Episode 87: “Are We Ruining Pickleball? Competition, Court Etiquette & What Happened to the Fun?”

[00:00:00] Thank you for joining in. I'm Mike. I'm Christana. We're the Pickleballers Next Door. Want a pro-level pickleball court without pouring concrete? Discover rollout courts from Pickleball Management Group. They offer quick setup. The standard rollout court uses five textured polyvinyl rolls seamed together to make a 30x60 court, customizable. Or choose PickleDeck, interlocking panels for any surface. Perfect for backyards, schools, events.

[00:00:25] The complete Pickle Deck system install in under two hours and saves big versus concrete or asphalt. Pickleball Management Group is an official sponsor of USA Pickleball, Pickleball Canada. The APP Tour and the 2025 US Open Pickleball Championships. Learn more at pickleballmanagement.com. This episode, we are ruining pickleball. Welcome back my Pickleballers Next Door.

[00:00:54] I hope your life is going well and you're playing lots of pickleball. I'm Mike Paze. Today, I'm probably going to make a few people a little angry or mad. But actually, if I wasn't making a few people a little uncomfortable or mad, I wouldn't be doing my job. And this is the question. Are we ruining pickleball? I say yes and no. I love the game. I love the people.

[00:01:20] I love making it to facilities and hearing the balls hit and all the laughter and drinks and having fun. I love the competitiveness. I love meeting people that I might not ever have met. I just, you know, I think there's a lot going on. But there's the ratings. $300 pickleball. Pickleballs, yeah. I hope that pickleballs don't go to $300.

[00:01:46] But the arguments, the clickiness, the tournaments, the sponsorships, you know, people just refusing to play with other people. You know, fighting over if the ball's out. You know my story about this. If the ball is on your side and you think it went out, that is your call.

[00:02:06] And I will argue that a million times, that if you look at the rule books and you play any tournament, now if there's a judge or a ref there, they can call that ball out. And they might be able to help that. But at the end of the day, we're playing, this is just fun pickleball. This isn't going for world championship. So, again, I see this all the time. I mean, I see people get so angry about it. Let them make the call.

[00:02:35] If they say it's out and you've seen it was in, well, it is. A lot of times, if three of us will just say, hey, I felt like that was in, most of the time that the people that I play with will just be, oh, okay, I felt like it was out. And I've missed, you know, looked at a ball really fast and thought, oh, that was out. But my partner said, oh, no, it hit. Well, great. You know, I'm okay to call that call. There are a lot of people, if that ball is even close to the line, they call it out. And that's just who they are.

[00:03:03] So, anyway, but maybe, you know, because maybe pickleball isn't the problem, maybe we are, you know? Maybe we're the situation that we're creating this problem, you know? So, stay till the end. I definitely have some questions to settle some of this that I'd like to talk about. So, let's just get into this right away. Remember when this was just fun.

[00:03:28] I remember when you just go to, when you first went to go start, you ever started to play pickleball. You went to some court, somebody probably loaned you a paddle, or you went to your first indoor, and they gave you a free lesson. And you thought this was the greatest thing since ice cream. I, that was me. And I got addicted. The first couple times I did this, wow. But when I went in there, I had no idea what a duper was. I knew no idea what a third drop shot was.

[00:03:58] And when somebody said kitchen to me, I'm thinking, what are you talking about, a kitchen? I don't see a refrigerator. I don't see, what are you talking about? So, it was just crazy. So, you know, just crazy. So, and then, you know, at the end of the day, and then when I was ready to go, I went to Amazon, and I bought me the dual pack. You know, two paddles and a ball, and a couple balls. And I went and had a blast. I didn't care about anything else.

[00:04:27] I found some people that wanted to play, and I was super excited. I wasn't wondering what my rating was or the people that I was playing with, what the rating was. You know, I just wanted to play. I just wanted to have fun. And that's where it started. It was fun, community. I liked it. There was competitiveness. Loved the exercise of it, you know. But, and then, you know, we, that little stupid plastic ball made, you know, you get addictive. It makes you crazy. It makes you crazy.

[00:04:57] So, but then something happened, you know. We had to buy, then we start to get a little better, right? We start to, oh, I'm, now I'm good, you know. And everybody's telling you, you know, of course, those are horrible paddles, you know. Well, I think that anybody remembers that when this game started, and I wish there was some times we had to go back and play with the original paddles because that would make this game so much more fun because everybody would be at the same, almost

[00:05:27] same, you know, you would have to learn how to hit the ball again. And you wouldn't have all this crazy spin. You wouldn't have all this crazy power. But in the end of the day, this sport's, you know, coming alive. And so they're inventing things just like any sport, the better golf club, the better bat, the better everything, the better volleyball, you know. So I get it. It has to do that. But at the end of the day, I think that has caused a lot of problems too, you know.

[00:05:54] So then you end up going out and you start to go look for a paddle. And I remember this. Well, what paddle do I need? Everybody had an opinion about it. Well, now that I'm a coach and I help people, I tell people it doesn't matter. Let's learn how to play. And as you learn how to play, to try out different paddles that feel comfortable to you. So, but of course you go out and wouldn't do, you know, oh my gosh, paddles.

[00:06:20] I mean, if you want anything that's decent, that has the power and the fit and everything, I mean, you're going to pay $275 to $300 for the paddle. It's crazy. But I hate to tell you, my bag has, I have a dozen paddles. And I finally found one that I feel comfortable with. But how crazy is that, right? And I guess I could sell them or something. I let people try them and use them because I coach, you know, at different places.

[00:06:50] But wow, when did that come to reality? You know what I mean? And that, so all of a sudden, you know, we buy these paddles and we're just looking for this great play. All of a sudden you're going to be this superhero because you got this paddle. Well, the funny part of it is your first serve, you usually hit it out because it has a ton more power and pop. And then you get to the, you go up to the, do your dinking and you hit it right in the net. And you just look at this paddle going, what the heck?

[00:07:19] It's not the paddle people. It's us. So, and this is where the game I think starts to change, right? And then this next thing, the obsession of the rating. Oh my gosh. I mean, I get it. And I think that, you know, but it's the first thing we do instead of, you know, how are you? And can't wait to play with you. We got to judge. We got to put these people in a box, right? And that's what we were trying to get away from pickleball. We wanted to go into a pickleball court and just have some fun and play.

[00:07:47] And at the end of the day, you know, now I got to find out what, if you're at 2-5 or 3-5 or 4-0 or 4-5, are you pro? You know, that shouldn't matter. Sure. And you're usually playing open play anyway. So why is this the big deal, you know? And I'm not saying nothing's wrong with the ratings. I think it's awesome. I think it's great for tournaments. It's a great way to, like, find levels that you want to play with.

[00:08:13] But at the end of the day, when a lot of times you don't want to open play, you're going to have a mixture of people unless you're looking for, you know, that certain play. And then you can, you don't really have to ask the people because you probably, you found that play that there's 4-0s there or there's 3-5s to 4-0 or 4-5s to 5-0, whatever, you know? So anyway, I mean, we don't, why do we have to have a number? I mean, we can have a number when we need it.

[00:08:40] You know, when you're going to go to qualify for a tournament or you're going to qualify for something or you want to play with those players, I get it. And I like it for tournaments. I think it's a great thing because it levels out everybody so that you have a place to play. And, you know, Duper helps you, kind of keeps you going all the time that, you know, you want to keep your wins up because the algorithm is going to change it up and down on you, you know? So, I mean, let's just, let's just get back to just having fun.

[00:09:06] You know, don't, we don't need to, you know, worry about the number because at one time you were a 3-0. So, and if you're a 4-0 now, you know, you got to remember those people that are going to come up or be a 4-0. So, I always say this, you know, give back, help somebody else that wants to come up. We all want to get better. So, kind of talked about the, you know, the $300 paddle, you know? Oh, my gosh, you go in to go buy one because now they have all these paddles at these stores, you know?

[00:09:35] Before it used to be, you almost had to buy everything online or you had to find somebody that was an affiliate. But now, carbon fiber, Kevlar, Thermofold, Core Thickness, Swing Weight, Twist Weight, Power Weight, Control, Spin, and Sweet Spot. Come on. Wow. If you can figure all that out in your paddle and you can use all those, you probably are a pro because you understand all that.

[00:10:03] But when you're learning how to play, come on. You're just, you know. My suggestion is if you feel that you have to get a new paddle and you want something to be trendy and you want to go out there, there's a lot of companies out here that will let you test paddles. Go test them until you find the one that plays for you because the paddle that I play with might not be the one that you play with. I came from racquetball. So, I do a lot of stuff with my backhand. I'm a spinner. You know what I mean?

[00:10:31] And if you came from ping pong, that might be a paddle that fits you. And if you came from tennis, that's going to be a whole different paddle for you for your top spin and your hard drives. So, I mean, you've got to try this out. Don't make this that this is going to change your game. It could help your game. But, again, you're going on here to play pickleball. You know what? And I think I'm going to get some wood paddles and I'm going to do some maybe a tournament that is just the old school.

[00:10:57] We're going to go back to the old school and everybody gets to play with the old ball and the old paddle and we're going to make it fun again. You know? Because I think some of this has taken the fun out of the game. You know? And then, you know, winning. Everything is about winning. Now, I'll tell you, I did go through a time with this and I didn't realize it that I started getting better.

[00:11:20] I thought, you know, I'm telling you, a few months into this game and if you play a lot, you think you're a pro. I swear to gosh. You're terrible. Because once you get with somebody that even knows how to play a little bit better, they put you back in your spot. Or you play with a grandma or a grandpa, a senior citizen. Or you play with a kid and they just whip the heck out of you. Kind of gives you a reality again, you know? But I got to tell you, the story I have is, you know, I started just playing every day.

[00:11:50] I'm playing tournaments. And I would come home. My wife didn't go with me or whatever. She was, you know, doing something else. And I'd come home and I'd just be so mad. I'd be so disappointed. And she's like, what's wrong? I lost. I did terrible. And I was so upset that I didn't, it wasn't about pickleball. I just needed to win. And I started going, people would ask me to come play. And I became, they called me the grumpy guy. And one time somebody told me about this and I was like, wow.

[00:12:20] And this is crazy. You know, being the grumpy player made me realize at that point, I went to go play with somebody and they said, oh, we heard you're the grumpy guy. And nobody ever told me, you know, that's the sad thing is nobody ever said, hey, you're the grumpy player. You get so mad. And I wasn't mad at nobody that I was playing. I was just mad at the way I was playing. But at the end of the day, I was making the game not fun for everybody else. I'm having attitude. I'm hitting things out.

[00:12:49] I'm, I'm sculling. I'm, you know, saying probably bad words that I shouldn't be saying on the court. And you know what that happened is I had a lot of great people that love to play with me and like to be around me. But when I went on the court, I turned into a freaking crazy person. So I hope you don't either. You know what I mean? It's not worth it. Um, you know what I mean? You know, you just something you just it's easy to get in this place because you want to be the winner. You know what I mean?

[00:13:17] And all of a sudden you stop smiling. You stop talking. Um, you're arguing over call, you know, things that are called out. I mean, it's just not good. And, um, before you know it, it's just not fun. And you've taken the fun away and not everybody does this. I think it's a lot of times. It's just people that I'm very competitive, but it wasn't again. I wasn't angry at anybody around me. It was myself. I expected more. I should know better. I should have got that shot.

[00:13:46] I should have hit that serve in. But I think we've all been there. And, and sometimes I got to admit to you go to play and you might play with some better players and they make you feel a little bit, you know, like you're, you know, like you shouldn't be playing with them or everybody just like, what are you know, like you, you just keep, they keep, you know, once they find out you're the weak guy or you're having a bad day, guess where the balls come to you. And so it doesn't make it any better.

[00:14:15] So again, these are things that I think that have, have made the game change a little bit. And this is stuff that we do ourselves. So don't be that person, you know, go on here. You're only playing pickleball. You're on the court for one or two hours. Enjoy it. Have fun. If you have a bad day, come back and have a better game next time, you know? So, well, the next thing that I like to talk about that is the player nobody wants to play with.

[00:14:44] And it kind of just went over that, you know what I mean? But these, this is the complainer. Now this is a different part. That was the angry, the guy that has to win everything. That was, that was me at one time. This is the complainer that everything is wrong. The ball, the lighting, the net, the temperature, their partners. I mean, it's, it's terrible, you know? And if you get the worst one, the instructor, that's even worse. Oh my gosh. You know, now you're being told what to do.

[00:15:13] And I've had, I think the episode before down the road, I've talked about this. Don't be the instructor when you're into open play. Now, somebody asked a question. I'm more than happy to answer it, but I'm going to be very brief because once you start to try to help them and they do worse, and if it's one of those things where you rotate with other people, everybody's going to look at you like you really messed their game up. Again, they're going to learn if they want to call you and say, hey, let's meet outside this and let's do a lesson.

[00:15:42] Can you help me? Can we do some drills? More than happy to. But there's people on themselves. And I play with people today. Hey, I play at a pretty good level and I still get people because I'm older and I don't move as fast as they do, especially the younger guys. You know, get up here. Do this. Blah, blah, blah. It's like, are you kidding me? You know, come on. So anyway, don't be that one. And then don't be the partner blamer. You know, this one drives me nuts too.

[00:16:13] You know, just everything is your fault. But, you know, they miss just as much as you do. But they have to let you know that you missed that ball. You already feel stupid or you already feel bad that you missed the point. Especially if it's a good one, right? Do you ever play those ones where there's three of them hitting bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. And then the ball comes to you. And all of a sudden, just like, you miss it. And everybody looks at you like, wow, we had such a great rally.

[00:16:40] And this dipshit, excuse my language, this guy dropped the, you know, dropped the ball and lost the point. Come on. It's going to happen. You all been there. But don't be the blamer. Don't be the partner blamer. You know what I mean? Don't blame everything. Now, this one sometimes can be fun but can overdo it too. The celebrator. The celebrator gets a little crazy that everything is awesome. I mean, every shot they win.

[00:17:09] Okay, you won a shot. I get it. Sometimes, like, I will tell people, man, that was wow. You know? But not every shot's going to be it. You're not going to win $2 million because you got that shot. Relax. We're all going to win some points. It's an open play. It's on a Wednesday. It's on a Thursday. You're just having fun. So, anyway, a celebrator can, you know, and if you're having a bad game,

[00:17:36] and even if you're not being grouchy but inside you want to do better, the celebrator can make you a little angry. So, you know, but, again, you know, I think that that's just something that needs to be good. And the celebrator will, you know, somebody got body bagged. Somebody got hit with the ball. You know, don't, you know, that's a sorry. You hit the net. I've been told a million times, and you should be, it's in tennis. It's been that way for years.

[00:18:04] You should be able to tell everybody, hey, I'm sorry. And it messes up the shot. You hit the top of the net, and the ball does weird stuff, and, you know, you usually miss it. It goes everywhere. But then you're over there laughing, and what a good shot. That wasn't a good shot. You just hit the net, freaking whacked it out. So, anyway, the celebrator can be a little annoying, so over-celebrating. I'm not saying you shouldn't be proud of it, and you're going to hear your other players. You do a good shot. Most of us are going to be like, dang, that was good.

[00:18:35] So, another thing, the clickiness, you know, I went over this a lot. Again, this is, you know, be part of the community. Help everybody. Have fun. Then, you know, stack your paddles. Go and help others that are below you. You know, don't just, you know, have to play with, again, if you're there to play with four people in an open play, you probably shouldn't be there. Because open play means you're going to open play with all the players there.

[00:19:03] You're going to put your paddle up, and every time the paddle comes up, you could be with different people. You know, now all of a sudden, you've got to start moving your paddles. Now, if you have a game, now we've had games like this. There's a game breaker. You know, you played one game, you won. The next time you happen to get with these people and you play again. If you ask people, there's etiquette. Just ask people. Say, hey, do you mind if I rotate and play with these guys? We just, we had such a good game. I'd like to do it. You know what? 99% of the people are going to say, go ahead. It's pickleball. Have fun.

[00:19:33] But at the end of the day, don't turn this into you own these courts. You own this open play. Do, you know, have the etiquette of respecting other players that are there. So, I do get a little crazy on etiquette because I'm not etiquette. You know, the clickiness and everything. Help everybody out. Have fun. You heard me a million times say that. I guess the next thing is our faculty. Our faculty is changing the game. You know, they're exploding.

[00:20:02] I mean, here in Colorado, they're like 7-Elevens. We have one within miles of each other. They're busy, though. I mean, they're keeping busy. They're awesome. I mean, they're beautiful courts, just like I'm out here at Mood Swing. They got lessons. They got tournament. They got food. They got social events. I mean, they have everything. But the question that, you know, I hear this from probably my older crowd is, is it too, is it getting too expensive?

[00:20:32] Well, first of all, when pickleball started, there wasn't a real cost. You used a tennis court. You made your own lines. You used the gym. You'd go to a rec center and you would pay a very small fee, $5. You know, but we've heard me say this a million times, too. You have it costs money for these facilities. I mean, the facility I'm sitting in now is a couple million dollars. I mean, maybe you've never been in business.

[00:21:01] I own a couple other businesses. And I'm going to tell you right now that it costs money to be in business. I always love people. I say this a million times, too, that want to open a business. Well, I hope you don't like to get paid right away. And I hope you like to work really hard. And you don't really get paid until your exit strategy. So at the end of the day, that's what's happening. But these poor people, they pull up in these facilities. And it takes a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of staffing.

[00:21:28] And it takes years to get to where they can even bring some money back. But anyway, I mean, it is nice. But so it is hard for when I talk to people older, the new generation doesn't really know. They just think this is just part of the everyday pickleball. But the people that are older that have been playing outside and it was free. So they've got used to that. So when you come into the facility.

[00:21:56] So, I mean, if you are older and you haven't ever really experienced this, the indoor facilities, come do it. And it really, yes, let's say it's $40 a court. They have monthly memberships. They got hourly. They got all kinds of great things, leagues, everything. But let's just say it's $40 an hour, okay? If you take four people, that's $10 an hour. So, yes, you're paying about $5 more than you would go in a rec center. But it is a beautiful facility.

[00:22:25] Now, the food's not free. The drinks aren't free. I mean, water's probably free. But it's such a great place. And when it comes here, depends where you live in the United States. It's hot weather. You know, I play in Branson, Missouri a lot because my daughter's there. 90-some degrees with 90-some humidity. I mean, come on. Go try that. You'll have something to complain about because that is hot. No, I enjoy it. It's pickleball. Once I start playing, I'm fine. But I do leave there.

[00:22:54] It looks like someone took a hose and sprayed me down. But anyway, I mean, we have snow here. We get, you know, we get rains during the days. And we get our, you know, we get our hot days here. I mean, Colorado's 90s are just hot. You feel like you're baking. So anyway, but I got off track here a little bit. But, you know, people are asking, is it too expensive? Yes, no. It depends what you want to do with pickleball, right?

[00:23:20] I mean, my opinion is not for me because I play a lot of pickleball. So I don't look at it. The expense I put into it is my investment in me and having fun and playing all these different places. But, yeah, if you're just a once-in-a-while player and you come into a facility, you're probably going to feel like the fees and things are kind of expensive. So, but I don't think it's hurting us or changing us. It's only giving us more options.

[00:23:46] Because also the city, the cities around us understand how big pickleball is. And it is growing too. So pickleball around us is they're building courts and open courts. We just had one last year open in Highlands Ranch. And it was 20-some courts outside. So it's growing. Every city has their courts. I play in Highland Hills here. But, I mean, Denver, Boulder. I mean, you can go about anywhere and there's courts being built. People are putting in.

[00:24:14] I'm meeting somebody next week to literally put a court in their house. That's how much they play. Now you talk about expense. Well, now you want the court to be at your home. So that's a little funny, right? I mean, you're a real pickleballer, right? I've tried with my wife, but I can't pull that one off. She's not going to get rid of her garden and all the other great things. And I don't think we need that. I think I'm doing a good thing by putting concrete. I'm saving water. But that hasn't convinced her yet.

[00:24:43] So, anyway, yeah. I don't think they are changing. But I think they're giving us options. They're making the game even funner because there's more people. And I'm going to say this, too, that here we live in Denver, Colorado. You go play at different places in Denver, Colorado, and there's different people. Different backgrounds. You get to meet great people. So it's funny. I mean, oh, my gosh. We go to Colorado Springs. Everybody would say, oh, well, that's just a small place, right? Oh, my God. They got three.

[00:25:12] I think they might have four now. Four indoor facilities. And one of them has 24 courts in it. A double level place. Like, it's crazy. And there's two other ones. And I think there's a new one that opened that I just probably didn't, I don't know about. And they have outside, too. So, I mean, wow. Wow. So, yeah. I mean, I don't think they're changing anything. I think they're making it so that we have more options. We get more tournaments. We have more leagues. We have more play time.

[00:25:41] It's just up to us to take that advantage of go do it. You know what I mean? So, you know, at the end of the day, I'm more worried about them than I'm worried about us. You know what I mean? Because it takes a lot of money of advertising and marketing and getting people to get in here and get rid of this cliffhanger of it's too expensive. Okay. I get it. But if you play pickleball, it's not too expensive. And if you're playing with some people, you can divide that up.

[00:26:09] Now, if you're daddy big bucks and you want to pay for it, maybe it might feel a little expensive. But at the end of the day, if you divide that up, you're going to have some fun. Oh, my gosh. And I've told you before, if you look out there and get in the different court reserves and their different programs that they have, there's always some type of play that they have open plays in fun league things and fun learning things and expeditions that you can go and pay a very small fee.

[00:26:37] I was telling everybody, I think I was talking, I played this last Saturday or whatever. I played that third shot in Wheat Ridge. $15 for three hours? Come on. I mean, even the rec center is more than that, you know? And I got to play with a bunch of great players. So I don't know. I don't think they're hurting anything. I'm more worried about them because I'm a business owner. And I think we need to support them more and stop trying to worry about that it's expensive

[00:27:05] unless you're not a pickleballer, you know? If you're not into pickleball, then that's fine. And if you go outside, there's courts outside. But if you want to play some fun play and you can play at night inside with beautiful lights on and music and drinks and this here, their pizza. I just had a wedge at the mood swing. Oh, my gosh. Incredible. They hired a chef here. I mean, the bartenders here are professionals. I mean, there's TVs here. You just want to come watch sports?

[00:27:34] I'm doing a podcast right here at mood swing because they love me and I love them. But at the end of the day, that I can just come out, hang here and do some business. I don't need to go play pickleball. And the neat part is the way they separated the areas. They have an outside facility that is just gorgeous. They got a fire pit. They got games outside. So you can bring your whole family here. It's not just for pickleballers. So my wife don't play pickleball. She doesn't think it's so much fun as I do. I love pickleball.

[00:28:03] But she could come with me and hang out and read a book. And she doesn't have to be in there. You don't even hear it. I can't even hear pickleball. If I came in here, I wouldn't even know they had courts. And I think they have 12 or 13 or 14 courts here. Sorry. I guess I go to so many places, I forget where I'm at and how many courts there are. So anyway, I think at the end of the day, we need to support them and help them because they support me too. So it's really hard for me to sit here and be judgmental.

[00:28:33] And people always ask me, what's the best one? There isn't a best one. They all have put their heart into this. Most of these people that have opened these clubs have put their passion, their life, their houses, they put money, poured their heart into this. So they put what they feel that is going to be good for the community where they're at. And you go to any of them, they're a little different. Even the ones that are franchises. I go to Picklers and they're just a little different from the owners, whoever owns those ones. They're the Pickler.

[00:29:03] They look the same. They smell the same. They play the same. But the ownership in them, if you talk to the people there, you will feel what they believed in pickleball and what they believe in their community. So anyway, I don't think they're doing anything but trying to make pickleball great. And I don't think they're just trying to take our money. I think they love pickleball. They do see it as a business. And I'm sure they'd like to be profitable. But at the end of the day, I think that their passion was pickleball. I almost did this myself.

[00:29:32] I wanted to open a facility. I was here when there was only one facility in Colorado. And I just went a different path. And I love the path I went. I get to meet people all over the United States. I travel. I don't want to be stuck in one location. And I get to go to all these facilities. So to me, it's like I own them all. I'm always on them. So I'm at Chicken and Pickle. I'm here. I'm third shot. I'm at, you know, Picklers. You name it. You're going to see me somewhere. I just had a bunch of my fans and people here that I was just talking to.

[00:30:03] So it's awesome. So you know what? At the end of the day, maybe we're not ruining, you know, pickleball. But I think that it's becoming commercialized, right? I guess let's look at that. There was never pickleball on TV. There wasn't all these giant national, all these different terms, PPA, APP. There wasn't all the, you know, USA Pickleball. I mean, USA. I mean, there wasn't all.

[00:30:31] I mean, it's just all these different clomerates of pickleball. But again, those are all for us. And now it is on TV. I mean, watch TV. You almost can't see a commercial when they're not playing pickleball. It's that popular. Your show is on TV. They're going to be at a pickleball thing or these, you know, it's nuts. So the thing is just almost out of control. But also when it gets commercialized, I sometimes wish we could go backwards a little bit.

[00:31:00] I'm really now that I've been talking about this, I'm going to get some old school paddles and a bunch of them. And we're going to bring in a bunch of people and just play old school, like just hit with the old wooden paddles. And we're going to put this game back a little bit, bring it back. But at the end of the day, I do love my paddle. I do have a really expensive and nice paddle and bag. I'll be talking about Octo. Oh, my gosh. You can see a little brochure behind me. Octo is an awesome, awesome bag.

[00:31:29] Now, I've tried every type of bag. You should see my wife just thinks I'm nuts. I got bags. I got paddles. I got balls. I got grips. I've got, I mean, especially being in the business. So a lot of people, you know, send me stuff. And it's like, wow. But at the end of the day, Octo has, she, this lady that has made this bag. Again, this is another person that got in the business and just basically was like, I just want to make something. She travels a lot.

[00:31:56] And that's what, how this bag ended up being so great is it is, it can travel with it. Plus you have everything you want, your new grips, your shoes, your, you can have, it has a little cooler at the large one has a little cooler. You can have your cold, if you're playing in a tournament. I mean, these are awesome. You're going to hear a lot about this because when I believe in something too, I'm going to talk a lot about it. So anyway, I get off, I get off here.

[00:32:18] I know maybe it's the old guy and me, but I think that we just got to keep, you know, remembering why we're doing pickleball. It is going to get a little crazy. I'm going to tell you this. I feel a little left out. I'm getting older. I have a lot of older friends I play with and we're kind of like, you know, who are, who are, who are these people?

[00:32:43] You know, I tell people here, we have a team, the Denver Iconics, which are incredible people that own a pro senior team. Now they have now it's 40 to 50 and 50 to 60 and 60 on, but they play pro around the world and it's on TV. But you don't hear a lot of people I talk to don't even know that we, that there's pro teams, senior pro teams in your, your city.

[00:33:08] Not every city, but here in Denver, we have the Denver Iconics and I'm the water boy on there. My goal, my absolute goal is to actually try out for them. But you want to know what? It's tough. These, these, these, all these people that you call old are good, good players because they have passion. They have practice. They drill. I mean, they would to get to a pro of anything. Think about that. To get the pro anything, you had to work your hiney off.

[00:33:36] So anyway, I just think that we need, you know, I think commercializing and yes, it's getting big and it's growing. I mean, it's feels like it's out of control and sometimes it is, but just play where you want to play in it. You know what I mean? Don't forget there's other people that just want to play pickleball. I play with a group of people every day. Norm is the guy. I got a shout out about him.

[00:34:02] He put this little thing together, just started it, started a little, a little, a little thing together, a WhatsApp up. And, and hit is the best thing ever. I mean, you never worry when you go there, you don't, if you win or lose, I mean, yeah. I mean, I can get a little, I wish I could play better today. But you play with all levels there. And, but the people are at the end of the day or only there to play pickleball.

[00:34:26] So anyway, I just, so I got off on a tangent with the faculty thing. I just think that they are helping. Yes, it's going to cost you some money. They're not doing anything that's going to cost you any more money. I mean, there's lots of paddle companies, all the big, you know, Dick's sporting goods and all the big sporting goods are getting involved with pickleball. And they'll start coming down too. Some of the stuff that used to be really expensive is pretty cheap now.

[00:34:55] And then the new stuff's coming out. So it is, I mean, I don't even want to mention on here because my wife would kill me if I told you what I have invested in pickleball gear. It's a lot. I mean, I think I got six pairs of different shoes. I probably got 10 paddles and these aren't your basic paddles. I got extra nets. I got, oh my God, it's terrible. I hope she doesn't watch this because I will get in trouble. But anyway, we think we need all this stuff.

[00:35:24] You don't need all this stuff at all. You know what I mean? So you can make pickleball, you can't make this up in pickleball, right? I mean, at the end of the day, you know, there's going to be arguments. There's going to be baseline calls. There's going to be, you know, you're going to get somebody to throw paddles. There's going to be dating stories. There's faculty drama, you know. I mean, it goes on and on and on. But there's also beauty in this too.

[00:35:51] You know how many lives this pickleball has saved, either physically, mentally, you know, people with depression, people that have had some physical attributes that they could never thought they'd ever get out and be able to do any type of sport. Children, what it's doing for children. You know, it is, it's incredible. I mean, it is, they have a whole thing they're doing on dementia. People that are, you know, it's helping people to keep their, you know, keep them thinking and growing.

[00:36:20] And the fit part of it, oh my gosh, you want to play. This will take some pounds off you. I mean, I got to tell you, I mean, I'm always been a heavy kind of guy, big guy. I was a gym dude. And, you know, but I'm telling you, I weigh, I stay 240, 235 and I feel good. I mean, legs, I can move. My family's like, what are you doing? You know, cause I used to weigh 260, 270. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Big guy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I don't miss that. I don't miss that at all.

[00:36:49] I love the way I feel. So pickleball has so much to give back. And I have some, the heartfelt stories and I'm telling you, I have cried. I have had tears in my eyes. So pickleball has done a lot more than all this other garbage, the courts, the angry person, the, you know, the little clicky stuff. Who cares about all that? At the end of the day, this is making, this is changing lives. This is giving families. I can go play with my grandson.

[00:37:17] There's not many sports you can take as you're older and you can go play with your grandkids or I can go with my daughter or son-in-law. I ain't play with anybody. I mean, I have up to, you know, I've taught at somebody that was 97 years old. Now maybe they weren't running on the court, but they had the best day of their life. They shook my hand, I almost got tears because once you're old, the door starts being held open for you. Even when I play pickleball with the younger people, they got to get the ball before me.

[00:37:43] Makes me a little angry because I can get the ball and I know how to place the ball, but I do get, I get it. I get it. I got some white hair, baldness, you know, I look old, but don't judge a book by its cover, right? We still have feelings. So anyway, that's this episode. You know, the thing that I just, you know, give me your comments back.

[00:38:09] I'd love you to kind of help me tell me stuff about where you've been, what you think. I could be wrong. I'm just an opinion. I don't, I can't be, you might think that you have a book on every club and what there is. I might miss, you know, I might be so involved in it that I don't see everything like everybody else. You know what I mean? I don't, I don't have, I don't play at the one club every day. I'm, I'm at several clubs. I'm around the United States and play. I go to nationals. I go, I mean, I am everywhere.

[00:38:38] So I see pickleball in a different light. So if you do see it differently than me, don't be mad at me. You can, I guess you can be mad at me. It's your opinion. You're right. But if you do, if you do want to DM me, you know, at our pickleballers next door or on our, our Instagram, or you can email me at Mike at pickleballers next door.com. Send me a, I would love to read it. And I'd love to get you on air. I love bringing people, real people on air.

[00:39:08] And that was my whole thing about this. When I started, I felt like nobody who's seen that the people that were just everyday players and then letting them know what's going on. They don't even know that there's another world exists. I tell people that live by mood swing, they're like, where, what, you know? So it's, they don't even know because they just, they get kind of happy playing where they play, but there's other options out there. And if you want more and you want to grow with this sport, come check out places. Don't be scared to go in. They're here to help you.

[00:39:37] I mean, the Pickler and Thornton and chicken and pickle relish. I mean, oh my gosh, I, you could walk in there and they have open arms. They're not just trying to take your wallet out and take your credit card and steal your money. They're just trying to see where you fit in pickleball. That's all. That's all they're trying to do. So if you fit there, then they'll set that up for you. They have every level to play, even every price range, whatever you want to do. So we got to make pickleball better.

[00:40:02] Our people, even if it's getting big and more commercialized, we have to do those things. So please comment to me. Let me know, you know, what you think and where we're going, you know? So I can't open. When you got somebody as a voice and I can talk about this, I can scream this out. And because I'm very passionate about this, as you can tell. And I get crazy about it. Crazy, crazy, crazy. I mean, my mom, you know. So anyway, I love you guys.

[00:40:32] Pickleball is next door. Keep listening. You guys are making me grow. I love it. You also are supporting us. And I'm getting new listeners all the time. We're going to have a lot of great other people on. I'm doing this video thing. This is a little tough for me. This is the old dude here, right? I have a little tough with the video stuff. But we're going to have the YouTube channel going and you can watch these and listen to them. You'll see some of this stuff on TikTok and all the other great things. I'm just not that guy.

[00:41:00] I'm old school handshake and meet people and play pickleball. Anyway, good night, everybody. Have a good evening. Denver! Feel that energy? Professional Pickleball is here. Your hometown heroes, the Denver Iconics, are serving up nonstop thrilling action. We're more than a team. We're a community. Be part of the movement sweeping the Mile High City.

[00:41:26] Get the latest news, grab your gear, and join the Iconics family. The action starts at DenverIconics.com. That's DenverIconics.com.