62: Tournament Prep 101 (Part 1)

Welcome to four point. Focuses on a single shot. Where we teach you a single shot of strategy every single episode, I'm my in Long Beach, California, joined by one there in Boca Rotone, Florida. He and I have both Been fighting a cold for the last week. How are you, bud? Um doing better. Thank you, sir. It was a rough past week. I rarely get sick. And usually when I do it's n it's not too bad. But this last week was a little rough. There were

two days where I was only moving from the couch to the bed and from the bed to the couch. Yeah. So I'm I'm happy to be up and around and got a chance to play a little pickle this morning for the first time, although it was in forty nine degree weather. Jeez. It's it's still like roughly around forty nine degrees. So I mean it could be worse, but for Florida it

Pretty chilly, I'm not gonna lie. We will both be making judicious use of the mute button on this particular show. I think we're both coughing pretty well. Anyway, you guys, Mircha brought something up which I think is

Really important, especially it's February. It's still at the beginning of the year. For a lot of you, the beginning of your Tournament season has not happened yet. And probably over a year ago now, we did higher level version of tournament prep, which is how to prepare prior to the tournament, right? Miracha, that's kind of what we did.

And yeah, we talked about the tournament day a little bit, but I think we want to do a little more tournament one on one, which a bunch of people have asked for. Most people in general in pickleball are rec players. They don't play tournaments yet, but should you have a hankering?

to play a tournament, you will realize very quickly how different it is than rec play because chances are the people that you play in that particular tournament, especially if it's a three point five or four point oh tournament. may have played in tournaments before. So they will have a little more experience With some things that we're gonna tell you today that are gonna be maybe a bit of a surprise for you. So Mircha, like me, when I first started playing pickleball.

I was playing tournaments within like a month or so and I think you had a very similar experience with one Julie Johnson, mom of Georgia and JW. Yep. I met her and actually GW the very first day I started playing and a couple of weeks later I asked her to play a local money ball. So, you know, in terms of tournaments, I'm all in. So I like competition and one thing it really does, it really reveals your real level.

So it tells you where you are because if you're the weaker player or if you have a weaker wing or weakness, though that weakness will be targeted early and often and often relentlessly in a tournament setting. you are going to feel a little bit of pressure, which you don't typically in even high level intense rec games, you typically don't feel those butterflies and that pressure. So it's a less forgiving link rec play. You get your weaknesses targeted and often you or your partner or whatever.

And you have that pressure that you really don't have in the rec play scenario. Yeah, I think the nerviness is something that got to me really quickly in tournament play, but you end up very often playing people that are completely unfamiliar to you. I think we all get into our groove a little bit and play people we know and You kind of know their weaknesses and things like that.

Not the case at all in tournaments, we have to do a lot of scouting. You can find out within your own game what breaks down, like what doesn't work for you. And then you can identify specific weaknesses that you have. And that's really the coolest part is that to me, even though it's humbling, it accelerates your improvement on the court just by putting yourself in that high intensity, high pressure situation where people are going to instantly pick on your weakness.

Exactly. And actually I enjoy that aspect of it, especially at the beginning of a tournament, that if I have a little bit of nerves, a little bit of butterflies. I know that it means something to me and I actually look forward to that.

So it's that little adrenaline rush. You know, we're we're looking for the adrenaline rush. That's where adrenaline junkies when we play sports, that's part of it. If I'm targeted and I have someone's targeting particularly weakness, I can work on that and and It really gives me a sense of confidence to be able to manage that.

when you focus on executing when it really matters. And I've talked about this a ton, making the right ball, the right shot, just even making balls, period, at eight all, nine all, ten all.

that really gives you a sense of confidence and I've preached about this in rec play. But when you do this in rec play Then you're able to translate into the tournament. You really get that confidence and it improves your game. I don't know if you saw this, but it was a great example of what you just said, which was I know what you're gonna say. You know what I'm gonna say about Anna Bright?

Absolutely. Yeah. So Anna Bright in the last tournament had match point, and she put her third into the net because it's as nervy as it gets, it's game five, playing against Ben and Ben and Annalee Waters, and she puts her third into the net and they lose. This time, in this particular tournament, her third on match point was Fifteen feet high. Like it was so high. Maybe not. It was a borderline lob. Yeah, it was so high, but it was like a shoulder high left shoulder for Ben.

But she was not taking any chances with her third. And that is one thing I wanna say also about the the rep is that one of the things for me that helped me manage my nerves, which can be crazy in a tournament. It's just something it's hard to train for, is the more routine you get in your game,

the the more you can rely on that routine to execute when you have these high pressure situations. That's kind of what I had to do for my serving because I got the y. What tournaments give you is a benchmark and a goal host, which you're going to manage and learn in order to get to where you want to be. So give you a guidepost, if you will. So you have a goal in like two months you're going to be playing a tournament or a month you're going to be playing a tournament.

That way you know that when you play certain rec games, you can practice those skills and that's how you get better. But it it is pretty funny because what happened in that point, because I watched that whole match and by the way, kudos to Hayden and and Anna for just playing incredible and executing a consistent reproducible strategy that gave them winning patterns. But what happened in that point?

She hit a relatively high drop to Ben on a third shot and Ben cracked it. And what did Ha Hayden do? Hayden reset it. So it just gives you the lesson that when you hit a ball over the net. It gives your opponents a chance to screw up. And you a chance or you and your partner a chance to defend, which is exactly what happened. And they w ended up winning that point.

despite a really poor quality drop to Ben John's, which is the GOAT. All right. And so and when you play players like Ben and Annalee, like You feel like and and this is what how it goes in terms of one of the things you have to get over mentally is that when you're playing better players, you feel pressure to hit better quality shots and you start making errors. So it gives you a you know kind of a mental challenge that you have to still make shots.

even though you're under more pressure to hit perf you know, you think you gotta hit quote perfect shots unquote. And you really don't you have to hit o obviously good shots. But, you know, that was a perfect example on a critical point where she just made the ball. And it was, you know, really relatively easy ball for Ben to put a lot of pressure on them and Hayden got it back and they ended up winning the point. So that's a great lesson. Make'em hit, baby. Good job, I end up. Make'em hit. Meh.

So which tournaments should we choose? One thing I'll say is we're lucky enough that pickleball has boomed and there are a million types of different tournaments out there. Should you decide to do like a PPA or APP event, it can be a little intimidating because it's definitely a of of big bigger stage and things like that, depending on what level you're in. But uh you got to choose the right tournament.

And you want to generally, and sometimes you don't know if you've never played a tournament before, but you want to play your true level. So don't sandbag. I had these situations where I was in a I don't know, it was like a four oh tournament that I was playing in. And there was a guy that just ran through the bracket, including me. I and he gave up, and this is not an exaggeration, for an entire day of pickleball, he gave up like seven points.

Like he just ran through everyone had games to fifteen. It was around Robin, and this guy gave up seven total points. to the group. And it's like, all right, dude, if you're gonna be a five O player playing a four oh tournament, that's what's gonna happen. It's not that satisfying. At that point, just go to Amazon and buy yourself a a trophy. So play your true le play your true level and then the the goal is

to have fun and be in people that are in competition that are the same level as you. You guys have incredible points. That's what makes it really fun. It's not just supposed to be you're running through the bracket. It's just not. Or or you wanna get you don't wanna get crushed either because it just makes you wanna go, I don't really wanna play a tournament anymore if uh you know, I always lose to this one person that ends up sandbagging is what we call it, and plays a higher level.

Yeah, I mean that being said, you know, you you do have to understand that when you first start out, you're gonna you're gonna take some bumps and bruises. When I, you know, first started playing senior pro doubles, I was far, far less effective in terms of winning versus senior pro singles. Like I started playing senior pro singles, which translates from a tennis style Much more easily than double. So, you know, you're gonna take some bump.

But first of all, I'd recommend you start off with a local tournament, which is what I did. You know, start out with some local tournaments so you don't have to travel far. It's easy for you. You know, you might be playing some of the same people you know. But it'll be at least familiar for you. You'll have some familiarity. You don't have to travel too far. A hundred plus cent player level or maybe play a little bit up if you feel that there might be some wiggle room in terms of who's playing.

definitely know your format if it's a round robin with a playoff versus double elimination or single elimination, it really matters. There unfortunately more tournaments are getting to pool style play in certain types of brackets or at least having multiple matches. So you get a bunch of matches. So I really recommend that. Both the APP and the NPL, which is now the Champions Pickleball Series, is or Champions Series pickleball. They're really putting out some really good tournaments.

You know that if you get double elimination, you know, you get two chances. So, you know, if y you also have to know the scoring format. If you have games to eleven went by two or two out of three, then you know you have a little more leeway, whereas games to fifteen you don't have as much leeway. Or if it's rally scoring, you definitely don't have as much leeway. So the style of scoring really is important. So you just have to know all those and do something comfortable.

And it this is all supposed to be fun. So while you're gonna challenge yourself, it's also gonna be fun. You have to look at it as, okay, even if I lose, look at it as a data point. You know, I always tell people, If you speed up and you lose, just don't lose look at that as like, oh, I that was a terrible thing, you know, I lost the point. Look at it as a data point. So look at it in a positive way, regardless of, you know, how you do.

I had extensive experience with both of those things that you just talked about. Number one when my in my very first tournament I lost my first round. And I didn't realize that in the the consolation bracket that it was one game to fifteen. And the other thing which just happened is I played the Humana Cup. You were there actually at the APP. And it was rally scoring. And man, does that change how you play pickleball? Because every single point matters.

And it really makes you to our first segment really makes you think about you better make these balls because it really matters when you don't make a third. You're not just losing your side out for your serve, but you're actually losing a point and a game can go really fast if you miss a lot of balls.

Absolutely. 100%. My very first Pro Tour tournament was the first PPA in Mesa, Arizona. And it was incredibly chilly. And this was in 2020. And I played senior pro singles and I went out there the day before, you know, thinking I needed to get acclimated a little bit, but I didn't get quite acclimated enough to the cold weather and I didn't know, you know, how to play in cold weather really. And I lost first round to Dan Gernot, who ended up being my first the senior pro doubles partner.

I lost in singles in all the first round and I thought, man, I'm gonna I'm gonna quit this game. I'm terrible. Like I I'm just and then I went in the back draw and like, okay, one one and anyway, ended up playing Scott Moore in the finals was down Eleven one six oh Came back and won in that one and then I beat him fifteen thirteen in the final, end up winning gold after winning first round. Wow. After I'm sorry, losing first round. That's I literally lost first round in like a thirty two draw.

And I just did not adjust the conditions immediately. It took me some time. Yeah. When we were doing, let's say, the NPL tryouts and I knew it was going to be indoors. I went to a local indoor place here to get reps and practice because if you show up the day of and you're just not used to what it is, whether it's

certain wind conditions that funnel in from a certain direction at this chord or whatever, if you can get reps at the actual venue, that's great. Otherwise, if you can get reps In a similar situation, whether it's sunlight or wind or way, you know, in your case, way colder. If you're playing a tournament like in Denver, I mean, you know this from being in Aspen last summer. It's crazy how much farther the ball goes. in at altitude than it does at sea level. I mean it's it's a complete

And and you know, we say game changer. No, it really is. That is an actual game changer. You have to very much modify how you hit the ball when you're at altitude and vice versa. So It's those kinds of things that really matter because you already have enough things to think about.

when it turns when it comes into playing a tournament that you don't even want to bother. You've played a lot of indoor as well. Like when you have to play an indoor venue, what are you looking for? Because it's not the same as it is an outdoor. No, it's not. So one of the keys is really, like you said, is is practicing in the environment that you're going to play in. And, you know, that sounds

Intuitive, but it's just so incredibly important. Like if you're going from Florida to Colorado, you really need at least two days to get ready. And if you're going from Florida to Arizona, you know, if you're gonna start playing an event on Friday morning, like you can't get their Thursday night and adequately prepare, in my opinion. Like agreed.

At the latest, you gotta get there Thursday morning to at least give yourself twenty-four hours if you're gonna travel. You know, whether it's indoors, outdoors, like obviously. If you're playing outdoors, if you live in Florida and you're playing outdoors in Florida, you know, you're you're good. Just keep practicing outdoors. Indoors.

the ball is gonna be faster. There's typically more speed ups. You know, you don't have any environmental influence of the wind. So that's really good. You know you're not gonna get rained out. So that's there's a lot of pluses. There can be some court challenges in terms of the size of the court. So sometimes the footprint of the indoor courts are relatively small.

And the other thing, there can be some visual challenges. So there's some venues I've played that are amazing in terms of how they've done the sight lines. And there's some places where the sight lines are just really rough. Like for example, I've played w in an a in a venue where they had it was a beautiful venue, but everything was shiny or glittery or reflective.

And including there's one giant mural behind the center court with all kinds of different colors. And it was incredibly tough to see. So when I'm indoors, and this is a little little tip that and it's just a personal thing. When I have a choice of whether to serve or pick side, I always pick side. Yeah. No matter where. Because there will always be a side that is a little bit better and the way I pick is where I want to end if it goes three games.

And the last six points, I want to be on the better side. One thing I'll add to that, because the visual side for me was is one of the bigger challenges, is if you are someone who wears eyewear, and you should, you should all be wearing the carbon pivot or the carbon drift. Pickleball glasses. And if you want to do that, you go to carbonpickleball.com and get 10% off your order by using the promo code 402P at checkout.

If you have a pair of, you know, glasses or goggles that have multiple different lenses, try'em all when you're inside or outside. And make sure that you have a remedy for whatever conditions that you might face. So definitely experiment with them, especially indoor, because things can get really weird and your sight lines can get weird and there can be a lot of visual interference and that's not a great way to play.

Exactly. I mean, I wear eye protection all the time. Yeah. Even when I'm drilling. All the time.

We had a show a few episodes ago about playing in cold weather and How the ball performs. It's a much slower ball. It can crack the heat, can be a faster ball, but it also doesn't bounce as well, especially if it's a Franklin X40, which is something to know. What ball are they using? When you are playing like if I'm at Los Cab here in Southern California, we have a ton of pros that play there. And some play APP, some play PPA, some play local tournaments.

All three of those use different balls. So you have to make sure you know what ball they use in the tournaments you're gonna play. Like if I'm used to playing the lifetime ball, which is my favorite currently And we switch to a Franklin like mid-if I'm in the middle of a wreck night or something like that and we've been playing this lifetime all day, then I go to a Franklin, I miss everything because it's a totally, it's like hitting a sponge and it takes me a couple games to get used to it.

Imagine that's a tournament now and you've paid all this money to get in there and you've flown there or whatever. Gotta know what ball you're gonna play with. I just want to correct one thing that I thought I heard and I may have misheard, but I thought you said with a cold ball that it's a little bit slower and the heat is faster, like I would flip those because You know, we talked about this. When it's cold it's harder so the ball kind of flies a little bit more.

rather than the heat, it kind of slows down a little bit more. If I said that I didn't mean to. Uh the cold definitely flies more, but the and the ball can crack more. And then the heat it can slow down and especially a Franklin can get really spongy. Yeah. I mean and if you played the US open And you know that sometimes they leave the Franklin balls out there in little baskets. They leave the baskets by the court. Right. And in April or early May in Florida, when you're leaving the basket

with the balls on the court, uh at about one o'clock, you know, it's gonna be a marshmallow. I just talked to somebody, they were playing with like a a gen two paddle. And they just got a Selkirk boomstick, which is a very high poppy paddle. And they were just about to play a tournament that weekend. They were like, I can't wait to I'm like, wait, you're gonna bring this brand new paddle out that you've never played with before to a tournament? That's not gonna go well. So do not experiment.

with your equipment on tournament day. That is a terrible, terrible idea. Use the paddle that got you there. You know, uh go home with the date you brung, if you will, no last minute paddle changes. And and you want to bring a backup just in case.

Ideally, it's the same kind of thing. You and I have talked about a little bit, depending on the conditions. If it's really cold one day, you might have a different paddle or you're playing singles and doubles, it might be a different paddle. But in general, you want to have a good backup. For whatever reason, you could find that one of your grips is too slippery'cause it's too hot.

And you don't have time between games to change grips, but you can change paddles that has a nice fresh grip on it. So make sure that you are your equipment is what you're used to. And you definitely need one backup paddle. You really have to make sure that your paddle is approved. And you have to make sure that your paddle is approved for the particular tournament that you're playing in, which sounds intuitive again, but like you have EPA, which has UPA certified paddles, then you have

you know, nationals or US Open, which has USAP. There are some tournaments like the National Pickleball League or the, you know, now it's the Champion Series pickleball. They allow both UPAA and USAP certified paddles. So you have to make sure that your paddle is

certified by whichever body is used by the tournament. That's a big thing. On that note, when I got my carbon barrage, which by the way, I think you guys are going to Love. One of the first things that Kyle from Carbon said is don't play this in a tournament. It's not approved.

Like they're they they knew ahead of time that it wasn't the date wasn't there yet, but probably by now it is. But I think it needs to come out to the public before you can have approval or something, or there's some sort of timeline involved. But you guys, by the way, are gonna love that. IKEA presenterar Ljud av förändring. Elskling, vi fick det. Och ska inreda alla nya kvadrater.

That's all. I can't wait to try it. Along those lines, you know, everything else with the that goes along with the paddle. You many of us weight the paddle so we use the lead tape, so don't add the lead tape the day of. or, you know, make sure that your backup paddle is weighted in the same fashion. So I often play with both my backup paddle and the paddle I in intend to use for the tournament the week before. So I use both to make sure that they feel similar.

So that's something I would highly recommend. In terms of grips, like I'm a big over-grip person, so I don't like playing with the grip out of the box. for the most part the Wilson perforated over grip. That's my favorite grip that I've ever used. I always put on fresh grip.

before. How long does that last you, by the way? Cause my favorite is still the very old school tourni grip, like the one you could get in the seventies. Just when it gets really hot and sweaty out, I like that one because I think it does the best with that. But I'm curious, you're I mean you're in obviously in in in Florida. How does the Wilson hold up for you? How long how many games do you get out of it?

I actually get usually about four to five days. Sometimes a week out of it. But when I play tournaments I usually change them the event the following day. So 'Cause I like that fresh grip when I'm playing a pro level tournament. I will say that I used to use the turner grips as well. The turnagrips last me one day in Florida.

Okay. Like literally I mean, I I take it back. Like on a day like today where it's in the forties, you know, it'll be fine. Right. But in the vast majority of the year, like from let's say March until October.

those grips will last me one day. So that's why I just don't use them anymore. The regular ones, not the sticky ones. The regular ones last you a day. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. All right. So um and then the shoes. So I was in the middle of a I'm sorry, I was in the middle of a PPA tournament.

And my shoes were bothering me and I bought a pair of Skechers literally in the middle of rounds and I wore them. So shout out to Skechers for for doing it quickly and for being comfortable enough. to wear in a in in a tournament without any real break-in, do not recommend in general for doing that. But uh yeah, reliable courtshoes.

Yeah, and ones you've worn already are preferable. Yeah. Ye I I do not want I do not want to play a tournament when I've put on the shoes that morning or the day before. So I I've always broken them in.

at least four to five days before minimum. It takes me a few days to break in shoes. Yeah. What are you throwing in your bag just in case? Oh man. Quite a few things. So I have a little bag where I have extra overgrips. I have my lead tape. I have my electrical tape that, you know, I put on the edge of the paddle.

And then I have any extra tape that I need if if I need to re grip or I lose a I need to do one of my grips again or redo my lead tape. So I have that. I have my extra glasses. So I have both. you know, sunglasses, then have my clear glasses, and my afternoon glasses. I have a towel. I always have my electrolytes. I love the ultima. Ultima is my favorite one. Just, you know, flavors. It's clean. Like liquid IV, but it's Ultima. Yeah. Same idea. Okay.

Yeah, the liquid IV has some sugar on it, so I I'm sure they probably have a d uh you know a different one. But anyway, and then I have food. I have power bars, different types of protein bars. Obviously I have water, which I use with the electrolytes. I have Backup close and I mentioned this before that

For me, like I have a bunch of socks because I like changing socks throughout the day. And then, you know, I have one extra pair of shorts, but they have numerous shirts. So a lot of times I change my shirts and I wear sleeves. So I do the sleeves. And then I also have a hat. So I rarely wear the hat and typically I wear like a headband that part of the reason why do rag you got a do rag.

I got a little bit of a do rag. Yeah. It's so your underarm or do rag. It is. You're kind of known for it. That's your look. It's a sleeveless shirt with a sleeve and then your dorag. That's the Mircha Tournament kit. The do rag. Yep.

It's actually a, you know, considered a head wrap. And I started wearing those when I was playing squash because Squash is so intense physically that you sweat like crazy and you have to wear goggles for eye protection, obviously'cause you're indoors in a small confined space and people are swinging rackets. So if I wore a a regular baseball cap or or a hat when playing, it would often fall off when I was playing squash.

Or the sweat would be so bad that it would just kinda run down into my glasses. And so the head wraps were the only thing that would really, you know, keep the sweat from coming down. And then when I play tournaments, I rarely wear the head ba the head Like just a baseball cap because You know, when I go for overheads, sometimes when I hit the overheads the cap falls off and, you know, you don't want if if that falls in the kitchen

you know, you lose the point. So that's why I wear the head wrap. So those are the things that I think you need in your in your bag. What about you? Um am I missing anything? Have you ever, by the way, used the the halo, the halo headband, which is what I used to wear playing racquetball? So it's like a a wrap that you use, but it's got a little rubber strip that goes above your eyebrows and it redirects the moisture away from your goggles.

And they have a big like a four inch wide. It's called the Bandit. I'm just looking at it online right now. The Halo Bandit. I'll send you the link. I'll bet you really like these a lot. The the one thing I will add I haven't. What's that? I said no, I haven't. I've never never tried that. Yeah, it's really cool. I just sent you the link. The one thing I will add to that is you play a lot of games.

for a a tournament. So if you're doing do a tournament weekend and you're playing more than one division, it's typically more than you'll play normally. Like you won't play for six hours on a s a day, but you might if you keep banging through rounds at a tournament. I like to have some kind of like knee sleeves or if you twist your ankle, I might have a

like an ankle brace or a knee brace or a chopat strap or just a few things in your bag in case you start getting sore. If you get a sore leg or a sore elbow or something like that, but you want to keep going through, it's not bad enough to Like bow out of the tournament, but you're starting to feel it a little bit. I really like that. And I also like it as preventative maintenance.

I've had five left knee surgeries. I know that when I get two or three hours into playing pickleball, my left knee is gonna start bothering me a little bit. If I wear sleeves, Which are, you know, sleeves you can get on Amazon or whatever, they don't have to be crazy. I feel better for the whole day and I'll just wear those prophylactically. You like that doctor?

Just to make sure my my knees don't get really bad, you know, towards the end of the day,'cause what happens often is you'll play and you'll win and then you gotta sit around for a while and you can get stiff. So anything you need to do to get stiff, I might add a jump rope.

to the bag in case you have like you're gonna go on in like 10 minutes but there's not really enough time to go do a proper warm-up. Very often all the quartz are taken. So I might you know jump rope or do jumping jacks or something to get my body back into playing mode. And maybe this is just for people over the age of fifty that get sore between games. Yeah, and I can't believe I forgot this. And thanks for reminding me, but the Yobo, like

Yeah. The therapeutic massage gun, that's another must. So that's really incredibly improved my recovery, decrease my soreness, helps me warm up, decrease the chance of injuries. I think that's that's really key. Whatever therapeutic masca massage gun of your choice. The reason I like the YOBO because it's very compact.

It's not heavy, so that's always been great. And then also the bands that they have, we've talked in about the you know, the backpack BAK, the back body activation kit, uh that's also great for warm-up as well.

So one thing that doesn't fly. at a tournament is very often I'll step on the court and be like, hey, sorry to my partner. I'll be fully warmed up by game three. That doesn't fly at tournaments. You do not have a game three if you don't play very well for the first couple of games.

So you have to warm up properly, like for real for real when you play a tournament. The more reps you get, the more you realize how much You need to go through your entire thing, but I do feel like you need thirty minutes or at least fifteen minutes of of regular your normal full warm-up routine, which we've talked about on this this show before. But what's your ideal warm-up progression as you get there? It's and and more importantly, Mircha.

Tell me how it is now versus when you first started playing doubles.'Cause I bet you it's a little bit different. Yeah, well it's much more methodical now than it was before, for sure. The most important thing is you gotta remember that you need to know what you need in terms of your warm up and what your partner needs. And I often just adapt my partner within reason. So

I've had some partners that really like to warm up for a long time, like forty five minutes to an hour or more. I typically like to warm up less than that because I generally anticipate optimistically often a longer day. So when we first started playing, we had full draws with full come around. So I played APP tournaments when I started at eight and finished at eleven because we had entire full come arounds. Eight AM, eleven PM. Yes. Yeah.

That wasn't the typical day. I'm not going to tell you that was. That's obviously, you know, when you end up in the finals or if you're because you're you're waiting for the backdraw to come through or you're playing through the backdraw and you get back to the goal. So fortunately for most tournaments they have the US Open style where you don't have the full come around anymore. So

Anyway, like you have to remember that when you go there to the tournament, you know, let's say you and I are gonna meet at let's say seven thirty, okay. We start at eight thirty, we're gonna meet at seven thirty. You know, you don't wanna get there at seven thirty because you have to park. Sometimes parking is an issue.

If you know that it's a small place, it's a local park, it's not a big deal, that's fine. But if you're playing a larger tournament like the US Open or an APP tournament or a PPA tournament, there might be an issue with parking. And then you also have to check in, all right, especially the first day. So that may take a little longer. So you have to keep that in mind. You have to park, you have to walk over, you have to find a court.

So if your bracket starts at eight in the morning and you know you can get there at seven, that might be fine because most of the courts will probably be open. However, if your bracket starts at 10 and you meet at nine, you may have trouble finding a court because the eight o'clock brackets have already started. So you have to keep in mind. that you need a little of that extra wiggle room in terms of getting there to properly plan.

I if if my bracket starts at nine and I know I don't have a buy, I would typically like to start warming up around eight o'clock. hopefully you get there and you can do a combination of your standard warm up where you have a little stretching, you know, you move you keep your body active, kinda warm down a little bit. I'm sorry, warm up a little bit. And then you also get to practice the warm up with your partner and then you also hopefully will get

Someone that you can play a bunch of points with just like it doesn't even you don't have to keep score, you know, you can just play a bunch of points. And often it'll be like, you know, someone will miss a serve and you just tell'em, Okay, hey, here you go. Do it again, serve me wide or serve me this way or yeah.

Yeah, and there and there's there's times where you know s e yeah, exactly. It's cooperative and even when like they miss a return. Here, I'll serve again, you know, take the return again. Or even you you get to the point you miss a third. Now, obviously you miss fourth, fifths, that's a little ridiculous, but You know, that's something you can consider when you're warming up. And don't do it with the team you're gonna play. That's generally not the greatest idea, I imagine.

Yeah, it's funny'cause there's some I've had some partners they absolutely refuse to play with anyone in the draw. Oh really? Wreck games the day before. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh, that's funny. There's some partners that will not play with anyone. I really don't care. I'll play with anyone because What happens in rec play, you know, the day before and what happens in a warm-up is not what happens in in the draw. Yeah. That's not they're completely different things. And you should be aware of that.

Don't you you can use certain things to pick up on your opponents if you want to go out there and watch. You can definitely get some tips. Again, tournament play is not right. And vice versa.

So one of the things I mentioned, Mircha, was Very often you'll be it'll be a break because you have to wait for other matches to end. Let's say you guys won your best two out of three and you did it quickly. You were much better than that team. You have to wait until all of the other games are finished. So that bracket can go to the next level. And sometimes that can be an hour, sometimes it can be two.

For some of us, taking that long of a break can make us really stiff. And I'm sure that at the senior pro level, a lot of people feel like that. So what are some of the things you like to do to kind of stay warm when you've when you've got downtime or you know that like in thirty five minutes your pr your number's gonna get called again? Well, I gotta tell you, this might be a little bit out of the box, but for me, one of the biggest keys regarding this topic is hydration.

And hydration doesn't start the day of the tournament. I'm a huge, huge proponent of hydration on a daily basis. Personally I I had a kidney stone when I was fourteen and and part of it was related to dehydration when we were practicing back in the old days when

You know, you could only have a drop of water after practicing for like two hours in the Florida heat. You know, that was your reward. Yeah. We used to win the Coke the Coke. If you hit the if you hit the Coke while you served, you could get the can of Coke. Which was yeah amazing. Exactly. In South Florida. So yeah. So basically I've been hydrating like crazy since fourteen and knock and wood have not had any recurrence, but

The biggest mistake that I think people make is they hydrate like the day of the tournament. And if you if hydration is not your priority, on a regular basis, which for me it is, you really need to do it at least two or three days before the tournament minimum. And my hydration is is to the point where when I finish a match, I like go to the bathroom, go to the bathroom, fill up my water. Get some food. So like my intermatch preparation consists of those three things as a priority.

And then beyond that, I do some light movement, a little bit of stretching. I do the Yobo, the you know, therapeutic massage gun. Sometimes you do some shadow swings. You know, basically keep your body active to a point, but also gotta get some rest. So I typically don't, you know, walk around and, you know, chat to multiple people. I like to, you know, just kind of chill in the protent or just chill in a quiet area where I can, you know, sit down and

not have to do a million things. I like to, you know, have my mind mind focused on the tournament rather than a million different things. So I try to keep my focus and prioritize I typically have a protein bar between each match.

I have a ton of water or electrolytes or combination of the two and get some rest and focus on the next match. Love that. Yeah, you're pretty locked in as you go throughout the day, which I think is really, really good. A really good plan. One thing we didn't mention, but can happen, especially when you play a really long day, is you can cramp.

You can get a lot of cramping. If you haven't gotten enough electrolytes during the course of the day, it's nice to have some things that are helpful. Like you have the liquid IV. That has a lot of salt in it, which helps with muscle cramps. There's just a lot of weirdness in your body. when you ask it to do what you're not used to. Typically we're in for a couple of hours. We play our nine AM to eleven a.m. and we go home.

It's very different when you spend the entire day on a pickleball quart and what can happen to your body. So you just want to be prepared with pickle they have literal pickle juice shots. And if you're playing in a bigger tournament, by the way, like a PPA or APP, or even one of the bigger local tournaments, they'll have a lot of this stuff. They'll have bananas and they'll have snack bars and things like that, but don't rely on that. You don't know what's gonna do to your stomach.

Have your routine and and lock in with what they have. And that's usually a really Yeah, don't depend on the food there. Oftentimes they will have food trucks or snacks. I mean, sometimes the snacks are like these Cheese and crackers that you know we used to have in the nineteen eighties in, you know, the vending machines that I really wouldn't feed my dog. So no offense. But I mean, sometimes they have stuff like that or they'll have like

I've been to the you know US Open for example and they have like a food truck with Indian food and I don't know about you, I love Indian food but not at a tournament. And for me I just I typically don't like a heavy meal, you know, right before I play. So I rarely will have a traditional lunch like a big s I I love, you know, sandwiches.

And during a tournament I'm not really sure when I'm playing. So unless I'm very confident that I have, you know, maybe an hour and a half break or something, I typically don't have a full meal. So The other thing is you have to be careful with some of the electrical light powders that are are filled with sugar,'cause then you'll get a little bit of a, you know, sugar crash. And Again, you know. talked about nutrition and hydration, you really just do not want to get dehydrated.

It's not good for your muscles. It's gonna increase the chance of injury. It's not good for your concentration. Caffeine is another thing that you can consider. How are you about energy drinks, Michael? I I was just about to say I might I might have a few five hour energies in my bag. Get to that two o'clock in the afternoon, especially if I got up early or I flew in. Like when I did NPL, the east the West Coast to East Coast thing, and we were on court at seven o'clock.

It was four AM for me when w when I got on the court, which means I got up at two thirty AM to play pickleball, which is bonkers. So yes, I definitely consumed a Red Bull or five hour energy or coffee. I just don't drink coffee, which is why I I I do that. But in general, yes, I'm okay with caffeine. But uh to your point there's a crash sometimes. It just Depends on how you time your crash, I guess.

Yeah, again, it depends on your personal preference and what you typically do. Just make sure you're not doing something completely different. And if you do try energy drinks, don't try them the day of the tournament. No. Listen, I was coaching at the Texas Open one time, a PPA tournament. I was coaching J Dub and Dylan and Georgia and D dub and so I wasn't playing at all and there was an energy company drink, I an energy drink company there.

and th you know, they had the samples and, you know, it was Later in the day, and the the guy's like, Oh, you want to try? I was like, Ah, sure, you know, I'll try one. So it tasted really good. So I had like two or three of them. Woo! Actually, I had three. And you know, I was fine because he's a doctor, you guys. But the caffeine'cause I I typically have, you know, probably two pots.

of coffee total daily. So caffeine doesn't really affect I can drink coffee at ten o'clock at night, go to sleep like Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You said you drink two pots of coffee a day? Correct, roughly. Moly moly. Yeah. Well, it's it's a habit I guess I've picked up, you know, since unfortunately more and more evidence is uh is out there regarding the positive effects of coffee. But anyway, I digress. So the next morning after I had those energy drinks, I woke up like

I I typically don't drink that often, but I mean, I woke up like I had the worst hangover of that I can remember of all time. And I think I've had like three hangovers in my life and and this was one of them. It was Brutal. Twelve hundred milligrams of coffee per day, you guys. That's what the doctor recommends.

But it wasn't the it was something in the energy drink that just did not agree not agree with me. So again, don't don't take stuff that you haven't taken before, even the electrolyte stuff. Don't use the electrolytes the day of that you haven't tried, you know, the week before. Make sure it agrees with you.

Agreed. That is one hundred percent. Guys, believe it or not, we're only halfway through. this tournament prep. But we're gonna cut this off to the next show where we're gonna cover tournament logistics, what it's like to play with a ref if you've never done that before, which is crazy, mental preparation and what to do on the court, which is

A way, way, way bigger factor than you think. Strategic tournament mindset, things that you would play or do in rec that would be a terrible idea to do in a tournament or vice versa, and mistakes. That we make very often at a tournament. And then anything else we can come up with. Mircha, thank you. I've got to run. But uh this is a a great part one of this particular show. Yeah, thanks a lot, Michael. Thanks for your patience.

Alright guys, you've now just listened to another episode of 4.0 to pro. This was not exactly pocket size, but it's a lot of information we gotta disseminate here. And uh what else you got to do? You let's say your your commute to the court is an hour today instead of uh twenty minutes. You gotta go back and forth, right? Don't stop audiobooks just because they're too long, right? Thank you for listening. For tips, find us on Instagram at 4.2. But don't forget to go.