FROM DRINKS TO DINKS

SamO: All right, all right, all right. Welcome back to the podz pickleheads. We're so excited for episode two. I'm so excited for my special guest. last episode we talked a lot about why this podcast exists. And today we're gonna do something a little bit different. Instead of interviewing one of my friends, we're gonna flip the script And I brought in one of my favorite people of all time, my cousin Adam. He's gonna take the host chair and he's gonna talk to me. we're gonna talk about how I've gone from drinks to dinks and how this rectangle, this forty four X twenty's changed my life. Adam, I'm so happy to have you here on the pod. I'm so excited to do this. Let's get to it. Let's do it. Can you hear me? Yeah. Loud and clear? Yeah. Sam, thanks for joining us today. This is so exciting, huh? I've always wanted to say that. So just for the listeners, this is cousin Adam tuning in live on the 44X20 podcast from the baseline studio. From the baseline studio. We in the basement. I wanted to give my older cousin Sam emphasis on older. A nice warm intro. Just for the listeners. I'm 32. My name's Adam Regos. My cousin Samuel Orlansky. Samuel? You're gonna go with my birth name? Not to be confused by Samuel Adams the beer. We'll get to that. We put down drinks for dinks. just wanted to tell a little bit more about my older cousin Sam's journey in pickleball. it's been a awesome one to watch So it all started when COVID hit, the world shut down and we we grew up playing ping pong in my garage in Carmel Valley. Sam taught me the ropes from day one. We used to have some battles in there and I probably lost my first hundred, two hundred games, but Yeah, and you'd cry and throw your paddle. Isn't this the intro? Aren't I supposed to do a monologue? So I'd cry and throw my paddle and that's where I I think I gained my first amount of grit and first drive to finally beat Sam at something. and finally I won and flipped the script and then I had to return the favor since he showed me ping pong and I had found a little sport called pickleball in twenty nineteen and then went heavy in in twenty twenty. I think our first match, Sam was twenty three, I think. Twenty twenty three. Twenty three, yeah, for me 'cause it's been three years. Okay. Like lip post time flies. Post COVID. Post COVID. Post COVID. Time flies when you're playing pickleball, folks. But yeah, so Sam got on the court, he was huffing and puffing. We started with singles. and now he is playing in tournaments, four O tournaments, playing I think you're being a little kind to me in the intro. I was like I wasn't just huffing and puffing. I was felt like I was gonna die. And blew the house down, together, but do you remember how you were like, It's okay, just breathe. Yeah. I I was your your trainer, your coach for that that moment in time. For me, the you know, that we'll talk about that some more, but that's been part of the journey on playing with family for sure. Adam's the one who got me into it and I was kind of reluctant at first. And You know, part of it was conditioning. I haven't done I hadn't done that type of physical activity it in. When was the last time you had been to the gym before that? Nineteen. Ninety two? Yeah, so before I was born. Fuck you. Thirty three years ago. Fuck you. So safe to say, how did pickleball find Sam? I I brought it to him. And I'm glad I did. but yeah, now now like if we're fast forwarding three years, Sam is well, well conditioned, well above that level, and he's working out not only pickleball, but he's playing pickleball, what, like two, three, five, seven days a week. You're gonna make people jealous. Anyways, folks, he started from the bottom, now he's here. and that's kind of how pickleball found my cousin Sam and it found me, and it's been An awesome sport to reconnect and kind of rekindle our relationship in more of a competitive way. Now we're partners not just off the court in family, but we're partners on the court. For me, that's really been like one of the greatest joys. the one of the best things that I've gotten out of pickleball, aside for all the things that we're gonna talk about, community related, Like is how our relationship has evolved and changed. You know, it's gone from and and I'll put up some pictures here if for those who are watching on YouTube so you can see what the actual age difference looks like. But it's gone from like an older brother, younger brother relationship, and and it's kind of flipped on its head. I mean, you you you helped get me in the gym, you helped get me on the court, and I I've said this to you before, but I'll tell the listeners, I I never thought I would be like looking up to someone younger than me, you know, and I and and look at him as an equal. And when we get on the court together, it's so awesome to we to watch the young blood go, you know. Let's go. try to relax. Let's start from the beginning. Okay. Before pickleball. Who was Sam? to this. I was Sam the brewer, Sam the beer guy. I spent almost 20 years working in breweries, mostly in the Pacific Northwest up in Oregon. We don't have to name them. but I spent almost 20 years in the industry. And what that meant for me was a lot of sampling the product. like to be quite honest, I would say there was about a twenty to twenty five year period where I averaged about two to six beers a day. And it was awesome. so yeah, I was, you know, it wasn't just a beer drinking thing. It really is still and I miss it quite a bit. a p it was a passion. you know, and I was passionate about it in a real similar way that I am to pickleball. And I would say that the the exit from drinking happened before the dinking. I had already been sort of contemplating that. In fact, I was experimenting with all the non-alcoholic beers like O'douls I tried Athletics. I tried qu quite a few of them and it just you know, once I'd hit the gym, I just didn't want the calories anymore and it made me feel real sluggish once I started hitting the court. so I stopped drinking as much because I wanted to have a little more endurance for pickleball. And you know, I've looked around the court several times and I often remind myself that, you know, the the craft beer community is awesome. You know, I spent a lot of time at beer festivals. I spend a lot of time with dudes with beards. And you know, the pickleball community has really filled that that hole for me. it's it's filled that hole in my heart quite a bit, ex except in a much more positive way. In the past I was drinking beer all the time and hanging out and forming community. And now I'm I'm hanging out with people and not just dudes, men, women, older people, younger people, diverse people, all people who are super passionate about this ball bouncing, super passionate about health as wealth. and super passionate about building community. My my phone just runs deep with pickleball now. Awesome. That was that was some great background there. So when we say drinks to dinks, because the listeners are gonna hear that. at some point, right, throughout this podcast and future ones. What is and and you talked about a little bit what it means, but when did you realize that shift was happening in your it's really difficult to be as good at pickleball with three beers in ya. I remember like one of my first times at the Rec Center, I rolled in there a couple beers deep and this gentleman, Joel, Who was in his seventies, he fucking embarrassed me. He fucking embarrassed me. you know, I I just swallow, you know, just reset, dink, just put back every drive. And it was like, man, if I wanna like do well here and not get embarrassed by everyone, like I should be a little more present. You know, and that went along with getting a trainer who was like, You need to do some cardio. Yeah. And I'm like, Me and cousin Adam tried this pickleball thing. And you know, I walked into the rec center right by my kids' school one day because I'd seen some people walk in with paddles, and I walked into this room and all you could hear is pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. And first thing that happened was some guy came over to me and granted it was like a Tuesday at nine and he was like, It's nice to see some young people playing and you know, I came back the next day and I'm like, These are my people. I just like love it here. And I just kept coming back and coming back and coming back and real quickly, shout out to Scripps Ranch Rec Center. that's where I started and if you walk into that place, all those people are still there and Great place to start. Awesome. So curious, like what it sounds like the people helped you, like that's what helped you cut kept coming back right to pickleball. And if you were to give advice to someone that's starting their journey like you were, like in in pickleball, and it's a little intimidating. And you know, I I've talked to plenty of people in the past where they're like, Well, I'm not that Good or I'm not in shape. What would you, what advice would you give them? And then second part to that question, what kept you coming back? I I would say that the first piece of advice is come with an open mind. you know, the the one thing that this game does cater to well, and one of the reasons it caters to me is it it caters to extroverts, right? You're putting four people on a rectangle, and you're having them work together and you're hitting the ball and you're trying hard and you're laughing. You know, so you know, if you're comfortable in your own skin, pickleball's great. And you know, if you're someone who's an introvert, I think you can thrive there as well because it's c it's a community where everybody is welcome. Let's talk about the Eye of the Tiger that cousin Adam gave you. That maybe you don't get from your other pickleball partners. I know you and I love to joke around. and obviously we've brought a little bit of that to the court, but I've also seen you lock in, right, when it comes to tournaments now, and that's a side I've never seen of you. so I guess when did that happen? I think it happened after a couple of tournaments. Was it Coronado, our first tournament together or after Well, I learned a lot about you. the a side of you that I hadn't seen before. and, you know, there was a lot of things in that specific tournament that that resonated with me. I I think that I'm somebody because I'm an extrovert and pickleball does cater to me, You know, I like to joke around, I like to have fun. I love, love, love, love, love to laugh. And I remember in our first tournament, you know, I'm going around and like introducing myself to people and like saying what's up to people. And then the the one thing that we always do in in recreational pickleball, if someone makes a good shot, we say good shot. I I when growing up, I I didn't do a lot of like competitive sports. You don't know 'cause you weren't born. But I I remember that you did. And what was let's what was the first thing that you said to me? I remember. It was like right after I said right after I said nice shot to me, what did you say to me? No fanboy. I know we say that now, but I can't remember. You're like, What the fuck are you doing? Yeah. I'm like, What, dude? You're like, Why are you fucking even talking to them? Like, just hit it down the middle. Like, what are you fucking fanboying on their fucking shots for? Yeah. And I'm like, I think you picked it up quickly though, because in Coronado, like it it shifted where we were playing those bucket hat guys and we started to be the hammer, not the nail, and started kind of not talking shit, but like that competitive spirit. That's when I saw it come out of the The bucket heist wait, hold on real quickly. The bucket guys kicked our ass in the end. Not the bucket height. Okay, the guy the guy with the hat. The guy with not the bucket hat, the tall guy with the hat that we started You had me calling out the score and then you like shifted your mentality and mindset. That's where I saw the shift. But I was curious like where you think it happened for you. it like to be truthful, it was a couple tournaments later. I showed up to a couple you know, you all I think it's including on this podcast, I think it's always important to show up as yourself. if you're gonna be if you're trying to be somebody else or act differently, it it's not gonna do well. And I'd probably say the same thing about this podcast. So it it's my it's my nature to be myself. and it's look, I got a lot, I got a lot to say, I got a lot of energy. It's not my nature to reel it back in. and that's something that you know pretty well that I'm working on off the court and on the court. The nice thing about pickle, is it's an arbitrary situation to practice patience, right? If you fuck up and make a mistake, you say you're sorry and you move on. in real life, you don't get arbitrary situations to work on patience. So I've been able to take a lot of the skills that I've learned in Pickle and translate them to being a better parent, a better husband A little bit better of a listener. but to to answer your question, after a couple tournaments of being myself, I realized that that's not the type of thing that everybody else was bringing to the tournaments. you know, I saw people not shake hands, I saw people stone face, and really what I saw is a lot of people who've like competed formerly on like a much tougher scale, and I realized I needed to become a little bit more thicker skinned. for me, the main thing was is to like and the main thing is in my day to day life, is not getting sucked into other people's negativity. Like just not getting sucked into other people's negativity. and that means like when someone's like disputing a call or starting to jaw with me, like in the past I love that shit. But what I realized it it takes me out of my game. like quicker than anything. I'm I'm more focused on on not hitting the ball and all the bullshit. and so, you know, in learning that I learned that by having a couple different partners that are like, you know, that maybe told me, hey, reel it back in. And I'm sure the question's coming. That's when the mouthpiece came. Yeah. I was about to chime in there and I was like, so in your Personal life because I know pickleball relates to your personal life and you made that analogy. Have you ever thought about wearing the mouthpiece? Dude, shut up. You know, my wife has asked me why I don't wear it around the house. It's more socially acceptable with pickleball. What happened to Positivity? That was a dig. That's fine. We like to dig on each other. Yeah. I felt like it was playful. It's fine. Yeah, tell us tell us about the origin about the the origin story of the All right, well we'll we'll post some pictures of it. It's just all it is is the same type of mouthpiece that a football player would wear that's attached to the helmet. originally it was like, man, I gotta find something to help me lock in and something that's like gonna remind me to not mix it up with others. This is how it started. So I like, you know, it would be kind of funny if I bought on a mouthpiece, like a little muzzle. And I was like, whatever. Like, I bought it. And I wore the the mouthpiece on like one of our tournaments. It was a three point five tournament up in Temecula SoCal Pickleball Club. And we fucking won. The first time I wore the mouthpiece, we fucking won. And like, you know, I did feel the difference. you know, when we talk about mindfulness and like what this podcast is about. It was like That little tool helped me like play within myself, you know, and it just reminded me like if someone's getting the better better of me, like shut the fuck up and play. and that's like how it started. it is a little bit of a gimmick. I was just gonna the yeah, How did that translate into your life? pick like the the mouthpiece in general. well gosh, we gotta have to have my therapist on the pod. I'm trying, you know, in my personal life. And a lot of this ties to alcohol and part of the reasons why I'm not drinking right now for two years. you know that's more than right now. That's that's pretty long. We're trying not to be black and white. You know, I'm kind of all or nothing, right? Yeah. I don't wanna say never, but not right now. and a part of the reason is I'm the type of person that likes to speak before I think and it brings a certain level of authenticity to all my interactions and it can also get me in trouble. You put alcohol in with that and it could get you in some big trouble. So just being able to trade drinks for dinks has helped me immensely. You know, just learning how to like focus on the things that that I can control. You know, I can control my breathing, right? I can control my shots. I can't control how other people are gonna act. and that goes for off the court too. You know, I've had a lot of less negative interactions in my life and I'm living a a lot more peacefully on the court as well. Yeah. Awesome. Let's transition really quick. So what are your goals, not just for pickleball? Let's start like goals for pickleball and then goals for the forty four X twenty podcast. You know, I'm turning 47 this year, and this podcast specifically is for the recreational pickleball player. this podcast is really for everybody who loves pickleball, but I mean, we're not gonna be talking about like what's happening in the pro game pro game every day. We're gonna be talking about what's happening on the court. So my goals recently are not to get to a certain level. I w I'd like to participate in some charity tournaments over the course of the year. some social tournaments over the course of the year. and I think it would be awesome for us to host some of our own events and tournaments between now and the end end of the year. and we are gonna have a kickoff release coming up soon. Nice. Yeah. for my personal goals is just to is they're a lot more like flexibility and fitness goals. I want to make sure I can like get my ass as low as I can to the ground. So touch your toes. Thanks for that. Maybe w have you ever thought about doing yoga or stretching? I tried yoga. I do a lot of stretching, bitch. Well you said that was one of your goals, so I was curious what steps you're taking to Well, we just did we just finished the six weeks of legs program. Okay. With me and the trainer. Tell me more. Well, what that meant for me was one of the things that I think everybody knows, but no one really gives a shit about is it's really, really difficult to get like way better playing rec games. Yeah. You know, if you want to get better, like you do have to like drill a lot and you do have to play with play players that are better than you. and you do have to commit just like anything. and you know, in some of these events Lo well look, I l I look around and I can see how low everybody's getting and I can see how much it matters, in pickleball and I I couldn't get my back foot down. I was just getting killed on backhand dinks, just getting exposed and you know, that's I don't care about winning or losing. I wanna age gracefully on the court and play forever. Yeah. So lifting weights, like lifting legs, does that give you have you seen like that result in fuck yeah. I mean every once in a while you see your cousin jump out of his fucking shorts, right? There's times where I'm up there and I'm like, what am I doing up here? so we talked about your goals for pickleball this year. What are your goals for 44X20 this year? I mean, 44X20, I mean my main goal is for it to become a community. A community of listeners, a community of players who are all listening, engaging and playing together. I would tell you right now that forty four X twenty, the way I just described it already exists. Forty four forty four X twenty is my community and I'm bringing the listeners into it and I'm welcoming them to be part of it. you know, for everyone who likes to talk about pickleball, we can't play it. Twenty four hours a day, but we can think about it and we can talk about it and we can have a lot of fun with it. and I think that's what this podcast is gonna be all about. That's what I'm hoping. Awesome. Looking forward to it. Are we having fun so far? I am, yeah. I'm having so much fun. I'm having fun whooping your ass in ping pong. Whatever dude in nineteen ninety-three. Suck it. Whatever. Let's tell the listeners how you used to cry and run away and throw your paddle like a little bitch. I knew you couldn't have a mouthpiece moment there. And now all our listeners are kn know that we need to have a podcast mouthpiece. Mouthpiece moment. You know, you could put me on mute. Just press the mute button under number four. Try it. Sam, final thoughts. My final thoughts are that you never cease to amaze me, Adam Regos I cannot believe how you how much you excelled at being the host. Really? Thank you. I mean I do have to listen and ask questions for a living. You know who you need to listen to? Your cousin Sam. Remember in the last tournament when I said don't hit it to that guy and you just tried to be the hammer, not the nail? Yeah, whatever. All right. No, whatever. There there will always be another one. Positivity. Yeah. my god, get him off. Get him off. I stop. my god. I've been wanting to do that that entire podcast. That was tons of fun, Sam. coming up next, we're gonna play a little game. I'm stoked. Let's do it. All right. What up, pickleheads? And we're back. And I'm back in the host chair where I belong. And I'm back in the guest chair where I belong. All right. coming up now, we're gonna play a game. this game is called the pickleball version of I've never. And for those of you who have played the drinking version of I've never, it's pretty similar. I mean, we've played that, right? Like never have I ever. Yeah. So basically, like I'll say something like I've never body bagged an old lady in the face. And if you have, then you gotta drop the ball. The ball's drop. So you'll do it on your you'll do it on your table or whatever. So here's and of course it's gotta be pickleball themed. So here's how you score a point. The way that you score a point is if we both drop the ball, no point. If neither of us drop the ball, no point. If I ask the question and only one of us drops the ball, it's a point. Okay. There's n it's a rally scoring. Rally scoring. Let's go. All right, so we gotta keep track. listeners, make sure that that you're keeping track at home and keeping us honest. So and it's just gonna be a back and forth here, Adam. So y I'll start with the first I've never. Okay. I've never tried to Nasty Nelson, a woman over the age of sixty. One zero I'm not a dick. I'm positive. I'm real positive. It's just a little kiss. Hey, dude, just practice your drop shot, a little kiss. Follow my podcast. It's a sign positivity podcast. It's a sign of affection, ladies. You know, just a little one. Not I'm not talking about I'm not talking I didn't say full send body bag. Yeah. All right, your turn. Have you ever lobbed it over? No, no, no. just supposed to say I've never I've no, it's actually never have I, never. Never have I, never. Never. Have I ever? Wait, wait, wait. It's never have I ever. It should be never have I pickle ever. Never have I pickle ever. Lobbed it over someone's head and as a repercussion they ran into a fence which we call the cheese grater. I have. Yeah, it's always great to see someone go into the cheese grader Never have I ever, ever worn pink shoe pink pickleball shoes. Ooh, I thought maybe you have. All right, your turn. No. Unless it's breast cancer awareness mom. So you have? No, I've never worn pink shoes. But you would shoes. Shout out to all the young boys out there, not me. Yeah, maybe if I was a twenty two year old. I don't I will I'm not gonna mustache either. All right, next one. Come on, keep it going. One zero. Never have I ever fanboyed, and just to clarify, a fanboy is complimenting someone else in a tournament setting. I hate you. Okay. My turn? Yeah. Never have I ever thrown my paddle full force. I have. I don't think I have. I yeah, I don't think I have. I haven't either. Have I? No. yeah. Well, definitely your ping pong paddle. That doesn't count. We're talking about pickleball. This is a pickleball pod, not a ping pong pod I'm just thinking racket sports. Yeah, I don't I can't remember it. You definitely have. Rapid. fire Two one. is it my turn or is it your turn? I think it's my turn. Never have I ever hit a tweener serve. In a in game or not in game? In game. Does it does it have to land? Yeah. You've hit a tweener serve? I said did it have to land. I've tried it. It's got to land in the court. I've tried it. Okay. In game. Have you have you hit in the court? I've never. He says never have I and then if you have it. Okay. So that was one where we both You have. No, I haven't. Yo, you haven't hit a tweener serve? No. I've seen you do that with Chicas. Yeah, but it didn't land. In your okay. So that was one where we both don't. Can we both just drop the ball together since it neutralizes? I like it for the sound effects. Okay, I got a good one. Okay. Never have I ever been playing pickleball before and there was a peeping Tom watching. man. Okay. Never have I pickle ever let the person who hit me take a picture with me. there's your ball. It's fine. Ball on Never have I ever hit myself in the head With the paddle. You've done that too. Actually it was like two weeks ago I hit myself in the eye and like like with your paddle. Yeah, on a on a lob on someone hit a lob too. And like thirty minutes later I went and ordered those kitchen blockers. Shout out to Kitchen Blockers if you want to be a sponsor. You know, it's the glasses that have no lenses. gotta gotta. Adam, this was tons of fun. I think you're gonna be my favorite guest, or I'm gonna be your favorite guest. Yeah. Signing out. This is Sam. This is cousin Adam. And we out