Rob and Stone analyze the MLP Shuffle Draft and debate which team made the best offseason moves. Another shot was fired in the Tour Wars as the PPA announces an event on MLP weekend. The Nunnery and Stone on-court duo will have to wait as Rob remains on the DL and ‘pulls out’ of Chicago.

Like the ep?
Do us a favor: subscribe to our channel and leave a review on Apple and Spotify

Follow Rob, Adam and The Dink on IG @robnunnery & @adamstone_pb & @thedinkpickleball

Subscribe to our 'all things pickleball' free e-newsletter at https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/signup

For everything else we do, visit https://linktr.ee/dinkfam

Show Notes

4:10 Rob makes the gown up decision to miss APP Chicago Open
7:40 MLP Shuffle Draft Results and Analysis
19:54 There’s still an opportunity to specialize as a right side player
29:35 Best MLP Midseason Moves
39:50 The tours continue to battle for marketplace and player pool
50:20 A gross story from Rob’s childhood
53:43 Pickleball in the mainstream
1:00:20 Tournament Tiers Have a Big Impact on Rankings and Stipends

Conspiracy article: https://www.gawker.com/culture/pickleball-is-a-psy-op

Transcript

Rob  0:00
Me and one thing you can't teach talent Adam.

Adam Stone  0:05
No, no, you can't be really can't so you're just born with it. Yeah, I was. I was born with plenty.

Rob  0:13
You were born with oozing talent. No glasses, huh? Okay. Oh, yeah. The last minute Yeah.

Adam Stone  0:22
So I'm a little my faces. Even though this is Tuesday, my face is still a little swollen. And my voice is still a little gone because you're in a bar fight. I went for it last weekend. I'm not gonna lie. So it was a celebration of, of marriage at Pinehurst, North Carolina and we had a small group but we went big and I am still not 100% from that party, so.

Rob  0:51
But when you celebrate a union of two beautiful souls, like yourself, and the prof one can only go big.

Adam Stone  0:59
Yes, you must go big and dare I say, Robert, that felt right. And I went for it.

Rob  1:06
Who went bigger than you? No one.

Adam Stone  1:10
No, yeah, nobody. There wasn't a person in their eye. You saw that clip for me on the dance floor. So you know that I was. Not only was I having a great time, I was sweating profusely profusely, as Chris mills would say. And if you

Rob  1:23
don't think that if you don't think that clip is going to be clipped for a promo on this. Dead wrong. Oh, yeah,

Adam Stone  1:30
I started. I started spinning my nice around. And I had to stop doing that because I was losing my balance a little bit. All the all the whiskey on the rocks. So don't don't do it too frequently, like I used to. But every now and then you just kind of let it fly. It feels right, Rob?

Rob  1:51
I like that. Adam. When do we have somebody reached out to be on the podcast? It was somebody from Raleigh, North Carolina actually believe it or No, really? I believe that. Rachel Rachel Simon?

Adam Stone  2:06
No, I don't believe that's correct. It's Rachel.

Rob  2:10
That's a wrong. Yeah. So

Adam Stone  2:11
it's it's no, it's a she. Oh, really? So it's not there's a younger Rachel that plays Singles. I don't think it's from Raleigh. So nope, nope. No. Different Rachel. Rachel. Okay.

Rob  2:25
She's she's an author. I think she has she's she writes for like the New York Times and some other publications. Maybe as a freelancer, I'm not sure. But just wrote a book called Pickleball for all. And I think her her PR publicist from HarperCollins reached out and said she would like to make an appearance. I said, You know what, we don't have many guests on this podcast. But I think it would be, you know, our pleasure to welcome her and let her talk about her book. Oh, I

Adam Stone  2:55
like that idea.

Rob  2:56
So it would be interesting, actually. Because, you know, she's not like in the pro world, right? She just wrote like a, like a mass market book talking about pickleball. And like, the history of it, and how it's why it's growing and all that stuff. And I think it'd be pretty interesting just talking to somebody from that perspective that doesn't know the pro world and like, knows, kind of like the general, the general view of pickleball to kind of, I don't wanna say outsiders, but to more of like the mass public.

Adam Stone  3:24
Know, for sure. So I think I think we folk obviously focus more here on the pro game. And that's what we know the most about, but I think I think we have some pretty good knowledge of just the general stuff going on the game with the, you know, the average rec player or the amateur tournament player. And those are those are two different worlds, a lot of overlap between them. But I think it's important to talk about that stuff, some as well, because, you know, that's the masses. That's the real core of the pickleball. player pool.

Rob  3:57
Correct? Correct. Correct.

Adam Stone  4:03
So what Robert, what are we talking about today,

Rob  4:05
whatever we want to talk about. I was supposed to be going to Chicago this weekend, I sadly, will Chicago then I was supposed to go to New York, then I was supposed to go to Atlanta. I have been advised. It's probably not in my best interest health wise to travel and to participate in a pro sport at a high level, exerting myself to max effort,

Adam Stone  4:29
especially, especially if your player or your partner is me. There'll be probably a little a little bit more exertion in court coverage from you. So yeah, definitely. Definitely don't want to push it and it is it is super frustrating. Obviously, we've talked about it plenty, but you know, I just wish with these injuries that I just had a broken arm. You know, I have here's, here's your recovery time. It's six weeks, you're you do nothing for six weeks, you'd get your cast Often you're good to go with these muscular injuries or some of the stuff that that you're dealing with. It's just tough because you feel a little bit better, and then you push it. And it's not quite where you wanted it to be. And you have these commitments to these partners, and these these tournaments, and you're optimistic and hoping for the best, and it's just, it just doesn't always work out perfectly. So it's a really tough spot to be and I think,

Rob  5:25
yeah, and it's, it's tough because, you know, pickleball, with pickleball, when you sign up for these tournaments, you're it's not just yourself, which makes pulling out even harder, right? Like you're, you're letting down your partners and it's, yeah, it's that's one of the one of the more annoying things about pickleball is that, you know, when you do run into kind of some adversity, and you need to pull out of a tournament, that you're affecting multiple people, not just yourself, which is for me, easily the hardest part, like I feel like I could go and probably play it would probably be uncomfortable and probably not be in the best interest of my overall health and well being and would probably set me back further with like, disinfection and all that stuff. But I feel like I'm making a grownup choice by by not playing, even though like I really, really want to

Adam Stone  6:15
know, I think that that's a Rob, I can let myself down all day. I don't want to let anyone else down, though. So we've we've even brought that up before. So when there is other people involved it is it does kind of cloud, some of your thought process and you're judgmental, what what really is the right decision for you? And you know, that's, that's life.

Rob  6:36
That's life. So no Chicago for me, and no, Chicago for us, because we're supposed to be playing together. I think you're still TBD on whether you're going to find a replacement for me, or what your what your plan is.

Adam Stone  6:52
Right? Yeah. I'm kind of up in the air. I'll probably get on the horn after this podcast. Talk to the mix partner that I had setups, check, check that male player pool, I will be there to commentate two days. So yeah, I think you can go either way. Maybe I'll, I'll hang in there and play the event or or I could possibly, you know, hold off for Atlanta the following weekend and just do the commentary for those four days. So we'll we'll we'll see about that. Either one would be fine with me. We'll just see how it all works out.

Rob  7:24
Right on. Got lots of updates in the in the MLP. World. We just had the shuffle draft we've had, you know, the drops the waivers. Some trades? What's going to go through just systematically on all the updates?

Adam Stone  7:43
Yes, sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. So so how it worked. It is it is slightly confusing. So how it worked is where I believe it was where the player that you are dropping is drafted. If they are a very early high pick, maybe in the top 10, Top 12 Top 15 of the 24. There's 24 players in each gender. So if they're kind of in that range, where they're higher ranked, you get more ping pong balls. So this is basically a lottery. So you get ping pong balls for how poorly your team finished the previous MLP. And you also get ping pong balls for how highly drafted the person you are dropping was. So that's how it worked. There was five min drop. So there was five players to be picked up off of a waiver wire pool and everyone had their own amount of ping pong balls and they just pulled it at random. So of those five teams. I was, like we mentioned last podcast that was recently traded to the jackrabbits and we were unfortunately number five. So we have I believe we had the Chi miras had the first pick and they got Gabe Tardeo let me check my my list right here. So as you know, Gabe Tardeo filled in for you last MLP and you know, kind of kind of lit it up a little bit, had some nice offensive shots, some nice matches, and that small sample so does make sense that he was he was high on the list and ended up going number one for the men in the shuffle draft.

Rob  9:24
Yeah, I think he liked like we talked about last episode in terms of high upside he's got high upside right and MLP and the MLP format, the rally scoring it can be really streaky and if somebody catches fire Yeah, it can it can work out really well. So that's the upside versus the rock right? I wouldn't consider Tardeo rock by any by any stretch of the imagination. But in terms of upside and streaky can get really hot. Absolutely. And he also when he filled in for me brought it Then as like Phil and teammate brought great energy to the team was super fired up wanted to wanted it badly. And I think you know, he's been wanting on a team for a while. So pump for pump for gave great kid great player and only gonna get better. So good pickup I think

Adam Stone  10:15
that no absolutely and I do like gave quite a bit and there was let's see, I believe there was a couple opportunities, maybe just one for him to get on an MLP team earlier and it didn't work out. So actually when who it was, it was for me, it was for me that first MLP and unfortunately, Gabe already had a commitment for the Indianapolis open. And he did not break that commitment. So he had an opportunity to come to the first MLP we ended up getting Ben Newell, who got picked up in this current shuffle draft as well. So kind of a little fun factor there. It was interesting, and I think he was really wanting to play the MLP but was torn a little bit about triggers

Rob  11:02
Becker Tardeo I did not know that.

Adam Stone  11:04
Because no, that's, that's, that's tough, you know, you get this opportunity. It was only a couple of days before the Indianapolis tournament too. But he decided to stick with it and go to Indy and you know, I can't fault him for that. And I kind of respect him for that decision.

Rob  11:18
Totally, especially that age. So yeah, it's it's, you know, you don't see that all the time anymore. Right? See, short attention spans jumping at the best opportunity sticking to what you've committed to so

Adam Stone  11:32
right Okay, so let's let's take a look here. I apologize guys looking down on my screens here. But that team now is the Chimera as they have Andrea coupe and Megan fudge, you have Gabe Tardeo and Daniel De La Rosa. So they can talk Spanish to each other. Fellas, I mean, that's good. I mean, that's good. That's team chemistry right there. So talk a different language. I think that's a good thing. You hear that a little bit with Barry and toasts and DJ young sometimes you know, they they go to that Spanish you kind of think it gives them a little vibe and it gives them Yeah, right right. Right. Right. So yeah, so really solid team there. Number two on the pickups. We had Eric Lang who kind of what I heard a little bit on social media kind of through the grapevine that that was one of the more supply surprising drops was was Eric Lang kind of a slightly underrated player in terms of him not playing a full slate of tournaments but you know, pound for pound on his results. It's pretty good. It's pretty good for the most part, especially in that in samples, and especially in men's doubles. So he is joining the bus with the number to pick up off waivers and the bus is Lauren stratman Susanna bar, Eric Lang and West Burroughs. So as we as we know that Suzanna bar came over from the heart eights and that big trade so that is the the foursome for the bus. And I think both of those teams are very solid, very solid. Agree. Yeah, with

Rob  13:12
I'll talk about laying because he was he was on the fives, as you know, for sure. And yeah, fantastic player, but even even better teammate and better human. Like such a good dude. I think I think for the fives. Like the way the way the teams made up is Linna. Like we were, I guess, we just really needed a right side players what we're looking for. And while my game is probably suited for the right side, I'm not comfortable on the right side at all. I would not say that's where I play my best pickleball or where I'm the most confident. I just haven't spent enough time there and worked on it enough. I would definitely say that I feel much more confident on the left. And I would say Eric probably feels the same. Also very strong left side player usually plays with West Gabrielson. So, you know, the vast majority of his reps come on the left side. So we were lacking in terms of having a guy that is good playing the right side. And as we saw with like when Pablo filled in for me at the Austin MLP Linna is very, very comfortable on the left side playing mixed. And that's where she plays her best mixed. So we were Yeah, so we wanted to take a take a run at a lefty and have a solid rightside player and if you look at Ben's results from I believe it was LA and the PPA kind of the Invitational thing. I mean him and Tyson beat Matt Right and Colin John's I think Ben went three and one in pool play and men's so he played very, very well. I think even the Austin PPA he him and Jack awkward got, you know, pretty deep into the tournament maybe fourth or something like that. So I think Ben's got a ton of upside. This is going to be an indoor indoor event in Columbus. It's going to be very fast conditions, which I believe suits suits Ben's game. You know, he can drive the ball he can crash. He's very athletic, great singles player strong and mixed. Probably Probably a little weaker in men's, I would say just just based on, you know, not as big of a sample sizes. Eric Right, like Eric Scott, you know, very, very solid results in men's for a long time. He's very established very good. But I would just say we were looking probably for more of a rightside player that that can get streaky and get hot. And yeah, excited to have been on the team. Glad era Claude Eric landed somewhere. Because he deserved he absolutely deserves I mean, he's easily one of the top guys in the league. So no surprise there and really pumped that he that he landed so. Yeah.

Adam Stone  15:57
Yeah, so I think Ben Newell's, was one of the better movers out there. Very athletic, very explosive. So just so everyone knows, Eric Lang got dropped from the fives and picked up from the bus. And Ben Newell was a free agent and got picked up by the fives. So just like you mentioned, Rob, I think it makes sense a lot, especially with Linna. Liking that left side. And and I think it's an interesting dynamic as these roles get more established, that some of these lefty guys can really make an impact and mixed playing with the woman that is so comfortable on the left side being the dominant woman's player. So it hasn't really gotten to that point yet. We're still seeing mostly, or a high high percentage of standard stuff with guy left girl, right. But as everyone gets a little more specific with their roles, I'm interested to see if there's not either some right sided right handed guys that can mix in with some of the the strong left sided girls, and obviously being left handed, would help that situation a lot. So it's kind of an interesting dynamic. And I think we might see it a little more frequently. With these really strong left side women kind of pairing up with maybe a different vibe on the next court with some of these guys.

Rob  17:20
You're saying with with lefty guys or even righty guys, right, right.

Adam Stone  17:23
So Exactly, exactly. Either. Or, obviously, it makes more sense for the lefty have having that lefty in the middle of credit, I had a little bit of success doing that we kind of fell off at the end of it. But just me being the right side player and her preferring left and women's. I'll just see if moving forward if that combination happens a little bit more frequently, as opposed to the standard kind of mix. Mixed lineup.

Rob  17:48
Yep, yep. Yeah, things are things will change in pickleball. Right, like new new ways of playing will will kind of come out. And yeah, I think I think it's still early days in terms of overall strategy and what what can be done to optimize and maximize performance? And yeah, I mean, I talked about I talked about right side guy, left side, female, even right side, right handed guy a little bit last year. And then I tried it out. And I was like, Oh, this is really bad. It did not go well. Yeah, for sure. For sure. But also, also, I'm not great on the right in the first place. And but I think it can work. I agree with you. And especially, especially the lefty guy, it makes a lot of sense. So

Adam Stone  18:33
yeah, so no, and to, to touch on what you said, is I think a lot of the guys that ended up being rock solid right players, I mean, I'm not gonna say I'm a rock solid right player, but I think I'm one of the better right side players out there, I started playing left. So for years, like two or three years without playing right at all, whether it was mixed or men's. So committing to that role, knowing how different it is and knowing that the fact that it is so different, it is a different skill set and you have to commit to that and spend some period of time focusing on the kind of the the nuance and the little details that the right side player needs to have as they don't have as a left side player. So I think that that's really important. And it's not it's not just so easy as switching from left to right, you got to really commit to it

Rob  19:30
100% And I still think it's I still think it's a big opportunity in the men's side right to there's just not that many good right side players yet. You know, Lefty Yeah, you get a lefty guy. It's kind of built in right you can both play your own strong side, which is probably the ideal, ideal partnership for on the men's side and probably one side is having, you know, a lefty righty that are both that are both strong side play. There's two forehand in the middle, that's probably the most optimized partnership that you can have. But in terms of guys focusing on the right, you still don't see it a ton. And also, just not stalking, like throughout, like, Are there many people that are just playing straight up nowadays?

Adam Stone  20:21
I think it's pretty rare. Yeah. Right. I mean, I would say, stacked a men's field or, you know, a major men's tournament, I'd say 20% 25% or less, that are that are just playing straight up and playing their side, wherever it may be. More and more established, every tournament rolls, you must be the talents to good. You can't just

Rob  20:43
it's too hard to play both sides. Yeah, you got to be really good at one of the sides. And they're very different skill sets, like we talked about.

Adam Stone  20:50
Absolutely. So I think the percentage of people playing straight up in a legit pro tournament is very low.

Rob  20:56
Yeah. And it's only gonna get lower, in my opinion, you're gonna have really, really defined roles. And that's going to keep that's going to keep happening.

Adam Stone  21:02
Yeah, definitely. So that. Yeah, so that puts just to recap the fives, that is somoni Georgene lenah padega. Rob, Rob nunnery and Ben Newell. So that is the top three picks of that waiver, wire draft, the shuffle draft, they like to call it and the fourth pick, went to Team clean and that was Federico stacks route. So, up and coming, player,

Rob  21:32
we think Fed was the third pick because we had the

Adam Stone  21:36
Oh, so you Okay, so that's my bad. So

Rob  21:37
the Fed was picked ahead of Ben, Ben Newell. So

Adam Stone  21:41
Ben knew what the fourth pick to the fives in the third pick was Federico to Team clean. His teammates are Maggie Minzy, Regina Franco and deckle bar as we all know, fed absolute stud on the singles court. Great results, almost almost never lays an egg from the drawers that I see. He's just right in the mix. He might not metal, but he's fourth, fifth or sixth. So consistent, really solid singles player and really improving his doubles game he training down there with somoni. He's putting in a lot of hours I hear he's committed, which is a huge factor. And we'll see what he can bring in doubles. So I think it's a very interesting pick, obviously, they get tied up to two, that's a great player to have on your team. For the dream breaker on we'll just have to see how he responds to the big stage in the doubles environment.

Rob  22:35
Yeah, it's, it's a little unique in the doubles environment to right because rally scoring. I don't I think it lends itself to kind of the drive and the streaky play and kind of get hot. And you can run off a few points versus like the grind them outside out scoring, which, you know, you need to score on your own serve and your own thirds. It's just different. It's different. And I think it allows guys to perform a little bit better in doubles, then, you know, call it situps scoring.

Adam Stone  23:06
Gotcha. And I think that the statement that you made earlier is maybe being overlooked a little bit that the fact that this is an indoor venue. Everybody that plays pickleball knows that indoor and outdoor pickleball are very different. And I'm not talking about just gym floor, I'm talking about tennis surface regular pickleball pickleball inside is just different. So you know, someone who's one of those singles guys that maybe, you know, hasn't had the results or hasn't fully, you know, developed their doubles game and this, this format with, you know, being inside and kinda you wanting to let it fly a little bit. It could it could really work out, it could really work out. So we'll just have to just have to see.

Rob  23:55
I think before we got on the air, you're talking about Atlanta being you know, 85 and warm and you know, September heat humid, you know, talking about Columbus and October indoors. You know, that's it's going to be 72 climate controlled, no humidity, as you would say, Rob, that's creating weather.

Adam Stone  24:13
That's exactly right. You know, like a crisp 68 A crisp 68 on the West Coast. You know, when you're not you're not even thinking about staying hydrated. That's when it really gets rough. Every every amount of weather is cramping weather, let me it's great. Yeah, it is great. So, yeah, so that like we said, that is the that was the third pick Federico Ben Newell, the fourth pick. And my team, like I mentioned, had the fifth pick. And we went with Hunter Johnson, probably one of the more unknown players that was picked up on that on that on that waiver wire and he had a very good run recently and singles knocked off Tyson MacGuffin, had a good run. We talked about last podcast but definitely has not had any real significant doubles results. But he has been playing a lot. He's been training with FIV. David, he has that great tennis background, and he's only been playing for a short amount of time. So this is definitely an upside play. It was very, very difficult. I felt like there was four or five guys that were right in a clump there that I couldn't really differentiate too much. And it was a tough spot to be in with with what to pick on that on that on that fifth one. So we decided to go with the upside and the report with Viv. And it was very, very much not an easy decision. So

Rob  25:43
talked about we talked about this last episode. Like I wonder what Yates is feeling. Okay. Damn Hunter.

Adam Stone  25:50
Sorry, yeah. Yeah, well, if I can, if I yeah, sorry. Yeah. So, yeah, I think it's, I think it's a good fit. I don't know Hunter super well, but from what I've gathered, he's going to be a good teammate, and be a be a cool guy on court and off court throughout that, that, Ohio MLP. So excited to have him on the team. And as as I mentioned, that it was it was a tough call between several people I'm for what I've seen from him, I'm confident in his abilities, and I'm excited for the tournament.

Rob  26:24
Yeah, so it's interesting, right? Because there's a lot of on the men's side anyways, there's a lot of pickups that are upside picks, versus established versus established, you know, long term result pics that listen rock punk rock pics must have been this after the pod. But it is pretty wild. Right? Like, and it's interesting, because it seems like teams are putting heavier weight on singles. And mixing right as, as maybe they should I think I think the igniter which pick from last MLP prove that you can have a you can have a guy come in that doesn't have the men's results or even the mixed results and can still perform and do well in this team environment. So it's interesting to see. And it's fascinating to see if that kind of blueprint holds up going into this next MLP because we got a handful of guys that are great players that aren't playing an MLP have been around for a long time established. Doubles players really good. We got the Ns autofs I don't know who else is missing there. But really, really good.

Adam Stone  27:33
Cassidy. Rob Cassidy. Yeah, great player. It's, I mean, it's tough. It's tough. It's really tough. So yeah, no, definitely I agree with you. And I think that it's also it's also tough to fully read the talent of the kind of the guys that haven't been in the game as long because I think a big factor with that the more established pros are going to have a slightly better, slightly better partners in general. So some of those really talented upside players on men and women, they're, they're losing eight and seven, or they're going three with a good team but not winning and not getting the results because as a whole their partners are a little bit not at the level of some of the more established players. So it's another point another factor and another point that it's just so hard to know and so hard to read the talent levels when you have all these kind of extra you know those these little extra factors that that are popping in so it's it's just very tough and I just think I just I mean I've said it so many times the format so cool, so much to talk about so many things going on. And there's just so many questionable is this right? Is this wrong? What is what what is this decision? I'm not so sure and it's gonna take a while for it to get more structured and ironed out what is the correct play? So it's it's a it's a total shit show for this season and probably the next couple of seasons on one what is the actual best strategy?

Rob  29:09
Yeah, no, I agree. Who would you say Who would you say made the best midseason moves here.

Adam Stone  29:20
Midseason moves well, some of the trades were obviously you know, pretty big and big factors. Big, big shuffle, big changes. A lot of the waiver wire pickups, it's replacing a solid guy with another solid guy or maybe replacing a solid guy with someone who has a little bit more upside but I feel like the trades sometimes can be a little more lopsided and be a little more impactful than a pickup so yeah, so that's what I would say about a couple of the trades there's you know, you got big time players like Vivian David and AJ Kohler switching spots, you know, you got to cow Emoto switching you know, some Some of those trades were probably a little more impactful than some of the pickups.

Rob  30:06
You got to favorite going into Columbus.

Adam Stone  30:10
Do I have a favorite? Well, of course the jackrabbits

Rob  30:16
outside of our own Yes,

Adam Stone  30:17
yes. Right outside of our own teams.

Rob  30:20
I think who would you? Who would you be the most concerned with going into it? Going? Oh, smash, sir. And the concern might not be the right word. But

Adam Stone  30:33
you know what I will pick, I will pick my former team, the Mad drops. We talked about it last time. How hat probably, who knows, but probably having two high end girls could be a better option than having two high end guys. So the fact that they have Julian again, old at age, AJ Kohler, and no offense to the ladies who are very solid, but possibly just given their draft slots, a little bit lower ranked players, to number two women probably right to number two women. So we'll we'll have I think that will be my pick of we'll see how it works out. Can the guys take control and mixed and clean up in men's and you know, when some matches? Three one? Or are they going to struggle a little bit more and mixed or possibly try to do too much taking too much court. So that'll be my pick for just to see how it works out with two high end guys into number two girls. And I think you just have to stick with the ranchers as the favorite, just because of how good they looked. That last tournament and the fact that they do have that combination of solid and upside. So I know Paris is planning on being back. So that obviously raises BL Q Ks, chances, but I'm gonna stick with the ranchers as the favorite and Matt drops as the wildcard to see how their team construction works out.

Rob  32:03
No doubt, um, yet, same page, it'll be really cool to see how Yeah, like, it's the, it's the reverse of what the ranchers built, right? You have to number one men, ultimately, with with, with two, kind of number two females. I'm also like, I think that I don't remember exactly what the trade was to get. Andre and Kyle together, but those are also to two very good men that also have Georgia, Georgia and Sierra gate and leach which was who was picked up in the Supplemental Draft. And I I look at that team and I'm like, that's, that's gonna be a dangerous team. I think Sierra's highly underrated. I think she's very good. She's got I remember playing her the first time last year at some point. And I was, you know, doing my typical, like typical flips. And she like I was picking different spots, and they weren't bad flips, like they were, they're good. And she was she was on all of them. And I was like, oh, like her hands are her hands are good. Obviously, there's other stuff she needs to work on. And I think at that time, she wasn't fully committed to pickleball. And I'm not sure if she is now but I just know that she's got a lot of upside and a lot of talent. I think that was a great pickup for that team. And of course, Giorgio has shown what she can do this year. So that's going to be a formidable team, in my opinion.

Adam Stone  33:25
Yeah, so Sierra Gaitan Leach. Definitely not super well.

Rob  33:29
Now you say? Did you just to rub it in my

Adam Stone  33:33
face? I have no idea. What did you say?

Rob  33:37
Gate and leech. I don't know what it is right.

Adam Stone  33:40
Gaitan Gaytan. Who really knows? Anyway, she's she mostly stays over on the West Coast. Yeah. And it doesn't kind of Eric languish a little bit, you know, play some of those West Coast tournaments doesn't always travel Central or Eastern. So but yes, I think that she has solid power. I think she has a solid wingspan. I know she has a pretty decent tennis background. Not sure exactly the specifics. But I think that that could be the type of player that you would want to pick up. So and just as you mentioned, I believe that the trade was Suzanna bar and Johnson cola from the eights for Milly rain, and Kyle Yeates. So Milly ended up getting dropped and not picked up. But that was the trade that that kind of initiated that and made those teams what they are for this for this. Ohio MLP. So, so let's go ahead and move on to what we'll talk about Ciara Gaitan leach first, she got picked up by the hard dates, like we said, and that was I believe that was the number two pick. So the number two pick and the number one pick was Lacey Schneemann Yep, so a younger player, she I think she was like 23 or 24 She's not a very big thing but she had she was pretty much all muscle so she them very physical, smooth, easy power look like she was moving very well. And that little glimpse didn't have a lot of margin for error on some of her aggressive shots. But, but she, she didn't miss a lot either. So definitely different being an established player on the team as opposed to a fill in, or replacement. So we'll see how she responds. And I honestly have no idea she's a total wild card, with her experience of her experience her age, and just, you know, a lot of people not knowing much about her. So I think it could be a I think it could possibly be a rough showing with some inconsistencies, or she might just play just like she did last time. And, and, and like great, a great addition, he had great additions. Yeah, so I think that is another another high risk, high reward play. And we've seen a lot of those. And that's just what that's just what it is. So, two high risk, high reward plays, in my opinion. And then the third woman picked up by the Mad drops is Lee Whitwell. So I thought this one was kind of interesting. Dropping Corinne and going with Li they're very, very similar. Type players and MCs kinda hang out on the right side hold down their area. But I do think it was kind of dropping one player and getting another player that super similar. So I was thinking maybe they would go with some more upside, or maybe someone no offense to Lee in the 40 Plus club that I'm in there too with you Lee so that something more in the vein of Lacey Schneemann younger player with some more offense, but not quite as refined of a soft game. So I wouldn't label it like crazy or totally interesting, just kind of kind of giving up one thing and kind of getting that same thing back in my opinion.

Rob  37:02
Yeah, and we haven't seen, we haven't seen too many of those moves, right, where you're kind of replacing a player with a similar style player. Usually, if we're seeing or seeing a trade or, or a drop in a pickup, it's, it's like you said it's it's looking for the higher upside and, and some of it might be like, like, on our right side player looking for a lefty kind of thing. In terms of getting people on court and their most comfortable positions, Mike Linna being on the left for us. And next. So some of it might be based around that. But, uh, like, I agree, I think I think if you're gonna, if you're gonna make a trade or a drop, I think you have to, you have to this is the last event of the year too. And we haven't really talked about that, like, a lot of teams are just throwing caution to the wind and saying, Hey, let's let's roll the dice and make a run for it and see what we can do indoors the last event of the year before the teams kind of all dissolve and go into a new draft next year. So this is kind of everybody's last run at it.

Adam Stone  38:07
Yeah, right. And you know, maybe they were hoping to drop Qur'an and then possibly get the first or second pick. And it didn't work out for him with the lottery. Yeah. So they had maybe maybe had a player or two in mind that they were going to go for, for upside, they got the third pick instead of the first or second and just decided to go with some safety there with Lee Whitwell. And I think that makes sense as well. So yeah, I know exactly. I don't know exactly. The thought process there. But that that last scenario that I brought up would make sense to me for sure. Yep.

Rob  38:41
Any more MLP moves.

Adam Stone  38:43
I believe that's all eight. So we had Yeah, the eight shuffle. I know, that was a lot of names. And a lot of, you know, moving around between the teams. So it seemed a little chaotic, when we were talking about it, but there's a lot of shuffles a lot of drops. And I think that has a lot to do. I think that with these eight, these eight drops, I think if this was the the second MLP or maybe next year, if they do end up doing more than three, if it was the second or third, I don't think we would have seen eight drops. But this being the last one. And kind of the last hurrah. Let's let's let it fly. I think that that amount of drops and team shuffling up makes sense.

Rob  39:22
Yeah, I agree. And I think generally speaking it you know, I don't know how they're gonna do it next year. But I like the like, I like the idea of maybe having a trade a trade window once a season, right? Maybe Maybe it's mid season, I don't know. But I like the idea of having team continuity where like you saw this when I when I would talk to Casey Patterson about pro beach volleyball. It's like you and your team, your partner. You guys live in the same place you train. You're not just showing up to these events hoping to be good and hoping to work well together and match What together? It's it's preparation. It's, it's actually training with your team, which we don't see a lot of that in pickleball really yet, in terms of partnerships and people playing tournaments together. So I really liked the idea of having training blocks with your team where you actually, you know, go, it's a perfect amount of people to actually have great training to you have two guys, two women, and you get good games, you get good drilling. And I think it's, I think it'd be really cool to see team continuity and actual team training together. And I think, who knows what happens with prize money next year, but I'm assuming it's gonna go up, it hasn't been going down. So you know, stakes are going to be a little higher. And I think it's going to be you know, I always said it would Blk. One thing that makes them good is Richie does a really, really and Justin Watson, they do a really good job with team chemistry and team bonding and then matching that team really well. And you know, staying at the same as Airbnb having dinners together like that, all that stuff matters a lot. So I think,

Adam Stone  41:03
I think that's the way it's gonna go. Yeah, yeah. And we talked about it before these, the, the physical, I'm better than you at pickleball edges are less and less every tournament, so you better have some extra edges that you can gain. And that's a great way to do it. So I think that you can see that moving forward to as well Rob, you know, a lot of these, a lot of these players are teaching a little bit on the side. So maybe, as that that prize, we'll get prize pool rises, instead of teaching a three day camp or clinic, you fly somewhere with your team and practice. And for the for those three or four days. And since the, you know, the compensation is better, you might not have to teach that clinic or those lessons, and you could focus more on your team chemistry. And I think that that's something I can very much see happening moving forward.

Rob  41:54
Yeah, agreed. Exciting times, though, because it's, you know, we'll we're kind of winding down in 2022. And the tours will be releasing their schedules for next year, I expect the aipp to be back, I expect PPA to be back, expect MLP to be back. So it looks like we're gonna have a little rerun of 2022, where we have all these competing tours and organizations. And I think it's just going to be kind of that beefed up on steroids next year with with these things, these I can see this, these competitions happening for two, three years. It's hard for me to picture all these tours existing and lasting beyond that separately. So it'll be really, really interesting to see how it all shakes out next year, because I imagine like, you know, we're talking about a bunch of big moves with players dropped and waved and picked up in the Supplemental Draft, there's going to be in my opinion is gonna be a lot of big moves and interesting moves and exciting stuff happening with the tours and tours in the league's next year. So pumped to kind of see where all that shakes out where it leads. And it will be really interesting interested to see how tours locked down players are if they try to do that. Ppa obviously already does that. So it'll be interesting to see if they make a big run at some of the aipp MLP players. And you know, kind of inversely what what ATP and MLP do to try to keep their talent so that they can keep playing MLP and ATP.

Adam Stone  43:19
No, I agree. And I've had a lot of very successful business people just talk about how, in situations like this, usually somebody wins out. So like you said, I think that for some period of time, whatever that period of time may be that all three entities are going to continue. But 235 years down the road, there could very well be a winner or some form of consolidation between the three entities. So I'm, it's just it's just super interesting. And let's like it seems a little established. We've had the tournaments, we've had the tours, you've had all this, but it's only been eight or nine months since the beginning of the year when everything was a disaster. We had we had dundun we had Steve code we had all this going on it hasn't even been a year has even been a year since all that was happening. And there's no there's no real offseason and pickleball but I think the winter kind of start of a new year time just kind of has that feel of some of these tours and some of these entities kind of creating a splash and making something happen in the next two or three months before we get 2023 underway.

Rob  44:30
Totally. And on that note, we saw at MLP Newport that PPA had a I believe the Skechers Invitational that same weekend. And I think at the time I I was under the assumption that you know it just happened to fall on the same weekend. It wasn't intentional. What is intentional is PBA just announced an event the same weekend as MLP Columbus October 14 16th. I believe it's the Frisco Texas roundup or something like that. And I think the the format's to be announced. So I mean it now it's very clear, right, it's like, you're gonna throw it out, you're gonna throw your event that weekend, we're gonna throw a competing event and try to steal some of those eyeballs and try to take take market share.

Adam Stone  45:16
So, keep going, fellas keep battling, hey, at least they please, they made it in a different state. This time. It wasn't like, it wasn't like an hour away.

Rob  45:26
So I mean, overall good for pickleball my opinion, right? It's maybe not great for MLP. Maybe not great for PPA, maybe not a good look, whatever it may be, at the end of the day, they're competing for market share. And from a player's perspective, it's great, right? Because the more they compete, the more the prize purse goes up, the better the perks get, like it's it's for, in my opinion, is great for pro players. It's just gonna, it's just gonna keep raising the bar and the player experience and keep elevating the pro game.

Adam Stone  46:01
For sure. And just you also mentioned this about maybe some Switcheroos between a PP and PPA players were PPA players, a couple of them might not have been thrilled with whatever their compensation, how they were marketed, I don't know, whatever. And they might drop their contract or try to get out of it or not resigned so that they can play what they want to and be more diverse and play some more APs and I might go the complete opposite way with I don't know, say maybe someone like I know, I know, people Parris up and coming I know she has a decent kind of following on social media as kinda fashion. And whatever else she does, I don't really know. But I'm just saying that could be someone PPA could target and tried to give give her a good contract, or one of the guys that has had a nice year on the ATP tour and tried to get them over to the PPA. So I have no doubt that that's going to happen. So we'll just have to see it. But I do think that that's going to happen before the 2023 season. So these next couple of months, will say a lot about it.

Rob  47:04
Totally. And I remember I think it was after Paris, B Anna Lee and San Clemente at the at the Orange County cup. Ppa put out a post on social wood, about Paris, like with an announcement coming soon, kind of alluding to the fact that they like they were about to sign her. And then they quickly deleted that post. Why would you even I would even use that if right if it's not inked?

Adam Stone  47:33
Ya know for sure, for sure. And I know that say someone like the Johnson family, they have a pretty decent connection and loyalty to the AP they kind of got started with and I've kind of come into their own as players and been really successful on the AP tour. Do they have a number that the PPA can offer? Would they refuse everything to stay with the AP? Who knows? So I think a lot of those are really interesting. I mean, that's a cool dynamic with the family. They're highly coveted. They do extremely well in all the events is the PBA going to make a play for the family who knows.

Rob  48:12
And they're good people. Like that's like if you're looking for like, if you're looking for good people that kind of like rep your organization or tour doesn't get much better than the Johnsons. Like Jay Dubs. Great. Just a great dude. George is awesome. Julie and Jack are probably some of my favorite people to see at tournaments, just all around good people. And I think great for the sport. And yeah, I think Franklin saw that right Adam and those guys over Franklin, I think that was a great pickup by them signing. You know, I know the Johnsons held out for a while trying to figure out what the best move for them is and, and really pumped that they got to Franklin because especially as a package deal, right? That's pretty cool in terms of being able to have your whole your whole family kind of a part of the same thing. So

Adam Stone  48:57
Franklin family Johnson family, it just it felt right. It was perfect. It's hard to find the right balance of it feels right, you know, because I've a lot of the stuff we do does feel right, but you don't want to say it too much. You know, so you gotta you gotta balance it out. And just kind of pick your spots perfectly when I think you

Rob  49:17
do a really good job of picking your spots perfectly just like you do in pickleball.

Adam Stone  49:21
Well, thank you, Robert. I won't be I won't be picking any spots in Chicago on court with you Unfortunately, though, but Well, we're gonna get back after it. Houston open. That's the one we're looking for.

Rob  49:33
Yeah, so we'll we'll play MLP mid October and then we'll go straight over to Houston, your hometown. Can Can you put I don't know why I think about it. But every time I think about Houston and you I just think about that story. You told me. I've got I've got a discussion.

Adam Stone  49:51
Hey, ya know, be careful. I've told you a lot of stories, Robert, right one.

Rob  49:56
The one about you being in your car and then just driving off with

Adam Stone  49:59
Oh, Oh, yeah, no, we let's just Yeah, that's one. No, we cannot tell it. We absolutely cannot tell it. No, no, no. It's so we'll choose it another time for that one.

Rob  50:12
I gotta address story. I tell us, is it about me? No, it was from my childhood when I was like a kid. And it was like, still to this day. It's confusing to me. But funny, too. So I remember just saying I was in the backyard. I don't know how old not not not very old. maybe call it 10 910 11. Who knows. And I'm just throwing the football with a friend. But like, not like a close friend from the neighbor. It was like a friend that I knew when I was younger, like maybe five or six. And then like, kind of reconnected with him. Somehow our parents reconnected and he came over for a little bit. But he wasn't the same as I remembered he was a little different, a little weird or not as cool as I remember. But you know, we're in the situation where we're hanging out because he's here for the day and we got to we got to hang out. So we're throwing the football. And I just remember throwing him the football. He drops the football. And then I see him kind of like, make a little squinty face. I'm like, What's he doing? And then I'm not kidding. I see a little droplet go down a short leg into the grass. And then he picks it up. Like getting and throws it.

Adam Stone  51:24
I'm like, the nugget of poop. I'd like a little nudge dropped it. He dropped a turd.

Rob  51:29
Picked it up with his bare hand and through into the woods. Hey, what's

Adam Stone  51:32
the first time what's the chance? That's the first time that's happened? That's a disturbing story. I'm not gonna lie to you. It kind of felt feels like it was just kind of standard for him to do

Rob  51:45
it. No, he didn't. He wasn't fazed at all. It was just

Adam Stone  51:49
Oh, man. Yeah. Yeah,

Rob  51:51
let's drop down picked it up. But it's already in the grass. Why are you like picking it up throwing in the

Adam Stone  51:57
woods? That is a very reasonable statement.

Rob  52:00
Needless to say, I did not he picked up the football after that. I walked inside.

Adam Stone  52:04
Yes. No. Yeah, for sure. So it was perplexing. Yeah, it's fun to it's fun to talk about MLP. But maybe we should just talk about stories from your childhood. That's a little a little disturbing, for sure.

Rob  52:19
But you can see why I'm so confused to this day. It just it doesn't really make a lot of sense of why that happened.

Adam Stone  52:25
Yeah, there's several things. Yeah, but it did. Okay. And Robert, thanks for sharing. That. I appreciate that.

Rob  52:33
I shared what I know exactly why he shared.

Adam Stone  52:36
Yes, exactly. Yes. It felt right. So so Yeah, what else we got here? Looks like we're creeping up on an hour. And I talk like that. And like I

Rob  52:48
said, we're this is presented by the link. And you know what I do? Fine, fine topic. Yeah. Look at the newsletter because there's no better place. And pickleball to find what's happening in pickleball than the newsletter. We do have drunk the drunk slam. The drunk was the slam the spike the Smash

Adam Stone  53:06
drunk drunk. I think it all works. I think it all works. But yes, but a shout out to the dank they've done some, some editing for us. And they've done a couple little short clips, with some with some funny things. And I think it's all it's all been great. I appreciate them.

Rob  53:22
So we got a few I got a few notes here. So we gotta give Riley give Riley a shout out. He's, I know he's thrown out the first pitch at the mariners game at some times where I believe it is. Which will be which will just be cool for pickleball as a whole right. And I don't know if he's from Seattle. I know He lives in Phoenix, but I think he originally from Seattle played like went to Seattle. You

Adam Stone  53:46
I believe that's correct. And I think I think him and I think him at Tyson actually had quite a quite a few battles in junior tennis, if I remember hearing that correctly. And I don't think they liked each other very much to be honest. Not shocking. So So yes, he's definitely from that P and W area. And I believe it was, I don't know if it's University of Seattle, Seattle University, whatever, but I believe that's correct for Riley. Go ahead.

Rob  54:12
No, it's just so really really cool that he's he's able to throw out the first pitch at the mariners game. That's that'll be a cool experience. And I just saw that somoni and Jada will be thrown out the first pitch at the at the White Sox game, I believe tomorrow night so that would be that would be the third August 31 which is which is awesome too. So it's while we're just seeing we're seeing pickleball become more of a mainstream thing like it's it's getting more and more rare when you know I get on a plane with a pickleball bag and people are like what's pickleball like most people know now they've heard of it. It's it's it's catching on and all the mainstream publications. It's getting extremely rare for people not to have heard of it at least even if they don't know exactly what it is or how it's played. They've at least heard the word which you know, We get pickleball gets a lot of flack for its name, but you know, in terms of marketing, it's it's a you don't forget it. You don't forget that. Well, if it were it, let's say if it was paddle ball, you'd probably forget it and you get it confused with a different sport. Like, is it you know, what are you using? But football? I think it's I think the name is perfect.

Adam Stone  55:17
Yeah, no, I it's it is great to see. Because let's be clear, there's, I don't know, 50,000 plus junky pickleball junkies on the pickleball forum. But you know, if there's pickleball on The Ellen Show, or Kelly Clarkson is talking about it or whatever, those junkies see that but when that's how you get it to someone who hasn't heard anything, it's a show like that. It's the today's show, it's Ellen DeGeneres, it's this or that. So just, you know, having it around and having heard it from the masses, there's just a better chance and a better shot, they're gonna go out and try to play or or possibly hear it from their friend, and maybe they heard it somewhere else. And they're like, hey, I'll give this a try. So I think that that's great. And you really do see it more and more, not just famous people talking about it on famous shows. So it's, it's, it's, it's a great time.

Rob  56:09
I saw I don't remember what article it was. But there's some article that was written that was talking about, like, the conspiracy behind pickleball. Like, it's, it's, you know, like that Bravo, because it was on Vanderpump Rules with Randall Emmett, that there was some deep conspiracy about like pickleball being highlighted, I think the dink actually posted it, but maybe we can find we can find that article and clip it to the show notes, but it was it was quite humorous, because it was talking about how there's this deep conspiracy with pickleball and how they're trying to own it and sell all these products based on it and that's why it was on Bravo and all these other publications, TV shows.

Adam Stone  56:46
No interesting but I did see the clip of the Crunk Smash. And then I saw what looked like a short slightly chubby middle aged man fly in from out off screen and give him a shoulder bump. And I believe that was Ryan sherry. And I believe like,

Unknown Speaker  57:04
Cheryl took a

Rob  57:06
home I said a bad word. They

Adam Stone  57:08
said it looked like a little meatball just kind of jumping in. I looked tiny compared to Gronk.

Rob  57:13
Oh, it was funny. He like just bounced off him to like Gronk didn't even like budge or move. That's a large man. Yeah,

Adam Stone  57:20
he's he's a tank man. You're exactly right. You didn't faze him for a second. I'm gonna share it looks like Sherry, Sherry cool. Sherry flew in with all it with he was off the ground. It was all his weight. Gronk it was like, it was nothing. So, but yeah, it's just you see those little clips, whatever Drew Brees Gronkowski. It could be the Cubs bullpen guys on a rain delay making a makeshift court in the bullpen. I mean, that's that's good exposure. That's good stuff. And it just shows that, you know, anybody can become a become a junkie, these guys, these guys are professional athletes, and they're, they're, they're obsessed with this with this crazy game.

Rob  57:59
You know what I want to see, and I want I want listeners to submit these. I want to see pickleball courts set up in the most random spots. Like I saw one that look like maybe it was like sand. And they're like, if this bounces this is going to be epic, just random places, right? Like, that's, that's what I love about pickleball is how accessible it is to anybody. All you need is basically a net, some paddles a ball, and, you know, some chalk or something to make lines. And then you have a pickleball court. It's it's so accessible. And, you know, we look at the growth of Pradel and Europe and people are like, well, you know, Fidel is the fastest growing sport in the world. And it's like, okay, but you need like glass walls. It's, it's, you need real infrastructure to create, put out courts everywhere. Pickleball you just need a net and some chalk and you have you have a pickleball court no matter where you are, which is why I think it's going to be significantly bigger than Fidel based purely on that fact.

Adam Stone  59:00
Yeah, we saw it, especially early in the quarantine. It was a perfect quarantine sport for families. So I know, a couple panel companies, maybe the paddle sales kind of stagnated or even went down a little bit but those those Quickstart nets and the little kits for the families and the four packs of paddles and balls. That stuff was flying off the shelves and I know Krenz sponsor company, Vulcan, I think that they ran out of stock of some of that stuff, because people were so into it. And it could be a cul de sac. I saw one on a I saw one on a frozen lake where they were playing, you know, like, it's cool to see. It's very, very cool to see that stuff. And it was and I think, you know, maybe maybe the pandemic, you know, got more people involved with the sport so yeah, no doubt overlining there. Yeah.

Rob  59:49
Are you saying you're glad the pandemic happened out?

Adam Stone  59:54
I don't want to face anyone Uh, I mean, I'm a pretty low key guy. So the pandemic wasn't the worst thing for me. You know, I just kind of stayed in my routine did a little less travel. So you know, whatever.

Rob  1:00:08
Sounds like an ideal situation for you to be honest.

Adam Stone  1:00:11
Oh, yeah, yeah, that's right. So spend it with the prof that's, that's always nice.

Rob  1:00:16
100%. So do you want to preview anything in the upcoming tournaments or anything? We'll just give you a rundown of what's coming up. Yeah, I like to versus going back to the actual matchups we'll do. We'll do recaps and stuff like that. But so Chicago, Chicago, open AP this weekend. I don't think PBA has anything going on this weekend. But the following weekend will be the Atlanta aipp down in Griffin, Georgia. And then you also have the Cincinnati PPA, which I believe I just saw in the newsletter that it's a Grand Slam, which I did not know before. And we talked about that. It's it's interesting, not knowing what the Grand Slams are. So we'll be curious to see.

Adam Stone  1:00:56
That's well, I was just going to just mention Sorry for interrupting that. So so the the Chicago tournament this upcoming weekend, I believe is a 50k. And it's a tier it's at tier one but the ABP metros at 65k. It's a golden ticket tournament. And it's a tier one. So that so it's the same weekend as the PPA major. And Cincinnati. That is that's interesting information for me. I did not know that. That was classified as a as a major. And yeah, that's that's that's surprising to have those on the same weekend.

Rob  1:01:32
I haven't looked at the entrance list, but kind of curious to see if if any of kind of the ABP mainstay players are jumping over to play the quote unquote, Grand Slam in Cincinnati to to, you know, to do that, or if they'll just play the Atlanta

Adam Stone  1:01:49
Right, right. Yeah, just just so everyone knows. These tournaments that are majors that we you hear us talk about these tier one tier two tournaments, maybe a major a Grand Slam, it all goes for points rankings. And this can affect your stipend that you get from the a PP. So the rankings are important for seedings and other things. But it's also very important for an appearance fee and a stipend and what level that you get on. So you could some of these, usually the events are 250 500 and 1000 points. And so you could you could possibly win a 250 point tournament, and then maybe just win a couple of matches in a major and still get a similar amount of points. So the what tournament and how many points it is is a huge factor for later in the year. And then the following year of where you slot in for your appearance fee and your stipend.

Rob  1:02:48
Yeah, and we talked about that, I believe it's on a rolling 12 month calendar too, right? Which correct, which has been rough on me. And I think you said you two just purely because I haven't been able to play very much this year due to health. And so all of my all of my solid results, not all of them, but I had some decent results at the end of last year. But most of my results, you know, meddling throughout the summer and early last year have dropped off. Right. So, you know, I think at the beginning of the year, at the eight BPS that I was going to play, I was probably in the top, I think has around four or five based on men's and mixed results, those two events. And, you know, all those all those results from last year have kind of fallen off the calendar now. So you have to you know, when when those points fall off, you have to replace them by playing New tournaments and getting new results, which I obviously haven't done so. So that's kind of Yeah, it's just kind of something you look at in terms of getting appearance fees and stipends and, and not paying entry fees, which is which is a big deal, right? Because even with Chicago and Atlanta coming up for me, like my offense, my results fell off. I don't think I'm in that top 10 anymore. So I'm paying entry fees, not getting the NOC getting the stipend. So it's like you're going from, you're going from getting a appearance fee of call it 1000 or 1500 bucks to and not paying entry fees to now not getting that 1000 or 1500 and paying 400 to play. So it's a big difference in terms of you know, kind of the pro playing experience, if you're in that stipend range versus not.

Adam Stone  1:04:19
Yeah, and you also get a $200 hotel stipend as well. So so it would be so basically I think, right when all this ABPA stuff was happening. I've fallen off very much to in the rankings, but I was getting $1,500 to go to the tournament plus 200 for the stipend, so 17 I don't have to pay the 400 of entry fees, and then a PPA I would have to pay the 400 so why would we do this? Like it's just like? Sure. I mean, I like to play you know, I've played plenty of PPAs in the past but you know with with this large slate of AVP tier one tournaments it makes absolute You know, since to travel to the west coast to play a very tough field when at the APS, you know, I don't have to pay entry fees, and I'm making a little money going. So it's

Rob  1:05:12
and you're getting the same amount of ranking points. Exactly. Exactly. So

Adam Stone  1:05:15
it just Yeah. So that I mean, that's just that's just what it was. And that's what it is.

Rob  1:05:21
Yeah. I'll be curious to see if they update kind of the way that works next year as well. I'm sure there'll be some adjustments, some changes. I know they take on the ABP side anyways, they take two out of three of your best events. So like we talked about before we got on the air here. A lot of the singles guys are passing, right because, you know, they're they're racking up points and singles, and maybe not doing great and men's or MCs, but they're just meddling in every single event. So those those results are just, you know, piling on.

Adam Stone  1:05:52
Yeah, stacks root. Yes, extra stacks, route and sinkhole are perfect examples. Yeah, so they're, I can't remember whatever it was six months ago, but they weren't terribly close to me, if I remember correctly, and those guys kill it in singles. So they almost always meddling, if they're not meddling, like I said, they're getting fourth, maybe fifth or sixth. So those points add up. And so I've gotten passed up by both those guys and possibly someone else. So yeah, so there's a little bit of talk. I mean, I think it makes sense to have those, those two out of three in some regard. But I've also heard people say that you shouldn't intertwine the doubles in the singles, maybe have a separate level of stipends for the guys in single guys and girls and singles. And then maybe have the two doubles as a situation as well. I have no idea what they're going to do for next year, but I could see some changes coming.

Rob  1:06:54
Yeah, no, I, I think including singles is interesting. I believe it's a less kind of premier event than than both doubles. I think. So we'll see. We'll see. It's easily it's easy for us to say right as bias doubles players, but nice, really seamless guys, what are they doing? Yeah,

Adam Stone  1:07:16
no, and there's plenty, plenty of people, rec players and casual players that that love singles. But I do think it is more people play doubles. And I think more as a whole more people are interested in doubles, and granted doubles, singles is on a Thursday. But you do see the crowds and the people more into the doubles and watching the doubles more. But the fact that that is the weekend is a factor as well. But I think it's definitely a big part of the game singles. But I do I just do think that doubles is more popular. And, you know, I'm not saying that because I'm biased. I just think that's what it is. Singles was great to me at the beginning of my career. I like singles. It's just not for me anymore.

Rob  1:08:03
Like we talked about, it's a great way to break in, right? Because getting partners at the beginning is pretty difficult. And it's getting it seems like it's getting less difficult because there's so many more players coming in now than like when I was coming in. I was like, how do you find a partner? Like I feel like I'm decent. How do I how do I get a partner that's as decent as I am?

Adam Stone  1:08:22
Yeah, and it's and it was more tiered than it was like, there might be a stretch four years ago, where if you if you didn't have a top six partner, you literally couldn't win. Like there was there was almost no chance you could win. But now it's kind of smashed together. Sure, there's still tears of players. But you know, the back end of one tear and the beginning of another is not much difference where it was it was a huge difference. So you can win you can win with more players now and have better runs with more players where you just you just couldn't do that back then.

Rob  1:08:58
Totally. So we gotta we got an interesting few weekends coming up. Like we said, we've got the Chicago AP this weekend. Then following is the PPA Cincinnati Atlanta HPP which will be kind of on, you know, competing competing tours on that weekend, which will be interesting to watch. And then I think you're gonna have you're gonna see a fair amount of those aipp Atlanta guys probably play the PPA the following weekend, which will also be in Atlanta, and I believe O'Connor's so you're gonna have back to back Atlanta weekend's aipp the first weekend PPA the second weekend. So I would imagine we'll see a fair amount of ATP ATP players play that PPA, which you know, I like because we don't there's not many tournaments. And I haven't seen the insurance. Listen, maybe that's not true. But I would imagine some people would just stay in Atlanta to play both. Which which I like because we don't always get to see you know, AP players play on the PPAs and via invisible you definitely don't see the vice versa because PPA players can't play on a PPS. So it'll be interesting.

Adam Stone  1:09:56
No, no, that's good. I like I like to see how like to see that it's a little interesting dynamics of different matchups, see some of the, you know, the a PP players who have already more than made their presence felt in singles. I would I would like to see as as they kind of get better with some of these younger guys, J dub Dylan, you know, some of those guys to play the PPA players and just kind of see how they stack up. And I think that that's really cool. And especially since we don't get to see it all the time.

Rob  1:10:27
Yep, agreed.

Adam Stone  1:10:29
And I think there's, oh, no, go ahead. I was just gonna say then there's I know that the Vegas PPA championships is a very big tournament. And I believe it's a major. And I think that is the weekend or two weekends before the MLP. So there's, there's a lot of action in the next six weeks or so. On the pickleball tours, no question.

Rob  1:10:51
Yeah, it's gonna be fun to watch and we will be here to kind of break it down and analyze it and recap it. So looking forward to the next few weeks with you guys. And you Mr. Stone. I'm sad. I'm not going to see you this weekend. But I am hoping to get my health in order and get this infection dealt with and be ready to go for MLP and then also Houston with you, buddy,

Adam Stone  1:11:12
huh? Yeah, I think that I think it feels good. It feels right. So to skip, skip, skip those two for you with the Chicago Atlanta and and I think that will that will give you a little buffer a little window for you to be ready to rock for that pretty stout October schedule.