u/ZaneNavratil_AMA

Dropped this one this week and the timing is a little ironic given he just lost all three finals in Vegas, but he's still the most interesting player in the sport to break down.

His biggest strength isn't one weapon. It's the absence of a real weakness. Every player has a spot you can exploit. With Ben it's genuinely hard to find one, and the ones that exist are situational.

The backhand roll is the most studied shot in pickleball right now and he's still doing it better than anyone. He didn't invent the backhand flick either but he absorbed it and made it elite, which is kind of his whole thing. He patches weaknesses and adopts innovations faster than everyone else.

His dinking is probably underrated as a weapon. It's so precise and patient that opponents press into bad offense trying to create something that isn't there.

Relative weaknesses: speed-ups when his reads are off, predictability in certain patterns, and motivation. When he decides something matters, he's nearly unbeatable. When he doesn't, it shows.

Full 2K rating card at the end. Who should episode 3 be?!

Anna Leigh was completely dominant in singles. 130 straight matches, 26 straight golds, two points lost entering the semis. Not a hangover.

JW and Jorja handed Ben and Anna Leigh their first mixed loss since Mesa and it wasn’t particularly close in games 2 and 3. Nobody neutralizes Anna Leigh’s offense quite like JW (not even Ben). 

Christian told Hayden “must be nice not to play singles” after losing 5 and 2 at the handshake. Hayden was in the MLP finals 36 hours earlier. Ultra soft take, but they’ll be fine.

Andrei is now stacking on the right with Christian. Still waiting for Andrei and Hayden partnership.  

Sofia Sewing debuted as the 45th seed and immediately knocked off 8th seeded Kiora Kunimoto. She lost to Kate in the quarters. My current women’s singles power ranking: ALW, Kate, then Kaitlyn Christian, Brooke, and Sofia.

Ben and Gabe won again. Full recap on the channel. What’s your take on JW and Jorja — real contenders or one tournament hot streak?

Ben and Gabe won all nine tournaments they played together in the first half. So the question for every other team isn’t whether their new partnership is marginally better. It’s whether anyone actually built something that can beat them on Championship Sunday.

My honest takes:

— Hayden and Fed reuniting and Christian and Andrei getting back together makes sense on paper but I think they missed the real opportunity. Hayden and Andrei are the two best players outside of Ben and Gabe. I can’t understand why nobody gave that a shot.
— JW and Tama is interesting but Tama is at his best dictating from the left. His results playing the right in MLP were pretty mediocre.
— CJ and Will Howells is my sleeper pick.
— Eric Oncins is the odd man out right now but he’s playing really well and I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up with a new partner before the year is out.

Which partnership change do you think actually matters?

A few other things worth discussing:

1. The Shock’s Central Park curse is real. Hayden and Gabe went winless in men’s doubles both days on the rollout courts. All four of their losses this season came on rollout courts.

2. Anna Leigh’s question mark paddle is almost certainly the same Franklin paddle with a new design to tease the next signature model — probably tied to the Joola lawsuit situation.

3. The Dream Breaker was a 21-9 beatdown after one of the most back and forth series I’ve seen in MLP.

4. Riley Newman walking off the court to call a
   timeout and getting a point penalty was a brutal way for Brooklyn’s semifinal hopes to end.

Full recap linked. Who do you think was the real difference maker this weekend?

Put together a video on the most common bad pickleball habits and how to fix them — technique, strategy, equipment, and the mental stuff like how you train and how you talk to yourself on court. If you’ve been stuck at the same level, this one’s probably worth a watch!

What things have you been struggling with in your game recently?

I was one of the first players to sign with MLP during the Kansas City Coup of August 2023. Secret meeting with my agent at a Sonic Drive-In. Fully guaranteed three year deal. Pretty clear violation of my existing PPA contract. MLP covered the liquidated damages. I signed immediately.

What most people don’t know is how far back this really goes. The first appearance fees in 2020, the VIBE announcement as a negotiating tactic, the Johnson 5 allegedly negotiating ownership of an MLP team, the 40% pay cut request, Connor Pardoe literally running to the airport with no bag and no charger, and the $225 million dollar Apollo Sports Capital investment that rolled everything into Pickleball Inc.

The Tour Wars didn’t end — they shifted battlegrounds. Asia is next and the APP’s Global Pickleball Alliance just declared war on the UPA internationally.

Check out the full deep dive!

I was Anna Leigh’s teammate on the New Jersey 5s for two years so I wanted to take a crack at breaking down what actually makes her so good.

The short answer is anticipation. She knew what shot I was going to hit before I knew what shot I was going to hit. She sees the tiniest tells in players’ strokes and understands the percentages of what players can and can’t do consistently.

A few other things worth noting:

— The two-handed backhand grip is unique. Slightly past continental, approaching eastern, which opens the face slightly for low dinks and allows her to take the ball later in her stance
— Her movement isn’t about top speed — it’s about getting there balanced and ready for the next shot faster than anyone else
— Her weaknesses are a stretch but include the backhand flick, a pretty average overhead for her level, and long-term durability given her schedule

Check out the video for the full breakdown!

Which pro should I breakdown next?!

Defending champs out. Mad Drops out. Ben Johns fully engaged and it still wasn’t enough.

Dream Breakers aren’t won by the better singles player ➡️ CJ Klinger beating world number one Chris Haworth proved that.

The Fives survived but ALW and Noe went winless in mixed all weekend against Tina and Dekel. Every team in New York is going to be studying that matchup.

Shock look locked in. Who wins it all?

— The equipment wasn’t competitive enough to attract serious pros, and unlike tennis, you can’t sell a custom one-of-one paddle to consumers

— Their most loyal customers actively disliked pickleball during the peak of the tennis vs pickleball turf war

— Paddle tech was changing every six months and these brands were built for 18 to 24-month product cycles

— They played it safe to protect established brand names in a sport that rewards risk-taking

— They botched the first impression and YouTube paddle reviewers made sure consumers didn’t get burned twice

Now Callaway, Ping, and Mizuno are entering the space. Callaway’s first paddle is already showing signs of the same pattern — outdated tech banking on a strong brand name.

Do you think any legacy brand can actually crack pickleball paddles, or is the window already closed?

I got too fired up in men’s doubles against Palm Beach and crossed a line. I said some things I shouldn’t have said and reacted in a way I’m not proud of.

I’ve always believed players should compete with personality and show emotion but there’s a line, and I crossed it.

Beyond the drama, Dallas punched their ticket to San Diego convincingly, Texas survived two incredibly tense matches against Atlanta, Brooklyn needed a clutch Jackie Kawamoto performance to escape a shorthanded SoCal team, and the Slice went home.

San Diego matchup predictions are in the full recap! What are your picks?

Hard to overstate how good this weekend was. A few things that make the case:

The Slice were fighting for their playoff lives all weekend. Elsie Hendershot was crying on the bench at 22-22 in the dream breaker against the Black Bears. Five minutes later she saved the season at 23-23 in a sequence that’s already one of my favorite MLP moments ever. John closed out Miami the next morning and we’re in.

The Shock vs Fives mixed match lasted roughly 46 minutes. Probably the longest in MLP history. Hayden and Anna had five match points. Anna Leigh and Hayden were chirping non-stop. Five match points saved. AL and Noe win on their fifth. Unreal.

Add in record-breaking attendance and the best pickleball point of all time playing in the background and this weekend is genuinely hard to top.

Full breakdown in the recap video. Is this the best MLP weekend ever or is there another event that tops it?

I put together a full breakdown of my tournament prep routine after seeing a lot of players make the same avoidable mistakes leading up to events.

A few things worth knowing:

— Build a practice cadence a month out and start simulating match pressure early
— Quality over quantity in the week leading up — overplaying is one of the most common mistakes
— Hydration needs to start days before, not the morning of
— Avoid technique changes late — the week of a tournament is not the time
— Day before prep, warmup structure, and partner game-planning around returns, thirds, and kitchen strategy all matter more than most people think

Be sure to check out the full breakdown! What does your tournament prep routine look like?

Missed this one for a wedding and Slice had a great home weekend without me! Wins over the Bouncers, Vegas, and SoCal moving us from 16th to 12th with one event left.

Dallas went back-to-back with a 21-10 Dream Breaker win over Brooklyn, and I think that result says more about Brooklyn than it does Dallas. JW crushed Haworth, Brooke crushed Hannah, and Danni closed it out. Brooklyn isn't looking nearly as scary in Dream Breakers as they were earlier in the season, which is going to matter a lot come playoff time.

Jersey and St. Louis are still tied for first with the number one seed on the line in Orlando next week. Full breakdown in the recap video. Is Brooklyn's Dream Breaker problem a real concern or am I reading too much into one result? 

Worked with Zaichao on cutting balls off out of the air instead of backing up, and simplifying the timing on offensive flicks with a Set and Snap motion instead of swinging arm and wrist together 💪 If you struggle with knowing when to take the ball out of the air or how to simplify your backhand flick timing, this one’s for you.

Tons to unpack from MLP San Diego 👇

— Mad Drops finish fifth in the weakest event of the year. Concerning.
— Dallas goes undefeated. First win of the season.
— Bouncers lose badly to the Flash and almost sweep the Mad Drops. Same day.
— Federico gets an orange card then disappears from the lineup Sunday.
— Len Yang had a weekend to forget

Check out the recap for the full breakdown!

Left-handed players give a lot of people trouble and most of it comes down to not recognizing the differences early enough. In this video I break down a few things worth knowing going in!

— Lefty drives curve differently than you’re used to. Recognizing the paddle hand early changes how you read the ball.
— Stacking creates an open court you can exploit on both serve and return if you know where to look.
— Deep, quality serves and returns cut down on lefty drive-and-crash poaches significantly.
— Dead middle dinks are dangerous against lefties. They have too many attack options from there. Forehand to backhand patterns are much safer.

Be sure to check out the full break down!

The Shock swept the mid-season tournament with a smart isolation strategy that frustrated Jorja Johnson and held Anna Leigh to just 19.7% of shots. It worked. But Anna Leigh Waters never loses twice in a row and now the Fives know exactly what's coming.

The bigger question is Federico Staksrud. With the trade deadline extended to Monday and a franchise tag still being discussed, I genuinely think he's the only player who can stop St. Louis from winning it all. No franchise tag and he's almost certainly heading to LA, New Jersey, or Brooklyn.

Shock and Fives are dead even at 23.3 points per event heading into Orlando. Full breakdown in the recap video. What do you think? Did the Shock show their hand too soon, and where does Federico end up?

Most drills feel productive but don’t translate to real match situations. John and I put together five different drills that do translate.

Full breakdown with John on the channel. What drills are you currently using to work on these areas?

Most players focus entirely on their own game during warmups. Pro players are watching their opponents instead.

A few things worth paying attention to before the first real point:

— Ready position tells you everything. Paddle high means they defend off-speeds well. Paddle low means they’re looking to flick. Forehand grip favored means attack the backhand.
— Watch for bailouts in dinking rallies. If someone keeps changing the pattern, they’re hiding something.
— Identify rushers in the transition zone. Players who sprint through it usually can’t reset — they’re swinging for winners because they have no other option.
— Slow hands are a green light. Pull a few balls at them early to find out, then go there relentlessly if you find it.

Be sure to check out the full breakdown! What’s the first thing you look for when you’re sizing up a new opponent? 👇

Trades all over the league this weekend, including a deal that might've handed the Shock a championship while simultaneously costing them their best prospects. Alix Truong got traded to her fifth team of the season, which says a lot about where her value currently sits.

The bigger story though.. the video board fell on top of Rachel Rohrbacher mid-match. MLP's official statement afterward felt pretty disconnected from what actually happened on site, while Rachel's own response was genuinely classy. Let me know what you think! 

Full breakdown of all the trades, the upsets, and everything else from the weekend in the recap video.