Episode 75 Part 1 - Golden Ticket: Inside Peak Pickleball & USA Pickleball’s First All-Adaptive Tournament

[00:00:00] Thank you for joining in. I'm Mike. I'm Christana. We're the Pickleballers Next Door. Hello. Hi Mike, how are you? I'm good. We're here in Colorado Springs. We are here at Peak Pickleball. We're here for the Golden Ticket for the Adaptive Tournament with USA Pickleball as one of the main...

[00:00:23] Yeah, this is a big thing. I mean, this is the largest adaptive wheelchair tournament they've had. Yeah, and supposedly it's growing, which is really going to be a great thing for the sport. Well, I think the cool thing is to watch the players, which is super cool. It's awesome. The stories, we have a story and we're hoping to put this on air that is going to just...

[00:00:49] You know, we think we have problems, but at the end of the day, we don't have problems. No. You know, if you're down, you've got to hear stories that are amazing. Yeah, they'll change your life. I mean, I almost had tears in my eyes, this story. And the...you know, like I said, I can't wait. There's a lot of good stuff coming. But at the end of the day, everybody can play Pickleball and that's what I think the coolest part of Pickleball is.

[00:01:16] It's not limited to anybody. It doesn't matter. Even you can play. I know. That's why I'm here. I can play. Anyway, but yeah, we just wanted to do a shout out and you're going to be hearing some neat... Some really neat stories and just how people have started or why they started. So it's a really great...it's going to be a great episode. And these people are from all over the United States. Yeah. I mean, I don't think we've met anybody really that's from Colorado. Yeah, exactly. That's the funny part.

[00:01:45] So, stay tuned. Yeah, stay tuned. You're going to hear some great stuff from at least me. Okay. Or me. Okay. All right. Bye. Denver! Feel that energy? Professional Pickleball is here. Your hometown heroes, the Denver Iconics, are serving up non-stop thrilling action. We're more than a team. We're a community. Be part of the movement sweeping the mile-high city.

[00:02:14] Get the latest news, grab your gear, and join the Iconics family. The action starts at DenverIconics.com. That's DenverIconics.com. So we're at Peak Pickleball in Colorado Springs. And we're at the Golden Ticket, which is the adaptive pickleball. And we are here with Corey White. How are you, Corey? I'm good. How are you? Good. Good.

[00:02:44] Well, we heard you told us you got a medal yesterday, bronze. Yes, my partner and I got bronze in the doubles, which was yesterday. And then today is hybrid, which means one standing player and one person in a wheelchair. Is that difficult for you or not? Do you like it? I mean, it takes some adapting, right? Oh, I really enjoy it because it's such a personal sport. I'm a professional sport.

[00:03:10] In the mid-90s, I did play tennis, so I come from that background like a lot of people. Nice, nice, nice. So how long are you here? Are you here tomorrow too? Yeah. Tomorrow is singles. Singles, okay. And then begin the drive back to Utah. Oh my gosh. How many hours? How many hours? That's like, what, nine, ten hours? Yeah. And what would you say, what's your favorite? Is it singles? Is it doubles?

[00:03:40] Or what's your favorite to play? I really enjoy doubles just because we can pretty much cover all the court if it's two wheelchair players, but most of the time I play with able-bodied players at the Pickleball Club in Utah. And it's something that both my wife and I can enjoy together. That's awesome. Yeah. How long have you been doing pickleball? I've been doing it about three and a half years now. Nice, nice. How'd you get started?

[00:04:09] I mean, all of us have a crazy story how that happens. Well, it's kind of funny because we had no idea what pickleball was. We were in Venice, at Venice Beach in California one time. We saw all these old guys and I'm like- You must have saw Mike there. Maybe. Maybe. That's where I seen it too. That's the funny part. I started laughing because me and my wife were at Venice Beach and I'm like, this looks kind of cool. Like, what are they doing? Yeah. So we went over and we looked and I still didn't really know. No.

[00:04:39] And then work put in a pickleball court and made a big deal about it and I didn't really pay attention. And then we had a work event and where that event was, they had pickleball. And so that's where I actually saw it and played a little bit. And then we went to Home Goods and next to the Home Goods is where the pickleball club is that I play at.

[00:05:07] And I looked up and they had a free pickleball introduction. And so I showed it to my wife and I said, hey, let's do this. And we went in and you know, it just felt like that, like I said, back in the 90s when I played tennis and it was tennis was really set up for wheelchair tennis. They have, you know, tournaments all around the United States that funnel down to the US Open.

[00:05:33] And you get to know as you travel, there's a group of people that usually travel and you get to know a lot of people from different states. And I'm just like, I want to do that again. Yeah. And here you are pickleball. Yeah. It's not set up as good as tennis at this point, but it's growing. They're working on it. Yeah. I think there's, I mean, it's grown so fast. Not like what tennis took, you know, it grew, it was very old, right? Right. It's been around a long time. Pickleball exploded. COVID came and pickleball went boom, you know, so it's nuts.

[00:06:03] Yeah. Yeah. So now both PPA and USPA have on their world and international tournaments, they have a wheelchair division. The Mentos Open has a wheelchair division. And then of course, now the Colorado Springs community has just put so much time and effort into wheelchair pickleball. It's amazing.

[00:06:29] And so they have this event, which they're working to make it the largest wheelchair tournament in the United States. And I think this year is. Oh yeah. It sounded like somebody was saying that. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. And I mean, USA Pickleball here being involved in it is big, you know? Yeah. And then this club, how do you like this club? This is. This is a really nice club. It is. The way they have it set up and the soundproofing.

[00:06:56] So, you know, you don't get that loud, overwhelming pickleball sound that you get in a lot of warehouses. And no, we enjoy coming here, enjoy the community and the competition. Did your wife come with you? Yeah, she is right over there. Oh, there she is. That's awesome. That's awesome. Nice. Well, where do you play in Utah? At Club Pickleball USA. Okay. Nice. Awesome. Nice. So what's your goal now?

[00:07:26] To rise to the top here in pickleball? You know, I'd love to. It's just a matter of how long my body can hold out. You know, I'm 60. So. Oh, you look great. You don't at all look at all. Wow. I guess her age, she's like 70, you know? And me, I look like 30. The listeners know. No.

[00:07:53] So yeah, it's just a matter of how long I can stay competitive. The quick stops and starts in a chair because of course you're trying to drive, you're trying to use the paddle and everything. And it puts a lot of wear and tear on your ligaments. Well, you got some good shoulders and arms there. There's some biceps sticking out over here. You can't see it. I can see it. He's in front of me. I'm like, dang, that's a good arms on him. So he's ready. He's now a little blushing over there.

[00:08:25] So, well, so you play with your wife. Yeah. And do you have kids? My kids are older. Okay. And I haven't been able to get them in there. We've tried to trick my son and get him out a couple of times. Yeah. And see if we could get him bit by the bug, but. Once you get him on the court, you know how it is, right? Yeah. Once you got on that court and did that lesson, it's over. But you know the fun, I was going to go back to the Venice Beach. I was so curious about it, but nobody wanted to talk about it.

[00:08:53] Did you find that like nobody was like, like kind of like it was secretive. Like, well, you've got to go talk to somebody else. Like what's going on here? Yeah. That was it. We went and we saw it and just, but we still left with what, what was that? Interesting. Okay. And it still took a couple more exposures before I really played. And then from there it's over, right? Now you're selling the cars. You're it's, it's like a drug. You can't get enough of it. It is. And how often do you play?

[00:09:23] I probably play four times a week. Yeah. It really is. My wife is the one who has gotten bitten by the bug even worse than I, and she has never done a sport before. Um, so it's been a big learning experience for her, the competition, the emotions. Oh yeah. You know, there's times where she's like, I'm never coming back. And then the next day she's coming back. Oh yeah. I better try one more time. Yeah. I better just try. I just shouldn't give up.

[00:09:51] Well, you know, Mike always throws his paddle when he, you know, when he has his temper tantrum. You know, when I started, I started, you know, when you start, you kind of just play and it's fun. Then you think I need to do a tournament. And once you step in that tournament zones where you feel like you just got schooled, like you've never done it. Your nerves are your, your, your stomach, your nerves, you're, you're, you just get killed. Right. My first experience. Yeah. Actually, um, I had played at the club for about three months and thought I was doing

[00:10:19] all grand and, um, went, you know, I really want to play with some other wheelchair players though. And so I got the old tennis players to come out. We started a program, um, that does wheelchair development, um, with Salt Lake County, uh, me and the adaptive rec person there and got the old tennis players to come over there, but that was on the basketball floor. And so I took Marianne, who was my doubles partner yesterday over to the club.

[00:10:49] And I thought, all right, this is really cool. And she just has such a natural ability. You set me in my place. And, and so got my ego in check. It does. It's amazing that you go play and you just feel so good, right? Like, like I'm just doing good. And then somebody, a child or an older person will just take you and like you want to leave there with your head down. School you. School you really bad. Yeah. Gotta keep that ego in check. You do. You do. But it's so fun too.

[00:11:19] You probably meet the most amazing people you've ever met in your life, you know? And pickleball. And pickleball. You know, everybody. Of course. So I don't know if you know, but a court chair, a pickleball chair is about $6,500. And the one I was using, I had borrowed from the tennis program. Well, the group that we play with at the club, but wasn't the club itself, did a fundraiser and about two hours they raised the money to get me in there. That's freaking awesome.

[00:11:48] That's what I mean. The community, the pull, the community that comes from this is just crazy. Yeah. What we can do. I mean, we can pickleball people can change people's lives. It's awesome. You know what? I think you're being summoned because you have a tournament. You gotta get on court. You gotta get warmed up. Yes. Well, thank you so much. We'll get your card before you leave. So we'll tell you when this is coming out. Your information. Yep. And you're going to be famous. Like everywhere you go now, people are just gonna be like, was that you on that podcast? Well, good luck today. Have a good day. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Bye-bye.

[00:12:21] Hi. So here we are, Mike. We're at Peak Pickleball and we are here with Dave Carpenter. Yeah. Yeah. I would have been here sooner, but somebody kicked over my drink. So I had to go get another one. That's the story he's sticking to. Yeah. We know the truth. Yeah. I did lie. Yeah. So Dave, so you are a member here at Peak Pickleball. I got the joiner membership. Okay. The beginners. Nice.

[00:12:50] It's $35, I think, for the first month and you get two classes. That's great. That's really good. Yeah. When did you start? Here about a month ago. Okay. Maybe a little, maybe another week. And one of the reasons, one of the reasons you started is why? Well, I've been in a depression, kind of a low, heavy, funk, cloud thing. You know, up and down and all through winter it was pretty heavy.

[00:13:16] But then I started coming out and so I started exercising. We got back to the Y and got personal trainers to keep me going. And then at the Y they had pickleball classes. So, but it was a tail end of that. So we took the last three, we were at, attended the last three classes. And when that ended, we had to find something else.

[00:13:43] And I found this online and came over here and joined the first day. And it is helped you a lot. Oh, this is amazing. Yeah. And all the great people too. I mean, that's the neat part is you don't need to know a bunch of people to play pickleball. Oh, they're all friendly. Yeah. Everybody walked through the door and everybody you see is your friend. Yeah. It's nice. It's not like regular sports. It's not where you have to be with a certain class or people. People just welcome you in. Well, and we were talking, Dave and I, when you were like, I don't know where you were,

[00:14:12] but we were talking that he said that you get your serve in what? 50% of the time he was telling me. Yeah. And I'm like, that's good. That's good. And you're getting better. That's actually, I kind of like the definition of the next level is that you can get your serve in. You can return half the time. Yeah. Well, she's been playing for a while and she still can't get her serve in. And you can remember where you're supposed to stand in the courts. Right. Yes. And then scoring can be kind of a hard thing. I let someone else have it. Yeah. Right. Right.

[00:14:41] Isn't it the goofiest thing? There's always one person on the court that knows the score. Let them do it. Yeah. Right. And then you just look at them, let them say it and then you go. Right. You ask them. Yeah. The funny part is you start playing and everybody's like, who served or what happened? Like everybody lost their minds like in the middle of the court. Yeah. Yeah. Like you're playing a game of cards with friends. Yeah. You get talking so much all of a sudden you remember who. Who went. The out the last time. Yeah.

[00:15:08] Well, and the reason when we were talking earlier that I wanted you on because a lot of people do have depression or they need to be in something that they can, you know, get out of that if they can. And the fact that you came and you're doing it and it's making you just feel so much better is so important. I'm smiling. Yeah. I mean, I walk in here and I always envied the people walking around smiling all the time. They're happy.

[00:15:36] And, you know, I come in here and I'm smiling all the time and I'm happy. Yeah. It is super nice. And you can just, sometimes you just stop in and hang out. Like you don't even have to play. Exactly. You can just come watch people, talk to people. Exactly. Drink beer. Drink some beer. Beer is here. Now that's going to do something with your blood sugar. I'm not supposed to do that. Okay. But, no, I mean, and you're full of so much knowledge. I mean, you're helping me. Yeah. Because you were just telling me we were just talking about some stuff and I was like,

[00:16:04] gosh, I mean, just a wealth of knowledge you have, you know? So. Oh, it's because I had the meeting with the nutritionist at the endocrinologist's office two days ago. But I got the handouts. But that's what the neat part is. I never met you before and here we're already sharing recipes, you know? Right. Which is nice, you know? Yeah. We'll blame it on pickleball. We'll blame it on pickleball. But that's why we're here. We get to meet fascinating people all over the world. Uh-huh. And it's the same.

[00:16:34] Everywhere we go, we don't, I mean, it's rare to have people come in grumpy unless somebody's having a bad game or, you know, some of the tournaments we can, people get a little grumpy, but. We come, not grumpy, but we, nine o'clock is too early for us. Yeah. And, but you get picked up just playing. Oh yeah, absolutely. Oh yeah, definitely. It just, the endorphins. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we appreciate you so much and coming on and talking with us and I just keep it going. You know?

[00:17:04] I kind of dreaded this, but it turned out quite well. So thank you. Right? When you have me talking, it's easy. When it's her, I know it's a little rough, but it's easy for me. He picks on me a lot. He does. Oh yeah. No, you don't even know. Like she's bad. No, Dave's looking at you going, yeah. It's the ones that are smiling a lot. You need to watch. Should I ask him to roll up his sleeves. Are there any bruises on the arm or not? There is. Oh yeah. From your wife. Yeah. He's my, so a lot of people think we're married, but he's my. Oh yeah. There's no way. I know. No.

[00:17:34] It's my work wife. Yeah. We're work. He's my work husband. Right. Yeah. My, my, my real husband's a lot nicer to me. Yeah. That's great. That's great. Well, you keep on pickleballing. Yeah. And we'll see you next year and have you on again to tell us your journey. All right. Well, maybe you're pro by then. That'd be fun. You could be by pro. You could be pro by then. Yeah. Not probably. Well, thank you. Have a good day. Thank you so much, Dave. Bye.

[00:18:01] Campbell Chiropractic, your path to wellness. Your path to wellness starts here. Our services include chiropractic care, laser therapy, and custom orthotics. We also provide personalized nutrition plans, rehabilitation, and sports physicals.

[00:18:26] Visit us at castlerockchiro.com or call 303-663-8365. We're at peak pickleball still, and we're here with Cody Smith, and he is from the PVA. And so tell us what role you play with the PVA. Well, it's kind of a new role for me. I just took it on about a month or so ago.

[00:18:53] We're going around to all the other Mountain States chapters. We're in charge of New Mexico, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. Wow. All of those are under the Mountain State chapter, Paralyzed Veterans of America. I got voted in as the chair for sports and recreation because I do a lot of sports and recreation, and it just kind of keeps me alive and gives me a sense of purpose, gives me a place to be and something to do. Well, I know the listeners can't see you, but this guy is in shape.

[00:19:23] Yeah. You can tell he does a lot of sports. Yeah. I like to stay active. Motion is lotion. It keeps my pain level down. And being the chair to the sports and rec, I'm just trying to get other people involved that aren't involved and don't know about certain things and certain benefits that they might be entitled to, those kind of things. I think it keeps people's hopes up, right? Yeah. I mean, people don't always know there is help, right? I mean, how many times we've done some stuff with veteran stuff, and they don't even know there's hope. It's almost hopeless sometimes.

[00:19:52] They feel hopeless. But there's a lot of help out there if you want to look for it. And it's great someone like yourself is doing this. I'm trying to pay for what was done to me because I didn't know. I was one of those guys that didn't know. I had my motorcycle accident working for Harley Davidson after I was out of the Navy. And a guy from Paralyzed Veterans of America in San Diego reached out to me and said, if you have any service-connected disability, the VA will cover your benefits with your wheelchair, your medications. And he booked my appointment for me.

[00:20:22] And I have 10% service-connected disability, so I get my VA benefits by the skin of my teeth. But, I mean, I thank that guy. And I continue to drive that. Change your life. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. So what level of pickleball are we here? So, I mean, you're newer? You're more advanced? Beginner to intermediate when I'm having a good day, I would say. And how long have you played pickleball? Like two years now. Okay. But you've got to love it though, right? I do. It's addictive. I do. It's very fun.

[00:20:49] I have like a physical sport of wheelchair lacrosse that's more high intensity. Oh, my. You're beating each other up. And I've been doing that for about four years. That's my first love. Yeah. But finding pickleball kind of like teaches me, oh, you don't have to be completely white-knuckling the whole time. Like, you can breathe. Do you find yourself sometimes with the paddle though wanting to take out your partner? Every time. You know, Mike does that too. Yeah. Sorry. I must've been a lacrosse player in my younger, in my last. Lacrosse is fun to watch. It is. My son played that.

[00:21:19] That's really fun. It's a great sport. I grew up in Maryland. So, like, lacrosse has been lacrosse hockey. I've raised dirt bikes growing up. So, go fast, hit hard. Oh, yeah. That's my life. That's why your shape is what it is. Yeah. That's what I do. I go fast and I hit hard. Love it. So, how would people find out to get more help in this situation? That's what our podcast is here is to tell people that don't know stuff like this. I mean, we get to meet great people. I guess on the veteran side of things, if you're local to the states that I mentioned,

[00:21:50] MSCPVA is the Mountain States chapter. DrPVA.com is our website. That's probably your best point of contact to reach out to somebody there. And depending on what it is, we kind of prioritize it to whoever can handle. If it's above my pay grade, which usually it is, I pass it off to the proper person. Sure. Now, can people donate too to this organization? Yes. And that's another thing that I started going to the veteran wheelchair games a couple years ago. This year would have been my third year.

[00:22:18] I'm skipping this year because I'm juggling a little too much with lacrosse and pickleball. Yeah. But, oh, I lost where I was going with that. I have a brain injury too. About fundraising or donations? The fundraising. So, I actually do tonight. I go on Saturday nights to Bingo and we raise money in Aurora at Turn of the Century Bingo, it's called if anybody lives locally. All the proceeds go to Paralyzed Veterans of America and it helps raise money to get their flight and their hotels.

[00:22:47] It paid for mine my first two years. And I'm going to continue to sell bingo every Saturday night. I've been doing it for about three years now. I love it. I love my bingo ladies. Well, and we can do some stuff for you too. I mean, that's something that we'd love to help, especially when, you know, anything we can do to help anybody, you know? Yeah. And so, you can let us know. Pickleball is our thing. So, anything pickleball, we, and people will, the crazy thing with pickleball, people come together. Out of other sports I've ever seen in my life, this sport, it doesn't matter who you know, what you know, if you're in pickleball, everybody knows everybody.

[00:23:18] Yeah. It doesn't matter your age. Nothing. I'm not a young whippersnapper to these guys. Maybe a little bit at first. You do look like a young whippersnapper. And that's okay at first, but then at the end of the game, if they like, if I can earn the respect of someone that's in their seventies or eighties that just schooled me, my day's complete. Yeah. They're really. It's super cool. Isn't that the crazy part with this sport too? Like, the worst is mine is, I'm old, so if the old, I can kind of make an excuse. And I can, I agree, he is old. Oh, don't you go there.

[00:23:44] But, it's when I get this 10 year old or 12 year old, and I'm thinking, I'm going to help them a little bit, and they come on the court and just. And they're helping you. You're helping me. Totally. I'm sweating, I'm breathing hard. You're ready to call 911 because they're just taking me down quick. Yeah. No, that's when I get schooled. I'm like, wow, these kids coming up are nuts. Yeah. You humble yourself or be humiliated. Yeah. I got a, I got an adaptive. I got to go practice a little bit out of the Datchett in San Diego. That was incredible too.

[00:24:13] Some of the pros. Yeah. Oh my gosh. It's not a, it's crazy. Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. You know, one of my good buddies that lives out here. He won the gold in the US open last year for pickleball down in Florida. And I play against him pretty regularly. So, training with people that are the best. And even on my wheelchair lacrosse team, those guys started the team 15 some years ago. Yeah. I've been playing for four. I mean, the skill levels, there's a big gap. Yeah. There's a big gap, but you get, that's how you get better. It honestly is. We talk about it all the time.

[00:24:42] When I started four years ago, I go back and play with some of the players I started with. They still play the same, but I now get to play with five O's and six O's and it's crazy. Like, and then I go back and they're like, well, this is this, you guys haven't, you're not hitting the same ball. They're not going to get any better. No, they don't get any better. You got to play with better people and practice. I mean, any, any sport, as you know, if you're not, you can't always just play. You got to go do the, do the work takes. Definitely. We are my son. You are who you hang out with. It's a truth. Hang out with the winners.

[00:25:13] Well, we appreciate you so much and anything we can do. We'll get your information. We'll put you on our website. Again, we don't, there's so many organizations too. So it's always hard. So we like to, we like the ones that are involved in pickleball. Cause that's what our listeners are at pickleballers, but we, we're going to get together. We'll probably give you a call and see what we can do to do more. Yeah. That's our table right behind. Yeah. That's how I was talking. I can't believe that how old of this group is 1947. I mean, PVA started the ADA act.

[00:25:43] So if it wasn't for PVA going to Congress, there would be, there would be no ADA at all. So that's just PVA for ADA. Yeah. Awesome. And they're doing great things and then they're finding great people as yourself. I'm happy to be a part of it. It's a legacy. It's cool to be a part of it. Yeah. Plus you get to play a lot of good, have a lot of fun. Yeah. I'm already doing this and now I get to do it for somebody. How cool is that? That's great. That's amazing. That's the best part. We definitely will get you on our website. And so I'll, I'll call you and we'll figure that out because that'd be awesome.

[00:26:12] We'd like to follow up to let us know what we need to do is find out what things are coming, like your, like your bingo things that are coming. We can show up and we'll bring some pickleballers with us. So we'll bring some, we'll bring some followers for you. We can always use more people. All right. Great. All right. We won't bring her, but you'll bring me. I'll take care of it. Ah, no comment. Anyway. Thank you so much. Thank you. Have a great day. You too. All right. Hey, Chrisanna. Hi, Mike. What an event, huh?

[00:26:41] Yes. This is awesome. It's a great event, guys. Wonderful. This is big and what a facility too, right? I mean, this is, yeah. 24 courts, two levels. Yeah. Wow. I mean, and it's nice. These are nice. So we're sitting down here with Mick Tingstrom and we have Andrew Lewis. And so Andrew Lewis, tell us what, where you're at and what you do. So I'm located down here in Fountain, Colorado, just south of the Colorado Springs.

[00:27:11] I'm a Mountain States chapter, Paralyzed Veterans of America, board of director for our chapter. So PVA is a national organization and the chapter exists to represent our members with our veteran members within the five state area. So that's Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. That's a pretty big territory. Big stretch. Yeah. Beautiful country though. Yeah. It really is. Yeah.

[00:27:35] As you can imagine, our members are not all co-located as you would imagine, as you know, geographically as you can see, but we also have many bases here. So as people exit out of the different military's organizations, they also have the PVA pretty closely located with representatives like myself here in this region. Which is awesome. I mean, people don't know what they don't know. Right. And when you're coming out of the situation that you're in, you just don't always know

[00:28:04] there's people out there that can help you. Yeah. And great things you're doing. I mean, this organization's awesome. Well, as you know, like Colorado and the states that I mentioned, I mean, we're in an area that is rather populated, but we have a lot of veterans and a lot of really small communities branched out, clear out in the country, hundreds of miles from here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny. That's what you think. Everybody thinks we're so tight because you come to the little cities. Yeah. But we have a lot of little places that are up in the mountains, you know? Yep.

[00:28:34] So, no, this is awesome. So what do you think of today? Oh, I'm impressed. Yeah. You know, this yesterday, today, and I'm looking forward to playing again tomorrow as tired as I am. I'm looking forward to playing. Yeah. It's a, yeah, it's, it's really been a blast. So I've only been playing pickleball for maybe three months. Wow. Um, and, uh, I did pretty well. Uh, and thanks to this guy sitting right next to me, Mick, he's been a pretty solid

[00:28:59] coach and really helped me with the basic skills to be able to get out and do what I did today. Yeah. And yesterday I had pretty good success today. Today, not so much, but I learned, uh, some, some skills playing with players that are, uh, gold medalists from yesterday. Oh my gosh. Yeah. We were impressed with it. It's amazing. Um, we got to play with some of the pros when we're down in nationals to got it. You got to let us try out. Oh yeah. And I'm, I thought I was pretty good and I'm like, Ooh. Yeah. Wow. So yeah.

[00:29:29] And it carried on. It carries on, not just with our able on the able body side of the house, but you even get in a chair, a wheelchair, there are lights out, phenomenal athletes who can rock it and play like any able body player, but they're playing in a chair. Yeah. And I think, I think that you're, you're at that net side and they put that top spin on that ball is gone. Yeah. You're like, you seen it here, but it shoots over about three feet the other way. Yeah. We have some wheelchair athletes that can launch the ball across the net at hyper speed.

[00:29:58] And when it lands, it goes 10 feet that way or 10 feet. Yeah. There's, there's nowhere to hide. It kind of reminds me of my golf swing, but you know, you don't know if it's in the trees or in the sand. Well, I think, I think the hard part for men like ourselves is loosening up. This is a game that you, we want to hold like a baseball bat and this is a game that's actually finesse. Yes. You gotta be, you gotta slow down and you gotta hold that grip a little lot softer and follow through.

[00:30:28] And it's the hardest thing to do as a man. You want to hit that little ball to the moon. Oh yeah. So, but I, I find that, I mean, and I still struggle with that. That juicy one comes and I'm like, yeah, I'm killing that ball. Yeah. And then it always goes out. It always goes out. Yeah. You're describing some of my games today. Same. So, Nick, you're in charge. You kind of are behind all this, right? Yes. I mean, this is, which is wonderful that this event has happened. Yeah.

[00:30:55] It's, this has been a late, this has been a years in the making. Uh, three years ago, I went to the, actually, uh, veterans helped me get, get where we are today. Um, it was the start of, um, meeting one veteran, uh, at a clinic run by military adaptive court sports and, uh, that, that one veteran in a chair inspired me to start something and be a part of something that I thought I had no idea where it was going to go.

[00:31:24] But I went to the national veteran wheelchair games in Portland, Oregon. Yeah. And I volunteered, uh, an hour with my family and with my son. And I went up there to go be a part of that event. And I left there thinking, this is something that, uh, needs to be everywhere. Everywhere. Yeah. And a tournament, I can see some at some point down the road, we're going to have a national championship tournament. Oh, absolutely. That was three years ago. Yeah. Here you are.

[00:31:55] And, and we're doing it. Yeah, absolutely. And he, and we, we met you and in your, your dream. And we talked to you in San Diego and, and you're like, here's what's going to happen. Yeah. And you were on it. Yeah. There was no, you had no stutter about it. It was like, this is what's going to happen. It's been a lot of work. It's been a lot of work. I've, I've had a lot of, I mean, a lot of people rallied around this USA pickleball has been wonderful peak pickleball.

[00:32:19] You could not find a better venue who's offering 24 courts for wheelchair athletes to come play in a national sanctioned body. Every match is refereed. We have three divisions, which has never been offered in a wheelchair pickleball event. We've had a hundred percent of the athletes were offered to play all three events, singles, hybrid doubles, because we have the court ability, the court, the number of courts available.

[00:32:46] A hundred percent of the athletes were given partners or offered to be partnered up, which is very, very important for our wheelchair community. Because like Andrew was talking about, we've got athletes all over veterans, non-veterans who are in out there, pick the city or pick that small town. How many wheelchair athletes do they have playing pickleball at their skill level? To be able to play together. To be able to partner and travel together to another state.

[00:33:15] We've got 16 states represented, either 16 or 18. I forget the final number. But as far as Vermont, to Florida, to Hawaii, and everything in between are here this weekend to, to compete in the first ever national championship. We've been meeting people all over the place. It was like, wow, you've traveled a long ways. And that's, and I think that's what Pickle Large Next Door is here to, to have you on. Because the more we can all help, the more we can do.

[00:33:43] We again, other people, if we don't tell people we can't get help. Right. Are you guys able to branch out to the different states? Absolutely. Yeah. So have you considered going to the national veterans wheelchair game? Yeah, we, and that's why we just, I mean, this man here has brought us into the mix. So that's why we're getting your information so that we can be more part of this. So we're more than happy to go. Yeah. Absolutely. So the next steps for you would be to reach out to the PVA National. Yeah.

[00:34:08] The local director for this region is Izzy Abbas, I-Z-Z-Y-A-B-B-A-S-S. And his email is izzy at mscpabas. Hopefully they don't get a bunch of weird emails from all our listeners. Yeah. If you reach out to him. It'll be Mike. That's fine. It could be me. I'm sure Izzy would love that. So when is it usually? So it's this August. I can't remember exact dates.

[00:34:38] So we need to set that up. It's usually like the third weekend. Well, we want to rally the pickleball community that we've rallied from, doesn't matter, from everywhere. Yeah. And what we've learned in this pickleball community, as you get more into it, they will gather around and help and do whatever they need to do. Yeah. It's not like any other sports you've ever played. You know, those sports are kind of segmented and, you know, the pros and, you know, not here. Right. We can have pros there. People will show up. I mean, they'll donate. They'll help. Yeah.

[00:35:06] But if they don't know, they don't know to do that. Right. And I think that's where we come in is to try to help some of that. Well, and Cody, you spoke with him earlier. Yeah. Cody's the sports and rec representative for our chapter. And he's going this year to the wheelchair games. Yeah. He'd be the person that also connect with. Are you going? Not this year. No, I need a few more years, I think, or at least one more year of practice playing this game, but I think before I'm eligible for that level. Okay. Not to mention I work during the weekdays. Yeah.

[00:35:36] I need a little bit of a break. You got a little break. Save some time off for my wife. Yeah. That's important. But, you know, we thank both of you for doing this and what you're doing. Yeah. And I'm so glad we could get you on the air. And we've already had you on. And he's brought some great people on the air. Yeah. First thing, I got hugs when I got here from some of the guys I've had in San Diego. Yeah. That's just awesome. You know? Yeah. And again, we just want to know how we can bring our community and more communities together to be part of this. Yeah. Because it's big. Well, thank you. Yeah. This is really neat.

[00:36:06] This is really helpful. Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's no, you know, that's a bad with pickleball is we, there's not a lot of voices out there yet. Besides the pros, you hear a lot about the pros. You hear a lot about paddles. You hear about lessons, but we're the ones going to bring the voice. That's why we say we're going to be number one. Hear that people? Number one in the world. But ours is going to bring the people, the voice from the people and pickleball. Okay. And so that's what we're doing. You know, we're helping. Yeah. And it's a, and we've seen a lot of growth in even, even the last year, there's been a

[00:36:33] lot of advocates really promoting pickleball and adaptive play and wheelchair play. Yeah. And that's what, what, what we also wanted to do in this, this tournament is not just bring the players, but being, bring the proponents and the, and the champions for the sport. Yeah. And so, because that's what we need to get, we need to get united and get the single voice bringing that adaptive community and those wheelchair pickleballs. And they're out there. They're out there.

[00:37:03] They just don't know because this has never been done. No. And us opens been providing opportunity, increased opportunity for wheelchair athletes, um, there. So they had, uh, they had more athletes, I think this year, a couple of months last month than ever. Uh, so that was wonderful. Um, but what we've been able to do here again, that's an able body tournament. Yeah. So they have what thousand, I forget how many ridiculous number of players.

[00:37:30] Um, and so, but they've, they've tried to include and they did. Um, but we've been able to significantly increase that when you make it a wheelchair pickleball only. Yes. Tournament. Yeah. With 24 dedicated indoor courts, weather doesn't matter. No. It does not matter. So our wheelchair athletes in the pickleball community, if they knew what is offered here

[00:37:54] once a year or twice a year, then, you know, play in your local tournaments. Yeah, absolutely. Play in the U S open, play down in Dallas, play in where you can. But if you're going to put, if you're going to put a marker on the, on your calendar, go to the USA pickleball national championships event, because you are going to play more pickleball than, than you could possibly do anywhere else. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

[00:38:23] No fault to anybody, but, but that's what we're offering here. And it's round Robin playoffs, not double elimination. And we're going to play all, you will play all three events and you will have a partner. Yeah. And yeah. And they're having fun. I mean, everybody's having a good time. Yeah. Every level. It doesn't matter. People having a fun. Yes. I mean, smiles are good here. And we'll refine. We've got, we've got the best athletes. Some, some didn't aren't here today, but they will be here next year when they find out

[00:38:52] what, what, what's going on. And I couldn't be more excited about who's rallied around and come around us and supported this event from the people, whether it's the PVA, whether it's new motion with their, with them, with the maintenance support, the local hotels have, have been helping to comp some of our athletes who can't afford. Oh yeah. That's awesome. We've even had a couple of, I'll just tell you one story here. Just, just, just this last night.

[00:39:20] And there's, there's a million of these, but I had an athlete who could not afford to stay. She was staying in her, in her car. Oh man. Okay. So to travel here, to be a part of this event, she's sleeping in her car. Wow. I had two guys who are staying, who are staying in two different rooms at the Polaris hotel. So those two gentlemen, I went and asked them and I wanted to help her out. I asked those two, Hey guys, is there any way that you could, you guys would be willing

[00:39:49] to stay in a room together? And here's the situation why. And they're like, absolutely. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So that's really, this young lady is staying in the Polaris. Oh, which is gorgeous. Beautiful. Which I can't afford to stay in. Yeah. But it's a beautiful place. They've been wonderful supporters of this event. Uh, yeah. They're a great supporter of peak. I know. Right. And it's not even, and Polaris is one of them, but the, the, the Hilton, uh, garden

[00:40:17] in and the homewood suites also helped provide a couple of rooms that some of the athletes who, who may not have been able to come are staying in there. That's great. That's great. So this is what we're talking about. This is what we're doing. And we want to step up too. And we wanted to get, cause we have some really good relationships through pickleball that we want to bring to the table for you guys. Yeah. You know, and the more connection we can all connect each other with, you know, it's again, if one person does one thing and another does another, the world gets better. Right? Absolutely.

[00:40:47] And again, we wouldn't have known this was you. Yeah. Like we were in USA, we were out as media to USA pickleball in San Diego and here's this man and smiling away and bringing people up and interviewing and he was ready. And it's here. That's the neat part. Yeah. This happened. It's just getting bigger. Yes. We had, so the welcome dinner, I just want to also talk about that. We had a welcome dinner last night that we were talking, uh, that Andrew and Andrew mentioned.

[00:41:12] Uh, so we had a, uh, Olympian, uh, Michelle do say do do say Farrell was a silver medalist, um, representing the United States at the Olympics in Los Angeles. Wow. And, um, so she came in, volunteered her time to, to speak to the athletes and to the, to all the volunteers and everybody. And she just gave, I mean, a great message about, um, stepping forward, being fear, fearless. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:41:42] Taking, don't let a barrier prevent you from moving forward in life. Yeah. And, and, and especially we've got, we've got so many, uh, veterans out there, non-veterans who, who, who don't know what the art of the possible is. And, uh, this sport, this sport, as we know, uh, can do that. And the community, the people who are playing it, it's like how many coaches and teachers

[00:42:06] and how many people here have a paddle, you know, I have next week, next week, there's a guy who came in, um, last Wednesday at the veteran pickleball event or the weekly training or clinic that we have. And the guy rolls in, says he wants to play pickleball. I'm like, you ready? Let's go. And, and then I realized, I look at him, he has no arms. And I was thinking, Ooh, how are we doing this? Okay. But dude, I said, dude, we're playing. We're going to figure it out. Okay.

[00:42:36] We're going to figure this out. So come back. And I, and, and he had, um, he had two, um, I don't know how you would call it. Procesis. Yeah. No, he had none. Okay. But he had a stump and he had a, he had a, a strap and had a, like a pencil or pen, pen type of, um, a holder device. Okay. And that's how he would write down stuff and move, move stuff with his kind of elbow, almost like an elbow. Yeah. And I'm like, I'm thinking my, my, my, my gears are turned.

[00:43:05] I'm like, yeah, how can we make this work? We're going to make this work. I said, dude, come back, come back the next week or as soon as you can. And we're going to, we're going to, we're going to hit some pickleballs. Yeah. And so I said, you bring some, bring some straps, bring some that are, that are, that we can modify that can be expanded. Yeah. And we're going to, we're going to put that, we're going to put that pickle pad pickleball paddle on your upper extremity. You're going to hit some balls. You're going to hit the ball. You're going to hit the ball. We're going to, we're going to play some pickleball right here. So I'm super excited.

[00:43:32] And, and you know, this is the kind of thing that, that we, it's a pleasure to be able to, to serve and be a part of someone else's life and give them life, give them something. I know this guy's, he's going to light up like a Christmas tree when he hits that first pickleball. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's on. You know, so I haven't done, I haven't, I haven't taught, I've taught a lot of different

[00:43:54] athletes, um, how to play, but this will be my first, uh, amazing gentleman, um, that, that doesn't have that ability. That's great. You're given opportunity to, or trying, you know, and I, and I think that a lot of us want to help. We just don't know. We get in, you know, the world is so busy. We're all so busy. Yeah. And then when we get to play pickleball, we're just selfish and I want to play pickleball, right? But we get, we lose our mind. Oh yeah.

[00:44:21] We do lose our, I can tell you that, but, uh, but at the end, yeah, mine's gone. Pickleball did it. I've lost my mind. But, uh, at the end of the day, if we just back up a little bit, there's a lot we can do. And with this community we have, I'm telling you, I've never seen a stronger community in my life than pickleball. Yeah. It's crazy. A hundred percent. It's, it's nuts. I can make some phone calls right now and probably have whatever you want. Yeah. Wow. That's really cool. Cause it's all life, walks of life that play in it. They're all there. You have multimillionaires.

[00:44:50] You got people with nothing. You got people from young to old. I mean, it has everything. I play with an athlete on, uh, on Sundays and one of the veteran clinics and, uh, he's an athlete that doesn't have a spinal cord injury, but he, he does have a disability where he has some, uh, some limited motion and I've heard a little bit of his story and it's, it's, it, it, it honestly has inspired me to want to play better and be more active. Yeah.

[00:45:19] Uh, because of the passion that he has just to be here to show up and have fun. Yeah. We, we had a guy here today, a story and I brought tears to my eyes. Um, you know, we think we have a bad day cause traffic or the weather and all this garbage. Let's have a 50,000 pound trailer land on you and, uh, and be on top of you and survive that and be able to come here and play pickleball today. Like that just. My goodness. Come on. Now that's a bad day. Yeah. That's a bad day. I mean, and he was just his energy, his life.

[00:45:47] And he has a second chance. And he says, pickleballs. I mean, it's doing some great things. They never said his, he could move one of his nothing. He said to never be able to move again. And he's moving his leg. Wow. So who knows? Right. So we're going to have him on as a, we're putting a whole podcast around. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. But his story, it'll bring you to tears. Wow. And he just, he's as happy as can be and here to having a great time. And I, I, I'm just like, I never will have a bad day again. Yeah. Cause that's a bad day.

[00:46:15] Well, I can tell you is it as a T three complete per perplegic. Like this is one of those sports that I've tried and I feel that I'm, I can embrace and play and have success with it. Oh yeah. I've, I've, I do some hand cycling and I do have tried a wheelchair basketball, wheelchair football, rugby. Um, and this has been one of the first ones that I really feel comfortable in and, and feel that I get better in success and intense amount of rewards. Yeah.

[00:46:45] You got some, you got some good guns on you. You got those long arms. I don't even have a sports chair yet. I think once I do, I think that's going to be a game changer. Oh yeah. Well, we thank both of you and we're going to be more touched. Um, and thank you again for you. You mean, you know, I love when people, you know, we hear a lot of people, blah, blah, blah, but we like when we see it action and you, you, you, you call this, you, you had no, I guess no stutter. Yeah. This is happening. Yeah. And here we are today. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you very much for coming. This is awesome. Thank you.

[00:47:14] You're going to see more of us. All right. Have a great day. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

[00:47:49] Bye. Bye.