013 | Both of Your Wives Are Named Lauren Transcript

Morgan:   Good day, folks! Welcome to the show. My guests today are pillars in the industry. Trying constantly to change the game for the better, they are decent pickleball players, not amazing, I’ll be honest. But they’re all-around toplex. They are the founding brothers of Selkirk Sport. We’re gonna talk about the state of the game, the future of Selkirk, and if Mike can ride a bike. Now these two do have their names on my checks; I better play nice. Please welcome, Mike and Rob Barnes!

Good day fellas, how you doin?

Mike:       Hey Morgan how are you?

Rob:         Hey Morgan how’s it going?

Morgan:  Got you both! Brilliant!

Mike:       Very rare.

Morgan:  It is, it is. Dreams do come true, there you go folks.

[laughter]

Morgan:  So how you two doing?

Rob:         Good, it has been quite a fast couple of weeks, been kinda crazy but..

Mike:       …and year…

[laughter]

Rob:         Yeah, it’s been quite a weird time.

Mike:       Yeah just plugging along.

Morgan:  I think for a lot of people, generally, people are thinking 2020 is a ride off, let’s focus on 2021 but I feel like for Selkirk it’s obviously a huge year for a number of reasons. I hear rumors that the paddles, you know the Vanguard Paddles are sold out in 15, possibly 18 seconds. That seems unreasonable but…

Mike:        Let’s be honest 14 seconds…

Morgan:   14, okay…so how’s it been gone? I mean obviously the reception has felt fantastic around the electronic inter-web. And people with the paddles in their hands, tell us what’s going on.

Mike:       Yeah I mean um, inter-web is definitely is loving the vanguard. Launch day went smooth, at this point we’re just trying to ramp up and just keep up with demand, and everything’s been positive over all. People loved the product and you know, we’re still working on some other shapes like your Maxima and the power models as well, so yeah, we kind of always moving forward.

Rob:        There’s always something else to work on.

Mike:       Yeah!

Morgan:  Yeah you two are some of the hardest-working millennials on the planet, I would say.

Mike:        We try. [laughter}

Morgan:   You try. [laughter]

Obviously you’ve held back the release of the power models. But I’m sure you’ve used them and you settled on with the design. Is that in part because of how much goes into producing these paddles and during, obviously, in the difficult times it’s gonna be tough to be able to pull off all the models at one time?

Mike:        Yeah, I mean. COVID definitely throws a ranchet at things so with the power paddle, we’re working our best, we definitely think that we have a product that people are gonna love, with that, especially those with more aggressive style, who are looking for that extra power. So, we’re looking at fall. Again, COVID kind of disrupts things, but that’s the goal we’re going for right now.

Rob:          Yeah. And we didn’t wanna overwhelm, I mean, launching one model is, especially when we haven’t done anything major in about two years, you know launching one model is stressful enough and kinda adding a second to that in the exact same time is just not really feasible.

Morgan:  Yeah, fair enough. So two years look like it’s kind of a norm for Selkirk. Is that gonna be the plan going forward?

Rob:         Part of the reason it was two years was because we were working out perfecting the performance and the technology. So we could see speeding that up to once a year but it really just depends on whether or not we have a better product. And what we definitely don’t want to do is launch items too quickly like some companies are doing it every three months, every six months. That just isn’t good for the brand. If you actually look at golf, launching products too quickly destroyed the golf industry and quite a few golf retailers. It used to be that they launched every two years which got shortened to every year. Eventually though, brands were launching the latest and greatest every three months. And people kind of picked up on that, like, I just bought this two months ago. Now you have another latest and greatest and made mine obsolete? And it just didn’t work some major retailers. So we wanna protect our customers that we launch something. We say it’s better, they know it actually is.

Morgan:   Yeah, for sure. I mean, it’s that Moore’s law, right, based on the amount of transistors you could fit in a die equaling to about two years that technology essentially doubles and the speed of computers, yada, yada, yada. You know, it’s only a matter of time before that kind of thing we see, if we can measure power, speed, control, if we could measure those absolutely precisely, when you know, following suit, two years sounds good!

Rob:         Yeah

Morgan:  Aside from anything else, you’re not placing a huge burden of choice on the consumer, which I think a lot of people like, myself included.

Rob:         Yeah, consumers, really, you know those who say they want options, right we all want options. But when you add so many, all it does is just overwhelms you and you just don’t make a decision. So our goal is always to guide the customer into the proper product and try to make that as effortless as possible.

Mike:      Yeah we want to make our line up understandable. We really started that with the Amped where we took one premiere technology and then you could choose your shape based on your play style and then weight based on your preference. Whereas before, our brand and every brand as well, it was such a mess to try to choose a paddle. There’s so many nuances but making it clear and understandable definitely helps the customer.

Morgan:  For sure, yeah many people are saying, certainly in my family, that the Maxima is kind of the deal in indoor, of paddle shapes, design, construction…

Mike:      Been hearing that rumor too. We’re trying to figure out where it’s coming from.

Morgan: Yeah I have hidden a click-farm in Bangladesh to try and promote that vicious rumor.

[laughter]

Morgan: Certainly looking forward to it

Rob:        Yeah I think that’s gonna be pretty popular, we’re excited about that one.

Morgan: Good, yeah. It’s a game changer, it’s gonna take over the world. possibly break the internet when you release it.

Rob:        That’s the goal!

The State of The Game At The Moment [06:36]

Morgan: But neither here nor there and I am certainly not biased. So tell me guys, you know, you two both have been in the industry for quite some time, you seem to have good heads on your shoulders. How is the industry gonna change in light of COVID? How has it changed and what do you think is the next move to stay afloat?

Mike:       Yeah I think it definitely is gonna be interesting, right? I mean things are gonna change. I mean to go through this and for the country to go through this, I don’t think you can’t say things aren’t gonna change, the question is gonna be is it for the better or for the worse and I think right now it’s a little too early to tell for pickleball, what we are seeing though is so I mean tournament are absolutely gonna be obliterated. And I feel so bad for all these organizers and tournament directors that are having to kind of work through this and just navigate this situation, I do not envy them in any shape or form.

So you have that dynamic, right? So the pro-side that’s being hurt by this but one interesting dynamic that we’re starting to see is that during the COVID, I mean we were heavily impacted, specially the first couple months. One interesting dynamic we saw was people starting to buy less expensive products, a lot of entry-level. All the nets in the entire industry sold out.

Morgan: Wow!

Mike:        Because people were putting in their driveways, and their backyards, in the street, so what we’re seeing is we think there’s a lot of new entrances into the sport that hopefully will start getting into tournaments, start getting into, you know, more aggressively in the sport. Like New York.. was it New York Times?

Rob:          Yeah, The New York Times posted an article saying, “Is pickleball a perfect pandemic pastime?” And it was really sparked by Ellen DeGeneres talking about how she loves pickleball. And if you look at it, the thing that makes it great in general, make it great in this pandemic, is that if you have a family, as you know, it’s really easy to get started. You don’t need to take a bunch of tennis lessons, you can get going and parents could play with their kids and have fun. We were just talking to an employee recently who’s been really enjoying pickleball with her kids because it’s just an easy and fun sport to play, so that makes it perfect during a pandemic. They can get out there and play amongst themselves. There is also more social-distancing with pickleball than other sport, such as basketball, baseball, football, those kinds of sport, soccer. You know our kids just started playing soccer, but it was actually cancelled but you could see the kids playing in one big pack and everything…

Mike:        Just like a herd.

Rob:         Yeah, yeah. So pickleball kind of has the advantage of having a bit more social distancing so, it’s a great sport during this time where people play responsibly, and we definitely see a rise in participation.

Morgan:  Oh wow, that’s fantastic!

Mike:        Yeah, so it will be interesting to see how this overflows in the next couple of years and in different aspects of the sport.

Morgan:  Yeah so perhaps now, paddle manufacturers, ball manufacturers, net manufacturers, everyone kind of should be thinking more towards banding together and trying to sell the sport as opposed to their individual product in knowing that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

Mike:       Yeah for sure, it’s kind of like when the water rises, the boat rises. So I definitely think…

Morgan:  We’re killing it with the metaphors. You have one, I have one.

Mike:       Yeah right, I looked it up before we started, like Top 10 metaphors. Um, but the problem if you have something like this situation is it kicks you in your face a little bit. So everyone I think right now is still in recovery mode, but hopefully once we kind of get through this and kind of get stabilized, I mean we’ve been a big component of, from a PR standpoint, of really kind of pushing the overall sport, we’ve kind of seen it as necessary. And that’s why we don’t get like super intimidated when people like Head or Babolat or companies like that enter because the way we look at it helps legitimize the sport and raises the bow. So hopefully over time, the manufacturers can, I mean we would be able to band together to, as you said, “sell” the sport.

Morgan: Yeah, I mean we’re still at that stage and I think for me, personally, I’ll know when we get past that when we can tell someone what I do and without having to get a whole lot of questions about what is pickleball.

[laughter]

Rob:        It’s gotten better though, right? I feel like compared to 5 years ago, I’m surprised at how many people do know. Five years ago, nobody knew what that was when we asked.

Mike:      We just said, when anyone asked what we do for a living, it was like, when we wanted to be quick, it’s just like, “I’m in sports.”

[laughter]

Mike:       It definitely is a good conversation starter, though, for the individuals that don’t know about pickleball cause it’s definitely unique name, for better or for worse, so simply, people are intrigued and learning, it’s growing!

Sponsor: CoachMe

The Future of Pickleball [13:00]

Morgan:  So tell me, do you guys think, what’s your perspective on this: do you think there is an argument for professional pickleball and amateur pickleball to somewhat be separated that, is it called bifurcation, I think that’s how you say it, it is a big word but I don’t use it very often.

Mike:       Ooh, I didn’t look at my top 10 big words list before this conversation.

Morgan:  It’s four syllables, guys. We can’t do more than four syllables.

[laughter]

Morgan:   You know, in a similar way. Many sports have had to do it. Do you think it will always be, you know, one sport for all for one, one for all?

Rob:         I guess it depends on kind of what you mean by that. Do you mean like from a tournament perspective where kind of similar to tennis?

Morgan:  In terms of rules, or in the name of the sport, how it’s adjudicated, you know, all kinds of things that, for me personally, what I don’t want to see is professional pickleball being held back, being restrained by what has been traditionally, to be honest the dimensions of the court, it’s a badminton court. And I remember looking and having to answer little questions about Ben Johns’s style of playing mixed doubles. And it’s very clear that most of the time, he’s better off without a partner. And you know, people will look at him and say, well, that’s not fair, you’re not letting her play cause she’s the best player in the world, what are you doing. It’s not his fault. The fact that at some point someone was…

Rob:         He wants to win, right. I mean, that’s the game…

Morgan:  He wants to win, he’s only got 20 feet to cover. He’s quick enough, long enough, and powerful enough to do that job on his own. It’s not his fault that no one decided to make this court bigger and make it, you know, an athletic challenge for two people. Right now it’s an athletic challenge for one but it’s a walk in the park for two, depending on the level, obviously. I think there needs to be, at some point, a conversation about what direction the sport professional pickleball needs to go if it’s gonna get over that hump. And that hump being where enough sponsors of a major TV network says, yes, please let us advertise during that. What do you think? Tough question.

Mike:        It is. A lot of that is gonna be driven by what makes it a better TV sport. So there’s things that can be done to make it interesting, to make it more exciting for people on TV for people who don’t even play pickleball, that’s kind of where you’ll gonna get over the hump and get a larger audience viewing it. So, kind of going specifically to your question regarding rules, it’s possible that things change that obviously it’ll be definitely difficult to go against the grain. Certain things like rally, scoring, might be a possibility, changing the dimensions of the court, I haven’t heard that one before. I could see it, if it makes it play better on TV, but if there’s things that we can do to make it more of a TV-friendly sport, that’s great. One of the things I will probably change and is a little bit easier to change is in the major tournament scheduling the matches. So for example, like with Indiana Wells or US Open, figuring out a way to schedule the matches to where you know, like Tyson McGuffin is gonna be on the championship court at this time, is then you can sell TV, then you can do live TV possibly even. You will be able to schedule here’s where he’ll be playing, when I’m gonna set my reporter to make sure to watch that. So you know one of the formats we’ve advocated for in the past which we hope that tournaments are moving towards is a combination of round-robin and single-elimination. So the sense of what we do is, maybe there’s 20 or 14, we break them up to sets of 4 and they would play a round-robin which gives them a little bit of a warm up, and then it allows you to see the single elimination bracket better. So you kind of have the advantages of double elimination better with a few more games under your belt before it matters, but then you also have the advantage of single elimination where every point in every game matters more and then at the end you have a match that is the championship.

Morgan:     Yeah I think that’s the right step in the right direction and I know that one of our Selkirk pros, Kim Jade, was trying to promote that for this year’s nationals which obviously now isn’t happening, but it sounded like a…

Mike:           Yeah. He said that to us and we were like, this is perfect!

Morgan:      Yeah it would seem to really work,  you know it’s great for the game, great for the teams that aren’t top 8 or top 12 that need that kind of much exposure for them to get better they need to be playing tough matches under pressure

Mike:           Yeah cause you’re guaranteed to play four games with different opponents.

Rob:             And kinda like what Mike was saying too, on top of that. I think the problem with pickleball, right, is that you have so many dynamics. You have hardcore fans, people that just love the name, love the sport, so I think, like going to the name, right, I don’t think that at this point you could change it, anything like that would hinder it. In the beginning, maybe it would have been nice, but at this point you would be doing a total uphill battle to change that. And I think what will be interesting is that, like you said, with the pros, there will definitely going to have some form of a split long-term, but what I guess you want to be careful with is I guess is tennis, right, which very much has that. And I think the sport is so inclusive and so, that’s what makes pickleball pickleball is the interacting, is that levels playing each other, different levels, and that’s what kind of, I feel, like makes the magic of the sport. So how do you protect that and maintain that while also realizing that hey, if we’re gonna elevate the sport, right, we’re gonna get non-endemic sponsors. We’re gonna get people out here starting to write checks, people outside of the sport. And allowing the top pros to start making enough money where they can sit there and start to train every day. And as the skill rises, that means the play will rise. Which means then they will be more attractive for TV at that point. So that’s what’s gonna be tough is getting into that point.

And what you said, dimensions, like what Mike said is a part of it is if TV’s gonna drive that, but I think the problem with that as well, is if you have the sport growing at the pace it’s growing, it’s really hard to justify to try to change anything. Because that’s working, right? So when the sport level’s off, and they’re trying to find creative ways to grow it because it’s not growing at the high pace it is, then that’s when you’re probably going to see more innovations happen, I would think. Whereas now, status quo is gonna be okay because USAP is a lot of people, I think. And I don’t know if this is the right mindset or not, but why fix if it ain’t broke? Right?

Morgan:     For sure.

Rob:            And kind of going back to the non-endemic sponsors, that kind of ties a lot with TV, because those sponsors, they’re not going to put out big money on a tournament that’s simply livestreamed on Facebook. They’re looking for much larger audiences to make it justify the sponsorship. However, the difficulty with TV is these tournaments have to pay to be on TV. It’s not the other way around. I see sometimes on forum, people say why is MBC not taking notice? Why is ESPN not taking notice? I say, it doesn’t work that way. It’s as if an ESPN executive or FOX or MBC executive looks at pickleball and says, we should do this. What needs to happen is, somebody in pickleball needs to go to TV and say we’ll pay you a bunch of cash to be on TV on primetime. So the question is where does that large amount of cash come from? Well it comes from sponsors. But sponsors don’t want to do it until they’re on TV and it’s been proven so…

Morgan:     Exactly. It’s the chicken and egg scenario.

Rob:            Which, thankfully we have organizations like PPA that’s really doing a good job at really trying to bring in those non-endemic sponsors and they’ve obviously kinda had a little brush on the works because of COVID but I think we’re seeing that happen, but, like Mike said, it’s such an in-depth process to get to that point.

Mike:          And not that many sports succeed at it. I think pickleball will succeed. But it definitely takes time. It’s gonna happen somewhat naturally, and somewhat like, the people at PPA who are doing a good job of promoting the sport and taking that risk.

Morgan:     Yeah. I’d say if Cornhole can do it then we should be able to pull it off, let’s be honest.

[laughter]

Mike:          Yeah, and a lot of it too is just people need to be familiar with pickleball as well. So one of the big things we could do is to promote pickleball in your local area. So the more people will know about pickleball and how it’s played, the more attractive it will be for them to watch it on TV. The edge that Cornhole has, is everybody, again I’m assuming you’ve played it, is that pretty much everybody is playing it cause it’s just a simple backyard game…

Rob:            We just played it last night at our backyard.

Morgan:     Yeah, I just played at their regional championships. [laughter] Southwest regionals, heading to nationals. Yeah, it’s wonderful. Yeah.

Rob:             You know how much the top guy makes on average, Morgan, in Cornhole?

Morgan:     Hmm, $7?

Rob:             No, so the top guy, this was a couple years ago, but he made, after winnings and everything, I think he made close to 350 grand. One year.

Morgan:      Wow. Wow.

Rob:             He made over a million dollars in winnings from Cornhole.

Mike:           So even though I think Cornhole, as a sport, doesn’t hold a candle to pickleball, it does have a larger audience who knows about it and again, that’s what those non-endemic sponsors are looking for so that’s why in Cornhole you’ll see a lot of beer brands.

Rob:             Beer and meat. A lot of beer and meat brands!

[laughter]

Mike:           Yes, so that’s where we pickleball needs to get to; not necessarily beer and meat but more specifically, a larger audience will attract more non-endemic sponsors.

Morgan:      Yeah, yeah, for sure. Okay, so based on what you’re saying, perhaps the answer is actually in reducing the size of the court and making it much more of a singles friendly, even like a 10×20, so more people can have it in their back yard. More people can play, essentially, skinny singles against each other and you know, you end up having that beer in one hand and meat in the other and a paddle somewhere.

Rob:             Yeah, I mean skinny singles is definitely an option to make singles a bit more exciting and fast-paced, so that could be interesting. I mean most sports have that, badminton and tennis.

Morgan:      I just think, personally, a lot of people would really need to start thinking outside the box. And think about what kind of sport we want to see a hundred years from now as opposed to worrying about, you know, the five-year struggle of what would happen if you know, if you changed the name of pickleball. In the short-term there would be some uproar and yada, yada, yada. But you know, down the track, would be the sport be better for it? Would the professional sport of pickleball be better for it? I think we’re not saying yes or no, I think people should ask the question at some point, whether it’s to do with the name, and I’m not suggesting we change the name, but I’m you know, I’ve always talked about it just because when, you know, I go to a bar, and I say I’m a professional pickleball player, [laughter]  I don’t wanna be laughed at anymore. I want people to say “Oh really!” not “What? What? How do you say that?”

Mike:         Right, right. I think you’ll never get rid of the name pickleball, but you could potentially add a name. So,…

Rob:           Like table tennis vs. ping-pong, right. Ping-pong is a brand. Maybe that becomes pickleball and then you know, pickleball becomes on the pro-side something that is called at a different name.

Morgan:     Yeah, just pro-pickle or pickle-pro, or I don’t know.

Rob:            Yeah, that sounds worse.

[laughter]

Mike:          We gotta get rid of all the pickles first.

Morgan:     No gherkins, no pickles, alright. Fair enough.

                     We’re gonna hold it there for just a moment, for another round of pickleball of pickleball trivia.

Pickleball Trivia with Lindsey Stucki and Bryce Betlem [25:21]

Morgan:  Welcome to Pickleball Trivia! I’ve got a couple of contestants on the line ready to go head to head. Firstly, we’ve got Lindsey Stucki from British Columbia. How are you doing, Lindsey?

Lindsey:  Doing great! Thanks.

Morgan:  Good to have you on board. Your opponent today is Mr. Bryce Betlem from Sydney Australia, by way of San Diego. Bryce, how are you doing, mate?

Bryce:    Good. Thanks. It was a long swim.

Morgan:  It was a swim, wasn’t it? Good, good.

Bryce:    Yes.

Morgan:  It’s a shame that’s just one leg of the triathlon you had to do to get your citizenship, right?

Bryce:    Oh yes, one of the many legs.

Morgan:  One of the many legs. (chuckles…) Alright, Lindsey, you’re going to be contestant #1. You will start off with the serve. I’m going to ask you a Pickleball-related question. If you get it right, you get to keep the serve and you get a point. If you get it wrong or you pass, then Bryce will have a chance to answer the question. If he gets it right, he steals the point and the serve. First contestant to get to 5 points is today’s champion and will receive just an astronomical sized Selkirk gift voucher.

One new rule based on a variety of recent performance is a double fault rule which means if the server gets the question wrong twice in a row, unfortunately, the serve would be handed over to your opponent.

Alright, are you ready to go head to head?

Bryce:    Yup!
Lindsey:  Let’s rock and roll!

Morgan:  Okay, Lindsey, what is the correct net height at both the center and the sidelines?

Lindsey:  Oh, let’s see… What is it, 36 inches on the sidelines and 34?

Morgan:  That is correct!

Lindsey:  Yes!

Morgan:  Well done! Alright, question #2: True or false. The game referred to as “Skinny Singles” can only be played by people under 180 lbs.?

Lindsey:  I’m going to go with false on that.

Morgan:  That is false, yes. Well done, well done. Good stuff!

Alright, next question for you: Selkirk Pro Tony Tollenaar played which sport in college?

Lindsey:  Ugh…

Morgan:  It would have helped if you listened to last week’s episode just so we’re clear.

Lindsey:  Okay, I did not listen…

Morgan:  (gasps…) I’m hurt.

Lindsey:  I know. But let’s see… I’m going to go with tennis?

Morgan:  That is incorrect, unfortunately. I am so sorry to have to tell you that. That means, Bryce, you get a chance to steal the point and the serve.

Bryce:    Right.

Morgan:  Any thoughts?

Bryce:    You know what? Let’s go with an American sport. Let’s go, Lacrosse.

Morgan:  It was not Lacrosse, unfortunately.

Bryce:    I should have said Rugby.

Morgan:  Oh mate, jeez! You should have said Ruggers, yeah. Probably had a little chance with that, I think. But that means Lindsey still has the serve. Are you ready for your next question?

Lindsey:  Okay, yeah.

Morgan:  Alright. There are many Newmans in the Newman Clan. Name three.

Lindsey:  Okay, Lindsey Newman…

Morgan:  Yes.

Lindsey:  Riley Newman… I know there’s a little sister…

Morgan:  And she has a name.

Lindsey:  Let’s go with Sarah.

Morgan:  Unfortunately, I don’t believe that is Sarah. Although there’s more popping up every day, so they may have just had a Sarah.

Lindsey:  Do I get half a point for that?

Morgan:  You don’t. I’d love to give it to you.

Alright, that means Bryce, you get a chance here.

Bryce:    I’ll have to be honest and pass on that one though. I know Lindsey and Riley but unfortunately, I don’t know the third.

Morgan:  Well, there’s like 10 of them, so you could literally just pick a name and you got a chance.

Bryce:    Lindsey, Riley, and I think we mentioned a sister here, so let’s go with Britney.

Morgan:  Britney, yeah – no Britney’s unfortunately in the Newman.

Bryce:    Alright.

Morgan:  We would have accepted Haley or Cody, or many others. I don’t honestly know them all.

Bryce:    Shoot, I should have said Haley.

Morgan:  Good names, good names. Okay, so unfortunately, Lindsey, because that is a double fault, we’re going to pass the serve over now to Mr. Bryce.

So, Bryce, you got a good chance here.

Bryce:    I didn’t earn it, but yes.

Morgan:  Yeah, you definitely didn’t earn it.

Lindsey:  (laughs…)

Morgan:  Okay, Bryce, when a player serves the ball and it hits the partner of the returner, it is called what?

Bryce:    Partner of the returner?

Morgan:  Yes, the guy standing at the kitchen line. If it just hits the player.

Bryce:    Shoot! Because I know if it hits a player, then it’s still counted as technically in. But if it hits the square that the other player is in, it would be a fault. Let’s go with a fault.

Morgan:  Okay, so this shot actually has a particular name.

Bryce:    Oh, it’s an actual name.

Morgan:  Yeah, it’s kind of a dodgy move.

Bryce:    Oh wow! Okay, man, if only there was like online training resource that I could sign up for… No!(laughs…)

Morgan:  (laughs…) Oh yeah, jeez! If only.

Bryce:    I’ll pass on that one then.

Morgan:  That’s a good, quality pass.

Alright, over to Lindsey. Any ideas?

Lindsey:  I don’t know. Let’s see… I don’t know. I was going to go with fault too. It’s called a point for the other team, right?

Morgan:  It is called a Nasty Nelson.

Lindsey:  Nasty Nelson?

Morgan:  Yeah, named after the infamous Timothy Nelson.

Bryce:    I’m going to use that one this weekend! (laughs…)

Morgan:  Yeah, you should because the point is you do get the point. If you serve and you hit the partner of the returner, you get the point because the ball never lands.

Bryce:    This is why you’re the coach. (laughs…)

Morgan:  Yeah, that’s why I get to ask the question. There’s a rumor they’re going to try and flip this on me and get people to ask me questions. I will boycott that until the end.

So, Bryce, you have another chance here.

Bryce:    Alright.

Morgan:  I would certainly recommend trying to get this one right.

Bryce:    Okay.

Morgan:  In a standard 2 out of 3 game to 11 match, the match can be competed with only two players ever serving. True or false?

Bryce:    True.

Morgan:  That is true. Well done!

Lindsey:  Good job!

Bryce:    Thank you, thank you!
Morgan:  Did you just guess that or did you actually think it through?

Bryce:    No, I was trying to logically think through that you could technically do that as long as – I mean if it never got to the other players.

Morgan:  Well done! Logic – yeah, that doesn’t always exist so you’ve done well to figure out the logic in the space of about 4 seconds. Good job!

Bryce:    Also, you didn’t mention doubles as well, so I was also thinking if it was singles.

Morgan:  Oh, ah… Yeah, yeah. I should probably have said that shouldn’t I? I’ll edit it in there somehow. Someone will edit it.

Okay, so that means you are on the board. You have 1 point. Lindsey, you have 2. Congratulations! But Bryce gets another chance for a point here. Are you ready?

Bryce:    Alrighty. Yup!

Morgan:  Alright. It’s another true or false, so you’ve got a 50/50 shot here.

There is no longer any restrictions to players communicating with each other when quickly hydrating or toweling off. True or false?

Bryce:    True.

Morgan:  That is true.

Bryce:    Awesome!

Morgan:  That was a guess though, come on?

Bryce:    That was 100% a guess. I did know that you could call a timeout. I found that out the other day.

Morgan:  Wow, okay.

Bryce:    I didn’t know there were restrictions around communication.

Morgan:  Well, now there isn’t. You can have a chat if you’re toweling off or grabbing a quick drink. It’s not an official kind of hydration break. They used to do this 15-second thing. Now, all that’s changed and you could have a bit of a chat. But the ref might call you back on court if you get out of hand.

Bryce:    We’re all mates here, right?

Morgan:  Yeah, yeah, exactly, for sure.

Alright, next question for you, Mr. Bryce…

Bryce:    Alrighty.

Morgan:  The New VANGUARD line of paddles includes one new addition to the model line up. What is it?

Bryce:    Oh crap! (laughs…)

Morgan:  (laughs…) I’ll take that as a firm pass.

Bryce:    Yeah, I know there’s the Invikta, and I know – what else is there? So there’s the Invikta, there’s the Epic, and then there’s – there is another one as well.

Morgan:  There’s six in total.

Bryce:    Oh there’s six. Oh, okay, and you’re looking for a new one? Alright.

Morgan:  Yeah, there’s a new one that…

Bryce:    I know there’s one that you used, Morgan.

Morgan:  You don’t even know the name of it. Bryce, you’re killing me!

Bryce:    It’s the long one that looks kind of like a tennis racket. Is it Maxima?

Morgan:  That’s the one I use but that’s not the new one. That’s been around since the beginning of time – almost.

Bryce:    Gotcha. Okay, so I’m just going to go with – what was that other one that has like a two-letter name? S2.

Morgan:  Okay, well that is one of the paddles but that’s not the new one, unfortunately.

Bryce:    It’s not the new one. Alright, Lindsey, you take that.

Morgan:  Lindsey, what have you got for us?

Lindsey:  Well, I think I know it. I don’t know now. I’m confused. Okay, so are you looking for like there is the Hybrid Series with the Epic, the S2 and the Invikta. And then, there’s the Power that’s coming out.

Morgan:  Yeah, that true.

Lindsey:  But is has to be three… Is that what you’re looking for?

Morgan:  No. So there are six paddles in total. I will happily name five of them for you. These is the Invikta, the Epic, the S2, the Maxima and Omni. One new paddle has been announced. It will be arriving in October, possibly August. It’s actually the lovechild of the Newman’s, so it’s going to be their new paddle, their signature line of paddles. So there is a model, it’s not the S2, it’s not the Epic.

Lindsey:  Not the Invikta, the Power Invikta.

Morgan:  Unfortunately not. I was so hopeful for you.

Lindsey:  I was too. I was really feeling good about that.
Bryce:    Morgan, what is the name? What can we expect coming?

Morgan:  It is called the Mark 6.

Bryce:    Oh…

Lindsey:  I like that.

Morgan:  Yeah, it’s kind of like a longer-handled, Invikta kind of shape for players that are really looking to use a two-handed backhand, I think it’ll do well much like the Maxima.

Lindsey:  Has that been announced on social media?

Morgan:  It’s been very social, yeah.

Bryce:    I did see something on social.

Morgan:  Okay. Bryce, you, unfortunately, have committed a double fault, therefore, Lindsey…

Bryce:    That’s right. I concede. (laughs…)

Morgan:  At any time, either one of you can forfeit just so we’re clear. This is already the longest trivia.

Lindsey:  I think we should both get a point on that, we learned so much.

Morgan:  I think I get the point for teaching.

Alright, Lindsey, Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner was played?

Lindsey:  I don’t know – the US Open?

Morgan:  That is incorrect, unfortunately. But not far off but you don’t get half a point. You just get me saying not far off, really.

Over to Bryce…

Bryce:    Yeah, I’m going to pass on this one. I’m not sure.

Morgan:  Okay, that’s a firm decision of passing. It was the Nationals.

Lindsey, you get another crack at this. Are you ready?

Lindsey:  I’m ready. Let’s do it!

Morgan:  Name three balls sanctioned by the USAPA.

Lindsey:  Well, I know two. Dura Fast…

Morgan:  That’s good.

Lindsey:  What’s the one that I always use? I can’t even remember the name. Jeez, not a brain fart. The Onix one… Does that count?

Morgan:  Right now, yeah, totally counts.

Lindsey:  Oh man, this is tough, right?

Morgan:  Yes and no.

Lindsey:  Franklin?

Morgan:  Okay, yeah. Look, that’s three.

Lindsey:  Okay, there we go, yes!

Morgan:  Well done, Lindsey. Well done.

Lindsey:  Okay, one’s the soft one, the not-so-soft one, and the hard one, does that count?

Morgan:  Yeah, that’s their technical names. That’s exactly what it is. Beautiful, beautiful.

Lindsey:  Okay, thanks for sticking with me there.

Morgan:  Hey, we had no choice. I got a lunch date.

Bryce:    Oh, I have the ball names.

Morgan:  Oh, good man. Well, you get no points for that. Bad luck.

Lindsey:  This is savage, I tell you.

Morgan:  It’s rough, it’s rough. Super savage.

Okay, Lindsey, next question: After the ref calls the score, how much time does a server have to serve the ball?

Lindsey:  That’s a great question.

Morgan:  I agree. I read it myself.

Lindsey:  Five seconds?
Morgan:  That is incorrect! That means Bryce, you got a chance.

Bryce:    After a ref calls the score, how long do they have to serve to ball? I’m just going to go with 10 seconds.

Morgan:  Nice! Hey, look at you! That’s correct.

Bryce:    You know if I’m getting my training right, Morgan?

Morgan:  No, no, I just want to be aware that so far 66% of Bryce’s correct answers have been guesses.

Bryce:     Oh gosh.

Morgan:  Yeah, so that’s not great. But we have a tied ballgame here; 3 points all. Next question for Mr. Bryce.

What does it cost per year to be a USAPA member?

Bryce:    I’m just going to go with nothing.

Morgan:  Really? No, they have to make some money.

Bryce:    Yeah, okay, gotcha. No idea.

Morgan:  No worries. Let’s see if Lindsey has an idea.

Lindsey:  Well, I think I know this because I’m a member.

Morgan:  Good girl.

Lindsey:  20?

Morgan:  20, that is correct!

Bryce:    Nice, Lindsey!

Lindsey:  Yes, thank you!

Morgan:  Well done, Lindsey. Way to support the sport.

Lindsey:  Thank you! Yeah, I’m all for it.

Morgan:  Alright, this is for the win here, Lindsey. You’re 4 – 3 up. How are you handling the pressure?

Lindsey:  I’m not sure I will be able to get this drop right in the kitchen. Okay, I’m stressed.

Bryce:    You’ve got it. You got it, Lindsey.

Morgan:  You should be. This is a tough one.

During sanctioned matches, players are required to call their lines. Which line is the exception to this rule?
Lindsey:  The kitchen line.

Morgan:  The kitchen line. Lindsey, you pulled it off! Well done.

Lindsey:  Wow, this is unbelievable!

Morgan:  I agree wholeheartedly. This has been epic!

Bryce:    I knew that one.

Morgan:  I’d tell you, this is one of those ones where when the editing comes in to do this, they’re like, “Do we want to keep it this long? Or are we going to cut some of these out?” And I’m going to have some tough choices on me.

Lindsey:  I’m okay with that.

Bryce:    It’s going to be fun for the next segment.

Morgan:  Six at the most, I think we’re on 45 minutes now? No, no, guys, this has been a lot of fun.

Bryce, you didn’t quite come away with the win but you got lucky 2 out of 3 times. Did you have fun?

Bryce:    I have fun!

Morgan:  Good man!

Bryce:    I think my expectations were set prior to coming on here.

Morgan:  Good! It seemed you had fairly low expectations, and you met those, that’s the important part.

Bryce:    Yeah, thank you so much!

Morgan:  There’s too much fun. Alright, guys, thank you both so much. You’ve given people out there something to enjoy. I’m not saying they’re going to be laughing at you or laughing with you, but there will be some laughter. You entertained me for sure and that’s the name of the game from my perspective. I wouldn’t normally get out of bed for this but this  has been great!

Bryce:    Awesome! Thanks so much, Morgan.

Morgan:  No worries.

Lindsey:  Yes, thanks, Morgan! It’s been a blast.

Morgan:  Take care, you two. Hopefully, we’ll see you on the court.

Bryce:    Awesome! Appreciate it.

Lindsey:  Have a good one! Bye!

Morgan:  Alright, take care, guys. Cheers!

Well, that just happened. I do apologize to all our listeners who had to sit through that. The vetting process is tricky. Some of these people, they can answer an email, and then they’re in. But it’s nice to have another Aussie on the show, so that’s a plus, right?

 Morgan:     Well that just happened. I do apologize to all our listeners who had to sit through of that. You know, the vetting process is tricky. You know, some of these people they can answer an email and then they’re in. Hmm, but, nice to have another rosy on the show, that’s a plus, right? Let’s head back over to Rob and Mike and see what else they’ve got to say.

Paddle Sales [42:01]

Morgan:     Alright now, one of the questions I have to ask you guys, and we don’t wanna keep you all day but we kinda do, I like talking to you both. To what extent do tournaments drive paddle sales? Obviously we’ve lost a lot of tournaments, TLC, as of the day of the recording just got cancelled, that’s not great. Do you look at your demographic and realize, you know what, a lot of the people are just playing for the fun of it, they’re not really tournament players; or is it largely to do with people wanting to compete? Where does it fit for you guys?

Mike:          Um, it does affect paddle sales, at the same time, as we invest in tournaments, for us it’s more about the branding, we never make it ROI in terms of the number of paddles sold vs the cost to  sponsor tournaments. It’s definitely I don’t think good for the sport. People want to be engaged in the sport. They wanna see matches, they wanna see players and they also want to see what players are using. So it definitely affects us.

Rob:            It more affects the brand in a positive light, it’s then that the brand helps sell paddles.

Morgan:     Okay, gotcha. Interesting. Well hope soon it will be back to normal and business as usual. There’s nothing much we can do about it, there’s no sense in complaining,

Rob:            Yes, it’s crazy times.

Both of Your Wives are Named Lauren [43:28]

Morgan:     Yeah, crazy times. Now pivoting just slightly, both of your wives are named Lauren. What was the mindset going into that decision?

[laughter]

Rob:             Well, firstly, when I got married, I had an application form. First, if you weren’t a Lauren, you were just scratched off.

Morgan:     That’s fair.

Rob:            And then finally I picked mine. And as for Mike, well, “she probably just picked me.” She had options.

[laughter]

Mike:          I was just thankful she said yes.

[laughter]

Rob:             And then Mike had to do the same thing. So our youngest brother now, at this point we’ve told him, he just needs to go to date.com or wherever, and just say in the beginning, it has to be Lauren.

Morgan:      That’s good, good. And when you both proposed and the girls said yes, did either of you say, really? You wanna think about this further or was it just a yes-get-the-ring-on-the-finger-let’s-do-this yes?

Mike:          I took it and ran, man. I took it and ran. [laughter]

Morgan:     Straight to the church.

Mike:          Yes! [laughter]

Morgan:      Good stuff. Well they’re both lovely Laurens. Certainly in my top 3 Laurens of all Time.

Rob:             That’s for sure.

Working Relationship as Brothers and the Future of Selkirk [44:34]

Morgan:      Now, obviously, you’ve been brothers for obviously some time now…

Mike:           As long as I can remember.

Morgan:      Working together so closely, does it always work, do you ever disagree on business decisions, and if so, how do you break the tie?

Rob:             Uh, we never disagree on anything. [laughter] We never had that happen. Um, you know it’s funny we get that question a lot. It’s a really interesting dynamic, right, to work with your relatives, to work with your brother. I think what it comes to, right, is the underlining trust relationship. So we have a rock-solid trust relationship deep down. So we always know that we’re gonna take care of each other. We may disagree and get on with each other, and not agree on a business decision, but we know overall we have the same goals, and if anything, because we’re willing to butt heads, and challenge each other, it actually ends us making best decisions overall because we’re not going, you know it’s not just one person saying this is how we’re gonna go. And then we also our lanes, right. Like with Mike, right, I trust him with a lot of major decisions especially in like, accounting, and branding, and marketing positions when he really believes in something cause I know he’s been very accurate with that where he will trust me on players or some other decisions. So we kind of built that relationship where, you know, we’re not saying we don’t disagree or don’t get mad at each other, but we always know at the end of the day we always have the same goals, and that we’re both working towards that.

Mike:           And the fact that the problems come up at different situations that allow us to really think through it, think through all the different angles, and when there’s a disagreement it’s there for a reason. And kinda gets us brainstorming on the best solutions that kinda work out for the best.

Morgan:     That kinda seems way too amicable.

[laughter]

Rob:             Well from an outsider it might look that way but uh. [laughter]

Mike:           In the middle of it doesn’t but it usually ends up, pretty much it ends up like that.

Morgan:      If it was that easy for everybody, jeez, the world will be a better place. So, way to set a good example there, brothers.

[laughter]

Rob:             We’re trying.

Mike:           You may have to actually see it.

Rob:             Yeah. Might just have to say that once you see the process.

Morgan:      I left it come up there and be a [laughter]… Lastly, can you give us a sneak peek into the future of Selkirk, I know it’s all hush-hush, you can’t say much, but firstly, any chance any plans to keep this podcast going at all? Sort of? Maybe?

Rob:             We’re having a discussion after this podcast.

Morgan:      Oh, I see. Okay. [laughter] Yeah, that’s fair. [laughter]

Rob:             Yeah, yes, we’ll probably keep it. It seems like it’s going pretty well. Umm..

Morgan:      Umm, well you just faltered.

Rob:              [laughter] but I mean for a future, right, I think I guess we can speak from an overall mindset. Like our goal is to drive this sport. Our goal is to drive the brand, to drive the growth of the sport from a grassroots perspective and a pro perspective. I mean, that’s been our goal since day one. And to do that, right, we’re gonna be investing more and more on R&D, more and more on branding, more and more in projects and programs that help achieve that. So what I would say, is like the plans we have as a company, I guess, you ain’t seen nothing yet. We have some pretty big plans. I mean, you can’t always count your chickens but Lord willing, if everything works out to the plans we have, we’re hopefully gonna make pretty big impact long-term to the sport.

Mike:            As you know, our slogan says, “We are Pickleball”. And what we mean by that is we’re more than just a paddle company, right. We wanna do things that drive the sport that really lead the sport in the direction that we think is best for the sport. So we’re gonna keep doing that and in some way we’ve been doing in leading in technology, in products, in paddles, but you extend beyond that in doing things that help the sport grow. And grow in the right way.

Morgan:       Gah, well that’s just a beautiful answer, really. Isn’t it?

[laughter]

Morgan:       You weren’t reading that from the script, right. Please, tell me.

Mike:            [laughter] No.

Morgan:       It came from the heart. Good men. That’s why we love you. Guys, guys, this has been far too much fun. We’ll have to do it again sometime. What do you reckon?

Rob:              Yeah, sounds good. We appreciate it. Thanks for all you do, Morgan.

Morgan:       Ah, it’s barely, you know. I have to get out of bed for some reason. 11 am is..

Rob:              Been doing this a while, right? it’s been good.

Mike:             Yeah, I’ve been trying to bike more while I listen to the podcast it’s been very entertaining. I think it’s the most entertaining podcast in pickleball by far.

Morgan:       Did your car break down or something?

Mike:            Um, my body’s breaking down.

[laughter]

Morgan:       Okay. You’ve got a bike. Good man! Alright, alright. So next time I see you, it’s gonna be a whole new Mike.

Mike:            I was biking I said. [laughter] not in the future.

Morgan:       Okay, okay. It sounds like the triathlons I used to do back in Australia where I would drive to the beach and walk to the water and float for a while. And do another triathlon on the way home. [laughter] It was a nice idea.

Alright you two, I know you’re busy, busy boys. So I will love you and leave you. Thank you so much for your time. Ladies and gentlemen, Rob and Mike Barnes.

Rob:                 Thanks Morgan!

Mike:               Thanks everyone, appreciate it. Thank you, Morgan.

Sponsor: Selkirk Sport