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Pickleball Fever: Catch It with Pro Ben Paquette · The Bubble Lounge (Highland Park & University Park Texas)

• 0:00
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• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Bubble Lounge.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I'm Nellie Shudeau and I'm Martha Jackson, and today we're talking pickleball.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Pickleball has really blown up.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: It has blown up like crazy.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: We had on Ben Pickett a few years ago, a couple of years ago and he is the pickleball pro at Brookhaven.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Thank you, brookhaven Country Club.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: I noticed the other day that a big tournament was going on the USA Pickleball Championship and I reached out to him and asked him if he'd join us today.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Just to kind of give a recap of it.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm excited to have him on because I play tennis predominantly.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: But I did play pickleball a couple of times because my friends have dragged me into it and I was reluctant initially because I thought it was going to go against my tennis game or I don't know.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: It wasn't going to be as fun Initially.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: When I saw it, I was in Palm Springs and I saw older people playing it.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: I just had this image of it, which is completely wrong.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah right, because really you know, it actually helps your tennis game in a lot of ways and it's very fun and it's very social and it's not it's for every age.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it sounds like it's for all skill levels and there's just so much bringing people together.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: It says a really good job with that, Like he tells us about how there was four generations out there playing together and what a good family experience that was.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so there are courts popping up in the park cities these days new courts in the various parks, but also like Germany park, etc.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: But also they're taking their what do you call it?
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Refurbishing the tennis courts with pickleball lines on them, which is a little upsetting to me.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: I got to tell you why.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: As a tennis player, it's very confusing when you see all those lines all over the place, right?
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: So what you're saying is it can be either, or like they're not replacing them with pickleball courts, they put it like in the center of the tennis court.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Okay, I could see how that would be confusing for both sports.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: You're like.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Is that in or out?
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: They're like 17 lines.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Well, all I know is you're supposed to stay out of the kitchen.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Yes, you're supposed to stay out of the kitchen and you guys are going to learn about that when we talk to them.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: So joining us today is pickleball pro from Brookhaven country club, Ben Pickett.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Ben, welcome to the show.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me, guys.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Well, it's been a couple of years since you've joined me on the show, and last time, of course, we were talking about pickleball and how much it was blowing up then.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: And it's blowing up even more so now.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: You know, I think I may have said this last time, but just when I think it hits a ceiling, it just goes past that ceiling and finds another one and then past that one.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, it is continuing to blow up and it's just, it's amazing.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: No, it's crazy.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: And, by the way, I have some friends at Brookhaven and they just they play five days a week.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, maybe twice a day they're doctors, and they're there playing constantly.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: No appointments for the clients.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: Got to play pickleball Exactly.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's crazy.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: It's very addictive, it sounds like, but can you just walk us through a little bit, if there in case, there's someone out there that doesn't know what pickleball is?
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: So pickleball is a predominantly a four person sport.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: It's a two on two with a net.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: The court is roughly a quarter of the size of a tennis court.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: You can fit about four pickleball courts on a tennis pad.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: It's played with a ball that's like a wiffle ball.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: There's service boxes and there's a non-volley zone where you can't take the ball out of the air, which is referred to as the kitchen.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: It's very close to the net and so it's a strategic game, kind of like tennis and ping pong in a mix of some other paddle sports.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: Okay, this makes sense, because if you're that close to the net cause I play tennis if you're that close to the net and you're slamming that wiffle ball, you could really do some damage, cause they're closer yeah, you're you're, roughly you know, 14 feet away from your opponent and then when you reach forward and and volley out of the air, you could be 12 feet away from each other and some of those volleys are pretty exciting and intense and they happen fast.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: So protective eyewear has become a discussion in the in the recent times.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I could see that.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Well, I first heard about pickleball in Palm Springs like 10 years ago and I remember being like I was playing tennis in there, pickleball courts this way, and I thought what the heck is pickleball?
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: And that is so not the case anymore.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: You know they're taking old malls and turning them into indoor pickleball ball courts.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: For sure.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: I think that's genius, it's crazy.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: They're they're utilizing dead spaces and they're they're, they're activating them for something that people have a demand for.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: So it's a it's a good marriage.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Well, one of the big draws is it appeals to all skill levels.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: right, yeah, it does, it's like you, can be a social player, a competitive amateur player or a professional player and at the end of the day you know I always like to tell the story.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: I I did a lesson with a family where there were four generations on the court a granddaughter, a mother, a grandmother and a great grandmother and all four of the ladies played and we played games Like we did a lesson and they played games and it was competitive, Like the great grandmother and the granddaughter beat the mother and the grandmother and it was a good match.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: It was like eight years old to 83 years old and that was pretty special and I was like watching this lesson.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: I was like this is amazing.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: Like where else in the world can you have four different people from four generations have this much fun and have some like competition at the same time?
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Very rare.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: Well, also, it's a very social sport.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: I mean even more so than tennis.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: You know, it really is very social, and I think that that's what's great about it, because instead of people just going out to dinner and eating, they are now saying let's go as a family and play pickleball, and I think that's great.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: You know, it's kind of like back to the 1950s, where people really spent time with each other doing something.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: I see the exact same thing.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: It reminds me of block parties Back when you knew your neighbors and it was like a potluck and you played four square like street volleyball and you kind of hung out and ate and drank and played and played games and sports and it kind of reminds me of that.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, very cool.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Well, one of the main reasons that we invited you to come today is because you're just coming off a full week of the bio freeze USA pickleball championship.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: You have been there all day, every day.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: I've been following along on ESPN and on social media.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: That was quite the event.
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was, it was, um.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: It was our first iteration of the national championships here in Dallas, texas.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: Um, they came over from California to Indian Wells.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: They'd been there for quite some time.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: Um, that contract was up and they didn't get renewed.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: And so we're right place, right time and we're able to uh have the venue here at Burke Haven uh accommodate the the tournament.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: We did a roughly $6 million renovation to the club they didn't invite it, spent money on to get the courts ready, and then the organizations that run the tournament the PPA and the USA pickleball organizations came together and um put on a tournament with us and we had, uh, uh, seven days of amateurs from pro pickleball and then, even before that, we had the major league pickleball for three days, which was pretty exciting too.
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: It's a different format and it's a pro event, but between those 10 days it was a, it was an amazing feat and, yeah, it was long and we're tired, but it was great.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: And it's very noisy you know it's very noisy sport.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: I noticed that it can be.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they're starting to talk about the technology of the balls and the paddle is in certain um.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: Cities and areas are trying to deal with that sound issue, but at the end of the day it's like it's so infectious.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: It's like a ping pong machine.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know for sure.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: And we'll be right back after this short break.
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• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Well, one of our parks.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: They've put in a lot of pickleball courts and I hear a little bit of both.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: People are super excited than I think the people that live close by are maybe not so much.
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you're never going to please everybody, but the positives that the sport does and community and for relationships and people in general, I think far outweighs a little bit of the noise nuisance.
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: Hopefully, I like to think like that at least Sure.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm a member of Royal Oaks Country Club and like I said, I have a lot of friends at Brookhaven and they totally redid the club for pickleball courts and they have tournaments and people are just, and I was surprised at this.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: I have to say this my initial reaction as a tennis player was, oh, I don't, it might ruin my tennis game, right, and that is not the case at all.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: It is not All my really good tennis player friends.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: All of us are trying pickleball.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: It actually really helps you with with volleys, etc.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: And you know you're.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: You're moving around a lot more than people think for sure.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: The fast twitch muscles, the hand-eye coordination, the reaction time on the volley game is definitely improving those doubles players in tennis that like to play at the net and they're finding some success.
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: From playing pickleball, you know.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: John is there always yeah, John is there.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: Always told me it helped his volley game.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so there's that.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Well, there's that, but it's true because I watched.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: I watched it the other day, I was watching on TV and you know, it's just, it's such a fast-moving sport and you learn placement as well.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: I mean, you really learn the placement like you would in tennis, so they actually go hand-in-hand, I guess, is my comment.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think they're very complimentary.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: You know I have a lot of people at the club where at Brookhaven where I'm at, where they.
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: When I first got there, they were yeah, maybe when I retire I'll come check out the pickleball.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: When you know, I bury my tennis racket in the grave and you know, a year later they're like I'm done with tennis.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm like no, don't be done with tennis.
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: You don't have to be done with tennis, just play both because they're both fun.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, so now they're playing both and they're just trying to manage their time because they really want to play both and they just don't have time of the day.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: So it's a good problem to have for sure.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Well, I feel like I didn't hear a lot about the event prior to it.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: I saw it on your, in your Facebook or Instagram, or something and I didn't really Hone in and I didn't realize how big of a bit that it was, but it was insane.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: I think you told me there was 4,000 players.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, 20,000 spectators, right.
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so like it was just maybe under 4,000, like 3,800 or 3,900 players right over the seven-day span and you know Roughly three to four or five thousand people a day coming through.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: So over the course of seven days You're looking at 20 to 30,000 participants, hundreds of matches being played.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: We had over 80 courts going from 8 am Sometimes till midnight daily where the amateurs and pros are playing, and so the amount of matches and and and referees and water bottles.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: It was just.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: The numbers are just.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: Staggering and did you guys make it a party?
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: You know, kind of like that was it.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: Was it kind of, was their food serve?
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, the people drinking boulevard, the pickleball bullet ball, or we shut down a city street and called it pickleball boulevard.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: We actually painted courts on the street for activation of just social play.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: We had Cosmigos out there, tequila, we had a Miller light, we had Body armor and then we had quite a bit of food the main lobster food truck that comes around Dallas.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: They showed up.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: A couple of other food trucks were there.
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: Um Burkhaven did an amazing job and invited it.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: An amazing job of the VIP booth.
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: There was a three-story building erected that took four weeks to put together.
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: That's being taken down right now.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: That's rivals any building I've seen in a professional golf tournament.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: This VIP structure structure that they put up had ten cabanas for VIPs and it had seating for like roughly Maybe a thousand people and they fed them like I'm talking prime rib some days, as well as gourmet tacos and breakfast.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: It was amazing.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: Okay, so question what are the varying levels?
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's not the US open.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: So I'm imagining the pricing is a little bit more accessible to people.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: What was the pricing to?
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: to participate, to attend so the, the, the grounds pass.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: It was like 25 or $30 to walk around the grounds, which I thought was pretty affordable.
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: Some TVs activated to watch the pro matches and there was quite a bit of pickleball to watch on the pro side.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: For those, for those fees, the VIP, they were anywhere from maybe a hundred dollars for the day up to like maybe 700 or so for the week.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: You could buy the week.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: And then there were some.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: There were some boxes there.
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: They were around that 5k mark for that VIP box.
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: That would, you know, house 12 people.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: So it was a straight-up sport.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean.
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: They weren't, they weren't holding back and the, the PPA and USA pickleball put on events and there's a lot to learn from and there's a lot to do better, but I think for the first year here I think it went pretty good.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: It looked really top-notch.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think it would rival Byron Nelson or something like that.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: It sounds like you had concerts out there, just non-stop entertainment, along with all the pickleball.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we had the emerald city came and performed one night.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: We had a lafreet came and performed one night.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: Philip Phillips from American Idol I think he won American Idol maybe yes, he came and performed one night.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: So they had performances.
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: They activated that pickleball boulevard and, yeah, it was a party.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: It was like straight up a Pickleball meets the state fair meets, you know, entertainment, you know, at night and they had a one of those Drone shows, yes, in the sky.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: That was so cool.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: I mean, it was just amazing the things that they did beautiful.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: They went all out.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: They really did.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: I want to hear a little bit more about the celebrity tournament, because that's what I was watching on ESPN and I saw a lot of familiar faces.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so last Tuesday night we had ESPN come out and put on the one and a half hour to our program with PPA.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: We had John Isner, we had Scotty Schaeffler, we had Marty Turco, we had Dirk Novitsky yeah, I should have named him first.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Every sport.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: You got the basic, all the sports, and then we had a handful of the pickleball pros.
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: We had Ben Jones and Italy waters and then Cali Smith and then Alice Elise Jones and then, maybe, I think, j DeVellee, but we had the the pros playing each other and then some of the pros from pickleball playing the other athletes and it was just a really high energy Exhibition basically.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: And you know, dirk's doing his thing with his reach, and then is there's having a good time and then, like, you have the whole argument of you know which is the better pickleball players.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: So Scotty's chef there was there by the way, scotty's gotten very good at pickleball.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: I have to say I would not want to play against newitski.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: I just I think, when I play tennis and I see somebody standing across the court and I'm not a very tall person and I see them and I'm like, oh my gosh, they have a wingspan.
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: I think the word looming comes to mind, because he is definitely looming and covering quite a bit.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: I've been on the court when a guy like that's next to John Isner and there's just nowhere to go.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: Maybe their feet, actually the best place to go inside their shoulders because, no, you're not gonna pass them.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: But yeah, the event was really really amazing.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: You know it was.
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: It was a packed crowd, it was high energy.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: They have really good footage on the SPN and it was just a good combination of pickleball and said celebrities and it was exciting.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: So let me walk us through what it's like if somebody comes to you and says I would like to learn to play pickleball.
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: Okay, so yeah, it happens 40 times a week almost.
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: People say that.
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: What I usually say is Come on out to the club, let's just play some pickleball, you know, get a lesson started.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: I usually like to ask them what their background is like have they played sports?
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: Have they not played sports?
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: Have they been in dance?
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: Have they been in any kind of like athletic activity?
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: Because I try to find a parallel for them so that their muscle memory Starts to show up, but at the end of the day it's like it's just as simple as, sometimes, a 30 minute or one hour lesson on the rules of the game, the equipment, and Within 30 minutes they're just hitting balls and having fun.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: And that's the most important thing is that getting out there hitting some balls, having fun, and then you just get better with time.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: Do you do Lessons outside of?
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: But can can non-members go to Brookhaven?
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so currently members have Priority as far as, like, they don't have any kind of non-member fee.
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: But non-members can come to the club and they can do a lesson On the inside courts or the outside courts.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: They just call the pro shop.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: They say I'd like to book a lesson.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: I get the information from the pro shop.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: I have myself or one of my instructors reach out and, yeah, they just get out there and we get them started.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Well, I know we talked about this last time, but I want to do it again.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Tell us why it's called pickleball, because that is a really goofy name.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: Okay, so there's.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: There's two main schools.
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: I thought here one is.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: There was a dog named pickle and they named the sport after the dog.
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: May or may not be true.
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: I personally don't believe that's true.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: The more interesting story is is the family that created the sport in 1965 off the coast of Washington State it was Bainbridge Island and the family was very heavy into crew and rowing and in the boathouse the boat that was with All the leftover gear and kind of like tattered.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: It was called the pickle boat and it was like the boat that would come in last place and it was kind of beat up and when they created the game they used a bunch of leftover stuff like the leftover ping-pong paddles, the leftover badminton, that and some wiffle balls that were in the garage and I think the the, the father that created, was like we're just gonna call this pickleball because it's the sport of leftover gear.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: I Think it's a much cooler.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: I think that's the leave of.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: I think that's good.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: I always ask my friends.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: I asked them if they tickle the pickle.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: So who were the big winners out there?
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: you know, we had the usual suspects.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: We had an Ali and Ali waters and Ben Johns.
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: They just dominate the sport at their level.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: We had a couple of surprises where, you know, we had some new guys in the singles.
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: We had a, I believe in Amy's names, a yamai or jamei from Hawaii and then Jw Johnson from the Florida area.
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: They were in the men's singles and I think Jw went at winning that but an Ali waters did her job with Catherine Perinso for the ladies final.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: They won.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: And then Ben and an Ali did their job for mixed and then Colin and Ben did their job for men's and so there's these top three or four players that you tend to see at the at the top level, kind of like, just like with tennis with, you know, your usual suspects.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: But the sports getting innovative, it's growing, there's younger people.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: We're slowly getting to the point where when I asked someone what your background is, they'll say their background is pickleball.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: Oh, as opposed to something else, and so that's what's gonna make things really interesting, I feel like.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: And when the background is pickleball, you'll see these 14 year olds, these 16 year olds, these 20 year olds is coming out of the woodwork.
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: That are just really good because, you know, kids learn fast and kids get good fast and that brain just soaks up so much.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: And so I've run across these 14 year olds that are like wow, I mean we were learning that in our late 20s and 30s and 40s, and pickleball usually, but these kids are just soaking it up Mm-hmm.
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: So it's fascinating.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Well, I remember you had a really interesting story of how you got involved with it.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for me personally it was.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: It was a health choice, and on an accidental health choice, to be honest.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: My father and I had a practice of financial practice with insurance and finance in Fort Worth, Texas and Around.
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: I was the age 36 or roughly seven or eight years ago.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: I was a close to 297 pounds.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: I was out of shape.
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: My father was out of shape.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: We found out that he needed to have triple bypass.
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: So the doctor said let's get him in the hospital, get it done.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: And I just told my father I was like, look, after this procedure, we're gonna get healthy.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: So the day after his procedure we got him home.
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: We were doing everything we needed to do to get him recovered.
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: But I started going to the gym that day and I walked in the gym to get healthy and I heard that noise that we talked about earlier, that knock, knock, knock.
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: And I was like what is this noise?
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: It's not basketball.
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: So I opened the door to the gym and, sure enough, there's these three older gentlemen playing this sport that I thought was miniature tennis, with wooden paddles and a soft indoor pickleball.
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: And they said we need a fourth.
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: And they beat me bad that day.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: I'm like it was embarrassing how bad I lost and I was like this cannot be happening.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: So I went home, I got on YouTube, of course.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: I looked it up, I was like okay, I'm going back tomorrow.
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: And I kept going back and I started beating them and they were like, okay, well, and then they started looking at how I played.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: And then next thing I know is like I'm not going to go upstairs to the treadmill, I'm just going to do this for an hour and a half every day.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: I just lost like 30 pounds just doing that.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: And then one thing led to another and it turned out I had a knack for it and I was playing around the country and it just there was this seedy underbelly of good pickleball players.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: If you knew the right passwords, you could find the right games, and there were no public courts at the time.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: So we were like one guy's like he had a gym at a church where they would let him use it on Sunday nights, and one guy had a church with a carpet which just short enough and the floor was hard enough where we would actually move the pews and play in that actual that is funny we played in the church because we had to find a place to play.
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: So there's all these like origin stories.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: But I found it on accident.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: It got me healthy and I officially quit my other career and I'm full-time in the pickleball and I run the program at Brookhaven and got to 2,000 lessons a year, two years in a row, and had to hire some coaches, so it's just blowing up.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: It really is Mm-hmm.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Ben, where can we play in the park cities without going to a country club?
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, currently Williams Park has six permanent dedicated courts.
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: I believe they have a University of Park Cities online presence where you can sign up for those courts.
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: They're programmed well and a lot of people use them.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: It's fun, a lot of energy over there.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: I think maybe Germany Park might have some line courts.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: There's Prather Park and then Abbott Park has two line courts and Abbott Park's got the two line courts and they've got some nets in a box that you can pull out and use.
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: So it's getting there in the park cities and there's a couple of places to play.
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: Really.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Question obviously at Brookhaven you provide paddles.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: Otherwise, if you're playing in a park, you need to have a paddle.
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so, like when I have a lesson at the club, I provide all the equipment they don't have and usually within a week they get their own, but I always provide it.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: But yes, if you're gonna go to any of these local you know public parks, you're gonna wanna bring your own equipment.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: So usually that's the paddles for everybody and a couple of balls.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: Make sure you wear the proper shoes.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: It's important to note that court shoes are really important, not like running shoes.
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: Like you know, ons and Hokers and Brooks are really comfortable, but they're made for North-South movement, so make sure that you get something that's good for that East-West Cause.
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you're gonna realize that you're gonna move a lot more than you thought you would.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: I didn't lose a hundred pounds standing still, so there's a lot of mobility in this sport.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: Well, with the paddles, is there anything in particular that we should look out for, because I feel like every clothing line is starting to produce their own paddles.
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: You know I always have this question asked to me about what gear should I buy?
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: And it's like you know it's a combination of aesthetics, price point and confidence.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: You know you can spend $60 on a paddle or $360 on a paddle.
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: It's not a bad idea to buy the $60 paddles first, cause what'll end up happening is, if you love the sport, you'll buy some better ones later and you'll always have those when your friends come to visit and you wanna play with your friends.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: It's always good to have a few backups.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: So don't be afraid to just kind of like tiptoe into the market of the paddle, because you're not gonna notice a huge difference in the beginning anyway.
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: So get that $60 paddle or a couple of those online if you will, but at the end of the day they're not gonna go to waste and you're gonna end up maybe just giving one to a friend or sharing with them other people, and then you can upgrade later.
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: That's my advice usually.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: I think that's great advice.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: I have a sister who plays in New York City and she was trying to play tennis.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: But pickleball is so much more accessible and she plays in Central Park and it's so much fun.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: She walks through the park, she plays with friends, they go have dinner afterwards.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: It just really.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: I like the social aspect of it, oh yeah.
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: I saw how they activated those courts there.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: It's pretty cool.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: Was that an ice rink that they activated?
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, that's pretty cool.
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: It's seeing like 50 or 75 or 100 people playing pickleball, where it's really hard to do that with tennis for sure, for sure.
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: Super social.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: Okay, so I'm sold on pickleball and I have tried it.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Question if people wanna come to you to take a lesson from you or from your team.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: I always think it's great whenever you're starting a news board to have lessons.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: I just do, because you really learn a lot, for sure, yeah, so how do people find you?
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: What's the?
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: cost.
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: The best thing for them to do is just get online and call the Berkhaven Country Club at the Pro Shop and they'll just take down your request.
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: I'll reach out.
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: I'm pretty good about reaching out within 24 to 48 hours.
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: That's always something the customer service is big on my part, so whether it's me or one of my other instructors, we'll reach back out to you.
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: It depends on if you wanna private, if you wanna bring your spouse, if you wanna bring your family, or if you wanna bring a group of ladies or guys.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: We can do anywhere from one to eight people Depends on how you wanna slice it.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: So the prices are varying.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: You can be an hour, hour and a half, so there's a lot of different numbers here.
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: But we're just here to give you what you want and make sure you have a good time.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: So it's a great opportunity to get a group of people together and dip your toe into it.
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: But yeah, just give us a call and we'll get it figured out.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Well, Ben, thank you so much for joining us today.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: You've shared so many great tips, good stories.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: We're so excited about the sport and just your involvement with it.
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: And you're an inspiration for having lost all that weight and doing it with pickleball.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: I see endorsements in your future.
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: Well, it's definitely life changing.
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: I'm a big proponent of finding a new lease on life in your 40s and I think pickleball is gonna do that and has done that for quite a few people.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Very true, very true.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: Well, that's been another episode of the Bubble Lounge.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: I'm Martha Jackson.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: And I'm Nellie Shudeau, and we'll catch you next time.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: I'll see you next time.