Blazing Paddles - A Pickleball Podcast
Join us, John and Karen, for a married couple's take on Pickleball. Avoid "Pickleball Divorce," saddle up and have a cocktail, have a laugh, and enjoy guests and influencers in this unbelievable explosion of a sport the likes of which we've never seen.
Let's talk about the impact pickleball is having on our culture. From Boomers to Zoomers, every generation is discovering a new passion. A game that wasn't on the map three years ago now has millionaires playing, billionaires jousting, and people scrambling for some piece of the pickleball pie.
Put your ears on and have a listen, you'll be glad you did.
Blazing Paddles - A Pickleball Podcast
Fashion Faux Pas, Friendship, and the Pickleball Phenomenon with Larysa Santiago
What's the secret ingredient to a thriving sports partnership? If you ask us after this week's chat with Larysa, it's a combination of matching outfits, shared goals, and a dash of serendipity. We reflect on the lighter side of competition, including a "blind date" with a new partner that led to unexpected success. Our conversation spins from personal victories on the court to the psychological battles players face, and we marvel at how pickleball creates a vibrant community of friends, families, and (in this case) former rugby players turned pickleball enthusiasts.
Strap in for a volley of laughter, strategy, and heart as we share stories from our growing pickleball community. This episode serves up memorable wins, the thrills of nail-biting defense and offense plays, and the sheer joy that echoes beyond the bounds of the court. Whether you're swinging a paddle for the first time or you're the king or queen of your local pickleball court, Larysa's infectious passion for the game is a reminder of the beauty and camaraderie found in this rapidly expanding sport. Join us for an episode that's as much about friendship and finding joy in life as it is about the game of pickleball itself.
Larysa Santiago is a local (Southlake, TX) pickleball influencer, #BlazingPaddles founding member, Southlake Paddle Club Charter Member, Erne Coordinator, former gymnast and rugby player. Larysa is one of many who can honestly say “Pickleball saved my life.” Saddle up and have a listen, you’ll be glad you did!
Hit me up at john@dink.pro or shout out on social:
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She said I'm wearing a maroon skirt and I said, okay, fine, so I had this like it's actually mulberry, is what I would call it Mulberry skirt, with, like a white top. And then I show up to the course. She is literally wearing the exact same outfit. It was the most bizarre. The Lord works in mysterious ways. That's all I'm going to say.
Speaker 1:He knows how important it is for me to feel like I'm on the same page with my partner and just I don't know. You feel you feel together. You feel I mean it's not that you're a team Like we're a team, like we're against them, not the other way around, like I don't want to be against my partner, I want to be against the other team. So it kind of makes it feel like that.
Speaker 2:I guess, honey, she doesn't want to be against your partner.
Speaker 2:I mean the way they look oh season one, episode six, the Lazing Paddles marches forward and today we're going to have a little pickleball story time with our friend Larissa Santiago. And Larissa is a dear friend of ours, she's a co-member, she's actually a charter member of the Southlake Paddle Club. She has been involved since we've been involved, has quite a good background to share too about what pickleball has meant to her life, kind of turned her mindset around when she needed it most and she's probably one of the few people you'll meet Pickleball players. It used to be a rugby player as well. She's got a real unique background. Larissa Santiago coming up on season one, episode six, Blazing Paddles, They'll saddle up. Be glad you did, Larissa. Have you played the last few days?
Speaker 1:I played with my kids last night. Oh yeah, how was that? It was fun. They're finally, I wouldn't say totally buying in, but they my son for sure has the bug, so he is getting into it, but he's been playing at Tech quite a bit. His girlfriend was a tennis player, so she loves it.
Speaker 3:So they've been playing quite a bit.
Speaker 1:So he did challenge me to a singles match, which I had to then whoop his butt 10 to 6, or no, 11 to 6, that is. And then he whined and complained that it was because he had already played a few singles matches and he was so tired. And I said oh well, I'll play again with you Tomorrow.
Speaker 2:Hey, we need to make that happen. Jack's up in Lubbock with his paddles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's so they have Wait. So your son's in Lubbock?
Speaker 1:He is. He is he's at Tech last semester.
Speaker 3:So we have both of our kids are at the same Schools, yeah, schools, yeah, yeah yeah, that's pretty wild.
Speaker 1:We're doing the whole Wild West OU boomer situation.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what do you? So? Do you have like multiple school outfits, like to support each school? Of course In? Yeah, of course, of course. Well, because Larissa, we will get into this in the podcast, but I mean, you are quite the fashionista.
Speaker 2:We are Well, I don't know about that.
Speaker 3:She's been transforming a lot of players. I have this on the list of things to talk about.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's great Babe. Do you want to kick us off? Is this a shot at reg?
Speaker 3:No, it's not a shot. Like it's not just him, it's. I saw some even went back and saw on like whoever your partner's with comes to the table now with.
Speaker 2:Well, you're going to look good. You got to you know if you're going to play, good you got to look good, I feel good.
Speaker 3:Well, I want to hear what she has to say. What was the driver behind it?
Speaker 1:So there was a time in the year of Job that I played rugby and our entire rugby backline was a bunch of blonde silly girls, and the women in rugby weren't always attractive women, and so we had this T-shirt that said you don't have to be ugly to play rugby, which probably wasn't very nice, but it was so much fun to play against people who didn't feel the need to put on their lipstick and wear nice little socks and whatever and whoop their butts because they don't expect it, and so I think it just kind of carried over from there. I like last summer, I think, when I was playing with Carolyn, she insisted that we have matching skirts and I thought, okay, great, I want to sit next to Carolyn and we're matching anything because she's absolutely tiny. And then I thought, ah, who cares? And we went for it, and then it just kind of took off from there, and then my current partner, of course he brought it up and wanted to match one day and the next thing I know, we matched it. Now we match every day.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. I even saw on your Facebook, I think it was. Didn't you play in a tournament with a lady that you didn't know? Yes, and you guys oh my gosh that was so crazy.
Speaker 1:So I had a blind date to Texas Open last year and Lulu is her name and she is absolutely fabulous. I can't wait to play with her again. We were like a match made in heaven on a blind date. But she said that morning that she said, well, what are you wearing? And I said, well, I can wear anything, just you tell me what you're wearing and we'll go from there. She said I'm wearing a maroon skirt and I said, okay, fine, so I had this like it's actually mulberry is what I would call it Mulberry skirt with, like a white top. And then I show up to the course. She is literally wearing the exact same outfit. It was the most bizarre. The Lord works in mysterious ways. That's all I'm going to say.
Speaker 1:He knows how important it is for me to feel like I'm on the same page with my partner and just I don't know. You feel, you feel together, you feel I mean it's not that I know You're a team.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like we're a team, like we're against them, not the other way around.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:I don't want to be against my partner, I want to be against the other team. So it kind of makes it feel like that, I guess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, honey, and they. She doesn't want to be against your partner.
Speaker 3:I mean the way they look honey.
Speaker 2:Oh, not the way they play.
Speaker 3:I think her and Reggie. Well, do you want to do any introduction before we get into this, john?
Speaker 2:Well, and, like I told, the formal introduction we do separate. But this is just kind of a neat deal for us because while we're, you know, we switched this podcast. That used to be real kind of businessy and what was HR?
Speaker 2:And then when Karen, you know, started joining me for the podcast, of course the end of every conversation would turn to pickleball. And so after a while we realized those were the most fun parts of the podcast. We talked pickleball and everybody had like a little pickleball story that from you wouldn't even guess it. And then we interviewed these ladies from Piston Pickles. They had their own podcast and we decided you know what we just need to, why are we even messing around anymore? And we decided and Karen, we're talking about the format we're trying to get some people who are maybe you have no idea who they are, but they're slight little influencers. So we've had, like these guys from the New Jersey Clinic that we've talked to.
Speaker 2:It was a pickleball clinic and then we've had the guy who the inventor of crown pickleballs. And you know, we're trying to get a few people who are like Fran last week. Fran's a big influencer in the area. But we also want to talk about people who are big in our own little community here, because that's who we play with and you've been like a fixture ever since we joined the club. I remember you.
Speaker 3:Early on, early on yeah.
Speaker 2:And just remember going. That's, you know, she's got the kind of attitude. I like her attitude. I think whenever we play together, we play good together because you've got a good attitude.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm not saying others, don't. He threw that in my face like a hundred million times. No, can't you be like Larissa?
Speaker 2:It's a winner, you know just, you've played team sports your whole life, so you know I mean sitting there pointing at people and saying this is what you did. Wrong rarely gets the results of what you want. It's more of hey, come on, let's go, let's get it together and and.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I find the junkyard dog and everyone. I just need the one willing to fight a little bit.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I have played.
Speaker 1:So I was an individual sport athlete, I was a gymnast and I've learned to be really hard on myself. And in that sport, you, there is no perfect. So you, you're always going to fail. You're, there is no way to win in that sport. There is a. I've never had a 10.0. I never got one as a gymnast. I don't figure I ever will as a human.
Speaker 1:But so I know that we're not. We're always going to be a little short, like I might. I might come up a little short, but I might still win. So that's my attitude when I'm playing pickleball, that you know I'm not going to be the best, I might not have the best shots. I didn't play tennis, I don't have the background, you know blah, blah. But by God, I'm going to go out there and fight like a dog and I'm going to, I'm going to try to win and I'm going to bring everything I have, whether you know it's good, bad or ugly, and if I have to win only, I'll do that too, cause I just want to win and I feel like see, that's your partner is that person?
Speaker 1:that you can bring along with you and really, you know, change the game. I've had great partners as well that are able to help me stay in that mindset, Cause I can also get a little down on myself or down on my partner, down on the game itself, whatever it happens to be. So I do have good partners that will lift me up and be like okay, next point, let's, let's do this. You know a bad out call, that's always one of my favorites. It gets me in such a mood.
Speaker 3:So what John was saying, you know, was that we have, you're an, you're an influencer in our, in our. We have a South Lake battle club and a lot of you know we we've got an audience beyond the South Lake battle club. So just to introduce them, we've been. Were you a charter member? I was, I was. So, yeah, so, charter member, you got in on the game real early, always like, took a leadership position when you could and or or even, I guess, identified leadership opportunities. That just that's just how you are. And so in our club of over 1500 members, I mean I would say you're a widely known person and but you're just I relate to you got Riz.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you got Riz. You're Riz. Don't, don't ask John, he's such a dad. So so we want people to get to know who Larissa is, and so let's start with like how it, because I mean, we wouldn't have known each other without pickleball, right? That is true. So how on earth everyone's got a pickleball story. How what's? Let's hear yours.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's go back to COVID, and actually the year before COVID in 2019, I had some pretty decent sized personal failures and some stuff going on with my kids and sports and you know things that really brought our year down. And then, heading into 2020, you know, covid didn't just ice that cake. I found myself working 80 hour weeks. You know, my both of my kids were in school at the time and I really didn't have anything else to do, and so my mother, who's also a part of Southlake Petal Club, decided that she was tired of watching me wallow around. I had always been an athlete, I had always worked out, and at that point in my life I wasn't working out at all. I was just hiding behind my desk and my work and moped open around. And so she's she was making me go out in the afternoons and play pickleball, and she kept getting the family together and my kids included and my sister and her kids, and at that time, every public facility was closed, but we had some neighborhood courts that the.
Speaker 1:HOA.
Speaker 1:They actually tried to come and lock the courts at one point, but the HOA said no this is private property and as long as everyone stays in their pods, then you know we can, we can, we can play. And so she herself had had like a total knee reconstruction through a tennis, years of tennis, and she found this pickleball game and kind of fell in love with it and then started watching YouTube's and then started teaching us kids how to play and that's really what got me started and I played off and on that year, more off than on, and then my daughter was graduating in 2020, no, no, 2021. And the literally the weekend of her, her high school graduation. I looked around at all my friends and all the kids and all and I thought, man, this is it. I'm not going to have a life unless I go out and make a life.
Speaker 1:And I started playing more and more pickleball. And then I think, karen, I met you at the mayor, like when we played with the mayor's event. That July.
Speaker 1:And that's when I really I think you and I went out and played somebody that we weren't supposed to beat. We were partners and we beat them, we beat them, and so we both got so excited and that was just kind of the birth of oh my gosh, I can do this. I my to be funny. My mom was not letting me play in public because I wasn't good enough and I didn't know the rules and all this stuff.
Speaker 1:So that was my first time I was actually allowed out of my little neighborhood courts to go play in public and my mom and dad were both there. We just had a blast, you know. Again, I think it's one of those super inclusive sports. I mean, I have never been in a sport where you didn't have to be an athlete to dominate.
Speaker 1:And so I'm here, playing with all these engineers and crazy people that weren't necessarily your high school football stars and whatever else I'd been surrounded with my whole life. So it was just kind of fun and it was a different pace super competitive levels, of course, but for me at that time it was super dummy down because I was not super competitive, I'd never played a racket sport, but it just everyone there that day at that Mayer's event was super fun and just inviting and wanting to play and even though they were kicking my booty, they were having fun with me and encouraging me. That's where I met Sean Coker, who I played with as well for a long time and super encouraging, willing to teach me the game. So it's just been great.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, you've turned around and paid that forward, so there were a lot of people who helped you. But then you've turned around and set up little clinics and you're just. You're a natural coach, and maybe that's why she's so good with you. John, I'll pay attention more and try to, but when I mean you've set up little clinics where you get teams together, you take a. You're not offensive either. You give direction, and I've never felt offended. To be told what to do by another adult that I'm friends with is kind of like, but not you Well.
Speaker 1:so, in fairness, I did coach for many, many years in gymnastics and rugby. I coached a U15 national team. I mean, I have had coaching in my background, so but I I feel like, you know, pickleball was one of those sports that everyone was joining kind of at the same time and then you had your laggers. So then, two years on down the line, I want to play with my friends, but they don't know how to play. And now it's frustrating because I'm you know, maybe two years ahead of them and how to play and and, but I'm not getting any better because my friends aren't any good yet.
Speaker 1:So it was one of those things like it kind of came out of like a necessity to build your community. And again I'll go back. My mom was legendary at that. She's the one that started these beginner lessons at at our, at our HOA at Timuron, and her and my dad would do these clinics twice a year for about you know, four or five weeks, just teaching beginners that the basic rules and just you know how to, how to, how to score, and so I took what they were teaching me.
Speaker 1:I had Sean and Paul and a plethora of other people that really were so kind and generous with their time and they're teaching me, and so I felt like I wanted to turn around and give that back to my friends and my family. And you know I have a pretty good knowledge of biomechanics and so I always what's biomechanics? Just a caveat, that don't do as I do, but do it as I say, because I can see things that I can't myself do, like you know, keeping your paddle out front. Of course we all know to do that, but I don't do it very well myself all the time, but I can see when you're not doing it, you know, like across the yeah.
Speaker 1:So you know. So if I can help somebody else get better, I feel like that makes me better, and so really it's a labor of wanting to get better myself and to make the community around me better. And no better way to show that off is that when we go to these tournaments, and then you know, spc just dominates the podium everywhere we go and I think you know, wow, these are people I play with every single day or night or, you know, at a king and queen multiple times a week and they're just dominating and it's really impressive. I think it's super fun, and so I try to listen when I play. I try to watch other people and see what they're doing. I had the really fun I got to watch Caitlin Meadson and Alec, her husband, drill one night.
Speaker 1:We were there just kicking around, and they were there just kicking around no, no event, just just drilling.
Speaker 1:We were. I think it was like four o'clock in the afternoon and I sat and watched what she did and watched, you know, the drills they were doing, and I'm a visual learner and I take that stuff and I want to work on it too. One of the biggest takeaways for me was every time she hit a ball. She moved her feet two, three times. Hit the ball, move her feet. Hit the ball, move her feet. And I thought, man, my friend Paul's been telling me that for two years now, stop getting my feet stuck in the mud about watching her drill it and actually do it and not look silly or feel silly doing it. It made me want to do it and so I just got that much better that day because I watched somebody else do something that I too need to do, and so I feel like when we're drilling together and playing together and I love I mean I love playing with you and John you all knew that and you know these little mixed doubles, mixups it's my favorite thing to do.
Speaker 2:Those are my favorite, I feel like we always learn something.
Speaker 2:Well. So you know it's funny you mentioned that too, because I do I probably learn more from watching the people we play with than against than I do watching the pros. I mean the pros, it's kind of cool. You can watch them and, and they all have their videos and they'll show you what you are and aren't doing. But sometimes I feel like, okay, you're, you're like a six-oh. So even the thing that you take for granted, that you're just you want to hold your paddle here and flick it like that, all right, take two steps back, I don't you know. And so when we're watching each other and it's just it's like, oh, it's Omar, omar can show me how to do that, or you know people who are right there that can show you. I learn a lot like that too, and it's for the first what we we March 2020. So we're in our third year of this game and I don't think we really gave two you know two bits of appreciation to the pro game until about six months ago.
Speaker 2:We didn't even really we didn't care pros or if there was leagues and all that. And then all of a sudden it kind of bubbled up and we got a lot more interested in that that part of the game. But this was the first sport I'd ever really participated in where I was purely recreationally driven. This was something I wanted to do for recreation, to play with my friends, to play with my wife. I didn't have any idea what. I didn't follow any pros or anything like that. Did you ever reach the point where you got into the pro game enough to like you have some people that you watch, follow your fangirl for, or anything like that?
Speaker 1:I am a huge fangirl at Jesse Irvine, just cause the pickle palms.
Speaker 3:Palm palm girl. Palm palm Jesse Irvine.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right, and I have a good friend, audra Renshaw. That's a big pickle princess and she's a big fan, so I started paying attention. But I just love her passion for the game. She's ultra competitive and a little sassy and so I love that cause. I identify with that a little bit and you know and again, the fashion part of it you know just why why not bring your own signature your own signature.
Speaker 3:She does have a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I'll be honest, like I was the same, there was Annalie Waters, and then who else? I couldn't even name another person prior to probably this year?
Speaker 2:Who's my favorite? Who are you asking me who? Your favorite is what's her name?
Speaker 3:Not Alyssa, I get it wrong every time. Elise Jones, elise Jones, elise.
Speaker 1:Jones.
Speaker 3:She's scrappy. She's little and she's scrappy and she'll dive for stuff. That's who I relate to. Yes, well, you. You don't mind me, there's not much like yeah.
Speaker 2:She is like Four foot 11, five feet tall and maybe a hundred pounds, soaking wet, and she's a tiger. She's all over the place. We got a chance to meet her, actually, and she's just as nice as they come as well. She, karen, actually had a couple inches on her. I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 3:She's smaller than me but she is mighty and that's how. That's how I like. I feel I'm like you. I didn't have a tennis background and and I didn't even think about this, that you what you said earlier, cause Francine said this last week that she wasn't an athlete ever and I wouldn't say I was an athlete. I mean I, I would say that I was a tomboy, cause I was and I would jump in there and. I was, but I'm not like.
Speaker 2:You're not super coordinated.
Speaker 3:No, shut up, I am super coordinated. But but what you said about like how the fact that the sport we have engineers playing with us, like you know, and and doctors and you know, I mean all all the different I didn't, I had never like that, hadn't ever entered my mind, that that's I knew pickleball was for all right I say that all the time and that you don't have to have like a certain look or body type to play this game. But I hadn't put it quite to that level where you don't necessarily have to be athletic to be good in this, in this sport. No, I mean it helps.
Speaker 1:I mean, you know hand speed obviously.
Speaker 3:I hand coordination.
Speaker 1:But I look at all these what I would have considered gamers, you know whatever you know video gamers that, you know, I.
Speaker 1:They come out with their skinny, gangly little bodies with no muscle to whatsoever and then they put a wop on that pickleball and I'm like what in the world? Where did it back up? So I feel like it's, it's almost, it is for everyone and it is absolutely something everyone can also get incrementally better at. I look at, you know, the least amongst us, who started without able to return a serve, who are now playing full games and multiple games in a night, able to kind of hang in and make it happen, and I think, man, you know, this was someone that I thought, wow, this is not. You know, they should be, they should be crafting or cooking or something a little more. You know, not physical, but you know. Then I see the incremental gains. You know, six months ago this person started and they were, you know, they were awful, and then now here they are able to finish six games in a night, relatively productively, and you know, relatively productive, you know maybe half wins, you know, and it's like, wow this.
Speaker 1:I didn't even think this person could return a serve six months ago.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:So I think it's. It's really fun to watch. I think it's fun to watch the progression of people. I think it's. I never want to be so good that I don't have anybody to play with anymore, so I'm not going pro anytime ever, Whether I had the time.
Speaker 3:Is that such a thing, though, that you wouldn't have anyone to play with, but what you're saying is you don't want to leave your friends? Yeah, because you're really super involved in the club. You're one of our Ernie coordinators, so Ernie coordinator means an Ernie. We've named the person at the event who is responsible for kind of given everyone the.
Speaker 3:You know the, the uh, not rules, but the yeah the guidelines for the type of play that they're doing and you know, announcing the format and who, and you know, are giving credit Taking the scores and doing all that and track with the winners, and it can be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's an organizer, it's an on-site organizer kind of takes control, makes everybody know what's happening and you coordinate. How many Ernie's do we have?
Speaker 1:Oh, my gosh. We have over probably 50 Ernie's now.
Speaker 2:Wow, 40 or 50.
Speaker 1:Wow, Um, but it kind of came out of I was at a lot of the events and so I tended to know everyone. Um, you know everyone. I feel like that was the best place for me to learn everyone Um and so when I started, I was single um and I. That's part of the reason I partner well with everyone is because I have no pressure, I don't have to go home with anyone and and feel the shame and feel the, the pain hurt, whatever.
Speaker 1:Um, I just get to go out and play and for the time that we're together, great, and when we're not, that was awesome. See you tomorrow.
Speaker 3:Um, so I think that that I had no, and boy have things changed for you, sister.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean there's still pretty much the same, Like I still have almost the same attitude Um.
Speaker 3:No, but it's different when you're in a relationship, because Reggie even said this to me he goes.
Speaker 2:Hey, you better make sure you don't get him in trouble for saying it.
Speaker 3:I hope I mean you guys surely have talked about it.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:He's like, you know, because I was like you guys are really good, because you guys are winning things together, you know, and he's like, yeah, it's still. He goes. We're still not like playing at our optimum when we're playing together and I'm like it is just a. It's a dynamic when you're in a relationship. It's a different dynamic out there than it, because you would behave or act or say things that you would never say to somebody, that you don't, that you're.
Speaker 1:You would, I guess, be more reserved maybe you know, I think I I'm more willing to hold him accountable. Be more honest, um, if you're going to be my partner all the time, then I, I'm going to hold you accountable, and again. I had a great partner before that in Sean that I I was able to do that with as well. So the thing that I think I think when Reggie and I first started partnering, we thought it was going to be so fast and so easy to get good together.
Speaker 2:And we were humbled.
Speaker 1:We were humbled in a in a mad way, because I felt like every time I was on, he played like duty. And then every time he was on, I played like duty and I was like, why can't we just seem to get it together? And then I thought, well, it's cause we, we like each other. So the pressure to want to do well for each other is really high, especially when we're in matching outfits, and so, you know, there's a little bit of pressure there. And finally I was like you know what? I just got to relax and just let time do its thing. And, sure enough, over the last three months we keep getting better and better and better together. Um, and but I told him in the very beginning because I didn't know he was actually looking for a girlfriend, I thought he was just looking for a pickleball partner, um, so in the very beginning I told him, like I just won't fight about pickleball, I'm not interested in it, I I'm not going pro.
Speaker 1:This is something I do to get away from work and the pressures of, you know, paying for two kids in college and all the other problems that life throws at us that this is my happy place, this is my safe place. This is where I come. I make it a point to get to know everyone because I think people are so interesting and, um, you know, come from such crazy varied backgrounds. I mean, we've got rocket scientists in our club, we've got people who lived in Europe and, you know, know a lot more about a lot more things than I ever will, um.
Speaker 1:So I just think it's super interesting that we also revere our senior players, um, and, and I love to hear their stories and how they got started, many of them not until they were 60 plus, um. And then I get to hear the young stories too, um, you know, a little little baby Zeno, and, and all these kids that are coming out and playing, and, and my son, who's now kind of caught the bug. Um, it's really interesting and people are interesting. So, um, it just wasn't. It wasn't. It's not a place where I want to go with a partner and feel so much pressure to win that, you know, we argue or we fight about it because it's just not important enough to me. Um, because I'm going to play again tomorrow, right, so I just look at it like that.
Speaker 1:I'm just, I'm just here tonight and whatever happens, tonight is tonight and I'll be here to again tomorrow. We'll try again.
Speaker 2:Um, and that's generally where Karen and I have our come apart, because I I'm the same way. It's like my fun thing, all right, this is fun. I have, I have a job, I have two jobs, I have all kinds of jobs and and we have stress. That's my fun place and so we'll go out there. And I made the mistake once of telling Karen now, this wasn't a tournament, and I said, well, come on, let's just have fun. And she did not like that at all. She goes, you know, it's fun winning.
Speaker 3:winning is fun. Winning is fun, Am I right? Winning is fun. Winning is fun. Losing sucks.
Speaker 3:Playing is fun but playing pickleball is fun, and I do. I'm kind of a hybrid of you I'm. I'm a little bit like I want to push myself to my absolute limit when I play, like I want to see how far I can go, how good can I get, and so to me it's like, um, it's hard to combine that with the fun element all the time, like there's especially when I see things that if you just make this little tweak, we're gonna, you're gonna, you know, you're gonna have more fun because you're gonna be better and we're gonna be winning which I know John loves to win too, and and so it's. It's really hard to that's really, it's it.
Speaker 1:That is really it's. Can we get better together incrementally and still have fun doing it? And right now I think I'm able to do that. Who knows on down the line? But I look at somebody like Jarrett and Chrissy Hines.
Speaker 1:Yes, they work really extremely hard together. I know I can't imagine that every time they drill together or play together that they're having any fun whatsoever. But when they come out and they play in these events they are having fun and they do look like they're having fun and they bring their kids and you know they're they're having a good time and it's like that hard work that they put in clearly pays off.
Speaker 1:That's what I want, and that's you know. So, and I think that's the key to it is we're not gonna win every game every time, every week, and some days we're just gonna be awful. Maybe we'll be awful together, hopefully not my. My new goal is to figure out when my partner is down, how to get them up and when.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm down and I'm playing like poop, how to get myself out of the well, to bring it up for my partner? I think that's a really big ask because I mean, I get in my head and it's almost like game over, like I just I got the yips one time and I just couldn't serve and I and it was game over, I, no matter what my partner said to me, I it's like I got in the in my headspace and I just couldn't, I couldn't get out, I can't believe that such a thing and pickleball, I mean Karen is just finally on the back end of it, maybe getting over it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then we were out there last Friday for our little celebration at Chicken and Pickle, and our friend Monica she is in the clutches of the back in it, but she came out of it and then went back in, and I think that that scares me to death.
Speaker 1:It's a real thing. It's a real thing.
Speaker 2:I felt so bad for it's like because there is, there's nothing you can tell people, because all you can tell them is get it out of your head, and they're like great, the more I think about getting it out of my head, the more it's in my head and, by the way, don't think about an elephant.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it transfers into my hands and my whole stinking body and at least she doesn't have like the jerking body motions that I do. Have you seen some of my videos? Oh yeah, we'll have to make a compilation sometimes.
Speaker 2:It is embarrassing, it's like dance.
Speaker 3:It is I'm. It's like my whole body convulses into a into like these weird positions as I'm trying to control the body, that or the ball that's in the air that I clearly cannot control. It is terrible.
Speaker 1:I like it. It's a baseball slump and I was fortunate enough to raise a baseball player, and you know he would get so frustrated. And imagine he's 12 years old. He doesn't have an emotional IQ to handle. You know, putting the socks together in the same drawer, not not to mention like keep it together.
Speaker 1:As a lefty pitcher at 12 years old, you know, and he would, just he would. We would drive home sometimes and I learned really early on in that sport that, you know, as a parent of a pitcher, you never sit in the stands. You kind of take your chair on down to the third base line and enjoy it from there, because you just to hear the other parents criticize your kid, even on their best day. Sometimes it's like man, oh, you know, whatever my kids out there putting his heart out, you know, and yeah, he's awful today he's. We used to call him wild thing. He had a crazy strong arm, but he could be so wild and so I, you know, I, he was a pitcher and then later on a big hitter, you know. But he would go through these slumps literally for like a week or a month at a time where he couldn't pitch.
Speaker 2:We had a catcher in our when I you know, I played baseball my whole life and whenever catchers went through a thing where he could not let go of the ball to throw it back to the pitcher, he just he kept. He got caught. It was the wildest thing ever. That's the first experience I have with the yips is watching people do that. And then with golf on the golfer and people start with the, they start shaking and locking up and that same thing pickleball.
Speaker 1:So wild that I wouldn't think it would be. I can literally go out tonight and play, exactly in my mind. My body will feel exactly like it did last night, but tonight I won't be able to get a ball over the net. It's the weirdest thing.
Speaker 2:It is it's crazy.
Speaker 2:It's a unique sport in so many ways, and one. One of the ways I think it makes you said how accessible is and it is because you know if you have Basic coordination, if you have basic hand, you can pick up the game in a hurry to where you could actually play and have fun out there. I mean, I've seen people who are terrible have fun out there. You didn't have to be that good and you can improve and you get to a level. Then all sudden you just plateau and when you reach the plateau Karen's fond of saying you know it's a matter of layering. You gotta find something else to layer to keep complimenting your game. So you know my layer right now is I'm really trying to work on my drive, really trying to get top spin on the drive so it will sink over the net. And you just got to.
Speaker 2:You can't work on too many things at one time. I think I was guilty of that. No, we're gonna try three and four and five things because my game is so bad. I gotta work on all this stuff and really it's not. You just do the basics and then pick up one. Are you working on any one thing right now that you really trying to pick up your game?
Speaker 1:I would say probably the same thing. Trying to work on a top spin, I love to hit out balls and I feel like if I could get that drive to drop just a little bit more. And again, I think that's something that you know you get just good enough, and then you get to this level of play where the players are just that much better.
Speaker 1:And so that's where I'm at. Everybody I'm surrounded by right now can whip my booty, but they also have had a little more paddle sports perhaps, or a little more you know, lessons or whatever, and they can. They can top spin the ball, and I do think that makes a difference, especially when you get into playing really hard.
Speaker 1:We all get to battle the the bangers, and I can be a banger at times. I like to get in fast hands and bang around a little bit, but the difference between me doing it and doing it well is that is a top spin is trying to get under the ball and and and getting it to go in every time instead of Bouncing out really good.
Speaker 2:I've got particle board on the outside leaning against the wall that I go out there and take about 20, 30 hacks a day just with each arm. You know, I'm trying to make sure I keep both arms going to, so I would say the other thing I'm really working on is footwork.
Speaker 1:I've learned you know, that. That all now, now that I do watch pros because, again, like you, I didn't before but now that I am watching the pros and I'm watching that they, their feet, never stop moving.
Speaker 3:Never stop right until they're hitting the ball.
Speaker 1:Yes, they're not, and as soon as they hit the ball, they're moving them again to get themselves in a better position. Let's say next you know, ball coming back, and so I think that's. That's really again. I just I'm playing a little bit higher level now, not much, I mean, come on, but just high enough that the people that are beating my pants off they're moving their feet all the time, they're anticipating shots and they've got a good drive drop. I think it's landing in higher quality player.
Speaker 2:now I'm getting beat by a whole better crowd now.
Speaker 3:Let me ask you what's your favorite shot.
Speaker 1:Not gonna lie, just a really good serve. You know they. They say, don't worry about your serve, don't concentrate on your serve. You know, just just it's one of those shots that you just got to get the ball in because you don't want to give it away. But I have won so many points on serves Against again, against better teams, against better players, that there's just nothing that feels better almost. I mean maybe an overhead every now and then, but a good serve when you ace it or they can't return it, maybe six times in a row. You serve six times in a row and you're like, yeah, this is awesome. So what is your?
Speaker 3:serve. Look like what is it, is it not?
Speaker 1:No, it's totally non traditional.
Speaker 1:I hold it. So I had a gentleman teach me when I very, very first started he was an engineer, of course that if you hold the ball at a 45 degree angle and you whack it right there, there's no way it's not going to go in, because the physics of it, the trajectory, the physics of the ball, that's that is the, that's how you do it, and I rarely have ever had serve issues. But then again, like you said, we go into the layers. Now and now I've learned to serve short and long and wide and into the backhand and, to you know, try to move it around a little bit so that my opponents don't expect that same serve every time. And I do. I can win some serves and I think it's so much fun and all I'm doing is just moving my hand pointed in what direction it's going and I'm not really changing that much about it, but it's just enough to maybe pick on somebody's backhand or it feels like you get a free point when you get a serve and I think that's so much fun.
Speaker 2:I do too. I didn't have to work on it.
Speaker 1:I don't have to do anything. I just get to win and win and keep winning.
Speaker 2:I'm with you because everybody said the most important thing about a serve just get it in. And OK, there's something to that. But I like putting, I love my backhand spin and now I've started doing like a smash serve to just to try to throw something different at people. And if you you get two points game off your serve, that's gravy man, that's me, that's those are freebies to me, those are freebies.
Speaker 1:The other ones I have to work a little harder for. Yes, it's fun to get an overhead every now and then. But again, now I'm playing a little bit better people so I can put an overhead up and they can get it right back at me.
Speaker 2:So that's that's that's.
Speaker 1:That's getting a little different.
Speaker 3:So John and I have been told lately that we're great defensive players and hadn't thought about this. And and then I was playing with women and and Maggie Maggie Well, she said we were playing a couple weeks ago and she was like you are, you're a really great defensive player. So here's my thing. I'm like, wow, that's really interesting. So we're good at keeping the ball in play and what, inevitably, when John and I play together our matches last games last so much longer than other people and it's because and so I'm wrapping my brain around this and I'm like it's because we make too many mistakes, but it's made us great defensive players. So once we get our offensive in, like we will be really good because we've learned to move together, we've learned to back up when, knowing when to back up right.
Speaker 3:It's the oh shit, shot back up right, oh shit, back up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and, and so getting our, so we've we've learned really well to how to manage those situations and put ourselves in in in positions to keep the ball in play Got that's really good. So now let's work on, you know, our offensive shots and and, and that's going to be like a. That's going to be a mixed thing, like that's definitely, if John and I want to play together, which we do, we've committed to doing that. So we're going to have to figure this thing out because, you know, I don't have the power to put things away as much as he would right Men just do, and I'm listening to podcast and trying to, you know, just educate myself on that. But I really think if we can get this offense down, we're going to. That's really going to jump us up to the next level, because John has a goal for 2024.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, what's the goal? What is it?
Speaker 2:John, I do be a 4 0. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm right, which, which you know. I don't even know how you, we would the rating.
Speaker 2:I don't have any more muscles to tear.
Speaker 3:They're all torn.
Speaker 2:They're all recovered so I figure I can start to get to where I can play with both hands. I'm starting to get where I can hit a drive. Why not? Why not go for a win? The we? We say that and we go out to the three five challenge and you know we're winning two or two out of five, or three out of five. And it's man the, the competition in our club. I will say this you go out there for you're not going to get many, just walkovers, and when that's great, I love that's what's amazing.
Speaker 1:Like I said, we go to these tournaments and our own club just dominates at the podium.
Speaker 2:I mean, we're not going to battle test Night ever Like.
Speaker 1:I. Just I feel like we are so fortunate to have so many people that are so passionate about it and getting better. I mean, think about where we all were this time last year.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 1:I just look at how much I've you know better I've gotten, despite my own self at times. You know, and and again, the incremental gains that we've all faced and, honestly, like you, I'm a good defensive player because I have to be, because I'm the girl throwing that ball high in the air. So, yeah, I'm going to learn how to get it back and that was something I learned in the last year. Just because I hit it a little high doesn't mean I can't hit a smash back. So stay in there, hang in there. But I appreciate mixed is also a different game. I can go out and I can play with the ladies and it's a very different game than when I go out and play a mixed game. 100%. It's just a whole different ball game and I feel like I have to be just that much better. Honestly 100%.
Speaker 2:You got to be wide awake. Wide awake and ready to roll Paddle up.
Speaker 1:You know there are very sometimes, and I don't know if this is true for everyone, it's just true for me. But sometimes I can be having a really bad day and roll out to a women's league match and kind of work myself out of it and end up playing pretty good. That is not the case on a mixed night, if I've had a really bad day at work and I'm just really underwater for whatever reason. I can't always overcome that. To be fast and hit hard and be on that great defensive you know, bus, keeping my feet moving and doing all the things. I can't always do that I feel like that's when we go out and play in the challenges for sure. There are no dead beats. No game is a guaranteed win ever, ever. And you know I've had plenty of nights where I went 0-5 just because I was having a day.
Speaker 2:Have you ever been relegated? Did you get relegated?
Speaker 1:I have not been relegated yet.
Speaker 2:That's actually a thing in our club. For people who you know, the level challenge is 3-5, 4-5 or whatever. I was saved just recently because you have to go 0-5 twice now.
Speaker 1:Oh really, yeah, you have to go 0-5 twice now, but I am definitely in the land of somewhere between the 3-5s and 4-0s. I can still go down to 3-5 mixed and probably not win every game. Lucky for me, I went 5-0 a few times so I got to go up, but I go to the 4-0 and there have been a few times when you know we've been weeks on end where we only win one game.
Speaker 3:Right, but you won one Like. I just want to get there, john, come on. Choo-choo, a little choo-choo they could. Let's go. Yes, get your serves in. I am getting my serves in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was. I think it's luck. I think you know it's just on that night you're both feeling good and all of a sudden it's like magic and it just happens. And again we haven't been able to duplicate it in quite some time. So it's a strange. It's just a strange bird.
Speaker 3:But what's so awesome is that you get to go up there and compete against those that are that much better, which is just going to increase your game. Like, wait, that's what I'm saying, We've got to, but I mean we've got to be able to beat the three fives before we can get there.
Speaker 1:I think it's a humbling experience, especially you know you can go and play against the Meadensons and, you know, get pickled. That's super fun.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and I think to myself man, you know I feel bad for them, like this couldn't have been fun for them to teach us a lesson, you know.
Speaker 1:But again, it's the only way I'm going to get better, like it's the only way I see how patient they are, like, how disciplined they are. I am not disciplined, I am not patient. I am out there, you know, just battling willy-nilly as I do, but it does make me take a step back and when I so, right after I play like a four oh mixed, I'll go and play a king and queen, which I love to do, the doubles, even though my feet don't love it. It does make me slow down and be more patient and kind of practice that again, like, take it down a notch and maybe not try to win the king and queen, but just work on those things that I was doing so poorly at. And a four oh mixed, and by and large you usually slow down just a little bit, just enough that you can work on it. So it's really I mean the discipline of some of these folks in these higher level you know, our club championships. I look at those, those folks, I mean the difference between them and me is discipline period.
Speaker 3:Well, okay. So let me ask you this what is one of your? Because you mentioned getting pickled by the means and one of our worst games ever. This is so embarrassing and I'm going to ask you for yours. So this is the worst loss that we've ever taken, john and I, alex Smith okay, his partner wasn't showing up, so he took us on singles. Was it 11 to one? It's a different game. I think it was 11 to one.
Speaker 2:And I was like 11, nine? No, it was not.
Speaker 3:No, it was not.
Speaker 2:It was so bad I'm cutting this part, so I'm just going to edit this.
Speaker 3:No, you're not, that was the worst loss we've ever ever taken, because you how embarrassing is that?
Speaker 2:It's somebody's really good. They have their pay. They're facing a couple. It's easy to beat them.
Speaker 3:A singles against two people Sure.
Speaker 2:Because you don't have to worry about what the other person's going to do. It's horrible. Okay, what about your worst loss?
Speaker 3:Your worst loss, Larissa. Can you remember one as embarrassing as that?
Speaker 1:So I'm a big fan, especially in, like a king and queen format. I don't believe that just because you start on court for you can't win and I am the very person that does it all the time. I will start on court one, lose three games and then come back up winning three more games and and win Queen of the court, so I know it can be done, but I would say my worst loss that I ever had, and it was a night of losses.
Speaker 1:I went back and my friend and I he had had surgery and he was feeling like he was ready to get back in the game and I was like, oh my gosh, this will be so much fun, it'll be so easy for me, oh.
Speaker 1:And we went back and lost every game and I was so upset at myself For not being able to pick up my partner and like be good enough that that would happen to us, or that I was so upset for my partner because he was so disappointed in himself and so frustrated and there was nothing I could say or do to make it any better. It was a super humbling, frustrating experience. And that's when I that's what I literally the next week, and I'm not kidding I went out and drilled my ass off and Just sat and played with my, my ball sit at my desk, you know, just doing a little paddle stuff, and like I just was like that's it, like I think I'm any good. No, I'm, I can't even. You know, yeah, I should have been able to pick up that game, or a game or two For the both of us and I. I couldn't do it that night and it was just frustrating. You know just when you alright, let's flip it when you think you're having your best win.
Speaker 1:Let's see best, john what about yours?
Speaker 3:You think of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it would have to be something in the Probably in the legends of the fall tournament that we just did.
Speaker 1:That's a good one, you know, team win we are.
Speaker 2:You keep, we keep mentioning Caitlyn. She was definitely our, our ace in that in that game, and I got a chance to play with her a couple times. Well, she's amazing. But our little team, you know, for us to make the finals that was that was pretty cool.
Speaker 3:I mean, that was really pretty stiff competition. Even though my heart hurts that it's not when we got ourselves over, I think that's the best second answer that you could have given. Okay, lures, what about you?
Speaker 1:I would say Best wins gosh. I've had a bunch, but I remember this one in particular, just because I still felt like maybe I didn't belong, or it was the very first season I played in league. I was really super unsure of myself. I? I didn't have much confidence in my abilities because, again, I'm very inconsistent, honestly. So I wasn't. I was just thinking, oh lord, let Larissa, the girl who knows how to play, show up today and not the other girl, that other one that doesn't.
Speaker 3:That I like.
Speaker 1:I went out and beat Kyla and Jeff Arnett and to me they were like the king and queen of pickleball. I did yeah. I had also come off of that first round of MLP that we did the year before and Alex Smith and I went undefeated the entire season, even though we love we didn't lose. But our team lost in the final round like semi-final I think, found, and so that was super. I mean that wait when was this. What was this? It was the first last October's MLP, not this past.
Speaker 3:Okay, so that was who your team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was Karen Bumgardner, who I didn't really know well at the time.
Speaker 2:I remember that that was what it was told. Yep, I met Dean.
Speaker 1:Lackey for the first time. Him and his wife were amazing. And then I met Alex Smith for the first time. He and I were essentially blind dates on that. We just went out the very first time. We had never even practiced together and we won. And you know, my favorite thing about playing with him is you know he's got enough confidence for the both of us, and so he just needed you know, he just needed me to stay in it. And I remember going. One of our big first wins was Joe Coniglio and Maria Sley Hor. Oh, and.
Speaker 1:I feel so good after that. It was just a big coup for us, cuz.
Speaker 3:I'm sure they're gonna love you.
Speaker 1:So much like I Say that because I didn't think I should win it, like I didn't think. I know I get it like court, and so I felt like you know, to give them a good run for their money was. It was just a really fun, awesome time. You know, now shoot, they tear me up again because we've all gotten better and they've certainly gotten better as well. So it's, it's just a lot of fun. I think the best wins are always the ones you don't think you even had a chance.
Speaker 3:Yes, go out there and just let it rip and and and.
Speaker 1:It's just so much fun and it is pickleball as as as much as we're all getting better and as much as we're all practicing more, it's still a wiffle ball, I know.
Speaker 2:I know hey, watch your mouth. It's still got a mind of its own.
Speaker 1:I feel like I still you know, there's times when I think I have this amazing shot, that it's a freaking wiffle ball and it just doesn't do what I wanted to do.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:Like when you bounce it to serve. It might bounce a certain way stop that, really threw me that.
Speaker 3:I had that was just horrible and I'm sorry Alex Smith, because he gets tied into a lot of this I brought him down. I I'm not going to relive. It was on the last episode, so if you want to know why, you can listen last episode what. Where my big failure with him was. But, um, you know, I just love this sport and I love that it's brought people into our lives that we would never have known. I wouldn't have known you if it wasn't for pickleball and I just love that. We've gotten to know each other through this sport and just watching you, even sometimes if it's from afar, because you know, we're not always being able to play in the same things. But just when I hear your, your Name and that you're part of you, just like, you're just a shining, shining person, you're just a happy, fun, shining person, you always put a smile on my face. You, you, you're the woman who runs over and picks me off the ground At bear hug and picks me off the ground.
Speaker 1:So I think you know it's, that's the, that's the beauty of the sport. It it's we meet so many cool and interesting people. I that is where my happy place is, Um I have found. You know, you and john there and, and tim and shon and everybody, um, you know, supporting each other and and and really being humbled by each other as well. You know, I hear things like oh, we can't play on monday nights right now because we're going to bible study, and I think that is so amazing because you know, here.
Speaker 1:Here are the things that you know I forget. We're people. We're real people doing real. Real jobs. You know, when I tell people what I do for a living, they're like what? And you have time to play pickleball and so, and so you know, say, I make time to play pickleball. That's right, or I think it's funny that when I go somewhere and I don't have a hat on, people don't know who I am because they don't See my hair like I. I'm not somebody with hair, but apparently you have a ponytail.
Speaker 3:What's worse is when somebody comes up and says my name and I don't recognize them and they I should yeah because they don't look the same. Yeah, like you know?
Speaker 2:well, you just say that because you wear the same uniform every day. She wears her pickleball Uniform every day. She's got in.
Speaker 3:in the winter it's yoga pants and his wet shirt, and in the summer it's um a tennis skirt and a T-shirt. So pretty much.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's that's the uniform outside of my house. Um, I just I, I really Again, I think everyone has been so positive and if they haven't been, they've been run off pretty quick. Um and. I, I want to continue that, that trend. Um, I want to play with people who are positive. I want to play so hard and so mean against somebody and then, right after it's all over, we're, we're back over doing fireball shots and having a blast and and you know, whatever, because that's the, that's the, that's the part of the sport that's.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Um, you know, we're not always the social part yeah good day and I can own that and, as long as you know, my opponents can own that as well, and we can all laugh about it later and and have a good time. That's, that's. That's the beauty, you know. It's like uh, they say your, your friends are fought in war. Um, that that's or forged. I should say their friends are forged. Yeah, that makes more sense Forged in war, not fight.
Speaker 3:I was trying to follow that.
Speaker 1:Because the battles that you've gone together, I mean no one else would understand. It's kind of the same thing, like you and john have the battles they I would never understand and you, reggie, and I have battles you guys wouldn't understand, but that's how we connect. And so I feel like that's the blessing of the team sport and it is still individual. We still all have to work on our own. You know weaknesses and whatever, but coming together I don't know that I could ever play singles. Maybe I could, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I have the head I might try now that it's colder, I might, if I can get my feet to cooperate with me. But I might try 2024, that that might be on the list too, because you know, we gotta gotta say this too 2024, we will have our new facility open, yes, which will be awesome. Uh, I don't know if we told you, but you know rissos also helped us with octoberfest, but we are going to help camp summit with their summer pickball tournament and we're going to do octoberfest again. We talked to the chamber. They want us back, so we'll be running that thing back, and so 2024 is going to be another very Pickless year.
Speaker 1:It's going to be fun. I think it can be different.
Speaker 2:Epic Epic, yes yes, I want to be a part of all of it, just because I just want to play. You are, you're blazing paddle. You're blazing paddle as well. That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1:We're going to take our lumps and our winds together. That'll be fun. I loved Oktoberfest. I loved getting our whole community. I was so shocked at how many people walked up and wanted to paddle.
Speaker 3:Right To jump in and play too. I know I wanted to go play.
Speaker 2:That was amazing.
Speaker 1:I know myself. Next year we need to have waivers Right.
Speaker 3:I have one written out. It was so chaotic, I was thinking holy cow.
Speaker 1:I don't know if y'all remember the little pink picklers.
Speaker 2:The crown pickleball girls, oh my.
Speaker 1:God, I just loved those kids, the fact that they got so into it. Those little girls, the little pink picklers, they got so into it and they ended up wanting paddles and going out and playing in their socks. That is the joy I mean, that was pure joy. That night I was having so much fun with them and everybody there. I thought man, this is, it just can't get any better than this, and the only thing that could happen is that next year it just gets bigger and better, bigger and better.
Speaker 1:More people more events, more everything. It was having the mayors of all the quad surrounding cities there. That was a hoot. The baseball I was there for the baseball coaches and the seniors playing each other.
Speaker 3:That was great.
Speaker 1:It was amazing. It's just so much fun and I really think we say pickleball for all and we preach it to our friends and whoever will listen. Really, but that was one community event where it really did show you could be anyone and you could come right off the street and grab a paddle from the right from the paddle vendors and just start and go at it.
Speaker 1:I mean it was a hoot and that it spanned all the ages. The little kids wanted to play. There was an older gentleman that walked up and wanted a paddle. He wanted to try it out. I thought that was amazing.
Speaker 2:So the age ranges and you know Well, we had Audra and Jamie. They were a proud favorite. They were awesome. That was so amazing.
Speaker 1:It was. You know it's funny, they're so sweet and again, it's the raw joy that they just have it. They just they maintain it. You know every Jamie, especially you know he's. I can't believe how great he is in a crowd. Oh yeah, and he was such a ham. He was like, yeah, and the crowd would go crazy.
Speaker 3:And he'd like yeah, and we're talking about Audra and Jamie, who are special Olympians that played in October Fest. For those that don't know, so yeah, who knew what a ham.
Speaker 1:You know, I just think it's so amazing and, and you know, just just everyday people doing an everyday thing, but it was, it was. It was really kind of it transcended the whole October Fest. I mean, our little corner was super busy, it was crazy.
Speaker 3:Well, our whole goal was to is to bring entertainment, new entertainment, to October Fest, but put bring the, bring this sport to where people would be, that and expose them to this amazing sport right, without them having to go to a pickable court and and get exposure there right. So now, how many people do you think you know were saw it and were like man. I do want to play this game right and went and picked up a paddle and got on a board.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're like those people, aren't?
Speaker 3:geriatrics.
Speaker 1:Right, right, they were like, maybe I should do this I ran into a couple of ladies and they came out to a King and Queen event and then, you know, they were so nervous it's like I forget. People don't even want to try it because they're scared to come out or they're scared to even.
Speaker 1:You know they buy their little pickleball set because they see it on the internet and they hear everyone talking about it and they've got you know how many indoor facilities opening to to encourage it and whatever. So you know the sport is growing and everybody's. It's a buzzword, you know in your circles of you know I haven't been to a holiday party yet that somebody else hasn't brought it up as well. Of course I'm bringing it up, but you know it's fun to hear other people bring it up and be like, wow, you play too. You know, so it's so crazy. But you forget how people people aren't they're still scared. They're still scared to come out, they're still scared to try it. They maybe have peaked on YouTube to see what it looks like.
Speaker 1:And it and again watching it on video may or it may lose some of the real, real kind of fun about it, and so you're right, like we brought it to the community, we showed them what it was at very high levels as well. I think that was also one of the, you know, more fun events was, you know, watching our club champions play the pros?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the pros Good to know.
Speaker 1:Like I mean, oh my gosh, like that's people are like, wow, this, this really is a sport, it's not just an you know, old person's recreational game or whatever the thing was. So it is amazing. And so again, we brought it out there, we, we kind of forced it out into our community and I think we we made some fans out of it. You know we had I think so too.
Speaker 3:So now that we know what we're doing, it won't be so. I've never worked so hard for an event ever in my life, and I've run a lot of events, so thank you for your help.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I think it's going to be harder and harder to top it every year, but I think we can do it.
Speaker 3:Oh, you watch. I don't know, I got stuff on my sleeve. We can do it. We can do it. All right, baby, what do you want to say to wrap us up? Who?
Speaker 2:are you calling baby me or Larissa Both?
Speaker 3:of you.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, look, we're going to put a bow on this and Larissa will put a little write up on the information too. Most people in the club, obviously they probably are like us and they know you, but they're going to realize maybe I didn't know you as well as I thought I did, because, just I mean a rugby player turned a baller to coach.
Speaker 2:I mean the whole thing. How you got started, I didn't know. Karen had told me earlier that your mom, who's a heck of a player, had sort of pulled you out of your out of your head a little bit to get out here your play and that kind of deal and how therapeutic and there's all kinds of stories. I mean people who've had real health gains, people who've had emotional gains, people who've met significant others, people who have just expanded their friendships which you know I'm going to sound HRE here but mental health right now is it such a all time critical low, probably in our generation and for anything that you can do to try to find others and commiserate, build your tribe and have fun and meet good people. There's a lot that we said for why this game got so popular.
Speaker 1:I would tell you 100%, I came out of a life funk to meet the best friends I've ever. Had. To be healthier than I've been in the prior 10 years to this and I, you know, being an ex athlete, it was easy to sit around and, just, you know, ride those laurels or whatever. But now to have something in my life again that I'm working toward physically again helps my emotional stability. It's helping everything. So I feel like you know where else could I just go on to sign up, genius, put my name in a slot, have 15 other like-minded people to go exercise with chasing a ball.
Speaker 1:I mean I don't have to do the treadmill and I don't have to go make the effort to join a class and you know whatever. Blah, blah, blah. But I can go sweat and move my feet for 10,000 steps every night with all these people that are just like me and having just as much fun and we, honestly, I can't believe my luck. Like I, I can't believe my luck.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like I hope. You know, I hope it stays that way it's. You know, sometimes when you love something, it becomes a job or it becomes a chore. But so far, so good. I'm three years in now no job, no chore. I can't wait to go drill every night, I can't wait to go play and I can't wait to be around all the people in our club and all the folks that I meet out at the tournaments and other events. It's just pure joy.
Speaker 3:You know what it's what I love about pickleball.
Speaker 2:Oh, Karen says that about everything.
Speaker 3:I say it about pickleball all the time.
Speaker 2:That's two times a day.
Speaker 3:She was you know what I?
Speaker 1:love about pickleball. I don't know what. What else, what else, what else, what now, what?
Speaker 2:now. So this is our friend, our good friend, our dear friend, Larissa Santiago, and we will. We're going to have this thing. There'll be a full episode, but we've done a lot of these little mini posts where people, so people get invite size and we're going to have those out on social and bring a little bit more knowledge, knowledge base, to our tribe here about who you are and we're just so glad to have you.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks for having me, guys. It's a lot of fun, and anytime I get to spend with you is a good day for me that's a perfect ender.
Speaker 2:All right with that. We're going to sign off on Blazing Paddles. Larissa, hang on just a sec. Bye.