It’s crunch time for the upcoming Major League Pickleball draft. Rob and Stone lay out the need to know dates for the draft calendar. Special guest James Ignatowich joins the pod to cover who talks the best trash in pickleball, who he is training with these days where ALW would rank in the men’s game. This is one you don’t want to miss.

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Show Notes

0:00 Intro
9:05 Major League Pickleball Draft Schedule
14:10 Minor League Pickleball will be a complement to MLP
20:03 It’s a scramble for partners in 2023
25:44 James Ignatowich joins the pod
30:10 Iggy’s background
33:45 Pickleball needs to lean on sports betting
41:08 The Del Ray pickleball crew
44:00 James playing 2 vs 1 against Pickleball Studio
45:30 James partner calendar 2023
48:45 What’s it like playing with your significant other
53:27 Riley and Anna Leigh were unfair together
55:14 Anna Leigh Waters could beat these top men’s pros
1:00:06 Rapid fire Q & A
1:05:10 Riley Newman and Collin Johns beef
1:11:13 James will not miss a post game interview

Transcript

Rob  0:00
because you know why? Why? Because it feels right. It feels right.

To me, please stop yelling at me. It's 5:04am. Adam, please, please stop attacking me.

Adam Stone  0:19
Oh, it's 504. So it's only five hour difference. Yeah. So,

Rob  0:23
so and when they do the fallback, the the daylight savings. Fun fact, Adam, I know you like fun facts. Hawaii and Arizona are the only are the only two states that don't honor daylight savings. So it's half the year. It's East Coast six hours that half the year. It's five hours ahead. Right now. It's that.

Adam Stone  0:45
Hey, you learned something new every day. I love that. I did not know. I knew the Arizona part. I did not know the Hawaii part.

Rob  0:50
That's right. I didn't know either till it happened.

Adam Stone  0:54
Yeah, I totally believe that. So Robert, so there's some exciting news. It sounds like you have put in your two week notice in Hawaii, you're going to be coming back to the mainland. Is that

Rob  1:04
correct? Correct. Adam, I need to I need to, I need to be able to train and practice some. As I think I've mentioned a little bit I'm playing a full schedule next year I'm planning on going pretty hard out of 25 to 30 tournaments probably want to get want to get fit want to want to see some high level play before 2023 starts and most likely going to quarter lane, Idaho to train with Mr. Muffin.

Adam Stone  1:33
Really interesting. That's exciting stuff. He's I'll tell you what he's he's a good person to practice with. He always tries hard and tries to play the right way. And practice makes a lot of balls. I practice with him quite a bit early on. So I think I think you'll you will improve playing with old McMuffin.

Rob  1:50
So probably two three weeks of that and then I will either I don't know where I'll

Adam Stone  1:58
Carolina. Hey.

Rob  2:01
Hey, your house looks bright and happy. Adam. I'll tell you that. Oh, is that a little? Is that a little plant the profit there?

Adam Stone  2:07
Yes. But no, actually, that's my plant.

Rob  2:10
Oh, did you pick it out? Lots

Adam Stone  2:11
of plants. We have lots we have very clean air in the house. We have lots of plants. And

Rob  2:16
tell me about the jungle. What made what made you want that one? Well, it's just,

Adam Stone  2:19
it's just nice. It's nice to have some you know, some foliage around. And some greenery, some greenery? And especially in winter, right? Yeah. brightens up my day. It really does. Yeah, barely have to water the thing. It's who would have who would have thunk it.

Rob  2:35
Oh, horticulturalist

Adam Stone  2:37
the whole day. Jack of all trades here. Come on. All right.

Rob  2:41
Podcast time we've got we've got I don't know how many actual real updates we have. But there's the deadline. The deadline for MLP, as we know was December 5, got pushed to I think December 8, yes, Thursday, tomorrow, gave people a few more days to figure out what they're going to do, whether they're going to cemetery into the draft, even though submitting your name to the draft doesn't really lock you into anything, it just it just puts you in the mix on the on the big board to have available players to be drafted. To my knowledge, it doesn't like you haven't had to sign anything to be to be you know, to apply for the draft or anything like that. I'm sure you'll have to sign something pre draft, otherwise, you're gonna have a lot of people on the board that, you know, aren't necessarily locked in, and they're just going to look at their draft position. And if they don't like it, they're just gonna say, No, thank you. I'm going to carry on. You know what I mean? So I think I think I'd be surprised if players aren't forced to sign some kind of commitment before the draft, otherwise, you you're gonna have people dropping and a lot of shuffling happening.

Adam Stone  3:46
Right. And also, isn't there a different draft date for the Premier and the Challenger League? Is that correct, Robert?

Rob  3:52
Yeah. So that's what I heard as well. So the Premier League draft, which is going to be the top 12 teams, the top 48 players will be on Monday, which that date would be a day

Adam Stone  4:07
before 15 Oh, that's before the 15th Oh, goodness, next Monday,

Rob  4:11
right when you'll be in Hawaii, so maybe we have to do an emergency pod Tuesday morning live

Adam Stone  4:18
might have to do that. Who knows I'm gonna be Hey, and I'm going to be very involved in this draft process as I've struck up a little verbal agreement not written yet with the heart eighths Timothy parks to be kind of the gym coach or the team and so the draft is a big deal and I'm gonna have to be ready for all of that action because the a lot of players involved and these rankings are obviously very, very important.

Rob  4:45
And you know, since we got that you got hired as a GM because you're are the most qualified person on this planet to be a GM.

Adam Stone  4:54
Well, hey, I'm that's a strong statement, but I think I'm definitely in the top couple, that's for sure. So A shout out to the heart eighths and and Timothy parks for taking a shot on me the guys in their in their ownership group are all seem really cool really analytical numbers driven and very into the pickle and and their team so I'm excited to jump in with them and you know kind of give them some pointers and do some player evaluations and some and some coaching for the squad. Exciting times, Robert.

Rob  5:29
Honestly, Adam that probably wouldn't have happened if you had not to toot your own horn so, so early and so often. That's got a future.

Adam Stone  5:38
Oh, and expect that to continue since it's already reap some benefits. I think I'm just gonna have to continue tuning. I wouldn't

Rob  5:46
call me crazy. I think we're gonna need a t shirt that says toot my horn

Adam Stone  5:50
to something involving toot my horn and aviation. Maybe Hey, che as well. She's got some she got some nice new shirts out. I've seen that. So

Rob  6:00
I wore one for a match this weekend.

Adam Stone  6:03
Damn right she did Robert,

Rob  6:04
you got to gotta gotta support it's got to support the people that support us.

Adam Stone  6:08
That's right, the support the junkies man. They're a mix with a circle. Circle trust. Hey, I'm in the discord. Now it only took me a month. But

Rob  6:17
Adam, I'm, I was gonna say it shouldn't have taken that long. I don't care how long it took. You're there. And I'm proud of there. Did you do?

Adam Stone  6:26
Did you possibly do some form of like, soundbite of me being not checking illogically savvy on Twitter or something like that. Was there a discussion last night of some sort? Robert?

Rob  6:36
Yeah. So. So there was a So Johnny 5.0. On on Twitter. He hosted a Twitter spaces, which is basically like, I don't know what that is. It's like a virtual chat, but verbal, where you can, you know, it's basically a conversation where people are muted. Think about like a zoom call, but like, no video, everybody's talking. If you're on mute. unmuted. And we just talked about different topics. So I hopped on for like, 2030 minutes yesterday, talked a little bit about political landscape, what's happening talks about you, and how difficult it would be for you to understand what Twitter spaces is and how to even get on it.

Adam Stone  7:17
I don't know what it is.

Rob  7:19
Correct. And I will I will give Johnny credit. He was like you know what, you know, what's really gangster is that Adam does even have a profile picture on Twitter. And you should never get one Adam. Just exactly. Don't worry about it. Because it's so on brand for who you are. Don't ever get a profile picture on Twitter. Don't ever create a bio or profile ever just just just be Stonewall three to one, and just dominate with your one liners because that's what you do.

Adam Stone  7:46
Yeah, that's what I do. And I used to be, I want to I've won a lot of money under that screen name that used to be one of my old poker screen names back in the day stone wall. 321. And also AC stone 321. Either one of those guys had a little success on that digital felt back in the day. Robert,

Rob  8:02
what was your? I don't know if you had this because, you know, you haven't advanced with technology. But did you have the original aim? or AOL? Oh, yeah. What was your? What was your am chat name? Do you remember? Not

Adam Stone  8:16
sure? I'm not sure. I'm not sure man.

Rob  8:19
I was going to be Rob 742. But I remember it was already taken. So I was be Rob 742. And that's that's always been my always been my J

Adam Stone  8:30
Rob seven. There you go. There you go. What was the old AOL it was like? Like six age something? What would people Oh, ASL

Rob  8:38
as a sex Location?

Adam Stone  8:43
Location. Oh, there you go. There you go.

Rob  8:45
It would be it would be it would be like, you know, 12 female, you know, Michigan so like, yeah, for sure. For sure. A 48 year old male.

Adam Stone  8:56
You know, like, in his underwear eating Cheetos. You know, chit chatting with teenagers. Yeah, that's that's kinda creepy. Yes. Correctional special stuff for sure. So um, where are we? We got distracted. We talked about let's get back to the to the the MLP info anything else?

Rob  9:16
So, an LP info? No. Yeah. So So draft got pushed up a bit to the 12th. Deadline got pushed back to the eighth, the challenger draft which will be after the top 24 men in the top 24 Women are picked. So we'll have 12 teams top teams and the in the premier will have 1212 different teams and the challenger. They will they will switch basically after the first season which is the first three events and then all of the Premier League owners will drop down to the challenger. So each person or each group that owns a team will do one season three events. And the premier will do three events and the Challenger and that is going to be how it's done and 2023 no idea if that's going to be how it maintains and 2024 or whatnot. But that is the plan for this year, the challenger draft, which is going to be players 25 to 48 of each gender should be happening sometime after Christmas is what I'm told. I'm assuming that the Challenger events will be happening in tandem with the Premier League at the same same venue, same time, all that stuff. That'd be silly. It seems as if it wasn't. But yeah, that's that seems to be the plan. There's gonna be some pretty disappointed people that get drafted. 25th. I'll tell you that though. Yeah, there's a pretty significant, pretty significant pay drop from that from that Premier League to the challenger. So when you hit the Win win that 24 versus 25 is going to be, it's going to be a tough one for people.

Adam Stone  10:55
Yeah, that's, that is a little sad. 25 through 30, it's gonna hurt a little bit

Rob  11:01
more, one more little fun fact. I don't know if this is official or has been announced yet. But I have it from the most credible source probably, I don't know if it's actually gone through or if it's actually been approved or confirmed yet. But I am under, I am under the understanding that if you get drafted in the Challenger League, 25 to 48, that they're required that the requirement of the silver card goes away. So you do not need to play the five PPAs you do not. So that it's just gone, you're open, you're able to do whatever, but you can still participate in challenge.

Adam Stone  11:38
Gotcha. That's that's kind of how I understood it as well. You know, I'm not playing I'm not playing next year. So um, you know, you're you've probably been a little more digging, dig in for this information, as it's a lot more relevant to you. But hey, it's relevant to me as well as,

Rob  11:54
you know, a high end content creator slash

Adam Stone  11:57
Correct. That's where I was going slash GM slash head coach slash commentator. I mean, come on. Be clear. I might. I might be outside the lines these days, Robert, but I'm doing it all. Okay. Do it? And I believe we've also it's been crickets from the AP UTR camp, correct. No announcements from them have been made, or is that incorrect?

Rob  12:21
No, that's correct. Haven't been many have been many updates in terms of in terms of that partnership. What it looks like I know there's talks about putting a team event together, nothing's been announced. No, no news. And it doesn't feel like there's going to be before that draft deadlines. pitch tomorrow, right? Because originally supposed to be Monday, and nothing really came out. I know there's a lot of scrambling right now with with players trying to figure out where they're going, what's the best deal for them personally, PPA or ABP? So, yeah, we don't have a ton of news right now in terms of where people are going and how it's all shaking out. But I can assure you there's a ton going on behind the scenes in terms of players and agents trying to connect with the tours and try to figure out what the best option is for themselves. So yeah,

Adam Stone  13:14
yeah, a lot. Lots of individual meetings going on. I know, I know, for a fact. So you know, maybe maybe not a group townhall or whatever you want to call it. But But lots, lots of lots of chatting and chatting, and, you know, negotiating going on. No, yeah.

Rob  13:31
On another note, Adam, there's talked about talking about this in like a little bit in the Twitter space is yesterday, don't know, don't know, specific details whatsoever. Just know that this is kind of a thing and kind of happening without anything being announced yet. So minor league pickleball, as we know, it was players basically organized their team before and I think it was like, you know, you can do they had a 20 to 20 that kind of thing, where you're we're all of your team duper has to has to equal under that number. Minor League pickable, as I understand it today is not that it is is a league with with teams and owners that have bought into that league. And it's it's essentially going to be that that true minor league system that feeds into that develops players and feeds into the major leagues. And that challenger League of that draft, so don't know all the details, don't know, really any details other than the fact that this is happening. And I think I think I mean, that's fascinating to me that that there's going to be a minor league league where, you know, you can get drafted and there's team owners and it's very similar to major league but it's more of a developmental area for players to get better and to grow and to move up. And I did hear that I mean, the prize money is not bad like and from from who I heard To this from the prize money and minor league pickleball, rivals the money in the Challenger league without the appearance fees. Wow. So I mean, we're not talking about no money to play this. We talked a little bit about this significant difference between the Premier and the Challenger, but challenger is done seemed like there's a big difference between challenger Major League and minor league. So for the players that don't get drafted in the in the Major League, you know, Premier challenger, they're still gonna have options to go out and play pickleball, pro pickleball and make some make some cash. So I think it's great. Just more opportunities to bring more players in. That's right.

Adam Stone  15:42
I mean, I hadn't really heard much, if anything about that, especially the, you know, the structure with actually having team owners and that not being what you said, a combined, I believe combined to duper have a certain number, however, that may be added up. So no, that's, that's very, very interesting. And, you know, I don't know if that's something that, you know, eventually down the line will be a complete full fledged feeder system where you will have a team lined up for Major League and have a minor league system as well. You know, I mean, that the same thing in baseball, you know, they kind of have player development coaches in the minor leagues, and they're kind of grooming their players to eventually, you know, take a take a spot on the on the major league roster. So I think it's very cool and very exciting. And I mean, I don't know if it can stand alone, right away with everything that's going on, and it kind of being early in MLP. And they've expanded to 24 teams from a much lower number. So I don't know if it'll just come out on fire or anything. But I think it's a very cool idea for, you know, a little bit down the line, and you said that the prize money was was reasonable. So maybe it'll, it'll blow up quicker than I think.

Rob  16:58
Yeah, and I did hear that, that it's operating independently, and it's not part of that PPA. MLP. merger.

Adam Stone  17:05
Gotcha. Okay, cool. Yeah, that I mean, that matters. Yeah, that's something. Yeah.

Rob  17:11
So yeah, those are those are really the updates I have in terms of the in terms of the tours, and the leagues. Don't yet don't don't know much right now. So yeah, I'm sure this time next week, Adam is going to be an absolutely completely different story. We'll have the draft completed at that point. I mean, we could we can do. I mean, we could do a whole episode on on draft preview for the premiere, but you know, yeah, not for this one. But maybe when I see you in person, if they can get it out quick enough. Or maybe we do it live or something. It'd be fun. I'm coming there on Sunday. You are and we've gotten coming. We've got we've got activities lined up. Sorry, we have an activity lined up because one, one us, you limit your daily activities to one, especially for three hours.

Adam Stone  17:54
And that's a that's a serious activity. So I was thinking, maybe piggybacking something or maybe doing something Tuesday morning before I leave, but no, no, let's stick to the one activity. That is sufficient. And then we're going to head to where are we going? You're on Maui and then we're going to Kawhi he went for a week for appreciate a shout out always got a shout out mama and papa stone hooked it up with a little timeshare. A little late honeymoon for me in the process. So excited to get that r&r. Before we kick it off in 2023.

Rob  18:26
You'll Yeah, you'll have quite a hit. Different different view different field for sure. It's more kind of rural jungly, green, lush, really beautiful gets a little bit more rain than Maui are certain areas of Maui, but I think you're Yeah, I'm pumped for you guys. That'd be a lot of fun.

Adam Stone  18:45
Exciting times, maybe. Maybe a couple possible adult beverages for me and you and we just have to win. We're just gonna annoy prof because she can't drink so it's gonna be great.

Rob  18:57
Well, we're gonna annoy Prof. But Adam never forget. Yes. Me you and Prof not You're not the third wheel prophet. I just, you know, we'd like to share our opinions with you. And yeah, that's

Adam Stone  19:08
right. And yeah, like, like when I call her out for being late and you're just like, crap. I've never seen you late before ever. This is weird that he would say something like that. Yeah, I don't understand. Yeah. You dig at me? You dig at me and it's fun and games for a little bit and then I'm gonna lay the hammer off. No, enough is enough. But yes, um, yeah, so. Oh, it'll it'll definitely be a good time. Yeah, no, I knew that there wasn't a crazy amount of information that had come out in the last few days. Obviously, we'll have some tidbits and I'm sure will like you said before I get to why it will be a bombshell that's dropped but yeah, yeah, good to good to have a few updates becoming slightly more clear.

Rob  19:55
I'm still trying to figure out what I'm gonna do Adam I'm gonna need I'm gonna need your your GM Is your consulting hat your coaching hat? To figure out which way I'm gonna go? Because I'm still trying to figure out whether I'm gonna go ppa aipp? So yeah, lots to be determined still and not a lot of time to figure it out.

Adam Stone  20:16
That's for sure the crunch, the crunch is real. And it is, you know, it is, it is a little stressful. I remember this last

Rob  20:24
year really, it's a really tough spot for players because yeah, let's, you know, I went into the intention of next year having an fully PP schedule, so locked in partners, which we do, you know, typically quite quite far in advance, and kind of lined it up all on my spreadsheet. And now I have a similar, you know, Google Spreadsheet, but a new tab that says ppa 2023 schedule and that whole schedule, if I go that route. So problem being is this is creating a bit of a bit of a nightmare for players. Because, you know, for example, I haven't committed to either, but I had a mixed partner that was that I was going to play for the first five on the aipp. And she said, Peace, I'm going to the PPA. So I mean, we're seeing a lot of that right, where I'm going to be scrambling for partners, potentially, they're going to be scrambling for partners, it just creates this like logistical nightmare, no sense of having to having to figure it all out again.

Adam Stone  21:22
No, I agree. And I've talked to several people who are in a similar situation where it's locked in here locked in there, things change. And it's, it's there's a lot of people that love to line that stuff up early, get all their ducks in a row. And when a little chaos comes into it, or one of their partners, shoots over. It's it's total, like, you know, totally frantic, you know, start sweating a little bit, wipe off the brow sweat, because you know, everything was set. And now it's not. So definitely a big factor and

Rob  21:56
an atom partners, partners are a big deal, if you think so. I mean, I don't I'm not sure if the if the listeners necessarily understand how big of a deal it is, it can determine whether it can determine whether you make money don't make money at all next year, it's a really big deal. Locking in somebody that you feel like you have a real shot at, you know, getting in the money with and earning a real living would because pickleball super unique in the respect that I don't care how good you are, you can you can really put somebody on an island and there's not a whole lot you can do sometimes in terms of helping them get off that island.

Adam Stone  22:34
So very true. And you're exactly right, from a play and monetary perspective. But also from a perspective of this is a grind, you just talked about playing 25 to 30 tournaments, if you if you know I'm not saying that you have to be 100% always in sync mentally with your partner. But if you're playing with someone who kind of breaks your spirit a little bit, don't have the back and forth or the personality Mattia, by the end of that year, you're gonna want to kill yourself, I promise you that and that so so it's a big factor of matching up physically and how your games go together. You want to have that success and make making money because that's your job. But at the same time, you have to have some form of mental vibe connection as well otherwise is you're gonna get burnt out way quicker. So it's all a factor. It's all kind

Rob  23:25
of I think, I think the listeners whenever you say vibe they take

Adam Stone  23:31
they take a shot. Well, yeah, I think so drunk people. There's gonna be people at 10am Eastern time.

Rob  23:37
I hope you never stopped using vibe. i The more the merrier.

Adam Stone  23:40
By the more the drunker apparently. Yeah, if it's vibe, and obviously my God, there's going to be some drunk people. I hope your hope you're taking shots of beer, not liquor, because I say those to a lot.

Rob  23:50
And this podcast is a vibe, Adam. It is.

Adam Stone  23:53
It is. Okay. All right. So

Rob  23:57
I think we I think we hold. So we've had a lot of people asking for this. You know, Annalise coming off another triple crown, I believe. The seventh the seventh on the year, you talked about how absurd it is earlier, like the manner in what she's doing it and it's not not incredibly competitive, right. I know they lost their first game in the gold in the women's but then kind of cruise the next three. So people are curious on where Anna Lee would stack up in the men's rankings. And I've got I've got to take on this. I know you do. Talk to some other some other top men, male pros. They have a take on it. And I think some of them would surprise you actually, in terms of of how high of how high they put her. Yeah, totally. So I think I think we get into this a little bit more when we have our guests on Adam and I don't think we've told we've told anybody that we have a guest coming on but we do and he's he's he first male guests as well because we had lay on a couple episodes ago. We Which people love people love hearing different growth perspectives and and we have a newcomer to the scene this year who's you know doesn't seem like he's that new anymore because he's been around for so long this year and played so much and and done well gone deep into tournaments and started off really strong and singles transition a little bit more into getting good mixed results and now he's getting men's results. So kind of kind of gone full circle in terms of in terms of progression and excited to have you guys see who that is shortly here. What a teaser might God what a teaser, so

Adam Stone  25:33
So you said we're waiting to talk about the enemy thing. Yeah,

Rob  25:36
he's Yeah, we're gonna wait to talk about that. But you can give me your thoughts, Adam.

Adam Stone  25:41
No, no, I think. Let me see here.

Rob  25:45
Okay, so I'm just gonna I'm just gonna add this this.

Adam Stone  25:48
Bring him in. Bring him in. Right.

Rob  25:51
Mr. James. Welcome.

James Ignatowich  25:54
What's up? How's it going?

Rob  25:56
Hey, I'm just glad you you're just so professional. You're not sorry, no, no offense layup but you're not in your car. You're not on green Wi Fi. And you're drinking a Starbucks. Well, what are you drinking from Starbucks?

James Ignatowich  26:09
I'm drinking a an Irish cream cold brew.

Adam Stone  26:13
Ven Delicious. Delicious. Have you heard of Celsius this morning? No Celsius.

James Ignatowich  26:18
But all right. There's a funnel for it for sure. But usually, usually I'd actually get a you know, sometimes I get like a caramel macchiato some stuff where it's just like, just don't say my name. Just say the drink. I'll go up and get it. I don't think it'd be like Venti iced white mocha for James like, Nah.

Rob  26:47
I just did that order on the app. So nobody's saying anybody's name and I just go you go slyly pull it off the counter. Yeah.

Adam Stone  26:55
Yeah. Oh, come on.

Rob  26:57
I just Yeah, I just teased you a little bit James. Not like not not teased you but I gave I gave the people a little tease of who we were having on without announcing you just kind of give them giving them the update of we're having somebody on that's not new to the scene anymore. But new new in respect to this year and had great results in singles right out of the bat then kind of progressed and mix and now it's come full circle and is getting results in all events. And yeah, probably one of the and you started to do a lot of content with the Selkirk crew. And those guys and people seem to be gravitating gravitating towards it. So, welcome.

James Ignatowich  27:34
Thank you. Big deal. Me and Anna and, you know, I think this is probably this is the podcast. I mean, I listen to the most for sure. So,

Adam Stone  27:46
yeah. started off strong. Starting off strong. Let's go. So. But yes, I agree. Robin, I think that, James, it's I mean, I don't I don't know you very well, James, but you definitely have a little likeability to you. It's kind of a it's kind of a non dick. Swagger is what I would say. So he has you have like, like, he's not a dick. Like, I'm gonna beat everyone. I'm gonna destroy everyone, whatever. It's kind of playful. It's kind of light hearted. But at the same time, I think you do have some, some pretty solid confidence in your game. And so you know, that's, I think that that's something that people gravitate gravitate towards. So that's great. Thank you.

James Ignatowich  28:25
Yeah, I mean, I, well, you know, the whole non Deke swagger thing. It's important. You look at my post, did you see my last Instagram post? Well, what was it? No, I did not. So basically, I played the PPA in Orlando. And in my whatever it was backdropped singles match. I played against Christian al Shaw, who's known for similar you know, non dict swagger except without the non part

take the post out i The caption was like, you know, awesome weekend in Orlando. Fourth and Mexico, Jackie singles went well, unfortunately, I was able to defeat Christian Alisha on 15 Six. And my third slide is like a highlight of the match point. And then like it zooms in on his face after the match. So

Rob  29:25
yeah. See, it's hands on the hips. He's upset.

Adam Stone  29:31
And you have to have a special you have to have a special personality to get away with that, you know, like some people would post something like that'd be like, Oh, he's he? He's he's an asshole. You know that. Yeah, exactly. But but if you have that kind of that personality that you can get away with stuff like that people really love it. So yeah, that's that's definitely excellent. The non without the non part in there. Yeah, that's good. Um, yeah, so James, let's before Are we get into, you know, maybe some spicier stuff. why don't why don't you give us just a little bit about your sports background? Kind of your schooling situation. And I know you're still in college and just kind of give the people a light little background about yourself.

James Ignatowich  30:16
Yeah, so I played tennis my whole life. I played tennis in college for the first two years at Vandy, Tennessee, and now I still go to Vanderbilt. I am currently a senior, or I'd be going into my senior year because I took a gap semester, I'm going to take a year off, I'm going to take a gap year off before my last year to just kind of focus on Pickleball. Physical, you know, we don't? Yeah, we don't know how long like pro Pickleball is going to have this much money in it, and it's gonna be successful. We don't know what's gonna happen. So I'm not taking anything for granted. I'm just going to try to try to go hard this year and see what happens.

Adam Stone  30:56
So yeah, maybe you just don't go back at all. Who knows?

James Ignatowich  31:00
That would be the best case scenario.

Adam Stone  31:04
Right. I think it's a really interesting point, though, James, because I think Pickleball has a lot of staying power. And I don't see it going anywhere, but we really don't know. So is, is this kind of a slight bubble, where a lot of money and advertising and whatever is getting pumped in and then it's going to fall off a little bit, or is it just going to keep rising? So I think that's a very important, something that you brought up, because it's it really it really is completely up in the air, what is actually going to happen moving forward.

Rob  31:33
So true. It's, it's a really valid point, one that like, hasn't been talked about very much, honestly. It's, yeah, I mean, we have so many, there's so much hype right now. There's so many celebrity and investment groups, you know, throw money into MLP teams, and to the tours, that, hey, it's tough to say whether this is going to be like a legit viewership sport, where real advertising dollars will come in, based on media deals and media rights and stuff like that. So yeah, I mean, if let's let's just say, these investors that invest in MLP, don't see a return, right. And it a few years go by and there's there's no return. Like they're not like there's smart business people that just do it because it's fun. And they're losing money, right? Like they want to they're, they're investing because they're expecting a return. So if that return doesn't come, that money goes away, what are we left with? So I think it's a no, I'm not saying that's gonna happen. But it's a very real possibility that it could go that way. So super valid point in terms of capitalizing and taking advantage right now as it is here.

James Ignatowich  32:35
I mean, I think it's, well, first of all, nobody's watching, right? There's, there's like 2000 people that are watching the streams. And even some people are saying that, like, the PPA might be inflating those numbers. It's like, well, if they're inflating it, they're using, like 100 computers. And it's like, it's really not. So first of all, Yeah, nobody's watching that I've got like three fans. And I don't really think it doesn't really seem like it's generating any money right now. I don't see how it would be. And I think the only way that it's gonna really have any staying power is like a pro sport that people watch is if people start betting on it. Because in you know, I was I'm still in a fraternity in college. And there's so many people in that fraternity, including myself, that will bet on anything that gets shown on that little bet slip. Like there's, you know, over the summer last year, I got really into betting on like horse racing and, and like my friends are betting on like, I don't even know curling so if somebody sees pickleball you know, they're gonna be like, oh, let's do it. You know, let's so it's definitely going to happen. But without sports betting, I think it's going to be impossible. Like I think that's the most important thing. No, percent.

Adam Stone  33:53
Yes. I mean, I had a buddy who spent a summer gambling on under 18, South American soccer, so it does people like to gamble on stuff. They absolutely want to gamble on stuff we talked about. Jay DeVille. Yeah, and Johnny Goldberg. They couldn't handle I just started flipping the coin for five bucks. So you know, people want to gamble and makes it's so I mean, I remember when I was gambling, a little bit weren't some fun bets and then also with fantasy sports. And that's the only reason I was watching anything. I wasn't watching just to hang out and you know, see a team that didn't give a shit about I, I had a stake in the action. And that is a huge deal for people to get eyeballs on the sport. So I like that a lot. And I think it's coming. I know that there's a was it FanDuel or DraftKings or something that is starting to get in the mix with some with some advertisements but But what once we get some real stuff we can click on and put some real money on. I think that that is really going to help the situation.

Rob  34:55
It's pretty wild. It doesn't take like it doesn't take a lot of work. Like people get so upset, like, I'm just gonna buy fantasy like people will put $100 in for the League for the year, right? We're talking, we're talking five months of your life where you're studying football, like almost daily checking in on it for 100 bucks for the five months, right? So it doesn't take a lot of money for people to get really, really invested into a sport. So I just Yeah, I find that fascinating in terms of, it wouldn't take a lot, it would just take the doors, the door to be cracked with bedding for I think more eyeballs have flooded in.

James Ignatowich  35:30
Yeah, I think that's what's I mean, that's the, that's the main thing that we need. Like, it especially got people doing content like you guys, and it's gonna, I think that would make a make a lot of money for some people to like, if I know doober is doing the whole doing the they might do the odds. I was talking to Jill, she said something like that, like her duper ratings would would do the odds. And there could be like, you know, for example, like you guys could have a website that does your own predictions. You look at ESPN, fantasy football, there's so many different websites that have like predictions and this and that. And I think that would be the biggest, biggest way to generate buzz, because right now, with the whole pizza, you know, the tour is being like tennis, and you just show up, and there's 100 People at the event. And all of those people are just playing the amateur event. It's like, it's like kind of a trade. Like there's not really you know, it is created, it's just that huge. And then maybe there's like five people there that are like related to the players. And that's it. So we need, we need gambling, we need something. So I'll be

Rob  36:36
honest, honestly, dude, I'm just I'm just thinking about that. And like relation to relation to like pro tennis at color, like a 250 or the lower levels, not even not even challengers, but like 250 ATP tournaments. I remember going to there's a stop in Atlanta when I was a kid that I would always go to. And even if you look on TV now like these, these 250 events, like unless it's like the finals, like these stadiums are empty, like nobody's watching, nobody's going to watch these. It's, it's insane. So it's not just a pickleball problem. It's all I think it's also a tennis problem. Nobody's nobody's going to watch these buying tickets. And you're right, it's a bit of a charade. Because you know, the stands are full, because people are in between matches of their 3.5 bracket, you know, 35 plus, and stopping into watch the main cord. So and I think, you know, tennis is still send us is still doing fine. I mean, not maybe some of these individual events aren't going to be able to maintain but you know, tennis as a whole not going anywhere. And I think yeah, I think I read a stat where tennis is the most bet on sport in the world over soccer even. So I think you're absolutely right, in terms of you know, betting betting will change everything.

James Ignatowich  37:48
Yeah, I think it's, I think that'd be huge. But I also think one of the things is this, it's like, people say that Pickleball is like not really a spectator sport. And I think there's definitely some merit to that. But I think that if you can just increase the participation of pickleball so much. I think there's gonna be a lot of people that watch because like it's soccer really a spectator sport? I don't think so when I watch it, I'm like, this sucks. Yeah, baseball, I don't think baseball is a spectator sport. But there's people that watch it just because there's so many people that play. So if you've got 30 million people playing pickleball, or whatever it is, there's going to be a lot of people that watch it just because they play it. So it's not going to be it's never going to be the spectator sport that football is or basketball is. But that's not that's not really a problem. So that's, that's what I think. Yeah,

Rob  38:45
I totally agree. Because I think like what I see what what I see with people even on Hawaii, even Hawaii right now it's like, you know, they come in and start playing pickleball for the first time don't really know anything about the sport, but you know, they like they want to get better. They're taking lessons going to clinics. And then naturally what you do once you kind of got the bug and we see how easily it is to get hooked into playing pickleball. Like it's it's really addicting and it grabs people early on. Because they feel like right away. They're like, Okay, I got this, this isn't as hard as something like tennis. And then once you start getting a little bit better, what do you do you you go on YouTube and watch some videos and then you're like, eventually, I want to I want to see how the pros play. And I think I think you're absolutely right, James, I don't think we need we don't need viewership just from just from random people that know have heard about pickleball it's going to be from participants. So it'd be for people that are playing that want to get better and then start following pros based on based on having experienced playing the game. And then I think once you actually understand the game, you want to watch it and you want to see the pro level and see what they're doing and see how they're playing. Because you understand the game now so yeah, I was talking yesterday in this Twitter space is I know Anna was trying to get on but had some issues or Johnny has some issues but um We were talking about I just lost my train of thought too much coffee.

Adam Stone  40:07
Is that a thing? So you gotta find the perfect balance?

Rob  40:10
I don't know. Just let's let's carry God. I literally just had like a mind meltdown.

Adam Stone  40:17
I like it. I think that's I think that's good stuff. I'm not the only one. Okay, no, that was good and important, important topic, especially kind of the way we've talked about it before is can we get the participation to a number where it doesn't matter? Or are we going to need people that don't know much about it to watch? And I think that's yet to be determined. And if it gets up to that 30 million number by whatever date it's supposed to, I'm not sure it really matters either way. So um, so James, you're you're down in Delray Beach, is that correct? Yes. So tell us, tell us a little bit about your crew and your practice situation and kinda what you do down there. What you plan on doing down there, taking this year off from school?

James Ignatowich  41:03
Yeah, so we it's basically me and Anna and JW. In Georgia. Yeah, we've been practicing with Anna Lee a lot more recently. She was always down to practice with like me and Christian. And oh, yeah, Christian is down here, too. I try not to practice with Christian too much, because I don't want to help make that guy better. But I think we definitely, you know, it's her. And she, she usually wasn't really practicing with other girls that much. But now she's kind of starting to, because Lee got hurt. So it's like, what is she going to do? You know, we're the group. And she's just kind of joining us. And then we've got my friend Dave, who has only played like a couple tournaments. But he's getting really good, just because he was like a former D one tennis player. And now he's just playing with me and JW every day. And he's like, drills playing like eight hours a day. So he's, you guys are gonna see him pretty soon. He's just too broke to afford registration fees. So we're figuring that out. But once he was, that's pretty nice. Last Name. Carvallo, he actually played minor league pickleball. And he did pretty well. He's still learning it. And him and JW are like best friends. Like JW loves the guy. It's hilarious. Like, you should see. You can see JW around him. Because it's not, not what you see. Public, you know, it's like, totally opens up and it's really funny. But that's the group. Yeah, we, we play every day, pretty much like twice a day I do that I play like, I'm just so addicted to pickleball. Like, I'll play, I'll play rec with them, like twice a day. And then I'll go drill with Dave or whoever it is for like an hour and a half. Not even because I'm so like, obsessed with getting better. Like I want to get better, but I just really just love playing like I love feeling the ball. I love just getting out there and got nothing better to do. So. Like I basically, was I ever loved tennis like this, like I really love pickleball like so much. And that kind of played a big role in me taking the year off because it's like I would even if I don't go back to school or whatever, or if I you know, whatever the case may be like, I'm fine just going out there and teaching if I get hurt like I just want to be out there. I just love people well that much. So in a thinks there's something wrong with me like I'm totally obsessed with it, like over the top more than anybody else. But that's kind of my my training situation. So

Adam Stone  43:39
I remember at major league pickleball you guys, you guys had a tough little, you know, a tough kind of heartbreaking loss. Wherever it was, I think it was the semi finals. And then sure enough, like four minutes later, you're playing two on one singles against 245. I was just like, Man, this kid is a champion. He takes it he takes a tough loss and a huge spot and he's playing two on one five minutes later. That's pretty impressive.

James Ignatowich  44:07
That was actually after the that was after the dream breaker against the bus.

Adam Stone  44:11
Okay, there you go. Yeah.

James Ignatowich  44:15
We won that game and we won that match. And I hit like that shot on Eric Lang like the forehand from from treaty binding now baseline. And there was these two guys, you know, Chris Olson like the pickleball studio and pickleball Well, yes, I do. Yeah, they're to like, you know, pickleball wheels good. He's like a four or five. He's like, the other both like five foot six. And like like, Chris is more of like a studio guy. He's really like a three. So kind of learning the game. He's like a three, five. And they were like, You won't hit that shot against us. And I'm like, I bet I will. And then we just went and played like, played like three games and

Adam Stone  44:56
yeah. So the only thing I got from that whole story is you got some I'm playing against people that are five, six. James, what's up with that? I kind of fall in there

alright, so also James, can you tell us anything about your partner situation for next year? If you can great. If not, we will move on to the next question. What's up?

James Ignatowich  45:20
Yeah, so I, well, it's kind of weird because there's like, people are changing that going from the a PP to the PPA really quickly, things are just kind of all over the place. So I really don't know. I do know that as of like, a couple of days ago, I was set up to have like, for mixed I had some absolute stud partners. There was a couple tournaments with Andrea a few tournaments with with Anna bride a few tournaments with Jackie cow, Moto, Jade cow, Moto Susanna bar, one tournament, kind of just messing it all around. Because I wasn't really sure. I mean, I've seen so many of these partnerships that go for like a whole year, and it just ends pretty badly. Not all not always, but sometimes. And I didn't really think especially since I'm so new to the game, and I didn't really know, you know, what's going to work out for me like with my style, who's gonna fit the best. So I wanted to mix that around. And then in men's. I've got a few tournaments with Greg Tao. If you know who that is. He's good. He's good, right side guy. And it's funny. He's like, six, five, and he's like a good athlete. And he just doesn't play singles doesn't play mix. So when he shows up and he plays the right like, like, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And he's got a good yeah, good day. He's good. And then I had a

I was gonna play five tournaments with Federico to, but now we're not sure what's going on there. So

Rob  46:54
they just different tours. Yeah. Yeah, it's

James Ignatowich  46:57
completely up in the air. But I'm not really. Yeah, I mean, I don't really I don't really drop anybody I've never been I'm just not good at it. I feel like I'm too nice of a guy. I feel bad. I actually had a tournament for like five months. I committed way too early to kneel metadata. And I had some like, great player. Great play. And I was I can drop your metadata even though you know, I wanted to do it. I couldn't drop Neil. But now he's a good he's a good player. We

Rob  47:29
can you tell us your discord Pro or like handle?

James Ignatowich  47:35
My discord was Neil mete out his belly button.

Rob  47:45
I love that. Yeah. Like how, like how deep of a well, that thing probably is. Seen

Adam Stone  47:59
the but yeah, maybe that's why you stayed with them is because you knew you were gonna get free Lay's potato chips all day during the tournament. So you know, whatever. So I looked, I looked back through your tournament history a little bit. There's not a lot of it, maybe about 20 or so. I think your first one James was December of last year. And so you you played several with Anna had some mixed results, some good, some bad? How do you feel about overall playing with your significant other? And if you guys have the right, the right personalities to kind of make that happen? Because a lot of people, including myself have kind of crashed and burned in that situation?

James Ignatowich  48:42
Yeah, I mean, I think that we do, I think it's been I think it's been fun. I think we do just because we're both pretty. Like I don't, I don't really let my ego get in the way of things. I'm kind of like, pretty aware of like, how to be a good partner and how to not say the wrong thing. Because I've just seen it so much with like, you know, just little chippy remarks that partners will make to each other and you just don't want to make that tear to your significant other, that's for sure. So I'm pretty, I'm pretty good at kind of just, I'm really good at being wrong, because I'm wrong so often that I'll just accept it like, Okay, I'm wrong, you know, like, I that was wrong by me. And I'm good at that. And I can just do it over and over, but she's not really

you know, we're both we're both pretty aware of how to approach things and what's the right thing to say and

I think you have to be you can't really be kind of insecure about your own game or insecure about your results or anything like that. Because if you are then it's gonna be it's gonna end up being bad. But next Yeah, I guess I can say that. I'll say this. So next year, we're we're not gonna really play together. But it's not because we didn't have fun and we didn't play together better. or anything? Well, it's because she has found a way better partner. I can't talk about who that is. But just know, she has a really, really good partner for for next year. So,

Adam Stone  50:15
if I had to guess if I had to guess, and I know nothing about anything, I would say it could maybe even possibly be Riley Neumann. I don't know. We'll just we'll just That's my guess. I have no idea. We'll just we'll just throw that out there. But anyway, ya know, that makes sense. You know, something, something better comes along or, you know, if whether you guys had a good good vibe, there it is. Take a shot everybody a good vibe on quarter, not? The family's got to make money. So if you know prof found somebody good to play with. I just got to pass her along. You know, we got to do it for the family. Yeah,

James Ignatowich  50:51
I will just say that if, hypothetically, you know, Riley asked Anna to play and if Riley was like, Yeah, let's go. Let's go beat up on Annalee and Ben and just just make Ben hit a lot of backhand counters. I wouldn't. Yeah, I wouldn't say no, I would, I would be like, yeah, go do that. Go do that. I'd love to watch that happen. But I don't think that I mean, do you think do you think Ben and Anna Lee are the favorite against Riley? Hypothetical Riley and Anna? I don't know. I honestly think maybe not. I mean, can can Ben keep up and Hans can Collins brother keep up and Hans didn't look like he could against Annalee and Riley at Nationals. It looked like he was freaking out. And it looked like he was getting dominated by by a 15 year old girl who we might have to edit that out. But I don't know. It looked like he was getting dominated. And it was actually I felt bad. Watching that match. Because it was like this shouldn't even be like I shouldn't even be allowed to watch this. Public like this is this is and I it made me think like Riley and Annalise shouldn't play next year, because it just wouldn't be fair, like Ben and Anna Lee. They do well enough. But if Riley and Lee played together, it would just be it wouldn't even be fun for anybody.

Rob  52:13
So it's what was three oh and three. Right. And it was just an absolute. It looked like a first round match.

James Ignatowich  52:20
Yeah. And it was it was like they didn't discriminate. Go on a Katherine going to bed. They would just go at whoever and it was going it was working every single

Rob  52:32
I probably take in Riley. Like not probably I would take.

Adam Stone  52:37
Yeah. What do you think so Riley? Man is last six months, man. The guy has stepped up. He's gone a little extra length than Collins brother. And he and he has that pancake, which flat forehand pancake is flat out the best shot in pickleball. I don't care what anyone says. So. So I think it's I think it's super reasonable not to think that they could they could be the Favorites over over a college brother and Anna Lee, which is kind of wild to think that that could be the case. But I'm with Rob, I would take them not, you know, not at a crazy percentage more than Collins brother and Anna Lee. But I would take them over 50% of the time for sure.

James Ignatowich  53:16
He's got faster hands, and he's got more power. I mean, who wins and skinny singles Riley are bent? I think Riley? I don't think Ben keeps up in hands. I mean, I mean, I just don't. I would take Riley I mean, I could be wrong. But that's what I would think.

Adam Stone  53:32
Oh, looks like we lost Robert no big deal. We don't need them. So we actually, actually James, we had a question from I believe it was on one of the YouTube chats about where Anna Lee would rank in the men's game and singles and doubles. And my a lot of my rankings when I do the rankings, it's a combination of results, my personal play against them. And I have a lot of people throughout the game and very high ranked players that I trust their opinion and kind of put all that together. And so my first inclination, when I saw that this comment, this question was that I I'm probably gonna get some flack for this, but I would not put Anna Lee in the top 50 for male singles, and my comment was for doubles. I would put her somewhere between 40 and 60. Where would you say this? This is never going to be happen happen? It's super hard to quantify this. But where would you think Anna Lee would rank in men singles and also in men's doubles?

James Ignatowich  54:48
Oh, man, I think you're way off in the singles. I mean, you've got to be I've played her many times in practice. I don't think there's 30 guys out there that are good at singles on The men's side, there's just not maybe not even not even. I mean, I've played. I've played singles against everybody at the highest level of singles. And I've played in a lead many times in practice. And I think annually is right around like I've played. Who's like a middling, like guy like Alex Newman. I think there you go. And elite could be the guy like Alex Newman. I think I've played both of them many times. And of course, Emily's not going to be me. And she's definitely not going to be really anybody in the top 15 of singles or 20 of singles ever. Just because, yeah, I mean, I'm not you know, that's, that's crazy to think of, but I think there's gonna be guys like Alex Newman that she would beat. I think she could rank probably. I mean, 25 Maybe I think she could win a few matches. I mean, she's definitely in single is going to be the guy like Grant bond. She's gonna be Grandpa, I don't care what transit will I will take every deal I have, which isn't much, but I'll take all the cash that I could find. And I'll put that on Annalee waters.

Adam Stone  56:13
Can I Can I get in on that? Please? Can I?

James Ignatowich  56:16
Where are we? The question becomes like, where do we rank grant bond like 3035 I guess he's also a better competitor than these guys. Because she's been at the top of the game. She's winning so much. She's got so many so much experience winning, that she's gonna dig deeper than a guy like grant or Alex and she's gonna probably end up closing it out and three, something of that nature. So I would say it's single she's probably 25 to 30. But that's such a such a changing situation, because singles is crazy with me like are with a guy like Krishna. Now, Shawn, after I played singles for like, four weeks, I was already you know, looking back levelized I was probably like, 20 to 25 because singles just come so fast. Like for me my singles game was Was there really early doubles takes a long time and I'm still not even there in doubles. Really. But singles was like super fast. So singles, 25 doubles, though. I don't know, I mean, you ranked or a 25 year list and I wasn't was like, I gotta go dig. I'm gonna go get some drops.

Adam Stone  57:31
Yeah, I think it is super hard. And I haven't competed against her for probably a year and a half. So it's tough. That's why I wanted to kind of get some, you know, get someone like you talking about it, who's very adept, especially at the singles game, and then also some other PPA players that have played her quite a bit in the last year. So it's a it's a wide range. I've had a couple people kinda put her around where I said, and then a couple of people said, You're crazy. She ranks way higher than that. So I think it's a pretty cool discussion, even though, you know, we're probably never gonna, you know, get anything tangible to really be able to know.

Rob  58:06
The way I think it doubles.

James Ignatowich  58:07
Oh, sorry. I was just gonna say like, my final. Just be. I don't think I think she'd be probably 40 to 50 I think doubles is right, just because there's more more guys that are good at doubles. I think that I think that 40 to 50 is probably probably right. Yeah, that that'd be my thought on that. But

Rob  58:31
I agree with you, James. There's been some some very, very good players that are that have put her in like the top 10 of guys. But the way the way I the way I have to look at it is just so I think about like, if there were because it's different in women's the game is different. Like if you're playing men's you stay on the line, like a lot of the firefights and women's are like you know, 334 feet off the line. So you have a little bit more time. You can cover a little bit more core back there. I like to I like the way I like to look at this argument is if you had to Anneliese just an annually and annually clone playing let's call it two of you James like you would never lose that. No, right you would just never lose that just you know so I think when you're looking at you know when these guys are saying like she's she'd be like a top 10 guy it's not quite the same like so these guys are playing her and mixed right where she's protected a little bit she can play off the line a little bit even though she moves like she's right there right like her you can't question her ability in her skill it's ridiculous off the charts like but if you're talking about playing you know two guys playing two Anneliese I it's just not the same.

James Ignatowich  59:50
Well mixes a different dynamic because just like you said, you guys leaning the guys trying to take more chords so it exposes their backhand if they're righty, and Elise covered she's covered With 35% of the court I think one of the things that you can you can pinpoint is like Maybe Anna is not Anna Lee is not elite at this. It's your thinking or thinking isn't amazing. And I think that's probably just because your hands are

Adam Stone  1:00:15
no but what you know I think I think what he said makes a lot of sense and you know a lot of points about her, you know, mix being a different dynamic. She's a little more aggressive with her Danks, but you never really see her grind. You never see her grind to dance because she doesn't have to. She's just she's just a trigger. Yeah, she's always pulling the trigger. So, you know, I know some of my numbers were a little low but I let's be clear, Anneliese absolute monster I love her game. I think she's ridiculous. big gap between her and the next next girl. So I know my numbers seem low. Maybe I could come down a little bit on that, but either way, either way, she she is a beast. And I just love everything about her game.

Rob  1:00:57
Mean seven triple crowns speaks for itself.

Adam Stone  1:01:00
Yeah, decent decent play from her. So yeah, that's sad that we lost James. Oh, there he goes. He's popping back in. Oh, you got the Christmas tree look.

Rob  1:01:08
Best of yay. That's good. That's good. All right. Last Last Last we heard from you James. You're just saying. If there's if there's one kind of weak spot and Anneliese game, it would be it would be dinking

James Ignatowich  1:01:21
Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't really call it a weak spot. I just, like necessarily elite at it like ya know, is or Jesse Irvin and I think that's probably because your hands are so good that they just bail her bail her out. Kind of like a Riley I mean, you don't look at Riley's stinks and think about how amazing they are and quality. But a lot of Anneliese dinks are like beatniks they're kind of just, you know, please attack me and that won't work if there's two Anneliese versus two me's or to you know, somebody, somebody of that nature, so I think I think she'd probably adjust because the thing is like, Emily's probably also got the ability to be better, she just hasn't been tested. So her dinks would get better. I mean, she's not going to be like to Callen Dawson's, but she would be I think her things would get better and I think that she, she'd be she'd be tough, but I think a lot of the things that worked for her in the women's game probably wouldn't work in the men's game because her hands and power are gonna are gonna bail her out.

Adam Stone  1:02:25
Yeah, and I think that's exactly right. The question is playing how she plays just like James said, Would she make the adjustment and play the line a little bit more maybe grind? Danks a bit more you know, because he's exactly right she's drinking to create a lot of that are hard rolls cross court where some six four guys just gonna reach out and neutralize that. But does what does she have the ability to grind more drinks and play a more you know, men's style game? Absolutely. I'm sure she does. So like I said, it's fun. It's fun to talk about probably never really going to get to see it. But man, she's tough. Yep.

Rob  1:03:06
So she got Adam.

Adam Stone  1:03:08
Well, I have I have the last thing for James is I have some rapid fire quick questions. Whoa, let's do it. Really? Really, really? Like so? Why don't we just jumped in there? i You cannot think too long on this James. There's probably a couple you're gonna have to think on. But rate your pickleball obsession, one to 1010 Chipotle or Panera? Panera beach or mountains.

James Ignatowich  1:03:38
Neither pickleball

Adam Stone  1:03:40
who impresses you more on court? Dylan or deckle? Dylan? If you were playing a tournament with Anna bright would you prefer that she wear leggings or a skirt? Skirt? If if you had to date one of us, would it be Robert or myself?

James Ignatowich  1:04:00
Rob because he's better. I don't want to bring you home.

Adam Stone  1:04:05
Sorry. Best shit talker in the game. Riley or Matt? Or you?

James Ignatowich  1:04:12
They're both great. I think I think I think I think Riley. That's close.

Adam Stone  1:04:18
Right? Okay. All right. Well, that's all I got. That was eight questions. And actually, this will lead up to the last topic, because the fans really love this. And I'm sure James has no idea, Robert. So there was a little there was a little joining at the end of game one in the men's doubles final. And two of the main contributors were Colin and Riley. So just a little a little history here. There was a tournament about three years ago I believe was 2019 the world Pickleball Championships and there was a pool pool play situation. And what happened was, at the time Colin was one of the better singles players. So what happened was Riley was playing a weaker player And he apparently tanked points to that player so that Colin would not advance into the pool play because Colin was a better player so Colin very very much did not like that. And so they have a little beef that goes back three or four years now I don't know if that beef has like held on these three years Yes. But just a little just a little behind the scenes fun fact if you ever see Colin and Riley go at it because I'll tell you right tell you right now Colin is not. He's not the shit talker type. He's kind of the guy that you know, you say screw you call and he goes, Well, maybe Screw you. And he's not he's not sharp. He's he's not a crap talker. But he had some words for Riley at the end of that game one. And so that's just a little fun fact a little piece of information from back in the day.

James Ignatowich  1:05:49
I saw that I thought it was hilarious. We, me and Anna love to go watch the final finals of men's. And we we were a game late. We usually watch the whole match where we came in like right after that. And we were just we were kind of disappointed that we missed that. But just on the topic of trash talk. I think we have to give some some credit to Travis Travis Rettenmaier.

Adam Stone  1:06:13
Oh, yes.

James Ignatowich  1:06:14
Yeah, I think he's probably he might be better. I don't know if he's better. He could be better than Riley and Matt in this regard. Just because he brings a little more. I think he's got a little more swag. He's a little bit I think it's just a little more disrespectful, in a good way. It's like in the right way like I granted I mean, the last couple of times, that'd be Travis I beat him pretty convincingly. So I don't really know if I've gotten the full, full experience. But in the bronze medal with with Steve and I was playing with Steve and it was against Travis and Wes. And he was he was talking a lot in the first game and Steve was like speeding up at Travis and Travis was like, I thought I told you like some stuff like that like hilarious stuff. So

Adam Stone  1:07:06
I thought I told you Yeah. And also I James, I remember talking to you and you had a matchup I don't know what it was maybe quarterfinals second or third rounds, something like that, where you knew you were gonna play Matt and Riley and you planned out some crap talk that you were going to do during that match. Is that accurate?

James Ignatowich  1:07:25
A little bit. I mean, I was just joking around with Federico like stuff we might say. Just because we figured we were gonna lose anyway, we at that time, especially like three months ago, we were not we weren't even in the realm to like beat those guys. And we just wanted to at least have fun and say something stupid. And I don't know. I mean, I think one of the things I said I'm pretty sure Matt heard this but I know I know Riley heard this was like I lost the hands battle the mat and I was like I can't be losing hands battles to a guy that's 44 and bald, like just just trying to and I think I call them the bald eagle. So yes,

Adam Stone  1:08:06
this is great stuff. And this is my last question for you James. Do you know who Phillip lock Lior and tevonn Morrow are?

Unknown Speaker  1:08:17
No

Adam Stone  1:08:19
Phillip Philip likelier to Vaughn Morrow.

James Ignatowich  1:08:22
This the first name Philip Lockley are it sounds sounds kind of familiar. Why do you ask well

Adam Stone  1:08:27
in St. Louis, you and fed lost to them so I just wanted to bring

James Ignatowich  1:08:35
clear we lost to those guys.

Adam Stone  1:08:37
St. Louis, you and fed. Just you know, I've been tooting your horn a little bit throughout this pod. I just had to you know, bring it back down a little bit. I never heard those guys either. Oh, that's a tough one. That's a tough one.

James Ignatowich  1:08:49
Dude, me and me and Warren tamanho. We just lost to like, like two weekends ago. We lost the two guys there were like four fives in the back. Dr. Eames. Um, right there, I can lose to anybody.

Adam Stone  1:09:01
You said being self aware is one of your best qualities. So there you go. There you have it.

Rob  1:09:07
Yeah. James singles mixture men's.

James Ignatowich  1:09:12
Definitely not singles it was. It's probably still mixed. I love mixed I think singles is just to mean, you guys know why it's not singles. It's too boring. It's too physical to learn. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just not. It's not as rewarding. I mean, it's not really what Pickleball is, like Pickleball is delts. You know, single, just serves returns and who wants it more? That's pretty much it. And it's just not really, I don't know, I feel like Pickleball is like a doubles game. So that's what it really is. And like I was good at singles. I'm still good at singles just because it's more like tennis. But I think I'm starting to think men's is my favorite event now. Just because it's to the highest level game you can't bail yourself out. There's no real shortcuts you can't just hit like some dumb speed up and then get bailed out by your own hands. Because there's a girl in front of you that's not really ready for it or can't handle it. I think I think men's is kind of the most I think it's the best I think it's I think it's I think mix is really fun. But I think men's is cool because

Rob  1:10:26
Okay, well if we don't get him back, the the Adam stone quote that is one of my favorites. And we usually he usually says it before tournaments when we're when we're practicing the day before, or a couple of days before. And while usually it's on Singles Day, we have mixed the next day. And Adam stone will go Robert, do you know what the best practice for mixed is? Like what Adam men's. We would proceed to play a men's game and separate

Adam Stone  1:10:56
to hide to hide from our mixed partners and find a backcourt and play men's

Rob  1:11:04
jamesy there.

James Ignatowich  1:11:05
Yeah, no, I think I think men's is the best best practice for mixed also.

Adam Stone  1:11:09
You know, so you know, it's

James Ignatowich  1:11:12
like, if it's gonna work, if it's going to work on a guy, it's going to work on a girl usually. So that's all it is. I mean,

Adam Stone  1:11:18
yeah, unless it's Anna Lee, apparently. So. Also, I have another pretty solid James story. I was Commentating the Chicago tournament. James had some battles and singles. He was a little under the weather with his, with his fitness, and I had to interview him after a big win. I can't remember who he played, but you beat someone that was very good. And I go off behind the bleachers and James is losing his lunch. He is throwing his guts up a little bit and I just, you know, lightly touch him on the shoulder. I'm like James, James, don't worry about the interview. We'll just we'll just bypass it and good luck, you know, in your next match, and he just jerks his head up with red eyes, saliva dripping from his mouth, and he goes, I need this interview. Oh, yeah. I said, Okay, James, no problem. Come over here and let's get it done. And, you know, I thought that that was lovely.

James Ignatowich  1:12:16
Hey, W and I told JW before the interview that before the match that whoever wins this match has to like we're gonna have like a fake beef. We have to like talk match mad trash in the interview. After the match we thought it'd be fun because I wanted to see what he had to say. Like I thought he was gonna win. So I wanted him to like you know, try to roast me and then I won and then I had to he's back sorry guys. I told you I don't good layup all good. But anyway, yeah, I wanted to talk talk trash to JW I thought it'd be funny. I had some good stuff just to say I thought and then I just kind of forgot it right when the interview started.

Adam Stone  1:12:57
I mean, you throw him the classic line you just wanted him more than he did James and that's what that's what it boiled down to you just want to try to remember that. But yeah, I enjoyed it. James some good good topics there. Maybe Maybe we'll run this back a little bit. And I got I got my new rankings coming out at the end of the year. You might you might squeeze in there on a couple of lists there kid.

Rob  1:13:15
Because you know why? Why? Because it feels right. It feels right.