One of the biggest storylines ahead of the PPA Masters was that it would be the final tournament of 2025 for Ben and Collin Johns, who had announced their split before the season.

When the Johns bros won that tournament, a natural question arose: was splitting up really the right decision for the most dominant men’s doubles tandem in the history of pickleball? After all, they had just taken gold at one of the biggest tournaments of the year in dominant fashion.

Collin spoke on the finality of the decision to split—among a myriad of other topics—in a recent interview with Thomas Shields and Zane Navratil on the PicklePod.

“I know for us it was the best decision, no matter what happened in this tournament. Of course it feels awesome to go out on top, but I also think we approached this tournament differently, knowing that it was our last one for this year,” he explained. “Maybe had we not agreed to split, this wouldn’t have happened. It’s impossible to know, but I know that we made the right decision because I think we’re both more excited and happier to play with other people this year, and I think it’ll be good for our individual games. From a mental health perspective, it’s what we needed to do.”

Despite finishing the year with a tour-leading seven titles together, Collin and Ben were pushed in 2024 in ways that they hadn’t been previously.

Most notably, they went through a podium drought that spanned five tournaments, marking their longest period without a medal since they began competing together in 2021.

For Collin, enduring those hardships with his brother didn’t make things any easier.

“Playing with a sibling, to begin with, is always going to be difficult because you’re able to say and do things with your brother that you’re not gonna be able to do with other people because you know they’re gonna forgive you for it,” he shared. “I think we’ve handled that pretty well over the years, and we’ve complemented each other quite well in other areas to where we can always be on the same page with strategy and with temperament and collectively stick to game plans that we feel give us advantages over other people. Knowing that, you try and leverage it as best you can, but there are times where it can work against you, and I think it was starting to work against us at times last year.”

Even though the brothers still performed well enough to finish the year as the top-ranked men’s doubles team in the PPA rankings, Collin feels that they lost something much more important: the joy in taking the court together.

“We weren’t where we wanted to be, both in terms of results but also in the outlook we had when we went to a tournament,” he revealed. “There were times in the past when the best part of our whole tournament was playing together, but I felt like late in the year, it just wasn’t the same anymore.”

After a triumphant swan song in Palm Springs, Ben and Collin now have the chance to focus on developing other parts of their games as they prepare to take the court with new partners.

“Building our games individually is something that we probably haven’t done enough of, and I feel like I’m probably more guilty of that because I’ve had this niche for a long time of ‘I only practice the right side, I only play the right side, I’m the complement to Ben,’ and that’s where I’ve stayed for obvious reasons. We’ve had a lot of success with that, but it’s also left some deficiencies that I openly acknowledge,” Collin shared. “Part of this is about expanding our own skill sets. I think it’s gonna be the same for Ben in certain ways, where he’s just so used to playing with me and knowing that I’m gonna give him court in these situations or that I’m gonna be there to block a ball in certain situations. It’s kind of the opposite for me, where I’m used to Ben covering the left side of my body in certain situations. There’s a whole host of things that I think we both can improve on by playing with other people.”

Collin also revealed who at least some of his 2025 partners will be on the pod. He’ll join forces with fellow tour veteran Jay Devilliers at next week’s Proton Australia Pickleball Open and has plans to play with both Noe Khlif and James Ignatowich in the coming months.

He sees a lot of upside in both players.

“Noe had a great run in singles last year, and he had a great run at the Masters getting a good win in men’s doubles. I like his game—I think he’s an up-and-comer,” Johns mentioned. “And, of course, James has been one of the best mixed players over the past year to year and a half. I still think he’s a great player in men’s doubles—I think he’s underachieved a little bit, but with the right partner I think he could do very, very well.”

As for Ben, he announced on a recent podcast with Hannah Johns that he plans to play several tournaments this year with Gabe Tardio.

As one of the best tactical minds in the game, Collin is already considering how teams might attempt to slow down the Johns/Tardio combination.

“I would imagine that teams will test the middle quite a bit, and I also think they’re probably going to play to Ben’s corner, similar to what they’ve done against me and Ben. Ben’s best attack is his backhand out of the air, but if you can keep it on the ground to the corner to his two-handed backhand off the bounce—certainly there’s still a threat there—but it’s maybe not the threat that it is with some other players,” he explained.

We’ll have to wait at least a few tournaments for a Johns v. Johns showdown in men’s doubles, but we’ll get to see Collin in action next week in Melbourne, where he’ll pursue his first career PPA title apart from his brother.