Season 25, Episode 102 - Shaun Boyce, Bobby Schindler

Summary

In this episode of the GoTennis Podcast, Shaun Boyce interviews Frank Solana, a professional pickleball player and entrepreneur. Frank shares his journey from tennis to pickleball, his experiences in competitive play, and the launch of his paddle brand, Luna. He discusses the evolution of pickleball, the design of his paddles, and the unique training camps he offers. Frank also reflects on the transition for tennis players to pickleball and his vision for the sport's future on a global scale.

Takeaways

Frank Solana transitioned from tennis to pickleball seven years ago.

He won the US Open in 2022, marking his entry into professional pickleball.

Frank started his own paddle company, Luna, and has been successful in building a community around it.

The new paddle, Eclipse, is designed to be more powerful and competitive.

Frank's camps are intense, focusing on both offensive and defensive strategies in pickleball.

He emphasizes the importance of learning a soft game for success in pickleball.

Frank believes that pickleball needs more international recognition and stars.

He aims to unite the sport globally, similar to tennis.

The demand for pickleball paddles is increasing, leading to new certification systems.

Frank encourages tennis players to embrace the challenges of transitioning to pickleball.

Keywords

Frank Solana, Pickleball, Luna, Paddle Design, Pickleball Camps, Tennis Transition, Sports Innovation, Pickleball Community, Professional Pickleball, International Pickleball Tour

Full YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/HAcit91-OaM

King of Tennis Answer: https://youtu.be/sbpKT83DGp8

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• Shaun Boyce, RSPA: shaun@americanracketsportsassociation.com | https://americanracketsportsassociation.com/
• Bobby Schindler, RSPA: schindlerb@comcast.net | https://letsgotennis.com/windermere
• Geovanna Boyce: geovy@regeovinate.com | https://regeovinate.com/
• GoTennis Website: https://letsgotennis.com/

Buy the all new ECLIPSE

https://letsgotennis.com/product/luna-eclipse-pickleball-paddle/

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https://lunapickleballcamps.com/

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https://www.instagram.com/franksolana

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Hey, hey, this is Shaun with the GoTennis Podcast, powered by Signature Tennis.

Check us out at LetsGoTennis.com.

And while you're there, be sure to register for the Fall Festival.

Tennis drills, pickleball clinics, the best coaches, vendors, sponsors, food, and more.

You won't want to miss it.

And now let's get into our recent conversation with Frank Solana.

Frank grew up as a tennis player idolizing Andrea Agassi and is pushing for pickleball

to generate more international athletes to promote the sport.

Frank's Luna branded pickleball paddle the Eclipse is presenting sponsor of the pickleball

clinics at the 2025 GoTennis Tennis and Pickleball Fall Festival coming up on November

1st at James Creek Tennis Center.

Have a listen.

And after you get registered for the Fall Festival, let us know what you think.

Frank Solana, thank you so much for taking the time to join us on the GoTennis Podcast.

I will start with my first question, which always is the obvious, who are you and why do

we care?

Well, thanks for having me in your podcast, my name is Frank Solana.

I'm originally from Mexico City.

I live on St Simons Island now.

I've been on St Simons Island for about 10 years.

Before that, I was in Atlanta, Georgia.

I've been in tennis pretty much all my career.

And then seven years ago, I started playing pickleball.

I kind of fell in love with the sport.

I started before he was cool.

And I just wanted to get better.

I come from a tennis background, I just started playing and I was losing a 76-year-old guys.

And I was like, I have to figure this out.

So I started playing pickleball.

I fell in love with it.

I started competing.

And then in 2022, I won the 5.0 US Open.

So in the final, I beat a pro and I was like, OK, I can play pro pickleball.

So in 2023, I was able to play the PPA tour.

I was able to play all the guys that you see on TV now, like Ben Johns, Matt Wright, Riley

Neumann, Hayden Patrick-Win.

So I was able to kind of get that experience under my belt and learn a lot.

So I got my butt kicked for a whole year.

So I got humble pretty quick just because I was a tennis guy and I thought I was going to

be a rock star.

But no, I got humble pretty quick.

So 2023, I started my own brand, Luna.

So I started my own paddle company.

I've had it for two years now.

And this year, I started, I branded my camps with the paddle.

So I run Luna Pickable Camps.com.

So this year alone has been really fun just because I've been going all over the southeast.

I've been to Atlanta twice.

I've been able to go worldwide this summer.

So I was able to go to Mexico, Croatia, Greece, and now Switzerland.

So I'm excited because we're going to do some projects here in Switzerland where I'm

going to carry my paddle and do some camps later on next year.

So yes, it's been pretty fun just to be in the beginning kind of stages of Pickable where

nobody thought it was serious.

And now that it's becoming more popular and people are thinking about playing, it's been

pretty fun that I'm able to get this opportunity.

You say you started seven years ago and I know you've told me before that you had some friends

picking on you about getting into Pickable Ball and you say before it was cool, what do

you think has changed that now do you go back to those same friends and be like, "Ah,

look at me now, people."

Yeah, well, it's pretty rewarding, man.

I'm not going to lie because I mean all my tennis peers, especially from Atlanta, they were

all like, "Fran, what are you doing?

It's a waste of time.

That's for all people."

And now they're all calling me like, "Hey, can you show me how to teach it?

Can you show me how to hit this shot?"

So it's pretty rewarding to see that change.

Obviously, when I started, I was like, "I'm just playing for me."

Like, I didn't care about anything about what people thought.

But yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty actually pretty rewarding that it comes back around

and I'm getting those calls.

And that's fantastic.

I'm jumping right into what I think is important, which is you're going to be part of our full

festival, the GoTennisFall Festival that's coming up in a couple of weeks now.

November 1st.

I don't think we're going to get to see you there.

I'm going to tease a little bit.

Frank might be there.

That's what I'll say.

I don't think you can be.

But your paddle is presenting the pickleball side of what we're doing.

So we're going to have demos of your paddle.

We're going to let people have a chance to buy them on site if they want.

And this is the new paddle.

So tell me, let's jump into the paddle here.

This is the eclipse.

That's right.

And previously was the new moon.

The new moon is the name of the brand.

The new moon was my first paddle that came in 2023.

That was more of active control paddle.

It's a paddle more of four doubles.

So I was having some issues with my doubles results.

So I want to create a paddle where I can have enough control and feel on the paddle.

So that was the new moon.

So in December 1st, it's actually the day that the paddle is going to come out.

You are getting the paddles before anybody gets them.

So you're going to be able to get them by November 4th.

So as soon as I come back home, I'll ship the paddles to you.

You're going to get your paddles and where people are going to be able to test them out

first.

I'm running a pre-sale.

So if you buy the paddle from--

--Sale.

--Yeah.

So it's kind of like you're going to get a big discount.

So if you purchase the paddle from here before December 1st, you'll get it for $199.

And if you wait till the rush of the holiday season for December 1st and after, it will be

$250.

So it's pretty exciting because I just, you know, I post that yesterday and I'm already

getting some sales and people are already buying it.

So I'm building a kind of like a cult, like a figureable cult.

So these people are pretty hardcore.

They have their kids telling them, hey, you know that the new paddle, the new Luna paddles

coming out tomorrow.

So it's pretty awesome to see that the people are attaching to the brand and I'm creating

something where it's like a community.

Yeah.

So it's been a pretty rewarding project, man.

So I wanted to do it like this where the timing, you know, of the holidays and with the clips,

the clips is going to be actually a powerful paddle.

It's going to be a thinner paddle.

So the new moon was 16 millimeters.

The clips is 14 millimeters.

So it's a little bit thinner.

So that'll feel more like a tennis racket and it'll have a laser-fiver coat on the paddle

where it's going to be able to kind of give it a little more pop.

So yes, it's going to be a powerful paddle.

I had to create a powerful paddle to compete with all the powerful paddles that are coming

out where if you're not going to stay with them, you're going to be left behind.

So that's kind of where it came from.

And give me a little inside information here.

I've seen plenty of manufacturers that have made paddles and then found out their paddle

didn't pass some industry specification for tournament play.

Is there some guesswork involved because they do some pretty stringent testing on these

things?

Yeah.

So what's happening now is that it's becoming so popular and the paddles are so in the

man that they're becoming different certifications basically.

So at first we only had USA Pickable.

So you can only do it with USA Pickable.

Now you had the PPA tour that became their own certification system.

So they created their own because they got big enough to say, okay, if you want to have

our paddle certified with us, you have to pay us.

So now me right now I'm not big enough to do both.

So I'm only doing USA Pickable because those are the people that are like the people that

are coming to my camps are the ones that are the amateur levels.

So it's different rules for different organizations.

So it's basically kind of the well-washed right now just because like, you know, we haven't

had the opportunity to figure it all out.

Like in tennis, there's no way a small company can compete with Wilson head and all the

babble at all, the established brands just because they have so much power with the top

players, right?

Right now Pickable is at a phase where, you know, you know, having international stars.

You have the people, the guys that are the top are only in the United States.

So it's still developing.

It's still pretty brand new.

Right now that's where that's where it's a free for all right now.

So I think I got in the market at the right time just because it was before the explosion.

And now that I'm established that the new paddles coming out, there's the demand for it because

like people have been following for following for a couple of years.

And so how do you, and maybe I'm getting too much into the weeds on the technicals, how

did you make it more powerful, but not too powerful so that it passes the test?

So right now we're actually going through the through the process right now.

I'm using this time to really hit what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to cut the limit until

I can get to if it doesn't pass, we have another one on the backup.

So you were pushing the limit so much that we made a couple of paddles to where it's saying,

OK, this pedal is hot, it's not going to pass, then we'll go to the next one.

Then we got to the next one.

It gets pretty pricey when you're doing that with all these different paddles.

But hopefully we'll be able to kind of like get it right on the first one where we're

pushing the limit kind of like we did it with the spin.

The spin has now changed a lot with the different with the different rules.

But like the new moon was like the test was like you cannot come off the paddle greater

than 30.

And it came out of 29.

So I was using I was I had the greatest battle in the market then obviously the rules have

changed now.

The greatest a little bit more.

So now what people are pushing is going to be the power.

So that's where that's where we're at with this before before the December 1st, we've

got to have all figured out and we're going to push the limit with the power.

Awesome.

I love it.

Talk to me about your camps.

You say you branded them together.

So Luna is not only adults, but it's also Frank Salana signature pickleball camps.

Yeah.

So yeah, so this year we branded it together.

So we you come to one of my camps.

You're going to get a Luna paddle.

It's kind of like a boot camp for people that are obsessed with pickleball, man.

I mean, you're paying 600 bucks for two days, which is a lot of money.

You are going to get 12 hours with me.

So I can be pretty intense.

It's people that are going to have a hard core pick up people that are going to be six hours

on the core one day, six hours on the corner on the other day.

We go through all the weapons.

What how do you become good at pickleball?

So kind of show you the tools you need to be offensive.

And then the second they will teach you the tools to be defensive or your sub game.

So pickleball is a balance of both of those.

You want to be able to kind of push the limit, but not push the limit so much that you're

losing.

So it's kind of like you have to find a balance where you're aggressive enough, but you're

able to play consistent enough.

So I'm, you know, I teach all the strategies that I've, you know, that I've worked for me

of winning a couple of tournaments and being able to play in the pro tour.

And actually I'll also record you while you're playing.

So you'll get a video analysis for me.

That's, you know, $150 worth of, you know, a lesson on a video.

So you're basically I'm recording you play.

I'm analyzing it.

I'm sending it back to you and you get a link with your, with your, you know, like a video

analysis.

So you can see decision making.

What you did here, what should have done.

Kind of like basically I'm in your ear telling you what's happening.

So the camps have been very successful.

Like I said, I started it in January of this.

I started the camps last year, but I've burned them together this year and I've been going everywhere

man.

So anybody that wants to take one of them, my camps go to Luna Pickable camps.com.

I'm actually having the next one in Jacksonville at the yards in Pone Vigra later this month.

And then in November, I'm going to Utah.

So it's pretty fun just because like I said, they're just people that are, that are hardcore

Pickable players that want to get to basically the niche that I have.

It's the three fives I want to get to the fouros.

You're, you're not going to get a beginner paying 600 bucks.

Be like, Frank, I want to play Pickable.

No, I mean, this is enough for people that are beginning.

The people that are playing for a couple of years struggling to get to the fouro level

and need, you know, the detail components of their game so they can, they can reach the

next level.

Three five to fouros, typically who who who takes my camps and I've been able to, you know,

teach with with Jim Carrella in Atlanta.

So I've been able to kind of have some other coaches kind of help me.

I'm teaching with Jorge Núñez in Pone Vigra next this next one in October.

And it's pretty awesome because I get, you know, I get to learn from them.

They're awesome coaches as well.

I like that.

So what do you do?

Could you help someone like me?

I'm a recovering tennis pro and I want to get into pickleball and it looks super easy

because I'm really good at tennis and like you, I should be able to walk in and beat everybody,

right?

Is that, can I fit into this kind of camp too?

What does that look like?

Yeah, well, you're going to be different, man, because you're going to come in and you're

going to be a four or five right of that.

You're not going to, you're going to, you're going to get bored out of your mind if you

come to my right camps just because like, you're going to overpower a lot of players.

What I tell tennis players is that yeah, at first you're going to feel like a roxer because

you're going to overpower all these amateurs.

You know, you're going to be able to hit some drives that are not going to, they're going

to be able to keep up.

But once you get to that next level, you have to learn a soft game and that is the most painful

thing for a tennis player because you want to just hit it hard and hit it hard and he keep

hitting it hard.

And in pickleball, that's not, that's not how you, how you win points.

You hit one hard, you hit one soft.

So all those little muscles have to like, you have to, you know, you're going to have

to just hold on tight, put, you know, get stable on the ground and ready for, you know, for

a bullet runner, you feed.

So it's like the timing has to be a little smoother.

So it's going to take you about, if you're playing regularly, I would say you'll take you

about a year just to be, just to be not a normal or natural flow on the kitchen as well.

When I first started playing, man, I thought I was going to get certified in my first month,

man.

I started at 4-0.

I mean, I remember I kept stepping in the kitchen and being so frustrated because my, the lady

that certified me, she was like, Frank, you keep stepping on the kitchen.

So I was so frustrated that I wanted to prove her wrong and I wanted to be like a 5-0.

So it took me a year to be a 5-0.

And obviously the rest is history, but like, yeah, it's, it's pretty painful for a tennis

guy because like, you feel like you could, you could be good, but you look easy.

You look easy.

Yeah, look easy.

Exactly.

But I would recommend you just, you get on a call with some good players.

Just get on the call with some good players.

Let them beat you 111, 111 and then you're going to come out like, oh my god, this was awesome

because I just got punched in the face.

I didn't know how to defend, right?

So it's like, it's all these small little shots that you learn when you play better players

that you're like, okay, I want to learn that shot.

I want to learn how to hide it well.

I got to learn how to, you know, how to, how to don't drive every third, you know, because

if you're driving every third shot, guess what?

I'm ready, I'm ready for it.

I'm going to kill you.

But the thing is you, you want to learn how to keep your opponents on edge.

That's how you draw mistakes in pickable.

When I don't know if Sean's going to drive that on my face, he's going to top spin it in

the corner with a lot of shape on it or he's just going to give me a drop with no pay.

So I have to create everything.

So that, that unpredictability is what's going to make you a good player.

And in my camps, I talk about that.

I talk about how you want to learn all the shots.

So that way you become a threat instead of just one trick pony, you know, because I'm playing

the same, the tennis players are so easy.

They're, I'm always ready.

They're always going to drive it up me and I'm punching it down on their feet and then

they can't, they can't get out of the transition zone.

So yeah, so it's, you know, all the things that you're going to go through, you're going

to just, I've been through him and I'll just leave you need any help.

Just give me a call.

Definitely, definitely.

I got together with one of our go tennis sponsored coaches, Ross Cattrell, who runs Pickle and

Social.

And he, she's hitting these serves.

And like I said, I've got some skills on a record court.

He's hitting these serves.

I can't handle it.

Like, well, man, what?

Why can't I, this little game I should be able to, should be able to do this.

But the majority of players aren't coming from an elite tennis level.

And, and that's fine.

The majority are going to be like the ones that are coming to our fall festival.

They're, they want to get a little bit better, maybe just like tennis and say, how do I get

from a three out of three five?

How do I get from three five to four?

How do I improve just that little bit?

And in this case, different from your camps, which we will obviously promote, we'll put

all the links in the show notes, let everybody know where to go and how to get there and we'll

be promoting at our fall festival as well.

But little different, these are cheaper, meaning it's 20 bucks for an hour as opposed to what

you're doing.

But in this case, it's not what you just, but you can prove it for.

The cool thing about it is that you got, you got really good pros.

Like Jim Crowell, I mean, he's huge.

He's got a lot of goals.

You know, he started with me, he started with me kind of at the same time.

So he's been around the game a lot.

So he knows his stuff and he's a fun guy.

So you're getting, you're throwing out there some of the, you know, some of the guys that

are working with me on the camps.

So you're, you know, you're providing a little value for those guys.

So that's why I'm a big, you know, supporter of what you're doing and throwing people your

way because I know that you guys are going to create a little value in the pickle of that

and in the tennis, you know?

Yeah.

And trying to get people a little bit better.

Is there plenty of people out there that have taken lessons for years and years and years

and just really not gotten any better?

Like they just, like spending $100 an hour to hang out with their tennis coach.

Which is fine.

That's what you're doing.

That's okay.

Exactly.

Pickleball in the same way, but pickleball a little more social, a little more group oriented.

It's almost all doubles where tennis is mostly doubles.

But as you get older, of course.

So you've got the camps, you've got the paddles, the new eclipse comes out this month basically

or next month.

And we're going to get exclusive early access to it, which I'm excited about at the Fall

Festival.

But it's camps and paddles.

And that's really where your focus is these days.

You also run a club in South Georgia?

Yes.

So I'm the director of a club in San Simon's Island.

It's called Frederica Golf Club.

Yeah.

So I do camps there.

I'm going to do a camp in December there.

So people that come from Atlanta, they'll take lessons from me.

So yeah.

So I'm pretty connected in the pickleball world.

Nice.

I like it.

All right.

So before I hit you with my King of Ten, it's not King of Ten, it's time.

It's King of Pickleball.

Sorry.

We've been doing King of Ten, for so many years.

Is there anything else you want to mention?

You got something else coming up.

And basically, I think we've covered the camps where you work, what you do, what your accolades

are and the paddles and the camps.

So anything else before we--

Oh, I think we're good.

Yeah.

OK.

Normally, this is where I bump it to Bobby and Bobby kicks in with something interesting.

It says, hey, you know Jim down in St. Simon's usually has some connection that we try.

That was my best Bobby impression.

I don't think it was very good.

I don't have to--

I know Bobby.

I played tennis against Bobby.

So he's a great tennis player, man.

So we'll get him to get his thoughts on this anyway and my Bobby impression there.

Maybe I shouldn't do that anymore.

But my last question that we always ask is my favorite question.

I want to ask you, and we'll keep it focused on pickleball here.

Because that's your expertise over the last decade or so.

If you were king of pickleball, whether it's professional pickleball, social, Georgia only,

the world, any vantage point that you take, if you were king of pickleball, is there

anything you would do or change?

Well, to tell you the truth, man, when I first got started with pickleball, it was comparing

it to tennis a lot.

So I will go to these tournaments, and I was playing on center court.

You're playing out the point, and there's music blasting during the point.

And I was like, what is this?

Tennis is your soul.

Even at the US Open, you're playing a point, and everybody's so quiet.

So it's like, you grew up with that mindset, and you grew up playing college tennis, and

then playing-- you're seeing all this thing, and it's so quiet.

Pickleball was just a free-for-all, man.

It was just like-- or me, it bothered me at first.

But then I was like, man, this is different.

I should embrace it.

And then I started loving it.

How just different it was.

I was like, OK, instead of me focusing on why I wasn't focused enough on the ball with

big soul, these noise, I kind of embraced it, and I was like, OK, because it's different.

All these young people are playing it.

It's pretty intimate because I'm getting in your face.

I'm 14 away from you, and I'm trying to slam you.

So instead of me getting my ego hurt because a young guy is slamming on the chest, I was embracing

it.

So I was like, really?

Like, OK, this is how we are.

We're going to put our boxing gloves on, and we're going to do it.

Where I would like it to go, I'm not going to compare it to tennis, but I would like it

to go towards more worldwide.

I was telling you.

Just, you know, in tennis they have the international stars where you have Roger Federer and you

get Nadal.

So you get all these young guys wanting to be like them, right?

I grew up idolizing Andre Agassiz.

So I wanted to be just like him.

So I wanted to be that impeccable.

So that would be my kind of like, get something united where the players are playing internationally.

So not only in the US, because the guys that are the best are just playing in the US.

So guys like Ben Johns, Tyson McGuffin.

Those are the guys that most people kind of know.

But I would want to see like the India star or the guy that's from Africa or the top guys

from Mexico.

So I think that you know, that'll unite it more.

You know, you know, the world because right now we have all these different associations,

all these different rules, all these different battles.

You know, you know, you know, you know, the sport and you know, make it a little more professional.

That's where I would like it to be.

Obviously we're getting more attention because of all the popularity from it.

I would like it to have more attention on the on the worldwide stage.

I would say.

So we start the IPT, the international pickleball tour.

Exactly.

Something like that where it's like international because like people are playing it and people

are paying people are getting paid to play on.

But as you know, when Wimbledon's on all the hardcore players, I mean, Wimbledon

will be life-changing for anybody, right?

So I would want it to be something kind of like that in the pickleball world.

So and I think we're going to get there.

But I would like it to be quick.

If we could jumpstart that, right?

We'll see.

Exactly.

So that would be kind of my dream to have all these international world stars from, you know,

the pickleball scene.

That makes a lot of sense.

So the ITP is coming to go tennis and Frank Salana and Luna.

We're going to start it.

We're going to start having tournaments all over the world.

We need one big sponsor.

Yeah, man, they're coming.

They're coming.

All the sponsors are coming.

And it's and it's so fun because when I first started, people thought about it like it's

a joke.

And now people are, you know, being more serious and, you know, companies are getting

into the sport.

And yeah.

I think one big sponsor, $100 million, you and I'll run it.

Anybody out there listening?

We don't have to start that big, man.

We'll give one million.

One million and it'll be enough.

One million doesn't get it done.

100.

We'll get this done.

We'll make it work.

Well, Frank, I really appreciate your time.

This has been a lot of fun.

And we will definitely follow up and we'll make sure everything's in the show now.

But if you listening, watching, are watching this and it is not yet November 1st, make

sure you get registered for the Fall Festival.

Frank's new paddle, the eclipse will be there from Luna Pickleball.

We'll have all the links as well.

Check out his camps.

It is the way to go from one level to the other.

It's a lot of fun.

I've been down there and seen him in action.

It's pretty amazing.

So Frank, travel well.

Enjoy your time.

I appreciate your time with us.

Thank you so much.

Thanks, John.

Well, there you have it.

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If you're a coach, director of any Racket Sports, or just someone who wants to utilize

our online shop, contact us about setting up your own shop collection to offer your branded

merchandise to the Racket Sports world.

And with that, we're out.

See you next time.

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