May 20, 2025 • 39 mins
Blazing Paddles kicks off Season 2 at Pickleball Kingdom in Plano, Texas during the PCD Boot Camp end-of-year reward event. We sit down with Lesa Wracher, Rules Director for Pickleball Competitors of Dallas (PCD), to discuss the organization's evolution from Tennis Competitors of Dallas and the unique culture of pickleball.
• PCD evolved from TCD (Tennis Competitors of Dallas) in fall 2020 thanks to Renee Hinterlong's vision
• Initially 96.4% of participants were tennis players, but the demographic has shifted significantly
• PCD now operates with its own board of directors to accommodate pickleball's rapid growth
• The inclusive nature of pickleball allows for multi-generational play, unlike many other sports
• PCD has adapted rules for weather conditions, indoor play options, and equipment regulations
• Paddle regulations have become a prominent issue as manufacturers claim USAP approval without official listing
• The pickleball community is described as more welcoming and less hierarchical than tennis
• Pickleball is becoming recognized at the collegiate level, with new scholarship programs emerging
Keep an eye out for part two of this episode featuring Dorion Brown, Head Pro at Pickleball Kingdom, who will share motivation and tips to improve your game.
Looking for a fitness app specifically designed for Pickleheads? Download the Aim7 app today. Use our url to get a 25% discount and try the app for a free trial before committing. https://www.aim7.com/?via=blazing-paddles
Special thanks to Crown Pickleball for their support and sponsorship! Don't waste money on balls that break, Crown pickleballs rarely crack, are more visible and have a higher spin rate than the competitors.
Use our link to receive a discount on your next purchase! https://crownpickleball.store/blazingpaddles
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello Picklers, we're back.
Season 2 of Blazing Paddles,the podcast.
After a little time off, wefinally got a chance to get back
in gear and to kick off Season2.
We had the opportunity to visitPickleball Kingdom Plano, texas
, and be a part of the PCD BootCamp End of the year reward for
members of that club, thePickleball Competitors of Dallas
(00:23):
.
And while we're out there, wegot a chance to sit down with
Lisa Ratcher, the rules directorfor PCD, and then later we're
going to release part two ofthis episode with Dorian Brown,
who's the head pro at PickleballKingdom and just about a solid
individual as you'll meet.
I think this was a great chancefor us to see another wonderful
facility.
(00:43):
The facility they have in Planois fantastic.
Highly encourage you visit itand we learned a little bit
about what's going on in thepickleball world, some of the
challenges, and then, withDorian, you're going to hear a
lot of motivation and a lot ofthings to make you feel a little
bit better around the court outthere.
I know we did so put on yourears, saddle up, have a listen.
You'll be glad you did.
They're back.
(01:13):
Who's back?
We're back, baby, yeah, baby.
It's been a while.
We're going to have to find thedate.
I think it was.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
September.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Are you?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
serious or October.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Okay, so we took a little hiatus.
We had to work to find the date.
I think it was September, areyou serious?
Or October.
Okay, so we took a littlehiatus.
We had to work, we had familystuff, we had family stuff.
So, anyway, life got in the wayBlazing Paddles.
We're back on.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
We are here today at the Pickleball Kingdom in Plano
on Custer Parkway and they havea boot camp today, pcd.
Boot camp today, pcd.
So last year it was tcd to uhtennis competitors of dallas and
they changed it to pickleballcompetitors of dallas.
Oh wow, that's a huge change.
I think that's a step up forour sport, separating us from
the bad guys now.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
They're not bad guys, they're just not as good.
They haven't converted yet.
I didn't know that.
That's pretty yeah.
So you don't have the governingbody saying tennis, right,
right.
So what's the format here, doyou know?
It's two hours long.
They're just doing drills andskills.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yes, They've got a.
We'll bring some of the pros inhere, but they've got different
drills and skills based on theskill level of those, and I
think that she said that this ismore of a beginner range.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
But we'll find out more from lisa I'm gonna say
yeah, because I saw a lot ofwarm-ups oh, yeah, yeah, I mean
what are you saying you couldtake?
Them all I'd destroy them, all,these women.
No, no, I'm guessing two, fiveto three, five yeah, yeah, yeah
anyway, we just met the head prodorian.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
He's gonna sit down with us nicest guys from my
hometown yeah, he is.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
He's a nice guy.
He said uh, he most recentlywas living in wilmington, north
carolina, drove 17 hours here totake this job and about a year
ago they look like they're doinggood, beautiful facility yeah,
this was the og of pickleballkingdom how many do they have
now?
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
I don't know, but I can't wait for the one to open
up close to us, because that's ano brainer.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
You know one thing to remind me.
We'll ask him about this howdid they determine?
Because I heard him talkingabout their price point and how
they figured it out and I thinkthat you know early on, when we
were talking to people at thefacilities, that was one of
their biggest struggles when doyou get the price point for the
memberships and how do you do it?
Huge challenge, he said.
They've got like 400-somethingmembers.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
No, no, he said 800.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
800?
Okay, so they might havefigured this thing out.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
We'll find out.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
We will find out.
It's going to be a fun day.
It is going to be a fun day we.
We're here with Lisa Ratcherand she's our.
I guess you're the host ofevents today.
What is your role here todayfor this boot camp, lisa?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Well, for this event, I think you're right
Introducing everybody, welcomingthem, organizing, getting them
where they need to go,distributing their gifts.
Now is this part?
Is this what PCD does?
This is an end of season event,so at the end we're done with
our spring season and so it'skind of a gift back to our, our
(04:11):
members.
They pay a fee to get in here,but the fee is a small fee when
you consider it's two hours ofum instruction from various pros
.
They get a lunch and then theyget a gift.
So it's a thank you forparticipating in our leagues and
participating in ourorganization.
Um and uh, kind of uh.
(04:32):
Thank you for a great springseason.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Well, let's talk about this nice, uh, new name
PCD.
It was TCD, yes.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Um, well, as you all know, or maybe not know,
pickleball was brought to TCD inthe fall of 2020.
Renee Hinterlong was the rulesdirector for TCD at the time and
um had heard about pickleball,fell in love with it, researched
it, uh, brought a proposal tothe board of you know why don't
(05:05):
we start this brand new league?
Let's get ahead of thisincredible foresight Right.
And they allowed her to do it.
And so, at that time of fall of2020, she was not only the
rules director for TCD but, forall intents and purposes, she
was the pickleball director,cause everybody was tennis
players.
Nobody had done.
(05:27):
People had heard aboutpickleball years ago, they had
had an uh, uh, like, uh uh, uh,in this season event and they
played pickleball, but it was amillion years ago and then it
was out of sight, out of mind.
It came back up and she was thedriving force and um, yeah, and
then it was.
It was going to be, you know,tennis competitors of Dallas,
(05:49):
and then it was um same thing,the pickleball, Um, and the goal
was to always separate at atone point, at some point, to
have two different boards ofdirectors.
Um, because we knew, uh, thissport was evolving and growing
at such a rapid pace that weknew it was going to need its
own board of directors and kindof it needed to run on its own
(06:13):
two feet.
And so that was 2025.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Now, were you part of TCD at the time when Renee
brought this?
Speaker 3 (06:20):
I was in the fall of 2020.
I was one of the very firstteams.
I was a flight coordinator forRenee, so I've been a part of it
since its inception.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yes, and that was about the tipping point when
Pickleball that was, you know,COVID, right, so fall of 2020,
we'd gotten into it a little bit, but we know that was sort of
the launch for Pickleball.
It just went crazy.
So a lot of foresight and goodtiming.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Amazing, and at the time so three years ago I'm kind
of a numbers nerd I did a uh,an analysis of how many players
on the pickleball side were liketennis players that saw this
cool new sport, that wanted totake a look at it, versus how
many were just pickleballers.
(07:08):
And at that time it was 96.4%of the participation in the
pickleball were tennis players.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
They did both.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Now I'd like to redo that again, you know, in all of
my spare time, because I'm sureit's still.
It's probably in the higheighties.
I don't think it's as high as94%, because we have had a lot
of women.
I'm sorry to say, leave tennisto only play pickleball, and
then we had a lot of womenbecause these are the leagues
(07:38):
that are growing the fastest inin TCD for all of these years,
since pickleball were theleagues that were growing.
Yeah, tennis kind of plateauedand in the fall we would always
see a dip because men likefootball.
So we would see a little bit ofa decrease in participation.
But pickleball just was, it wasclimbing and climbing.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
So that's interesting because I'm doing the math here
in my head.
I would say on our PickleballLeague team the majority came
from tennis, but in our complexI would say it's not even close
to that.
Like I would say At ourfacility yeah, 50-50.
A lot of people this is theirfirst, this is their only sport,
(08:21):
right, yeah?
So it's really interesting.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
For us.
We see now that it's the highflights opens, ones that are
only pickleball players.
Okay, you get the rest.
It's kind of like tennis, right, usta?
The three fives are like the.
You know that's the saturatedmarket.
Are three fives right?
And so you have.
You can have a three fiveplaying in an open.
(08:50):
You can have a three fiveplaying all the way at flight 16
.
Right, but like for pickleball,those high performing players,
they tend to only be pickleballplayers or they were very high
tennis players that have lefttennis all together.
Um, and they're only nowpredominant pickleball players.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
You're saying I have a chance to be in the open
because I'm all pickleball.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Yes absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I all you know.
You get on a team and you arewhere you are.
Let's talk about that Cause Ialways find it interesting how
do you figure out who belongs in?
Speaker 3 (09:16):
which flight.
That is a science.
Um, we have an amazingplacement committee and what
happens is when a new team comesin the paperwork that's
required, it asks duper.
It asks, um any possiblepickleball relevancy that you
have had, you, the captains,document everything.
(09:39):
Then the committee on placement, they research it right To make
.
They make sure is your dupercorrect?
How many has it been?
Tournament play has it beensome of these facilities?
They have duper, right, it'llgo.
So then they flight youaccordingly and it's hit and
miss.
It's not an exact sciencebecause dupers change.
(10:00):
One day in duper you can be a4.5.
And the next week you can be afour or five and the next week
you can be a three.
Oh right, it just it'sconstantly fluctuating.
So we use that as a baselinebut we don't.
We don't participate in duperbecause once you're flighted,
our rules are very specific.
If you play, if you're a five,five you can only play in a
certain flight.
So if it was constantlyfluctuating it would be a
(10:23):
disparaging between you know whoyour opponents are versus who
you're, who you are playingagainst them.
So we try to keep it as fairand competitive as we can.
Now, sometimes it takes a seasonto work that out.
Sometimes it takes a couple ofseasons.
The ladies league, I think, hasreally hit its stride and and
(10:43):
it's not like you're going oneweek and you're getting killed
or you're the person killingright now it's it's leveled out
to where it's really nicecompetition.
We're still a little bitstruggling with mixed, where I
mean you can take my team inparticular.
We started out my mixed team inflight three.
So for the first three seasonswe were finishing in the middle
of the pack, which was awesome.
(11:03):
That's where I want to finishRight when new teams were coming
in.
That's where the growth wascoming in was with mixed.
Well, those, their dupers, alot of them.
They had dupers and once you'rein our system, we don't look at
that again, okay, which I thinkwe may start to reconsider that
.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
My duper is three years old.
So my rating and if you don'tplay and no, it changes to
somebody who was just beginning,so every time he played I, my
duper, would go down.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
So all these new teams coming in, their dupers
were high.
So what happened was we were,like I said, we were finishing
in the middle of the pack, butthese new people were coming in
higher.
So we got bumped down to flightfour and we were finishing the
middle of pack with all of our,our fellow people, but when we
got down to bump to to flightfour, we were getting our butts
(11:53):
kicked, like I'm talking badly.
So then we got our butts kickedin flight four.
Then we got, then we're inflight five.
Well, this season, last season,we got our butts kicked.
Now we were the people kickingbutt.
This season.
So there's a that's, you knowwhat I mean.
And so we, we like we got firstplace.
But we none of us were like, oh, we got first place because we
were like we were, we like wegot first place.
But we none of us were like, oh, we got first place Cause we
were like we were, we were onthe opposite ends.
(12:14):
Right, we were, we were the 30,they were 36.
We were 12.
Now we are the 36 and they're,you know, six, eight.
The closest people we had was18.
So that's, you know and right.
So now we're going to be backup to four and we'll see what's
that going to look like for usnext season.
Have those fours changed?
We'll have to see.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Well, so, and I don't know if there's a solution to
this, but there's banging andthen there's pickleball, right,
right, and I love all elementsof pickleball.
I love the drink dropping, thedinking, the, you know, using
all of the elements to play.
I really hate the banger game,yeah, and I feel like in some of
(12:55):
my leagues I'm stuck in thatflight where it's just kind of
that's the, the, the and I'm.
You know, I'm in five differentleagues, so I'm not.
This is not specific to PCD,this is just right, in general,
right Okay.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Now do you find, though, that those bangers are
they, are they tennis players?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah, and what?
What's frustrating, and I don'tagain, I don't know if there's
a solution to this, but it'swhen the man is a tennis player
and he takes over the court fromthe woman.
Yes, and now it's a dodgeballgame.
Absolutely, and it'sfrustrating to me.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Well, it's a little dangerous actually no kidding.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
I had a guy come from the back right side of the
court all the way over to theleft side.
I dropped the ball for his wifeto dink to me and he ran over
there and slammed it.
Yeah, and I'm like this stinksand we're.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
We have a lot of players too that we you know the
complaints of the same thingthe men targeting the women and,
let's be fair, those of us whoare competitive.
We are doing that littlestatistical analysis against our
opponents, right?
And what do we all say to oneanother?
Target the weaker one, but Ithink there's a difference in
targeting versus all outannihilation, and I've seen now
(14:15):
there's more injuries.
We're having a lot morecomplaints of just a little
excessive force.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Well, you said it can be dangerous.
It can be dangerous.
I know that Karen won't wearthem, but, like when we're
playing, if I'm playing certainplayers, I'll wear eye
protection.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Now, I think that's got to be mandatory.
I can't.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
I can't, I can't, yes , you can.
It throws off my depthperception.
I don't even wear sunglasses.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
See, I don't wear eye protection either, I wear hats
and I don't wear hats either,and sometimes I don't even wear
sunglasses.
And you know, and I I've got,I've got really good reflexes,
you know and I can, but it is mypartner, my lady's partner.
She's been hit and so she wears, she wears the glasses and
especially it's it's wilybecause it's like you said, it's
(15:05):
either you have somebody who'sa little new and they're wily,
or you have somebody who isreally targeting you, Um, and
you know you've got it.
You do have to protect yourself.
There have been a lot ofinjuries and they've been I
related, or in the face or um,so it is, and I do.
I do think it's a little scaryand I hate to say it, john, but
(15:25):
it typically comes from the guys.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Well, and she'll get on me, though, because when
we're playing in mixed, Ihesitate.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
He will not sleep.
My husband won't either.
I call him the gentleman andeven in tennis, like when he
plays USTA men's tennis, he isamazing aggressive.
But when we play mixed TCDtennis and I'll say she's the
weaker player and he'll be likeyou know, he will not do it and
I respect that and I'm not.
(15:52):
When I say let's target her, Inever mean let's go at her, but
let's just give her more balls.
I don't ever want to go to hurther, but I want to.
I don't want to give him anyballs, I want to give her all
the balls.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Well, this last Saturday in net our net mixed we
go in there and they're olderpeople, you know, and right out
of the gate she pops a ball upand John doesn't put it away.
Right Next thing, you know thisguy, her husband is firing it
as hard as he can at my face.
And I looked at my husband.
I said don't you dare hold back.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Yeah, and that's how it gets Right.
I just I've said the exact samething.
I've said you know, and I'vetold my husband I, you know,
let's whatever target, whatever,and he will not do it.
But I'll say but her husbandhas no problem targeting me,
right.
And then what he starts to dois he just starts to jump in and
take more and take, kind oftake me out.
(16:47):
But then that makes me angry too, because I'm like I can play my
own thing but you know just,you know just, and I, like I
said, when I say let's targetthem, I don't mean to hit them
Right, I just mean give themmore balls.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yes, yes, and that's part of the game and, quite
honestly, that's my goal Everytime when I go on the court is
to not be the one that theytarget.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Right, exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
I'm like you and when they do, I make them pay Right,
exactly, yeah.
And that's when, when you, yousaid the other night, you said,
cause he had just come back andthey immediately started
targeting him they could tellRight.
And he said well, this is fun,they already must, they must be
talking or something.
They already know to target meand I was like, and my response
(17:29):
to him was them wrong.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Yeah, or you know, I look at my husband's just play
better.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Exactly so who decided to PCD versus TCD?
I?
Speaker 3 (17:40):
think.
I think the deciding factor wasum, the timing was right.
Uh, it was TCD.
And having to run to thatthrough everything, through that
board of directors, was alittle difficult because again,
they have tennis on their brainand then you have different
(18:02):
sport.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
It is completely different and it needs to be
managed Right.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
And then you had you know Renee, who was the, the
direct.
She was the, the, thepickleball director.
But you know she, she wanted to.
We wanted to have a men'sleague, she wanted to have a
men's league.
She want the indoor summerleague.
Um, so, in order to do thatright, it's, it's, it's and
you're trying to kind of getyour ideas through these other
people you need to have the samemindset, a hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
And so glad to hear you that and our board of
directors.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
I actually think I'm now the only one who still plays
tennis, so I'm kind of theblack sheep, I guess.
I mean I do both.
I, you know I, I lovepickleball and I love tennis and
I captain a mixture of bothteams, um, but I just think that
pickleball is uh, it's just,it's.
It's just, it's something to me.
(18:52):
I always told everybody that Iknow tennis is very serious,
whereas pickleball is so muchmore inviting.
I think of them like as surfers, right.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Hey dude, there's music there's.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
there's movement, it's not so stringent and it's
um.
You know, I found that when Iwould go to play tennis, if they
didn't think I was a goodtennis player, then I wasn't.
I wasn't typically invited backRight.
But like pickleball, it's comeone, come all.
It is a fellowship, whereastennis is.
It's does have that hierarchyand you know you're what.
(19:28):
What line do you play?
What's your rating?
I've never had anybody inpickleball Ask me what my rating
is.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
A hundred percent, it's just you know, we had no
idea this the distinctionbetween like the lines and all
that Right Like.
If you, they're like, oh, which, who's your three line?
We're like, I don't know, Idon't know.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Because it doesn't.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
It doesn't, it's not applicable to pickleball,
because you know and especiallythe way we do it with the round
Robin style, right, everybodyplays everybody and I just and
you might have a better, youknow your, your team one might
be a little bit better, or yourteam three might be a little bit
better, but it's not going tomatter because you're playing
everybody and there's just,there's just not that, um, that
(20:06):
aura of, uh, you know,snobbiness, you know that and I
like I said, I love tennis butthere is a little aura of oh
you're a four, oh you're a three, five.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Oh, are you, are you line one?
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Oh, you're line four and I remember somebody saying
that you know like oh well, it'sso much easier on line four.
And I'm like listen, the twopoints that you bring in on line
four, two points are two points.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
You know, I like it too when my uh when I'm, when
they do put me in the third line, cause I'm like, all right,
it's like a mask, that's right.
And most people don't followthat unless you're from tennis
world.
But I mean, there are a lot oftennis women that are in
pickleball and um, but I dothink it's kind of loosened the
(20:48):
vibe right.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
I've seen it in tcd it's people are just a little,
they're not so, they're not souptight.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Yes, right, it's just a, just a nice it's like a nice
vibe yeah you comparepickleball to john tom date or
john daily, john daily andtennis is tiger woods, yeah
exactly.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
You know, it's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
I had a meme once where you had daily, with a
smoke and a beer, standing therewith tiger who looks like he's.
You know, he's all buttoned upand looks like he's gonna be on
the cover of gpu like that'stennis, and they're that's right
, yeah, yeah it's uh, we're thehappy gilmore of sports.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
That's exactly right or tiger, after you know, his
wife beat the crap out of himwith the thing that's pickleball
now right a little bit, alittle little touch of reality.
You know that made him loosenup a little bit, you know but
seriously, it's just, it's adifferent vibe and I I think
they're more like surfers.
You know, hey, you know that'sjust a it's a it's.
The community is a lot moreinviting, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
I have this group that we play.
I just love it because I've gotthis kid out there who's 19 and
why he wants to hang out withall of us old people and play
pickleball he's fabulous, by theway, but 19,.
And then I've got one guy,larry, who is 78.
He's a 12-year survivor ofpancreatic cancer.
And then, you know, you've goteveryone else in between, right,
(22:05):
and I'm probably towards theyounger end at 52.
But the other girl is youngerthan me that you played with the
other day and, um, but there,yeah, a lot in that middle.
But that's cool, yeah, it'stotally cool.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Well, and what, what, what sport is?
Do you see?
You know, like, where your,your grandparents, can play with
their grandkids, right, andtheir kids?
I, I love that.
When my girls were club soccer,you know, amazing hand, foot
coordination when COVID hit andthey moved back home for a
little bit, tried to get theminto tennis.
(22:41):
They could not do tennis tosave their lives.
It was like $120 for an hour orless.
I'm like, okay, we're out ofthat.
So we tried pickleball becausethey can do ping pong, yeah, and
so this, you know, but it'sstill hysterical, but it's
something to where we all playand it's it's not, you know,
like I, I was teasing them.
(23:02):
They were just here beforemother's day and we were all
four at courts and McKinney andwe're playing.
And I looked at my daughter.
I'm like, oh man, playing withyou guys just really brings down
my skill level, just to teasethem.
Right, and it was in my and itwas just it was hysterical to
play with them, but it'ssomething to where we can all
play and how it's fun.
It is fun versus if they're notgood at at tennis, that's a,
(23:26):
that's a, that's a long day.
Right, you're not playingtennis, you're, you're getting
balls, you're whatever, but thissport they can play yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
I love that.
I do too, and I love seeing theyouth get involved.
In fact, I encourage everyonethat has young kids get them
involved in the sport early,because it will be a collegiate
sport Right Like it is.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yeah Well, there's clubs, but there's not Like it
is yeah, there's clubs.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Well, there's clubs but there's not.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Oh really, they just added that.
And flag football.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yes, I saw that For girls, uta has got the first
scholarship program.
I saw that in the paper.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
It's a big thing, don't you remember playing flag
football too?
We used to play in theneighborhood.
I was the only girl in myneighborhood, so I grew up as a
tomboy.
They were all five years old.
We had a great park right downthe street from our house, and
we play flag football with tubesocks.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
I mean, we, you know we don't have fancy things like
that, but we had the tube socksand my husband, who's five years
older.
We, when we heard the newsabout that and I said, wow, go
figure, right, like that's whatwe used to play all socks, and
he goes yeah, so did we, youknow?
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
That's so funny we're we're very much alike.
I went to Catholic school, andso we had to wear those skirts,
you know, and I would wearshorts under my skirt, so at
recess I could rip that skirtoff and play football with the
boys.
There you go.
Yeah, for us it was kickball.
Yeah Well, kickball too.
That was a big thing.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Hey guys, reminder if you like what you hear, share
it, give us a rating, give us acomment.
We'd love to hear from you.
We'd love to hear ideas aboutanything else you would like to
talk about or people you wouldlike to hear us interview.
This is a passion project, sowe're not looking to get rich.
What we're looking to do isspread the good word of
Pickleball.
If you can help us do that, wewould be so appreciative.
(25:10):
So let's get back to the show,and thanks again for listening.
I wanted to ask you, becauseyou're rules director yes, have
there been any rules that havebeen addressed the last couple
of years that you think havechanged or need to be changed?
Or what do you look at as arules director?
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Well, again, a lot of our rules came from the tennis
side right, because it is stilla paddle racket sport, so they
were similar.
Some of the rules that we hadto look into was at first we had
a wind rule that was 25 milesper hour or more.
You could reschedule, becausewe all know you're playing with
the wiffle ball right and soit's very hard to play when
(25:47):
you've got big winds.
We've lowered that to 21 milesper hour and, believe it or not,
that four miles per hour makesa difference.
Um yeah, exactly, so we allowthem to do that.
Uh, we were, uh, you know, wewere just talking about some new
rules that are coming out thatjust were approved.
Um, we were really staunchabout inside play versus outside
(26:10):
play, um, and we found a lot ofplayers that were, you know,
wanting to play indoors.
They're trying to be proactive.
The weather might be bad, itmight be rainy, it might be
windy.
Well, when you play indoors,you have to make a reservation
and you have to pay a fee andyou have to cancel 24 hours in
advance.
Well, we all know weather herecan change in an hour.
(26:31):
So it was a little prohibitivebecause, you know, the day of
you may not need the courts, butnow you can't be out your $40,
$100, whatever it is that theypay.
So we are now going to allowfor indoor play, which will be
monumental for us.
It will be provisionaryHopefully we don't have teams
(26:53):
that take advantage of it.
But, as always, as all of ourrules, everybody has to agree.
The captains both have to agree.
In the captains represent theirsix players that they're
bringing to play.
So if they have players thatdon't want to play indoors,
which happens, then they don'thave to play indoors, because
some people do feel it's alittle bit of an unfair
advantage.
(27:13):
A lot of these facilities thathave opened up, we have a lot of
players that are members of thePickler, pickler universe,
pickleball kingdom, um, and sothey're in here a lot playing
and the rest of the women arenot.
Because TCD and PCD are.
We are outdoors, that's our,that's always been.
Our philosophy is that we'repredominant outdoors, but, um,
(27:35):
so if they don't agree, thenthey don't.
You know, reschedules willhappen, but we're hoping that
this will alleviate it and,especially when we're going into
what the weather forecastersare forecasting to be one of the
hottest summers, um, that we'regiving them that affordability
and the ability to do that.
So hopefully they realize thatyou know we do.
We do try to be proactive, um,and the more you know, the
(27:59):
better you do, right?
So I think that they'll reallyappreciate this new rule change.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
We're hoping, I hope it's just not a year to your
point, Like and we'll we'llreiterate that like, be
responsible with that, that rope, that you've been given because
that is such a huge help.
This has been one of thecraziest springs that we've had.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Absolutely Reschedules have been I mean, we
still have teams, as of, Ibelieve, yesterday that still
were.
You know, the 16th is the lastrain day, so they have to be
made up, but that's.
You know it's hard when you'retrying to close out a season and
, you know, get prizesdistributed um, declare winners,
(28:39):
um, so I think that they willreally, really appreciate this.
Uh, we'll see how it goes, Iknow I will.
Yeah, no doubt.
Um.
What else have we done?
The, the, the weather, you know, changes.
We've.
We've lowered the heatthreshold, um the availability
to go indoors, the heatthreshold um the the
(29:01):
availability to go indoors, um,uh, one of the new rules, too,
is something that we're we'vehad a hard time with our paddles
.
So there have been a lot ofpaddles that are coming onto the
marketplace that have on thepaddle USAP approved but they're
not on USAP's pass list.
So well, and I've actuallytalked.
There's a gentleman named Craigand he's in charge of equipment
(29:21):
from USAP and so I've had manyemails to him and we had a
situation come up with a paddlethat it's written on there USAP
approved and but if you go tothe USAP website and plug it in,
it does not come up.
So we at first said if it'swritten on there, it must be
(29:43):
approved, right, so we wereallowing for play.
Well, even the people whobrought pickleball to be
pickleball, they are verystringent about these paddles
because the paddles are changingthe overall dynamic of the game
.
It's changing what the game wasoriginally built on.
(30:04):
It's now becoming about thesepaddles and so the power they
have, the spin they have, thetrampolining effect they have.
It's changing what?
the original outlook and withthe original direction of yes
intent of this sport was what itwas supposed to be.
So, but again, right we we?
(30:25):
The more you know, the betteryou do.
We thought we would.
If it was written on there, itmust be, they must be approved.
Well, it's not the case.
Uh, I talked to him and he saidnope.
And I said, well, what doesthat mean then?
If, said some of them, they'rein litigation, there's civil,
there's class action lawsuitsthat are being placed from USAP
to these corporations, and hesaid they might be in the queue
(30:48):
to be approved.
It can take a week, it can takea year, it can take six months.
He says we have no idea Becausethey're still learning, uh, the
(31:09):
right way to do things as well.
Right, and so now it's going tobe.
The new rule will be just as inif you were to go play in a
tournament, the tournament rules, rules from USAP state before
you play your match, you havegot to go onto USAP website and
your, your paddle has to saypass.
If it does not, you may notplay.
(31:29):
That's the rule we'reincorporating as well.
If your paddle it does not comeup as pass, you may not play
with that paddle.
Now, that's also a little bitof a gray area Cause I can tell
you, even as the rules director,I'm not looking at your paddle
right, I forget.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
I mean I.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
I, I will look at a ball, cause I can tell the
difference in balls sometimes,um, but a paddle, I that's not
in my wheelhouse.
It hasn't been, as a tennisplayer, to look at your racket,
right, it's never been to lookat these paddles.
But the higher levels, the openplayers, they are very tuned in
(32:07):
and on those and that's wherewe get a lot of this is not
allowed.
This is this, this is that.
So we will you know, and andour rules say that if you show
up and your paddle's notapproved, your first is going to
be a warning, right, and thenit'll come to me, a photograph
will be taken, I will log it,it'll go.
I have a book that'salphabetized, if it happens
(32:28):
again.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
I don't want to be in the book.
Yeah, a photograph of thepaddle.
Or are they getting yourprofile?
No, the paddle.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Because, like I said, we're usually found out by
fellow members Because I'm notat the match and it's not my job
.
I'm not a police officer, I'mnot a lawyer, but people they
take pictures, they'll send itin.
I will notify you and say hey,by the way, your paddle did you
know your paddle is.
It's either sunsetted, it'sdelisted, whatever.
(32:54):
Please don't play with thatpaddle again.
And that you know I have a file.
That happens again, then we'llassess some penalty points.
But and we had some, we hadeven some some board discussion
of why don't we just give themthe penalties right away?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Well, let's just say you're playing in flight four or
five and you get this newpaddle as mother's day right.
Who even knows to look?
Speaker 3 (33:16):
at that, um, and so you show up to play, thinking
I've got this really cool paddle, but maybe your opponent, who's
only pickleball player, onlydoes tournaments a lot, sees
that right.
Well, and that's the onlypaddle you have, because you
were playing with your 1999target paddle, right?
Those kids remember that, weall started out with those kids.
(33:36):
That's what I have from when mydaughters come and play.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
It's like you buy the .
Speaker 3 (33:39):
they come in twos, that's right, exactly, it was
two for $19.99.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
I'll tell you what it's so funny how quickly I went
from that to an expensivepaddle.
Amen, it's all about theequipment right.
All about the.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
I'll tell you, though , like my paddle, I think I paid
I don't know 159, right For mypaddle.
And I was looking at paddlesyou know the $300 paddles and I
mean you know that that's,that's crazy, right, there's.
There's not very many, I don'tthink there's any three, I think
.
I think Rafa Nadal's pure arrow, that's the Rafa Nadal tennis
racket, is 299.
(34:13):
But I mean you can thesepaddles and they say the paddles
if you play a lot, you may needa paddle every year.
I mean that's an investment,you know.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Well, especially if you happen to be, I'm a little
bit of a paddle thrower.
I don't throw it so much as Ibang it.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
She's like you know that's a $200 paddle in your
hand and all the honeycombs inthere are just depleting.
Now you hear that wonk, wonk.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
I'm just going to bring an old one, an extra one
that I can just go there.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
The 1999 Target Specials.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Let me reset real quick too, for everybody,
because we are at PickleballKingdom in Plano, we're at the
PCD boot camp, and it's not onlygoing on here today, right.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
No, multiple, no, multiple, yes, multiple
locations and are they all atPickleball Kingdoms?
No, Pickleball Kingdom, PicklerUniverse.
And that's putting me on thespot.
I should really know.
Good job, John.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
No, because I saw that we were set up here and I
think there's another couple ofpodcasts that were set up too,
yes.
So this is really good forbringing awareness to what's
going on.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Absolutely, and it good for you know, bringing
awareness to what's going on,absolutely, and it's growing.
So last last, uh year last wasthe first um boot camp we had
the first, the first industry.
Yes, that's right, the firstinto season event we had was at
oasis and it was more of like alike a carnival we had.
So we didn't have there weren'tpros, but we had people playing
and then we had games, um, like, uh.
(35:36):
We had a game where on one ofthe courts was behind the net,
was um laundry baskets and youhad all the balls and whoever
got the balls in the baskets yougot tickets and at the end of
the thing we had all theseprizes you could choose from.
So it was just, it was a reallyfun outside, it was really cool
.
Francine Jewett was thepickleball director at the time.
(35:57):
That was her idea.
And then the next one was wherewe did the no, it was at Oasis
again and it was a boot camp,one location.
And then last year it was attwo locations and this year it's
three.
So we had a little under ahundred last year.
Now we have a hundred and fiftythis year.
So it's growing, although, sadto say, we did open it up to men
(36:18):
, and we didn't have one maleplayer.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Oh, man and boot camps.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Somebody's got to pay for the electricity and the
food for the children.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
It can't be on a Friday morning.
That's true, that's fair.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
I think pickleball is great because we can play it
together too.
First sport we've been able toplay together.
Yeah, and even though do youplay with your?
Speaker 3 (36:40):
husband, I do.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Do y'all argue?
Oh, biggest arguments we've hadare probably on the pickleball
court?
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Oh for sure, ours are never on the court, it's always
on the drive home, oh.
I'm just waiting for it Alwayson the drive home.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
I know when I'm getting it on the way home.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Oh, and you know it's and I hate to say it, it's
never from him, it's always fromme, always and again.
But to be fair, I told you he'sa phenomenal tennis player.
So when I see the amount ofeffort and what he and then, and
then here, he's just kind oflike oh, oh and.
And this is not, pickleball isnot a sport like tennis, where
you can't have a slow start.
(37:15):
You got to come out.
There's no, okay, we're goingto give you two games because we
got, you know, four more to go.
Every point counts, it's justit does.
And it is not a slow start.
You got to come out and you gotto play, and you can't.
You know when you hit that ballinto the net the first time and
that's it.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Ooh, my blood pressure just goes up and I just
have, and then pretty soon Ijust got to go, okay, you know
whatever.
But yeah, the drive.
I have to say to her sometimes,like your hands are on your
hips, stop it, cause I'm justsitting here about to serve or
about to receive a serve, and Ijust see this.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Yeah, I can't, I cannot help myself and he is
happy Gilmore, he lovely man.
So sorry, scott, you are agreat man and it's it I mean I
have.
I'm uber competitive.
But the weird thing is is thatyou know I have multiple
partners right, not but him,because I'm the closest to him.
I feel very comfortable justsaying you know you suck.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Do better.
It's out of love honey.
Yeah, Just play better.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
What are you thinking ?
Or you know?
I'll just say whoever saidfeedback is a gift, is full of
shit.
Yeah, I agree, I do agree.
I do because I would never talkto my female.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
No, never, ever well, unsolicited feedback is
criticism.
Yes, you know what?
Speaker 3 (38:33):
I please remember.
I need to write that downbecause he will appreciate that.
Yeah, that's how you take it,and it's tough, it is tough.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Especially when you have somebody who's right about
so many things and has to tellme all the time yeah, I can't
help it.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Yeah Well, Lisa, thank you so much for sitting
down with us.
We can't wait to see how thisthing wraps up and get to talk
to some of the pros here, butthanks for inviting blazing
paddles, thanks for coming.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
You know you guys.
You guys do such a great joband you're such a joy to have,
and the fact that you're alsoPCD members yes, we appreciate
you.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Yes, I didn't even know as a PCD member.
I thought I was still a TCDmember, and now I found out I'm
a PCD member.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Well, you've got that on my, you've got that on my
husband, although every yearhe's my co-captain for my mixed
team and my mixed tennis team.
So when he sees me in thethrust because I do five
different teams when he sees meand he'll look at me and he goes
God, is there somebody who canhelp you?
I said yeah, like a co-captain.
And he says yeah, and I said doyou know who that is.
(39:32):
It's you Every season I havewe're still married, you know.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
Yeah, well, I think, scott, I don't know you, but I
empathize.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
There you go.
That's fair, that's a fairthing, it's a fair thing.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Thanks so much.
Thank you guys.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Thank you guys, All right.
Hello Picklers, we're back.
Season 2 of Blazing Paddles,the podcast.
After a little time off, wefinally got a chance to get back
in gear and to kick off Season2.
We had the opportunity to visitPickleball Kingdom Plano, texas
, and be a part of the PCD BootCamp End of the year reward for
members of that club, thePickleball Competitors of Dallas
(00:23):
.
And while we're out there, wegot a chance to sit down with
Lisa Ratcher, the rules directorfor PCD, and then later we're
going to release part two ofthis episode with Dorian Brown,
who's the head pro at PickleballKingdom and just about a solid
individual as you'll meet.
I think this was a great chancefor us to see another wonderful
facility.
(00:43):
The facility they have in Planois fantastic.
Highly encourage you visit itand we learned a little bit
about what's going on in thepickleball world, some of the
challenges, and then, withDorian, you're going to hear a
lot of motivation and a lot ofthings to make you feel a little
bit better around the court outthere.
I know we did so put on yourears, saddle up, have a listen.
You'll be glad you did.
They're back.
(01:13):
Who's back?
We're back, baby, yeah, baby.
It's been a while.
We're going to have to find thedate.
I think it was.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
September.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Are you?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
serious or October.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Okay, so we took a little hiatus.
We had to work to find the date.
I think it was September, areyou serious?
Or October.
Okay, so we took a littlehiatus.
We had to work, we had familystuff, we had family stuff.
So, anyway, life got in the wayBlazing Paddles.
We're back on.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
We are here today at the Pickleball Kingdom in Plano
on Custer Parkway and they havea boot camp today, pcd.
Boot camp today, pcd.
So last year it was tcd to uhtennis competitors of dallas and
they changed it to pickleballcompetitors of dallas.
Oh wow, that's a huge change.
I think that's a step up forour sport, separating us from
the bad guys now.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
They're not bad guys, they're just not as good.
They haven't converted yet.
I didn't know that.
That's pretty yeah.
So you don't have the governingbody saying tennis, right,
right.
So what's the format here, doyou know?
It's two hours long.
They're just doing drills andskills.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yes, They've got a.
We'll bring some of the pros inhere, but they've got different
drills and skills based on theskill level of those, and I
think that she said that this ismore of a beginner range.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
But we'll find out more from lisa I'm gonna say
yeah, because I saw a lot ofwarm-ups oh, yeah, yeah, I mean
what are you saying you couldtake?
Them all I'd destroy them, all,these women.
No, no, I'm guessing two, fiveto three, five yeah, yeah, yeah
anyway, we just met the head prodorian.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
He's gonna sit down with us nicest guys from my
hometown yeah, he is.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
He's a nice guy.
He said uh, he most recentlywas living in wilmington, north
carolina, drove 17 hours here totake this job and about a year
ago they look like they're doinggood, beautiful facility yeah,
this was the og of pickleballkingdom how many do they have
now?
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
I don't know, but I can't wait for the one to open
up close to us, because that's ano brainer.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
You know one thing to remind me.
We'll ask him about this howdid they determine?
Because I heard him talkingabout their price point and how
they figured it out and I thinkthat you know early on, when we
were talking to people at thefacilities, that was one of
their biggest struggles when doyou get the price point for the
memberships and how do you do it?
Huge challenge, he said.
They've got like 400-somethingmembers.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
No, no, he said 800.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
800?
Okay, so they might havefigured this thing out.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
We'll find out.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
We will find out.
It's going to be a fun day.
It is going to be a fun day we.
We're here with Lisa Ratcherand she's our.
I guess you're the host ofevents today.
What is your role here todayfor this boot camp, lisa?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Well, for this event, I think you're right
Introducing everybody, welcomingthem, organizing, getting them
where they need to go,distributing their gifts.
Now is this part?
Is this what PCD does?
This is an end of season event,so at the end we're done with
our spring season and so it'skind of a gift back to our, our
(04:11):
members.
They pay a fee to get in here,but the fee is a small fee when
you consider it's two hours ofum instruction from various pros
.
They get a lunch and then theyget a gift.
So it's a thank you forparticipating in our leagues and
participating in ourorganization.
Um and uh, kind of uh.
(04:32):
Thank you for a great springseason.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Well, let's talk about this nice, uh, new name
PCD.
It was TCD, yes.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Um, well, as you all know, or maybe not know,
pickleball was brought to TCD inthe fall of 2020.
Renee Hinterlong was the rulesdirector for TCD at the time and
um had heard about pickleball,fell in love with it, researched
it, uh, brought a proposal tothe board of you know why don't
(05:05):
we start this brand new league?
Let's get ahead of thisincredible foresight Right.
And they allowed her to do it.
And so, at that time of fall of2020, she was not only the
rules director for TCD but, forall intents and purposes, she
was the pickleball director,cause everybody was tennis
players.
Nobody had done.
(05:27):
People had heard aboutpickleball years ago, they had
had an uh, uh, like, uh uh, uh,in this season event and they
played pickleball, but it was amillion years ago and then it
was out of sight, out of mind.
It came back up and she was thedriving force and um, yeah, and
then it was.
It was going to be, you know,tennis competitors of Dallas,
(05:49):
and then it was um same thing,the pickleball, Um, and the goal
was to always separate at atone point, at some point, to
have two different boards ofdirectors.
Um, because we knew, uh, thissport was evolving and growing
at such a rapid pace that weknew it was going to need its
own board of directors and kindof it needed to run on its own
(06:13):
two feet.
And so that was 2025.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Now, were you part of TCD at the time when Renee
brought this?
Speaker 3 (06:20):
I was in the fall of 2020.
I was one of the very firstteams.
I was a flight coordinator forRenee, so I've been a part of it
since its inception.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yes, and that was about the tipping point when
Pickleball that was, you know,COVID, right, so fall of 2020,
we'd gotten into it a little bit, but we know that was sort of
the launch for Pickleball.
It just went crazy.
So a lot of foresight and goodtiming.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Amazing, and at the time so three years ago I'm kind
of a numbers nerd I did a uh,an analysis of how many players
on the pickleball side were liketennis players that saw this
cool new sport, that wanted totake a look at it, versus how
many were just pickleballers.
(07:08):
And at that time it was 96.4%of the participation in the
pickleball were tennis players.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
They did both.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Now I'd like to redo that again, you know, in all of
my spare time, because I'm sureit's still.
It's probably in the higheighties.
I don't think it's as high as94%, because we have had a lot
of women.
I'm sorry to say, leave tennisto only play pickleball, and
then we had a lot of womenbecause these are the leagues
(07:38):
that are growing the fastest inin TCD for all of these years,
since pickleball were theleagues that were growing.
Yeah, tennis kind of plateauedand in the fall we would always
see a dip because men likefootball.
So we would see a little bit ofa decrease in participation.
But pickleball just was, it wasclimbing and climbing.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
So that's interesting because I'm doing the math here
in my head.
I would say on our PickleballLeague team the majority came
from tennis, but in our complexI would say it's not even close
to that.
Like I would say At ourfacility yeah, 50-50.
A lot of people this is theirfirst, this is their only sport,
(08:21):
right, yeah?
So it's really interesting.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
For us.
We see now that it's the highflights opens, ones that are
only pickleball players.
Okay, you get the rest.
It's kind of like tennis, right, usta?
The three fives are like the.
You know that's the saturatedmarket.
Are three fives right?
And so you have.
You can have a three fiveplaying in an open.
(08:50):
You can have a three fiveplaying all the way at flight 16
.
Right, but like for pickleball,those high performing players,
they tend to only be pickleballplayers or they were very high
tennis players that have lefttennis all together.
Um, and they're only nowpredominant pickleball players.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
You're saying I have a chance to be in the open
because I'm all pickleball.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Yes absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I all you know.
You get on a team and you arewhere you are.
Let's talk about that Cause Ialways find it interesting how
do you figure out who belongs in?
Speaker 3 (09:16):
which flight.
That is a science.
Um, we have an amazingplacement committee and what
happens is when a new team comesin the paperwork that's
required, it asks duper.
It asks, um any possiblepickleball relevancy that you
have had, you, the captains,document everything.
(09:39):
Then the committee on placement, they research it right To make
.
They make sure is your dupercorrect?
How many has it been?
Tournament play has it beensome of these facilities?
They have duper, right, it'llgo.
So then they flight youaccordingly and it's hit and
miss.
It's not an exact sciencebecause dupers change.
(10:00):
One day in duper you can be a4.5.
And the next week you can be afour or five and the next week
you can be a three.
Oh right, it just it'sconstantly fluctuating.
So we use that as a baselinebut we don't.
We don't participate in duperbecause once you're flighted,
our rules are very specific.
If you play, if you're a five,five you can only play in a
certain flight.
So if it was constantlyfluctuating it would be a
(10:23):
disparaging between you know whoyour opponents are versus who
you're, who you are playingagainst them.
So we try to keep it as fairand competitive as we can.
Now, sometimes it takes a seasonto work that out.
Sometimes it takes a couple ofseasons.
The ladies league, I think, hasreally hit its stride and and
(10:43):
it's not like you're going oneweek and you're getting killed
or you're the person killingright now it's it's leveled out
to where it's really nicecompetition.
We're still a little bitstruggling with mixed, where I
mean you can take my team inparticular.
We started out my mixed team inflight three.
So for the first three seasonswe were finishing in the middle
of the pack, which was awesome.
(11:03):
That's where I want to finishRight when new teams were coming
in.
That's where the growth wascoming in was with mixed.
Well, those, their dupers, alot of them.
They had dupers and once you'rein our system, we don't look at
that again, okay, which I thinkwe may start to reconsider that
.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
My duper is three years old.
So my rating and if you don'tplay and no, it changes to
somebody who was just beginning,so every time he played I, my
duper, would go down.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
So all these new teams coming in, their dupers
were high.
So what happened was we were,like I said, we were finishing
in the middle of the pack, butthese new people were coming in
higher.
So we got bumped down to flightfour and we were finishing the
middle of pack with all of our,our fellow people, but when we
got down to bump to to flightfour, we were getting our butts
(11:53):
kicked, like I'm talking badly.
So then we got our butts kickedin flight four.
Then we got, then we're inflight five.
Well, this season, last season,we got our butts kicked.
Now we were the people kickingbutt.
This season.
So there's a that's, you knowwhat I mean.
And so we, we like we got firstplace.
But we none of us were like, oh, we got first place because we
were like we were, we like wegot first place.
But we none of us were like, oh, we got first place Cause we
were like we were, we were onthe opposite ends.
(12:14):
Right, we were, we were the 30,they were 36.
We were 12.
Now we are the 36 and they're,you know, six, eight.
The closest people we had was18.
So that's, you know and right.
So now we're going to be backup to four and we'll see what's
that going to look like for usnext season.
Have those fours changed?
We'll have to see.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Well, so, and I don't know if there's a solution to
this, but there's banging andthen there's pickleball, right,
right, and I love all elementsof pickleball.
I love the drink dropping, thedinking, the, you know, using
all of the elements to play.
I really hate the banger game,yeah, and I feel like in some of
(12:55):
my leagues I'm stuck in thatflight where it's just kind of
that's the, the, the and I'm.
You know, I'm in five differentleagues, so I'm not.
This is not specific to PCD,this is just right, in general,
right Okay.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Now do you find, though, that those bangers are
they, are they tennis players?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah, and what?
What's frustrating, and I don'tagain, I don't know if there's
a solution to this, but it'swhen the man is a tennis player
and he takes over the court fromthe woman.
Yes, and now it's a dodgeballgame.
Absolutely, and it'sfrustrating to me.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Well, it's a little dangerous actually no kidding.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
I had a guy come from the back right side of the
court all the way over to theleft side.
I dropped the ball for his wifeto dink to me and he ran over
there and slammed it.
Yeah, and I'm like this stinksand we're.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
We have a lot of players too that we you know the
complaints of the same thingthe men targeting the women and,
let's be fair, those of us whoare competitive.
We are doing that littlestatistical analysis against our
opponents, right?
And what do we all say to oneanother?
Target the weaker one, but Ithink there's a difference in
targeting versus all outannihilation, and I've seen now
(14:15):
there's more injuries.
We're having a lot morecomplaints of just a little
excessive force.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Well, you said it can be dangerous.
It can be dangerous.
I know that Karen won't wearthem, but, like when we're
playing, if I'm playing certainplayers, I'll wear eye
protection.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Now, I think that's got to be mandatory.
I can't.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
I can't, I can't, yes , you can.
It throws off my depthperception.
I don't even wear sunglasses.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
See, I don't wear eye protection either, I wear hats
and I don't wear hats either,and sometimes I don't even wear
sunglasses.
And you know, and I I've got,I've got really good reflexes,
you know and I can, but it is mypartner, my lady's partner.
She's been hit and so she wears, she wears the glasses and
especially it's it's wilybecause it's like you said, it's
(15:05):
either you have somebody who'sa little new and they're wily,
or you have somebody who isreally targeting you, Um, and
you know you've got it.
You do have to protect yourself.
There have been a lot ofinjuries and they've been I
related, or in the face or um,so it is, and I do.
I do think it's a little scaryand I hate to say it, john, but
(15:25):
it typically comes from the guys.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Well, and she'll get on me, though, because when
we're playing in mixed, Ihesitate.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
He will not sleep.
My husband won't either.
I call him the gentleman andeven in tennis, like when he
plays USTA men's tennis, he isamazing aggressive.
But when we play mixed TCDtennis and I'll say she's the
weaker player and he'll be likeyou know, he will not do it and
I respect that and I'm not.
(15:52):
When I say let's target her, Inever mean let's go at her, but
let's just give her more balls.
I don't ever want to go to hurther, but I want to.
I don't want to give him anyballs, I want to give her all
the balls.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Well, this last Saturday in net our net mixed we
go in there and they're olderpeople, you know, and right out
of the gate she pops a ball upand John doesn't put it away.
Right Next thing, you know thisguy, her husband is firing it
as hard as he can at my face.
And I looked at my husband.
I said don't you dare hold back.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Yeah, and that's how it gets Right.
I just I've said the exact samething.
I've said you know, and I'vetold my husband I, you know,
let's whatever target, whatever,and he will not do it.
But I'll say but her husbandhas no problem targeting me,
right.
And then what he starts to dois he just starts to jump in and
take more and take, kind oftake me out.
(16:47):
But then that makes me angry too, because I'm like I can play my
own thing but you know just,you know just, and I, like I
said, when I say let's targetthem, I don't mean to hit them
Right, I just mean give themmore balls.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yes, yes, and that's part of the game and, quite
honestly, that's my goal Everytime when I go on the court is
to not be the one that theytarget.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Right, exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
I'm like you and when they do, I make them pay Right,
exactly, yeah.
And that's when, when you, yousaid the other night, you said,
cause he had just come back andthey immediately started
targeting him they could tellRight.
And he said well, this is fun,they already must, they must be
talking or something.
They already know to target meand I was like, and my response
(17:29):
to him was them wrong.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Yeah, or you know, I look at my husband's just play
better.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Exactly so who decided to PCD versus TCD?
I?
Speaker 3 (17:40):
think.
I think the deciding factor wasum, the timing was right.
Uh, it was TCD.
And having to run to thatthrough everything, through that
board of directors, was alittle difficult because again,
they have tennis on their brainand then you have different
(18:02):
sport.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
It is completely different and it needs to be
managed Right.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
And then you had you know Renee, who was the, the
direct.
She was the, the, thepickleball director.
But you know she, she wanted to.
We wanted to have a men'sleague, she wanted to have a
men's league.
She want the indoor summerleague.
Um, so, in order to do thatright, it's, it's, it's and
you're trying to kind of getyour ideas through these other
people you need to have the samemindset, a hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
And so glad to hear you that and our board of
directors.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
I actually think I'm now the only one who still plays
tennis, so I'm kind of theblack sheep, I guess.
I mean I do both.
I, you know I, I lovepickleball and I love tennis and
I captain a mixture of bothteams, um, but I just think that
pickleball is uh, it's just,it's.
It's just, it's something to me.
(18:52):
I always told everybody that Iknow tennis is very serious,
whereas pickleball is so muchmore inviting.
I think of them like as surfers, right.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Hey dude, there's music there's.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
there's movement, it's not so stringent and it's
um.
You know, I found that when Iwould go to play tennis, if they
didn't think I was a goodtennis player, then I wasn't.
I wasn't typically invited backRight.
But like pickleball, it's comeone, come all.
It is a fellowship, whereastennis is.
It's does have that hierarchyand you know you're what.
(19:28):
What line do you play?
What's your rating?
I've never had anybody inpickleball Ask me what my rating
is.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
A hundred percent, it's just you know, we had no
idea this the distinctionbetween like the lines and all
that Right Like.
If you, they're like, oh, which, who's your three line?
We're like, I don't know, Idon't know.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Because it doesn't.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
It doesn't, it's not applicable to pickleball,
because you know and especiallythe way we do it with the round
Robin style, right, everybodyplays everybody and I just and
you might have a better, youknow your, your team one might
be a little bit better, or yourteam three might be a little bit
better, but it's not going tomatter because you're playing
everybody and there's just,there's just not that, um, that
(20:06):
aura of, uh, you know,snobbiness, you know that and I
like I said, I love tennis butthere is a little aura of oh
you're a four, oh you're a three, five.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Oh, are you, are you line one?
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Oh, you're line four and I remember somebody saying
that you know like oh well, it'sso much easier on line four.
And I'm like listen, the twopoints that you bring in on line
four, two points are two points.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
You know, I like it too when my uh when I'm, when
they do put me in the third line, cause I'm like, all right,
it's like a mask, that's right.
And most people don't followthat unless you're from tennis
world.
But I mean, there are a lot oftennis women that are in
pickleball and um, but I dothink it's kind of loosened the
(20:48):
vibe right.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
I've seen it in tcd it's people are just a little,
they're not so, they're not souptight.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Yes, right, it's just a, just a nice it's like a nice
vibe yeah you comparepickleball to john tom date or
john daily, john daily andtennis is tiger woods, yeah
exactly.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
You know, it's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
I had a meme once where you had daily, with a
smoke and a beer, standing therewith tiger who looks like he's.
You know, he's all buttoned upand looks like he's gonna be on
the cover of gpu like that'stennis, and they're that's right
, yeah, yeah it's uh, we're thehappy gilmore of sports.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
That's exactly right or tiger, after you know, his
wife beat the crap out of himwith the thing that's pickleball
now right a little bit, alittle little touch of reality.
You know that made him loosenup a little bit, you know but
seriously, it's just, it's adifferent vibe and I I think
they're more like surfers.
You know, hey, you know that'sjust a it's a it's.
The community is a lot moreinviting, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
I have this group that we play.
I just love it because I've gotthis kid out there who's 19 and
why he wants to hang out withall of us old people and play
pickleball he's fabulous, by theway, but 19,.
And then I've got one guy,larry, who is 78.
He's a 12-year survivor ofpancreatic cancer.
And then, you know, you've goteveryone else in between, right,
(22:05):
and I'm probably towards theyounger end at 52.
But the other girl is youngerthan me that you played with the
other day and, um, but there,yeah, a lot in that middle.
But that's cool, yeah, it'stotally cool.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Well, and what, what, what sport is?
Do you see?
You know, like, where your,your grandparents, can play with
their grandkids, right, andtheir kids?
I, I love that.
When my girls were club soccer,you know, amazing hand, foot
coordination when COVID hit andthey moved back home for a
little bit, tried to get theminto tennis.
(22:41):
They could not do tennis tosave their lives.
It was like $120 for an hour orless.
I'm like, okay, we're out ofthat.
So we tried pickleball becausethey can do ping pong, yeah, and
so this, you know, but it'sstill hysterical, but it's
something to where we all playand it's it's not, you know,
like I, I was teasing them.
(23:02):
They were just here beforemother's day and we were all
four at courts and McKinney andwe're playing.
And I looked at my daughter.
I'm like, oh man, playing withyou guys just really brings down
my skill level, just to teasethem.
Right, and it was in my and itwas just it was hysterical to
play with them, but it'ssomething to where we can all
play and how it's fun.
It is fun versus if they're notgood at at tennis, that's a,
(23:26):
that's a, that's a long day.
Right, you're not playingtennis, you're, you're getting
balls, you're whatever, but thissport they can play yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
I love that.
I do too, and I love seeing theyouth get involved.
In fact, I encourage everyonethat has young kids get them
involved in the sport early,because it will be a collegiate
sport Right Like it is.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yeah Well, there's clubs, but there's not Like it
is yeah, there's clubs.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Well, there's clubs but there's not.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Oh really, they just added that.
And flag football.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yes, I saw that For girls, uta has got the first
scholarship program.
I saw that in the paper.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
It's a big thing, don't you remember playing flag
football too?
We used to play in theneighborhood.
I was the only girl in myneighborhood, so I grew up as a
tomboy.
They were all five years old.
We had a great park right downthe street from our house, and
we play flag football with tubesocks.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
I mean, we, you know we don't have fancy things like
that, but we had the tube socksand my husband, who's five years
older.
We, when we heard the newsabout that and I said, wow, go
figure, right, like that's whatwe used to play all socks, and
he goes yeah, so did we, youknow?
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
That's so funny we're we're very much alike.
I went to Catholic school, andso we had to wear those skirts,
you know, and I would wearshorts under my skirt, so at
recess I could rip that skirtoff and play football with the
boys.
There you go.
Yeah, for us it was kickball.
Yeah Well, kickball too.
That was a big thing.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Hey guys, reminder if you like what you hear, share
it, give us a rating, give us acomment.
We'd love to hear from you.
We'd love to hear ideas aboutanything else you would like to
talk about or people you wouldlike to hear us interview.
This is a passion project, sowe're not looking to get rich.
What we're looking to do isspread the good word of
Pickleball.
If you can help us do that, wewould be so appreciative.
(25:10):
So let's get back to the show,and thanks again for listening.
I wanted to ask you, becauseyou're rules director yes, have
there been any rules that havebeen addressed the last couple
of years that you think havechanged or need to be changed?
Or what do you look at as arules director?
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Well, again, a lot of our rules came from the tennis
side right, because it is stilla paddle racket sport, so they
were similar.
Some of the rules that we hadto look into was at first we had
a wind rule that was 25 milesper hour or more.
You could reschedule, becausewe all know you're playing with
the wiffle ball right and soit's very hard to play when
(25:47):
you've got big winds.
We've lowered that to 21 milesper hour and, believe it or not,
that four miles per hour makesa difference.
Um yeah, exactly, so we allowthem to do that.
Uh, we were, uh, you know, wewere just talking about some new
rules that are coming out thatjust were approved.
Um, we were really staunchabout inside play versus outside
(26:10):
play, um, and we found a lot ofplayers that were, you know,
wanting to play indoors.
They're trying to be proactive.
The weather might be bad, itmight be rainy, it might be
windy.
Well, when you play indoors,you have to make a reservation
and you have to pay a fee andyou have to cancel 24 hours in
advance.
Well, we all know weather herecan change in an hour.
(26:31):
So it was a little prohibitivebecause, you know, the day of
you may not need the courts, butnow you can't be out your $40,
$100, whatever it is that theypay.
So we are now going to allowfor indoor play, which will be
monumental for us.
It will be provisionaryHopefully we don't have teams
(26:53):
that take advantage of it.
But, as always, as all of ourrules, everybody has to agree.
The captains both have to agree.
In the captains represent theirsix players that they're
bringing to play.
So if they have players thatdon't want to play indoors,
which happens, then they don'thave to play indoors, because
some people do feel it's alittle bit of an unfair
advantage.
(27:13):
A lot of these facilities thathave opened up, we have a lot of
players that are members of thePickler, pickler universe,
pickleball kingdom, um, and sothey're in here a lot playing
and the rest of the women arenot.
Because TCD and PCD are.
We are outdoors, that's our,that's always been.
Our philosophy is that we'repredominant outdoors, but, um,
(27:35):
so if they don't agree, thenthey don't.
You know, reschedules willhappen, but we're hoping that
this will alleviate it and,especially when we're going into
what the weather forecastersare forecasting to be one of the
hottest summers, um, that we'regiving them that affordability
and the ability to do that.
So hopefully they realize thatyou know we do.
We do try to be proactive, um,and the more you know, the
(27:59):
better you do, right?
So I think that they'll reallyappreciate this new rule change.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
We're hoping, I hope it's just not a year to your
point, Like and we'll we'llreiterate that like, be
responsible with that, that rope, that you've been given because
that is such a huge help.
This has been one of thecraziest springs that we've had.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Absolutely Reschedules have been I mean, we
still have teams, as of, Ibelieve, yesterday that still
were.
You know, the 16th is the lastrain day, so they have to be
made up, but that's.
You know it's hard when you'retrying to close out a season and
, you know, get prizesdistributed um, declare winners,
(28:39):
um, so I think that they willreally, really appreciate this.
Uh, we'll see how it goes, Iknow I will.
Yeah, no doubt.
Um.
What else have we done?
The, the, the weather, you know, changes.
We've.
We've lowered the heatthreshold, um the availability
to go indoors, the heatthreshold um the the
(29:01):
availability to go indoors, um,uh, one of the new rules, too,
is something that we're we'vehad a hard time with our paddles
.
So there have been a lot ofpaddles that are coming onto the
marketplace that have on thepaddle USAP approved but they're
not on USAP's pass list.
So well, and I've actuallytalked.
There's a gentleman named Craigand he's in charge of equipment
(29:21):
from USAP and so I've had manyemails to him and we had a
situation come up with a paddlethat it's written on there USAP
approved and but if you go tothe USAP website and plug it in,
it does not come up.
So we at first said if it'swritten on there, it must be
(29:43):
approved, right, so we wereallowing for play.
Well, even the people whobrought pickleball to be
pickleball, they are verystringent about these paddles
because the paddles are changingthe overall dynamic of the game
.
It's changing what the game wasoriginally built on.
(30:04):
It's now becoming about thesepaddles and so the power they
have, the spin they have, thetrampolining effect they have.
It's changing what?
the original outlook and withthe original direction of yes
intent of this sport was what itwas supposed to be.
So, but again, right we we?
(30:25):
The more you know, the betteryou do.
We thought we would.
If it was written on there, itmust be, they must be approved.
Well, it's not the case.
Uh, I talked to him and he saidnope.
And I said, well, what doesthat mean then?
If, said some of them, they'rein litigation, there's civil,
there's class action lawsuitsthat are being placed from USAP
to these corporations, and hesaid they might be in the queue
(30:48):
to be approved.
It can take a week, it can takea year, it can take six months.
He says we have no idea Becausethey're still learning, uh, the
(31:09):
right way to do things as well.
Right, and so now it's going tobe.
The new rule will be just as inif you were to go play in a
tournament, the tournament rules, rules from USAP state before
you play your match, you havegot to go onto USAP website and
your, your paddle has to saypass.
If it does not, you may notplay.
(31:29):
That's the rule we'reincorporating as well.
If your paddle it does not comeup as pass, you may not play
with that paddle.
Now, that's also a little bitof a gray area Cause I can tell
you, even as the rules director,I'm not looking at your paddle
right, I forget.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
I mean I.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
I, I will look at a ball, cause I can tell the
difference in balls sometimes,um, but a paddle, I that's not
in my wheelhouse.
It hasn't been, as a tennisplayer, to look at your racket,
right, it's never been to lookat these paddles.
But the higher levels, the openplayers, they are very tuned in
(32:07):
and on those and that's wherewe get a lot of this is not
allowed.
This is this, this is that.
So we will you know, and andour rules say that if you show
up and your paddle's notapproved, your first is going to
be a warning, right, and thenit'll come to me, a photograph
will be taken, I will log it,it'll go.
I have a book that'salphabetized, if it happens
(32:28):
again.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
I don't want to be in the book.
Yeah, a photograph of thepaddle.
Or are they getting yourprofile?
No, the paddle.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Because, like I said, we're usually found out by
fellow members Because I'm notat the match and it's not my job
.
I'm not a police officer, I'mnot a lawyer, but people they
take pictures, they'll send itin.
I will notify you and say hey,by the way, your paddle did you
know your paddle is.
It's either sunsetted, it'sdelisted, whatever.
(32:54):
Please don't play with thatpaddle again.
And that you know I have a file.
That happens again, then we'llassess some penalty points.
But and we had some, we hadeven some some board discussion
of why don't we just give themthe penalties right away?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Well, let's just say you're playing in flight four or
five and you get this newpaddle as mother's day right.
Who even knows to look?
Speaker 3 (33:16):
at that, um, and so you show up to play, thinking
I've got this really cool paddle, but maybe your opponent, who's
only pickleball player, onlydoes tournaments a lot, sees
that right.
Well, and that's the onlypaddle you have, because you
were playing with your 1999target paddle, right?
Those kids remember that, weall started out with those kids.
(33:36):
That's what I have from when mydaughters come and play.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
It's like you buy the .
Speaker 3 (33:39):
they come in twos, that's right, exactly, it was
two for $19.99.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
I'll tell you what it's so funny how quickly I went
from that to an expensivepaddle.
Amen, it's all about theequipment right.
All about the.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
I'll tell you, though , like my paddle, I think I paid
I don't know 159, right For mypaddle.
And I was looking at paddlesyou know the $300 paddles and I
mean you know that that's,that's crazy, right, there's.
There's not very many, I don'tthink there's any three, I think
.
I think Rafa Nadal's pure arrow, that's the Rafa Nadal tennis
racket, is 299.
(34:13):
But I mean you can thesepaddles and they say the paddles
if you play a lot, you may needa paddle every year.
I mean that's an investment,you know.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Well, especially if you happen to be, I'm a little
bit of a paddle thrower.
I don't throw it so much as Ibang it.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
She's like you know that's a $200 paddle in your
hand and all the honeycombs inthere are just depleting.
Now you hear that wonk, wonk.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
I'm just going to bring an old one, an extra one
that I can just go there.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
The 1999 Target Specials.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Let me reset real quick too, for everybody,
because we are at PickleballKingdom in Plano, we're at the
PCD boot camp, and it's not onlygoing on here today, right.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
No, multiple, no, multiple, yes, multiple
locations and are they all atPickleball Kingdoms?
No, Pickleball Kingdom, PicklerUniverse.
And that's putting me on thespot.
I should really know.
Good job, John.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
No, because I saw that we were set up here and I
think there's another couple ofpodcasts that were set up too,
yes.
So this is really good forbringing awareness to what's
going on.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Absolutely, and it good for you know, bringing
awareness to what's going on,absolutely, and it's growing.
So last last, uh year last wasthe first um boot camp we had
the first, the first industry.
Yes, that's right, the firstinto season event we had was at
oasis and it was more of like alike a carnival we had.
So we didn't have there weren'tpros, but we had people playing
and then we had games, um, like, uh.
(35:36):
We had a game where on one ofthe courts was behind the net,
was um laundry baskets and youhad all the balls and whoever
got the balls in the baskets yougot tickets and at the end of
the thing we had all theseprizes you could choose from.
So it was just, it was a reallyfun outside, it was really cool
.
Francine Jewett was thepickleball director at the time.
(35:57):
That was her idea.
And then the next one was wherewe did the no, it was at Oasis
again and it was a boot camp,one location.
And then last year it was attwo locations and this year it's
three.
So we had a little under ahundred last year.
Now we have a hundred and fiftythis year.
So it's growing, although, sadto say, we did open it up to men
(36:18):
, and we didn't have one maleplayer.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Oh, man and boot camps.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Somebody's got to pay for the electricity and the
food for the children.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
It can't be on a Friday morning.
That's true, that's fair.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
I think pickleball is great because we can play it
together too.
First sport we've been able toplay together.
Yeah, and even though do youplay with your?
Speaker 3 (36:40):
husband, I do.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Do y'all argue?
Oh, biggest arguments we've hadare probably on the pickleball
court?
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Oh for sure, ours are never on the court, it's always
on the drive home, oh.
I'm just waiting for it Alwayson the drive home.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
I know when I'm getting it on the way home.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Oh, and you know it's and I hate to say it, it's
never from him, it's always fromme, always and again.
But to be fair, I told you he'sa phenomenal tennis player.
So when I see the amount ofeffort and what he and then, and
then here, he's just kind oflike oh, oh and.
And this is not, pickleball isnot a sport like tennis, where
you can't have a slow start.
(37:15):
You got to come out.
There's no, okay, we're goingto give you two games because we
got, you know, four more to go.
Every point counts, it's justit does.
And it is not a slow start.
You got to come out and you gotto play, and you can't.
You know when you hit that ballinto the net the first time and
that's it.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Ooh, my blood pressure just goes up and I just
have, and then pretty soon Ijust got to go, okay, you know
whatever.
But yeah, the drive.
I have to say to her sometimes,like your hands are on your
hips, stop it, cause I'm justsitting here about to serve or
about to receive a serve, and Ijust see this.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Yeah, I can't, I cannot help myself and he is
happy Gilmore, he lovely man.
So sorry, scott, you are agreat man and it's it I mean I
have.
I'm uber competitive.
But the weird thing is is thatyou know I have multiple
partners right, not but him,because I'm the closest to him.
I feel very comfortable justsaying you know you suck.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Do better.
It's out of love honey.
Yeah, Just play better.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
What are you thinking ?
Or you know?
I'll just say whoever saidfeedback is a gift, is full of
shit.
Yeah, I agree, I do agree.
I do because I would never talkto my female.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
No, never, ever well, unsolicited feedback is
criticism.
Yes, you know what?
Speaker 3 (38:33):
I please remember.
I need to write that downbecause he will appreciate that.
Yeah, that's how you take it,and it's tough, it is tough.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Especially when you have somebody who's right about
so many things and has to tellme all the time yeah, I can't
help it.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Yeah Well, Lisa, thank you so much for sitting
down with us.
We can't wait to see how thisthing wraps up and get to talk
to some of the pros here, butthanks for inviting blazing
paddles, thanks for coming.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
You know you guys.
You guys do such a great joband you're such a joy to have,
and the fact that you're alsoPCD members yes, we appreciate
you.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Yes, I didn't even know as a PCD member.
I thought I was still a TCDmember, and now I found out I'm
a PCD member.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Well, you've got that on my, you've got that on my
husband, although every yearhe's my co-captain for my mixed
team and my mixed tennis team.
So when he sees me in thethrust because I do five
different teams when he sees meand he'll look at me and he goes
God, is there somebody who canhelp you?
I said yeah, like a co-captain.
And he says yeah, and I said doyou know who that is.
(39:32):
It's you Every season I havewe're still married, you know.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
Yeah, well, I think, scott, I don't know you, but I
empathize.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
There you go.
That's fair, that's a fairthing, it's a fair thing.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Thanks so much.
Thank you guys.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Thank you guys, All right.
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