Stay Tranquilo - How to Become a PRO Pickle Ball Player and What it was Like Growing up in Cuba?? - Stay Tranquilo

Episode Date: April 9, 2024

In this episode of the Stay Tranquilo Podcast, we are joined by Mario Figueredo Hidalgo, a pro Pickleball player and Cuban American. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. In this episode we touch on: 0:00 - Intro 1:46 - BetterHelp Online Therapy 2:50 - Intro to Mario Pro Pickle Ball Player 5:50 - Thoughts on the Weekend Warriors? 7:50 - Training regime and life of Pickle Ball pros 16:00 - Tournament Play and Being Drafted 19:30 - Knowing which paddle to pick 27:00 - Technique for good pickle ball play 28:50 - Magic Mind shout out 30:00 - Life in Cuba and Best Cuban Food Miami Sign up to BetterHelp and get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/tranquilo Magic Mind HERE: http://magicmind.com/ANDREDUNAND and receive an EXCLUSIVE DISCOUNT. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Obviously, pickleball is big amongst us. Like weekend warriors. We just learned we're weekend warriors over here. Yeah, we think we're the best players on the court until we actually play someone that's good and then we realize we stink. That happened to me really early in the game where me and my boys were playing and we thought we were the best pickleball players that were beating our boys. Right. And then we're like, you know what, let's go sign it for like the little weekend tournament they got here. First game lost 11-0.

Second game lost, like 10 to 11.2. Third game, like 113, and I think our closest game was 116. Got completely swept. Didn't win one game. We were struggling the whole time. Didn't understand the concept of like the kitchen and playing up there. We were playing back. We got humbled quick.

So you probably see God knows what you see. You see it all. What's your thoughts on the weekend warriors out there? I enjoy it, man. I love showing up to a park on like a day off. I want to go play with guys. And I remember actually one time I went to Miami Beach and I saw these guys on what's called the challenge sport.

And they were just beating up on everybody, on the old people. And I stepped in with a girl and they were like, are you sure you want to step on this court? And at that point I was already playing 5-0. They were like, oh, this is for advanced. I was like, okay, it's fine. I mean, we ended up pigling them, 11-0. So crazy how fast it happens.

Yeah. What's going on, guys? It's Daniel, a.k.a. Poach, taking a break from behind the camera to let you know that this episode is brought to you by BetterHelp, a completely online therapy service designed and suited to all your individual needs. Sometimes things that stay Taranquilo can get a little stressful, and we've had our fair share of challenges that we have to get through. And the possibility of having a therapist in our corner can be that factor that gives us a drive, motivation, and determination

to keep bringing our vision to life and sharing what we create with all of you. So if you think of therapists might bring you those same benefits, give BetterHelp a try. Just fill out a brief questionnaire on their website and get matched with a licensed therapist today. Learn to make time from what makes you happy with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash Taranquilo to get 10% off your first month today. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P-Talquilo. And now let's get back to our regular schedule program. All right.

What is up, everybody? We are here. We're doing the State Tranquilopod today. We got Mario in the building. We're here at Vic Studios. And we are going to do a really fun pod today that I'm excited about. Mario is a professional pickleball player. So we're going to talk about everything pickleball today.

But we're also going to get into a little bit about Mario's life, the mindset that goes into being a pickleball player, how the games kind of evolved. And yeah, it'll be a fun pod today. So we're definitely excited. And thanks for coming on today. Oh, thank you for having me. Beautiful studio.

company. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks Vinyas for putting us together. Shout out to Vignas. So let's, we're going to start all the beginning. Okay. And Dave, obviously, please chime in. Listen, for, Staten, I feel, listen. Always on the sports. Hey, I'm usually on the sports. I'm bringing it together today. But yeah, yeah, bringing it all together. But let's start from the beginning with, with you and kind of like, how did you get into becoming a professional pickleball player? Like, when did that start for you? What? was the thought process of even deciding to do this? Like, how did this all begin for you?

So when I started playing pickup ball, I just started playing it at a wreck level. I should just go with friends, family, and then I played my first ever tournament at the 3-0 level and I won it. And then I gradually started competing up the ranks, 35-40, up until eventually I, last year I competed in the MENTO US Open

in Naples, Florida, and I won the men's 5.0 level and then the mixed. And then I said, well, I'm done playing amateur at this time. And then I started taking my pickup ball training a little more seriously and then just to throw myself out there and play pro. So basically it was just something that you were playing for fun and then essentially was like, I'm good at this. I'm going to go to the pro level.

Yeah, I realized that I was a little better than the average seven-year-old at the park. And then, you know, I realized that I had all the skills. I was fast. I was agile. I have quick hands, which came from baseball. Okay. And then, you know, I just started drilling a little more, taking my practice a little more serious, and then and then started playing in the pro events. Nice.

So your background is baseball? Background and baseball. I grew up here, man. Nothing like that. Never played any racket sports now. Okay. Interesting. That was going to actually my first.

Yeah. Like what sport was kind of what got you into it? But baseball, yeah, tell us a little about that. Like how does that, how does baseball? I mean, obviously, you know, swing motion. The hand eye. How does it translate? Yeah.

So I've always said. that if you don't come from any racket sport and pick a ball the best sport that translates into it is baseball because of the hand-eye coordination you know with the footwork fielding you know i was in high school hitting as guys that were throwing 85 90 miles an hour so you know pickup ball coming at me is not a very fast object compared to baseball so you know pick a ball is a very especially in doubles it's a very fast-paced game so if you have the hand eye and the the hand speed you should do pretty well. Right. So obviously pickleball is big amongst us. Like weekend warriors. We just learned we're weekend warriors over here. Yeah. We think we're the best players on the court until we actually

play someone that's good and then we realize we stink. That happened to me really early in the game where me and my boys were playing and we thought we were the best pickleball players because we're beating our boys, right? And then we're like, you know what, let's go sign it for like the little weekend tournament they got here. First game lost 11-0. second game lost like 10 to 112 third game like 113 and i think our closest game was 116 got completely swept didn't win one game we were struggling the whole time didn't understand the concept of like the kitchen and playing up there we were playing back we got humbled quick so you probably see god knows what you see you see it all what's your thoughts on the on the weekend warriors out there

I enjoy it, man. I love showing up to a park on like a day off and I just, I want to go play with guys. And I remember actually one time I went to Miami Beach and I saw these guys on what's called the challenge court. And they were just beating up on everybody on the old people. And I step in with a girl and they're like, are you sure you want to step on this court? And at that point I was already playing 5-0. They were like, oh, this is for advanced. I was like, okay, that's fine. I mean, we ended up pigling them 11-0. But so crazy how fast it happens. Yeah. But this is fun, man. I love those guys that go out there and I was at Miami Day the other day and these guys were like screaming at each other. Like, don't take my ball. And it's just, it gets heated. It gets heated. I love to see it.

It's fun. Yeah. So you mentioned like on your days off, like how often are you in training? Like how, you know, on let's say the weekly basis, like how often are you training? Like, what is your training with like? So I train Monday through Friday. I wake up every day at 6 a. I go to a lifetime fitness, so I'll do an hour of pickaball there as they have indoor courts.

So you're playing actual pickleball? Training. Instead of playing rec with four people, I'll play with Brooke Revolta, who is also a local pickup ball pro. We'll train for an entire hour just doing drills, and then the second hour I'll do physical training, and then I'll do 30 minutes of recovery. So I'll go in the sauna, I'll do the cold plunge, I'll do stretching, which is extremely important, especially if you want to avoid injuries,

as we know that there's a lot of injuries with pickaballs on the right. So, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it is something. I had a pickleball injury. I literally pointed right out of one of those victims. I had a, and I think it was like a wear and tear thing. You know, I wasn't doing the recovery probably as much as I should. I was already very active to begin with.

At that time, I was running like, I think 30 miles a week on top of playing pickleball two times a week. So I just think it was like, impact and probably not using the right shoes. I mean, God knows what it was. But that day, I'll never forget. Like, I wasn't even feeling good going into it. Oh, yeah. Boom, 10 minutes in on the floor, like in pain and find out that the foot doctor's like,

yeah, we're getting injuries all the time for pickleball. Like, it doesn't matter to the age. I mean, older guys for sure. You're getting all the ages getting hurt. What is it about the sport that you think causes the injuries? Obviously, I think the repetitive motion with the shoulders is one of those things. But what are some of the other. Yeah, that's just not a natural motion for the human body as it is with baseball.

If you don't go and stretch for at least seven minutes, if you're not running around, if you're not stretching properly, an injury is going to be happening at some point. So I always recommend that you wear tennis shoes, not just regular sneakers, and stretch and run. You can't go into a court and just go all in at 1,000 miles an hour without properly stretch your body. That's what I was doing. Yeah, it didn't work for me. I'm the opposite.

I'm usually the guy. I'll do like a one-hand. Everyone goes in ice cold and I'm like, you guys aren't going to strike before? Like, this is going to, I'm going to get hurt if I do that. Yeah. I do that with everything.

Even golf. Like, I play a lot of golf. I can't just like go up there. It's like, I got to stretch. My body's like ice cold. I'm like,

I got to a little bit of like a dynamoamic warm up. Get the rotation in. Like, I don't know. The doctors will probably tell you otherwise. They're making a crap ton of money. Yeah. And the PT guys.

Oh, yeah. Wait. So when you're playing like, do you, whether it's, you know, I guess, whether it's practicing or like, do you prefer playing singles or doubles? Is there like a, do you have a preference? So I'm not, I'm not a huge singles guy.

Okay. I am going to start playing. Is singles even really a thing in pickle? Oh, it is. It is. Okay. So every, every good tennis player, the way that they make their transition into pickleball and getting their name out there is actually singles, because it's a lot

easier for them to do well in singles than it is in doubles. I haven't really practiced it much because, I mean, I'm a small guy. And yes, it's a much smaller court, but you, still need court coverage, your wingspan. I kind of make up for it with my speed and agility, but it's tough to play against guys who are 6-5 off of the ATP tour in tennis, and they're hitting drives that are coming at you at 1,000 miles an hour, and they just kind of get to every ball that you hit.

Yeah, yeah. But it's definitely something that I'm going to start practicing more, but doubles is definitely my thing. You have like whenever you play in terms of, like you have like a set guy that you play with every time? Yes, right now I'm playing with this guy called Juan Size, who was 230 in the world in tennis, which is actually pretty impressive. And I just got drafted into the Off Florida Pro League in which I'll have a said partner for the entirety of the season.

Cool. But lately I've been doing tournaments with Juan Size. He's great. Love his energy. And he's a local guy, so I get to train with all the time. Have you met the guy you're going to be partner with yet, or do you at least have no? have an idea who would be here? Yeah, Drew Holder's a great guy.

He's a young kid out of Orlando, and he's been asking me to play tournaments for the past two years. We've just never been able to play just because I rather play with people who I can actually train with down here. But I'm really looking forward to that partnership with he is a very good player. Awesome. That's cool. So you talked about the league.

What's the name of the league that you were drafted in? All Florida Pro League. All Florida Pro League. So what is the dynamic behind that league? I know we spoke a little bit beforehand that there's a couple, I guess, different leagues out there right now. So can you? I guess in your best way possible, kind of describe the layout of what this pro league looks like right now

and the dynamic of that aspect of the game? So it's very similar to the major league pickupoff format, which is a team of four players. It consists of two males and two females. And then in the actual match, you'll play a man's match against the other team, a women's match, two mixed matches, the guy with a girl, and then eventually you'll play a singles tiebreaker, which is great. I love the team format. I think it's the best. I think it's better than just going to a tournament with somebody and just flying.

That's awesome. In relation to MLP and the PPA, so the PPA is literally just the league, along with the APP, it's kind of like MLB or any other league. MLP is the premier team format league, and then the Florida Piggle Ball League is the best players out of the state of Florida, which is a heavily populated state with talent down here.

And is there team owners? There are. So there's team owners. So each team that you're a part of in that league has an owner. Correct. And then there's a schedule that you guys play and you play X amount of games, I guess, in a season. Yeah. So on May 4th is the first event, which will be in Punta Gorda, the Pligplex.

And then there's, I think, six or seven different stops on that tour, one tournament each month. And then there's a cash price for that one. obviously not as big as the MLP, but... Right. Yeah. Okay. And what is one of the, I guess, one of the aspects that you, I mean, you kind of alluded to it a little bit, but what is like one of the components about the league pickleball

that you enjoy most compared to, you know, what you've seen on the recreational side? Like, what is it about that competitive side of the game that you've really, I guess, gravitated to? I think just the team format itself is great, because you'll have, the two guys playing and then you have the women there cheering. Usually the, like, for example, I belong to the Lakeland Palms. That's the team. And I'm sure they have their friendships that they have of the team owners.

So I'm sure they'll come out and support. It's just a lot more exciting the team event than actual, like, a partnership that you just go to and play a tournament. It's just a very different dynamic. And everybody that I've spoken to and played with, they agree that that's the best way to go. Yeah, I think everything is always better, like, as a community. Yes. When you're kind of rattling together as a group for like a collective goal. Like that's one of the things like with golf.

Like it's you only. And it's like you go out there, you win. Obviously it's better sweet. But like you have your caddy. I mean, that's, I guess you're only teammate out there. But outside of that, you don't have anyone. You know, I think the team aspect of like football, baseball, like you see it. You see the hype when like someone hits a crazy good shot.

or, you know, they hit a, you know, they hit a huge basket. Like, there's that rally aspect. I'm sure you feel that when you're, when you're, oh, yeah. Even the viewership and pickupball on YouTube or where they play it on ESPN, it's, it's much higher for the major league pickaball events as opposed to the PPA tournaments and the EPP. Yeah, it's much bigger. So actually, speaking of that, where, like, we wanted to go, we wanted to watch when

your, you know, your match is like, is there, is it YouTube? Like, where could somebody watch? Yeah, you could look it up on YouTube if you type in Mario, Figurretto. I'm sure you'll be able to find me there on some of the duper 22 events. I know there's a couple matches in there from the U.S. Open last year that I played. That's where you would find it. With the U.S. Open, would you say that's been so far in all the tournaments that you play, like the coolest one or your favorite one or it's like, I know you just played in the Miami Open one too?

So I guess how would that compare or which one do you prefer? So the U.S. Open is probably the biggest tournament out of the entire year. I think there's for this one coming up now, there's upwards of 5,000 players registered. So the amount of people that actually go to this venue, it's a lot more than just a regular tournament. Last year when we played it, I think there must have been like 70 people they're watching our finals match, all from Miami. Yeah, that's awesome. How do they filter who plays in these tournaments? So obviously, like, if you're part of the team or part of the league, like, is there a scouting going on?

Like how, because you just said you were drafted into the, into the, how does that all work? Like, who's out there? Are they going to the rec courts and looking for somebody? How does that, how does that all work? So off Florida Pickleball, they host tournaments, what's called Duper 20 or 22, which is, again, the same team formats. And I competed in two of their events in the past four months. Okay. I did good.

I actually got on one of the highlight reels of the Dink Pickleball, which is the biggest Instagram account for Pickleball. And got some publicity there. And just people have known me over the years and you know, I'm a good player, a good teammate, and I'm sure that went into account when they decided to draft me. Gotcha. So some of it is obviously skill level, but a lot of it is also based off reputation. That's out there as well. Yeah, you don't want to have somebody who's not a good teammate on the team.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It makes sense. So obviously, pickleball is really blown up, right? I mean, I don't even remember when it started becoming, I think, but it just feels like the last couple years, it's really blown up. up, where do you see the game going next? Like, obviously there's, when we were talking about it,

there's more funding going on with there's guys like Mahomes that are invested in it, Drew Breeze. So there's obviously a lot of hype around it. Where do you see some of this hype going? I mean, I started in 2019 when there was no, every turner was only on YouTube. And there's barely out there. And nobody was paying it. Yeah, definitely no courts in Miami. Yeah, I mean, and, and, I mean, and, yeah. endless possibilities in the U.S. for Pickleball. I mean, I see it in the next five years. There's going to be courts pretty much on every public park.

The demand for people is ridiculous. You go to any park right now and with eight courts. And you have waylands on every single court. And the more you build it, the more they will come. The only issue that I see with pickleball on a viewership standpoint is, you know, once you get into that dinking rally, that nobody wants to think, it's really hard if you're watching on television

to appreciate the art and the mastery of how hard it is to dink. And somebody who's never played pickleball or has played tennis or whole lives and sees it on ESPN and they see four guys just kind of dinking back and forth, they look at that as something that's very simple, very non-athletic, easy, and it's not. That's actually one of the hardest things,

in my opinion, in the game. So I think that's where pickleball might struggle, ago on the TV. And do you think it's because the recreational golfer doesn't have a golfer. The recreational pickleballer doesn't play that type of way, right? Because you see the way that, you know, maybe him and I play. Right. And the way that you play at the competitive level.

It looks very different. Yes. So much more controlled game. Right. Yeah. So maybe it's almost like one of those things like people maybe like clinics like we were talking about like people getting educated around the game and playing with someone like yourself or in another pro and kind of looking like,

hey, no, actually you should be in this position and thinking more. And you hear people talk about it, but it doesn't seem to be like the more, the most fun way, I guess, to play. Right. I mean, I personally, I can watch a hundred point rally just thinking in the kitchen back and forth. It's the equivalent to like, you know, and I hate to use everything golf-wise,

but I mean, I do think there's a lot of comparison, you know, like a relationship between the two. As a recreational golfer, what's the one club everyone wants to hit? They want to smack their driver 300 yards, right? That's all they care about. But no one wants to be able to hit a put from 20 feet. I mean, it's cool and it's great.

And the more you play, you start to appreciate it. I think it's the same thing. Everyone wants to hit the cool shot from far away and hit that great. But no one wants to play that dinking game. I think once you started playing, you start playing, here's the thing. If you start playing pickleball, you're going to start playing every single day, pretty much. I think if you start watching it, and, like, you learn to appreciate those things

because you know how hard it is to hit five dinks consistently over the half. Yeah. So, but the average person who doesn't see it, they're like, ah, this looks boring and they might change the channel. That's crazy. I mean, I don't think many people even know that there's like pro leagues out there right now. Like it's, I mean, the sky's a limit. Obviously, people are investing into it, which shows a lot of promise to it. So like you said, I think it's, it's the beginning.

One thing I actually wanted to talk about with it, it's a common kind of discussion is the paddles. What the hell is the difference between all these paddles out there? Oh, man. So you see battles that are like 20, 30 bucks, and then you see other paddles that are like $200, $300. Yeah. So when I started playing pickleball, this gritty surface wasn't a thing. Okay.

So this might be a little worn out, but it was a completely flat-faced. Right. So you pretty much didn't generate any spin off your shots. And then as pickleball started getting a little more popular in like 2020, 20-201, people started putting a little more money into the paddle. and the technology. So you'll see a lot of paddles now with like a hole here.

That's to make it a little more aerodynamic. So your swing is faster. Oh, wow. They change the shapes. Obviously the gridier, the paddle, the more spin you'll be able to generate on your top spin. So it does make a huge difference. So if you're in the market of getting a pickleball paddle,

do not buy a $1999 paddle on Amazon. Spend your money because you're going to end up buying one. That's my voice that he plays pickleball all the time. In Orlando, he's like huge into it. and he's weird when it comes to like that when he picks up like one of these like reg sports like he's diehard into it and he wants to be the best at it so he did that he went and he spent the 250 bucks on a paddle

and he comes here and he's like yeah he's good he's good he's not bad he's a lefty too which is I guess advantageous yeah like he's got he's got crazy spin on the ball and I'm like who are like you would be freaking good at this like random ass shit that you're good at I know guys that spend about a thousand bucks every month just on equipment What? Really? Oh yeah.

And I feel it. Like if I play with a paddle for like two weeks, I'll notice that it's not the same as a brand new one. Like I'll feel the spin come off. How many pedals do you have if you had to like guess to me? In my cart right now, I probably have like 10 paddles. Really? Oh yeah.

I got to, I don't understand, I got to check my paddles with my paddle. No, my paddles are ass. I thought I got the Amazon bag. I put the Amazon bag that comes with two, maybe four paddles. He went with the wrong eight. I'm a bargain shopper. It looks cool. Yep, those are the ones.

Yeah, that's so how, I mean, like you said, you have 10 in your car, like, let's just say, you know, in a month, like how many would you go through? Or do you like, are those like 10, like they last, like you're using my different pace that they last? Like the lifetime of it? Or is it like, obviously not, I don't know if you're spending $1,000 each month, but like, how often do you guys have to like re-up on like a pile? So when I'm playing a tournament, I usually like to use one that's either less than a week or two weeks old, just because I I want that spin on the paddle. But a lot of the ones that I have on the car are really just for practice.

I actually have a designated one to hit against the wall. I'll have one to drill with my partner. I'll have one to drill with or like to play rec games. Yeah. So it's like every paddle has a purpose in my in my pickup pocket. It's like a race issue. Like your training shoe. Yeah. Yeah. I'll never play with a brand new paddle in rec play.

Got it. Okay. I got a question. I want. So let's just. say me and Andro are weekend warriors. Andres more athletic than I am. I have experienced playing racquetball,

racquetball, and if I can hit it pretty well. Could you beat us two on one? Absolutely. Yeah. We got to do that. We got to do that. The reason I'm thinking is it's like, because like hypothetically we can cover more

because we'd have two sides. But like I'm just envisioning like the type of shot that you would hit against. Like yeah. Like I'm thinking of the shots that would be coming my way. I'm like, oh man. We got to do that. We'll do it. We'll do it anytime.

That would be fun. So your home course, I guess, is lifetime that you play at to practice. That's pretty much where I train every day. I started playing at the Salvation Army in Miami, Florida, which is really where the first ever pickupball courts existed in Miami. Nice. I teach there every week. Oh, nice.

Yeah, and then I'll go out. I got to give a shout out to Tropical Park, my people. Nice. I play there every week. Shout out. That's where I met this guy then. Miami Central Park. Yeah.

Oh, gee. I play, yeah. Actually, out of all the places. I feel like that's also the park where, like, rec gets the most heated, though. Come again? I'm sorry? That I feel like Tropical Park is the park where wreck gets the most heated.

Because I remember when I used to play back up. Oh, yeah. Like, rec basketball games there. I mean, maybe it's just a different crowd that goes to basketball courts that goes to. No, they get intense on people. But, dude. Actually, speaking of, I've seen him at Pickle 2 there, actually. Where this guy.

At tropical park? Nice. This guy. First of all, this guy gets on and he's like haggling everybody on the court. He's like, Mara, you just suck. You just missed a shot. I'm like, dude, I haven't missed a shot in five minutes. Come on.

What's yours and Vignan's record as a collective? Do you guys have that tablied up or no? As a matter of fact, I don't think we've ever lost together in a game. Oh. That's because I take all his shots, of course. He carries. No, he's good. He's a powerful, powerful player.

What's your biggest strength on the course? Is it your serve? Is it? I don't even know what else. I mean, it's being agility, like, over the other. Right, but from a shot standpoint. Like, do you have your go-to shot? Like, what's, I don't know, what's kind of like your, I guess.

I actually, I actually think it's my, my dinking. Dinking. So I have a good placement, accuracy with the thinking. Good placement. I proud myself in trying to be as a consistent player. And I think it's extremely undervalued in the sport. Yeah. But I love the way that I think.

I kind of dictate the pace of the game. I know it's not the sexiest thing, but I know that it works for a lot of people. Nice. Thinking. But if you see all my rules on Instagram, you'll see me hitting the boss a thousand miles an hour. Yeah. Which it makes, it mix. So men's and mix is a very different game.

And men's, you have to play a more controlled game, a lot more patience because the guy's hands are so fast. In mixed, you could be a little more aggressive because usually you'll have a female in front of you, if they're both righties on that side. So I do try to attack. attack. So I'm not as patient and it makes the loss. Okay. I was going to say. So you spoke about speed. What like how does one generate speed in a pickle swing? Is it? Pickle swing. How would you call that pickle swing? Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't necessarily focus so much on like the pace that you're hitting the ball. I would focus on the form instead of hitting a flat ball, which is what a lot of people tend to do. The ball will fly out. Okay. You want to get under that ball and create some sort of top spin.

I was going to think, yeah, the spin is like, I mean, I'm hitting it. I'm hitting it. I'm, I'm hitting it. Kind of like that. Yeah, you want to hit it like that. Okay, okay. Yeah, you would smoke us. You would smoke us. No, I wouldn't even be caught. We got to see.

No, I wouldn't. You guys look pretty athletic. You guys look at a weekend. I'm a decent athlete, but I'm, I'm not going to win. Athlete days are behind me, but. Maybe if you give me, like, I don't know, give me like two months where I'm playing often. You guys are playing all the time. Yeah, two months seems like fair.

What, two weeks? That's not going to do it. I want tonight. That's kills. Yeah. Two months to practice. Like, let me get on a walk. He's practicing every day.

I got to give him a fair chance out here. Did you go scored? You didn't score a point. Oh, for sure. Yeah, it's hard. Yeah, because we'd be. We'd get one slam in, for sure. Oh, yeah, you'll get a few.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You'll get eaten up with all the drives. It's coming at you at 1,000. Yeah, yeah. I'd say how many returns? Yeah, we'd have to start. We'd have to start to try to get a point. No.

I'm excited to do that. That'll be interesting. You know what to get us over the edge? A little magic mind. Oh. A little magic mind. Get our minds right. Oh, yeah.

All right. Me and Andre are going to drink this before. That's going to get us right before. And we might get a point in. So shout out magic mind. That's going to be the power and energy we're going to need to beat Mario on a two-on-one. I've heard actually very good things about that. It is actually awesome.

I love it. It's, I take it in the mornings usually. Dave's more of like a, in the podcast. kind of guy. I do it every fucking before a night I'm like, I'm like yeah, I'm drinking out of the magic mind. But I take him in the mornings with a little

bit of a coffee cito. Oh yeah, you can't miss that. I can't miss a cafeito, bro. Yeah. I can't, are you a big coffeeito guy? Every morning at 6 a.m. First thing I do, my man. That's my guy.

So what do you do? Do you make it yourself? Do you go somewhere and get it? I have the Cuban Cafeteria. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because my grandma gave it to me. Yeah, absolutely.

So I put a cafe Uhtelo in it every morning with the water. We got to get him a butelos sponsor. That would be dope. I don't know who's behind that shit, but we got to make that happy. I want to get a Bustelo sponsor. And I was born in Cuba. Come on that.

I know. I know. I want to get into that. We'll get into that. But I can't live with my god, Bacetzo, bro. It's every morning and then right after lunch, like around 2 o'clock. Yeah. It's another little espousal.

Yeah. It's fucking essential, bro. Essential. So perfect time to kind of pivot. So you were born in Cuba, correct? Born in Cuba, yes. When did you come to the United States? I came to the U.S. in 2002.

That was eight years old. Eight years old. Okay. Can you tell us a little bit about how your life in Cuba was at that time and kind of the process of you coming into the states? Obviously, Cuba's been a hot conversation for a long time. Grandparents both from Cuba as well. It's a super passionate topic for me. I'm sure a lot of people.

It's unfortunate, obviously, what's occurred there and still going on there. And it's like, how haven't we not figured this out kind of thing? But please, I would love to hear your kind of perspective on all of it. Yeah, so my father was actually a scientist in Cuba. He actually used to work for the government doing blood studies. And one day he was exchanging emails with a buddy, his best friend who was in Miami at the time. And they were talking obviously bad about the Cuban government. as everybody does.

And then somebody kind of threw him under the bus. So my dad was kind of ostracized from work. He was never able to work legitimately in Cuba again. And then in 2000 or 2001, the U.S. government came out with a visa for people who were taking out of their jobs for political reasons. And the U.S. government gave us a visa. We were able to come here. Oh, wow. So it was almost a blessing in disguise.

It was a blessing that happened. Obviously when that happened, you're like, holy shit. But when all was said and done, it was the best thing that happened. I didn't know about that policy, though. Yeah, that was, who brought that? I think that was Bush in 2000 or 2001. Yeah. Oh, okay.

Wow. Yeah, life was rough in Cuba. I remember as a young kid, I couldn't, I remember that I couldn't say certain things. Yeah, yeah. I was born in a bad time where there wasn't any meat. Like, we would not eat red meat. That wasn't a thing over there. Yeah, things were just rough.

And, and I guess, like, have you ever gone back? I did. You did? So I went in 2018 because I have my like close cousins that we were pretty much neighbors with. I went twice in 2018. I took him to the beach in Baradero, so we had a good time there. But it's sad to see everything that's going on there. The town is torn up. What part of Cuba are you from? Havana. A little municipality called Marianow. Okay. Yeah, my grandma and both my grandma and my grandpa were both from Matanza. My dantsa, yeah. My grandma's. Is she from Atanza too?

How does that area look? I have never been to Madanza. So Matanzi is more what, like the countryside? It's more countryside. Okay. Yeah. I pretty much have only been in, I went to Radaero, and then I spent the entire time that I was there in Havana. Right.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I know my grandma, I mean, my grandma passed away, but she was always adamant that she would never step foot back in there. That's my dad's. And she loved Cuba. Yeah. Like, she's like, that's home. That is what I, you know, that will first. be home. Obviously, Miami home for her too, and she was extremely grateful for it.

But like, she was like, the island was beautiful. You know, everything about that place was like, was amazing. And they, and I think they just always will have that sour taste in the route that it was just stripped away from them. For sure. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of nostalgia in Cuba. What's, what's your thoughts on kind of like the whole, because you hear people that go on vacation there, right? And I believe it's in Havana where they're going and there's the four five-star resorts out there and the people. What's your whole thought on all that? Well, the four-five-star resorts over there would be like a three-star hotel for us here. Not the nicest. But again, if you go to Cuba, you're not really going for that. You're going

for the history and everything that happened back in the day and obviously beautiful beaches. I personally won't be going back until there's an embassy there again because I don't think there's hasn't been since 2020. Yeah. But yeah, it just sucks what they've done to that town. It does suck. It is a beautiful island and it's like it's a hop, skip and a jump away. That's the most frustrating part about it because, God damn, like it would be, it would be great, you know, for us to figure that out and be able to have that connection again to that place.

It's a place that I would love to visit, but like you said, I can't. I can't muster it. My dad will never go into it to freeze. Yeah. Yeah. My mom went with my grandmother when the Pope was there like years ago. But yeah, my dad's never, never gone. My dad was the first one born here. His brother and his parents are born in Cuba.

And he's like, I'm never going there until three. So, yeah. I just hope it happens during our lifetime. Hopefully. Yeah, that would be true. That would be very nice. Because I hear the stories, like obviously you live that you grew up there. But like you get to search from back in the day of what it was.

was before all of it and it's like that's like that's a place I've loved to like you know go visit and go back to yeah like Cuba in the 50s was beautiful yeah yeah yeah those pictures are iconic yeah yeah it's incredible they still have the same cars rolling around with like brand new motors or like made-up motors yeah yeah that's great yeah what um so who's here from your family it's you said your dad well my dad passed away years ago by my mom she lives here in Miami my sister who came with us she's an attorney in Tallahassee um And then my grandmother. Okay.

Does your grandma still cook up anything? Oh, I went to the house last night to eat. What's your go-to-me? Yeah, what's the go-to? Arroflanko, gambitia, baba frida. Oh. We have to go with that. We can never go wrong.

That's awesome. Honestly, who was it? Oh, we were in Puerto Rico. When we were in Puerto Rico, remember? So, you know, Puerto Rican food's great and, you know, all that Caribbean food's great. and he specifically said that he loves going to Miami and he wasn't saying like the woman or the beaches or anything he goes bro I'd like going to Miami

because of the Cuban food I was like God damn bro that's when you know like that shit you got a guy straight from Puerto Rico that's like that passionate about Cuban food that's when you know the Uber driver yeah we're not going to know how lucky we are until we live somewhere else No, my uncle. So my uncle is, he was born here.

He, but I mean, you basically can, he's basically Cuban, like, was born right. He was born in New York and then moved to Miami, right when my grandparents had just moved to the States. And he lived in Miami's whole life and but always embraced, like, the Cuban, you know, the Cuban blood in him. And he moves to Tennessee and he goes, dude, like, I miss Cuban food every day. Like, it's so hard. He comes back here and every time he's here, he rolls up with like seven loaves of Cuban bread. Oh, yeah. He gets the pylon, or, you know, the bustle of the pylon coffee or he goes straight to La Cretta to go eat.

And it's like, only food he'll eat when he's out here. Because he's like, I got to make up for all the lost time when I'm gone. Yeah. So my sister's back this week with her husband, who's an American. He just loves Cuban food. She told my grandma, I don't want to eat anything else aside from Cuban food for the entire week that they're here. Yeah, cancel the coquettes, passettitos. What's your favorite, what's your favorite, what's your favorite Cuban spot in Miami?

Your go-to, if it's not a world that's cooking. Tell you what, the most underrated bakery there is in Miami. It's called Sunset Bakery off of 87th and Sunset Drive. That's my freaking bakery, bro. Dude, that's good. That's the gas. That's the one in the where the Win Dixie shopping center is. Oh, okay, yeah, yeah.

Next is Shenzhou, the, yeah, exactly. The Japanese spot, the buffet. Bro, that's the best one. That's my afternoon coffee. Tammies is good too on Miller, but, dude, that's where I go, sunset. And they make great breakfast sandwiches. I've never had the hot food there. It looks good.

I haven't either. I had the sandwiches, yeah. But, dude. That is good. Yeah. But. And a good colada. They make a good color.

They do. Yeah. And the can't go wrong with that. You can't go wrong there. Yeah. That's, yeah. That's, yeah. That's crazy.

That's everyone's choice when it comes to the carolade. Oh, yeah, by far. It's crazy. I think that pretty much wraps it up. You got any more questions that you wanted to ask? No, this is great, man. Yeah, this is awesome. Thank you for having me on.

So tell them where they can find you on social media, and then anything that you want to leave before you go, any advice to any aspiring pickleball. Any weekend warriors. Weekend warriors. I always sell my students the best thing for your game that's going to be to hit against the wall. The wall's never going to lose against you.

where it's never, you're never going to beat the wall. So just practice on your technique. Someone else is. Yes, I will. I know, and I know that's, if Cerrido's listening to this, I'd probably told this a thousand time, and he's finally doing it. But, yeah, hit against the wall, drill more than you practice. Take your nutrition seriously and stretch, guys. Stretching has completely changed my game.

So, and then you could find me on Instagram at Mario F underscore Peebee. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Awesome. You know, next time we'll see him. We're going to do that two-on-one. We're going to do that two-on-one for sure. Give me a couple of months.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And we'll see you in 2026. That's great. You're going to see a different Andre. Yeah. All right, cool. Well, thanks guys for tuning in. We'll see you on the next one.

And, yeah, stay tuned to something. Bye-bye.