Inside the Wires | Platform Tennis and Paddle podcast · Inside the Wires

S6 E5 Brad "Yoda" Easterbrook

·1 hr 57 min·2 clips

Brad's advice to a lower-ranked team: don't flip your identity, find the right ball.

Brad "Yoda" Easterbrook joins Nobu and Eric. The episode kicks off with a joke about the Bills, the Chiefs, and the refs before shifting into tactical paddle talk that really only clicks when everyone in the room speaks the language. From there, it moves into match planning. Brad makes the case that a pair should know its best shape before the match starts, then, within a few games, figure out whether it is actually getting there. Baselines matter. Without one, a team can bounce from one scramble to the next and never really know whether it is competing the way it wants to compete. The discussion keeps circling adjustments. They talk through how teams change matchups at the net and in the backcourt, and how those switches can show whether a duo has a clear plan or is still searching for one. Eric brings up Boston. That semifinal example turns into a useful case study for how pairs keep chasing the diagonal matchup they want and how defense can become the lever that pulls them back into a match. Brad keeps the focus on patterns. He treats ugly early sets as information, not just damage, and makes the point that different kinds of 6-0 or 6-2 losses tell different stories. The show never hurries that idea. Instead, it keeps returning to the same question from a few angles: what is the team actually trying to do, and how close is it to the version of itself that wins? The banter stays in the mix. There are interruptions, corrections, and side jokes, but they mostly help the rhythm of a room where people are thinking out loud and pushing each other to be specific. That gives the episode a lived-in feel. It sounds less like a lecture and more like a post-match argument that happened to catch enough useful detail to matter later. By the end, the conversation lands on a simple idea. Good paddle comes from finding your baseline, testing it honestly, and building from there.

As heard by us

A loose paddle hangout that keeps circling back to how a team finds its baseline.

Inside the Wires turns Brad Yoda Easterbrook's visit into a clear look at tactics, baselines, adjustments, and the way a pair settles into shape once a match is underway.

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Why you'd press play

You want Brad Easterbrook breaking down paddle tactics without sanding off the banter.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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