SPEAKER_01 0:00

You know what? When you play two times, you want to play a hundred more times. It's addictive.

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Yes, it's addictive, right? This is uh a game that everything is meant for. What's something people don't know about you?

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Tell us one thing you never admitted on a pickleball court.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Pistol Pete. Rocket Rich, what's up? I am so excited. We are at Pickle and Par Club in Melville. And exciting guest today, right? We have Vincente! Vincente!

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Yes! We love him. Hey, you're very exciting player and a great person. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Thanks for coming all the way from Queens Village. Yes, always leaving in Queens.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Awesome, awesome. How did you get hooked to pickleball? What made you decide to play and be such an awesome player? You know what?

SPEAKER_01 0:58

I used to play tennis, like beginner level, and when I came here, I tried like to play tennis, but it's hard to like find part partners. So I have a cousin that that that told me let's try pickable. I never tried pickable before. So where are you from? Uh I'm from Venezuela. So did you play in Venezuela or come here on flight? I I play tennis in Venezuela. Gotcha. Now I got with uh teachers and everything. They they I learned there and I moved to Spain where I I know uh I used to play there paddle. Paddle, always paddle with the walls and everything. Then I came here and pickleball. So those are the three sports that I Venezuela, Spain, and now United States pickleball.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

Welcome, Vincente. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Thank you so much. Awesome. How long how long have you been playing pickleball?

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Two years. Two years two years playing pickleball.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Like friendly. No competition. No, not tournament, not nothing. Like friendly, only friendly.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Only friendly. Oh, that's great. Yes. Any memorable pickleball games? Like when anything stand out as far as like, wow, this was this was like really fun, exciting.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Yeah, a lot, a lot of games. I love it. Uh when I play, when I play outside, outdoors, sometimes it's like the sun and everything, and it's heavy, it's heavy. It's heavy game. And I love those games. What do you like better? Indoors or outdoors? Uh depends. If the sun, it's like 90 degrees, forget it. I prefer indoor. But when it's a good weather, like 70, 60, I prefer outdoor. Not a lot of winds. I prefer outdoor. No winds. I prefer outdoor.

unknown 2:35

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

I love, I love the the outdoor.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

You love outdoors? Yes. It's funny because when I first started playing, we used to play outdoors, and now all of a sudden, at least me personally, I'm like all in for indoors. I don't I don't mind playing outside, but there's something about playing indoors. Less wind. Uh, you know, again, we don't have to worry about rotating and stuff like that. It looks much more.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Less wind, more money. Absolutely. Yeah, right. More money. I think I think the when you when you're in a club like this, you laugh the club. The the chairs, the people, everything like zombie hunts and everything now, right? Outside it's the only the the court, and that's it.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Right, exactly. Exactly. You're right.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

But if you have a court outside, outdoor, and and a club in the court, maybe we can we can change.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Right. You know what I mean? What would you say has been a big thing that's uh helped you as far as pickleball?

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Good for you mentally. Are you in better shape because of it? I'm sure the answers are yes, and you look all right.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Totally, but uh no, they this is uh a game that everything is mental. Sometimes you're like 10, 2, and you cannot finish the game, and everything is mental. Yeah, you're a mental player. We have a mental player. It's all right. Very competitive. Yeah, I'm so competitive. You know, Pete. You know, Pete. Oh, we are competitive.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

You got the trick shots, you got them all, you know. Yeah, sometimes between your legs, we've seen some stuff.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

We may, you know, incorporate some of those plays in if we have them on video, right? I think we want between his legs that he got that was amazing. We thought it was impossible to get and he still got it.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Give me like a favorite meal you like to eat after uh playing pickleball.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Depends. In the morning, I can I can like do fasting and breakfast like eggs or bacon, those things. And if I play maybe in the night or afternoon, I can do like sandwich or something like that. Like meat, I love meat. Go to Fogo de Chao, it's good. Oh, yeah, Fu de Chow. Yeah, those are the things. So we have to that's what you like.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Yeah, you know what I mean. Like picania. You've played with Pistol P9 many times. And our good friend Jeff, JR. JR. JR, that's what we call him. Um you had a tournament you had to play in. And you can only choose one of us. Oh my god. Who would you choose? You're gonna put him on the spot like that? Like I'll put him right on the spot. Oh my god. You've played with us many times, the three of us. You know our style.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Well, that's hard to choose always. But I think if I want to win, like it's hard because three of you. We're similar, we're similar, we're similar on levels. I can do it with Pete 100%. Whoa!

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Pete, Pete!

SPEAKER_01 5:22

You know what happened with Pete? Pete is 100% competitive and he wants to win always. Always. Doesn't matter, doesn't matter nothing. If I want to win, I just need that. I just need that. I think I'm crazy like you.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

I need that. I need that. I'm choosing Pete. If you had to choose between Eric Handleman or Andrew Ritter, who would you choose? Eric. Wow. All right, I'm telling Andrew.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

Ruby's birthday. Oh, God. Dream celebrity pickleball partner. Who would you play with? Ben Johnson. Forget it.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Ben Johnson. Ben Johnson for me. Hands down. For me, he plays a lot. Forget it. Okay, okay. He's right now the owner of the pickleball.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

Owner of pickleball. Unbelievable. And then if you could play against one person, living or dead, who would it be? It could be anybody. Doesn't it? Anybody, anybody. It could be anybody relative.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Any star, anybody, relative. Living or dead.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

It's one person you play with. It's your last pickleball game in the world. God says, hey, you're my brother. Your brother, really? I like that. I like that. Where's your brother? Is he in Venezuela? He's in Venezuela.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

He's a dentist. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

So talk about that. Dentists. I'm a dentist. Yeah. I used to practice dentists in Venezuela. Then I moved. So I leave, I leave that. Like I know everything, but I'm not practicing right now that. I do a couple courses here in New York in the dental meeting in Manhattan. Okay. But right now I'm not practicing. I'm going back to Venezuela in one month and I'll start practicing again.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

Question for you. How many years of school do you have to have in Venezuela versus United States? Is it the same? Because I understand.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Tell us about the program with I don't know here, because here I think you have to do a couple things before go in to the dental school. Right. In Venezuela, you can start doing the dental school in the first year that you go in. So it took me five years, five years and a half.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

So now you have your license, so to speak. Now do you have to renew that with continuing education, like in other trades, or is it just if you do the school there, then you can like specialize in whatever you want.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Like if you're Ruth Connoll, surgery, or whatever aesthetic. You know what I mean? Sure, I do. So that's a couple, two more years, or three years, depends. You like the profession now that you're in it? Yes. I'm right now like general. But I love the side, the side area of the Ruth Canal. Your brother has a business in Venezuela. Yeah, he's Carly and us. You have a family of dentists. Yes. We have a family of family. Yeah. My mom and my dad also. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Your mom and your dad too.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Wow. Oh, wow. So did you want to be a dentist, I guess, growing up? That was your I grew up in a dentist. Everybody's a father and brother a dentist. Do you have any other siblings? Yes, I have a sister, a middle sister. Dentist? No. Engineer. And my dad and my mom wants she to be a dentist. Only her, only she. Wow. Okay. Wow. So that's pretty cool. Yeah. What other passions do you have? I love a lot soccer. Soccer. Soccer. I love to not to play a lot, but to watch soccer. That's my favorite sport. Wow, really? Then the tennis. And play picle bowl, play paddle, play tennis. I love it. So paddle. I don't know. I don't know the accent, but in Spain we said paddle.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

So Jeff, JR, him and I growing up, we played soccer all the time. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and he's not even here. He was speaking about making a surprise appearance. We could have talked about that.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

They call it football, right? Football, right? They call it football. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Yeah, but here it's soccer. What's something people don't know about you?

SPEAKER_01 9:06

Uh that I am like uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

But you've lived in three countries. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Well, we skip that with a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

You know what that means? Everyone knows everything about you. Yeah, right. Exactly, exactly. Yeah. Maybe the thing is. You're not hiding anything. In your life, Vincente, who has inspired you the most? My dad. Wow. And my brother, also.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Just good mentors. No, they they always um I don't know, they they always said what's the the how do you say like the the road, the road journey, the road that I have to choose, what I'm what I have to do. They correct everything that I do. So they are they inspire me in everything. That's true. They are always uh both are dentists. I'm a dentist, I want to be like them also.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

I'm sure they see that you're taking a really good journey.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Yeah, I'm used to play this game because my I saw my brother playing tennis. Right. So older brother? No, my brother. My brother I have a brother and a sister. My brother is the biggest.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

I'm saying his brother is older than you?

SPEAKER_01 10:14

Yes. He's six older six years older than me. Your sister? Three. I'm the I'm the lower. So you're the baby. There you go. I'm the baby. Baby Vincente. Yeah, baby. There we go.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

If someone is watching this interview and thinking about trying pickleball, what's your pitch to convince them? If they're like, yeah, I don't know about this. To play pickleball.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Yeah, it's easy. It's a friendly game. It's easy to start. And and you know what? When you play two times, you want to play a hundred more times. Gets addictive. Yes, it's addictive. Yeah, it is. It is, it is.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

It is addictive. The kitchen confession. Before we leave the kitchen, meaning where we are here, tell us one thing you never admitted on a pickleball court.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

That I don't know how to play pickleball. You know what I mean? I play tennis and pickleball. Yeah. So I don't play pickleball. I need to play in the dink. I need to play like slow. No, I want to smash everything. I want to do things that it's not a pickleball. He's a killer.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

So we understand we understand from what you told us, and we're saddened by, but we're happy on your journey that you you're moving back to Venezuela. Yes. Yeah. You think we'll ever see you again?

SPEAKER_01 11:24

I hope so. You're in Venezuela? Oh, I can't came in two or three years here again here. So who knows? My my baby, it's American. That's right. Ninchente just had a baby. Yes, my baby.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

You're gonna teach him how to play pickleball? Yes, 100%. Vittorio. Victorio. Victoria in a few years is gonna be hitting the ball right. They're gonna be stabbing some videos. That's awesome. How about your wife? Did your wife, I mean, did you did she ever go on a court with you to play? Did she ever try it?

SPEAKER_01 11:53

But she, I don't know. She don't like to be here watching me. She she gets bored. I try to convince her to play, but it's hard. It's hard.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Well, the producer of this show, Ellie, okay, used to have a little bit of interest. Now she plays more than all of us. Oh, yeah? That's right. She's an addict. She's yeah, so you never know what can happen, is what I'm saying. The tides can turn. Yeah, we don't know. We don't know. And this is a friendly game, so it's easy to start. So she's gonna be passing us to another. I know she's a mix partner.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

I need a mixed partner. Maybe I'll tell you how to do that.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

We never play with her. It's uh very surprising. We never know. She picked it up quick. Yes. So keep it keep on your wife. You never know. Maybe once the baby gets a little bit older. Yeah. We enjoyed it. This is great.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

We're glad you definitely glad to see you. You're one of our favorite guys. We love playing with you.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

We think you are ultra competitive, ultra talented, ultra-kind.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Thank you for the invitation, guys. Yes.