Can Senior 5.0s Compete With Younger Ones? [Commentated]

Hello good people, Mark Napartovich here, speaking through an AI voice. I'm the guy in the red shirt. Today, we're breaking down a pretty intense match, Chris and me versus Roger and AJ. Fun fact, Chris and I are, on average, exactly 50% older than our opponents. But our average DUPR ratings are pretty much the same. Many people say that a 50 plus player's duper rating is about half a point inflated compared to a younger player's. Well, let's see if there's any truth to that. It's just a practice match, but as you'll see, things get pretty competitive. There are plenty of fun points, especially in the second half of the game. With its new 4.0 voice model, Eleven Labs brings some extra emotion to my commentary. AJ serves. Roger drives. I managed to block the ball deep, got pop up and we won side out. Roger and Ajay used to play a lot of tournaments, although they haven't competed together much lately. Now Chris is serving. I have to admit, that wasn't the best ball for me to attack, but look at Roger's lightning fast hands! Seriously, how does he move that fast with that wingspan? Here, AJ doesn't take advantage of deep drop, giving me a chance to attack, which AJ resets nicely. Now he tries Erne, but Chris returns to the middle. Watch how Chris recognizes AJ backing up and takes advantage of a slight pop-up to attack. Nicely done! Serve went long. Side out. If you want to be aggressive with your serve, you've got to miss a few sometimes, right? Looks like Chris forgot we've got a 6'8 lefty on the other side of the net, just waiting to poach. Luckily, I managed to block it. Nice lob over my head. And Chris takes off to chase it down. I quietly slide over to the left. But that was a mistake. I should have called out switch, so Chris knew what I was doing. Chris is like a wall. And what a beautiful redirect at the end. This is one of my favorite setups when I'm playing on the right side. The idea is to get a dead ball right in front of me. From there, I have three options. Speed it up high down the line, attack through the middle, or push a cross-court dink. All three shots start with exactly the same motion. Well, that's the theory. What did I actually do? Sped it up straight into AJ's paddle. The only good thing about Roger's lightning-fast hands, at least for us, is that he often hits balls that are going out, too. Buy almost any paddle at justpaddles.com with 10% discount using code PIRATES. Sharp speed up down the middle by AJ. Roger follows it up and they earn the side out. Should have just let that ball go. Now they're making their way to the kitchen. But Chris catches AJ off guard with a dink for the second time. I kind of like that speed up by Chris. I just wish I hadn't missed the counter. By the way, when you use our code to buy any of the paddles popping up on your screen, we earn a small commission. Thanks for supporting the channel! Yes, Chris! He's still a lefty, and he's still tall! Now that's funny. Loving seniors is generally a pretty good strategy. Not this time, though. And I'm pretty happy with how I dragged my push-off foot along the ground to avoid a kitchen foot fault. I believe when someone speeds up a ball from the kitchen area, below net height, you should only counter if the ball comes in below your waist. Otherwise, just let it go. From that close to the net, there's a really good chance it's flying out. Another poach by Roger! This time, I got lucky and managed to regain control of the rally, keeping my counters low and angled down. Side out! Ajay hits a return with heavy slice, and Chris uses that spin to drive the ball low. Ajay pops it up, and now we've got the advantage. From here, we hold our ground, stay aggressive, and put the ball away. It is 4-3 in our favor. I serve. They're stacking, so I try to serve as wide as possible to make it harder for them to unwind the stack. Roger drives to my backhand, so I can't really take advantage of him being on the move. Now that was not smart. Speeding up from below net height, straight at Roger and his fast hands. No wonder I put it into the net. Chris shows off his crazy defensive skills once again. Sorry, Chris. You bailed me out, but I couldn't return the favor. Okay, Roger. Don't lob a badminton player, even if he's old. Now that's just an amazing play by Chris. Should we call it the pump and dump? This guy just won't stop. How can he be that tall and still have such fast hands? Notice how I serve wide again to make stacking more difficult. But it looks like they've decided not to stack this time. So what's my plan B? Apparently, it's to drop the ball straight into the net. I'm still amazed at how easy it is to put the ball away with my Boulder Opal. Looks like we're building some momentum here. It's really hard to hit a good drop against someone that tall. He can practically reach over the net. Great job, Chris. Okay, I have to admit that lob works. Remember that pattern I mentioned for the player on the right? Get a dead ball right in front of you, then either speed it up down the line, attack through the middle, or roll a sharp cross-court dink. All from the same motion. Serve wide to put pressure on the stackers. Done. Get to the kitchen. Done. Attack a high ball. Done. Another wide serve puts pressure on the stacking team, forcing them to miss the return. 8-3. Uh-oh, that's not good. Looks like I just killed our momentum. Now that's one reckless move. When I counter drives, I always try to lean into the kitchen to take time away from my opponents and create better angles. But sometimes that backfires, especially when the ball clips the net. At the advanced level you should always be ready for an attack and if your opponent speeds up a ball from below net height be ready to let it fly. There's a good chance it's going out. Roger's hunting for another poach but Chris blocks the put away attempt once again. My partner is an absolute wall. We get a side out. Don't hit balls that are going out. Just don't. Roger hits a drop volley, but Chris picks it up with confidence, allowing us to get all the way to the kitchen. That's exactly why a fourth shot drop volley isn't always a great idea. Anyway, I managed to mess it all up by speeding up straight into the net. Roger poaches, Chris blocks. Looks like we've got ourselves a winning pattern here. Just don't try this at home, kids. You cannot scare me attacking from the mid-court. Put away with the Boulder Opal is just so satisfying. I guess nobody on the court expected that speed up from Chris. Even the net decided to reward him. Way to go, Chris! I guess this is one of my problems. Whenever my opponents get a lucky net cord, I get frustrated and freeze for a moment. If I'd kept moving instead, I could have reached that ball before Chris and saved the rally. In my opinion, the best return of serve is a deep, high-arching drive with heavy topspin. It pushes your opponents back, makes their third shot drop really difficult, and even makes it harder for them to drive the ball aggressively. And the best part? It gives you plenty of time to get to the kitchen. At this point, it looks like Chris is just abusing the pop-up poach block combo. I wouldn't recommend trying it yourself, though. Side-out! This time, I probably should have targeted AJ's deep backhand or gone for a cross-court roll-ding. He was already set up and waiting on his forehand side. I don't know how I messed it, but I did. Catching up! The tension is rising! 7-9! This rally looks like déjà vu! I'm pretty sure we've seen this exact situation earlier in the game. The key is to keep putting pressure on AJ because he tends to hang back a little. And that's exactly what we did! Still not sure. Am I getting slower or is Pickleball getting faster? I hit a pretty good drop, but I was still late on the counter. That's exactly how you should defend against the shake and bake. Chris hits a great drive, but Roger resets it low into the kitchen, forcing me into a tough shot that I end up missing. Well, maybe that's why he's almost a 5.5. I love freebies. Do you? Nice lob, right over my head. Hey, I want my elongated paddle back. This hybrid isn't giving me enough reach. Oh no, we were up 8-3, and now it's tied at 9-9. How did we let that happen? Not sure if that ball was going out, but better safe than sorry. Side out. Whew. AJ backs up as soon as I get the ball. I can't let that opportunity go. I attack his right shoulder, forcing a chicken wing and a pop-up, but somehow they survive. AJ is still hanging back, though, and he has a tough time reaching Chris' dink. And just like that, we're back in the lead. There's a glitch in the matrix. Attack, reset. Attack, reset. Attack, reset. Well, third time's the charm, apparently, and we got the win. Wow. If you don't have a paddle, we can help with that, too. Check these out.