Meet Rising Star and NYC Resident, Alex Neumann
You can watch Alex playing pro singles at the APP Delray Beach Pickleball Open Thursday, March 17th starting at 8 AM.
We’ll be posting live updates on our IG: @nyc_pickleball and stay tuned for the next post, where we break down some of Alex’s points against Tyson McGuffin.
Below is a partial transcript of the interview, edited for clarity.
NYCPB: For people who don't know, Alex is fresh off an amazing run at the last PPA tournament Riverland Open where he faced and defeated several well-known pickleball names including Tyler Loong, Hayden Patriquin, Jay Devilliers, and then facing off against Tyson McGuffin in the semifinals. I wanted to get you in for a quick chat and help people find out who you are.
You're a New York City resident so I wanted to start off with, “How do you like your bagel?”
Alex: It's a good question. I don't actually eat a lot of bagels. I'm much more of a toast guy, but occasionally when I do have a bagel – toasted with plain cream cheese. My usual daily lunch is toast, eggs with avocado.
NYCPB: I think that's the west coast coming out of you.
Alex: Right yeah. I mean, I've only been in New York since August but I've been kind of on and off, so probably closer to a total of three-four months at most.
NYCPB: Okay, so you still have a ways to go before you fully earn your New Yorker’s rights. Let's get into a little bit more about your background. Where are you from, what did you play? Just give us a little run down of your history.
Alex: So I'm from California originally. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and played competitive junior tennis growing up, but I was never particularly good. I went to a high school that was super tennis-focused, so most of my friends played tennis - and most of them went on to play high-level college tennis. I, however, did not. I was a practice player in college. I always wanted to be better than that, but I wasn't (laughs). So yeah, I always had that sort of competitive spirit and I got into pickleball about a year after college. I went to Northwestern - so California - to Chicago. Spent about a year in Iowa working on a campaign after college and then moved to New York last year.
NYCPB: So at what point did you start thinking like, “Oh I could actually play pickleball at the highest level”?
Alex: I don't know if there was a point when I thought, “I definitely can do this at the highest level”. I think there was a point when I just wanted to take it seriously and see what could happen. I played on and off when I was growing up and then didn't play for years. When I brought it back, it was right when COVID started, which is around the time that I finished college and I had been moving around doing more of a nomad thing. Going city to city - I was trying to get back into tennis as my workout and I found it difficult to stay focused because it's much harder after college to find people that are at your level - I was just getting less out of it. I found myself gravitating towards the local pickleball communities wherever I was. So I spent about two months in Seattle - a few months in Park City. I found myself driving every day to play with any random 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 group that was there. In Park City, I was waking up at 5:30 AM to play pickleball, and I hate waking up early! I was driving my car for 45 minutes to this place where I played pickleball indoors and I thought to myself, “This is nuts how much I like doing this”. I've never done this for tennis or anything else and I've only been doing it for fun - like I hadn't been taking it seriously at all - and so I'm thinking, “I probably should think about doing this more” because I have so much fun playing it.
I pledged to myself that once I moved to New York I would give it my best go - which was a bit ironic because I moved to a place where there was worse weather and no courts. But that week, I made the decision - and I've been really focused on it ever since.
NYCPB: So talking about drilling versus playing - what is your ideal ratio, and what else are you doing for training?
Alex: So I hadn’t drilled at all, obviously, when I was playing for fun - but when I moved to New York I started drilling a little bit more. I would say my ideal ratio would be to drill three to four times a week and play matches once or twice. I think the only importance of match play is to get back into that competitive spirit when you're approaching a tournament - or if you aren't getting doubles practice and you want to practice doubles since you can't really drill doubles. I play a lot of games while drilling to simulate competition, so I would definitely be drilling and working out way more than playing matches.
NYCPB: In terms of physical fitness, do you go to the gym quite often or is that not yet part of the routine?
Alex: Actually, one of the benefits about being in New York and it being so cold and having little access to pickleball is that I'm focusing on my fitness more than I ever have in my career. I’m also doing a lot more sports-focused fitness. I've been doing a lot more stretching and trying to get more flexible and I would say three out of four gym sessions are just working on my legs - working on my speed and quickness - doing sprint intervals - trying to simulate playing pickleball. I would say I probably do that once for every day that I play pickleball - so that's been a blessing in disguise that it's not always warm here.
NYCPB: I think that's the one thing that I noticed - the difference between rec play and tournament play – is that you can go to rec play you'd be thinking, “I can play five hours no problem” - but when I played in a tournament, I played one match of three games and was exhausted afterwards – I think a lot of it is the adrenaline that's pumping through - and the nerves - your body is just on a different level.
Alex: Yeah, that's a really good point. I think everyone has had the experience of going out on a Sunday morning at 9 AM and all of a sudden it's 3 PM and you're like, “Should we do one more game?”. That's actually the worst kind of day for me because you don't get a lot out of the matches. You're just throwing your body for a loop. You're getting worse as you're playing, but it feels like you could play forever. It's because like you said, you're not exerting a lot of physical or mental energy.
My first tournament was in Florida. I only won a match or two, so I only played five or six games. I was sore the next day and was like, “What?!”. I learned this past week that when you get to the later rounds, it isn't about how you performed in the first round - it's about having enough energy to compete when you get to the finals. All these guys are super fit - and still - almost everyone is cramping - everyone is rolling out - everyone is using their massage guns on their legs. I mean, everyone is doing everything they can and they're still cramping - so I definitely learned the importance of fitness and I'm going to be even more focused on that after I get back to New York.
NYCPB: The next big question is rally scoring - do you have any thoughts on what rally scoring would do for the game?
Alex: Yeah, I've heard rumblings about it. I like how it is right now. I think it differentiates it from tennis in that there is a lot more opportunity for runs for coming back. It also changes the calculus of your shot-making. Currently, there is less risk when you're on your serve and you have more incentive to go for shots. Rally scoring would change how you think about the point. Right now, you're not necessarily going to lose anything if you miss a shot versus there being more pressure on the return because if you lose a point - you actually lose a point.
Also, when it comes to match points or big points - in tennis, if you're up six/four at a tiebreak, you have two match points. Those points are equal pressure for both players because someone's going to win the point either way. In pickleball, you could be up 14-0, but you really only have one match point because if you lose, it goes back to your opponent's serve and they have control. It creates a really interesting drama and pressure in the matches and it incentivizes a lot more aggressive shots - and fun shots - on your serve as opposed to people just playing super tight.
NYCPB: What are the most challenging things about being based in New York City and do you feel like it's a detriment to you developing your game?
Alex: Yeah, it definitely comes with a lot of challenges. I would say along this journey when I first moved to New York - at every point I found myself complaining at least on the inside, “Oh, I wish there were better courts - I wish it was warmer - I wish there were more players”. But I found myself going to tournaments in other states and still having good results - found myself improving - so I really go back and forth on how important it is to be in an ideal environment. I'm sure being based in Florida and playing with other strong players helps you improve, but I think what is nice about being in a place that has fewer resources is that it forces you to focus on what matters. So honestly, I think it sort of balances out in that way.
I will say - the one difficult thing is that there are not a lot of players around that have similar aspirations – traveling - trying to compete - having a similar mindset as I do. It is very important to be around people who are also trying to go after it because it's a hard thing to do alone.
NYCPB: Who would you consider your support system on your journey right now?
Alex: I definitely have to shout out my mom who introduced me to the sport in 2016 - when I was finishing high school - back in the earlier days of the sport - when there wasn't a lot going on in the sport of pickleball. We actually had a prospering pickleball community near where I lived - this place called Mitchell Park in Palo Alto. My mom started playing actively, so I was exposed to a pickleball community and the hype around it relatively early on. We played a rec tournament together and I got very into it for about a month or two in high school. So she was the reason why I even knew what pickleball was.
After that, I would say what really helped me on my journey is moving to New York and made the decision to start taking pickleball seriously. I was very fortunate to find someone else who lived close by - his name is Matt Widlitz. There are probably no permanent courts on the entire island of Manhattan, but there happens to be this place called StuyTown in the East Village. It has paddle tennis courts which you can use to play pickleball and Matt had started playing there. He played paddle tennis before, so he had a pretty solid racket sport background and we both love playing singles - love drilling - love improving - and he also caught that fire for pickleball, like I did. He has been the one who I’m always training with - always talking strategy with - always trading stories with - and he has really kept me going. I would also shout out the larger pickleball community of New York. There are places on Long Island – like this place called Pickle N Par where Eric Forsythe and Eric Handelman organize games and keep people going. If I didn't have Matt in StuyTown or the Eric’s at Pickle N Par, I would have nobody and no place to play - so I give them credit.
NYCPB: I was browsing through Instagram and I noticed your graduation photo was with your two dads. Can you tell us a little about them and how they shaped you into the person and player you are today?
Alex: Yeah, I grew up with two dads. My birth mom who got me into pickleball has always been part of my life, but I didn't grow up with her in the household. She is definitely the more athletic, sports-focused one where I get most of my love for pickleball and sports in general. I think what my dads have done - and I've definitely become a lot more grateful for it as I've gotten older - are two things:
Firstly - very broadly - I've always been someone who passionately goes after what I really want. I think this started back when I was a child. My parents couldn't get married - we didn't have equal rights as a family - and they really fought hard to be a big part of the gay marriage movement. They would take us to protests and were always very vocal about what they believed in and taught us to do the same thing. I think that instilled in me the value of always going after what you believe in - always doing what you think is right - which in a broader sense is why I got into politics - and also why I’m going after pickleball so hard.
Secondly, because they were never the most athletic or competitive people growing up, they never exerted a lot of pressure on me. The only pressure that ever came relating to sports was from myself. When I was a young kid, I had angst about it and wished they would coach me more - or knew more about tennis and how things worked. But I think because I never received any outside pressure, I never burned out or got tired of playing. I was only ever playing because of my personal passion for it. I think this allowed me to find something like pickleball later in life - to chase after and still find a lot of joy in it.
Listen to the full interview for more of Alex’s thoughts on his most “only in NYC” moment, ping pong vs tennis, rising stars Anna Bright and Dylan Frazier, as well as his hot takes and goals for pickleball in 2022.
