
Pickleball Cheat Code
The show for competitive pickleball players who want to level up their game.
Hosted by touring pro and top online coach Tanner Tomassi alongside high-level coach and aspiring pro Brodie Smith, Pickleball Cheat Code is your weekly deep dive into what actually wins matches.
Whether you’re a 4.0 grinding for gold or a 5.0 chasing a pro dream, this podcast is your shortcut to smarter decisions, better patterns, and more wins. No fluff. No beginner basics. Just real talk from two players who are in the trenches—competing, learning, and leveling up right alongside you.
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Pickleball Cheat Code
Drill Smarter, Not Harder
Drilling can make or break your progress—but most players are doing it wrong. In this episode, we talk through how to make your practice time intentional, how to tell if your drilling is actually working, and what kinds of reps are underrated. Plus, why singles training might secretly level up your doubles game.
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Hey, everyone. Welcome to Pickleball Cheat Code, the show for competitive pickleball players who want to level up their game. We focus on advanced strategies for experienced players. Stuff only the pros really know. I'm Brodie Smith. I'm a 5.5 level player and a coach and I'm here with my co host, Tanner Tomasi.
Tanner:Hey, everyone.
Brodie:Tanner is a 6.0 level player and an APP national bronze medalist. Today we're covering everything that you need to know in order to drill like a pro. Drilling is so important. And then at the end of the episode, we'll be discussing Tanner's upcoming tournament schedule. So if you want to go find Tanner out in the wild, stick around for the end there. CRBN is also offering a discount code to Pickleball cheat code listeners, so be on the lookout for that. Let's go Rec games, get out of here. Get out of here. Am I right? Drilling. Drilling is king. Drilling is so important. Everybody knows how important it is, but I still think it's undervalued and how important it is. You know, people go around and they'll. Even when they do drill, they drill without focus or, you know, they're playing rec games. So they're not getting better. There's no purpose when people go to the courts to try to grind and get better. They're not hitting the right drills, they're not having the right mindset. And that's what we're really going to be breaking down this episode. So to kick things off, most players, in my opinion, they plateau at a certain level and they plateau pretty quick in terms of their improvement and how they excel. You see one player a year ago and then you go see them on the courts the next day. A lot of the times they're kind of the same player. Why do you think that is?
Tanner:I think, yeah, I guess it depends on who the player is. Let's say, like, obviously this is targeted the people that are wanting to improve, obviously, if it's like a average 3, 0, that's at the courts playing for fun, like my mom, whatever, that's different. But if we're talking people that are actually looking to get better, the reason they're not seeing any improvement is because if they're a, like you said, they're not doing drills, but let's say they are doing drills. They're not putting it into effect when they play because they're scared of the outcome of the game. So they're scared of losing rec games as opposed for improvement. I actually posted something like this one of my newsletters a few weeks ago that it was the key to unlock. Like this was for my own personal pro journey that I discovered the key to unlock like just huge gains in your game is when you do drills and you practice actually putting it into action and not only rec games but into tournaments in like pressure situations. Because that's where you're going to get comfortable when you know it's right. As today's games, improving and advancing the two handed backhand dink is a necessity. I practice it a million times, a million times. I don't miss in practice. I get to the tournament, I'm scared to use it. I'm only slice dinking and it's like I'm never go--I'm, I'm forever going to be at this level, I'm never going to improve. So the next tournament I added the two handed backhand and like we dominated. We did really well. And it was just that putting into what I'm practicing into a pressure situation.
Brodie:That was deep. That was philosophical. I like that. That was a home run. That was the, that was the cheat code of all cheat codes. And you know, not. Yeah, it's really, that happens a lot. You know, you'll drill and you work on a new skill but you're afraid to even put it into practice and rec. And then like you said, even more so in an actual match. And if you're not going to take that risk of applying it when it needs to be applied to make yourself improve and you know, rewire your brain on the shots to hit, you know, I bet that must have been really rewarding. Rewarding for you, you know, going through that experience and then switching to having that twoey backhand and seeing the value that added and taking that risk in that tournament.
Tanner:Yeah, just, it's just like a leap of faith that gives you the confidence and then you excel further going. So it's good.
Brodie:Yeah. And another reason why I personally see players plateau and you know, including myself sometimes is that most people drill aimlessly and they like to do what's most fun and what they already know and that kind of just leads to mindless reps. Is there value to that just going in and hitting a lot of the same dinks over and then going home? Sure. But there needs to be a level of deliberate practice and a level of being intentional with what you're working on and why you're working on it and applying critical thinking to that. So a lot of people, they won't target something specific that they need to work on. You know, maybe it's something niche that you need to get better at or some sort of game time simulation, but those are something that I think are, you know, really important. Are there anything that you drill on that's kind of niche, that's, you know, maybe like a specific shot? Because I know you're not just doing the basic reps, you're going beyond that, right?
Tanner:Yeah I'll work on things that are a little out of the ordinary. Like attacking from the midcourt, starting hands battles from the midcourt and like following it in while like taking a step forward while you're behind at the kitchen line. Just so it simulates like attacking when you should be hitting a reset and having that threat makes your opponents uncomfortable, stuff like that. The majority of stuff I do is dinking cross court. That's probably the thing I do most with the two handed backhand just to really excel and be able to dominate my players cross. If you could just basically show somebody early in a rally that you're in control and you're better, it's really going to make them scared and kind of shift the whole narrative of the game. Whereas if you're like more passive, it just gives them confidence that could be dangerous to your team.
Brodie:Yeah. Is there anything that you do to track improvement and measure success when you're drilling? For example, I know some players will measure or take note of the number of drops that they hit in a row in the kitchen and then they'll track that two months from now and then see where they're at and what their percentage difference is. So figure that might be a good cheat code for some people, but it's not something that I've done. But I feel like there needs to be a way to keep yourself accountable because like, let's say you're lifting weights. It's easy to track if your bench press went up five pounds because you added five pounds. Right. You know, there's something measurable there. But with pickleball, how do you find ways to measure and make those next steps forward?
Tanner:That's a good, that's a good question. I personally, maybe there's no answer. Yeah, yeah, I don't keep track or do anything like that. I just like know for me personally, I just know like I put in the work day in and day out and I have the consistency. I just know it will come with time.
Brodie:Exactly.
Tanner:I guess like I don't really know a good way to track it. I Don't know how accurate, like hitting 10 drops in a row would be just because there's variables, like how was the feed? Was the feed hard? You know what I mean? Like, I don't know. That's a good question.
Brodie:You just have to like play. I agree. Maybe if you have a ball machine or something like that, it's easier to track or, you know, if you're going to do something repeatable. but yeah, I just, I, you know, that's something that I want to dig into more and see what ways there are to measure success and, you know, find ways because it's just so easy to stay in that funk and plateau your game. But I want to transition and break down some drills that are overrated and drills that are underrated. And like I said, all drills are good. Right. You know, if you're going to go drill, that's a win in my book. You're, you will be improving to some regard or at least sharpening what's already sharp. But some drills that I think are overrated and I'd love to get your thoughts on this first one. I think cross court dinking, just left side to right side and right side, left side is a little overrated. Might be a hot take, but that's how I feel. I don't know. You tell me.
Tanner:Yeah, I, I don't know. I think I would disagree with this one. Just because if you are weak in cross court and your opponent can sense you're uncomfortable, you're basically going to get hit. Every ball, the person in front of you is going to hit it to you. The person diagonal from you is just going to keep pressuring you. I think, I think that's probably like one of the most important skills and like the way it just works in pickle ball. If you miss one, like you're just going to get hit everyone until you can prove that you're like a threat. So for me, I think it's really important that you're a really strong cross court thinker. I like this morning alone I did 45 minutes with my one friend Zach of just doing right to right cross court. If we just did that, nothing else, no straight ahead, no drops, just that. So I don't know. I think with that one, it's dependent on the. It's dependent. But for me, I think that's one of the most important.
Brodie:Fair, fair. Fair point. Fair point. You got me. Everybody has the reason why I was not as my take and the reason why is because. And of course there's value to it. Not saying that. The reason why I think it is a little overrated is that you can feed a high cross court dink and you can't get punished. When you're practicing this versus, if you're to do this with three people or four people in more of a match like situation and you had something that's a little high in front of you that you would normally roll and punish forward, you can't do that when you're going cross work across court. So sometimes it gives people the wrong idea that this dink will actually work. But then when they're in a match setting, they realize quickly how these higher balls that have a little more, that they don't have enough, they're not shallow enough is what I'm trying to say. So, you know, that's something that people don't realize and that they're missing out on.
Tanner:Yeah, that's a, that's fair, I think. Yeah. When I do it, I'm very cautious to just make sure that it's realistic. I don't know, I'll mix it up with speed ups without speed ups. But I see what you're saying. I just want to make sure I really can hit penetrating deep dinks landing in the kitchen. And I know for me, I mean I've. I'm different than everyone just because I've played so much as opposed to like the 4.0. So I know which balls will work and which ones are not.
Brodie:Yeah. If you, if you do know that, and you know clearly right after you hit it, if they're able to punish it or not, if they're able to roll that really well, that's totally fair. But if you don't and you're not able to identify that, then you could be getting in bad reps consistently. That's the only point there.
Tanner:That's a good point.
Brodie:Yeah. Other overrated drill is just doing wall drills by yourself. Sure, it's better than nothing, but I think it's better time spent to do some conditioning some, you know, side to side leg movements that if you're, you know, if you can't play, do some squats, go on a run. I think that's more impactful than doing wall drills. I don't think they're bad, but I just think they're a little overrated and people spend a lot of time on them.
Tanner:Yeah, I completely agree with you on that. I've personally messed around with the wall a tad and I don't see really a benefit on it at all. I know, like people do it. Like, I know Christian Alshon's a big advocate for it, so there must be some benefit for me. I just don't understand how it like helps you get faster hands. Like you know where the ball's coming. I just don't know. I. I personally never use it anymore.
Brodie:It like it tricks my brain. I was gonna say right when I. Right when I hit it off the wall, I know exactly where it's going to come back versus a match. Like I. It's like trying to tickle yourself. It doesn't work, does that. Is that an awful analogy or is that.
Tanner:That's a good analogy.
Brodie:Okay. That's how it makes me feel. It's like, I know I can't like train my brain with it. I don't know. But obviously like you said, it can work for someone like Christian.
Tanner:I don't know the specifics of it. I personally find no benefit in it. The only thing that could beneficial in my like somebody like my mom's level3.0. She struggles just making contact consistently with three times in a row, then yes. But like if you're like an avid like 5.045 player, I don't know.
Brodie:You know, if you're doing it just to build hand eye coordination. Absolutely. But if you're beyond and you already have high level hand eye, then I think we're on the same page. But yeah, if you need to build hand eye, please go do hand wall drills all day long. Build out that hand eye coordination. It could be the best thing for you, honestly. Seriously. The next one was third shot drops off of just neutral feeds. People will sit there and do third shot drops all day long off some basic feeds. Of course there is some value to it. However, they'll get into a game time situation, they'll serve. Somebody rips a server turn with more pace on it, a higher angle, a higher arcing shot, or one that's like even more dead than they would get that traditional feedback and they realized quickly that those drills just didn't pay off. So finding a way to make those feel like game time situations, whether somebody's ripping their counters at you or you serve, they return, then you hit your third and you simulate that over and over and get a workout in. That's so much more effective than just constant, just rollback. Third, third, third. In my opinion.
Tanner:Yeah, I completely agree with that. The neutral feed third shots, it's not very beneficial, not very game like the best Way to practice is like you said, serve, return, third shot. That's as realistic as you can get.
Brodie:Yep. And then last overrated drill. It's not really a drill, but it's working with a ball machine, in my opinion. Ball machines, if you can afford one and you got a court in your backyard and you want to get some reps in, be my guest. I'm jealous. Go have fun. However, valuing that, similarly to actually drilling and getting reps in with another player and you're, you know, working on something specific. It's a night and day difference in my eyes. So I just think that ball machine drills can be a little overrated and have no simulation of what gameplay actually does.
Tanner:Yeah, I think for that, for the ball machine one, it's good to like learn shots. Like, I practice my backhand drive on a ball machine when I lived in New Jersey.
Brodie:Yeah.
Tanner:Also when I lived in New Jersey, I hit a ton of balls. Backhand flick. That's how I got a flick, was through the ball machine. I practically gave myself tennis elbow. But I hit enough flicks where, like, I understood it from all heights and it really taught me that. Whereas, like, if I brought somebody out there and they're just feeding me balls, like, that's not much value for them. But besides that, I'm a big advocate on, like, doing it with a person. But if you need to learn actual shots and strokes, the ball machine is effective because you're not like being a hindrance to somebody else.
Brodie:Yeah, I mean, that's a good point because now I'm realizing that I've made other people a hindrance when I'm trying to learn my tomahawk role on my forehand side. So, yeah, I wasn't getting the reps I need. Shout out to Rob Cassidy for helping me with that early on and being a nuisance for me and. Or for him rather. And taking the time to do that with me would have been much more effective to learn a new skill with a ball machine. So. Yeah, good point. I think if you're going to train a new skill and try something unique, then a ball machine would be a good way to go. So that's a good counterpoint there. Underrated drills. So let's transition into this and also underrated skills to work on. I'm going to combine with this too. So the first thing for me is working on specific patterns. So, for example, hitting a drive, following that up with a drop, and then maybe working in a quick step forward to try to do an attack, you know, creating Some sort of sequence that you want to work on. It could be simple. As simple as drive, drop versus just try to get to the kitchen, you know, having a sequence, because when you're changing that pace and you're changing your shot, that really does simulate what happens in an actual match because you might rip a perfect drive and then get a dead ball back. Then you need to hit a third. But it's hard mentally to shift from hitting a really fast paced shot and then doing something slow or vice versa. So training those sequences that can simulate game pressure, I think it's pretty damn important.
Tanner:Yeah, I would say that's good. Like sequence patterns is good. Same thing. Like if you dink a ball out wide, then to the middle, then attack out of the air, like expecting them to pop it up. So I agree with that. The sequence and patterns, that's all good stuff.
Brodie:Yeah, absolutely. Another thing, this might be a hot take, but for. This is for all the doubles players out there. I think training singles is so important and I don't do this nearly enough, but I noticed one, you're going to get a better workout. Singles is exhausting and it's great conditioning and it's fun every once in a while. I'm not a great singles player. I'm decent. Tanner, you crush me in singles. But my serves and serve returns from working on singles has made my doubles game so much better, specifically those two shots. Obviously your drives and stuff are going to get better too. You might have better poaching skills from that because you're having to be more athletic and more active. But my serve and serve return game, which is one of the better parts of my game right now by far have come from training singles, so. And I've noticed that too, really good singles players carry that over to doubles really effectively.
Tanner:I, yeah, I completely agree with that. I would say, like, if you're playing, trying to pursue becoming a pro, whatever, playing singles is a must. It makes you just better at doubles as the last. As like the least beneficial thing from it is it makes you better at doubles. It's great. You're hitting shots on the run, you're hitting drops on the run, drives on the. It just enhances your play all around and makes you hit shots where like when you play doubles, it feels like it's like easy. Especially if you're like playing three qualifiers in a day, singles, men's doubles, mixed doubles, at the very least, it's like a warm up for the next one. Yeah, but obviously you should be trying to improve and try to qualify.
Brodie:Yeah, no, that's huge. And so shout out to anyone there that just refuses to play singles. Just know that you are doing yourself a disservice. Go out there and play a few more singles once every couple weeks, whatever it might be, and really focus on. You'll. You'll realize how quickly how important that serve and serve return is to the game and the value that can transfer over to doubles. Then your drives, like you said, moving on the run, hitting these key shots. Okay, next, underrated drill slash skill that I think is overlooked and very underrated is the half speed drive drop shot. Is that something that you work on a lot? Because I see that's something that it's a really high level skill that the players use and it's not something that I see amateurs use often. Amateurs are typically only hitting a lofty drop or they're hitting a drive. They're not hitting that in between. Power shot.
Tanner:Yeah. I think the main thing for that is just having the discipline to actually execute it in a game. Normally people are generally nervous in tournaments and when they see the ball coming, they just want to hit it full speed to win the point potentially. But the whole point of the drop drive combo is just to approach the net easier. Like you're not going to hit a winner because it's slower, but your opponent's not going to pound it. So you're basically going to get to the net. Whereas if you just hit a drive at 300 miles an hour, there's a 10% chance that your opponent's going to miss it or you blow up by them and then you can be relieved because the point's over. So I would say that is a good skill to work on. It's not very difficult. It's just a drive at half the speed, but it's just more of discipline of actually using it and having the right intention behind it for sure.
Brodie:And then another, a drill that we talked about in a previous episode, and I know we both love this one, is when two players are face to face at the kitchen and one person feeds a dead dink, then the other person has to speed up that next ball. Maybe you just go neutral shot dead dink. And then you have to speed it up and you can continue that flow over and over. Maybe you have one person only hitting the dead dings and only hitting the speed ups for the other person. Whatever setup you want to do for that is the most effective way to simulate one, because one person's always going to be working on their speed ups and then the other person's always going to be working on their counters. Every single point. And you could just flow through it constantly.
Tanner:Yeah, I agree. I think that's the most beneficial drill you can do at all levels. Yeah, I was just thinking that'd be a good, like, YouTube video. Just me saying, like, this is the number one drill. And then like, it's just me actually doing it so people can see all areas of it for like 10 minutes or something.
Brodie:You should do it. Let's film it together. I'll fly to Peru and there. Okay. Other drill. This one is so common. It's always fun. Is this the game of 7 11? Gamifying drills is always going to make it more fun and more intense and more game like per se.
Brodie: And 7:11, for those that don't know, is that you have one person at the kitchen feeding a ball to the other person who's on the baseline.
Brodie:The person that's at the kitchen stays at the kitchen. They have to get to 11 because they're in the advantage state. So it's a little bit hard, a little bit easier for them. The person at the baseline has to get to seven. So when they get fed that ball, they can drive it, they can drop it. They just have to do what it takes to win the point they have to work in. I could play that drill whether you're keeping score or not forever. To me, it's the most fun thing to work on in pickleball. You could do it straight on, you could do it cross court. And I think it's more important to do it cross court a lot too, since people are so used to, you know, hitting straight on for all of their drilling purposes. But I think working in 7 11, almost every single drill session, or as much as you can, is super effective.
Tanner:Yeah, I think that's a. That's a fantastic drill to. To go one step further on it to like make the feed better. I'll do it sometimes with the person at the net hitting or self feeding themselves an overhead or I lob them a ball and then that kind of just enhances the whole thing because then it's really game like. Whereas normally what happens with 711 is the person feeds it and then you hit a drop and then you're at the kitchen line before resets even hit.
Brodie:See, that's a good point. And that kind of goes back to the overrated drills. Part of giving just like, you know, basic feeds for hitting thirds over and over. So that's something that I've noticed too. Even when I'm running this drill, like, I'll do this drill with my dad, he gives me one feed and then I'm just in the kitchen immediately every single time. So it's like, yeah, okay, we gotta find a way to make this more intense, give a harder feed, hit some different pace on that shot. yeah, that's, that's a good point. another thing, drilling ATPs and ERNIEs. I don't think people work on this enough when they see it happen in a match to get really excited. But really focusing on the footwork for these people don't really focus and do homework on the footwork for these shots. You know, for example, ATP gets pulled out wide. Which leg are you stepping forward? How are you planting? How are you shifting your momentum? Would you be able to break that down for the listeners? Tanner, like the proper footwork for these shots?
Tanner:Yeah, I think it really does depend on if you're on the left or the right side.
Brodie:Absolutely.
Tanner:Let's say if you're on the left side, let's say everybody's right handed. If you're on the left side when you're going for an Ernie or an ATP, but let's just say Ernie, first you want to use your inside foot to cross. It's basically like a leap your inside foot to leap diagonally across the kitchen and then you can hit a backhand or forehand. Same thing with the ATP. You always want to try on the left side to like use that inside foot to cross step. Since it's a backhand, that allows you to get your hips and shoulders more involved. When you're on the right side of the court, though, it's. It's opposite. When I go for the Ernie, like, I'm not going to, since the paddle's in my outside hand, I'm not going to cross step. When I'm on the right side, I'm going to leg and kind of just like almost like a skip. Yeah, like skip across the kitchen. Same thing with the ATP. You don't want to cross because then like your chest is turned from the court, it's a forehand. So you kind of want to just like shimmy or shuffle. Whereas the other side is a cross step.
Brodie:So you don't cross tip cross step on ATPs at all.
Tanner:On the left side you do.
Brodie:Okay. Oh, I see. You're saying, got it. So I, I misunderstood. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.
Tanner:On the right side. I wouldn't cross that.
Brodie:Good point. Okay. Love it.
Tanner:If I was already.
Brodie:Yeah, yeah. So yeah. Trying to find game like situations to get repetitions there is key because like people will see it in a match and they're like they'll misstep just barely or be a little bit off balance and people are off balance all the time on these shots. So putting yourself in game like situations, just dinking wide to each other and then trying to set up that ATP like situation or giving a high ball and setting up that Ernie, try to make that, you know, really coming to fruition. There is key last one for me on underrated drills is mid court survival. Essentially having somebody just sitting in the mid court and trying to survive for as long as they can. You can turn this into a game or you can just continue to rep out of a bucket over and over. But if you're able to just dominate that mid court and sit there and be able to return every single ball that comes your way with the focus of anything that's below shoulder height, we're resetting into the kitchen. Anything that's a little bit high, don't be afraid to rip it and play at that point live. But you stay in the mid court and you don't come through unless you're going to attack. But you're just sitting there and playing full defense mode. A way to make this into a game is that you play 211. You're going to be a little bit of a disadvantage if you're at that mid court position. Obviously let's say you reset 10 balls into the kitchen, you keep 10 balls alive, you get a point. If the other person wins the point against you, maybe they put it past you. You make a mistake at the mid court, they get a point, play to 11. Simple as that.
Tanner:That's a great drill. I'm all for that one that builds you. You being comfortable and able to be consistent in the mid court.
Brodie:Yeah, mid court is key. Tanner, are there other drills that I'm missing here that might be underrated or overrated? You know what are some of your go tos on a day to day basis?
Tanner:I think you said most of it. I really just try to do like rhythm drills. Hitting a lot of shots, especially if it's before a tournament. Thinks straight ahead, dinks, cross, resets, drops 7, 11. That's like the basic routine. I'm not doing like too many extravagant drills. At the end of the day, pickleball just comes down to just Being. When you're. When you have everything sufficiently, it just comes down to just being able to be consistent in the moment. So you don't need to do anything, like, outlandish. Like, there's no cheat codes to really get good with the drills. It's like you just have to do them and put the time in. Like, not a drill that you do is going to make you elite. Like, you have to, of course, fill it all areas.
Brodie:It's all time. And, you know, people are, like, always looking to get drilling for a week. They expect themselves to be way better. It's like, no, this. This takes a long time. You need to really, you know, put in the effort. And this takes months and months and years of work to see certain payouts come through. And then also finding a way to milk out as much as you can from every drill session. And, you know, what does that mean? That's. That's. You have to find a way just to not go out there and be mindless, hit the ball and go home, you know, make sure you're doing the right things. Like, some people don't really stretch that much because they're just drilling and they want to do some dinking. Like, spend 15 minutes stretching, 10 minutes stretching. Like, spend more time stretching than you would drilling than you would playing a match. I get way more exhausted and way more sore from drilling than I do from a match. So I need to be stretching more for when I go drill. Bring your JBL speaker, play some music, you know, vibe out, have a good time. Like, make this fun, you know, because it can be a grind, really. Finding a way to get into a game mindset. So for some people just going back in a backhand, you can find a way to make that into a game mindset. For other people, they need to make it where you're playing 211. Maybe you need to put some bets on the line. When I drilled with my buddy Fabian, or we would play games together. If we didn't put a San Diego Cali burrito on the line, he wasn't going after it as hard as he could. But when we put a burrito on the line, that man changed from a 4 or 5 to a 60 player. So making sure you do what it takes to. To gamify it a little bit, throw some money down. I'm not advocating gambling. That's not what I'm here for. But you know what I mean. Find a way to make it spicy, make it fun.
Tanner:That's a good point. And I like Throwing stuff on the.
Brodie:Line, you got to do it. Makes it fun. Whether it's skinny singles or anything like that. Filming it too. People don't film their drill sessions, but maybe every once in a while, every couple months, set up a camera. You'll be able to see what you're doing wrong. It's really easy to go to a tournament, watch players play at the four or five level, and be like, I can't believe they're messing up those shots. You go watch yourself drilling, and then you're like, oh, wait, I'm doing the exact same thing wrong. I need to make sure my repetitions are great reps. And you might be repping the wrong thing over and over. Do you have a weekly routine when you drill, or is it kind of just like, hey, let's get on the court and set a time? Because I know some people create like a weekly routine. For example, like a lifting routine. It's like chest and traps Monday, calves and toes on Tuesday. Point being, having a good like Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Do you have anything structured that way at all?
Tanner:I do not. I kind of just go with the flow. Play games more one week, drills more one week. As long as I'm just like playing pickleball and being just active on the court, trying to improve and consciously aware of it, I don't have anything specific. Just go out, do the routine, hit the balls, play the games, and then just kind of let everything build itself.
Brodie:How many days a week are you drilling on average? And then how many days a week are you playing rec games on average, would you say?
Tanner:I'd say like drills probably like four to five. And then rec games like probably like seven.
Brodie:So you're doing, Will you go out. Sorry to cut you off. As I say, will you go out and do like two hours of drilling, then two hours of rec, like back to back? Is that how you like to set it up often?
Tanner:I don't like to do that. Everybody where I'm at, like, lives like within 10 minutes. So normally like. And I only like to do like an hour of drills or it gets really boring. So I'll do like an hour of drills in the morning, go home and go back an hour later. Play for two hours. Or really we only play for like an hour and a half. We normally come. It comes out to. We found it out like six games a session. That's what it normally comes out to. So I'll normally do that.
Tanner: Like, prime example, today I drilled from 8:30 to 9:30.
Tanner: I'm playing games 12 to 2 and then no, I'm playing games 2 to 4 and then 4:30 to like 6:30, but like we schedule for two hours, but it's normally like an hour and a half.
Brodie:The life of a full time pickleball player. What's something else? Do you ever think you'd be here playing this much, drilling this much? This is, that's. I'm jealous, I'm jealous. It's great.
Tanner:No, I didn't think. It's definitely fun. I was thinking like, if I like I read this quote online yesterday, actually, I heard it and I was like, wow, that's really it. And it's like, how do you know when you're rich? And it's like if you had any more amount of money where your life wouldn't change, that's when you know you're rich. Like you don't have to do anything. Like, you see what I messed up the quote. I thought it, I had a billion dollars in the bank, I'd still be playing pickleball, trying to pursue it, doing content. So it's like, you know, it's good.
Brodie:That's, you're getting real philosophical on these pods and these pods lately.
Tanner:It's amazing listening too many philosophical, I guess.
Brodie:All right, well, speaking of being philosophical, I wanted to end just with a final point of how why drilling is so important. Not just because you're just quote unquote getting better, but it's helping you with your mindset. It builds confidence. That's what's so important about drilling. If you know you can go hit 500 backhand dinks in a row without making a mistake, you bet your sweet ass that when you go to that tournament and you get a backhand dink, that you're going to feel good about it and you're going to feel in control of that match. So being able to build those patterns and you want to get in that pattern situation in a tournament, you're going to play better than who you're playing against. You're going to feel confident it's all going to pay off, but it takes a lot of time. So what I want the listener to do is in order to figure out what to drill into, is stop what you're doing right now, go look in the mirror, ask yourself, what is my most uncomfortable spot on the court? Right? And I need to do this too. And I already know my answer for myself. But ask yourself, what ball do I feel uncomfortable hitting in A tournament. What ball do I not feel the best at? When it's a match, right? That's what you need to go be working on. That's what you need to be focusing your drilling on, and that's what you need to be spending the most time on. So go do yourself a favor. Look yourself in the mirror, figure out what you suck at, and. And go attack that. People like to focus on what they do best and, you know, what they want to work on and go drill and constantly hit, you know, forehand drives because that's their favorite shot, and it makes them feel good drilling those shots. But don't be afraid to go fail. Get your ass kicked when you're drilling and have your partner that you're drilling with go beat up on you. That's not a bad thing. That's a win.
Tanner:Yeah, I second that. That's all good stuff.
Brodie:That's my speech. That's my speech for the day. Tanner, you got me emotional. All right, let's wrap up here. Tanner, you got a lot of tournaments coming up here. It's summertime. Things are flowing. Things are moving. You're traveling all around. Let's tell the people your upcoming tournament schedule. I'd love to hear it too. So that way, you know, if people want to go see you in the flesh, they've never seen you play in person. Maybe they've never seen a pro tournament in person. It's really fun to go check out. So, Tanner, what do you got on the docket here? What's your schedule looking like coming up here for the next couple quarters?
Tanner:Yeah, I play all of the app tournaments, so if you look up on Google, Just App Tour 2025 pickleball tournament schedule, I'm at all of those. The next one that's on the radar, it is only like 12 a year is July 2 to 6. It'll be in Newport beach, so I'll be there. And then I think after that, I don't even know the dates. It's like, Grand Rapids, Michigan, I think.
Brodie:Is that. That's not the Beer City Open, is it? That's just. That's.
Tanner:No, no, it's different. Yeah, so I don't. Yeah, I gotta look at the schedule, but I just play all the apps and then just when things come about, like, I think next month, I'm actually going to Nicaragua, doing some teaching and going on a surf trip. So just. Yeah, so that should be cool. But besides that, though, I just try to stay up on the content, do the videos, and then just try to go on trips and just have some fun.
Brodie:You're killing it. Like you said, you're rich. You're rich, Tanner.
Tanner:Rich.
Brodie:I love it. All right, well, that SoCal one's going to be big. A lot of carbon players will be there as well. Considering it's SoCal. Our. Our owners. Owners will be there. I don't think I'll be there, unfortunately, which is a bummer. But if you're in the area, stop by, say hi to Tanner. Say hi to the carbon players. Love to see you out there, but that's all we got here for today. Anything else that you want to leave us with, T?
Tanner:No, that was good conversation.
Brodie:All right. Much love, great chatting. Bye, everyone.
Tanner:Sam.