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Ben Johns On Recent Upset, Strategy, Techniques He's Working On | Pickleball Podcast
486 Plays1 year ago
Ben Johns, the number 1 Pickleball player in the world talks about recent matches against Gabriel Tardio and Andrei Daescu and Zane and Christian, strategy, Joola and his signature paddle the Perseus gen3, and what he enjoys doing outside of pickleball.
Chapters
00:00 beginning
00:46 talking about his birthday
01:04 what ben does after matches
02:23 bitcoin
02:50 breaking down the recent losses
05:42 changes in pickleball
08:15 what rating is Ben left-handed
09:11 adapting to the game / working on new movements
09:55 popularity of the game / dealing with pressure
12:14 Ben chooses the topic
#pickleball #pickleballpaddle
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Transcript
Introduction to the top player and interview challenges
00:00:00
Speaker
Number one in the world. Entrepreneur. One of seven children. How many hours have you spent watching him play? What do you even ask the number one player in the world what he hasn't already been asked or talked about? Only recently have the Johns Brothers been handed their first loss in 2024.
00:00:20
Speaker
So what is it then about these teams that have halted their momentum? What makes them different from every other team? And eventually we got into some topics that I wasn't expecting to get into at all, but it's actually kind of cool because we landed on some common interests.
Personal life and gaming habits
00:00:34
Speaker
What do you think captures the attention of the number one player in the world?
00:00:43
Speaker
And then after that, my girlfriend planned everything. She did like a scavenger hunt slash trivia trip. Had about 10 friends, pickleball and non-pickleball there. Yeah. Did nacho night, so some homemade carne asada and stuff. And then just cake and hung out, yeah. Yeah, that's dope. I played some Fortnite.
00:01:06
Speaker
Oh, you play Fortnite? Damn. Do you get down on Fortnite regularly? Yeah. I usually bring my system on the road when I play tournaments. Damn. We have a lot of downtime after the day's done. It's just the rest of the evening. I usually don't do much of anything, so I start bringing the system. What do you play it on? PS5. PS5, yeah. That's dope. See, I played very early. I don't remember which season, but it's probably at least five or six years ago. I think, yeah, it's like five years ago.
00:01:36
Speaker
It's addicting. Yes, very. I didn't play initially in the first years it was released. I only started playing like a year ago and I still got hooked. What got you into it? I don't even remember, man.
00:01:51
Speaker
I think it was random. I was like, I still have my PS5 from a while ago, which I never really used. But Fortnite was free, and I was usually a Call of Duty player. But I was like, I think Fortnite was cool a while ago, so it was free. I'll just give it a download and try it. It turned out to be pretty addictive. And I played Call of Duty for so long that it was kind of boring at that point. Yeah, it turned out to be really fun. You're talking shit on the mic, too. Not really. I'm kind of like Bake a Ball. I don't really say much. I'm quiet.
00:02:22
Speaker
Well, dope, man. Thanks for making time to do this again.
Investment strategies and endorsements
00:02:25
Speaker
Sure. Actually, something that's top of mind is crypto. Crypto, yeah. We talked about it originally, and then you've probably just maintained through it, right? Mm-hmm. Knowing, like... I bought all the way down.
00:02:39
Speaker
I'm glad that you're a buy low, sell high, not the buy high, sell low kind of thing. Yeah, no, I don't panic. I'm a holder. I'm a hodler. Hell yeah. What's curious to know about some of the past few events? There's like three matches that come to mind. Like the Daisuke and Tardio match, what was it about that match?
00:03:03
Speaker
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00:03:17
Speaker
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Tournament reflections and strategic adjustments
00:03:34
Speaker
Well, I think it was our first round we hadn't played a men's doubles match yet And that's obviously a very high-quality team to be playing in a first round So Andre's been on tear. He's been playing really well lately Clearly so, you know props to him for playing really well And at the same time, I think I definitely don't play our best until later in the tournament Was zane and alshon that
00:03:58
Speaker
kind of similar vein or? I think they just play very aggressively and you know if they're making balls I think they can be just about any team just based on you know if you hit really low margin shots you make your shots and good things can happen for you. It looked like they were going like cross body on Colin. Good amount yeah. Why does that work?
00:04:15
Speaker
Normally it doesn't work. Normally Colin just crushes those. He was just struggling with counters that day. Can't always play your best match and I'd say he'd be the first to tell you that he usually counters bigger rather than that. I mean part of it could just be unpredictable. He hasn't played that team before and you don't see those patterns much. But yeah normally I trust him to see those again and just crush them.
00:04:35
Speaker
Does that change the way you all practice at all? If there's a specific pattern that is occurring repeatedly, then we would probably be practicing whatever that weakness is. One match doesn't usually create a pattern. So if you see the same team and the same thing is happening, then you start looking for that stuff and practicing that stuff. But single losses don't really create patterns. Got it.
00:04:59
Speaker
Speaking of that, patterns, styles, the way people are playing, especially if it's someone that you maybe don't see as often, maybe like Tardio, but how do you approach deciphering your opponent's playing styles? Do you rely on intuition and observation?
00:05:15
Speaker
It's both, yeah. You can always trust your body at least a little bit to make good decisions. It's definitely got experience playing pickleball, so you should probably trust it. If you're going into a match where you definitely need some patterns and some things to lean on, then you could certainly study beforehand. And some of it's just in-game stuff, you know, what patterns are happening during the game. You gotta be able to make quick decisions and alterations and strategy changes during a match, so that's a big part of it.
00:05:43
Speaker
I remember last year, you had briefly glossed over, we're talking about the changes that Pickleball has gone through and the most recent growth in this recent wave. And you'd kind of touched on how you think they're forcing a little bit of change. Do you still see that now? And can you kind of elaborate on that?
00:06:03
Speaker
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00:06:33
Speaker
I think I was talking about people are frequently like what should change in pickleball and what kind of alterations do you want to make to the sport. And basically I think what I was saying is that pickleball has clearly done a remarkable job as a sport of developing naturally.
00:06:49
Speaker
and doing really well. Of course, there's always guiding hands and influences that shape the sport, right? But I was saying, you know, be cautious, be hesitant about making hasty changes that may steer it in the wrong direction. You probably should not be doing drastic things when clearly the sport has been successful so far in doing what it's doing naturally.
00:07:08
Speaker
So for the most part, other than little influences, I would let Pickleball take its course because it clearly does that very well. Whereas I feel like some people are too quick to try to change something or fix something. And as the saying goes, you know, if it's not broken, don't fix it. So I don't think Pickleball needs a lot of fixing. There's going to be some minor changes in guiding that it needs, but don't be drastic about it. You see anything like that now, like any examples?
00:07:34
Speaker
No, I don't think so. I think we've done a good job of actually being pretty hands-off. Pickleball probably is mostly successful because we have been hands-off up to this point. I guess you definitely hear suggestions about changing like even the name of Pickleball or let's change
00:07:50
Speaker
certain rules about it or let's change how the protor functions. And yes, I think there's always things to improve on in any number of those facets. But what you are thinking of is probably not the perfect solution. In fact, I'm sure it's not. So I'm not against some minute changes. I'm just saying be cautious, be hesitant, be wary of thinking you're a genius and saying this is the way we should change it rather than being, all right, let's back up, let's experiment a little bit and make wise decisions.
Skill enhancement and managing pressure
00:08:18
Speaker
Dude, why don't you play left more? Left handed. I do play left handed. I don't practice left handed, but I play some lefty games with friends a decent amount. So I'll often play with Jesse and Rihanna at tournaments. I played with James last one. I played with Eric Pilette, Nick Black. So a lot of us actually like lefty games, so we'll play lefty games with each other.
00:08:38
Speaker
Dude, so ridiculous. I was like watching you against Will, and Will's like no slouching singles, right? Right, right. No, he beat me pretty good, actually. I was surprised that I usually play pretty well in lefty singles. I lost 11-1. Embarrassing for me, yeah. Yeah. We'll give it another go sometime, though. So you have that. There's definitely a lot of people who could recognize a lot of strengths you have. Are there any things that you're working on or aspects you're actively trying to refine or reinvent about yourself?
00:09:09
Speaker
I wouldn't say reinvent by any means. I think I'm always trying to add stuff, so I think I've definitely made a conscious effort, particularly in singles, to get a better two-handed backhand. I think I definitely play some of the best cat and mouse in the game, and up to this point, I've always been very good at basically getting under the ball in the backhand, hitting a one-handed backhand kind of slice.
00:09:29
Speaker
and getting in with that and I think that still works super well and I'm definitely gonna keep using it but adding because of the the surfaces that we have on these paddles adding like a two-handed back end roll and and drive in certain situations is very helpful for just at least to show it to opponents to to be like all right we got this you got to be covering this as well it makes other stuff more effective so I'd say that's one thing I'm definitely working on in a number of
00:09:53
Speaker
versatile ways. That's cool. Has the popularity brought any unexpected pressures or challenges that you weren't prepared for as a top player? No, I don't think so. I think the popularity, like I've said many times, is certainly a privilege and I didn't expect to ever be in this position and it's wonderful that I am and I appreciate many parts about it and what I do say about pressure is not only is it a privilege to be in that position, a privilege to have that pressure, but no pressure of
00:10:21
Speaker
popularity or public or fans or whatever you want to call it, none of that pressure could compare to the pressure you put on yourself. And I think there's a good balance of pressure that you should put on yourself. Some people do too much and it debilitates them. Some people do too little and that causes them maybe to not work hard enough.
00:10:38
Speaker
I think it's very important to have the right amount of pressure on yourself. And that will exceed pressure from other people most likely, but that's one of the things that drives me to be good and improve and all that. But at the same time, I don't feel it doesn't stress me out. It's a good type of pressure. How do you manage that in order to deal with it?
00:10:57
Speaker
I think a lot of it has been kind of just my upbringing. I think my parents were really good about a fine balance of they demanded excellence in almost anything that I pursued. Like they expected if you're gonna do something you're gonna do it well. At the same time they were never pushy about hey if you don't want to do this you don't have to.
00:11:17
Speaker
They were never like, you're good at this, you're going to keep doing this. They said, if you want to do this, we'll 100% support you, but you're going to be good at it. And we're going to give you the ability to be good at it. We're going to support you in it. So that kind of attitude, I think, was really valuable as parents. What they instilled me was, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to put enough pressure on myself to do it really, really well. But you also know, at any given time, you don't have to do this. It is still your choice. And if it's your choice,
00:11:43
Speaker
You know, under any truly bad pressure, right? I could always just not do it, right? So I think that was a valuable mentality for them. Yeah. I mean, you see it in your family. I've only met like Hannah and Colin, but hung out with Hannah like a few times and like seeing her on the court. Obviously off the court too. It's like just a nice person you could be around. Like never seen her sad or like mad. She's a very happy person. Yeah, like Colin's very like very leveled all the time.
00:12:13
Speaker
That's dope. Anything I haven't asked you about? Food. Food? Yeah.
Culinary preferences and closing thoughts
00:12:19
Speaker
Got any food questions for me? I've been demanding them for a while. You mentioned some pho, like some pho me. Oh, I did, yeah. So there's a place in Austin that I got into recently. It's called... Pho Please? No, it's not Pho Please. So I'm actually not a huge pho person, mainly because I was really sick one time and ate it, and that just wasn't good. But this place called Saigon on 7th Street is the best pho me's I've ever had. It's incredible.
00:12:41
Speaker
I'm also a big fan of Vietnamese coffee so Vietnamese coffee with a nice bond me I'm like oh I'm chillin dude if you don't have if you have that like any time like in the afternoon you're like screwed just like the rest of your day you're like you're not going to go to sleep yeah the Vietnamese coffee will light you up yeah really spots you like an awesome
00:13:02
Speaker
For Vietnamese, Saigon on 7th is really the only place I've actually gotten sandwiches and Vietnamese coffee from. But other spots, I have a Mediterranean place called Abba. Amazing skewers and stuff. Really good vibe. My favorite steakhouse is Eddie B's. My favorite barbecue is La Barbecue. I got a Cabo Mexican.
00:13:21
Speaker
places. I got Veracruz all natural, really good quesadillas, fajita place, La Pecina, and then kind of best overall Mexican kind of vibe I'd say is Donata. Donata's good, that place is always packed. Yeah.
00:13:36
Speaker
And the place across from it, although not Mexican, Central Machine Works is really cool. The pizza, super good. Always have like good show. It's always like a pretty decent crowd. Have you been to, do you like Thai food? I love Thai food. Have you been to Thai Fresh? Thai Fresh is one of the ones I've seen reviews on that I want to go to, but I haven't been to. I've tried a lot of different Thai. 16, 18 Asian Bistro is my favorite. Yeah, yeah, off like Riverside. Yeah, because you can get really good crispy pad Thai, which is hard to find. But you can also, they have really good orange chicken, which obviously because of the fusion, they get a little bit of everything.
00:14:06
Speaker
And it's like spicy orange chicken. So good. Yeah, 1618 is dope because it's also not super expensive. I just got all this food for this much. But Thai Fresh, I'm going to give it a try.
00:14:18
Speaker
Oh, have you been to Elizabeth Street Cafe? I've seen that, but I haven't been there. It's a little like a modern take, but it's still good. Yeah. Dope. Won't. I'll keep that in mind next time. We just need to talk more about food. Yeah, that's what I care about. Food and Fortnite. You want to bond me with Fortnite? That's my happy place. It's going to be the future of your career. All right. Thank you, Brian. Yeah, man. I appreciate it, dude. Thank you. Of course.