October 26, 2023 • 26 mins
Ever wondered how two childhood friends could turn their love for tennis into building the world's largest pickleball community? Meet Aaron Reznick and Matt Slowinsky, the force behind the "Pickleball Clinic," a thriving online community and academy that's playing a significant role in the rise of pickleball in New Jersey and beyond. Their dedication to the sport is cemented not only in their successful tennis and pickleball academies but also in their mission to serve players of all levels and foster future pickleball stars.
Get ready to grasp the nitty-gritty of pickleball as we dive into the fundamentals of this addictive sport. The difference between tennis and pickleball, the art of getting to the kitchen line, limiting the backswing, and using your body effectively are some of the crucial aspects we'll dissect. Moreover, we discuss key pickleball shots and why regular drills can be a game-changer for your performance. So whether you're an aspiring pickleball pro or a fan of the sport, this episode offers a wealth of practical insights and tips to refine your game. Remember, the ability to consistently drop the ball in the kitchen can make all the difference!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepickleballclinic
https://www.thepbclinic.com/
https://www.instagram.com/thepickleballclinic/
https://www.tiktok.com/@thepickleballclinic
Looking for a fitness app specifically designed for Pickleheads? Download the Aim7 app today. Use our url to get a 25% discount and try the app for a free trial before committing. https://www.aim7.com/?via=blazing-paddles
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):
I just think you can have a weak serve and a weak
return and you could still getby.
But if there's one thing thatbeing perfect, will elevate your
game the most, I think would bedropping every ball in the
kitchen from anywhere on thecourt.
If you can do that, if you havesoft enough hands or you can
release weight on the paddle,you can move your feet enough to
be in position and literallytake any ball, put it in the
(00:21):
kitchen from anywhere on thecourt.
Honestly, aside from everythingelse, you're, you'll probably,
you're probably a 4-5, at leasta 4-2-5, just from being able to
do that.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Hey guys, welcome back.
Blazing paddles, episode 3.
Today we have an episode you'regonna want to earmark so you
can go back.
Listen to these guys.
These are two young men, aaronResnick, matt Silvinsky and they
have an online community calledthe pickleball clinic.
The pick is pickleball is thelargest online community.
These guys have only been doingthis about three years.
Montclair pickleball is whatthey've established in New
(00:56):
Jersey.
They have three locations.
They're a building, anine-court facility.
They also have an organizationcalled first serve tennis their
instructors, their teachers.
So saddle up, take a listen.
You'll be glad you did have acouple young guys here today,
aaron and Matt and these guyshave the biggest online
(01:18):
community for pickleball.
I can't believe that when whenyou said that, I went and
checked it out and the numbersare pretty astonishing, what you
guys have managed to accomplish.
If I got this right and youguys can obviously tell me if
I'm not but on Facebook,pickleball clinic has a hundred
and over a hundred and seventeenthousand members, and then on
Instagram, you have over fortysix thousand followers.
(01:40):
That's insane, how let's?
Let's kind of back up a littlebit, because you guys Aaron
Resnick, matt Silvinsky, youguys are in.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
New Jersey.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Montclair, yes, I'm old and you've got three
locations.
You said you're building anine-court facility.
I mean, that's a lot to youknow, kind of motormouth,
without what all you guys haveable to accomplish.
Can you tell us, you know, giveus a little background.
How did you get here?
Speaker 1 (02:05):
You know, what we do in our pickleball endeavors
really mirrors the 95 pluspercent of pickleball players,
which is people that are notnecessarily addicted and up to
date on the pro scene, butpeople that are just playing
pickleball every day, living andloving the sport.
And you know, online we do havethis number one online
community for people that wantto learn and play pickleball.
Our Academies throughout NewJersey serve people that want to
(02:27):
learn and play pickleball, andso I think our growth and
success has really just mirroredthe growth of the sport.
As the sport grows and more andmore People want to learn about
pickleball and play, I thinknaturally our you know our
ventures will evolve.
We've been good friends sincemiddle school, started playing
tennis together when we're veryyoung.
We started giving tennislessons in high school we ended
up starting a tennis academywhile we're in college, actually
(02:49):
during COVID, just naturally.
You know we had internshipsboth and that was interested in
law and I was interested inmarketing and you know, with
COVID those ended up kind of notcoming to fruition, which was a
blessing in disguise.
We started our tennis academythen and there I continued
growing it once we graduatedcollege.
You know I've said this acouple times.
(03:10):
But I I met a kid freshman yearcollege named Ben.
We became good friends fromclub tennis and he tried to
convince me to play Pickleballas well and I said it sounded
kind of weird and you know heleft, left off on it.
He didn't really push it on mebut then a year later I realized
my friend Ben he's in thisWashington Post article that
he's the number one player inthe world and I said, wait, ben.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
John oh what, what?
Speaker 1 (03:32):
okay, alright, so that's kind of my intro to
pickleball.
And I still didn't try thesport until I end of senior year
because I was too naive.
But we really started playingtogether.
Once we started playing, westarted teaching.
Added on a second you knowAcademy to our tennis Academy,
moncler pickleball, which endedup growing.
Then wanted to do somethingbigger in the sport, affected
(03:52):
growth on a national, globalscale, started our media
platform.
That's a pretty short versionof how we got here.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah, I think that's the pretty much the summer right
there.
I think at the heart of it iswe're an academy.
So Montclair Pickleball is apickleball academy and the
pickleball clinic is reallylearning community.
The name hints at it a littlebit, but a lot of people come to
our Facebook group and ournewsletter and our community to
learn more about pickleball andthat's something that's pretty
unique about us.
(04:23):
Other clubs, especially in NewJersey yeah, they might have
some instructors to give lessons, but no one else really calls
themselves an academy.
They might be a club.
There might be some courts thatthey rent out and do some open
player leagues, that kind ofthing.
But we really built ourbusiness on clinics and teaching
and lessons and just building acommunity of players that might
have never heard of pickleballbefore and come to us for the
(04:45):
first time, or maybe they'recoming to us already 3-0s and
3-5s and want to make it to thenext level.
We serve everybody.
We have the highest levelcoaching staff in New Jersey and
that's pretty much how we builtit and now we've been able to
expand.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I'm dying to ask Okay , so wait a minute, you guys are
incredible.
Love the energy, love thehistory here.
And I mean you've answered alot of my questions and your
answers, but I mean I got toknow how long ago, because
pickleball just speaking huge inTexas during the pandemic.
So I mean it's just.
(05:17):
I mean I know people that arelooking to open up academies,
but no, it's not even close tothat.
I mean heck, we were stilltrying to get pickleball courts.
So what is the scene?
Give me the pickleball scene upthere.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
It's blown up Definitely.
It seems like every weekthere's new courts popping up
all over the place and we reallystarted playing pickleball in
2021.
And I mean since then.
The growth that we've even seensince then has been just
astronomical.
I mean it's just absoluteexponential growth.
So it is, we do have a hotspot,I think, in the New Jersey, new
(05:55):
York City, southern Connecticut,kind of that New York City
metropolitan area.
There's a lot of players aroundhere.
I know I went to, for example,I went to college at Holy Cross
up in the Boston area and upthere I know it's they're
playing a little bit, but I'llgo up and visit people and there
there aren't like courts upthere to go play on or anything
like that, so it's not quite aspopular and it's.
I know Texas is a huge hotspottoo in some areas.
(06:17):
So I think it kind of dependson the location.
That definitely I don't thinkit's been quite national in the
sense that every single city orstate has these, these big
pickleball communities, but itdefinitely is thriving here in
New Jersey, I think we're.
You know, you know when youhear pickleball hotspot, you
might think of the place likeFlorida, but I would argue that
our location is a hotspot forsure Easing things.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Well, you know it's something.
I want to make sure I'vereferenced this because, aaron,
you said something early on it.
Actually, you both kind ofreemphasize this.
You remember it was herelocally the MLP and PPA were
getting into this little catfight about who was going to do
what and they're stealingplayers from each other and all
that.
And we kind of got caught up init because we have, you know,
we've been to some tournaments.
We just started getting into itbut 99% of the people had no
(07:03):
idea, didn't care.
That meant nothing to thembecause their, their level of
pickleball had nothing to dowith the professional level, had
everything to do with their ownexperiential level and getting
together with their friends onthe social aspect.
And so you know, a year giveyou an indication to like a year
ago, just over a year ago,karen went to, was at the.
It was the Texas open, texasopen here.
(07:24):
So all the top players andeverything, and you could
literally like walk up and shakehands with the players.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Zero security, nothing.
And then walking up with ourdrinks and hand, no barriers,
you're just like.
You're there where they'repracticing, you're there where
they're playing.
You're getting autographs,pictures Nothing.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Nobody cared.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Okay, uh it that that changed dramatically.
And now, with nationals beinghere, it's going to be a whole
different scene.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, we've got national championships that are
going to be in.
Now, this has got to hurt.
I mean, they moved it fromcalifornia I forget what, it was
a real nice community butthey're moving it to farmers
branch texas, which has got tohurt california to lose
something else.
But, uh, yeah, nationalchampionships are going to be
here.
The players lounge Um, try notto look like you know old
(08:08):
clingers on that want to meetthese people.
But it's going to be a scene,but we're more interested still
in the playing part than we arein the pro part.
Uh, since you guys are, itsounds like you're both natural
teachers, um, educators.
What do you think when you'rebecause you get people of all
levels Uh, when people are firstgetting into pickleball, what
do you think is the first thingthat you try to impress upon
(08:30):
them?
That if you're going to be goodat the sport, you need to build
, you know these fundamentalskills right out of the bat.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
I think it's really important to come in with a
mindset that the fundamentalsare more important than anything
else.
In pickleball, um, you know thedinks and the volleys and the
footwork and the decision makingand core positioning that we
teach and our beginner are two oto three o three o to three,
five clinics those are the same.
You know volleys, dinks,decision making, core
(08:57):
positioning those are the samethings that the pros are using
at the top level.
It's different where.
You know, if you're talkingabout basketball, steph Curry
has a very different way ofapproaching his jump shot than
somebody in high school orcollege.
In pickleball, you know, a benjohn's backhand dink is pretty
similar to a three, five, four obackhand dink.
That's no offense to ben johnsat all, it's just the the shot
(09:17):
itself.
The mechanics are very similarAcross all levels.
What gets better and differentat the higher levels is just
consistency, corpositioning,decision making, um, their
ability to execute all that.
So this is a sport you can playyour entire life.
Uh, most people that startplaying don't stop, and if
you're going to play this sportyour entire life, it's so
important to learn the right way, because the longer you play
(09:38):
with wrong, incorrect technique,um, the harder it's going to be
to correct it.
You know, we have a tennisacademy with adults that come in
saying I've been playing for 20years and oh my god, some of
their forehands and backhands,it's.
It's like we have to do surgeryTo correct them.
And so when they come to us andthey say, hey, I want to learn,
I say great, this is youropportunity to start from the
ground up the right way.
(09:58):
So you know, coming back toready position, getting in the
kitchen line and staying in thekitchen line, eliminating your
backswing, so pretending thatyou have a brick wall behind
your elbows where you're nottaking a backswing, you're not
following through too much,using your legs and your body,
not your arms, keeping your feetmoving constantly at the line
like you're standing on hot lava, going for the safe shot and a
(10:19):
wide margin for air, not goingfor too much, returning and
running up to the line, servingand staying behind the line
these are all super importantthings you need to keep in mind
from the start, because if youdevelop these habits
consistently, they'll besubconscious forever.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
And we have one thing I'll add on there too.
We have a saying in Montclairpickleball.
It's coined by one of ourcoaches shout out, rob gruber.
It's we teach beginnerspickleball, not beginner
pickleball, and the key there isthat a lot of players without
that don't have formal training.
They might go out to the parkand play with their local, you
know, whoever 3-0, 3-5 players,they're going to learn the wrong
(10:53):
way and there's a ceiling thatyou're going to hit very quickly
.
You have to learn the soft game.
You have to learn thefundamentals the right way.
You can't just go out there andhit the ball hard and what we
see is that these players, theycome out and we teach them the
fundamentals the right way andthey might at first lose to some
of those players that have poorfundamentals.
But just go out, bang the ball,don't really play what we call
the right way, and they'll loseit first, but then eventually,
(11:17):
after a couple months ofpractice, their game goes like
that and they just skyrocket andthey'll surpass all those
players.
So that's really.
We hammer in those fundamentalsall day, because that really is
the best way to up your gamequick.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
That's me.
That's me right there.
What you just said, that's whatI.
That's what happened I got.
We were one of the earlierpeople around here playing
pickleball, and Didn't know whatwe were doing, and then a bunch
of.
Then, you know, our communitystarted growing and tennis
players started migrating overto pickleball and they surpassed
me in the beginning, eventhough I was playing way more
(11:51):
and I had been playing longer,and I was super frustrated, but
I just stuck with it and stuckwith it and layer after layer
started just adding things andthings and, like I'm playing
pickleball the way pickleballshould be played, and it's
really hard when you're playingagain, when you're playing with,
as tennis players are trying tounlearn the things that that in
tennis that don't translateover to pickleball.
(12:12):
Um, so I mean, there's somegreat things you know, and
especially when I can partnerwith them and we can figure out
that little Rhythm about what,what makes them good in tennis,
that does translate well overinto pickleball.
And then I can pick up with the.
You know the drops or the dinksor the.
You know the, the, the courtpositioning, you know.
That's another thing.
You know they're so used torunning right up to that line
(12:33):
and we'd get to get beat everytime on that side.
So you nailed it right thereand I just thought I keep
telling people it's about layersand because you can't, there's
only so much you can learn in acertain amount of time, well,
and you pointed to me afterabout half the thing.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Well, serve and stay.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
I love that.
You said that, thank you.
That's a fight we have Serveand stay.
I creep.
You heard it from the prosright here.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
I have a bad habit of creeping as far as I think,
though.
It is true, though, because youcan see tennis players come out
there and immediately theythey're banging away and they
have some shots and just blowyou away.
But then, once you know thekind of rising tide of the
people who are pure pickleballplayers get there, they do
things that the tennis playerssometimes have never even
(13:17):
considered.
So there is it's definitely,you know.
It helps, I think, when youfirst get going, but if you
still have the bad habits, thenthey're not going anywhere
anytime soon.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah, 100%.
I mean we, we definitely firmlybelieve that if you're a tennis
player and you learn the rightway, you're going to get good
very quickly.
The problem is and we were bothhigh level tennis players I
played division one and Aaronand I competed in the junior
resolve throughout our prettymuch our whole lives.
And I mean when we came out wehad some people that guided us
but we didn't have any formaltraining.
It took us a lot longer, Ithink, to get to, let's say, a
(13:48):
four or five level.
Then it would have if we hadsomebody that was really working
with us.
All right, here's how youshould be playing here.
Here are the right shots.
Here's how you hit this soft.
Here's when you hit this hard.
We have a one of our tenniscoaches.
He just graduated from college.
He was a very high level player, four star recruit, played at
Bates, one of the best divisionthree teams in the country, and
(14:10):
it took him only a couple ofmonths to get to like a solid
four, eight, essentially five ohlevel.
I mean because from the off theback we said, well, you're not
going to hit any of these shotshard, so he'll come out, we'll
get set up a little five, oh,plus group and we'll invite him
out and everyone's kind of like,wow, he's only been playing for
a couple of months, like histouch is really good.
Well, yeah, because we tell himone in doubt just go soft, put
it back in the kitchen so he'snot like off balance trying to
(14:32):
rip forehands or just speedingup for no reason in the kitchen
line.
And that really is the keythere.
But people don't understand it.
So you have to get a little bitof formal training and and play
with those higher level playersthat really understand the
fundamentals.
I mean I wish we had peoplelike us that we could work with
and play with and we firststarted out.
We would have got, but that'show we learned to.
We learned so much from, youknow, having to figure it out.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
So here's a you know this is a selfish question
because you just mentioned to itright now.
I think we're, you know you canhit that plateau and I'd say
we're solid between three, fiveand four.
No self rating.
Anyway, getting over that threefive, hump to a four, oh, I
think four O is where we'retrying to get.
What do you think?
What's you know oftentimes whatare the big dynamics, the
(15:16):
differentiators that get youfrom that three five where
everybody's three oh, three,five, but to get to a four oh,
it's a this.
You can tell the gamesdifferent, what's different.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
I would say consistency is probably one of
the bigger ones when we so wecoach a lot of players better.
So we have our clients, havethese levels with a three, three
, five level, three, five, four,four plus level.
That's sort of more higherlevels and the biggest
difference I'd say, if you'relooking at the three, five to
four level, which for us reallyplayers that are trying to get
to like a three, five, maybethree, seven, five, is the four
(15:45):
plus we're trying to breakthrough four oh.
The biggest thing isconsistency, I would say just
being able to put the ball backin the kitchen when you need to,
not making mistakes so like notmissing third shots.
Remember, right, if you'regonna miss a third shot, drop,
miss it high.
If you miss the net, therally's over, but if you miss it
high, you can at least fightback up and then also just
making good decisions.
(16:06):
I think that four oh is tendedto generally make much better
decisions.
Three, five will sometimesspeed up when in doubt, instead
of just trusting their shots tobe able to have, you have to
know that you can dink for Ourmany shots in a row and really
what the point draw.
So I think there's it's most ofthat and forward to forward
space.
You gotta stay active on yourfeet, but most of that
consistency.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah, I interviewed Riley Newman a few weeks ago but
I asked him what are twoaspects of pickleball that
people at any level can improveon and I think this really
applies to three, five to fouroh level shot selection and
decision make, or sorry, courtpositioning and decision making.
You know the shots you choose totake are gonna make a huge
(16:47):
difference where, at the threeoh to three, five level, you can
drive almost any ball andyou'll get away with it.
At the three, five, four ohfour plus level, you have to be
a lot more strategic, because ifyou drive the wrong ball,
players will let it out, let itgo out or if you're driving too
high, they'll counter it and putit away.
And then court positioning toknowing where to stand when to
move.
You know if you're standingcloser to a ball in your dink,
(17:09):
that's gonna make your shotbetter itself.
If you're following the ballbut you're standing too far away
, you're gonna be reaching andyou'll be off balance.
So the shot selection in thecourt positioning are definitely
two things that matter a lotmore when you get around that
For a level, okay.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
So this question where there is no right answer,
but it I'm just alwaysinterested in asking, especially
people who are at your talentlevel.
You're forced to pick one shot,most important shot.
What's the most important shotin pickleball?
I tend to.
I always say now and again I'mgonna be wrong, but I think it's
the return to serve.
But what do you guys say, whatdo you say, huh or?
Speaker 4 (17:44):
disturb the serve and I mean that maybe that's
because we're at a level whereyou get away with it at our
level, maybe what's the mostimportant shot.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Yeah, I got two answers there and one I'm going
to agree with you.
Every time I teach a beginnerclass I always say the serve is
the most important shot, becausewithout the serve you can't
play it.
So literally I would say theserve and the return of serve,
but in terms of just playinghigh level pickleball and
becoming the best player thatyou can be, I have to say the
dink.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah, I would agree, but I would group the dink
together with the drop and thereset and I'll take the word
dink by its literal meaning,which is the dink actually
stands for drop in the kitchen.
That's what it stands for,which is a little bit weird
because resets and drops arealso dropping in the kitchen.
(18:31):
So the meaning behind dinkactually applies to other shots.
So the drop in the kitchen, Ithink, is really the most
important shot and that appliesto any dink, any drop or any
reset.
Essentially, the ability to takeany ball and put it back in the
kitchen I think is probably themost important.
But I mean there's a ton ofright answers because, again,
(18:52):
the serve and the return, theystart off every single point.
I just think you can have aweak serve and a weak return and
you could still get by.
But if there's one thing that,being perfect, will elevate your
game the most, I think would bedropping every ball in the
kitchen from anywhere on thecourt.
If you can do that, if you havesoft enough hands where you can
release weight on the paddle,you can move your feet enough to
(19:13):
be in a position and literallytake any ball, put it in the
kitchen from anywhere on thecourt.
Probably, aside from everythingelse, you're probably a 4-5, at
least a 4-2-5, just from beingable to do that.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
And if there's one single thing that separates
amateur pickleball players fromprofessional pickleball players
is that the pros can put theball in the kitchen from
anywhere in the court.
It's not handspeed thatseparates them, it's not how
hard you can hit the ball, it'sthe ability to put it in the
kitchen.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
I know you're right, but it's just so cool when you
see these firefights and allthis stuff.
The guys are just going rapidfire back and forth and now you
see a lot of tutorials aboutthese serves that you can do.
That can really put people ontheir butt.
But again, if your serve is out, it's worthless.
It doesn't matter how hard itis.
But, like yesterday, we spent alot of time just dinking and
just doing some serves and justdoing some fundamentals.
(20:02):
I think Texas was brutal thissummer so we didn't probably get
as much drill time as we wanted, but as the weather cools off,
that's kind of what we're goingto focus on.
And also, we discovered I knowI kind of our social guy online
and discovered your onlinecommunity.
There's great stuff on thereand it'll be the drills and some
(20:23):
of the games that we're goingto incorporate into our own
routine.
What were you going to say, hun?
Speaker 4 (20:28):
I have a question.
Yeah, how much would yourecommend drilling versus
playing?
Speaker 1 (20:32):
I think it depends on your goals, because pickleball
is super fun, and if you don'treally care as much about
getting better and you just wantto have fun and play all day,
then, though I would argue thatif you want to play for fun,
well, the better you are, themore fun it is.
So, honestly, I would really goback and say whether you want
to have fun or whether your goalis to get as good as possible.
Drilling is always going to bethe answer At the pro level.
(20:55):
If your goals are more to getas good as physically possible,
as quick as possible, it's goingto be probably like a 4 to 1, 5
to 1 ratio of drilling toplaying, and that probably seems
almost impossible, just becausemost people you're usually
going out to play.
You know, imagine if you want towork on your third shot drop
and you're playing a game a gameto 11, you know, maybe you'll
get four or five, sixopportunities, maybe they'll
(21:15):
return to you, but you might notbe able to consistently work on
it.
If you go out and say, hey, canlet's drill the third shot drop
?
Hit me 200 third shot drops ina row.
You can hit many, many in a rowand make tiny adjustments every
shot and see okay, where doesmy hand need to be exactly?
You're in a game.
You're never going to hit twoor three in a row within a 10
(21:35):
seconds span.
So drilling, I think by far, isgoing to help you improve
better, better, more quickly,more efficiently in your shots,
at least three to one, four toone ratio, if that's really your
goal and you have the you knowthe drilling partner and the
bandwidth to do it.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Okay, guys, I know I want to do a time check here too
, because we got two busy guyshere that were kind enough to
give us a half hour.
We're going to end it with this, because I know that you guys
have an appointment coming up.
If you were to just leave usall with one thought about you
know, what can we do this weekto improve our game and, by the
way, we do try to have fun, butKaren always tells me winning is
(22:11):
fun.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
No, okay, the truth is what, exactly what you just
said?
Is that it he tried to say wewere going into a tournament and
he was like, let's just havefun.
We lost horribly.
And I was like, was that fun?
Was that fun?
It wasn't fun, no more fun.
So I love that you said that.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Anywho, leave us all with one final thought.
I mean, if you want to tell usmore about the clinic or what
you guys have planned, because Iknow you're still growing just
leave us with any final thoughtsyou guys want.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah, I mean I appreciate the opportunity to
talk about the clinic.
I mean, as you know, forwhether you're a pickleball
player in China, India, righthere in New Jersey our online
community, it's the PickleballClinic.
We're a Facebook group forplayers of all ages, all levels.
Matt does tip of the day everysingle day.
We put in news, memes, polls,giveaways, anything you can
really imagine.
That's our Facebook group, thePickleball Clinic.
(23:03):
You should definitely join it.
We have a newsletter Also, thePickleball Clinic, I think,
thepbcliniccom, and you can signup from there.
It's a really awesomenewsletter too.
We got a bunch of peoplecontributing content to that and
really good news stories andthe Pickleball Clinic on
Instagram and YouTube also.
Also, if you're in Montclair orNew Jersey area ever, come out
(23:23):
to Montclair Pickleball.
We have some really greatprograms there In terms of
leaving you guys with one thingto work on for this week.
Matt probably has 30 of thoselined up in his head, so why
don't you start?
I know something.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Yeah, I think there's a lot of different options
there, actually, first of all,thank you guys for having us on
too.
So I want to say that before wehead off so really appreciate
the opportunity to come on andchat with you guys A lot of fun.
But yeah, I mean, there's amillion different things I could
say.
For one thing you could do toimprove, I'm going to go with a
more unique answer that I thinkpeople don't do enough of at the
amateur level, and somethingyou can do easily by yourself at
(23:59):
home Watch a little bit of film.
Take some time to watch a promatch and watch the way they hit
their shots, move their feet,because one of the best ways
that you can improve foryourself, without a coach,
without a drilling partner, isjust by watching what the best
players in the world do.
That's an imitating them.
That's what I did and manyother tennis players did.
(24:20):
I did that my whole life and Ialways was trying to imitate
what players better than metried to do on the court, and it
helped me a lot.
It helped me grow my technique,it helped me find shortcomings
in my game and work on mystrengths.
But for pickleball too forthose of you guys that don't
have tennis backgrounds, which Iknow is a lot try the most
pickleball players.
You can start to pick up onthose things that might not be
natural to you, like thefootwork patterns and the swing
(24:42):
patterns that come verynaturally to tennis players, and
you can catch up with them.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
No, yeah, I think watching film is huge.
That's a really, really goodtip.
And then I'll leave you guyswith sort of a mental tip.
A lot of times when you go outto play rec games, if there's a
bet or money on the line, orthere's ego on the line, or it's
a tournament or a league withpressure and standings and
seedings at risk, people come invery, very stressed.
(25:09):
I think their mindset affectstheir level of play.
So my one tip would be and thisis truly if your goal is to play
competitively as good aspossible my tip would be
disconnect with the outcome.
Treat every single point likeyou're literally drilling.
If you're playing I don't careif it's the final of a 5-0,.
When somebody hits you an outwide dink, treat it as oh,
thanks for letting me practicemy out wide dink.
Or when they hit a big serve,yes, I could practice my slice
(25:31):
return.
Everything is just practice.
It's just a shot to getyourself better.
Disconnect with the outcome.
Focus on every point separately, and that's probably where I'd
leave it.
But again, I appreciate youguys having us on this is
awesome.
Best of luck to you guys.
Everything you guys have comingand, yeah, thanks again, thank
you guys.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
It's been a pleasure of ours and again, we'll put all
the connections and the linksin the notes for the episode.
We're going to send you guyssome clips too.
Hopefully you'll share some ofit on the community, because I
think what you've just told us Iknow with our own pickleball
club is going to provide a lotof help as well.
So thank you both.
Karen, do you want?
Speaker 4 (26:07):
to final word.
Yeah, you guys are amazing.
Thanks for coming on.
I love your energy, I love whatyou guys are doing.
I love that you love pickleballfor this sport.
And you know what I'm going towork on that disconnection thing
because, I have an issue withthat.
I'm very highly connected withthe outcome.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Thank you also for the original soundtrack of
Blazing Paddles by Junkboy, akaJack Whittaker, aka our oldest
son.
Thanks for joining me today,everybody.
I just think you can have a weak serve and a weak
return and you could still getby.
But if there's one thing thatbeing perfect, will elevate your
game the most, I think would bedropping every ball in the
kitchen from anywhere on thecourt.
If you can do that, if you havesoft enough hands or you can
release weight on the paddle,you can move your feet enough to
be in position and literallytake any ball, put it in the
(00:21):
kitchen from anywhere on thecourt.
Honestly, aside from everythingelse, you're, you'll probably,
you're probably a 4-5, at leasta 4-2-5, just from being able to
do that.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Hey guys, welcome back.
Blazing paddles, episode 3.
Today we have an episode you'regonna want to earmark so you
can go back.
Listen to these guys.
These are two young men, aaronResnick, matt Silvinsky and they
have an online community calledthe pickleball clinic.
The pick is pickleball is thelargest online community.
These guys have only been doingthis about three years.
Montclair pickleball is whatthey've established in New
(00:56):
Jersey.
They have three locations.
They're a building, anine-court facility.
They also have an organizationcalled first serve tennis their
instructors, their teachers.
So saddle up, take a listen.
You'll be glad you did have acouple young guys here today,
aaron and Matt and these guyshave the biggest online
(01:18):
community for pickleball.
I can't believe that when whenyou said that, I went and
checked it out and the numbersare pretty astonishing, what you
guys have managed to accomplish.
If I got this right and youguys can obviously tell me if
I'm not but on Facebook,pickleball clinic has a hundred
and over a hundred and seventeenthousand members, and then on
Instagram, you have over fortysix thousand followers.
(01:40):
That's insane, how let's?
Let's kind of back up a littlebit, because you guys Aaron
Resnick, matt Silvinsky, youguys are in.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
New Jersey.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Montclair, yes, I'm old and you've got three
locations.
You said you're building anine-court facility.
I mean, that's a lot to youknow, kind of motormouth,
without what all you guys haveable to accomplish.
Can you tell us, you know, giveus a little background.
How did you get here?
Speaker 1 (02:05):
You know, what we do in our pickleball endeavors
really mirrors the 95 pluspercent of pickleball players,
which is people that are notnecessarily addicted and up to
date on the pro scene, butpeople that are just playing
pickleball every day, living andloving the sport.
And you know, online we do havethis number one online
community for people that wantto learn and play pickleball.
Our Academies throughout NewJersey serve people that want to
(02:27):
learn and play pickleball, andso I think our growth and
success has really just mirroredthe growth of the sport.
As the sport grows and more andmore People want to learn about
pickleball and play, I thinknaturally our you know our
ventures will evolve.
We've been good friends sincemiddle school, started playing
tennis together when we're veryyoung.
We started giving tennislessons in high school we ended
up starting a tennis academywhile we're in college, actually
(02:49):
during COVID, just naturally.
You know we had internshipsboth and that was interested in
law and I was interested inmarketing and you know, with
COVID those ended up kind of notcoming to fruition, which was a
blessing in disguise.
We started our tennis academythen and there I continued
growing it once we graduatedcollege.
You know I've said this acouple times.
(03:10):
But I I met a kid freshman yearcollege named Ben.
We became good friends fromclub tennis and he tried to
convince me to play Pickleballas well and I said it sounded
kind of weird and you know heleft, left off on it.
He didn't really push it on mebut then a year later I realized
my friend Ben he's in thisWashington Post article that
he's the number one player inthe world and I said, wait, ben.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
John oh what, what?
Speaker 1 (03:32):
okay, alright, so that's kind of my intro to
pickleball.
And I still didn't try thesport until I end of senior year
because I was too naive.
But we really started playingtogether.
Once we started playing, westarted teaching.
Added on a second you knowAcademy to our tennis Academy,
moncler pickleball, which endedup growing.
Then wanted to do somethingbigger in the sport, affected
(03:52):
growth on a national, globalscale, started our media
platform.
That's a pretty short versionof how we got here.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah, I think that's the pretty much the summer right
there.
I think at the heart of it iswe're an academy.
So Montclair Pickleball is apickleball academy and the
pickleball clinic is reallylearning community.
The name hints at it a littlebit, but a lot of people come to
our Facebook group and ournewsletter and our community to
learn more about pickleball andthat's something that's pretty
unique about us.
(04:23):
Other clubs, especially in NewJersey yeah, they might have
some instructors to give lessons, but no one else really calls
themselves an academy.
They might be a club.
There might be some courts thatthey rent out and do some open
player leagues, that kind ofthing.
But we really built ourbusiness on clinics and teaching
and lessons and just building acommunity of players that might
have never heard of pickleballbefore and come to us for the
(04:45):
first time, or maybe they'recoming to us already 3-0s and
3-5s and want to make it to thenext level.
We serve everybody.
We have the highest levelcoaching staff in New Jersey and
that's pretty much how we builtit and now we've been able to
expand.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I'm dying to ask Okay , so wait a minute, you guys are
incredible.
Love the energy, love thehistory here.
And I mean you've answered alot of my questions and your
answers, but I mean I got toknow how long ago, because
pickleball just speaking huge inTexas during the pandemic.
So I mean it's just.
(05:17):
I mean I know people that arelooking to open up academies,
but no, it's not even close tothat.
I mean heck, we were stilltrying to get pickleball courts.
So what is the scene?
Give me the pickleball scene upthere.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
It's blown up Definitely.
It seems like every weekthere's new courts popping up
all over the place and we reallystarted playing pickleball in
2021.
And I mean since then.
The growth that we've even seensince then has been just
astronomical.
I mean it's just absoluteexponential growth.
So it is, we do have a hotspot,I think, in the New Jersey, new
(05:55):
York City, southern Connecticut,kind of that New York City
metropolitan area.
There's a lot of players aroundhere.
I know I went to, for example,I went to college at Holy Cross
up in the Boston area and upthere I know it's they're
playing a little bit, but I'llgo up and visit people and there
there aren't like courts upthere to go play on or anything
like that, so it's not quite aspopular and it's.
I know Texas is a huge hotspottoo in some areas.
(06:17):
So I think it kind of dependson the location.
That definitely I don't thinkit's been quite national in the
sense that every single city orstate has these, these big
pickleball communities, but itdefinitely is thriving here in
New Jersey, I think we're.
You know, you know when youhear pickleball hotspot, you
might think of the place likeFlorida, but I would argue that
our location is a hotspot forsure Easing things.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Well, you know it's something.
I want to make sure I'vereferenced this because, aaron,
you said something early on it.
Actually, you both kind ofreemphasize this.
You remember it was herelocally the MLP and PPA were
getting into this little catfight about who was going to do
what and they're stealingplayers from each other and all
that.
And we kind of got caught up init because we have, you know,
we've been to some tournaments.
We just started getting into itbut 99% of the people had no
(07:03):
idea, didn't care.
That meant nothing to thembecause their, their level of
pickleball had nothing to dowith the professional level, had
everything to do with their ownexperiential level and getting
together with their friends onthe social aspect.
And so you know, a year giveyou an indication to like a year
ago, just over a year ago,karen went to, was at the.
It was the Texas open, texasopen here.
(07:24):
So all the top players andeverything, and you could
literally like walk up and shakehands with the players.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Zero security, nothing.
And then walking up with ourdrinks and hand, no barriers,
you're just like.
You're there where they'repracticing, you're there where
they're playing.
You're getting autographs,pictures Nothing.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Nobody cared.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Okay, uh it that that changed dramatically.
And now, with nationals beinghere, it's going to be a whole
different scene.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, we've got national championships that are
going to be in.
Now, this has got to hurt.
I mean, they moved it fromcalifornia I forget what, it was
a real nice community butthey're moving it to farmers
branch texas, which has got tohurt california to lose
something else.
But, uh, yeah, nationalchampionships are going to be
here.
The players lounge Um, try notto look like you know old
(08:08):
clingers on that want to meetthese people.
But it's going to be a scene,but we're more interested still
in the playing part than we arein the pro part.
Uh, since you guys are, itsounds like you're both natural
teachers, um, educators.
What do you think when you'rebecause you get people of all
levels Uh, when people are firstgetting into pickleball, what
do you think is the first thingthat you try to impress upon
(08:30):
them?
That if you're going to be goodat the sport, you need to build
, you know these fundamentalskills right out of the bat.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
I think it's really important to come in with a
mindset that the fundamentalsare more important than anything
else.
In pickleball, um, you know thedinks and the volleys and the
footwork and the decision makingand core positioning that we
teach and our beginner are two oto three o three o to three,
five clinics those are the same.
You know volleys, dinks,decision making, core
(08:57):
positioning those are the samethings that the pros are using
at the top level.
It's different where.
You know, if you're talkingabout basketball, steph Curry
has a very different way ofapproaching his jump shot than
somebody in high school orcollege.
In pickleball, you know, a benjohn's backhand dink is pretty
similar to a three, five, four obackhand dink.
That's no offense to ben johnsat all, it's just the the shot
(09:17):
itself.
The mechanics are very similarAcross all levels.
What gets better and differentat the higher levels is just
consistency, corpositioning,decision making, um, their
ability to execute all that.
So this is a sport you can playyour entire life.
Uh, most people that startplaying don't stop, and if
you're going to play this sportyour entire life, it's so
important to learn the right way, because the longer you play
(09:38):
with wrong, incorrect technique,um, the harder it's going to be
to correct it.
You know, we have a tennisacademy with adults that come in
saying I've been playing for 20years and oh my god, some of
their forehands and backhands,it's.
It's like we have to do surgeryTo correct them.
And so when they come to us andthey say, hey, I want to learn,
I say great, this is youropportunity to start from the
ground up the right way.
(09:58):
So you know, coming back toready position, getting in the
kitchen line and staying in thekitchen line, eliminating your
backswing, so pretending thatyou have a brick wall behind
your elbows where you're nottaking a backswing, you're not
following through too much,using your legs and your body,
not your arms, keeping your feetmoving constantly at the line
like you're standing on hot lava, going for the safe shot and a
(10:19):
wide margin for air, not goingfor too much, returning and
running up to the line, servingand staying behind the line
these are all super importantthings you need to keep in mind
from the start, because if youdevelop these habits
consistently, they'll besubconscious forever.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
And we have one thing I'll add on there too.
We have a saying in Montclairpickleball.
It's coined by one of ourcoaches shout out, rob gruber.
It's we teach beginnerspickleball, not beginner
pickleball, and the key there isthat a lot of players without
that don't have formal training.
They might go out to the parkand play with their local, you
know, whoever 3-0, 3-5 players,they're going to learn the wrong
(10:53):
way and there's a ceiling thatyou're going to hit very quickly
.
You have to learn the soft game.
You have to learn thefundamentals the right way.
You can't just go out there andhit the ball hard and what we
see is that these players, theycome out and we teach them the
fundamentals the right way andthey might at first lose to some
of those players that have poorfundamentals.
But just go out, bang the ball,don't really play what we call
the right way, and they'll loseit first, but then eventually,
(11:17):
after a couple months ofpractice, their game goes like
that and they just skyrocket andthey'll surpass all those
players.
So that's really.
We hammer in those fundamentalsall day, because that really is
the best way to up your gamequick.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
That's me.
That's me right there.
What you just said, that's whatI.
That's what happened I got.
We were one of the earlierpeople around here playing
pickleball, and Didn't know whatwe were doing, and then a bunch
of.
Then, you know, our communitystarted growing and tennis
players started migrating overto pickleball and they surpassed
me in the beginning, eventhough I was playing way more
(11:51):
and I had been playing longer,and I was super frustrated, but
I just stuck with it and stuckwith it and layer after layer
started just adding things andthings and, like I'm playing
pickleball the way pickleballshould be played, and it's
really hard when you're playingagain, when you're playing with,
as tennis players are trying tounlearn the things that that in
tennis that don't translateover to pickleball.
(12:12):
Um, so I mean, there's somegreat things you know, and
especially when I can partnerwith them and we can figure out
that little Rhythm about what,what makes them good in tennis,
that does translate well overinto pickleball.
And then I can pick up with the.
You know the drops or the dinksor the.
You know the, the, the courtpositioning, you know.
That's another thing.
You know they're so used torunning right up to that line
(12:33):
and we'd get to get beat everytime on that side.
So you nailed it right thereand I just thought I keep
telling people it's about layersand because you can't, there's
only so much you can learn in acertain amount of time, well,
and you pointed to me afterabout half the thing.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Well, serve and stay.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
I love that.
You said that, thank you.
That's a fight we have Serveand stay.
I creep.
You heard it from the prosright here.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
I have a bad habit of creeping as far as I think,
though.
It is true, though, because youcan see tennis players come out
there and immediately theythey're banging away and they
have some shots and just blowyou away.
But then, once you know thekind of rising tide of the
people who are pure pickleballplayers get there, they do
things that the tennis playerssometimes have never even
(13:17):
considered.
So there is it's definitely,you know.
It helps, I think, when youfirst get going, but if you
still have the bad habits, thenthey're not going anywhere
anytime soon.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah, 100%.
I mean we, we definitely firmlybelieve that if you're a tennis
player and you learn the rightway, you're going to get good
very quickly.
The problem is and we were bothhigh level tennis players I
played division one and Aaronand I competed in the junior
resolve throughout our prettymuch our whole lives.
And I mean when we came out wehad some people that guided us
but we didn't have any formaltraining.
It took us a lot longer, Ithink, to get to, let's say, a
(13:48):
four or five level.
Then it would have if we hadsomebody that was really working
with us.
All right, here's how youshould be playing here.
Here are the right shots.
Here's how you hit this soft.
Here's when you hit this hard.
We have a one of our tenniscoaches.
He just graduated from college.
He was a very high level player, four star recruit, played at
Bates, one of the best divisionthree teams in the country, and
(14:10):
it took him only a couple ofmonths to get to like a solid
four, eight, essentially five ohlevel.
I mean because from the off theback we said, well, you're not
going to hit any of these shotshard, so he'll come out, we'll
get set up a little five, oh,plus group and we'll invite him
out and everyone's kind of like,wow, he's only been playing for
a couple of months, like histouch is really good.
Well, yeah, because we tell himone in doubt just go soft, put
it back in the kitchen so he'snot like off balance trying to
(14:32):
rip forehands or just speedingup for no reason in the kitchen
line.
And that really is the keythere.
But people don't understand it.
So you have to get a little bitof formal training and and play
with those higher level playersthat really understand the
fundamentals.
I mean I wish we had peoplelike us that we could work with
and play with and we firststarted out.
We would have got, but that'show we learned to.
We learned so much from, youknow, having to figure it out.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
So here's a you know this is a selfish question
because you just mentioned to itright now.
I think we're, you know you canhit that plateau and I'd say
we're solid between three, fiveand four.
No self rating.
Anyway, getting over that threefive, hump to a four, oh, I
think four O is where we'retrying to get.
What do you think?
What's you know oftentimes whatare the big dynamics, the
(15:16):
differentiators that get youfrom that three five where
everybody's three oh, three,five, but to get to a four oh,
it's a this.
You can tell the gamesdifferent, what's different.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
I would say consistency is probably one of
the bigger ones when we so wecoach a lot of players better.
So we have our clients, havethese levels with a three, three
, five level, three, five, four,four plus level.
That's sort of more higherlevels and the biggest
difference I'd say, if you'relooking at the three, five to
four level, which for us reallyplayers that are trying to get
to like a three, five, maybethree, seven, five, is the four
(15:45):
plus we're trying to breakthrough four oh.
The biggest thing isconsistency, I would say just
being able to put the ball backin the kitchen when you need to,
not making mistakes so like notmissing third shots.
Remember, right, if you'regonna miss a third shot, drop,
miss it high.
If you miss the net, therally's over, but if you miss it
high, you can at least fightback up and then also just
making good decisions.
(16:06):
I think that four oh is tendedto generally make much better
decisions.
Three, five will sometimesspeed up when in doubt, instead
of just trusting their shots tobe able to have, you have to
know that you can dink for Ourmany shots in a row and really
what the point draw.
So I think there's it's most ofthat and forward to forward
space.
You gotta stay active on yourfeet, but most of that
consistency.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah, I interviewed Riley Newman a few weeks ago but
I asked him what are twoaspects of pickleball that
people at any level can improveon and I think this really
applies to three, five to fouroh level shot selection and
decision make, or sorry, courtpositioning and decision making.
You know the shots you choose totake are gonna make a huge
(16:47):
difference where, at the threeoh to three, five level, you can
drive almost any ball andyou'll get away with it.
At the three, five, four ohfour plus level, you have to be
a lot more strategic, because ifyou drive the wrong ball,
players will let it out, let itgo out or if you're driving too
high, they'll counter it and putit away.
And then court positioning toknowing where to stand when to
move.
You know if you're standingcloser to a ball in your dink,
(17:09):
that's gonna make your shotbetter itself.
If you're following the ballbut you're standing too far away
, you're gonna be reaching andyou'll be off balance.
So the shot selection in thecourt positioning are definitely
two things that matter a lotmore when you get around that
For a level, okay.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
So this question where there is no right answer,
but it I'm just alwaysinterested in asking, especially
people who are at your talentlevel.
You're forced to pick one shot,most important shot.
What's the most important shotin pickleball?
I tend to.
I always say now and again I'mgonna be wrong, but I think it's
the return to serve.
But what do you guys say, whatdo you say, huh or?
Speaker 4 (17:44):
disturb the serve and I mean that maybe that's
because we're at a level whereyou get away with it at our
level, maybe what's the mostimportant shot.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Yeah, I got two answers there and one I'm going
to agree with you.
Every time I teach a beginnerclass I always say the serve is
the most important shot, becausewithout the serve you can't
play it.
So literally I would say theserve and the return of serve,
but in terms of just playinghigh level pickleball and
becoming the best player thatyou can be, I have to say the
dink.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah, I would agree, but I would group the dink
together with the drop and thereset and I'll take the word
dink by its literal meaning,which is the dink actually
stands for drop in the kitchen.
That's what it stands for,which is a little bit weird
because resets and drops arealso dropping in the kitchen.
(18:31):
So the meaning behind dinkactually applies to other shots.
So the drop in the kitchen, Ithink, is really the most
important shot and that appliesto any dink, any drop or any
reset.
Essentially, the ability to takeany ball and put it back in the
kitchen I think is probably themost important.
But I mean there's a ton ofright answers because, again,
(18:52):
the serve and the return, theystart off every single point.
I just think you can have aweak serve and a weak return and
you could still get by.
But if there's one thing that,being perfect, will elevate your
game the most, I think would bedropping every ball in the
kitchen from anywhere on thecourt.
If you can do that, if you havesoft enough hands where you can
release weight on the paddle,you can move your feet enough to
(19:13):
be in a position and literallytake any ball, put it in the
kitchen from anywhere on thecourt.
Probably, aside from everythingelse, you're probably a 4-5, at
least a 4-2-5, just from beingable to do that.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
And if there's one single thing that separates
amateur pickleball players fromprofessional pickleball players
is that the pros can put theball in the kitchen from
anywhere in the court.
It's not handspeed thatseparates them, it's not how
hard you can hit the ball, it'sthe ability to put it in the
kitchen.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
I know you're right, but it's just so cool when you
see these firefights and allthis stuff.
The guys are just going rapidfire back and forth and now you
see a lot of tutorials aboutthese serves that you can do.
That can really put people ontheir butt.
But again, if your serve is out, it's worthless.
It doesn't matter how hard itis.
But, like yesterday, we spent alot of time just dinking and
just doing some serves and justdoing some fundamentals.
(20:02):
I think Texas was brutal thissummer so we didn't probably get
as much drill time as we wanted, but as the weather cools off,
that's kind of what we're goingto focus on.
And also, we discovered I knowI kind of our social guy online
and discovered your onlinecommunity.
There's great stuff on thereand it'll be the drills and some
(20:23):
of the games that we're goingto incorporate into our own
routine.
What were you going to say, hun?
Speaker 4 (20:28):
I have a question.
Yeah, how much would yourecommend drilling versus
playing?
Speaker 1 (20:32):
I think it depends on your goals, because pickleball
is super fun, and if you don'treally care as much about
getting better and you just wantto have fun and play all day,
then, though I would argue thatif you want to play for fun,
well, the better you are, themore fun it is.
So, honestly, I would really goback and say whether you want
to have fun or whether your goalis to get as good as possible.
Drilling is always going to bethe answer At the pro level.
(20:55):
If your goals are more to getas good as physically possible,
as quick as possible, it's goingto be probably like a 4 to 1, 5
to 1 ratio of drilling toplaying, and that probably seems
almost impossible, just becausemost people you're usually
going out to play.
You know, imagine if you want towork on your third shot drop
and you're playing a game a gameto 11, you know, maybe you'll
get four or five, sixopportunities, maybe they'll
(21:15):
return to you, but you might notbe able to consistently work on
it.
If you go out and say, hey, canlet's drill the third shot drop
?
Hit me 200 third shot drops ina row.
You can hit many, many in a rowand make tiny adjustments every
shot and see okay, where doesmy hand need to be exactly?
You're in a game.
You're never going to hit twoor three in a row within a 10
(21:35):
seconds span.
So drilling, I think by far, isgoing to help you improve
better, better, more quickly,more efficiently in your shots,
at least three to one, four toone ratio, if that's really your
goal and you have the you knowthe drilling partner and the
bandwidth to do it.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Okay, guys, I know I want to do a time check here too
, because we got two busy guyshere that were kind enough to
give us a half hour.
We're going to end it with this, because I know that you guys
have an appointment coming up.
If you were to just leave usall with one thought about you
know, what can we do this weekto improve our game and, by the
way, we do try to have fun, butKaren always tells me winning is
(22:11):
fun.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
No, okay, the truth is what, exactly what you just
said?
Is that it he tried to say wewere going into a tournament and
he was like, let's just havefun.
We lost horribly.
And I was like, was that fun?
Was that fun?
It wasn't fun, no more fun.
So I love that you said that.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Anywho, leave us all with one final thought.
I mean, if you want to tell usmore about the clinic or what
you guys have planned, because Iknow you're still growing just
leave us with any final thoughtsyou guys want.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah, I mean I appreciate the opportunity to
talk about the clinic.
I mean, as you know, forwhether you're a pickleball
player in China, India, righthere in New Jersey our online
community, it's the PickleballClinic.
We're a Facebook group forplayers of all ages, all levels.
Matt does tip of the day everysingle day.
We put in news, memes, polls,giveaways, anything you can
really imagine.
That's our Facebook group, thePickleball Clinic.
(23:03):
You should definitely join it.
We have a newsletter Also, thePickleball Clinic, I think,
thepbcliniccom, and you can signup from there.
It's a really awesomenewsletter too.
We got a bunch of peoplecontributing content to that and
really good news stories andthe Pickleball Clinic on
Instagram and YouTube also.
Also, if you're in Montclair orNew Jersey area ever, come out
(23:23):
to Montclair Pickleball.
We have some really greatprograms there In terms of
leaving you guys with one thingto work on for this week.
Matt probably has 30 of thoselined up in his head, so why
don't you start?
I know something.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Yeah, I think there's a lot of different options
there, actually, first of all,thank you guys for having us on
too.
So I want to say that before wehead off so really appreciate
the opportunity to come on andchat with you guys A lot of fun.
But yeah, I mean, there's amillion different things I could
say.
For one thing you could do toimprove, I'm going to go with a
more unique answer that I thinkpeople don't do enough of at the
amateur level, and somethingyou can do easily by yourself at
(23:59):
home Watch a little bit of film.
Take some time to watch a promatch and watch the way they hit
their shots, move their feet,because one of the best ways
that you can improve foryourself, without a coach,
without a drilling partner, isjust by watching what the best
players in the world do.
That's an imitating them.
That's what I did and manyother tennis players did.
(24:20):
I did that my whole life and Ialways was trying to imitate
what players better than metried to do on the court, and it
helped me a lot.
It helped me grow my technique,it helped me find shortcomings
in my game and work on mystrengths.
But for pickleball too forthose of you guys that don't
have tennis backgrounds, which Iknow is a lot try the most
pickleball players.
You can start to pick up onthose things that might not be
natural to you, like thefootwork patterns and the swing
(24:42):
patterns that come verynaturally to tennis players, and
you can catch up with them.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
No, yeah, I think watching film is huge.
That's a really, really goodtip.
And then I'll leave you guyswith sort of a mental tip.
A lot of times when you go outto play rec games, if there's a
bet or money on the line, orthere's ego on the line, or it's
a tournament or a league withpressure and standings and
seedings at risk, people come invery, very stressed.
(25:09):
I think their mindset affectstheir level of play.
So my one tip would be and thisis truly if your goal is to play
competitively as good aspossible my tip would be
disconnect with the outcome.
Treat every single point likeyou're literally drilling.
If you're playing I don't careif it's the final of a 5-0,.
When somebody hits you an outwide dink, treat it as oh,
thanks for letting me practicemy out wide dink.
Or when they hit a big serve,yes, I could practice my slice
(25:31):
return.
Everything is just practice.
It's just a shot to getyourself better.
Disconnect with the outcome.
Focus on every point separately, and that's probably where I'd
leave it.
But again, I appreciate youguys having us on this is
awesome.
Best of luck to you guys.
Everything you guys have comingand, yeah, thanks again, thank
you guys.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
It's been a pleasure of ours and again, we'll put all
the connections and the linksin the notes for the episode.
We're going to send you guyssome clips too.
Hopefully you'll share some ofit on the community, because I
think what you've just told us Iknow with our own pickleball
club is going to provide a lotof help as well.
So thank you both.
Karen, do you want?
Speaker 4 (26:07):
to final word.
Yeah, you guys are amazing.
Thanks for coming on.
I love your energy, I love whatyou guys are doing.
I love that you love pickleballfor this sport.
And you know what I'm going towork on that disconnection thing
because, I have an issue withthat.
I'm very highly connected withthe outcome.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Thank you also for the original soundtrack of
Blazing Paddles by Junkboy, akaJack Whittaker, aka our oldest
son.
Thanks for joining me today,everybody.
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