Dink Daddy

Thank you for tuning in. I'm Greg. I'm Mike. And we are the Pickleballers Next Door. We are for the Joes and not the pros. Your courts, our court. Welcome back to Pickleballers Next Door. Today we have Fitch, aka Dink Daddy. What's up, man? How you doing? What's going on, Greg? Thanks for having me, man. Yeah, of course. So why don't you tell us a little bit about how you found pickleball, where you found pickleball. And I need some dirt on Greg. Most of the podcast. Perfect. Let's do it. Let's do it. So basically, I come from about 33 plus years of tennis. And I feel like that's everyone's kind of starting point. You know, you got guys that you play tennis with and slowly start to disappear on you. And you ask them, Hey, man, where have you been? And they say that they're playing pickleball. And for the longest time, I refused. Oh, yeah, we know. I was man, I am guilty. And I was like, Please do not ask me to play this dumb sport. It looks goofy. Why would I ever want to do that? And now you go by Dink Daddy. And now I go by Dink Daddy. That's, you know, that's fair. But then, you know, one day, so I was teaching tennis lessons, and I got rained out. And my buddy was playing. And I just said, You know what, screw it. I'll come meet up. And I feel like everyone has kind of the same villain story, where they play. They don't play people their own age, they play people that are three times their age. And they get their ass kicked. single handedly destroyed. Like that fire. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, What is going on, man? I'm an ex d one tennis player, there should be no reason that I should be getting completely blasted by. And that just set fire, man. And so for that first week after losing, I think I've clocked in like 13 or 16 hours of playing. And I just felt like a crackhead be like, Hey, man, where's the next game? Where's ever gonna go? And that hasn't changed. I'm still cracking out about this. And so as a tennis player, did you instantly run up to the net and try to volley ball back into someone's face? I served and volleyed everything. The kitchen was not existent. And I was jumping all up in it thinking that I won this glorious point. And they just looked at me said, No, man, I'm sorry, you're you're on the kitchen. I was like, What are you talking about? That's funny. And where'd you say you're from? You were saying the island? Well, well, I'm originally from the East Coast in Maryland. But I discovered pickleball when I was living in Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. Okay. What a place to learn. No, I got very lucky, very lucky to learn there. Finding back because tennis was a huge part of my life growing up in Florida as well. What was your rating in tennis back then? Or what? What was your track for tennis? Um, I mean, I guess if they had UTR back then, it should have been probably about 14 or 15. Wow. I don't know how that translates. I'll be honest. I mean, so it would be the equivalent like D one tennis. Okay, right. So good player. Yeah. How about how about your your your duper score? Whatever ratings you system you now? How is that? Gone? Terrible, terrible. Don't lie. I heard you were elite. I've been hearing some false information. I want to hear from you. You know what, though? He's a lefty. So I don't even play with lefties. I forget that I have to think like myself. It throws me through a loop because I'm so used to playing right handed people or teaching right handed people that when I see someone like me, I'm like, I don't like you. So then so then what is your what is your official rating? Do you have a duper rating? Or how do you keep track of what you do? It's like fresh over five. I don't play too many tournaments. But I think like five point like 5.01 5.02. Well, I'm gonna do a little plug. We have the best tournament event coming up here with the Rocky Mountain Pickleball Championship Series that we're coordinating. And we would love to invite you out to be a part of this. We're gonna have the best player experience with meeting the best some of the best pickleball players in the country and some celebrities there as well. So we'd love to invite you out to that here in Denver, Colorado. Man, I would love that. Thank you. And said you're just a 501. I guess that's you know, you qualify. Yeah, I guess. Because the no, he's lefty. We all forgot we eliminated from our tournament. Does that mean you're a 401, right? Yeah, he's a 401 if he's a lefty. Yeah, being left handed docks you down. Yes, definitely. No, but we'd love to have you a part of it, man. And I hope to play with you sometime. Greg has shared with me how you guys connected. We'd love to hear that story from you. Oh, yeah. I love this guy. I love this guy to death. So why don't you tell them how we met? Yeah, let's I want to hear. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, social media is wonderful with connecting people. And, you know, I was kind of just started on a journey pretty early and, you know, just following people who fall back. And I believe Greg was one of those people that graced me with his followers. And, you know, just seeing people's stories. I think I saw that he was coming over to Ireland and knowing that he's a fellow pickleball player. I just I like to invite other people or just reach out to see if they're ever willing to kind of meet up and play games regardless of skill level. We just like to, you know, play and just invite whoever that we were with, you know, to come out and have some good games, good laughs. And if they can handle all the trash talk, even better. I absolutely love the trash talk. That group, that core of guys that you had that I played with in Hawaii was so much fun. So much fun. Yeah. I mean, shout out the guys from the Wailua crew, man. Yeah. I was very lucky. I ran into some open play right behind my house. And before it was just a lot of the older aunties and uncles that would come out and play. And there was so much fun to hit with. But then these guys started coming around and, you know, started creeping around the same level and, you know, exchange numbers. And it was just a good five or six of us that almost every day would just go out and just jam, you know, just play. And I'm very, very lucky to have a good group of guys like that, you know. Wow. Well, something that just sparked me, you said trash talking. What is your best trash talking experience on the island? I want to hear it play by play. How it happened. Was it you getting trash talk too? Were you taking it to them? I'm a, I want to hear this. I like it. I mean, I don't know if there's any really solid lines that we would say. I think, um, try to hit the person. It didn't matter. There you go. That's how you, I'm going to, I'm going to tell you when I was there on video, he nasty Nelson, one of the friends, and there was just so much fallout. Everyone was on the ground dying, laughing. And like the guy was just standing there with his head down, just like, man, it was so funny. Yeah. It was so much fun. Do you feel like you trash talk more in pickleball or back when you were playing tennis more often? This is a little bit more reserved. That's what I was going to say. Yep. Well, on the court, yeah. The tennis court is so big. How can you trash talk? You got to kind of put a sign up here. You can really trash. Oh yeah. Well, I learned from my, from my favorite tennis coach, coach Nick, never about saying anything. You would just turn to walk back to the baseline, throw up a fist while, you know, uh, curling your bicep and look back at him without saying a single word. You don't break eye contact until you hit the baseline. Wow. I didn't know there was a strategy. We got to come up with a pickleball strategy. I think it could work in pickleball too. I think that would work in pickleball too. So sometimes it definitely does. Sometimes less No, it definitely does. Sometimes less is more. Um, so Fitch and I, well, first off Fitch makes some hilarious videos on Instagram. Check them out. So Fitch, so you know, Greg called me out. My Instagram is non-existent. So I, first off, I'm going to ask you for it to be like my third follower ever. And I would love to follow you if that's possible. Say less. I got you. I love it, man. But, um, go ahead, Greg. Sorry. No, no. Tell them your Instagram so other people can follow. I have no idea because I'm not an Instagram. Here we go. Whip out my little, uh, here. Well, so then you'll learn a little bit more about me as Greg learned. I've been through a lot of, you know, things in my life, serious things, serious things. And you'll learn about them and it's, it's no issue. I'm an open book. I love to share. I battled cancer for three years, had a head injury, uh, 15 days in a coma, two and a half months inpatient, 18 months outpatient life-changing stuff. So that people ask me why I'm always so excited and passionate about life. First off is because of the people around me. But second of all, he's life is life is what it's about. So yeah, man, absolutely. Yeah. So you can learn a little bit more about, I do have a Facebook account as well, where more of that information is, but my Instagram now that I'm finding it is tricky. Santo didn't even know that. Tricky R I C K Y S a N T O. Tricky Ricky. Tricky Ricky. I'm thinking Dink Daddy number two. Dink Daddy Jr. There's a Dink Daddy clothing company. Really? Huh? Right. Fitch. Dink Daddy. There it is. Oh, Dink Daddy. So how do I find you on here? I'm doing it right now. I'm making, I'm making it happen. He's looking for you right now. So it's Dink Daddy D I N K. Do I put an app before that or just Dink Daddy? Just Dink Daddy. Again. I'm on. Oh, there it is. Dink Daddy underscore PB. Fitch. What flag is that Fitch? The Philippine flag. Oh, I love it man. Half Filipino, half Filipino. Have you played over there before? Uh, not since I was taken away. Oh, okay. That's not that bad. I was, I was adopted. Oh really? Oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dude. More common ground. Well, back to the cancer thing. I battled a bunch of, um, I always wanted to have kids, battled a bunch of, uh, had a bunch of chemos, radiation. You'll never have kids. So my now wife, we fostered and adopted and is the best thing I've ever done in my life. So good. Good. Yeah. No, thank you for sharing that. That's ah, dude. Well, thank you. So it means the world to me. Yeah. Going back to these videos that Fitch makes hilarious. Um, and just FYI Fitch, I'm going to tell them about this one where you're doing, um, you're on the court with your crush. Oh, the pickleball crush. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, it's hilarious. And I'm going to tell you right now, cause I told her I'd call her out on this. Um, just mads, just mads on Instagram. She's one of our friends. Um, she reposted that on her stories. Oh no. She reposted that on her stories. And I was like, I know this dude, I know this dude. I was like, that's crazy that you're reposting one of these stories of somebody. I know that's so cool. And she was like, shut up. You know, I'm like, yeah. And, uh, she was like, that's awesome. Right. Basically. And, um, but you and I, we made a video that was pretty funny. Yeah. I mean, Greg, you're, you're fantastic. And thank you for helping me make such a, such good content on the fly. But yeah, when Greg, Greg was there coming to hang out and he visited us in, uh, Annapolis, um, him and his brother helped out with a, with a great video and, uh, no, it's always so much fun to do with people you enjoy. Yeah, definitely. It was about hand on the hip dinking, right? Yeah. You know, it always seems a little funny. I never understood it. It's a little funny to me because as a tennis player, we have both hands on our, on our racket and kind of moving around, but you know, the hand on the hip was a little goofy. So it was hilarious. Over-exaggerated that. Definitely. And I was playing with a guy who did that and I was like, Hey, did you see that video that my friend that I just made? And he's like, he's like, yeah, I did. He goes, I didn't think it looked as dumb as it really does. It's a little goofy, but Hey, you know, if it works for you, that's fine. I just, uh, I'm not the one that's going to go onto the court and rub my butt while I'm thinking. Yeah, I hear that. I hear that. So where are you at today? Where are you doing today? Are you still in pickleball? I would have loved to play some today, but I had to do some adulting on my day off with the family and a podcast. What the hell, what the heck's going on? Well, this is great. This is exciting. Yeah, of course. It's the highlight of my day for sure. Yeah. So are you still playing? So I'm going to tell you, Fitch plays some pro qualifiers in the APP. Nice. And he had me roped into doing one. And I told him, I told him, I was like, man, I'm not good enough. I said, don't get mad. I'll do it with you. I have no problems doing it with you, but don't get mad at me when I screw up real bad. He's like, it's all for the experience. Yeah. And I talked to another guy here who plays some pro qualifiers in the PPA and he couldn't get a partner. And I was like, I'll be your partner. I'll be your right side bitch. Like I'll just stand in the corner, take up, I'll do 2% of the court. And he's like, I was like, I mean, probably not, but. So in those experiences, what did you find was in your, in your experiences playing in those, what was the, what was the difference between those to make it on the, on the tour, as opposed to the qualifiers, what skills or what was the. It's honestly, it's consistency. It's not missing a shot. We tend to kind of pull the trigger too quickly because a lot of times they're so impatient nerves, get the best of you. You're looking for that opening and that person's just reading you like a book that, you know, who's played there for a bit, or it's done a few of these before. So they kind of have a little bit, you know, a calmer sense after playing. Um, but yeah, definitely going into it. It's just, you can't, you can't afford to miss after playing in them. Now, have you started implementing those strategies to yourself or training to be better at that? You know, as much as I would love to, um, you know, I, I don't practice what I preach. So he needs honest. Yeah. She needs to get some sweet CBD drink in his system. Calm them down. Yeah. Ricky, Ricky likes those. I didn't know what to expect. You hear the word and you don't know that you don't know, but it was good. That's why very flavorful. And I've had good days since it's the truth and his energy is like way down. So yeah. So what are you doing to the pickleball world now? Yeah. So currently I am the head pro at a lifetime fitness. Oh, nice. Yep. And it's a, in Annapolis, Annapolis, Maryland. Um, nice standalone building. It's, it's one that's been kind of, uh, repurposed in a, uh, in kind of a shopping mall. And they, they bought out the old bed back and beyond, and they built 11 indoor courts. And that's solely pickleball solely pickleball for that side. And then of course they have the whole gym and everything else that they have there to offer. And they're really nice courts. I've been there and played them, man. And every time we go there, they keep adding, you know, better things there and it just keeps getting better and better. And the community, the people, it's just so awesome there. And everyone's just excited to kind of be there to play there. Um, you know, nothing ever kind of, there's no animosity really ever. Um, and it's just, it's so much fun. You know, you walk in there and it doesn't feel like work. Everyone's kind of like, Hey man, they're trying to pull you on the court. They're trying to get tips. They just want to hit with you. They just want to, you know, just want to have a good time, you know, and it's awesome. Tell me one of the funniest things that you've seen at that lifetime on the pickleball courts. Oh, Greg's backhand. That's a good one. Greg has nothing to say on that. That's messed up, dude. I love you. I know. You saw my three handed backhand. That was, that's why. The funniest thing, I, I don't know. Uh, I mean, other than me kind of, you know, trying to make content and people walking by and, you know, either staring at me oddly because they're a little bit older and they're unsure of what I'm doing with this camera, you know, and me playing two different parts and talking to myself. Um, but that's, that's not just filming. You talk to yourself a lot in general. Yeah. A lot of times, a lot of times. Yeah. Well, lifetime's getting crazy in pickleball. I mean, they're, they're coming up here. They play it quiet, but they're, they're growing very fast. How do you like their ball? Oh man, the ball is awesome. Yeah. I mean, and it's not just because of a, you know, of course I worked there, but, um, it's, I guess the best way you can explain it is it kind of plays like a Selkirk S1, but there's no warping. And so that ball plays true, you know, either brand new or, you know, two weeks in the hitting. Right. I've, I've really liked that ball when I've played with it. So what do you have coming up in the future? Anything fun and exciting? Any travel besides coming to Denver for the RMC? Yes, sir. You know, that's, that's definitely on the list now. Um, I'm looking to, I think I'm going to be playing in the PPA North Carolina coming up in April. Um, and then I think I'm going to do the APP New York city in May. And then I believe in June is the AP or started in June is the challenger in New York city. So I think I'm going to do that. Nice. June 18th to 22nd, come out here to Colorado time of your life. Even better. There it is. And I just checked. There's only, there's actually one more room for one more lefty. Yeah. Are you a singles player too? Or do you like to stick to doubles? I like the idea of singles because I was a singles player in tennis, but I mean, when I play singles on pickleball court, I asked myself, what the hell am I doing here all the time? Cause it's just like, I'm thinking that I'm going to do okay. And then I just completely look like I've never played before in my life. I hear that. I have, I don't have the body for singles. So that's why actually I have the body for triples for triples. Yeah. Cover only a third of the court. I like it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I play a extra skinny singles too. Well, yeah. Extra skinny singles is extra fat. So, you know, it's kind of take up the whole court and then you can't get up by me anyways. Well, how about some more dirt on Greg before we go? Oh, you know, if Greg wasn't such a good guy there, you know, there really is no dirt, man. He was just always been such a great time. He has a good person to be with. Um, you know, and from the day that he came out and hit with us, he's been, it was such a joy and this has been nothing but laughs. Um, never a bad time. That was an answer. He is dancing. You have him dancing over here. Triple, triple Decker is dancing. I love it. I love it. Big country over here. Yeah. He got the shoulders in it now. He's always happy. He's always got to hug me when we're playing. He's like, come on, Mike, Mike and I, I know you're going to come out here in June hopefully, but Mike and I would love to come play with you guys sometime as well. Maybe all four of the three of us here and hell yeah. And with you, that'd be fun. We got a court here for you so you can meet us here right at our podcast. Absolutely. We'd love to do that one day. Yeah, we should get together. We'll, we'll definitely get together at some point, but I want to come to Annapolis. You got me 11 courts. Woo. It's a nice pickleball facility. Yeah. Anyways, Fitch, thank you so much for joining us, man. Thank you. It's always a pleasure to talk to you. I love you to death, man. So if you want to, yeah, if you want to plug your, uh, Instagram, Tik TOK, Facebook, whatever, red note, you know, go ahead, go for it now. Oh yeah. Thanks. Uh, so it's just dink daddy underscore PB. Uh, that's for Instagram and Tik TOK. Uh, I'm trying to do stuff on YouTube right now and that's just dink daddy pickleball. Um, and then we're slowly starting to implement, um, you got to give a shout out to my buddy, Eric White, uh, a lot more kind of drills and tips on our Instagram page. So make sure you guys just follow along and get some really great, uh, great content from Eric and, and, and his mind behind how to play pickleball. On top of that, you'll get great content from Fitch and all the funny stuff that he does. It is. Can you record some of the funny looks that people give you to like, instead of like you're filming yourself, but it's looking at them like, what is this? That'd be great. Yeah, that'd be funny. That'd be fantastic. All right, man. Thank you so much. We'll, uh, we'll keep in touch for sure. And we'll, uh, we'll get to that invite. Hope to see you soon. Awesome. Meeting your fish. Yep. Have a good day, man. I just want to say thank you to a sweet sip for supporting the podcast. A sweet sip is a very delicious CBD drink, non-alcoholic for great flavors. It helps me take the edge off when I'm going to play in a pickleball tournament. If you want to get some, check them out at drinkasweetsip.com.