037 Transcript

 

 

Morgan Evans:
This is the Morgan Evans More or Less Pickleball Podcast coming at you in three, two, one, boom.

Morgan Evans:
My guest today is someone you’ve probably never heard of. He’s a professional player of a sport you may never knew existed. The budding sport of roundnet, commonly known as spikeball is much like pickleball was not so long ago. It’s in its infancy trying to find its footing. One of its elites, Kenny Ortega is joining me today to talk about the sport and his journey towards professional pickleball. Kenny Ortega, how you doing mate?

Kenny Ortega:
Morgan, how’s it going?

Morgan Evans:
Can’t complain. Not too bad for a select Tuesday.

Kenny Ortega:
Nice.

Morgan Evans:
So you are a professional roundnet player. And for those listeners at home or aren’t quite sure what that is, it’s generally referred to as spikeball by most of the population. Would that be correct?

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah, that’s true. Most people know it as spikeball or maybe have seen it on ESPN or on YouTube or something. And Spikeball is the company that makes the sets and kind of hosts the main tournaments and such. So most people know is that but the sport itself is technically called a roundnet.

Morgan Evans:
Okay, so it’s kind of like a hoover and vacuum situation?

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah, totally, more like rollerblading versus roller skating kind of like that.

Morgan Evans:
Okay. Well, they’ve done pretty well, haven’t they? Spikeball seem to own the market.

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah, they have done well and they sanction all the main kind of tour series for the competitive play of the game.

Morgan Evans:
Okay, so could you explain a little bit about roundnet or spikeball? How you began playing it? How do you play it? What’s the kind of allure?

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah, great question. So I started playing it in about 2015. And this was my senior year of college and was finishing up playing soccer in college and saw a bunch of people playing it on the beach in Southern California, and looked like a lot of fun. I’d seen it way back when a handful years before that. But I figured, hey, give it a try, and started playing with some friends. And we just got really hooked on it really quick. I mean, there’s something about diving around, back then we played a lot in the sand or on the beach, trying to make defensive plays and having long rallies. And so that’s kind of what initially drew me to the sport. And then at that point, I didn’t even know it was really a sport, I just thought it was kind of for fun.

Kenny Ortega:
And then I found out there was a tournament in San Diego, and I ended up going to that, and we just got crushed. But I saw that there are people, they were filming it, and they’re just about to be on Shark Tank. And there’s people from all over the country that have flown into go to that tournament. And I realized, whoa, man, there’s some great athletes playing this. There’s people that take this pretty serious, I think I can get pretty good at it. So I started playing that. And luckily, there’s a lot of people who play in the California area and started going into more tournaments and doing a little bit better. And then at that regionals, about five or six months later, I had pretty good results. And that kind of was the springboard of, hey, I want to start going into more tournaments, I think I can kind of do this at the top level and then about 2016 started to have some success and 17 have some major success at the top level.

Morgan Evans:
Okay, so it took you a couple of years to turn professional, so to speak?

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah, I would say about a year of playing it kind of and getting used to it and playing a little more serious. And then I kind of had a couple breakout tournaments with my partner at the time. And then we just kind of repeated that at some other places. We played like Alabama and Colorado at some big tournaments. And once we started doing that, it was like, okay, it wasn’t a fluke, like a one time if put back to back results. And then we started getting power ranked inside the top 10 teams in the country and kind of just had more success from there.

Morgan Evans:
Okay, so it is the kind of sport that players around America travel to various destinations to compete at the pro level?

Kenny Ortega:
Yes, however, I would say, it’s spikeball is still around, it’s still in its infancy and yeah, people travel but it’s not like pickleball, where at the top-top that people, to my understanding, I mean, there’s a lot more cash and a lot more money involved. And for the last couple years, there’s been a Spikeball league is the top eight teams and they sponsor them and a couple other sponsors as well. So that helped to kind breakeven with costs of flying and traveling and such. And then there’s some cash for the bigger tournaments to get back. But it’s really not a lot, which is kind of a semi drawl away. Not the main thing for me, but after traveling a lot and kind of just breaking even, it was fun but-

Morgan Evans:
Not likely to retire on the prize money.

Kenny Ortega:
By no means to cover the hotel in the plane flight, but that’s about it.

Morgan Evans:
Okay, so it was a labor of love?

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah, totally.

Morgan Evans:
So that’s cool. But then, as I hear it, you moved to Boise around about a year ago, and found pickleball, tell us a little bit of how that happened.

Kenny Ortega:
And so I had played pickleball, a handful times back in San Diego, with one of my good friends and colleagues and I was still playing roundnet at the highest level. And yeah, I’ve kind of committed to kind of doing that for the foreseeable future. But then COVID hit and my wife and I had actually decided we were going to move to Boise prior to that. Yeah, that kind of a string of those events led to me not playing as much roundnet in Boise specifically, just not a lot of players to play with. And kind of like most sports you need, at the top level, you kind of need those other high level players to push you or to train with to continue to stay at that level or to get better. And I really didn’t have the access to that, once I moved to Boise.

Kenny Ortega:
However, I started sitting around a bunch of parks. This was the summer of 2020, a bunch of people playing pickleball. And I was like man, it is popping here. I don’t know when I was in San Diego, I hardly ever saw anyone playing pickleball. But here there’s tons of people playing. And I liked it when I played. So I started showing up and just playing pickup and found myself staying for hours at the park just playing with generally an older crew of people. But I had a lot of fun. And then once I started doing good, after a couple months, I started getting invited by some of the younger crew of people that play a little bit more serious around here. And yeah, just got hooked. And that whole season, the 2020 season for the Spikeball tour series was canceled. And so that really kind of took away my motivation to keep training for roundnet and kind of open the door of man, hey, pickleball is a lot of fun. There’s there’s tons of tournaments all around the country, which is cool. And sounds like some of them are more accessible or even open.

Kenny Ortega:
And so what motivated me to keep playing and I just really got hooked. I loved it. I have always loved table tennis and never played it competitively, but was always good enough to beat all my friends. And so I think that helped I just like a life size table tennis. And I was like, man, this is a ton of fun. There’s a lot of strategy to it. Yeah, and now I’m totally hooked and trying to enter the full scene of pickleball.

Morgan Evans:
Firstly, I’m sure you’re all your friends are going to listen to this and they’re going to re-challenge you with ping pong. So just be careful, they might come out of the woodworks.

Kenny Ortega:
That’s true Morgan actually, since I’ve been playing pickleball, my ping pong game has gotten pretty bad actually, the stroke of playing pickleball is I destroyed my ping pong game.

Morgan Evans:
So yeah, you can’t have it all, unfortunately. When I was coming up in pickleball, I was still trying to play a little bit of tennis. And at some point something had to give and I had to choose the pickle. So what’s your plan? You’ve been a professional player in something else. And there’s very few kind of crossover players and this is the main reason you’re on the show. Aside from so I want to kind of pick your brain in terms of how their professional organization works and what pickleball might be able to learn. But as an athlete, we have some top tennis players coming in, there’s no one who’s playing professional tennis, and there’s no one who’s playing professional table tennis or to my knowledge in anything else. And also a professional pickleball player, generally they’ve retired at that level, and then they get into pickleball. But are you going to try and do both, do you think? You seem like someone who wants to get to the top?

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah, no, that’s a great question, Morgan. I’m sure my wife will listen back to this. And I know she won’t let me do both, even if I aspired to do both. But the reality is, yeah, I’m definitely in the phase of pretty much closing the door and being at peace within myself with letting roundnet go. And having a lot of peace about that.

Kenny Ortega:
Mainly, there’s a couple different reasons why but the main one, and one reason why I really have got super excited about pickleball in the future of me just being able to play it is, I want to compete in sports. I’ve always loved sports, but I want to be able to do it for a long time and the reality of injuries and it’s not as easy as you get older. And I’ve had a handful of ankle injuries in my past from mainly college soccer and such, but roundnet is really hard on your body. And it’s a ton of diving and tons of cutting. And yeah, it’s just hard on my body as like, man, even if pickleball didn’t come into my life, I was probably looking at a couple more years, and I was probably going to just call it after that, because it’s just hard on the body, at tournament day would just feel sore and pain all over the body.

Kenny Ortega:
And pickleball, you see people in their 70s, 80s and they’re still playing. And that was exciting to me that hey, even might have a run at the competitive circuit for a while. And then even after that, I could still play this game that’s a ton of fun with hopefully, my kids or whoever down the road at a later age, and you still have a lot of fun playing the sport. And so there’s not a lot of sports like that really, it’s like, you’re not going to play soccer into your 50s and 60s, basketball, like those sports just get pretty hard to do at a later stage and pickleball, I feel great playing ever since I’ve transferred over and been playing numerous times a week, I can find myself playing back to back to back days for multiple hours, and feel pretty good, which just wasn’t the case with most other sports just on the ankle. So that’s one of the main shifts.

Kenny Ortega:
And I’m pretty much at that stage or it’s like, I’m going to let roundnet go, I was considering maybe still going to like nationals this year. But there’s so many pickleball tournaments that are out there and I’m hooked. So I’m realizing that the transition is here. And I’m excited about it actually.

Morgan Evans:
Have you told Josh, you’re going to let him go as a partner?

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah. So Josh and I, we talked actually, a little bit ago, knowing that just with my job as well, in this shift of spikeball tournaments, being to a two day format, a Saturday and a Sunday, it made it even harder for me to be able to commit to those tournaments. I’m not getting back till late on a Sunday, and just with my job, and so that was hard. And so I let him know, hey, I could only do a couple tournaments, even if I was going to do tournaments this year, and kind of gave them the green light to find another partner and kind of play loosely what I was going to do if I was going to make my way to a couple tournaments, and I played in one this last week in Seattle, and had a lot of fun, really, if you don’t train at a sport for even four or five months, it’s hard to stay at that top-top level.

Kenny Ortega:
I’m at that stage where it’s like, I might play one more, maybe two more, but I’m pretty much transitioned. And I feel good about it. And even after this last week, it was like, man, I had a lot of fun playing but I really liked playing pickleball more and my body feels a lot better after a pickleball tournament than it does a roundnet tournament.

Morgan Evans:
And I’m sure the missus doesn’t miss trying to clean the blood out of your clothes after a roundnet tournament?

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah, sure. She doesn’t like hearing me complain about my whole body hurting.

Morgan Evans:
So what’s your current level in pickleball? How long do you think it’s going to take you to get to the top and I want to know what the plan here is?

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah, right now, I had a lot of success at the 5.0 level, particularly men’s doubles. My partner and I, he’s from Boise, so we get to play a good amount together and drill together. And my first tournament was in March in Utah at a five all men’s and we got second in that.

Morgan Evans:
Cool. Who was your partner?

Kenny Ortega:
His name is Nick Peterson. Yeah, he’s a great, great player in the Boise area. And yeah, we’ve kind of just continued off that success. We got second at the Pacific Northwest Regional in Boise in the men’s 5.0, so we just miss getting the golden ticket for that. But then we had another successful tournament up in Coeur d’Alene a couple of weekends later and took first in the men’s 5.0, and actually got to play Rob Barnes and his brother. And so yeah, it was a good time. We beat him in the final.

Morgan Evans:
Okay, so you’re going to try to compete as a pro?

Kenny Ortega:
That’s right. Yeah. So having success there and then we’re looking to test the waters for sure and the open divisions coming up the rest of this summer and into the fall. So excited for kind of that new challenge.

Morgan Evans:
Awesome. Okay, who are your training partners? And what’s your kind of drill to play ratio? We’re going to get into the nuts and bolts.

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah, and maybe I’ll even just ask you what your pointers are and your tips are on that since you’ve done it. So I play probably three times a week, three to four and then drill at least once and sometimes drill twice a week. I like to mix in some weightlifting and kind of getting back into a little bit of that. But I haven’t been making the time for that, because I just like being out on the court and getting touches. So playing about five to six times a week total but drilling at least once or twice.

Morgan Evans:
Okay. And you’re kind of style of game, do you tend to play fairly aggressive, are you into the soft game? How do you find most points ending?

Kenny Ortega:
Well, when I play with, I’m a shorter stature man.

Morgan Evans:
Hey, me too.

Kenny Ortega:
Great. Yeah. Power to us for doing that. I’ve always had a lot of success coming out of my roundnet career of defense, being a great defensive player and just reading the ball well, yeah, and roundnet, you have to react extremely fast to be able to get defensive touch on someone’s hit, because it’s 360 degrees to where you can hit the ball. And so with only two people being able to cover 360 degrees, it’s extremely challenging. But I had a lot of success in that and I think the footwork from soccer and roundnet translated over really well, that I can keep the ball and play pretty well, pretty consistently, I feel really confident about my dinking is improved a ton. And really from the back court, I’m working my way up to the kitchen line, I feel really confident in that. The back area and the middle ground with resets and such.

Kenny Ortega:
And so Nick tends to be a more, he’s more of the aggressor of the two of us, which works out well. I like to be consistent, and he likes to take some chances and try to speed it up or put the ball away. So we found good success with the mix of that. I’m definitely trying to continue to work on my deceptiveness and choosing moments to be aggressive. I think playing mixes helped me a bit just in social plan, such as just being a lot more aggressive when it comes to playing next levels. So that’s kind of where my skills right now, but I’d say my forte and my strengths are definitely my defense and my drops from the back backcourt and working my way up to the dinking line or the kitchen line.

Morgan Evans:
Nice. That’s always a great luxury for a partner to have someone who is aggressive, if you know that the guy standing next to you is going to dig out everything. And I’ve watched a lot of roundnet footage in preparation for this and some of your games and it’s quite amazing how quickly you can move and block something but also how late you hold a diving kind of move to get that much more shallow angle onto the ball. So are going to bring some diving onto the pickleball court? It’s been done before.

Kenny Ortega:
I’ve seen a couple highlights of people diving on the court.

Morgan Evans:
Rob Cassidy is the King. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Rob Cassidy play but he leaves DNA everywhere.

Kenny Ortega:
I’ve had a couple of those moments to play. But trying to avoid the concrete is a little bit different than the grass or the sand. So not as excited about diving around on pickleball court.

Morgan Evans:
Well, you should be, just wear a couple of knee pads, elbow pads. There was a guy, he got named proposal Dave. And he would always get down on one knee when someone was about to hit an overhead, literally, and he would just stand there and do his best to block it back. But it was amazing how often he actually did it, he used knee pads. But you could totally do it, man, you can make a name for yourself quickly as that guy that always dives around the court.

Kenny Ortega:
I have to think about that, it’s a good way to get my name out there.

Morgan Evans:
Fair enough. Okay, so training partners, yes, you’re talking about you’d play three times a week and you drill. For a lot of players, if you’re up and coming, if you flip that ratio, you’re probably going to accelerate your development, to a lot of people around 80, 20 towards drilling is kind of key. And you’re better off honestly, with one player that you really trust to be going in the same kind of path as you. I’d really like to have someone I know can compete or beat me in terms of hand speed and start a lot of heads up battles with them in a drilling scenario and get your hands beat up to snuff that way. And then someone else ideally, if it’s the same person, but someone else perhaps who can work around in the dinking department, do enough of that and just mix in your games to give you a kind of a chance to practice the things you’re working on in your drilling scenarios under a little bit of pressure.

Kenny Ortega:
Right, that makes sense. Yeah. And I feel like that has been a helpful aspect of my partner Nick, we feel like we both want to excel and kind of get to that next level and being able to push each other to do that together. As you know he’s been playing for about a year and a half and I’ve been playing for just over a year. That’s been a fun aspect to have that and then also some veterans as well like Susannah Bar, I’ve learned a lot playing against her and drilling with her. So it’s been helpful for sure to have some great players in the area to drill with, to see their skill sets and the different style of play as well. And that is really helpful.

Morgan Evans:
Is Kyle Thieme still up there playing? I think he’s up there, but I’m not sure if he’s playing.

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah, I played a handful times with Kyle. We played him in that regional tournament, actually. But I know he hasn’t been able to get out as much as he’d liked. But yeah, we definitely have connected a couple times. So looking to play more with him because great guy and a great player. So I know he’s been out of it for a little bit, but he’s trying to get his toes wet again, I think.

Morgan Evans:
Good, good. We missed him. He’s a good bloke, no doubt about it.

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah.

Morgan Evans:
We’re going to hold it just briefly there for a medium tip from our sponsor, CoachMe Pickleball.

Morgan Evans:
Think of the growth of your game in the same way that you think about the growth of your body. To grow muscles, to become stronger, more powerful. You need to test yourself, stretch those muscles so that they adapt and grow. Think of a tournament as a workout. You’re stressing yourself so that your body and mind are put to the test. One that they are more than likely going to fail at some point. A tournament is the ultimate training to failure workout. Even the winner has played to failure because there is no one left to play.

Morgan Evans:
I sometimes think of professional players as just the people that got the furthest in school. At the end of each year of school, a student sits exams. If they pass, they move on. If they don’t, try again. What chance would you have of passing the 11th grade exam, if you never took exams from K through 10? No chance. Imagine now you just passed 10th grade, but the world has a virus related blip. And when you wake up all the ninth graders are smarter than you. Not long ago, we lost the privilege of pressure. Tournaments. They are our exams, they are our workouts. Now they’re back bigger and better. The weights got heavier, the algebra test just became calculus. And there’s a whole bunch of people realizing the game didn’t just step forward, it took a leap.

Morgan Evans:
So what should you do? That’s what you want to know, right? That’s what we all have in common. We all want to get better, and we don’t want to get worse. So what do you do? Here’s what you do. For the next three or four minutes, I’m going to spell it out for you, I’m going to give you the cheat sheet, okay? If you like it, you can take it, if not bring it right on back.

Morgan Evans:
To become a better player, you need to find out where you are strong and where you are weak. The only way to do that is to sit your exam, play a tournament and get your report card. Take that report card and hit the drawing board. Record your matches so that your drawing board is accurate, and not your ego just throwing your partner under the bus. Do this again and again. The more you do it, the more feedback you get. So the faster you can adapt your training to solve the current puzzle of whatever level you’ve got right now. Don’t succumb to the temptation of training every day. You’re not 12 years old, and your body is like day old rice, unless you warm it up, it’s just not going to go well.

Morgan Evans:
Remember, stress plus rest equals growth. The equation doesn’t work without rest. To find the right amount of training, you need to listen to your body and then ignore your own perspective of your body and look at the facts. What’s your lean muscle mass? What’s your max VO2? How are you measuring your speed? Don’t you dare trust yourself on that. Record sprints and record your times. How well are you sleeping? How well are you sleep during tournaments? Does your diet have to change when you’re on the road? What kind of ratio of electrolyte to water works for you? How does your body respond to the additional glycogen in the days before the tournament? In short, know thyself get fit to play pickleball, don’t play pickleball to get fit. You’re just asking for an injury that will end up costing you a lot more time in the long run.

Morgan Evans:
Every year, take at least two to four weeks off without touching a paddle. Seriously, you’re addicted and you need to put the pipe down once in a while. Don’t let this game become you. You’re more than that. Whoever you are, you got to do at least one other thing that gives you meaning. Doesn’t matter if it’s spam collecting or hiking the Andes, Just do it. Even if for no other reason than the fact that you really don’t want the kind of crushing weight of self expectation only exists when your pickleball now defines you. Also, you’ll lose fewer friends if you have a spare subject matter up your sleeve at the next intervention.

Morgan Evans:
Learn the names of the referees, be nice to them, let them feel comfortable and in charge. If you’re a naturally combative schmuck and your ego won’t let you accept defeat, then well don’t do that. That sucks for everyone. In fact, tag someone you know that this describes, call them out. Find a way to enjoy the event, not just the tournament. That’s different for everyone. For you, it might be sightseeing, going to the beach. For me, it’s drinking in a new location. It doesn’t matter. If you can enjoy this moment in your life, then you’ll be more than likely to want to do it again. Regardless of the outcome of the tournament. Whatever happens, just think of a tournament as a stepping stone, a teacher, but not your magnum opus. You’ll only know when that day was in hindsight, many years from now, when you hang up the paddle. Do these things, wear sunblock and oh, yeah, sign up for CoachMe Pickleball, that should really help.

Morgan Evans:
Well, there you have it, folks. That’s the best I can do for you. Let’s head back over to Kenny see what’s going on with roundnet.

Morgan Evans:
So in pickleball, we have a couple of competing tours, the APP and the PPA. In roundnet, there appears to be just the governing body, the Spikeball Roundnet Association that runs pro divisions and also sanctions other tournament. Has there ever been any competing tour?

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah, there’s the URA, which is the Utah Roundnet Association, and they host a ton of tournaments. And they have a pretty big following in Utah. There’s a lot of people that play roundnet in Utah, and they’ve actually branched out even this year, with hosting tournaments, just on the west coast. So some California and Idaho actually, so they’re not just doing Utah anymore, but they’re definitely expanding and so there’s that. There’s a California kind of tour series, it’s called the [Kaisar 00:26:28]. And so they do a little bit as well. And there’s individual, international kind of federations or associations that have their own kind of tour series, if you will.

Morgan Evans:
Okay, and are they operating under the umbrella of the SRA? Or are they just completely separate and don’t really mind if they’re sanctioned or not?

Kenny Ortega:
They work together. So there’s a tournament, for example, in Salt Lake City in a couple of weeks. And it is part of the URA kind of tour series, but it’s also one of the major spikeball sanction tour series tournament. So they’ve kind of partnered on that together. And so there is some crossover, I think, yeah, they’re independent in the sense, Spikeball the company likes to work with them and promote and even encourage leagues or series to be started in different areas, because it’s helpful for them regardless, the more people that are playing, more people that are getting into tournaments, the better further their companies.

Morgan Evans:
Yeah, the rising tide, raises all boats, right?

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah.

Morgan Evans:
Okay. So for the most part, that people they’re all kind of playing nice, which is good to hear. It hasn’t always been that way in pickleball. We have some real controversy, little competition between two tours. But I have noticed that they are individually getting better at their tours because of each other. I think if there was only one and they’ve got a monopoly, then it’s might not be the same so curious where it’s heading. Have you been to a professional pickleball tournament?

Kenny Ortega:
If it’s considered an APP or PPA I have not actually, tonight, I’m actually driving out to Bend, Oregon for I believe the tournament in Bend is an APP. So excited. That will be my first experience at one of those and playing so we’re playing the men’s 5.0, tomorrow morning. And then we’ve got the men’s open on Thursday. So excited for that, that experience and yeah, test our game where it’s at right now against some of the pros.

Morgan Evans:
Nice. All right, well, I’ll be keeping a look at the bracket, see how you go.

Kenny Ortega:
Thank you.

Morgan Evans:
Tell me a little about the rating and or ranking system in roundnet? Is there a rating system or is it purely rankings?

Kenny Ortega:
It’s more so ranking. So in most tournaments, you’ve got your beginner, intermediate, advanced, and then what’s called premier and then now there’s pro division. And so there’s different divisions, you have to qualify, I guess there’s now also one called contender, which is in between advanced and premier/pro. In order to become a premier/pro player to qualify to play in those divisions, you have to enter into the contender division and finish top three or top four, depending on the tournament, and then your premier status last for about a year from the last tournament that you qualified for essentially.

Kenny Ortega:
And so that’s kind of the distinction of how players are rated based on what they’ve qualified for, what divisions they play in. And then at the top level, there’s kind of like a governing body that does rankings and so there’s team rankings’ kind of power rankings is what they call and they do it every other month based on tournament results, and mainly from the big tournaments. And then there’s also kind of individual player ratings that go out, voted on by committee then also by the community of players at the end of the year, kind of the end of the year accolades and such.

Morgan Evans:
Okay, so to actually be classed as a professional player, you have to go through this contender series break into the premier/pro, are they kind of class the same thing or is premier under pro?

Kenny Ortega:
There’s a handful of premier players, there’s a lot of premier players. And I would say there is a distinction between premier and pro. Now the way that you would classify, I guess a pro would be if they played for me, I don’t know if it’s the same standard for everyone. But if they played in the pro division at a tournament, so usually, from a premier, they take the top eight, or it’s changed over the years. So they take the top eight premier ranked teams of that tournament. And they’ll be in the pro division or they have a large premier bracket, they do pool play, and then the top, again, usually the top eight that come out of pool play are then slotted into a single elimination, pro division bracket.

Kenny Ortega:
And then also you have to qualify at nationals, the top 16 teams at the end of the season will qualify it for nationals and usually get a pro bid for that by finishing top two at one of the pro divisions of one of the tournaments during the year. So I would consider that kind of the pro level players, there’s about 16 teams that have earned that status of playing pro division at nationals or some of snuck into the pro division during a tournament.

Kenny Ortega:
And then there’s kind of the elite class I guess is Spikeball League, which is at the end of the year, they take the top eight teams who ever had your best three or five finishes on the year, most points, those will be the top eight teams and those are sponsored by Spikeball as Spikeball League for the following year or season.

Morgan Evans:
That’s cool. It sounds kind of organized. And all the pickleball listeners that have just heard what you just explained, it seems to make great sense. And it’s not something we’re used to in pickleball. So I do hope the powers that-be were listening to this, because from what you just said, it seems like an organized way to firstly classify professionals and run an effective league.

Morgan Evans:
One thing I did check out and was very curious about was the strength multiplies. I saw that there was a system in place in roundnet, for basically having a more accurate rating or ranking system based on the strength of the competition in each tournament. Could you explain a little bit about that?

Kenny Ortega:
Yes, totally. So essentially, I don’t know all the algorithms that going into that. But basically a tournament, they can be worth, one would be like the equal amount of points for that tournament, or they multiply it by 1.1 or 1.2 probably up to I believe, 1.3. And like you said, it’s based on the strength of the players that are competing in that tournament at the premier/pro level. And so if you look at how is that rated, it’s based off the season before, of the total points that each player individually had from the results at tournaments. And so for example, a tournament that has, it’s got 20 of the top 30 players in the country based off their points from the previous season and their results, that would be probably a pretty high like a 1.2 or 1.3 multiplier, because 20 of the top 30 players in the world are at that tournament competing, which means it’s going to be a pretty intense tournament, as opposed to maybe you’ve only got, it’s a tour stop, which means there’s still the same amount of incentive as another one.

Kenny Ortega:
But if there’s only five players or six players, out of the top 30 players in the country at that tournament, the result of that team getting whoever gets first as opposed to the other tournament, it’s not going to now because of the multiplier or the negative aspect. I think if the tournament’s weak, it won’t get full points awarded to the team that wins. There’ll be like a multiplier point nine or point eight, if it’s a weaker tournament, so to help really with those points. Again, the points play a major factor in who makes pro division at nationals who make spikeball at the end of the year. So I think spikeball is a way of kind of making because of tournament location, et cetera, really the true top teams hopefully what will get the right points for the right turnout based on the competition that’s there.

Morgan Evans:
I like it. It’s borderline genius, I’d say.

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah, I think in theory, it’s a great idea. There’s definitely nuances and maybe, slight cracks in it in some ways, but overall I think it’s a good idea.

Morgan Evans:
Beautiful. All right, so you’ve got a tournament pickleball tournament coming up this weekend, are you signed up for nationals. What’s have you got for the rest of the year? How can our esteemed listeners find you on the court?

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah, so I mean, being in Boise, and I like to go to the tournaments that are hopefully semi drivable. So I believe there’s a good tournament that Steve Deakin is hosting in October in Idaho Falls. So that’s an in state. So that’s a definite yes, my family and I was raised in San Diego, California. And there’s a handful of tournaments I’m sure you’re aware of in the Newport Beach area, some of those invitationals. So I think the plan is to make way to some of those tournaments in Newport, kind of in the September, October November range, I’d have to look back at the calendar. And then yeah, nationals, I did get a golden ticket for mixed at the regional so the intent is to go, however, my mixed partner is unavailable to go.

Kenny Ortega:
So hey, since I’m on your podcast, maybe I’ll throw it out. If there’s any females that are looking to go to nationals, you didn’t get a golden ticket mixed but you want to play, I think we do great. So if you’ve got some skill, and you want to compete at a high level, try and win that together, maybe message me or reach out. And yeah, I’d love to play. So intending to play nationals together.

Morgan Evans:
Yeah. All right. Okay, so we’ll make sure we put a link in the podcast release so people can find you. And I assume you’re looking for 5.0 again?

Kenny Ortega:
So I have only played one tournament for mix, my men’s doubles rating is above 5.0, but since the only one I’ve played, and it was with a newer partner, we played for five at that regional and won that. So I believe we have to play the 4.5 for the next.

Morgan Evans:
You don’t have to you’ll have to play whatever your rating is when it comes time as a particular date and what you are then is what you play. So if your rating right now is 4.5, then you might still be playing 4.5 in nationals. But if you have a couple of great results between now and then, and you bump up to 5.0, then that’s what you’ll be.

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah, that’s where I’d prefer to play. It’s kind of hard to find a mix partner. So I’ve only played one mix tournament or competed in the mixed doubles at a tournament but I would love to find an equal calibre female to play a lot more 5.0 tournaments.

Morgan Evans:
You should ask Susannah Bar, she’s really nice. I’m sure she’ll say yes.

Kenny Ortega:
I think she’s booked out for the rest of the year with a partner.

Morgan Evans:
Tell me about it, I’ve always wanted to play with her. All right. Well, Kenny, thank you so much for your time, mate. You’ve enlightened me in this sport of roundnet and how the kind of parallels can be drawn between pickleball and roundnet. They both kind of one of those fringe sports where so often, it’s kind of the sport you encounter when you’re on the way at a park to play another sport like tennis, soccer or basketball and who knows when it will really break into the mainstream and hit the Olympics. But I’d love to see one weekend where you play in a pickleball tournament and the roundnet tournament and fans from both sides will come and cheer you on.

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah, I don’t know if those days we’ll have to come really soon. Because as you said, it’s hard to do both but I’m with you. I like to see pickleball I think it’s on its way to be why not in the Olympics. I think it’s on its way.

Morgan Evans:
Good stuff. Until then, we could possibly invent a hybrid sport basically a roundnet, instead of using your hands, you use paddles and a ball. What do you think?

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah, a couple people try that out actually with pickleball paddles.

Morgan Evans:
Does it work?

Kenny Ortega:
It works, you might be a little more prone taking a paddle to the face than you would prior but yeah, that’s a good little fun little cross activity, cross sport training.

Morgan Evans:
And what do you think pickle spike or spike pickle or round pickle?

Kenny Ortega:
Round pickle.

Morgan Evans:
Round pickle, all right. Yeah, I think we got it. All right. We nailed it. Good stuff, mate. How can people find you? Do you have like a handle of some kind of social media presence that people can get ahold you?

Kenny Ortega:
Well, if you’re curious, at more about roundnet, again, I’m not playing nearly as much anymore. But if you’re curious of what is the top level of roundnet look like, my old team account is on Instagram is mammalroundnet. That’s just one line. And then if you’re curious on following just me personally, my journey of transitioning from roundnet to pickleball and seeing how far I can go with pickleball, my Instagram account is Kenny Ortega C-O, so Kenny Ortega Co.

Morgan Evans:
Okay.

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah, that’s me, Morgan.

Morgan Evans:
Perfect. Well, thank you so much for your time, mate. I look forward to catch you on the court.

Kenny Ortega:
Yeah. Hopefully we’ll cross paths soon.

Morgan Evans:
Yes.

Kenny Ortega:
That’d be fun.

Morgan Evans:
Definitely. All right, bud, take care of yourself. Say hi to the family.

Kenny Ortega:
Thanks, Morgan. Yeah, I will. Appreciate it.

Morgan Evans:
All right, mate. Cheers.

Morgan Evans:
This podcast was powered by Selkirk. This podcast is also brought to you by the next generation of Selkirk paddle, the Vanguard.

Morgan Evans:
As always, it’s been an honor and a privilege to have your company. Hope you’ve enjoyed the show. I’m Morgan Evans and this has been More or Less Roundnet, I mean, Pickleball. God, we’re just changing lives out here.