CHIX talk pickleball with Pickleball PRO Zane Navratil
This is the 8th pickleball podcast where the pickleball CHIX interview special guest, Pickleball Pro, Zane Navratil. He is currently ranked #4 in singles on the World Pickleball Rankings, but has been as high as #1, just last summer of 2022. Here are some impressive stats: ·
18X APP Tour Gold Medalist
2X Major League Pickleball Champion
2X PPA Tour Gold Medalist
Major League Pickleball Premier League First-Round
Draft Pick (2023 Season) with Team Frisco Clean Cause
2022 APP Cincinnati Open Triple Crown Winner
The CHIX ask Zane about "Smack Pong", his family, growing up in Racine Wisconsin, and learn about the business opportunity Zane has found with his passion for pickleball. Zane has a connection to the midwest, and has played at a local Minnesota club - Lucky Shots where he has filmed videos. He is a mover and shaker, as he has several partners, such as ProXR pickleball paddle, Yobow recovery tool and Pickle Social owned by Competitive Social Ventures where encouraging play with unique themed entertainment venues center around experiences, premium food and beverage offerings, and live entertainment. Zane shares his experiences moving from APP to PPA for the year 2023, which he is excited about. Coming from Major League Pickleball Team BLQK and an impressive year, he is now with Frisco Clean Cause. Zane loves the team play with the MLP format and now doesn't miss anything
about tennis. Zane shares a tip for pickleball players of all ages and skill levels. He breaks it down into "INPUTS" and "OUTPUTS". Watching your "input" controls the "output", learn more in the podcast. Who is the one person Zane would like to play pickleball doubles with? You'll have to listen to hear his answer.
Smack Pong
A game Zane and his Dad created, and you know what they are still waiting for it to be an Olympic sport. For those who haven't heard of Smack Pong yet, for maybe some of the few who haven't heard of Smack Pong. It's basically like a mix between ping pong and sting pong. And Sting Pong being where you win a point and the other person has to turn around and you get to wing a ping pong ball, Smack Pong is where you play regular ping pong. However, if you just drill somebody with the ball, you get three points instead of one point. So it definitely is for the people that wake up and choose violence in the morning. So that's how that's how my dad and I can sometimes get some aggression out. So the nice part about Smack Pong. Now imagine you're in a pink and a pickleball match and you're playing major league pickleball scoring. It's you're down zero to 20 in a game to 21. The beauty about Smack Pong is the game is never over because if you hit if I hit my dad or my dad hits me above the neckline, headshots are game winning. And my Dad gets a headshot on me and then it's game over. He just turned the tides so yeah, usually when you're down about 15 points, you start going for headshots. It's a ping pong ball, it doesn't hurt too badly.
Zane is a family guy!
Close with both his Dad and Mom, even sharing the same tennis coach as his Dad, Harold Swanson from Prairie School in Racine, Wisconsin.
Entrepreneurial spirit runs deep in the Navratil family. Zane’s parents own Dimples Fine Imports in Racine, Wisconsin, they bring they bring...