once again being a3-5.
I've been pickled many times,especially the tournament
against khan shik.
I could probably count on myhand six times, five times times
(26:27):
.
If that, I'd give them six.
Go for it that.
I've been pickled and therehave been many times where I
want to say you know, it'spickleball for me.
What is my journey with this?
But, once again, just learningthrough the obstacles and the
trials and tribulations I'vebeen given, I just stuck with it
.
Now I'm in Dallas, texas.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
You probably saw this the other day, I think Riley
Newman and his partner gotpickled twice by Ben Johnson and
Annalie it can happen to anyone.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
I tell people all the time anyone can have a great
day, but also anyone can have abad day, so I don't beat myself
up much.
Once again, I give myself a lotof grace and that's what I
would tell any player Work withyourself.
If you want to get better,train yeah.
If you want to seek instruction, find an instructor.
You don't even have to be themost highest rated instructor,
(27:16):
you just have to care, andthat's, once again, pick a walk.
I know we are a community.
We treat everyone like familyand we love everyone as they are
as soon as we walked in andyou're, you greeted us.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
I I just you have something about you that's just
very makes you want to know youand you're very personable and
approachable and I don't.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
I don't want to like get us canceled, but it's God.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
God, that's never getting you canceled with us.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
It's God, yeah, 100% you know honestly, I trust in my
entirety and his will is my wayand whatever he wants me to do,
I will.
I love that I'm here and onceagain, our values here are faith
, family and work.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
I saw that.
I didn't see that.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Work is our last priority.
We pray before meetings.
We do daily devotionals I.
We pray before meetings.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
We do daily devotionals.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Once again, our community here.
I would not be here without,once again, brad Stanford, amber
Stanford and Gustavo.
They are phenomenal and theyjust help me be the best version
I can.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
That's incredible and I'm so glad that you brought it
up.
I mean you're faith forward forsure.
I mean I wake up every morningand I say Today is the day that
the Lord gave me Make the mostof it right and I start my day
without looking at my phone andgoing to my devotional there he
goes.
And that is being, and thenreading the verses that are at
the bottom of the devotional,because that word in my head
(28:36):
sets my day.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
So I'll actually one of my friends here.
She's actually from Ohio, hername is Vicky Okay, Vicky Bates,
and she gave me this wristband.
Yeah, and I have a wristbandthat says what would Jesus do.
Yeah, and she gave me this oneand it says what would Jesus do?
He would love forever.
And the cool part about it is,if I scan my phone?
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yes, he has one too.
I've got a yappy Right If Iscan my phone.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
It gives you a daily verse every day and once again,
it's just understanding andkeeping yourself grounded,
because most of the time we getin our own way and our decision
might not be the best decision.
And once again I'm around sucha great co-staff here to where
they teach me to be an owl Justsit back and observe, listen and
understand the direction goingforward rather than being a
(29:22):
parrot going with it.
Right, you want to understandfrom a back or from a point of
view, not being involved, ratherthan just being in the mix
every day.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know I even have juststarted to cause I, I, I'm super
competitive and that used tocloud my behavior on the
pickleball court and I had tohave a real good talk with God
on this one.
You know, letting his lightshine through me no matter the
(29:51):
circumstances.
So sometimes I won't, you know,I may not be as bubbly because
I can't do both Like sometimes Ican't focus and be the bubbly
self, but always be light, thelight right and let that shine
through me.
And it takes intentionalitysometime to say, okay, holy
Spirit, just come through me inthis, because you know my
(30:13):
competitive nature wants to takeover and I can't, I can't let
that right.
That's not.
That's not who I want to beprojecting.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
And once again, pride always comes before the fall.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Totally.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
You know.
So if you could put yourselfaside and understand to be
selfless.
You are your best version.
Yeah, you know, because maybeyou're 80%, someone's 150.
And that's what we live by here.
Once again, brad tells me allthe time Dorian, if you don't
walk in with your hand up, walkback out.
And I take that seriously Onceagain he's teaching me how to
deliver on a daily basis, andfor the last eight years of
(30:44):
teaching, I have close to 56,000hours under my belt.
Wow, and with that being said,I was always team Dorian.
Now I have a great franchisebehind me, backing me every day,
practically helping me be thebest version I can be.
So it's no longer team Dorian,it's team Pickleball Kingdom,
with Dorian attached to it, andI give my life to this place.
(31:04):
Once again, I am honored andblessed to be here and just meet
individuals like you two, youknow what they are blessed to
have.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
You, you're true light and I can't believe that
we've had the opportunity totalk to you.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Well, we keep doing this too.
We keep bumping into people viaPickleball, whether they have
another business, or people likeLisa Sure.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
People up another business, or people like lisa
sure it's people like francineto it, if it's cole whitaker
kevin, kevin this guy, crown,crown people, people in this.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Maybe it's the sport it lends itself.
It's a little bit lighter, it'sfriendlier, but everybody seems
to it's like a.
It's a community yeah,definitely.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Well, I definitely, I definitely take a spin on it.
I've never played tennis, neverplayed racket sports, but it's
a different, it's a differentenergy in tennis.
You can see people, they'revery, they're hard right, and
maybe that's because some peoplehad the opportunity financially
to be in a country club andsome people did not.
So now you have the people thatweren't in country clubs kind
(31:57):
of bitter and full of animositytowards the people who may have
had opportunities, you know.
So I give chances to anyone.
I feel as if, whether you haveeverything or nothing, I treat
you as if who you are and I justwant to offer the best.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Well, you're taking the command to the next level,
the right to love others, andthat's sweet, and I think it's
cool that you're the firstperson I've met that knows where
I'm from.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Randolph Ohio.
I mean nobody knows that, butit's funny because Lisa did too.
Let's try this again.
O-h, ohio, come on.
Oh, you did it wrong.
I'm from.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Ohio.
Come on, come on.
Well, thank you for sittingdown with us, dorian.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
You guys got to visit this facility.
We'll put this out and we'llmake sure we tag you with this
beautiful facility right on.
You've got your uh, your key,uh, the values that are on the
wall.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
You see, I can't wait for the one to open up near us,
that's what I've been waitingfor.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Until you see more, I'm not going to give the deets
away I know what they need.
That one in the dfw area isgoing to change once pickleball
kingdom hits the scene yes, Ilove it once again, it was my
pleasure to be here with you andwish nothing but the best.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Well, we wish you nothing but the best and we're
going to call on you to help usout with a birthday party Right
on, all right.
Thank you Awesome.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Thank you, god bless.
And, once again, pride always comes before the
fall.
You know.
So if you can put yourselfaside and understand to be
selfless, you are your bestversion.
You know, because maybe you're80%, someone's 150.
And that's what we live by here.
Once again, brad tells me allthe time Dorian, if you don't
walk in with your hand up, walkback out.
And I take that seriously.
Once again, he's teaching mehow to deliver on a daily basis
(00:22):
and for the last eight years ofteaching, I have close to 56,000
hours under my belt and, withthat being said, I was always
Team Dorian.
Now I have a great franchisebehind me, backing me every day,
practically helping me be thebest version I can be.
So it's no longer Team Dorian,it's Team Pickleball Kingdom,
with Dorian attached to it, andI give my life to this place.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Once again, I am honored and blessed to be here
and just meet individuals likeyou two.
Hello, picklers.
Here we go with part two, as wespeak with Dorian Brown.
Dorian is the head proPickleball Kingdom in Plano and
he spent some time with us afterthe boot camp was completed and
we really got a chance to learnmore about his story.
It's a really neat origin storyfor a guy who just picked up a
paddle for the first time eightyears ago in Wilmington, north
Carolina and you know, fastforward seven and a half years.
(01:14):
He's in a car driving crosscountry to accept a job out in
Texas, a place he'd never beenbefore Plano, texas as the head
pro at Pickleball Kingdom.
So he's a great kid.
He has such an amazing attitudeand I think you'll leave this
episode feeling better aboutyour game and better about the
habits that you form whileyou're practicing on your game.
So why don't you put your earson, have a listen, saddle up
(01:36):
You'll be glad you did.
Got a treat.
Now we're going to sit downwith Dorian Brown.
He's the head pro out here atPickleball Kingdom Just finished
the boot camp.
Dorian, before we get into theboot camp itself, tell us a
little about your story.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Awesome.
So I actually just relocatedhere from North Carolina in
February with the thoughtprocess of taking it to the next
level.
So I've been playing eightyears all in Wilmington, north
Carolina, where I picked it upin 2016, instantly fell in love
with it.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
How did you come?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
across pickleball in 2016?
Honestly, it was an option aftercollegiate football, so I had a
full ride to play division twoin Ohio at a school called Hiram
.
It was very small but I did notmake it and it was due to the
fact of not giving my all.
I was granted an opportunity inWilmington, north Carolina,
with a couple of friends, pickedit up at a recreational park
(02:31):
and I said you know what?
I think I can go a long waywith this and I took it head on,
started teaching initially andI got PPR certified and fell in
love with helping people, notonly mentally, but emotionally,
oh, I like it.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Can you help my husband emotionally on the
pickleball court?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I need an emotional support animal out there with me
the whole time.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Anytime you're ready, come to Pickleball Kingdom
Plano.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
So you do your lessons now.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I do so.
I work full time being the headpro here at Pickleball Kingdom
Plano.
Currently I've been here threemonths teaching close to 70
lessons Wow, and once again,just helping so many people.
We have a big following here.
We have close to 800 members,which are all in different ways
we have golden memberships, wehave ace memberships and we have
team memberships.
So we offer an arrangement ofopportunities just so you can
(03:15):
come in and teach and learn fromus, and we have so many coaches
here to supply knowledge.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
You know we were talking about this on the way to
.
Sorry to cut you off, but youknow there's a glut.
Of all the facilities wereopening up, I mean as the
pickleball boom was just going,and there's going to be some
that make it, some maybe not,we've seen.
One of the most difficultthings is figuring out that
price point.
You're just talking aboutmemberships.
Were you involved in trying to?
What's going to work here andhow are we going to draw members
(03:41):
?
We're not going to overprice it.
How did y'all figure that out?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
So it's pretty ironic .
Actually In Wilmington, northCarolina, our annual membership
was $300.
Annual, yeah, annual, that'snice and it was nothing.
It was a very small townretirement community so you
would imagine a lot of peopleare on fixed incomes.
Here it's a little different.
(04:07):
The price differential of theincome annually is much more.
So you have individuals herewith money maybe to offer or to
give away freely to where inwilmington they were sort of set
in their way, um, so it was alittle different moving here.
There are so many clubs.
You have the pickler, you havepickler universe, uh, you have
dill, dinkers and denton.
There's so many places tocompete, but what sets
pickleball kingdom apart?
We are a family and we offerpeople, community.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Okay, so they're not all individually owned.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
So we actually have one franchise.
We have one franchisee with us,so we own this facility in
Plano.
We have Dallas North locationnext to the Gallerio.
And we also have the Fort Worthlocation opening up June 7th.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
I know and I just talked to, is it Gustavo?
Oh yeah, and I was like, whenis my Colleyville one coming?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
And we've been bumped on the list a little bit, so
I'll tell you that's actuallyone of the reasons why I moved
here, not only for the play andreaching a competitive sense,
but because of the backing ofthe individuals ahead of me.
So you have Brad Stanford, youhave Amber Stanford, you have
Dan Jenkins, you have Gustavo, Imean his wife Barbara.
They're all phenomenal and theywill take you to the next level
.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Nice, nice.
So when you said emotionally,what do you mean?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So I feel as if a lot of people in general in life, a
lot of people in general oflife, they don't understand how
to control emotions.
And then your physicality lackswhy are you looking at me?
Your mental lacks, and now wecan't understand ourself for who
we actually are because there'ssome sort of bridge not merging
the two.
So I help people understandemotions, I allow you to
(05:34):
understand.
There's neurological hacks toprocess with the game itself, to
take it to the next level,whether you are a beginner,
intermediate or an advancedplayer let me ask you this, okay
.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
So I went through a really bad um, how yips a period
of of a serving, a year withthe serve?
The worst thing that you couldI I, it was totally a mind thing
total mind thing.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Sure, head game for sure have you have you had
people with the yips.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
have you gone?
I've even had the yips, ReallyRight.
So I believe pickleball is aneasy sport to learn but a hard
sport to master.
We say that all the time.
So at the end of the day, ifyou're never growing, I tell
people you either fall in twodifferent parties.
You're a fan of the sport oryou're a student of the sport.
I'm the student, so an exerciseI'll have you do.
Obviously they can't see it,but I do it with you to raise
(06:21):
your hands Now, raising them allthe way up.
I ask people to give that mucheffort.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yes, this is what I want you to give every time.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Now do jazz hands.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Stop, oh, I'm here with you, come on.
Come on, I can't do it, I can't.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Oh, no One of them can.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
I'm sure you're.
I'm sure you're great in manyother facets.
Come on, girl.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Come on, I can barely high five you with my left hand
.
It just doesn't work, no matterhow hard I try.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
But I've had the yips .
So one thing that I always tellmy athletes is to train.
It's one thing to play on thecourt, but it's another thing to
work skill-based techniques toget to the next level.
So we offer four hitting wallshere, which two are regular, two
are simulated.
I've never seensimulation-based hitting walls
before which they work newskills.
Never seen simulation-basedhitting walls before which they
(07:05):
worked new skills, new tips andnew tricks for you to take on
the court.
You have a simulator here.
Oh, absolutely which one?
We have two of them actuallyupstairs on the mezzanine.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Do you know the name of it?
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Oh man.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Is it PlayCow?
Speaker 1 (07:17):
You're going to draw a blank.
I'm going to go look at it.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Shame on Dorian, I think we're going to the
PlayCount facility next week tocover them on the podcast, so
I'll go check that out.
So it's about not playing thegame.
It's what you do, not playingthe game, it's the drills and
the training.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So to be your best version.
It always takes 10,000 hours tomaster something.
Everyone has that understanding.
But it's a big misconceptionbecause 10,000 perfection hours
takes mastery.
So it's all about practicing,it's all about putting in what
it is off the court to be thebest on the court.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
I like that, so okay.
So then, how do I get out ofover, over, over the yips?
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Over the yips, One believe in yourself.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Believe in.
Whatever you do, whether it'son or off the court, you have to
be your biggest cheerleader.
Whether you have a greathusband behind you, whether
you're a phenomenal wife, youhave to support yourself.
That's number one.
Confidence.
Confidence is key.
You have to get out of your ownway.
Everyone wants to be in theirown way and they cause their own
issues to occur, to where, ifyou take a step back and look at
(08:18):
everything in a macro lifestyle, you will start to understand
and build the micro levelsproperly to get to the next
level you will start tounderstand and build the micro
levels properly to get to thenext level.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
So you know what I resorted to was going to this um
, really bad.
Serve that I when I say bad,it's just not, it doesn't look
good, but it's, it's 99.9%.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
So let me ask you this Are you bouncing the ball
off the ground or are you takingthat I am?
Speaker 3 (08:41):
And trust me like they're.
Like you said this, this gameis so hard to master that I have
other things that I'm workingon.
And besides, I watched the prosthe serve is not.
They're not winning on theirserves.
You know, that's happening inrec league.
I don't care about my serveLike it's in fact, I get a kick
when I do my stupid serve andand somebody misses it and I'm
(09:02):
like wow.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Sure.
Well, most of the time it'swhat comes after that, that
counts.
Well, most of the time it's allin preparation.
I tell people all the time ifyou're prepared, you never have
to get prepared.
So it's all about handplacement.
Where's your paddle?
What I teach is always haveyour paddle south.
You want to have it towards theground to gain that top spin
(09:26):
curvature, because if you don't,now you're preparing with the
paddle north, going south,trying to look for perfection
rather than already looking atthe perfection.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Dorian, there's no way.
My ball is facing that net, mypaddle is facing that.
There's no way to miss this.
It's there like there.
So it's going in one place andit's going right there and it's
going in why I challenge you.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
if you give me five minutes of your time, I could
fix your serve.
I will.
I would love that I wouldchallenge.
I seen your husband looking atmy backhand.
He said wow, what is?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
this, yeah, cause I, I mean that's all right.
So quick, quick story.
I'm a natural lefty.
Okay, tore, my bicep playingpickleball.
Sure, so learn to play, righty,tore, that bicep playing
pickleball.
And I was going to go back, butshe was, like you know, you're
actually more consistent righty,but I don't have some of the
natural instincts, includingwhen I'm at the net, that the
(10:13):
jab, the punch, the defensivething.
Sure, I'm off, I'm popping itup or I'm putting it in the net
or whatever.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
I'm going to tell you something very ironic.
The best player I ever playedwith was a 4.0 player in
Wilmington, north Carolina.
His name is Jared Ingersoll andhe was ambidextrous.
We would call this guy anoctopus.
He had a backhand punch withhis right hand, but better
putaways with his left hand, andthis guy you couldn't get the
ball back and he would beat 5.0s, 6.0s and you've never seen it
(10:41):
coming, never.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
And we've talked about that, but it comes down to
a confidence thing too.
So in practice, like takingthose things off the court and
practicing them, and that's justwhat we're going to have to do.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Well, you mentioned like you have four hitting walls
.
What kind of drills do you doon a hitting wall?
So it's not just I mean youhave a plan right, because
you're saying 10,000 perfectionhours.
I like that, as opposed to justgoing out and whacking them all
.
What do you do on a wall.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
What's the exercise?
So I'm going to be completelyhonest with you.
Number one you have to beselfless.
A great leader is alwaysselfless.
If you're a selfish leader,your time will fall short.
So it's all about taking otherswith you one, but taking
yourself there as well, becausesometimes, when we put ourselves
on the back burner, we willnever be our best version.
So I am brand new to the area,once again moved here in
(11:28):
February from North Carolina andI have no friends, no family,
but I treat everyone here as myfamily and those hitting walls
are my best friends.
So I hit every morning for 30minutes.
If you are a beginner tointermediate player, even an
advanced player, I would get aregimen set in place and I would
(11:50):
drill at least three to fourtimes a week for 30 minute
increments on the hitting wall,why you understand the pace and
the acceleration you give offand what is coming back to you
so you can work dinks.
I work a lot of lateral dinks.
So going straight,understanding how to keep the
ball on my right side,understanding how to keep it on
my left, taking it up a step, alot of 4-0 plus players.
We believe in a triangle systemIf you hit the ball to your
(12:12):
left side, your backhand'salways countering, compared to
if you hit a backhand to yourright side, it's always
countering with the forehand.
Learning those basic tendenciesand techniques will take you to
another level.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
I foresee a backboard in our future.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I'm a wonk, I'm a former, you know, you grew up
playing sports outside and Iwould almost sometimes I'd
rather practice, go out there,just grind it and then I get out
in the games and sometimes itdoesn't translate, but I'd
really like to practice.
We should get it.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
But that's the thing is like.
I told him he needs some worktechnically, which I sought out
and got, and the guy who taughtme a good serve now sees my
serve and says I slid back, butI told him hey, I've got all
these other things I'm workingon, and he was like I'm making
improvements here.
I'll work on that one later.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
If you're hitting, if you have the wrong technique
and you hit 10 000 balls.
Yeah, the wrong way.
How's that going to help you?
It?
Speaker 3 (13:10):
will never help you.
I and I don't think that a lotof people have seek.
They seek help in their play.
But let's go, let's take a stepback and look at mechanics well
, it goes back to the exercisebased upon raising your hand.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Everyone wants to be a fan of the sport.
Everyone loves Anna Lee Waters,ben Johns, gabe Tardio but no
one wants to mimic their way.
So if I had any advice forsomeone, it's to be a master,
mimic, understand tendencies ofwhat players use and master that
Because they're doing somethingright and they're at a whole
different level.
If they can hit 10 balls in arow, a beginner might be
(13:52):
satisfied hitting one ball in arow.
Learn how to hit consecutively,learn how to understand
yourself and what you're good at.
Write them down and tackle whatyou want to achieve.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I like it we're gonna write this down a lot in uh
about grip pressure lately, sure, sure.
Now, what do you?
What is your basic philosophyof grip pressure?
Speaker 1 (14:09):
It depends on where you're at on the court.
So imagine if you're at thebaseline.
We have three different typesof grips we can utilize.
We have a five grip, which isvery hard, so it's imagine
squeezing your hand until youhave just blood racing.
You have a three, which is ahandshake, very moderate.
Then you have a one.
Say, you spilled your favoritecup of coffee At the baseline.
I'm more a one Because you wantto be loose, you want to
understand the stroke itself andwork in motion rather than
(14:31):
forcing a bad shot.
If I am up at the net, I mightbe more of a three Because I
want to understand how I can addpower with the set paddle.
Because you have to understandthe paddle is not hard at all.
It's a piece of wood, honeycore.
Right Now, the technology ischanging.
It's like brand new iPhones.
Someone can come out here withan iPhone 6 compared to playing
(14:53):
with an iPhone 16.
Two totally different ballgames.
But you want to understand whenand why to use those grip
pressures.
Ie same with the grips.
Either use Eastern, continentalor Western.
Okay, how about yourself?
Varying grips?
I use all of them, do youreally?
Yeah, okay, there's some prosthat use one, kwong Dong, for
example.
Love.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Kwong Dong.
He uses a.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Western.
That's why you hear him gruntso much.
My mentor actually, back home,his name's Christopher Williams,
great guy, great guy.
He uses a Western, but he alsocomes from 40 years of tennis.
Okay.
So a Western is it's more open.
Western is maybe like imaginetaking a pizza out of an oven
and serving it to all yourfriends.
It's a flat hand, looking atthe palm or the back of your
(15:34):
hand up, palm down, okay.
And Continental is more of anEastern.
Eastern's a handshake.
Continental is more tilted,yeah, okay, which gives you more
access to a topspin.
Right, and that's what youwould want essentially.
A lot of people get carriedaway with it, but a topspin's
the best way to go about it.
My new coach, kevin, right here, probably has the best two-hand
(15:54):
backhand I've seen, really, andhe uses Continental, really,
yeah.
Now, what were the skills goingback to this PCD bootcamp?
What were the skills that theywere the ladies were working on
today?
Oh man, they worked a lot.
So we had five courtsdesignated for the women to
learn whether it was serve andreturn, drop shots, a backhand
punch for defense, which isreally important because let's
(16:15):
say someone, let's say you hit adead dink and you're just
sitting there expecting the ballto come.
How do I prepare for that?
We had what transition zone?
Learning how to move throughtransition, whether moving
progressively or taking a stepback, preparing for the next
ball.
And the best part about it iswe actually designated a court
for point play, but I did itdifferently.
(16:36):
Everyone likes to playtraditional scoring.
I'm a fan of rally scoring.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Hey guys, I know one of the overriding messages we
heard from Dorian score.
Hey guys, I know one of theoverriding messages we heard
from Dorian especially is theneed to practice, the need to
drill and to ingrain good habitsinstead of bad.
I can tell you, one of my badswing habits I have is I'm a
little too wristy pickleball.
I don't know if any of you arechallenged with that, but I
stumbled across a product calledthe Dink Drop Trainer and I'm
(17:02):
loving it.
I'm using it to drill.
It's going to help me restrictmy wrist a little bit more, use
the shoulder as a lever and I'mgoing to use it all my drill
sessions until I can build alittle bit more muscle memory.
So if you're interested, go toDinkDropTrainercom.
Check it out.
I think you're going to be realhappy with the results.
So let's get back.
Talk to Dorian.
(17:23):
You're on Blazing Paddles,season 2, episode 1, part 2.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Everyone likes to play traditional scoring.
I'm a fan of rally scoring.
Oh, me too so rally scoringmeans you're holding yourself
accountable and you are nevergiving up.
So you can lose a point onoffense and defense To where
traditional scoring.
It can go for 30, 45 minutesand you're making the same
mistakes.
I believe that's the way theplayers are getting better in
(17:49):
the pro world, such as the MLP.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
You know I agree with you because I'm in a new league
.
It's called paddle battle,something like that.
It's on Thursdays and it's it'srally scoring to 15.
You freeze at 13.
We played yesterday.
I played partnered with mycaptain.
We made up a line, that's.
The other thing is that wecould make up a line.
We had to reschedule game.
(18:12):
Only two.
We could only get two lines.
We were, we were able to.
So I love the flexibility.
But in that game conservative70% power placement, overpower
worked really well.
It limits doubt.
It limits the unforced errors,because if I make an error I've
just cost our team a point.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Without a doubt.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
And when you get frozen at 13, and I don't care
if they're at a four that numbercan start creeping up.
And now we're at 13, 12.
We're at a risk of losing thisbecause I've gone overboard and
overpowered when and I thinkthat that, um, in talking to a
lot of individuals and maybe getyour opinion on this, but once
(18:55):
they recognize that and dialeddown and started and I saw this
on a, on a, on a video too fromone of the pros but dial it down
and hit it a 70% and improveyour accuracy.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Without a doubt.
So I teach all of my athletesplacement over power wins.
There's a time and place to usepower, without a doubt.
But sometimes you're forcingyour own error, which means
you're in your own way Right.
Why, why, why?
But on the flip side of that,when you're using placement, do
not look for perfection.
If you look at the percentagesof pros who actually shoot drop
(19:28):
shots, they don't look for thebest shots, they're not nipping
it over the net, they're justgetting it over and preparing
for the next shot, which is therebuttal to make it
progressively towards the net.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Yeah, you know, I see that a lot in their dinking too
.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
I'm like, oh, they could have spread that one.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Oh, but it wasn't.
Maybe their footing was off,and that happens with me.
I'm like, okay, so my points.
I'm more of a keep the ball inplay, so a lot of our games go a
lot longer, right, sure, andI'm really mobile, so I can get
to a lot of balls that otherswould let go, so I can keep it
in play.
But it is about that.
Oh, shoot, I lost my train ofthought.
(20:04):
That never happens.
Shoot, I lost my train ofthought.
That never happens.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
I know what were you saying.
Do I say placement?
Place over power, right right.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Like you're not always gonna make perfect the
perfect shot, there could be offbalance issues or you just did.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
I just went out wide for a ball, just get it over,
just get it over.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
So sometimes my point is just live for another point
that's all.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
It is live for another shot.
Another shot's all it is Livefor another shot.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Another shot.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
That's what you want to look at Right.
When you look for another point, now you can get behind the
eight ball.
You're right.
If you look for another shot,it's always being prepared once
again, so you don't have to getprepared.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Right, that's what I teach people.
Yeah, no, I love that.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
I love that, say placement, overpower and stuff.
Some people were saying thedink is going away because the
power in the game is getting somuch with technology and
everything else.
Do you think the dink is beingphased?
Speaker 1 (20:53):
out, I mean.
So there's um, there's a giveor take with that so let's say
percentages of women who playpros pro doubles.
Okay, women speed up off of thebounce more.
Yeah, men never speed up off ofthe bounce.
Men typically speed up out ofthe air.
Right, they do flicks, they dorolls.
Um, it's, it's a different ballgame.
(21:14):
Why is that?
I'm not discrediting the powerof a woman, but I'm saying it's
easier to speed up to a womanoff of the ground and rebuttal
their counter rather than a man.
You speed up to them andthey're putting it away, yeah,
right, so that's just adifferent percentage.
So the dinks are more prevalentin men.
(21:35):
Women they speed up more.
They might get lower in theirstance to take the ball out of
the air more, take more highrisk shots.
Men typically know the area infront of them to where, let's
say, if your distance in frontis two feet and that's a stretch
you might take it at one and ahalf feet or one foot, you might
give yourself a balance.
I call it a cushion so what areyou saying?
(21:56):
that knows the distance?
I'm not sure.
I'm saying that you don't wantto reach too much.
If you're reaching, you'regoing to pop up, okay.
So I like to say think of itlike a force field.
You have a one foot force field.
A drill that I work with all ofmy athletes is I place a cone,
a foot in front of them and Isay everything behind this cone,
attack everything.
(22:19):
Everything behind the cone,everything in front of the cone
would be a ding you attack so ifit's still in the air, then you
attack it.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
If it's still in the air and it's gonna, then you
attack it.
He's saying you don't wait,absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Say I'm at the non-volley zone and there's a
cone at your foot.
I want to attack everythinghere right, right right but if
it's in front of there, I needto go in the kitchen or the
non-volley zone to take anappropriate dink, to set up that
next shot, which would be anout the air, attack right,
attack Right, or play it moreconservatively.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
And that will take your game to another level.
If you work that and understandhow far you can reach in
without popping up game changer.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Game changer.
I've taken people who wereconstant 3.0s here when I first
got here, took them to 4.5.
Really, Just with that oneskill, that sounds like a good
one.
You could work on the wall too.
Oh, my goodness, the wall isonce again my best friend.
And we actually have a dealwith Master Athletics and they
are a phenomenal company.
They're out of New York,Phenomenal paddles, but they
(23:22):
actually have training paddleswhich are sweet spot finders.
I training paddles which aresweet spot finders.
I'll go up on the hitting walljust with my, my mini paddle,
and just work the sweet spot.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Understand how much I can go inside the kitchen
understand what's too far,what's not too far and give
myself that grace.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
So if you do not have a sweet spot, finder, find one.
That's the little one.
It's the little one.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Okay, man, that would be good for me, because I get
in these ruts where I feel likeI'm hitting everywhere on the
paddle.
But the sweet spot yeah, it'smaddening.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Some of that's not watching you need to absorb some
of what Dorian's saying hereabout your mindset, because a
lot of times when we get outthere and you start dinking,
you're like I can't do this, Ican't even hit a ball Right away
you've lost.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
And once again that goes back into the neurological
hacks, and I did not have thatuntil last year.
I was so blessed to have acoach and his name was John
Louie Helped me out.
He's actually from France andhe would come back to Wilmington
, North Carolina, occasionallyand train me and he worked with
me with breathing techniques.
He worked many differentvariations to help me get to the
(24:33):
next level of where I'm at nowand it has changed my life
completely.
And what is your rating rightnow?
Oh man, I'm the best two five.
I'm the best two five Currently.
Right now, my duper sits atfour, eight, four, eight, four,
eight.
So I'm doing a documentation onmy Instagram.
Uh, you can find me at Dorianbrownpb or pickleball Um, and
I'm doing a roadbrownpb orpickleball um and I'm doing a
road to five.
Oh, so I'm actually playing anevent at dill, dinkers and
denton tomorrow yeah, I saw thenotice today that it's closed
for that so you want to go pro,right, I do.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Yeah, that's my dream .
Speaker 1 (24:56):
So last year, I played 33 tournaments.
Did you really given a lot oftime to pick a lot?
I've traveled all over theunited states, gave myself the
opportunity with a lot of grace.
Once again, if you, if you'renot losing, you're not learning,
and I'm just as long aspickleball takes me here, I will
be here.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Hey Lou.
I don't know if you know all ofthe pros, but Sam, what's her
last name?
Parker?
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Sam Samantha Parker.
Sure, sure, she's our hometowngirl.
She plays at dip.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
She does, but she's also.
We've seen seen her walk fromlike you know, just playing a
really good player to now beingon the Orlando squeeze and it
just watching her dedication tojust the practice and then
having it pay off.
You know getting on the teamand she's just the sweetest
person.
She's got a great mindset.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
What gave me the challenge to actually make it
further was just the people Iwould get beat on by.
Last year, so once again,playing so many tournaments, we
actually had a kid from NC State.
His name was Colin Schick,phenomenal player.
He actually beat Ben Johnsonsingles two years ago.
Phenomenal he would come andplay our money balls.
Washed us, washed us.
But just to understand thatexperience, we had a pro, henry
(26:05):
Boyle, phenomenal player.
He's a 5.7 player, sponsored byhirachi paddles.
Uh, I think.
Uh, there's a lot of prosactually now using those paddles
, but he was one of the firstI've ever seen.
But having those playerschallenge me to take it to the
next level, once again being a3-5.
I've been pickled many times,especially the tournament
against khan shik.
I could probably count on myhand six times, five times times
(26:27):
.
If that, I'd give them six.
Go for it that.
I've been pickled and therehave been many times where I
want to say you know, it'spickleball for me.
What is my journey with this?
But, once again, just learningthrough the obstacles and the
trials and tribulations I'vebeen given, I just stuck with it
.
Now I'm in Dallas, texas.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
You probably saw this the other day, I think Riley
Newman and his partner gotpickled twice by Ben Johnson and
Annalie it can happen to anyone.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
I tell people all the time anyone can have a great
day, but also anyone can have abad day, so I don't beat myself
up much.
Once again, I give myself a lotof grace and that's what I
would tell any player Work withyourself.
If you want to get better,train yeah.
If you want to seek instruction, find an instructor.
You don't even have to be themost highest rated instructor,
(27:16):
you just have to care, andthat's, once again, pick a walk.
I know we are a community.
We treat everyone like familyand we love everyone as they are
as soon as we walked in andyou're, you greeted us.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
I I just you have something about you that's just
very makes you want to know youand you're very personable and
approachable and I don't.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
I don't want to like get us canceled, but it's God.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
God, that's never getting you canceled with us.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
It's God, yeah, 100% you know honestly, I trust in my
entirety and his will is my wayand whatever he wants me to do,
I will.
I love that I'm here and onceagain, our values here are faith
, family and work.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
I saw that.
I didn't see that.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Work is our last priority.
We pray before meetings.
We do daily devotionals I.
We pray before meetings.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
We do daily devotionals.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Once again, our community here.
I would not be here without,once again, brad Stanford, amber
Stanford and Gustavo.
They are phenomenal and theyjust help me be the best version
I can.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
That's incredible and I'm so glad that you brought it
up.
I mean you're faith forward forsure.
I mean I wake up every morningand I say Today is the day that
the Lord gave me Make the mostof it right and I start my day
without looking at my phone andgoing to my devotional there he
goes.
And that is being, and thenreading the verses that are at
the bottom of the devotional,because that word in my head
(28:36):
sets my day.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
So I'll actually one of my friends here.
She's actually from Ohio, hername is Vicky Okay, Vicky Bates,
and she gave me this wristband.
Yeah, and I have a wristbandthat says what would Jesus do.
Yeah, and she gave me this oneand it says what would Jesus do?
He would love forever.
And the cool part about it is,if I scan my phone?
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yes, he has one too.
I've got a yappy Right If Iscan my phone.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
It gives you a daily verse every day and once again,
it's just understanding andkeeping yourself grounded,
because most of the time we getin our own way and our decision
might not be the best decision.
And once again I'm around sucha great co-staff here to where
they teach me to be an owl Justsit back and observe, listen and
understand the direction goingforward rather than being a
(29:22):
parrot going with it.
Right, you want to understandfrom a back or from a point of
view, not being involved, ratherthan just being in the mix
every day.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know I even have juststarted to cause I, I, I'm super
competitive and that used tocloud my behavior on the
pickleball court and I had tohave a real good talk with God
on this one.
You know, letting his lightshine through me no matter the
(29:51):
circumstances.
So sometimes I won't, you know,I may not be as bubbly because
I can't do both Like sometimes Ican't focus and be the bubbly
self, but always be light, thelight right and let that shine
through me.
And it takes intentionalitysometime to say, okay, holy
Spirit, just come through me inthis, because you know my
(30:13):
competitive nature wants to takeover and I can't, I can't let
that right.
That's not.
That's not who I want to beprojecting.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
And once again, pride always comes before the fall.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Totally.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
You know.
So if you could put yourselfaside and understand to be
selfless.
You are your best version.
Yeah, you know, because maybeyou're 80%, someone's 150.
And that's what we live by here.
Once again, brad tells me allthe time Dorian, if you don't
walk in with your hand up, walkback out.
And I take that seriously Onceagain he's teaching me how to
deliver on a daily basis, andfor the last eight years of
(30:44):
teaching, I have close to 56,000hours under my belt.
Wow, and with that being said,I was always team Dorian.
Now I have a great franchisebehind me, backing me every day,
practically helping me be thebest version I can be.
So it's no longer team Dorian,it's team Pickleball Kingdom,
with Dorian attached to it, andI give my life to this place.
(31:04):
Once again, I am honored andblessed to be here and just meet
individuals like you two, youknow what they are blessed to
have.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
You, you're true light and I can't believe that
we've had the opportunity totalk to you.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Well, we keep doing this too.
We keep bumping into people viaPickleball, whether they have
another business, or people likeLisa Sure.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
People up another business, or people like lisa
sure it's people like francineto it, if it's cole whitaker
kevin, kevin this guy, crown,crown people, people in this.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Maybe it's the sport it lends itself.
It's a little bit lighter, it'sfriendlier, but everybody seems
to it's like a.
It's a community yeah,definitely.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Well, I definitely, I definitely take a spin on it.
I've never played tennis, neverplayed racket sports, but it's
a different, it's a differentenergy in tennis.
You can see people, they'revery, they're hard right, and
maybe that's because some peoplehad the opportunity financially
to be in a country club andsome people did not.
So now you have the people thatweren't in country clubs kind
(31:57):
of bitter and full of animositytowards the people who may have
had opportunities, you know.
So I give chances to anyone.
I feel as if, whether you haveeverything or nothing, I treat
you as if who you are and I justwant to offer the best.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Well, you're taking the command to the next level,
the right to love others, andthat's sweet, and I think it's
cool that you're the firstperson I've met that knows where
I'm from.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Randolph Ohio.
I mean nobody knows that, butit's funny because Lisa did too.
Let's try this again.
O-h, ohio, come on.
Oh, you did it wrong.
I'm from.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Ohio.
Come on, come on.
Well, thank you for sittingdown with us, dorian.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
You guys got to visit this facility.
We'll put this out and we'llmake sure we tag you with this
beautiful facility right on.
You've got your uh, your key,uh, the values that are on the
wall.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
You see, I can't wait for the one to open up near us,
that's what I've been waitingfor.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Until you see more, I'm not going to give the deets
away I know what they need.
That one in the dfw area isgoing to change once pickleball
kingdom hits the scene yes, Ilove it once again, it was my
pleasure to be here with you andwish nothing but the best.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Well, we wish you nothing but the best and we're
going to call on you to help usout with a birthday party Right
on, all right.
Thank you Awesome.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Thank you, god bless.
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