Episode
Episode 8: The Pickleball Pro Who Found Her Nerves Again On a Padel Court
- Podcast
- Padel With Bryant
- Published
- Jul 9, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3355
- Processing state
not_requested
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Summary
What happens when a touring PPA pro pickleball player falls completely in love with padel? You get high-speed adrenaline, deep mental resets, and some beautifully chaotic contrarian strategies that leave traditional coaches shaking their heads. In this episode, Bryant sits down with Camila Zilveti , an elite racket athlete and professional pickleball player. Camila opens up about her sudden transition into the padel world over the last four months, the thrill of playing competitive tournaments with her 64-year-old father, and why she completely rejects the standard advice to slow the game down. We go deep on: Why a pro pickleball player is having vivid dreams about running at the glass instead of tracking the ball The radical hot take on overcoming tournament jitters by blasting the first few balls as hard as you can What padel must learn from the mistakes of pickleball including tour bidding wars and the corruption of financial inflation Why the international flavor of padel culture offers a refreshing escape from the mainstream American sports scene The raw psychology of professional sports where everyone goes home a loser except for one team every single week Main Topics Covered Pro pickleball is transitioning completely away from drops to high-speed drives and that heavy-hitting mindset carries over to padel. Learning squash style court awareness and finding the courage to run toward smashing opponents instead of backing away helps conquer the fear of the walls. Comparing padel court fees to golf shows why the barrier to entry must drop for the game to conquer rural America. The mental tightrope professional athletes walk requires a balance between believing they are the best in the world and protecting their mental health from public criticism. You do not need cas…