And the Hot Dog of the Year Goes to…
Introducing the new Joey Chestnut of Pickleball
In this edition of the Bite Size Pickleball Newsletter:
Introducing the Joey Chestnut of Pickleball
Bite Size Pickleball show update(s)
THE JOEY CHESTNUT OF PICKLEBALL
For those of you who do not know who Joey Chestnut is, he eats a lot of hot dogs. And, I mean, a lot! At his last mano a mano contest on the 4th of July he wolfed down 83. Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is…
That I am not Joey Chestnut! However, I have been accused of being a hot dog lately. Read on, dear friends, read on.
I come from the world of basketball. In basketball, I was the point guard. I had pretty decent ball handling skills and, modeled after my hero, Pistol Pete Maravich, I developed a behind-the-back pass early in my playing days.
When I was a kid, I may have done it a little bit for show, like the Pistol, but as I got older, I realized how effective of a pass it was. As an example: If I was handling the ball on a 2-on-1 fast break, with my teammate on the left side, that behind-the-back pass almost always ended up as an assist to my teammate. If I had thrown the pass a couple of times, and my opponent tried to anticipate it before it happened, I faked the pass and went up for the layup myself.
Another time I used the behind-the-back pass was to give my teammate an extra second, or two, to shoot their outside shot (See no.11 in these Maravich highlights ). You can call The Pistol a hot dog all you want. And I am sure he relished it. I call him a Showman. And you know what? That show worked! More times than it didn’t, he kept his opponents continually off balance with no clue on what he was going to do next.
Why wouldn’t you want to have that kind of pickleball game? The unpredictable quality that renders your opponents relatively helpless to try and figure out what you’re going to do next.
Call me a hot dog all you want. But this dog is continually trying to learn new tricks to bring to the game.
I have posted on this before, and included a highlight of one of my tweeners. Here it is again in case you missed it.
Usually the tweener is used for defensive purposes, when the ball gets behind a player and they have to run it down. I have turned the tweener into an offensive move.
Do my opponents like it when I use it against them? Hell no. Should I care? Again, hell no. I usually play against some pretty big, strong dudes, typically 20 years, or more, younger than me. Deal with it. The more unpredictable you can be with your shots, the harder you are going to be to face. The more tools in the kit…
Like the behind-the-back pass, I don’t use the tweener a lot. But when I do, they have probably worked 75% of the time.
After I have hit a successful tweener, or two, and my opponent tries to anticipate the next one, I will then do what I used to on the basketball court, which was to fake the behind-the-back pass and go up for the layup myself.
On the pickleball fake, when ball is in front of me, and I am approaching it, I will quickly put my paddle behind me like I am going to go for the tweener and, the moment after the fake, I am instantly taking the ball out in front of me. It cuts down on the time my opponents reaction time, especially because they have anticipated it wrong.
I will do straight-on tweeners, facing the net, and then ones where I turn my back to my opponent and rifle it through my legs. Those are really hard for an opponent to read because my body is blocking their sight on the ball. All of a sudden the ball comes shooting out at them like a missile.
The tweeners typically elicit smiles from my teammates and opponents, but a couple of players have called me a hot dog. But if I can use them to diversify my game? F*ck yeah, I’m Joey friggin’ Chestnut triumphing on the 4th of July.
Is an Erne being a hot dog? What about a Bert? No, because they are accepted moves. Moves that have been developed over time. Pickleball is still a young sport. There is so much more to come.
I want to see more “hot dogs” and less players whining when they get beat by one. . You don’t like ‘em? Defend them better and make the hot dog eat its own bun. Until that happens, I will continue to relish the shot.
BITE SIZE PICKLEBALL SHOW UPDATE
Oh man! That was a lot of work. I mean, a lot! Way more than I anticipated. I am finally done with the pilot episode of my TV show and it took about a month. The final cut is 23 minutes and I currently shared it with a few of the network people I have been talking with.
In all honesty, I’m not interested in doing a 6-part series on this particular show unless someone is compensating me fairly. It just took too long to do solo. I am interested in using it as a showcase for other pickleball show ideas I have, and have been presenting to people. There are also a couple of segments in the show I could spin into shows themselves, which would be a lot easier to produce. Like the “Practice Like a Pro” segment I shared with you a few newsletters back.
A funny thing happened. The man who originally signed me up to do the show for Pickle TV, and then we split apart, got in touch, very graciously, and asked me if I was interested in him setting me up with Pickle TV without his involvement. I have a meeting with Pickle TV (streamed on Amazon, and others) next week.
In addition, I have Vice TV, Fox Sports, and hopefully PBTV looking at my work. We’ll see if something comes of it. If not, you know what? I’ll be back out on the courts hot dogging it away and enjoying my life.
Currently I am writing a profile on Hayden Patriquin for Pickleball Magazine. Check him out today playing with Ben Johns! That should be a a fun pairing. Sadly, it was fun, while it lasted! They got taken out in the semifinals.
Oh yeah, buy my pickleball book, help support your local pickleball artist?