Exclusive Inside Look at a Pickleball Magazine Article

In depth coverage of 18-year-old sensation Gabe Tardio

In today’s Bite Size Pickleball newsletter issue:

The Inside Scoop on Gabe Tardio

The Inside Scoop on Gabe Tardio

I wanted to give you an exclusive look at how my writing process goes for a typical Pickleball Magazine article, featuring my latest piece on 18-year-old sensation Gabe Tardio. Tardio is pictured (with Fedrico Staksrud) above taking a bite out of the pizza he started eating during a timeout in game two of the gold medal match vs his practice partners JW Johnson and Dylan Frazier. True story! The kid took a pizza break in the middle of a gold medal match! Go figure!

“I thought it was funny,” Frazier said. “Gotta fuel the body!”

Unfortunately, there isn’t enough room in the article itself to include everything I learned about Gabe, so I am including it all here. In short, you’re getting the thorough, insider look at a major up-and-coming talent. Included are lengthy Q and A’s with Gabe, and fellow pros Zane Navratil, Jessie Irvine, and Andrei Daescu.

First, a little on my writing process. Typically, the Pickleball Magazine editor will ask me to throw her a few pitches. Usually, I will toss her three or four ideas summarized in a title, and a logline, and maybe a few thoughts beyond that. I have written enough articles for her that I don’t need to oversell myself. Less is more, short and sweet. If she wants to know more, she’ll ask.

However, for this particular article, my editor asked if I wanted to work on the Tardio piece. Of course I said “yes.” I had just seen Tardio play live in Utah, where he won his second and third gold medals of his career, with partners Andrei Daescu, and Jessie Irvine. (More from them below.)

When I get an assignment, the first thing I tend to do is write down my initial ideas on the subject. Once those have run out, I will start in on my research. For this article, that included reviewing Tardio’s facts, stats, and watching some video on him. I then took more notes based on what I saw in the videos. I answered my own questions, like: What makes Tardio dangerous? How does he handle himself when his partner is getting targeted? What kind of attitude does he have on the court? (Hint: a laid back one). These kind of things.

The next step was developing a loose outline. I don’t typically get too intricate with my outline because I like to write from a position of discovery. I will generally know where I am starting from, and how I want to end, with some general questions to hit in between. From there, I let it flow.

Once the outline is done, I am able to form questions I need answered to fill out my story. I then sent those questions to Gabe, and the other sources included in the piece. In addition to the aforementioned Daescu and Tardio, I also interviewed veteran Zane Navratil on Gabe.

As mentioned, there isn’t nearly enough room in a 500-word article to include everything the sources had to tell me, so I am including the full transcripts below. That way, you get an insider look at Gabe Tardio that no one else has. Hopefully, you’ll become a fan of his. He is worthy, a super nice and humble kid.

JESSIE IRVINE:

Gabe is a good partner, especially for me because we do a good job of balancing each other out. He is calm but still likes to have fun on the court and he’ll throw in jokes to keep tense moments light while still being intense and focused. It’s a good balance that helps us perform well together as a team. He has a good attitude towards competition. He wants to win and do well but still enjoys each moment and doesn’t take losses too harshly. Even though he is one of the younger male players out there, he does a really good job of communicating which goes a long way when it comes to a team’s performance. Whether we win or lose, we know we will still move forward in a positive way. As a player, his ability to disguise and manipulate the ball with his variety, him being comfortable to be a right or left side player, along with his quick hands; makes him an extremely talented “high ceiling” player with so much room to just keep getting better.

ANDREI DAESCU:

What makes Gabe a good player is the fact that he’s so versatile and has so many weapons. He is a great competitor and deals very well with adversity. He compliments my game in a lot of ways, most obvious one by being a great right side player considering I play mostly the left. His great counter punching ability frees me up to play my game at the kitchen line.

ZANE NAVRATIL

RICK: What are the challenges an opponent faces when playing Gabe?

ZANE: Gabe is approaching playing on the right side differently than any player before. He’s able to contort his wrist and ways that other players can’t, and that gives him a wider variety of shots that he can hit, and a wider variety of shots that his opponents need to cover.

RICK: Have you noticed a maturation process from him?

ZANE: Gabe is finally finding a balanced and sustainable level of aggression. Previously, he would either be playing two aggressively or two passively, but now he has found a smart level of aggression.

RICK: How does a player counter Gabe? 

ZANE: To counter, Gabe, Pickleball players need to retrain their brains to account for different shots that he is able to hit. In particular, Gabe takes a forehand from the right side from the middle of the court and towards his elbow and wrist to be able to angle it inside out to the left players backhand. That’s not a shot that anybody else has hit or possibly even can hit consistently.we all have a database of possible shots within our heads, and we need to add the new shots that Gabe is hitting to those list of possibilities 

GABE TARDIO

RICK: Describe the moment, or moments, maybe the people involved, that led up to you deciding to become a pro pickleball player.

GABE: Yea, so I think my dad was crucial for my decision to become a professional pickleball player, when covid hit and my tennis academy shut down he started to play pickleball so he convinced me to go with him and give it a try and then also he was the one that always pushed me to go play and talk to me about taking it serious because he saw something in me.

RICK: What is your simple strategy/recipe on the court to be successful? 

GABE: My strategy going in on a match it’s always to put as much pressure as I can and always trying to control the point and moving them around. Always trying to be aggressive off my forehand and when I realize that they are avoiding me try to pinch middle as much as possible giving the opponents a smaller target and forcing them to not be aggressive

RICK: Approximately how many hours a week are you drilling?

GABE: That depends if I’m home or not, but I always try to drill and practice on my shots at least an hour and a half every day

RICK: What cross-training are you doing?

GABE: Right now just going to the gym trying to gain some weight and muscle

RICK: What do you specifically want to improve in your game?

GABE: Lately I’ve been working a lot on my drives and drops because I’ve realized that you can gain a lot of free points setting up your partner to crash of a good drive or drop also bc when they’re avoiding you and you are already at the kitchen it’s really hard to get yourself involved.

RICK: Are there flexibility exercises you work on? What are they? Zane was commenting on how flexible your wrist is and how you are able to contort it, on the right side, and hit shots that no one has hit before. Are you aware of that? 

GABE: Not really I’ve never work on flexibility exercise other than in my wrist. I think that one of the reasons that my wrist it’s so flexible it’s because I played tennis for like 8 years and my strokes have been always involved a lot of wrist so that’s made my wrist really strong and flexible

RICK: Explain to me how you work to get involved when your partner is being targeted and isolated? What can a player do to counter that?

GABE: When I realized my partner it’s getting isolated I try to pinch middle as much as possible giving my opponents a small target to get to my partner and when you do this it’s important that your partner gets aggressive with the dinks and always look for the Erne, if your partner it’s being successful putting pressure on the opponent and erneing it’s going to force your opponents to switch their spots.

There you have it! An insider look at a rapidly improving young player. Make sure to check out the full article in the December issue of Pickleball Magazine.

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