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The Most Underrated Player In Pickleball
430 Plays1 year ago
Discover how fierce tennis competitor Andrei Daescu transitioned to dominate the pickleball court. Winning in APP, MLP with the Orlando Squeeze, and PPA. Andrei shares his inspiring journey, revealing the competitive spirit that fueled his success. Learn valuable tips for tennis players making the switch to pickleball, and gain insights into the unique challenges and strategies required to excel in both sports. Witness Andrei's epic battles, including his unforgettable victories over Ben and Collin Johns, and Ben and Anna Leigh Waters. Dive into his analysis of recent triumphs and explore the perfect paddle partnership with Proton. Don't miss this exclusive look at the mind of a champion as he shares his secrets to success and credits those who helped him reach the top.
Chapters 00:00 beginning 00:15 Andrei's background 00:51 competitive spirit spilling into fatherhood 01:52 what makes a good competitor 02:59 reflecting on andrei's tennis career 04:01 tips for tennis players converting to pb 04:21 merch drop 07:41 diff backgrounds diff perspectives 08:28 how competitive tennis can be 11:04 beating johns brothers 12:07 strategy against johns brothers 12:54 analyzing his recent success 14:31 signing with proton 17:39 andrei's paddle and breaking down Proton's line 21:58 credit for his success
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Transcript
Competitive Tennis Beginnings
00:00:00
Speaker
What do you think is important for people to know about your childhood that made you who you are today? Growing up in in Romania, obviously a different environment than here. um As a tennis player, competitive tennis player in the juniors. So I've been traveling intensively since I was probably 11, 12 years old. I've been training and practicing pretty much every day for for tennis, so I've been used to that kind of lifestyle. um it's ah I've been very competitive from an early age which is something I've enjoyed the whole time and I continue to enjoy and I think it it kind of shaped me into the the outfit and definitely the the person I am today as well. How many kids do you
Parenting with a Competitive Edge
00:00:44
Speaker
have? I have two kids, I have two daughters. ah My older one is five, my younger one is three.
00:00:50
Speaker
yeah How much of like your personality, as far as like that competitive side, which has made up so much of who you are, has gone into your parenthood and the way you raise your daughters? Some. I would like for my kids to be competitive. So I try to to bring them up in an environment that is competitive and encourages them to be competitive. Obviously, it depends quite a bit on them as well and their personalities and all that. um But I think if you if you run them through the right situations and you you know you expose them to the right things, I think they can develop that that as well. um And look, everybody's got different different goals and um different hobbies and things they they enjoy doing in life. And yeah, I definitely enjoy sports. And I enjoy pretty much every sport. And I enjoy competing. I enjoy playing in tournaments, playing matches. And we'll see if I hope they will as well. But if they don't, that's that's fine by me as well, as long as they're
00:01:48
Speaker
pursuing something they really enjoy and they're making a career out of it. Yeah. What makes a good competitor?
Lessons from Tennis
00:01:54
Speaker
Like what have you learned in tennis that you think separates you from some of the other players? You know, you know you learn that it's not a sprint, it's a it's a long marathon. um especially when you're younger as a junior, but even when you're younger in general in your career are you kind of live it day by day and you know youre you get super excited when you win and you put yourself down when you lose and and then you know you you' learn with time to to understand it's a process and yeah as long as you do your best in every single match and tournament that you play
00:02:27
Speaker
um That's all you can really ask for yourself. so yeah kind of Don't get too high when things are going well and definitely don't put yourself down and don't get too low when when things are not going well. It's all part of the career of a professional athlete. and yeah Hopefully you can stay at the top of the wave and ride as much as possible because that's a lot of fun. but you know It goes in swings and you just have to have a ah strong chin, let's say, and and just go through it, you know except that you're going to have to fight some
Professional Tennis Journey
00:02:56
Speaker
adversity. For the people that don't know about tennis, how high where was like the height of your career? like How could you describe where you ended your career in tennis?
00:03:08
Speaker
I had a pretty successful college career. I was an old American at the University of Oklahoma. um I've played professional tennis for, I think, about four or five years after college. um I competed in the 2015 Tennis US Open. i've I've played Davis Cup for my native country, Romania. So um I've enjoyed some good success over there. I've had some pretty tough injuries that That was the reason I stopped. um And then I had about a two-year hiatus from professional sports. And then I discovered Pickleball around 2017. And it was a was a nice thing to do again because he gave me the chance to compete
Transition to Pickleball
00:03:46
Speaker
again. He gave me the chance to play a sport I really enjoy and yeah be able to make a living out of it. It's it's a lot of fun, at least for for someone like me who enjoys competing a lot and playing a lot of tournaments. Yeah, yeah it was great. We see a lot of tennis players transitioning now. i mean back in
00:04:01
Speaker
like 2020 when I first started it seemed like it was just pickleball and then tennis and then not as many people were converting to pickleball as they are now but what do you see has been important to remember or kind of like look back on that you learned from tennis that could be applied to pickleball So based on the feedback I got, people wanted a blended material. This is 60% cotton, 40% polyester. This is the front. You have a horseshoe on the front and on the backside says painting lines. Ball doesn't lie. Landed a new sponsorship with this drink brand. They are called Peak Life and this is one of their products. This is the Nandica.
00:04:41
Speaker
Anyone that knows me knows that I don't drink coffee regularly. I'll get it like maybe once or twice a week, but I just never really got into the habit. I like coffee. I love the taste of it. Always kind of get scared of the jitters a little bit. So this company called Peak Life reached out to me and what they do is they have these like, I guess I call them coffee alternatives. This is called Adaptogenic Coffee Alternative. This is by Peak Life. This is the Nantica. So this has heritage cacao, functional mushrooms, and they call it a probiotic tea. It's organic, non-GMO, it's gluten-free. This has been a great alternative to coffee. I don't crash when I drink these. What I want to do is the first 20 people that order my shirt, I will ship out the sample pack with each order. So you will get one in each order.
00:05:27
Speaker
And just let me know what you think. The first 20 people that order the merch shirt, you will get a sample pack of that. And in order to purchase this, email me at building pickleball at gmail dot.com. For some reason, Instagram is not reliable. If I don't follow you and you message me and they have that like invite sent, those don't always go through. So just shoot me an email building pickleball at gmail dot.com. I take PayPal, Venmo and then I ship it out and usually get it within
Pickleball's Inclusive Nature
00:05:54
Speaker
a week. There's obviously a lot of similarities. I think you know you you learn a lot from your from your tennis career, um whether it's the way you take care of your body between tournaments, whether it's you know ah the mental aspects of it, you know the ups and downs of ah ah of a career.
00:06:10
Speaker
um Whether it's how you prepare for certain matches and situations, you know, you you learn to to kind of create a system and and become part of that system as you as you go through the process. And I think that's that's very helpful when you when you make the switch and into pickleball. In terms of tennis players converting to pickleball, I think that's that's always been the case. I just think, you know, pickleball these days is a lot more under the the the camera lights, and I think there's so many more eyeballs on it. um So I think everybody who's coming over now, it's it's being recognized and everybody knows about it and and then that kind of stuff. So pickleball is getting a lot more attention than it was, let's say, I don't know, five, six, seven years ago. um But I think there's always been people, athletes gravitating from different sports. I think that is one of the beauties of pickleball. You know, there's there's people with, I mean, ah the majority, of for sure, come from tennis.
00:07:05
Speaker
But you do have guys that are coming from baseball, right hockey, you know quite a bit of ping pong background as well. So I think i think that's what makes Pickleball a lot of fun, you know that it kind of brings all these different athletic backgrounds together into the professional tour. And you get to see all sorts of different perspectives from all these players. And I find that super interesting. Yeah, I totally agree. I think that you hear that the most about what people love about pickleball, especially from previous prior athletes, is they talk about that second chance.
Competitive yet Respectful Play
00:07:37
Speaker
Yeah. Like that guy, I think his name is Mark, the head of sales proton. Yeah. He was coaching lacrosse and football. And that was like two of his primary sports. And along with his son, he was talking about that was the second chance for me. And then like me, I came from Shih Tzu and MMA.
00:07:54
Speaker
And that's also like a second chance. It's a ton less injuries. I don't have to get punched in the face. Yeah. But you get the competitive side and you also get to meet. Yeah. I think like the social aspect is also really, really big. 100% and different the different perspectives as well. Yeah. Like you said, I mean, a yeah, a guy like you that comes from, you know, from UFC in GG2 has maybe a different perspective than somebody that comes from Baseball and that's probably different than somebody who comes from hockey and somebody who comes from tennis So I think all yeah, you get to learn something new from all these players, which is quite interesting Yeah, you think it's interesting that like Pickleball is still very competitive, but it's also very inclusive and welcoming because when I talked to Tyra Tyra black who's the player on the Dallas flash She was very similar in in your regard of in her background and resume. She came up through tennis
00:08:43
Speaker
She just mentioned how competitive it was and how um like not inclusive and like not even just competitive on the court but how people treated each other. She didn't really enjoy that aspect. Did you see that in your career at all? Yes, I did see it with with tennis for sure. I think you see it with other sports and and I think to a certain degree you're starting to see it with pickleball as well. I think everything that becomes really, really competitive, it' it's kind of head that way unfortunately. That's just the human nature. um But I think a lot of the
00:09:16
Speaker
the athletes at the top of the game in pickleball these days have had a previous athletic career in some of the other sports and ah you know they recognized that and i think that that's what's helping preserve that culture of you know being uh friends off the court and respecting each other off the court and having a talent in that player's lounge and then yeah when when you're on the court you're on the court you're there to do the job of of winning and yeah you gotta do the best to to get that done but uh yeah i i would agree with Tyra that yeah you know there's it's a lot more inclusive a lot more respect there's a pretty could relax vibe you know when you were on other players. And and that's sometimes with some of the other sports as well. But I could see what she was talking about, you know things being just so competitive with tennis. And yeah sometimes the competitiveness takes the better of people. and And yeah, it gets a little little tricky. But I think pickleball is definitely not not at that spot, culture-wise. And I hope it doesn't get there. Yeah.
00:10:11
Speaker
yeah um Well, it's great to have guys like you who are like role models in the sport and I think role models typically get associated with people who win a lot. So like To you for you to be winning as much as you do and like not the i'll continue that. Yeah, the easiest thing in the world yeah ah but no but you have you have a family too Yeah, and you're and you're not like a spring chicken, right? Like how old are you 36? Yeah 36, but I still move like a spring chicken. Yeah yeah No No but obviously there's a lot of really good players out there and it's super competitive so yeah every single victory is yeah it's a really important step forward and hopefully I'll be able to continue to do that yeah. It's awesome and it's like you're not only just a role model for people who want to come into the sport or who may might be interested in becoming a rising pro but also creating a blueprint for how to beat the number one men's team and like
00:11:03
Speaker
how did that feel when you first did it with, it was with Gabe, right? First? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, it felt great. Look, obviously they, they've had such a great run and look, they've dominated the game for years now, which like I said, I, it's incredibly hard to do because all these guys are, You know, up and coming, they all train very hard, they're all very good, they all compete very hard. So um for us to be able to you know to win that match and and and the next one as well, I think it's you know it it speaks volumes to the amount of training that we put, the amount of trust we have in each other as partners, to how well we gel as a team.
00:11:39
Speaker
um I gave lives about 15 minutes away from me, so used to train a lot together, get a lot of reps in. And we figured, you know why why why don't we give it a go and and play some together? And obviously, it worked out pretty well for for both of us. I think his game has skyrocketed. I think I've been playing pretty well as well recently. And yeah, it was good to see all these things coming together and and give us that um yeah some of those really good wins at the top and establish us as one of the top teams in the world. What was Jean's game plan going into the match against them? Or even twice or like three times now? Yeah, we started a lot of tape and we had certain things that we knew if you execute wellon well on, we'll be able to to get the job done. And yeah, look at Pickleball is a game of execution and of runs. And we were able to make some good runs to start the games, you know, and and open up some some pretty good leads. and
00:12:33
Speaker
Yeah, they're great competitors and they they fought us far back and you know we had some some good battles, but ah you know um it's important for us to to continue to stick with the game plan, believe in it, and yeah but believe in our abilities. and Look, we we know we belong with the best, we've we've proved that, and yeah I think we're going to be there very soon again. What do you think is attributed to your recent success? Not that you weren't successful prior, I think it's just become more in the limelight. It might be because APP's broadcasting and media maybe isn't as...
00:13:08
Speaker
like common or ubiquitous as PPA and how all that goes but like you're making tons of runs in APP getting gold medals and you're doing it great not even just in men's but also in mixed so you're doing it there and then when once you got into that PPA and then you had your runs with MLP like you've shown a lot of success there it might be just in the past year past two years like what do you attribute to that I really think it's just part of the process. you know you You put enough reps in and you play enough matches and you know yeah your body continues to get better and faster and stronger and reflexes are getting better and yeah, it's hard to really attribute to one thing ah alone, but ah yeah, just believing in that process, you know sticking with it, going through the ups and downs, like I said, and yeah, just being able to kind of put it all together at the right time and and make some runs. i've always
00:14:01
Speaker
You know, try to compete as hard as I can and I think um one of the reasons is obviously proton as well. I mean, I yeah i switched to this pedal last August. I've had a lot of success before that. Obviously, like you said, in MLP and ABP events and and then I've switched to this and I feel like it's helped me elevate the game to the next level as well and and it allowed me to continue to to to get better, make some adjustments to my game. um My body's obviously been healthy. I've been lucky in that regard and and hopefully I can continue to stay healthy and play single pickable for years to come. Yeah.
Innovating with Proton
00:14:34
Speaker
um That's a great topic that I wanted to get into. It's a perfect segue. Yeah. You were previously with Selkirk. Selkirk is a much larger company, very established. And then people found out the news that you signed with Proton. What was that decision like? Why did you make that decision? and
00:14:51
Speaker
Yeah. Um, so I, you know, I spoke to Charles over the phone. he He came and watched me at the MLP San Clemente before he even had paddles out. You know, he was just thinking about the brand and how to enter the pickable world. And then we communicated over the phone ah for a few weeks there. And he told me about the plans, you know, he told me about the people we had involved. He told me about his background and and just in discussing more and more with him, I realized that his knowledge is very extensive. Um, and we started talking paddles and we started kind of working on coming up with the paddle and and he will send me paddles and I'll send him back for some feedback and and just ah took how quickly he was able to apply that feedback to the paddles and and how quick that turnaround time was and um how well he did with all the feedback I provided to him. you know I really understood that you know this is
00:15:41
Speaker
This is a brand that's kind of the very well in the pickleball world. It might take a lot of time. Like you said, Salt Creek was very well established. But yeah, you can't build a whole empire in one day. I knew it's going to take a lot of time. But look, we're we here about a year later. And you know where we we got some of the you know some of the best players in the world here at the facility playing today. We have people trying the paddles, you know, the technology is great. um Players have had success with this battle. You know, we've we've been able to win some gold medals, whether it's the MLP, the PPA Tour, the APP Tour. I mean, it's proven that ah the brand is there. And and if you if you talk to Charles and the rest of the the the the company as well, you you realize that they're still hungry for success and there's still ways to go up.
00:16:24
Speaker
It's still part of that process. I still think proton is in the Early phases, but you can see they're making some huge strides in the right direction and it's only going to continue to get better It's great to hear you use the word process a lot and like you're really talking Really speaking to what you're saying earlier about your mentality of it's a marathon not a sprint yeah with everything whether it's me as a player or whether it's with the brand you know or like yeah with everything else like they you know they they we had to go through a lot of different trial and error phases you know with the paddle and we feel like we're able to to get a really good paddle out there there's other players now playing with it you know um
00:17:01
Speaker
I was the the first a player to play with Proton, you know, hey I was the how was the first guy. um But again, just going back and forth with them over development of the paddle and they were just doing such a great job with but everything I had to to say to them. They were doing such a great job just kind of learning about the game of Pickleball, about how the market operates and all that. and Yeah, that, you know, the success we're having one year in speaks to their, you know, dedication and hard work. And based on the size I'm seeing, it's only going to get better. I mean, it looks like it's moving that way. Yeah. And I'm happy to be part of that process. Yeah. it Helps to have some gold medals and some trophies behind it. For sure. And a good battle for sure. yeah Yeah. Wouldn't be possible without it. Yeah. Yeah. It's awesome, man. Yeah. Like which one do you use?
00:17:43
Speaker
And what are your thoughts on, was it the Series 3 is the carbon fiber phase? Yeah. yeah So I use the the Series 1 Type A. ah It comes in 11 millimeters and 15. I use the 11. No particular reason there. It's a square phase as well. It comes square or elongated. I use a square phase. I know the majority of players prefer the elongated one. um i it For me, it's literally just personal preference. There's not a whole lot of science behind it. I take them out, I try them, and whatever feels the best in my hand is kind of what I go with. I feel it's got the right amount of pop. I'm not lacking any power, and it definitely has got a ton of spin, which helps a lot with the soft game and with flicks.
00:18:25
Speaker
So that's that's my paddle of choice. I've definitely tried the the Series 3 as well. I've tried all them. I've tried the Series 2. Series 2, I think, is a very arm-friendly paddle that's great for intermediate players to advanced players, you know. So there's a lot of people I see. in like on the tour events there are winning gold medals you know in like the the three oh two four or five divisions you know i think it's a great battle um and then the series three is the rock carbon phase um i i've played with that as well uh it's got the elongated shape like i said i prefer to square a little bit better but that's still a great paddle um
00:19:02
Speaker
Some of our players are playing with it. CJ Clinger, who's coming off a great MLP and in Washington, DC, you know he's playing with that one. He's had some great success. yeah The Walker sisters are playing with it, and they're having some good success with that. I know Donald just tried it a couple of times, i mean yeah so it's it's definitely a very good pedal as well. Different in terms of the texture, that's raw carbon fiber, this is nanotech. I do tend to like the nanotech, that yeah that distinct technology that that he's using. and yeah As long as I'm going to continue to have success with it, I'm going to stick with ah with it. And yeah and technology is always changing. So if needed at some point, I'll i'll make some adjustments. I know there's a there's a Series 4 coming as well. yeah So I'm super excited to try it out. We're going to see Andre Daisuke's signature paddle. Ah, it's not the underdirthed signature paddle, no. If you were to like, the we've always went like back and forth on this thing. I don't feel the need of having a signature paddle out there. If you had a signature paddle, this would definitely be it. Again, this is the one that we came up with and we went back and forth on. This is the one that got us on the market that players have tried out you know and a lot of people have played with. It's the one that's been sold out for for months now and is just having a tough time, just catching up with production. But it sounds like, yeah, they're they're pretty much back to,
00:20:17
Speaker
to bring their head up above the water again. you know So it's a pedal that's sold very well. It's a pedal a lot of people like. And yeah, I mean, this is the one that I would like to take some credit for. yeah um No, but series four, I'm just looking forward. I know the technology wise, they always try to come up with something new, something innovative, you know, something to change the market. And, uh, yeah, I look forward to trying it out. I haven't, I haven't gotten chance to to try it out yet, but I look forward to trying it out and hopefully it plays very nice. Yeah. I appreciate that the series three is something a little bit geared more towards like the mass market and what's popular now. Yeah, but like I want to use that one more because I'm like, okay, this has a nanotech like no one else is using the nanotech also the different shape It's also very obnoxious color. So I'm okay with that. too Yeah when it comes to the colors Unfortunately, that's not my strong suit. So yeah
00:21:06
Speaker
Like I said, I play whatever it feels good in my hands, so the color is more up to them. ah But yeah, I do, like I said, I do really enjoy playing with this battle. And what I think it's important for for people to understand is um that it takes a little bit of time to break it in. But once you break it in, yeah, it's it's a weapon of choice. And like I said, if there is a If there is a paddle ah that I will take credit for, this is the one that you know one of the first paddles we came up with and the one that we ones that we worked on together. her and yeah Just super excited to to to see the end result because I think it's a great paddle. yeah not Not just because I play with it, but I really think it's a really good paddle. You see what all the people are trying and you want to try. I've been trying. yeah It's very unique. I just haven't had enough time to go through like the break-in process. Yeah, it's about two or three weeks. yeah yeah And then you'll see a little... yeah
00:21:51
Speaker
Yeah, a little bit more more pop and I think he grabs a little bit better as well So I think yeah, I think it's important to go to that face. Yeah. Yeah speaking of credit we can wrap this up But I just want to give you a moment to um kind of like acknowledge, you know Who do you think it's been most important or it could be multiple people?
Family Support and Career
00:22:08
Speaker
For where you are in your life right now Yeah, it's multiple people, and obviously it's my family. I have ah an incredibly supportive wife. you know i mean I have two young kids at home, so I travel. I think last year I played about 36 events. This year I'm around 35, 36 as well.
00:22:25
Speaker
So I spent a lot of time on the road away from home. So she has to hold the fort, take care out of the kids for the most part. And um so yeah without her support, I wouldn't be able to to do what I'm doing. Obviously, my parents, you know they they've been extremely supportive as well. And my dad was a former um professional athlete himself to play basketball. you know So he's um he's always been able to give me good advice as a kid, and then obviously good advice as an adult throughout my career as well, and how to deal with certain situations. And just he was able to you know lift me up when I needed some help. and um Yeah, so I think it's I think it's really important as a professional to have some really good support from your family and I'm very lucky and blessed to have that for my family. Yeah. Happy belated Father's Day, man. Thank I appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah, that's it, man Anything else I didn't ask you about you want to talk about? ah Let me think for a second. I don't know. Yeah, take your time No, I think yeah, I think we're I think we're good cool. Appreciate your time. Yeah. Yeah, my pleasure
00:23:20
Speaker
hope you got everything in there yeah yeah sorry