Hello everyone. Welcome to another exciting episode of Padel Smash Academy. Today, we're so excited to have Luis Ramirez, the head national coach of the National team that is going to play the world cup championship in Qatar. Thank you for having me and exciting to be in the smash academy. Back and forth for a while, right? We did the course together. Follow me. That's right. That's where I met you at the beginning, you know, uh, paddle MBA, right? Learning paddle.
Yeah. Yeah. And how did you like that anyways? How was that? I think it was a great experience. You know, an experience that we don't have much in the, in the States yet, but it's, I think it's coming. There are a few, uh, outlets right now out there and it's always good to learn more, more paddle. People that were enthusiastic paddle in, in every level because there weren't not, not just coaches, there were players, there were people that were just wanting to learn a little more about paddle.
So it was a great experience to network, to learn and. For example, we got to be, you know, friends during that weekend and talked a lot about paddle.
Yeah. Yeah, you're right I mean there is there's a lot of people that were into tennis or that were into other racket sports and you could see that But you could see them exciting, you know to play paddle now, you know or becoming a coach in a different club I mean, I met a lot of people there 100 percent which was a great experience I thought the class was really good. The online class was great. It is. It is a great tool.
For us coaches, it is a great tool to prepare classes, etc. Let's talk a little bit about you. Where are you originally from? I'm from Venezuela. I came to the United States when I was 18. So right now I'm a dual citizen. I'm a U. S. citizen and a Venezuelan. I came because of tennis, on a tennis scholarship to play in New Mexico State University.
Uh, that's a division one super amazing experience and what they do here with the NCAA, it's beautiful and they actually bring the best talent and level to, to compete and it makes you grow a lot. Uh, then from there, I played three years of professional tennis. That led me to having a green card here as a resident with a special talent a special time That's how they call it. I don't know. I mean that's not easy.
Wow. No it is It was actually an amazing reward and an accomplishment for me because venezuela wasn't going through the best times at the moment Still isn't but at that moment, especially and it was for me an escape And a solid escape because it wasn't easy to find alternatives.
I was only a venezuelan So I started a master's there in the university of miami here in miami, and that's why I moved here in sport administration, then they Continued on with life opened up a tennis academy, uh worked in wealth management after that now i'm doing real estate and paddle came in my life in 2018 and has been Following me hard and trying to get me in more and more and more and more and today i'm the national coach of the Like Julian said
of the men's national team and super excited because we have, uh, the world champion championships coming up and, uh, I think we have a good team to make it. So tell us a little bit, how did you, how was in 2018, how was that transition from tennis? How did you get involved? Okay. So more importantly. How far did you get into tennis? And then at what point did you say, you know what, okay, I'm going to start living my life or I'm going to transition to paddle.
How did, how did that whole thing happen? So back in 2018, I'm sitting with a tennis academy that that was operating in Brickell. It was super successful and got me to, to meet so many different people from different nationalities. It was prior to COVID right before COVID. So that's when some of one of my students took me to To a paddle court for the first time ever in my life 2018 going to real paddle with you know The OG club and the cradle, the cradle paddle. That's where you have to begin.
So were you still competing in tennis at that time? Just coaching at the, at the moment. But I started right away competing in paddle since day two, I guess. Uh, I went to play there for fun. I lost that match to people that used to play tennis and I used to be easily and then got me real quick and, and I'm like, okay, I got you. I went right away. I went to the USPA, you know, website and got into the first tournament available and that's how I started.
So how was your transition, uh, from tennis to paddle? Because, you know, at the beginning, whether you're playing squash, racquetball, or tennis, you're kind of, you're playing that sport inside. So how long was that transition or when you learned, Hey, look, okay, this is paddle, not tennis. You know, the transition still happens because when you are a tennis player, like me, that, that since I was three years old, I was playing tennis, your instinct and you're born to, to not let anything go.
You know, anything has to be. You need to touch it, put it back in the court. Mm-Hmm. and competing. I got to play in every level of tennis. In, in I-T-F-I-I-I was top, uh, 200 in the world and in, in division one in NCA. Then I was up to 585 in the world in a TP. So I got to leave and I played Davis Copi, Venezuela. So I got to leave like every aspect of tennis.
So the transition to paddle, I think it's going to continue for the next 10 years because tennis was, you know, so structured and the way you have to prepare to be a player that we're still learning, you know, in paddle and people are still adapting and learning. And for me personally, to play paddle in a better level, it takes time because adapting to the walls, adapting to the lobs. Adapting the instinct of being a killer the entire time to now you have to control the pace, control the points.
But you've been playing now for how many years now? For, well, yeah, since 2018. So I've been playing for a while now. And, and obviously right now, you know, you think you, now you master the game and you understand it more, but you have to watch a lot of padel. Oh, yeah.
And get in the core a lot and listen to a lot of people like, for example, Julian and directors here and there in every club that, I tend to give you know that advice that comes from paddle, but you mixing what you have from tennis, which is the big one, is the big one. One of the things that, that, that coming from tennis happens, it's, it's learning the, the tactical aspect of paddle, which is the most difficult part.
You know, everybody can return from the waltz and all that, but returning with a purpose and, and, and, because I always tell my students, you're not even, You're playing against a net, against two players, and against the walls. It is. Imagine that. You had to keep it away from the walls, away from the two players, and above the net. Yeah. And it's, that's very, very complicated. I find it super tactical.
You know, paddle, it's, and that's what got me, gets me the most about paddle, because you have to really think what you're doing and what's going on, and How do you approach a match? You have to have at least six, seven strategies, you know, so you can actually adapt to what they are doing, to what you're doing, to what's working, to what's not working in tennis. It's a little more like two, three plans that you have plan A, plan B, plan C. And then if not, you're screwed.
You lost, you know, because you have time to adapt. I think from that aspect, tennis is easier. Yeah, a hundred percent. You know what I mean? The thing is that you're obviously, you have to be extremely more precise in tennis, uh, because. The margin of error is, is, is less and, and, and it's in paddle. I think it's, it's that's in reverse. No a hundred percent, but you have to go for winners and you have to take more risk faster in tennis.
So you have to be well prepared with your feet on the ground established to be able to hit a winner. And the guys that are playing right now professionally are prepared, like, like animals, you know? So, yeah. I, I think I, I think the tennis is more stamina. More hundred percent power. Yeah. I mean, in, in paddle it's you using legs a lot more, you know, you're getting really low. You're using muscles that you've never used in tennis. A hundred percent.
It's and so's it's, it's a little, yeah, it is different. It's more strategic. And if you're talking this, it's, this is, I think it's, it's what talks about a, a point in tennis lasts in average five to four seconds in the tour. In, in Premier, it's 15 to 20 seconds. I mean, you can have a rally that, even on intermediate level, like 6, 7, times over the net, where in 10 it's maximum, it's 3, 4. Yeah, in intermediate, even more. Yeah, it's more strategic. It's much more strategic.
It has more power and much more thinking. If you know all the shots, it's, you're trying to figure out your opponent's weakness. You know how to get leverage.
And meanwhile, you're still the game is going now for 20 30 40 seconds, you know, and it doesn't seem like a lot but when you're moving around getting really low defending and and trying to It puts it all a lot on you, you know the one one of the things that that it's very important to understand the concept is that In tennis, power is your friend, right? Plays with you. You can overpower someone, right? In padel is completely opposite.
You cannot overpower someone because it will just come back. So it's a such a much more precise and tactically more. You know, refine because power does it. So the moment you take power away is now using your brain, where to find the whole way, where to find the gap for them to make a mistake.
And even though if they can return it from the back wall, so it's even more difficult, you know, at a higher level, I think it's more patience depending on the side that you have, it's tactical that that right side is more technical. And that left side is just waiting for portresa for quarters waiting to put it that person's like, you know, Comes from tennis or is tall or very powerful. You've seen it, you know, I just came from Mexico. I seen it with Vinny, right?
You know, he could put any opportunity has he's putting the ball out. Yeah. You know, so if you have the capability, but you have to have the patience and know when to do it and train, you know, so that way that, that, that risk of it not going, you know, coming back and getting counter smash or hitting that back wall net is reduced. Your exposure is reduced to Yeah. Um, and that's where some of the young guys kind of like.
Uh, they want everything over, you know, and some of them are capable of doing that. You usually tend to trust your power and your, you know, what you, what you think you can put in the table. But as soon as the label keeps matching up, and it happened to us, the tennis players, we started coming in to the USPA circuit with just a few players, and we would do semifinals, finals every single time.
Now there is more pattern players involved and it's, it's harder, you know, like I always say, you have to read the book. If you want to go out there and beat Luisito, Nico, or you know, the Eagles, now you have to know what you're doing. You cannot just go out there and, and beat the hell out of the ball and get away with it. You know, you learn very quickly that from another sport and you're doing well.
I mean, you have that, that anticipation, the balance and timing, you have all that and eye hand coordination. But then once you start playing some of the other. That's not how to play parry. Like, Oh, you know, I got to go back to the instruction manual. Is this that? So tell us, how did you get involved with the USPA? Well, the USPA, uh, got to me when I played my first national match with Venezuela.
I actually got to play with the national team of Venezuela as a player, the first ever national team that got formed. We did a friendly game, uh, in Texas. against the USA. And that's where I met the people that were involved at the moment. They told me there was a need, you know, for volunteers to join committees. And, uh, I right away jumped in, in one of them in the competition committee that was in 2022.
Alongside with Scott Culliburn, who has been a big help over there, Nick was at the moment. Marcus was just leaving. Martin Sweeney was getting into the presidency at that moment. And we were just a few people, you know, at that moment when I got into the USPA. But I think I brought a lot of experience of what I have left in the USPA.
In tennis and, uh, try to, uh, give that experience towards the USPA, you know, as a volunteer and trying to structure, especially at that moment, my task was to structure a, a better and more solid, uh, competition, uh, tour, you know, that right now you have at least a tournament spread around the entire us and you, everyone has possibilities of competing and playing and getting some points towards the ranking, which was extremely important.
And, uh, making some sense of what was going to be required for the national teams to be able to jump in and, and be a part of that national team, you know? So that was when I started, uh, I've been, uh, evolving since then, right now, apart from being the head coach of the national team of the men's national team. Uh, in the absolute level.
I also, uh, volunteer in the Governance and Finance Committee, uh, help them a lot with, uh, you know, everything that the, the, the USPA requires right now, especially that we're hopefully heading into the Olympics in 2032. As a, as a sport from the USPA, we need to be ready and prepare, you know, to, to confront that. But you played for Venezuelan national team? Yes, sir. Was that just a friendly and that's why you could play for the USA or did you have to wait a couple years?
Yeah, that was a friendly, okay. At the moment, Venezuela didn't even have a federation, so they were. Forming the federation at that moment. Uh, so I got to be involved in the first few, you know, friendly games that they put together. All, everything was here in the U S at the moment. And now they have done an amazing job back home in Venezuela. And I have to congratulate the federation and the players over there because I'm super proud of what they're doing recently.
I don't know if you were there in, in, in the Panamericanos, the Venezuelan under 18 team won actually the, the, the tournament. The open tournament, which was a huge accomplishment and a reward for what they're doing. And I'm super proud of, of them. Yeah, that was pretty amazing. Seeing the young kids there, how they play. It's like, wow, this is like some of the kids in the future. It's like, wow. What happens is that right now they, they see a future on it.
You know, now they, there is a hope and a dream. And so now, now kids from when they're 14, they're professionals, you know? And my, my goal, my mission here with the national team is to get these kids to be professional since they're young. Because in, in order to be able to compete when you're out there against teams like Mexico, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, that are preparing since they're 13, you're going to have to put that work in. Okay. So that's, that's a good point.
And I'm going to ask you a tough question is how do you do that? How do you do that when there's other sports there? That there's scholarships and there's money for and you can make real money or You know, we you end up losing a lot of athletes to those other sports. And how do you get these juniors?
To kind of like start playing and start getting really, you know, uh, passionate about it and say, I want, I want to play this sport when there's, I mean, we're hoping there's a future financially for it, but right now it, most people paddle players here in the USA and the top five, 10, they can't do paddle a hundred percent and make, you know, living off of it. They're rather doing a side thing or coaching or whatever. So what motivates them to do that? That's number one.
Number two, you have the juniors. And it's not made for everybody. I mean, it's very costly like how can you have, you know, these juniors, uh train You know twice or three times a week if the courts cost so much money So there's all these like hurdles And i've been trying to figure out how do you do that? You know, so number one You talked on how do you do it all you those two points combined, you know, obviously price is a big Step in the way that we have right now.
It's a high end entertainment sport, you know It's made only for affluent families and it's not touched on the mainstream yet because the infrastructure just started building 2019, you know 2020 So it takes time. The biggest city that took on to paddle was Miami because we have the Hispanic background and we have, you know, a, the capability to promote the sport easier. But Miami is a expensive place to, to be the evangelist. Let's say it.
So. In order for us in, in, as, as a paddle world to, to get juniors and to get people involved, obviously we're going to have to create this spaces where juniors can participate right now. They don't have spaces, so I'm a bit advocate for that right now. Obviously club owners have a, a, a, a big, big task to do, which is how do I return my investment in while generating spaces for kids also to participate and play well.
People that are involved like you are, you know, you fell in love with the sport first and now you have your kids, you know, going to the Panamericanos and involving them, getting them involved in, in, in the national teams. That's amazing. And that's what I need to see more. You know, I need to see more parents that get their kids and make the effort to bring them in. And I think they do. It's just, it's cheaper to, you know, put your own court in your backyard and that's going to play.
And that's going to try. And that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a step in the way, a step in the way that's, that's obviously there, you know, but the infrastructure, it's going to be the best way to solve. Yeah. But we have to understand one thing. I mean, it's the natural evolution of any new sport is, is the chicken and the egg. You know what I mean? You can't have junior development without. Paddle courts. That's exactly the more paddle course that we have.
It's going to be much more accessible to To juniors and everyone else right now It's the the natural trend. It's it's it's where United states is 10 years behind and the paddle evolution compared to the rest and we're the early adopters You know what? I mean and then after that when we get the the the high end and middle income people Now they're bringing your kids and now you know, that's how and how goes down to the bottom, which is another great point that you brought up.
How do you compete with other sports? It's hard. You don't, you can't compete with every single sport, but you're not expecting to bring in a hundred million kids, you know? No. Right now we have five if we can. Week, five or 10 per club, I'm saying, but you can bring it up to 100 per club, then you're doing, you know, a big job. I love, I love this sport. I'm very passionate about it, you know, and that's why I do this. And, but I see it.
And I used to like other, I play squash tennis, of course, little, even racquetball. And racquetball was, is a dying sport. It was never a growing sport. Well, it got pretty strong in the 80s. You know what I'm saying? But to build the infrastructure was tough, etc. And it's indoors, you can only see one way. So, right now, it's a business. It has to be a business. These investors are coming in. They have to have their money back, a return on their investment.
So, how do you make it, I guess, available for, uh, you know, all kids? And, you know, maybe, I've seen certain clubs do it at certain times, where it's like, dead, you know, uh, like, the dead, dead times, and, and giving a discounted price, which I think is great, but somebody has to, has to run that, right? Exactly, that's a problem. Right, and then, right now, the way it is structured is, like, you go to New England, it's twice as much. Yeah, as it is here in Miami, you know what I'm saying?
And you go there is even more. There has to be, there has, there has, there has to be some incentive. The, the USPA who is the governing body, who's not in charge of running, you know, how clubs operate or how do they produce talent? No, they're just the governing body who puts the rules basically, you know, and, and it's making sure things are happening.
It's trying to promote from a committee that was formed just for juniors right now, and it's going to incentivize some clubs by providing some grants, especially Especially to incentivize the junior production in the clubs. So when you say grants, is that federal grants or corporate? Let me not lose this point because I think it's super, super important. How do you approach the opening of a club or the putting the investment of a club right now? People are looking location, location, location.
It's a thing that I hear in every single place, trying to find the most elite and best places.
You know, the moment we start shifting away from that a little bit and start touching on cities and trying to get that, you know, underdeveloped land that you can step into, you know, like, The type of volunteers and Valentines and get involved with what already is in tennis, pickleball, racket, sports, soccer, et cetera, and just get involved and having the kids to actually see what's going on with paddle. Yeah. We felt that already when we step on a paddle court.
We don't want to leave the paddle court, you know, I think the first of locate location you say, but there's a reason why yeah, because the investors that's what they want. It's part of the model. So yeah, but it's our mission to teach the cities that we can create a community out of paddle, but here's where it's going to be the big differentiator. It's when you get for the last hundred years, all country clubs in the United States, there were always golf and tennis. Yes, sir.
Anywhere in the country. You know what I mean? When you go to the typical country club, you can remember and all that. Now the tennis clubs on those country clubs are adding pickleball and padel. That's correct. So now they're becoming racket clubs. That's correct. Yeah, that's gonna be the big differentiator where that's that's which is already happening. Yeah, that's already done. They're just adding padel to it.
Exactly. If I go to all the racket clubs in New England, they have they have What do you call it? Pickleball. Pickle there. Yeah, they're renting out to health insurance. And they're like, because honestly the, the tennis club theme is kind of a dying Yeah. Club. The club version, club parties. It's, it's increasing now in, in, in offerings. Yeah. And it's happening to a malls too now. The malls have to be transforming into us offering retail to entertainment.
No, and look, and look, I mean, all tennis clubs, private clubs and, and memory owned club, they know that tennis is dying. And, and let me give you just Mm-Hmm, just a quick number and I was looking at it the other day. It's. Around the world, there are half a million tennis clubs, I mean, tennis courts. That's the maximum of courts that you have around the world. 280, 000, they're only in the United States, right?
So more than half, more than half of the tennis courts around the world, they're in the United States. The USTA has on hand 360 million dollars every single year. We should have at least a top 10 in the world, they should be Americans. Yeah. They're doing something wrong. And now it's when these other racquet sports see that gap, that we're gonna start coming in. Because if you're a club owner and now you added pickable and paddle, now you monetize it.
Now you can increase that revenue coming to the club. Now you're offering three different racquet sports. And that's going to be the exciting. That's what's going to happen in the near future. What I think happened with tennis, what you're saying is beautiful because what you're saying is exactly why Pickleball exists. Pickleball exists because they got into an old infrastructure of tennis that was underutilized. Like I was saying before with the cities and they jumped in there and offer.
Something that people were not finding in tennis because tennis has become extremely difficult. And when you see the guys playing there every single time is better and better and better, you find it like impossible to get there.
And then when the news come out and you see, Oh, only a hundred players are making money, but they're that good, you know, I think I'm not going to play tennis, you know, so that's something that tennis has to deal with and they're trying to create these different scenarios and people jumping in. But, you know, it is. Exactly like that.
You know, so now Paddle has, has that opportunity to jump in and you're seeing it in cities, like you're saying in Raleigh, North Carolina, in Atlanta, they're doing public facilities, only rackets and Paddle is in there, you know, so they're seeing it too. And the good thing, I mean, it's, it's the future is we're still early on, but the train has already started, you know, we're, we're, we're jumping on the train and we know where it's going, it's going to go up.
And it's, it's, it's a very, very exciting. So now going back to, let's get into the juicy stuff, man. I mean, so now you're going to Qatar. When, give us the dates of the Qatar, uh, World Cup. First of all, uh, to Qatar, we had to play a qualifying and the qualifying was in Monterrey. That was, uh, A couple of weeks ago, we were super, I'm still super excited.
You know, the performance and what I got to see over there from the players, both in the men's and women's side, the women's did an amazing performance. They had one less spot than to qualify or available to qualify to a world championship and they had to beat Mexico and they did it in Mexico, which was huge. And talks about us in general, you know, the U. S. paddle as a, as a whole, because what Mexico, for example, does to their national team, it's amazing. They have them.
Support it all the way through and they play tournaments every single weekend and they train every day and they have various coaches and various trainers and conditioning. So it's a big push, you know, that they do and going out there to compete with players that are self funding, even the tickets, you know, uh, to go and compete against them and beat them. It's, it's, it talks about the talent that we're, we're capable to create. You know, if we actually.
Do it right, you know, and set the right structure going again to Qatar. Eh, I think we have a great opportunity to showcase, you know, probably something that we have never done over there in the world championships game. My goal to, and the goal that I have set up to my team is to be a top 10 country. It's a super tough task, but I think right now. We brought in two additions to a team, uh, that are going to make us super strong.
Uh, and I'm confident, I'm confident on the work that we are putting in and that the players especially are doing. And, uh, it's gonna be a super fun experience. Alright, buddy, you have to tell us the players now. Come on, give us a, to us, give you the juicy stuff to us. Who are the players? So the, the guys that are gonna come are, uh, be Francesco that you were with him right now. Yeah. Great player. Great player. And I have super high hopes on oh yeah, on the future that he's a monster.
That he can bring, he's only 18, right? He's only 18. And right now, and I'll jump on the players soon, but right now the FIIP rise, uh, ranking came up well end of last year. And we had two players in the top 10, you know, Argentinians, Spanish guys, and two USA players, which are Matias Segura and who is the second player that's going to the, to the team and Vinny Francesco. And that tells you the, the.
Talent and the capabilities that those two guys have and the the You know the benefit that we have of having them with us, you know Yeah, so we need to give them that privilege privilege That's the word they didn't grow up in the united states and they trained somewhere else And they decided and they decided to come and play for us and let me tell you that people think they don't They had the opportunity to go and play for argentina, you know, yeah, but they Like we are
seeing the eyes of paddle are, are, are with us right now and they wanna be there. The U US is a market. Yeah, it is. It is a market for any, any, any, anything. And including Paddle. Exactly. That's what they see and they trusted us and we have to trust, uh, them. So it's them two. Then we have, uh, Mr. America, captain America, uh, Nico Elli. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. , come on. Who's my captain? And, and a, and a and an amazing guy. You know, he's a true professional paddle player. Made in America.
Came from tennis. Adapted beautiful to paddle and right now he's training like an athlete, you know, and that's something that you can see on the court on every single tournament. He's in the finals, uh, competing at a high level and, uh, super high expectations on him too. Then we have a JP Arispe, JP comes, uh, with a lot of experience. He has been there a lot. Uh, he said are only lefty in, in my team. So it's important to have him.
Being number one in the USA forever until these kids come, came in and, and took the, he spot his spot. But now he's, he's trying to fight back for it. I, I always laugh with him about it and he tells me he's gonna come back . I'll see. You know? But, uh, he's coming in tough and tougher every year, you know? It is. It is. It is. But he's a great player. Oh, yeah. Has so much knowledge of the game and with the team, you know, he has a lot of, eh.
He transmits, you know, that experience to the kids. Yeah. Then I have another kid that I have a high hopes is Sebastian Castaneda, who is from California. He plays half of the year, he in the USA and half in Mexico. So he plays a lot of that Mexico tour. Uh, Which has him, you know, improving, improving a lot. Uh, he's, uh, 21 years old. Uh, then we have, uh, let me see, let me recap. Vinny, Matias, Fernando, JP, Sebas Castaneda, Raulito Ruiz.
Raulito Ruiz, who has been also growing as a player a lot and has been super committed to paddle, you know, in the Bolivian American superstar. That's exactly right. You know, big guy, you know, he has a, a, a, Strong tools. And obviously there is a lot of work to do there, but he's, he's working towards that, you know, then we have, we like to tell you the brother of the brother of Nico, he got into Paddle also in 2017 and, uh, It has been improving a lot.
You know, he's become a paddle player and a paddle addict in that family. I think they only talk about paddle right now. It's a big problem. I think they're having with the different wives, but well, not Nico, but, but Will, but, uh, uh, yeah. So we'll, and the last one, uh, it's going to be, who didn't I mention? Let's see. Vinny, Matias, JP, Fernando, Sebas, Will, and Raul. Those are they, yeah. Beautiful. Great team. Thank you.
So these guys are going to be competing with La Creme De La Creme, the top of the top. That's right. Spain, Argentinians. Uh, I read that Argentina is going with Tapia, Dineno. How do you prepare? Tell me that. I know, right? How do I prepare that match? Yeah, Withejo, Chingoto. I mean, it's, man, that's the dream team, the dream team over there, you know? Yeah, it's, it's going to be, it's going to be fun to watch it. You know what I mean? It's, it's, uh, at least it's just showing up.
It's going to be a great experience. I'm super happy for the experience. Not, not just for, for me, but for the kids, you know, to leave that experience. I felt like every single time, time there, they step on the court over there, they're going to increase one level and they're going to leave the experience and they're going to feel what it takes to be, just learning. Yes. Going, getting on a court and watching and be like, wow. And learning, you just learn. I just want the best for myself.
I was watching some of these players and I'm like, wow, you just, just learn the new, the different way that they're playing. You know, they're younger, their minds are different. They're their styles, different grading. And they move it the way they move. Yeah. So it's like, wow. And you'll get to see the flow. It's like, you know, they're flowing through that and you'll get to see them how they prepare before a match. How do they warm up? How do they stretch what they're drinking?
What, how they carry the bag, you know? So you can, I'll take the opportunity to, first of all, congratulate the guys because they earned it, you know, they earned to be in that spot. They, they earn it through a tough season, which is the USPA, a brutal calendar because you have to go all over the States, self funding these. No one is sponsoring them as of now. Only maybe Niku has a sponsor, but the rest, they're doing it by itself.
And they fight to be on the top of that ranking and to be, to be There is a reward. They also got the way in by beating a Canada over there in Mexico. And I want to shout out to Radu and Jose de Armas who are not coming, but we're part of that team and, and we're amazing teammates and, and, and guys, you know, committed to the USA and. And supporting us in every step of the way. And Jose D'Armas, I heard that he jumped on the, on the train.
Uh, it was already leaving and he was a last minute call. That was a tough situation that you have to deal with. You know, as a coach, there are situations that come and arise and you have to just find a solution. One of my players that was elected, uh, in that case was Mateo Colts, uh, uh, who is a guy that's been preparing hard to be a paddle professional player and that I respect a lot too. Had to pull out one literally a couple hours before we, we, yeah.
So I, I, Jose has been informed beforehand that he was one of the possible candidates to be a replacement, a sub. You even had to send a list of three possible subs. Thankfully I had, including him, him, there because, uh, As soon as I called him, he bought a ticket and he was there, you know, so that shows the commitment of him to be a part of the national team. And obviously the excitement he had to be, to be there. And he got to play against Mexico in a great match.
And, uh, and then that experience will remain forever, you know? So big question. Are you going to the US Open? I am going, I'm not going to go play. I'm going to go watch, but, uh, I'll be there with the, with the guys. Uh, in two, in, in a couple of weeks, you know, we can say, yeah, we might go to, part two. We'll do it there. A short, short interview to see what we're seeing. So Luis, tell us about your paddle vision. Where do you see yourself five years from now, 10 years from now?
Not only just promoting this, but financially being able to support yourself with paddle. Do you see that? And what are your goals there when it comes Look right now as a, as a, as me personally, you know, I see myself. Mixing what I have done my entire life, which is, which is sports at a high capacity, you know, and the past four years I have been involved with real estate.
So my idea is to combine those two passions and hopefully open a few clubs or join a group of people that, that are, that are opening up clubs. And so your goal is to open up a club.
I would, I would dream right now after five, six, seven years with paddle, you know, you, you, you fell in love with it, you know, so That would be the ideal, uh, way of doing things I want to do as an operator or, uh, just, well, I think when you're doing an entrepreneurship and especially in a, in a raw market, like paddle list, because right now, Mark, uh, paddle list as Ross, he gets, you know, so you have to be on a kind of an operator.
Me being a national coach obviously helps, you know, to run things a little smoother, I think. And, uh, but I'm not close to anything right now. You know, I'm, I'm. Seeing opportunities that what I think is that you have to do it, right? You know if you're gonna put your name and everything out there Oh, so yeah, so would that be locally here? Would that be anywhere in the world or no?
No, obviously right now I'm super compromised with the usa, you know, I have a a Small investment in a, in a club that we opened with the family in Venezuela. Uh, but because my parents are living there and my uncles live there and we had a piece of land, so we basically used it. Uh, and that, that was a great experience because it's a learning experience on how the process works, how do you, the logistics works and, and. It's something that I think the U S is going to be the big market.
And we have, if we do it right, the promoters, because we are all promoters here, you know, if we do it right and get to the right amount of people, it's going to be a big market for all of them. I see a pedal moving from Miami up, up more, more North, you know, and I'm seeing other coaches or friends of mine or people I play with.
Moving up to those areas as well, you know, and I see that's kind of the trend and I think it's going to continue Happening like that because those people they're in the north need coaches. It's need the person has experience, you know, and uh, And so that's what i've been saying i've gotten i have gotten calls from different clubs here and there that are opening and you know I'm super happy when I see that a club is opening, it's like, you know, this is real.
This is going to continue to be real. Someone is putting up the money in Kansas, in Virginia, in Arizona. I read they're, they're opening up a few clubs in California, what they're doing with Tattica here, Ultra, Reserve. You know, it's, you know, We're all adding towards something, you know, and we need to do it right though. We need to interconnect a little better. We need to have a better ecosystem.
And imagine if right now we're starting, we already have, you know, a little conflict here and there, we're just starting where we should, we should right now be all friends, you know, because we need to be friends. Yeah, we, that's a very, but it's a tough one here. I mean, it's very competitive. How, but you here in Miami you have at least 25 clubs or, or now. Now you see how the com So so what do you think about that?
I mean, when we first started a paddle smash, I think there was, I don't know, one, two, no, maybe three or four. The most right. , well, pedal Love, R and Winwood. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. And then, you know, now it's like, it's growing. I mean, there's a dozen clubs or even more. Um, what do you think? Do you think it's, you know, oversaturated right now? Is there more clubs than players or is it about the same right now?
I think clubs are getting to see here in Miami firsthand that if you don't offer something different than the rest, yeah, they won't come to you. You know, if your coach, the courts are not good, if, if, if you don't have coaching, if you don't have the right atmosphere, they're not going to come to you. Obviously you got to see where you're located.
If you're in magic city, you're not going to offer the same that if you're in Key Biscayne, or maybe you do, but in a different way, you know, to, to adapt, but that's, what's going to happen, you know, at the end of the day. And in New York, it's going to happen too. As soon as they open six or seven, you'll see that it will happen. And in the entire, uh, USA, it's going to, yeah, I mean, the first club, oh, is always difficult, you know, they're paving the way.
And as soon as investors see, Oh, it's working. What we need to understand is that. By interconnecting the clubs, it's what you're going to get, you know, a bigger community and a community that stays longer. Yeah. I mean, I, I live it every day. I think what's going to happen the next couple of years, it's going to be, uh, uh, the ones they're going to be a lot of clubs, you know, in two, three years going downhill. I mean, they're going to be belly up happens in other countries.
Yeah. It's, it's on the ones that are going to survive are the ones who has the best programming, the best coaches and the, the, the, the ones that know how to do it. Because I see so many clubs opening right now. Actually. Yes. They were telling me. They're opening three right here in Wynwood, three more, three more in Wynwood. And they've been saying that about me, is that actually happening? So, so what I'm saying, it's, you know, you have five, six clubs now within walking distance.
And let me tell you something, Wynwood rent is not, it's not cheap. So, so at the end of the day, when you start, yeah, it's, it's, when you start doing the numbers, uh, the ones that, Has the best programming and management are going to be the ones. And I'll tell you something that's extremely important that we attack. Paddle is a sport, a niche sport that came from Argentina and Spain, mostly Hispanic and Latin, Latin people.
If we don't get into the American culture and teach him how to play paddle in an American way and not in an Argentinian and Spanish way, which is hard to do because you cannot like forget what paddle brings, because But if you don't get to the culture, you will never get there.
What they are feeling with Pickleball is real and Pickleball has to be our number one ally right now and understand their case studies, what they did, how they did it, you know, and, and learn from them because they're, they're putting out their big numbers. I think that Pickleball is more approachable. You know, when it comes to paddle, uh, there's a lot of Spanish names, a lot of Spanish people, that's what I'm saying. You cannot intimidating a little bit in my opinion. And this is only me.
You cannot be always forever teaching, but they have, and they have, and they have, they have, because there's people that don't feel control, you know, by saying that, or Rulo, imagine rude. You have to say root for an American. It's almost impossible. So we need to find ways to not feel like. For the paddle, you know, uh, OGs that we're overstepping into them because we're not, we're trying actually to increase, you know, the amount of people that are here.
For the benefit of them and for the benefit of us and for the longevity of the sport, you know So we need to find a way to mix it up, you know, you know, it's a tough things I said this before, you know, just like in uh, you know international football and american football, you know International football is european south american mostly and you know, the americans have the american football, you know So we in america right now have the pickle You know and
then now that europeans and southern we're gonna kind of have the paddle How do we get the Americans to adapt to battle, you know, and so you, you said it there, you have two great products because MLS has shown to be an amazing product, you know, that's a long time. It takes time if you organize your field before, but how you did it, you bring in the world cup in 94. And that's when they bring it an international coach. Not before you had to have people playing a lot, that sport.
And then you bring an international coach that professionalized everything. Who was, I forgot the name. I think what helped was the internet and also the video games, the kids. I used to, you know, never be able to watch some of the games when I was younger, we have to go to somebody's house at a huge antenna and be able to see some of the games. Right. And then afterwards online, we're able to get access to it. And then. No kids ever wore anybody's shirt. Maybe they wore a USA shirt.
I don't know, a national team shirt, you know, because their dad's from Spain or whatever. Now, I was, I was watching in the nineties, you know, in two thousands, I'll say people would actually names of shirts of players. How do they know that? But how like video games, I saw video games. How did the infrastructure change from 92 to 2000 in terms of soccer fields availability in the nation? It changed completely.
And right now you see soccer everywhere, you know, so it's part of, of, of, of a building process. It cannot be easy. It takes a lot of money, you know, and it takes time. And people that actually.
Think that the, the dream, because at the end we're selling not a dream, but kind of, because you don't have extremely that accurate data to support what you're selling, but that people to believe what, that this is real, you know, if we're going to the Olympics, if it's not in 32, it's going to be in 36, you know, so it's, that's going to happen. And that's an incentive. Yeah, but honestly, I mean, the Olympics, it will help. But it, look, if you think it doesn't change much.
Tennis became an Olympic sport in the, it doesn't change much. The, in the early eighties, in the, I think it was 86, it wasn't really a, an Olympic sport. It, it's a validation sport. It's a validation. It's a validation as a sport that helps exposure, but that helps find more support from the city within.
Yeah. Okay. So grants, uh, from the national committee, uh, to, to, to actually help massify the sport a little more, but from here to there, we need to have at least 3000, 3000 clubs open in the United States, you know, as soon as people, because when, you know, I, I watch Olympics and I can always go and watch some of the unique stuff, like, you know, and so people do that if they see Pat Paddler, They're going to do that. I'm like, what the hell is that?
And we need to, and we need to leverage. Look, I've been in houses and, and, and private homes of millionaires and billionaires in the this past year. You come over all the time. Exactly. But you haven't, you haven't well seen it. And these people, I mean, I've been in one of the, you know, billionaire home in, in Palm Beach. I won't say the name, but it's one of the most influential Wealthiest persons in the planet. Uh, they invite me there to go and teach a lesson.
And I ended up going to that house, which was incredible. I mean, it was tremendous. It was huge. It was a palace in front of the Atlantic Ocean Bay. I mean, it was, it was incredible. He didn't have a tennis court. He didn't have a pickleball court. He had a paddle court. Beautiful. Right? And now when you see these people bringing That's what I'm talking about. Paddle course into their homes. Same thing happened in tennis in the early seventies and eighties.
Yeah. But golf, you need a golf course. Yeah. Yeah. But it built around the real estate. But in the seventies and eighties, all the millions and billionaires, they put tennis courts in their home. Exactly. Now they're putting paddle courts. And I tell you, this, this person told me I fell in love with the sport. I put. Paddle courts in my homes in Saint Tropez, in the UK, in the Hamptons, in New York City, in Colorado, and in the West Coast. She put paddle courts all over their homes.
So when you see that trend, uh, you know where it's going. Yeah. I've been in San Francisco, in Napa Valley, in the middle of a vineyard. They took me to this place where I was in heaven. A huge vineyard, which is the paddle court. And, and, and you see this, and you know where the sport's going. Now when the wealthy and the billionaires and millionaires are playing with this sport, it's going to trickle down much, much faster than it's going from the way up.
Yeah, that's what we're, that's what we're hoping. Yeah. Because right now it's just operators, you know?
Yeah, but it's, the more courts that we have, The cheaper it's going to be, the easier it's going to be to access when you have now the country clubs on the, you know, on, on, on the, look, if, if you see what happens in Spain, why is Spain became such a mega force in, in the paddle world in the 1890s, they had a huge, uh, real stable in, in, in, in, in Spain, the president of Spain was crazy about paddle.
He put all the developers, not to put tennis courts in the new developments, but to put paddle courts. So he got it involved in the real estate. Every community had a paddle court. Gotcha. And that's how it became what it is right now. And you see that the coaches that are around those communities that want to make, you know, some cash and they learn how to teach. Exactly. Paddle NBA has, has done a good job in, in, in, in getting more and more and more coaches.
And there, there are many more outlets, but I totally agree. You know, infrastructure is what's going to get us to the next level. And the right infrastructure is, it's, what's going to get us to the actually, actually higher and massifying level. Yeah. You need to have good operators and people that have experience in sports and in different sports that can bring in the best The wrong that was done in those sports and, and, and, you know, filter it.
Yeah. It's a good balance of business, you know, knowing the sport and being passionate about it. I mean, you have to be well around it. I mean, we see, I mean, we see a tons of clubs and, you know, and we see little errors here. We see, okay. You know, they're really thoughts about this and we know, okay, we've seen that. I'm not gonna work, you know, but You don't say anything.
You're kind, you know, but they learn they have to learn, you know And then there'll be other clubs that fail other clubs that i'm see. Wow, they get it They get it. I, this is gonna work. You, you're selling an experience, you're selling someone a hundred percent, you're not selling a gym, you know, or a Starbucks. So it's important that clubs understand that you're not selling just numbers and an Excel sheet that you thought it was gonna happen. You're selling much more than that.
You know, you want have people that stick to you and stick to a club, an experience, a lifestyle, you know, creating habits. Yeah. Right. You know, uh, other forms of, of, of verticals, you know, it, all those things are just really important, especially at the beginning. Yeah, no, but how do you, how do you get people in the door? Yeah, you know, budget for marketing more. I mean, there's just so many things that need to be done in the business part at the beginning when nobody knows.
But I mean, you could put one here and you'll be fine because everybody knows battle. Yeah. But in areas that it's not too popular. How are they going to know what it is? You need to put it next to a tennis, pickle, et cetera. So people come for pickles, see puddles, stick to puddle, you know, it's and it's, you need to, you need to bottle the whole thing is when you, when you walk into a court, that feeling that you get like, Oh man, this is going to be best hour and a half of my day.
That needs to be bottled up. And that needs to be thrown out to every single person within, let's say a 20, 30 mile radius, hopefully every day. And then that's how it'll work. For all those listeners and viewers, just say it with me, say it with us. Paddle is a beautiful sport. That's right. If we want to help the national team, what, I mean, is the USPA doing something about it?
Well, well, right now, and that's a great question, because right now, players in the national team, in the absolute team, which are, you know, the ones that, you know, represent us at the elite level are self funding some parts of the, of the, their travels and their trips and their training. So any support it's going to be, uh, hope super appreciated.
And, uh, if you want to support, there is a link in the USPA website where you can donate, and that's going straight to the national teams in terms of a budget that they use yearly. And, uh, That's one of the best ways to do it. And then in a few days, we're going to put up a GoFundMe, especially for this trip, uh, of Qatar, uh, that that's going to be promoted everywhere. You probably are going to see it somewhere. If you like paddle, we're going to put the link right below it.
So please, if you want to help the national team and you want to help out on the United States, please link below and you will have, we need it.
You know, the, the USPA is based on volunteers, people that are putting this, like me, uh, Out of pure heart and trying to get something better, you know what we have usp is what we have It's what we have and we gotta we gotta make it better We gotta make it better because I think right now we have a lot of good people around the usb And a lot of people that want to participate, you know It's obviously easy to complain and to say oh I can be better come and
work with us and try to get it better You know, all right, at least first. Thanks for coming on pal smash academy I want to wish you all the luck and catch us in the next review. We are all things paddle