Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Sleeves here with the Senior Pickleball Report powered by TNC Network. Let's get it going.
Today in our People at Pickleball episode, we are speaking with Josh Miller, former NFL punter about his company, Heavy Sleeves. Pretty cool concept. Little bit of weight in the sleeves, you get a workout, you don't even know it. All right, before we get to that though, if you like this content, consider subscribing to the channel. Check out our newsletter as well and our merch page. Tons of discounts below in the description. All right, let's talk about some heavy sleeves with Josh Miller.
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[00:01:19] Speaker C: Hey, Josh Miller, welcome to the Senior Pickleball Report.
[00:01:23] Speaker D: I appreciate it. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you.
[00:01:26] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. You know, you're a guy that's got quite a background, obviously professional athletes, starting businesses, broadcaster analysts, all those things. But you know, this is a pickleball channel, so we're going to start with that and really how this silly whippleball game sort of came into your world. So if you could start us off there, that'd be great.
[00:01:47] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, so I work with athletes on the mental side and I work with. And what that means is I work with a lot of crazy parents that try to keep their kids in one sport.
And for me, I'm old school. I want them to play every sport possible, learn how to be an athlete. And these parents, they aren't having that. So I started introducing them into pickleball. I'm like, okay, focus on that one sport, but start playing pickleball so you can learn how to be an athlete. And the kids loved it. And that's a great option, a great plan B for them. But it checks their parents box that they're still focusing on their one sport. But meanwhile, I'm sneaking pickleball in there so they can learn how to bend, stop, go, explosion and sprinting type speeds that you need to be an athlete. So, and then I got addicted myself. And as a competitor, I don't like jogging. I don't like to ride a bike because I find myself coasting. I'm like, what gives me a competitive edge? And when you're our age, I mean, I'm 50. I'm 50. And for me, you can be good at. You could be real good at pickleball real fast if you're a decent athlete and you keep yourself in somewhat shape. So for me, it was instant, like you're beating people. And then I got addicted to it. And not only that it's the nicest place in the world to meet people. I mean, it's. You meet people of all different levels, ages, backgrounds. It's like, it's. I always say it's like the keys. It's like Key West. You don't know if that guy's worth $10 or 10 million. Doesn't matter. You're laid back, you're chill, and you're playing a game you love. And that's what pickleball did for me. So it checks a lot of boxes for me, personally.
[00:03:12] Speaker C: Yeah, and I think you bring up a great point, Josh, and that is, you know, the era you and I grew up in. I played everything. You know, I didn't play tennis necessarily, but I had a tennis racket, and I played every so often when somebody else, you know, wanted to go out and hit some balls or, you know, I played golf once in a while, and I had a. I had an interesting experience probably about 10, 15 years ago. My niece had a boyfriend who played high school football, and he was a lineman. And, you know, we went out. It was some holiday, and we're out in the street, we're throwing the ball around, and he threw the ball to me, and I was like, this guy plays football. Like, he doesn't throw like he's played any other sport except being a lineman.
[00:03:51] Speaker D: Right.
[00:03:52] Speaker C: And, you know, and he grew up in the era of club sports, and, you know, he's been playing pee wee football and probably, you know, designated to be a, you know, a big man, so to speak, in his role and never developed anything else. And so I sort of. I was like, whoa, this is interesting to see, because every guy or gal I grew up with that, you know, they could do it all, and they. They, they. They played it all, whether it's hitting, you know, a wiffle ball in your backyard or playing in an organized sport. So I think that's a very important point that you bring up, which shifts us, really, to heavy sleeves, because this is something that I think again is through across all disciplines there are so many different ways you can use this product and you know, to just to fill folks in a little bit about it. Why don't you tell us what heavy sleeves are and the different applications that you've been used for.
[00:04:49] Speaker D: Yeah, I appreciate that Intro to that. For me personally again, working with athletes on the mental side, there's no training aid for between the ears. So today's kid, they need to feel something immediately or they're going to check out. So I was able to come up with something that allowed them to feel something immediately which gave them that buy in. And for every sport, no matter which one you play, most of these sports are predicated on speed, power and explosion. So if you just put a little bit of resistance on the, on your forearm or from your knee to your ankle, those are two bones that, that aren't going to bend no matter what you do. If it bends, you got other problems to worry about. So just putting those on your forearms or your legs allows you to kind of work on explosion with and forgetting that it's even on your body. So for me it's like a donut on the baseball bat. You take a couple swings with it, take it off and it feels quicker, faster, stronger. Well that's instant buy in and it lets you practice how you play and it works for every sport. Pickleball, thank goodness, is one of them.
[00:05:44] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. I've used it when I do wall drills. I think it really works well doing that. I'm in a little confined space. I have some confined movement that I'm covering about. I have a half a half a length of a net so I'm you know, covering 10ft or whatever that is. And I find it very useful because once I take them off and let's be clear here, what kind of weight are we talking about?
[00:06:05] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean one arm is at max is a pound. There's two pockets, there's two pockets on one sleeve. You can take half, half a pound off or add half a pound to make it fully £1. Again, if you're not practicing how you play then then it's too heavy and then injuries can creep in, which defeats the purpose of them.
[00:06:23] Speaker C: Yeah, and like you mentioned, having the donut on the bat, it is, it's one of those things you take off and there are different training devices that do things like this. They either speed up the game or slow the game down for you. And I think when I used them the first time, they weren't actually that Noticeable. I didn't feel like I was slogging around some giant heavy thing on my arm or my leg. But I tell you, when I did it for about 20 minutes and then I took it off and I went to the court, it was based on my warmup. I did a warm up first. I implemented this into the heavy sleeves into my warmup. And then I went and played and there was a little more bounce in my step and I felt a little sharper because one, I had warmed up properly and two, I had done something that, you know, gave me some resistance and slowed me down just, just enough.
Not enough where I was going, man, this is, this is just brutal. But enough where when I took them off, I was like, oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:07:19] Speaker D: It just adds just a little bit if you're out there just to lose more some weight and get in shape. You know, the doctor says sweat every day. That's. That should be your goal. If you just add them on your legs and arms, it just adds to the workout. You burn an extra couple hundred calories in doing so and strengthening the sports specific muscles. So, yeah, I mean, I love, my wife is always, you know, she was like, you just had to find something to do with pickleball. I'm like, of course I did. Because now, now I can go everywhere and talk to people about pickleball and I'm, honey, I have to play. I mean, it's business, it's work. So as you're doing, it really is just, it's absolutely wonderful. And of course it works for tennis and all the other racket sports, but I love that it works for pickle because it's addicting. I mean, I've been playing every day for two years and I probably play the equivalent of like a dog's life. You know, every seven years is a year. I feel like I played at least 10 years of pickle in the two years that I played. And you know, I literally, it's competitive as hell and it's amazing. I got guys that, you know, they're on my to do list. You know, I see how good they are and I'm like, I'm gaining on them. And it's just, I love that about the game. You know, there's always going to be someone in front of you to catch and there's always going to be people behind you when where if you throw your racket and you're ready, you're up next and you're playing with three other guys that aren't at your level, you're working on things. There's things you could always pick up any other sport. I can't play golf with a guy who shoots 127 if I'm a 4 handicap. But if I'm a 40 or 45 and I'm playing with a 3 or 2 5, I can find things to do in the course of that that will help my game. So I've never seen anything like that where two sports can play no matter what the levels are.
[00:08:50] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. And we're all looking for that edge and I think when we look at training and training devices, what are those little things that maybe make a difference? And I, I, I've enjoyed heavy sleeves because I like, I am a notoriously slow starter in anything I play. It just seems to be. But since I started implementing a solid warm up and from a, doing a variety of things and, and then implementing these sleeves, it's, it's generally I, I'm not as slow as going because I've broken a sweat. I've moved around.
I've done something actually with, I think what heavy sleeves does for me is I do it with intent. I'm not just, you know, doing something and warming up and then going to hit some balls. There's an actual purpose to wearing these. And what I do, like I mentioned earlier, is I use them in a sort of a game situation with the wall prior to going out and playing. And I, I definitely find it beneficial as far as getting me going and not dropping that first game out of the chute.
[00:09:51] Speaker D: So yeah, no, I'm glad you said that. And I worked on my, whatever my strengths aren't, you know, my serve got a lot better because it gave me great confidence. I started doing it with the sleeves and then when I took them off, I was able to really rope and get some really good topspin and have the confidence to rip through it the way you're supposed to. And I also noticed that on my backhand, you know, my backhand was just, I couldn't really roll it over as good as I wanted to or as consistent. It wasn't second nature yet. I just started working with the, with the sleeves on that. I took them off and it just rolled over on its own. I was like, okay, that's what it's at least supposed to feel like now. Yeah, I got to make it now. I got to do enough reps to make that a habit. So it all seems to work together on that. Working on your weaknesses, right?
[00:10:30] Speaker C: Absolutely. So before we go, let's just talk briefly about how really this concept came to be, because everybody that I talk to that has developed something specifically, obviously, in pickleball, because that's. That's what we're covering here.
And then I. I post it, and people are like, oh, God, that was just so simple. Like, why didn't I come up with that? Or. Or. Or that was, you know. You know, that's. That's nothing to come. And then I always. And then I talk to the folks that came up with it, and they're like, listen, we went through about two years of prototypes, and this had to happen. And this had to happen, and we spent money doing this, and you should see the early versions of that. So talk me a little bit about the process of how it came to be.
[00:11:12] Speaker D: Yeah, I didn't know what I was trying to make. As I mentioned, I work with athletes on the mental side, and every one of them seems to come back to things between the ears, and I'm like, there's no training aid for that. And then at the same time, my daughter was a hurdler. She went to Towson to be a heptathlete, and she's not good at anything, but she was okay at everything. That's what a heptathlete is. It's. They build a position for the person that's not good at anything. They combine a bunch of events and call you a heptathlete.
And she was a slow hurdler. She was a. You know, her jumping could be better, but she did everything decent. I tried coming up with drills and things that she can practice with, and she was the first one ever to put sleeves on and kind of just go at it. And yet, to your point, I mean, she looked like a mummy from where it was to where it is. I'm wrapping things around. I'm like, mom's going to be mad. I'm like, oh, don't just try and trust me. You know, by the time she got done after the third hurdle, she turned around and there'd be like a. You know, it looked like a laundry basket exploded. But then we finally combed down on it. We got some different sleeves, put some different things in there, and it started coming together. And then you start dealing with dance, yoga, Pilates, the rehab, and all these people have a reason for it. Like, okay, I'm going to take this a little more serious. And for me, I was very lucky to be able to have. Be in Florida and have a bunch of athletes at my disposal at a high level and say, does this make sense? And like, oh, My goodness. Yeah. So that's how I knew I had something. When some of the people that are doing it for a living say they. They want to make this part of the routine.
[00:12:40] Speaker C: Yeah. And obviously you're in one of the meccas of pickleball and to, you know, have all these people try these, your product out, which is ideal. What. So before we let you go, what are you looking forward to 20, 25 wise with. With the company?
[00:12:55] Speaker D: Well, I'd like to. I like for this to be. I want this to be how kids train, you know, I want this to be on everyone's to do list. I want this to be part of them getting the edge, you know, a split second. Keeps them away from a Division 1 scholarship. Two inches may keep them away from a Division 1 scholarship if they can gain that by training with this type of resistance.
And I'd like to see it's kind of kick off a little more on the PT side with the older people. I see them, a lot of people walking around with dumbbells in their hands and things of that nature when they're walking or doing their yoga. This frees up their hands and allows them to not to worry about it anymore, but still have that weight on. So I like to see it a little more on the medical side and kind of see that the kids are calling for this. So. But I still enjoy it. I love the hell out of this thing. And I'm going to. It's not one of those things where I'm going to sell it off and I hope my kid is going to want to get into this thing and run it because there's a lot of applications down the road, but he packs in there now. Now if I'm a hunter and I'm in a tree stand in the middle of winter, at least my main parts are warm because I got, you know, heat packets in the pockets and things of that nature. So I'm always going to be tinkering. I'll come up with something and I'll make sure I send you some.
[00:14:00] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Sky's the limit. And you bring up some excellent points there because I think people, you know, they develop something and then eventually you start to see like, oh, it can do this. And with your product heavy sleeves, I mean, obviously every sport under the sun you can think of could benefit from this and, and will. And then, you know, you bring up the hunting thing.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: And I was like, holy crap, that is. That's really smart.
[00:14:26] Speaker C: Because I remember standing in a tree stand freezing my ass off.
[00:14:31] Speaker D: Yeah, you know, it's funny you say that. So I had a girl who's a high level bow hunter and, and she got me onto that side because she said when she brings it back, it, it, it, it dampens the vibration for one, which is fine. But she said it feels like I'm, I'm leaning on something. The weight distribution doesn't feel so heavy at the end. And so I started having my, my gut, my. You know, I have buddies that are in the police force shooting with it and they're like, wow, this really dampens the vibration. It feels like I'm leaning on something when I'm shooting, so I don't know where it can go, but I'm excited to kind of give it a pass. And again, these sleeves, I can make them camouflage and I can do all that stuff. So, you know, next, next year should be a lot of fun.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: Right on.
[00:15:10] Speaker C: Josh Miller, the man behind Heavy Sleaze, former NFL punter and obviously broadcaster, analyst, and man of all season. So thank you a lot, Josh. And folks, discount code, obviously steam popping up. Try these bad boys out. Link in the description to Heavy sleeves. And hey, thanks for your time, Jeff.
[00:15:31] Speaker D: I appreciate it. Pleasure being on here. Thank you so much.
[00:15:33] Speaker A: Hope you enjoyed our conversation with Josh again. Check out that newsletter. Check out Heavy sleeves. Hey, let's pickle.
