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
Season 2 Premiere - PCD & The Pickleball Kingdom
Blazing Paddles kicks off Season 2 at Pickleball Kingdom in Plano, Texas during the PCD Boot Camp end-of-year reward event. We sit down with Lesa Wracher, Rules Director for Pickleball Competitors of Dallas (PCD), to discuss the organization's evolution from Tennis Competitors of Dallas and the unique culture of pickleball.
• PCD evolved from TCD (Tennis Competitors of Dallas) in fall 2020 thanks to Renee Hinterlong's vision
• Initially 96.4% of participants were tennis players, but the demographic has shifted significantly
• PCD now operates with its own board of directors to accommodate pickleball's rapid growth
• The inclusive nature of pickleball allows for multi-generational play, unlike many other sports
• PCD has adapted rules for weather conditions, indoor play options, and equipment regulations
• Paddle regulations have become a prominent issue as manufacturers claim USAP approval without official listing
• The pickleball community is described as more welcoming and less hierarchical than tennis
• Pickleball is becoming recognized at the collegiate level, with new scholarship programs emerging
Keep an eye out for part two of this episode featuring Dorion Brown, Head Pro at Pickleball Kingdom, who will share motivation and tips to improve your game.
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Hello Picklers, we're back. Season 2 of Blazing Paddles, the podcast. After a little time off, we finally got a chance to get back in gear and to kick off Season 2. We had the opportunity to visit Pickleball Kingdom Plano, texas, and be a part of the PCD Boot Camp End of the year reward for members of that club, the Pickleball Competitors of Dallas. And while we're out there, we got a chance to sit down with Lisa Ratcher, the rules director for PCD, and then later we're going to release part two of this episode with Dorian Brown, who's the head pro at Pickleball Kingdom and just about a solid individual as you'll meet.
Speaker 1:I think this was a great chance for us to see another wonderful facility. The facility they have in Plano is fantastic. Highly encourage you visit it and we learned a little bit about what's going on in the pickleball world, some of the challenges, and then, with Dorian, you're going to hear a lot of motivation and a lot of things to make you feel a little bit better around the court out there. I know we did so put on your ears, saddle up, have a listen. You'll be glad you did. They're back. Who's back? We're back, baby, yeah, baby. It's been a while. We're going to have to find the date. I think it was.
Speaker 2:September.
Speaker 1:Are you?
Speaker 2:serious or October.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we took a little hiatus. We had to work to find the date. I think it was September, are you serious? Or October. Okay, so we took a little hiatus. We had to work, we had family stuff, we had family stuff. So, anyway, life got in the way Blazing Paddles. We're back on.
Speaker 2:We are here today at the Pickleball Kingdom in Plano on Custer Parkway and they have a boot camp today, pcd. Boot camp today, pcd. So last year it was tcd to uh tennis competitors of dallas and they changed it to pickleball competitors of dallas. Oh wow, that's a huge change. I think that's a step up for our sport, separating us from the bad guys now.
Speaker 1:They're not bad guys, they're just not as good. They haven't converted yet. I didn't know that. That's pretty yeah. So you don't have the governing body saying tennis, right, right. So what's the format here, do you know? It's two hours long. They're just doing drills and skills.
Speaker 2:Yes, They've got a. We'll bring some of the pros in here, but they've got different drills and skills based on the skill level of those, and I think that she said that this is more of a beginner range.
Speaker 1:But we'll find out more from lisa I'm gonna say yeah, because I saw a lot of warm-ups oh, yeah, yeah, I mean what are you saying you could take? Them all I'd destroy them, all, these women. No, no, I'm guessing two, five to three, five yeah, yeah, yeah anyway, we just met the head pro dorian.
Speaker 2:He's gonna sit down with us nicest guys from my hometown yeah, he is.
Speaker 1:He's a nice guy. He said uh, he most recently was living in wilmington, north carolina, drove 17 hours here to take this job and about a year ago they look like they're doing good, beautiful facility yeah, this was the og of pickleball kingdom how many do they have now? Do you know?
Speaker 2:I don't know, but I can't wait for the one to open up close to us, because that's a no brainer.
Speaker 1:You know one thing to remind me. We'll ask him about this how did they determine? Because I heard him talking about their price point and how they figured it out and I think that you know early on, when we were talking to people at the facilities, that was one of their biggest struggles when do you get the price point for the memberships and how do you do it? Huge challenge, he said. They've got like 400-something members.
Speaker 2:No, no, he said 800.
Speaker 1:800? Okay, so they might have figured this thing out.
Speaker 2:We'll find out.
Speaker 1:We will find out. It's going to be a fun day. It is going to be a fun day we. We're here with Lisa Ratcher and she's our. I guess you're the host of events today. What is your role here today for this boot camp, lisa?
Speaker 3:Well, for this event, I think you're right Introducing everybody, welcoming them, organizing, getting them where they need to go, distributing their gifts.
Speaker 3:Now is this part? Is this what PCD does? This is an end of season event, so at the end we're done with our spring season and so it's kind of a gift back to our, our members. They pay a fee to get in here, but the fee is a small fee when you consider it's two hours of um instruction from various pros. They get a lunch and then they get a gift. So it's a thank you for participating in our leagues and participating in our organization. Um and uh, kind of uh. Thank you for a great spring season.
Speaker 2:Well, let's talk about this nice, uh, new name PCD. It was TCD, yes.
Speaker 3:Um, well, as you all know, or maybe not know, pickleball was brought to TCD in the fall of 2020. Renee Hinterlong was the rules director for TCD at the time and um had heard about pickleball, fell in love with it, researched it, uh, brought a proposal to the board of you know why don't we start this brand new league? Let's get ahead of this incredible foresight Right. And they allowed her to do it. And so, at that time of fall of 2020, she was not only the rules director for TCD but, for all intents and purposes, she was the pickleball director, cause everybody was tennis players. Nobody had done.
Speaker 3:People had heard about pickleball years ago, they had had an uh, uh, like, uh uh, uh, in this season event and they played pickleball, but it was a million years ago and then it was out of sight, out of mind. It came back up and she was the driving force and um, yeah, and then it was. It was going to be, you know, tennis competitors of Dallas, and then it was um same thing, the pickleball, Um, and the goal was to always separate at at one point, at some point, to have two different boards of directors. Um, because we knew, uh, this sport was evolving and growing at such a rapid pace that we knew it was going to need its own board of directors and kind of it needed to run on its own two feet. And so that was 2025.
Speaker 1:Now, were you part of TCD at the time when Renee brought this?
Speaker 3:I was in the fall of 2020. I was one of the very first teams. I was a flight coordinator for Renee, so I've been a part of it since its inception.
Speaker 1:Yes, and that was about the tipping point when Pickleball that was, you know, COVID, right, so fall of 2020, we'd gotten into it a little bit, but we know that was sort of the launch for Pickleball. It just went crazy. So a lot of foresight and good timing.
Speaker 3:Amazing, and at the time so three years ago I'm kind of a numbers nerd I did a uh, an analysis of how many players on the pickleball side were like tennis players that saw this cool new sport, that wanted to take a look at it, versus how many were just pickleballers. And at that time it was 96.4% of the participation in the pickleball were tennis players.
Speaker 2:They did both.
Speaker 3:Now I'd like to redo that again, you know, in all of my spare time, because I'm sure it's still. It's probably in the high eighties. I don't think it's as high as 94%, because we have had a lot of women. I'm sorry to say, leave tennis to only play pickleball, and then we had a lot of women because these are the leagues that are growing the fastest in in TCD for all of these years, since pickleball were the leagues that were growing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, tennis kind of plateaued and in the fall we would always see a dip because men like football. So we would see a little bit of a decrease in participation. But pickleball just was, it was climbing and climbing.
Speaker 2:So that's interesting because I'm doing the math here in my head. I would say on our Pickleball League team the majority came from tennis, but in our complex I would say it's not even close to that. Like I would say At our facility yeah, 50-50. A lot of people this is their first, this is their only sport, right, yeah? So it's really interesting.
Speaker 3:For us. We see now that it's the high flights opens, ones that are only pickleball players. Okay, you get the rest. It's kind of like tennis, right, usta? The three fives are like the. You know that's the saturated market. Are three fives right? And so you have. You can have a three five playing in an open. You can have a three five playing all the way at flight 16. Right, but like for pickleball, those high performing players, they tend to only be pickleball players or they were very high tennis players that have left tennis all together. Um, and they're only now predominant pickleball players.
Speaker 2:You're saying I have a chance to be in the open because I'm all pickleball.
Speaker 3:Yes absolutely.
Speaker 2:I all you know. You get on a team and you are where you are. Let's talk about that Cause I always find it interesting how do you figure out who belongs in?
Speaker 3:which flight. That is a science. Um, we have an amazing placement committee and what happens is when a new team comes in the paperwork that's required, it asks duper. It asks, um any possible pickleball relevancy that you have had, you, the captains, document everything. Then the committee on placement, they research it right To make. They make sure is your duper correct? How many has it been? Tournament play has it been some of these facilities? They have duper, right, it'll go. So then they flight you accordingly and it's hit and miss.
Speaker 3:It's not an exact science because dupers change. One day in duper you can be a 4.5. And the next week you can be a four or five and the next week you can be a three. Oh right, it just it's constantly fluctuating. So we use that as a baseline but we don't. We don't participate in duper because once you're flighted, our rules are very specific. If you play, if you're a five, five you can only play in a certain flight. So if it was constantly fluctuating it would be a disparaging between you know who your opponents are versus who you're, who you are playing against them. So we try to keep it as fair and competitive as we can.
Speaker 3:Now, sometimes it takes a season to work that out. Sometimes it takes a couple of seasons. The ladies league, I think, has really hit its stride and and it's not like you're going one week and you're getting killed or you're the person killing right now it's it's leveled out to where it's really nice competition. We're still a little bit struggling with mixed, where I mean you can take my team in particular. We started out my mixed team in flight three. So for the first three seasons we were finishing in the middle of the pack, which was awesome. That's where I want to finish Right when new teams were coming in. That's where the growth was coming in was with mixed. Well, those, their dupers, a lot of them. They had dupers and once you're in our system, we don't look at that again, okay, which I think we may start to reconsider that.
Speaker 2:My duper is three years old. So my rating and if you don't play and no, it changes to somebody who was just beginning, so every time he played I, my duper, would go down.
Speaker 3:So all these new teams coming in, their dupers were high. So what happened was we were, like I said, we were finishing in the middle of the pack, but these new people were coming in higher. So we got bumped down to flight four and we were finishing the middle of pack with all of our, our fellow people, but when we got down to bump to to flight four, we were getting our butts kicked, like I'm talking badly. So then we got our butts kicked in flight four. Then we got, then we're in flight five. Well, this season, last season, we got our butts kicked. Now we were the people kicking butt. This season.
Speaker 3:So there's a that's, you know what I mean. And so we, we like we got first place. But we none of us were like, oh, we got first place because we were like we were, we like we got first place. But we none of us were like, oh, we got first place Cause we were like we were, we were on the opposite ends. Right, we were, we were the 30, they were 36. We were 12. Now we are the 36 and they're, you know, six, eight. The closest people we had was 18. So that's, you know and right. So now we're going to be back up to four and we'll see what's that going to look like for us next season. Have those fours changed? We'll have to see.
Speaker 2:Well, so, and I don't know if there's a solution to this, but there's banging and then there's pickleball, right, right, and I love all elements of pickleball. I love the drink dropping, the dinking, the, you know, using all of the elements to play. I really hate the banger game, yeah, and I feel like in some of my leagues I'm stuck in that flight where it's just kind of that's the, the, the and I'm. You know, I'm in five different leagues, so I'm not. This is not specific to PCD, this is just right, in general, right Okay.
Speaker 3:Now do you find, though, that those bangers are they, are they tennis players?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and what? What's frustrating, and I don't again, I don't know if there's a solution to this, but it's when the man is a tennis player and he takes over the court from the woman. Yes, and now it's a dodgeball game. Absolutely, and it's frustrating to me.
Speaker 3:Well, it's a little dangerous actually no kidding.
Speaker 2:I had a guy come from the back right side of the court all the way over to the left side. I dropped the ball for his wife to dink to me and he ran over there and slammed it. Yeah, and I'm like this stinks and we're.
Speaker 3:We have a lot of players too that we you know the complaints of the same thing the men targeting the women and, let's be fair, those of us who are competitive. We are doing that little statistical analysis against our opponents, right? And what do we all say to one another? Target the weaker one, but I think there's a difference in targeting versus all out annihilation, and I've seen now there's more injuries. We're having a lot more complaints of just a little excessive force.
Speaker 1:Well, you said it can be dangerous. It can be dangerous. I know that Karen won't wear them, but, like when we're playing, if I'm playing certain players, I'll wear eye protection.
Speaker 3:Now, I think that's got to be mandatory. I can't.
Speaker 2:I can't, I can't, yes, you can. It throws off my depth perception. I don't even wear sunglasses.
Speaker 3:See, I don't wear eye protection either, I wear hats and I don't wear hats either, and sometimes I don't even wear sunglasses.
Speaker 3:And you know, and I I've got, I've got really good reflexes, you know and I can, but it is my partner, my lady's partner. She's been hit and so she wears, she wears the glasses and especially it's it's wily because it's like you said, it's either you have somebody who's a little new and they're wily, or you have somebody who is really targeting you, Um, and you know you've got it. You do have to protect yourself. There have been a lot of injuries and they've been I related, or in the face or um, so it is, and I do. I do think it's a little scary and I hate to say it, john, but it typically comes from the guys.
Speaker 1:Well, and she'll get on me, though, because when we're playing in mixed, I hesitate.
Speaker 3:He will not sleep. My husband won't either. I call him the gentleman and even in tennis, like when he plays USTA men's tennis, he is amazing aggressive. But when we play mixed TCD tennis and I'll say she's the weaker player and he'll be like you know, he will not do it and I respect that and I'm not. When I say let's target her, I never mean let's go at her, but let's just give her more balls. I don't ever want to go to hurt her, but I want to. I don't want to give him any balls, I want to give her all the balls.
Speaker 2:Well, this last Saturday in net our net mixed we go in there and they're older people, you know, and right out of the gate she pops a ball up and John doesn't put it away. Right Next thing, you know this guy, her husband is firing it as hard as he can at my face. And I looked at my husband. I said don't you dare hold back.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's how it gets Right. I just I've said the exact same thing. I've said you know, and I've told my husband I, you know, let's whatever target, whatever, and he will not do it. But I'll say but her husband has no problem targeting me, right. And then what he starts to do is he just starts to jump in and take more and take, kind of take me out.
Speaker 3:But then that makes me angry too, because I'm like I can play my own thing but you know just, you know just, and I, like I said, when I say let's target them, I don't mean to hit them Right, I just mean give them more balls.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and that's part of the game and, quite honestly, that's my goal Every time when I go on the court is to not be the one that they target.
Speaker 3:Right, exactly.
Speaker 2:I'm like you and when they do, I make them pay Right, exactly, yeah. And that's when, when you, you said the other night, you said, cause he had just come back and they immediately started targeting him they could tell Right. And he said well, this is fun, they already must, they must be talking or something. They already know to target me and I was like, and my response to him was them wrong.
Speaker 3:Yeah, or you know, I look at my husband's just play better. Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly so who decided to PCD versus TCD? I?
Speaker 3:think. I think the deciding factor was um, the timing was right. Uh, it was TCD. And having to run to that through everything, through that board of directors, was a little difficult because again, they have tennis on their brain and then you have different sport.
Speaker 2:It is completely different and it needs to be managed Right.
Speaker 3:And then you had you know Renee, who was the, the direct. She was the, the, the pickleball director. But you know she, she wanted to. We wanted to have a men's league, she wanted to have a men's league. She want the indoor summer league. Um, so, in order to do that right, it's, it's, it's and you're trying to kind of get your ideas through these other people you need to have the same mindset, a hundred percent.
Speaker 2:And so glad to hear you that and our board of directors.
Speaker 3:I actually think I'm now the only one who still plays tennis, so I'm kind of the black sheep, I guess. I mean I do both. I, you know I, I love pickleball and I love tennis and I captain a mixture of both teams, um, but I just think that pickleball is uh, it's just, it's. It's just, it's something to me. I always told everybody that I know tennis is very serious, whereas pickleball is so much more inviting. I think of them like as surfers, right.
Speaker 2:Hey dude, there's music there's.
Speaker 3:there's movement, it's not so stringent and it's um. You know, I found that when I would go to play tennis, if they didn't think I was a good tennis player, then I wasn't. I wasn't typically invited back Right. But like pickleball, it's come one, come all. It is a fellowship, whereas tennis is. It's does have that hierarchy and you know you're what. What line do you play? What's your rating? I've never had anybody in pickleball Ask me what my rating is.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent, it's just you know, we had no idea this the distinction between like the lines and all that Right Like. If you, they're like, oh, which, who's your three line? We're like, I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Because it doesn't.
Speaker 3:It doesn't, it's not applicable to pickleball, because you know and especially the way we do it with the round Robin style, right, everybody plays everybody and I just and you might have a better, you know your, your team one might be a little bit better, or your team three might be a little bit better, but it's not going to matter because you're playing everybody and there's just, there's just not that, um, that aura of, uh, you know, snobbiness, you know that and I like I said, I love tennis but there is a little aura of oh you're a four, oh you're a three, five.
Speaker 2:Oh, are you, are you line one?
Speaker 3:Oh, you're line four and I remember somebody saying that you know like oh well, it's so much easier on line four. And I'm like listen, the two points that you bring in on line four, two points are two points.
Speaker 2:You know, I like it too when my uh when I'm, when they do put me in the third line, cause I'm like, all right, it's like a mask, that's right. And most people don't follow that unless you're from tennis world. But I mean, there are a lot of tennis women that are in pickleball and um, but I do think it's kind of loosened the vibe right.
Speaker 3:I've seen it in tcd it's people are just a little, they're not so, they're not so uptight.
Speaker 2:Yes, right, it's just a, just a nice it's like a nice vibe yeah you compare pickleball to john tom date or john daily, john daily and tennis is tiger woods, yeah exactly.
Speaker 3:You know, it's exactly right.
Speaker 1:I had a meme once where you had daily, with a smoke and a beer, standing there with tiger who looks like he's. You know, he's all buttoned up and looks like he's gonna be on the cover of gpu like that's tennis, and they're that's right, yeah, yeah it's uh, we're the happy gilmore of sports.
Speaker 3:That's exactly right or tiger, after you know, his wife beat the crap out of him with the thing that's pickleball now right a little bit, a little little touch of reality. You know that made him loosen up a little bit, you know but seriously, it's just, it's a different vibe and I I think they're more like surfers. You know, hey, you know that's just a it's a it's. The community is a lot more inviting, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I have this group that we play. I just love it because I've got this kid out there who's 19 and why he wants to hang out with all of us old people and play pickleball he's fabulous, by the way, but 19,. And then I've got one guy, larry, who is 78. He's a 12-year survivor of pancreatic cancer. And then, you know, you've got everyone else in between, right, and I'm probably towards the younger end at 52. But the other girl is younger than me that you played with the other day and, um, but there, yeah, a lot in that middle. But that's cool, yeah, it's totally cool.
Speaker 3:Well, and what, what, what sport is? Do you see? You know, like, where your, your grandparents, can play with their grandkids, right, and their kids? I, I love that.
Speaker 3:When my girls were club soccer, you know, amazing hand, foot coordination when COVID hit and they moved back home for a little bit, tried to get them into tennis. They could not do tennis to save their lives. It was like $120 for an hour or less. I'm like, okay, we're out of that. So we tried pickleball because they can do ping pong, yeah, and so this, you know, but it's still hysterical, but it's something to where we all play and it's it's not, you know, like I, I was teasing them.
Speaker 3:They were just here before mother's day and we were all four at courts and McKinney and we're playing. And I looked at my daughter. I'm like, oh man, playing with you guys just really brings down my skill level, just to tease them. Right, and it was in my and it was just it was hysterical to play with them, but it's something to where we can all play and how it's fun. It is fun versus if they're not good at at tennis, that's a, that's a, that's a long day. Right, you're not playing tennis, you're, you're getting balls, you're whatever, but this sport they can play yeah.
Speaker 2:I love that. I do too, and I love seeing the youth get involved. In fact, I encourage everyone that has young kids get them involved in the sport early, because it will be a collegiate sport Right Like it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, there's clubs, but there's not Like it is yeah, there's clubs.
Speaker 2:Well, there's clubs but there's not.
Speaker 3:Oh really, they just added that. And flag football.
Speaker 1:Yes, I saw that For girls, uta has got the first scholarship program. I saw that in the paper.
Speaker 3:It's a big thing, don't you remember playing flag football too? We used to play in the neighborhood. I was the only girl in my neighborhood, so I grew up as a tomboy. They were all five years old. We had a great park right down the street from our house, and we play flag football with tube socks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right.
Speaker 3:I mean, we, you know we don't have fancy things like that, but we had the tube socks and my husband, who's five years older. We, when we heard the news about that and I said, wow, go figure, right, like that's what we used to play all socks, and he goes yeah, so did we, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's so funny we're we're very much alike. I went to Catholic school, and so we had to wear those skirts, you know, and I would wear shorts under my skirt, so at recess I could rip that skirt off and play football with the boys. There you go. Yeah, for us it was kickball. Yeah Well, kickball too. That was a big thing.
Speaker 1:Hey guys, reminder if you like what you hear, share it, give us a rating, give us a comment. We'd love to hear from you. We'd love to hear ideas about anything else you would like to talk about or people you would like to hear us interview. This is a passion project, so we're not looking to get rich. What we're looking to do is spread the good word of Pickleball. If you can help us do that, we would be so appreciative. So let's get back to the show, and thanks again for listening. I wanted to ask you, because you're rules director yes, have there been any rules that have been addressed the last couple of years that you think have changed or need to be changed? Or what do you look at as a rules director?
Speaker 3:Well, again, a lot of our rules came from the tennis side right, because it is still a paddle racket sport, so they were similar. Some of the rules that we had to look into was at first we had a wind rule that was 25 miles per hour or more. You could reschedule, because we all know you're playing with the wiffle ball right and so it's very hard to play when you've got big winds. We've lowered that to 21 miles per hour and, believe it or not, that four miles per hour makes a difference.
Speaker 3:Um yeah, exactly, so we allow them to do that. Uh, we were, uh, you know, we were just talking about some new rules that are coming out that just were approved. Um, we were really staunch about inside play versus outside play, um, and we found a lot of players that were, you know, wanting to play indoors. They're trying to be proactive. The weather might be bad, it might be rainy, it might be windy. Well, when you play indoors, you have to make a reservation and you have to pay a fee and you have to cancel 24 hours in advance. Well, we all know weather here can change in an hour. So it was a little prohibitive because, you know, the day of you may not need the courts, but now you can't be out your $40, $100, whatever it is that they pay. So we are now going to allow for indoor play, which will be monumental for us. It will be provisionary Hopefully we don't have teams that take advantage of it. But, as always, as all of our rules, everybody has to agree. The captains both have to agree. In the captains represent their six players that they're bringing to play. So if they have players that don't want to play indoors, which happens, then they don't have to play indoors, because some people do feel it's a little bit of an unfair advantage.
Speaker 3:A lot of these facilities that have opened up, we have a lot of players that are members of the Pickler, pickler universe, pickleball kingdom, um, and so they're in here a lot playing and the rest of the women are not. Because TCD and PCD are. We are outdoors, that's our, that's always been. Our philosophy is that we're predominant outdoors, but, um, so if they don't agree, then they don't. You know, reschedules will happen, but we're hoping that this will alleviate it and, especially when we're going into what the weather forecasters are forecasting to be one of the hottest summers, um, that we're giving them that affordability and the ability to do that. So hopefully they realize that you know we do. We do try to be proactive, um, and the more you know, the better you do, right? So I think that they'll really appreciate this new rule change.
Speaker 2:We're hoping, I hope it's just not a year to your point, Like and we'll we'll reiterate that like, be responsible with that, that rope, that you've been given because that is such a huge help. This has been one of the craziest springs that we've had.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Reschedules have been I mean, we still have teams, as of, I believe, yesterday that still were. You know, the 16th is the last rain day, so they have to be made up, but that's. You know it's hard when you're trying to close out a season and, you know, get prizes distributed um, declare winners, um, so I think that they will really, really appreciate this. Uh, we'll see how it goes, I know I will. Yeah, no doubt. Um. What else have we done? The, the, the weather, you know, changes. We've. We've lowered the heat threshold, um the availability to go indoors, the heat threshold um the the availability to go indoors, um, uh, one of the new rules, too, is something that we're we've had a hard time with our paddles.
Speaker 3:So there have been a lot of paddles that are coming onto the marketplace that have on the paddle USAP approved but they're not on USAP's pass list. So well, and I've actually talked. There's a gentleman named Craig and he's in charge of equipment from USAP and so I've had many emails to him and we had a situation come up with a paddle that it's written on there USAP approved and but if you go to the USAP website and plug it in, it does not come up. So we at first said if it's written on there, it must be approved, right, so we were allowing for play. Well, even the people who brought pickleball to be pickleball, they are very stringent about these paddles because the paddles are changing the overall dynamic of the game. It's changing what the game was originally built on. It's now becoming about these paddles and so the power they have, the spin they have, the trampolining effect they have. It's changing what?
Speaker 3:the original outlook and with the original direction of yes intent of this sport was what it was supposed to be. So, but again, right we we? The more you know, the better you do. We thought we would. If it was written on there, it must be, they must be approved. Well, it's not the case. Uh, I talked to him and he said nope. And I said, well, what does that mean then? If, said some of them, they're in litigation, there's civil, there's class action lawsuits that are being placed from USAP to these corporations, and he said they might be in the queue to be approved. It can take a week, it can take a year, it can take six months. He says we have no idea Because they're still learning, uh, the right way to do things as well. Right, and so now it's going to be.
Speaker 3:The new rule will be just as in if you were to go play in a tournament, the tournament rules, rules from USAP state before you play your match, you have got to go onto USAP website and your, your paddle has to say pass. If it does not, you may not play. That's the rule we're incorporating as well. If your paddle it does not come up as pass, you may not play with that paddle. Now, that's also a little bit of a gray area Cause I can tell you, even as the rules director, I'm not looking at your paddle right, I forget.
Speaker 1:I mean I.
Speaker 3:I, I will look at a ball, cause I can tell the difference in balls sometimes, um, but a paddle, I that's not in my wheelhouse. It hasn't been, as a tennis player, to look at your racket, right, it's never been to look at these paddles. But the higher levels, the open players, they are very tuned in and on those and that's where we get a lot of this is not allowed. This is this, this is that. So we will you know, and and our rules say that if you show up and your paddle's not approved, your first is going to be a warning, right, and then it'll come to me, a photograph will be taken, I will log it, it'll go. I have a book that's alphabetized, if it happens again.
Speaker 1:I don't want to be in the book. Yeah, a photograph of the paddle. Or are they getting your profile? No, the paddle.
Speaker 3:Because, like I said, we're usually found out by fellow members Because I'm not at the match and it's not my job. I'm not a police officer, I'm not a lawyer, but people they take pictures, they'll send it in. I will notify you and say hey, by the way, your paddle did you know your paddle is. It's either sunsetted, it's delisted, whatever. Please don't play with that paddle again. And that you know I have a file. That happens again, then we'll assess some penalty points. But and we had some, we had even some some board discussion of why don't we just give them the penalties right away?
Speaker 2:Well, let's just say you're playing in flight four or five and you get this new paddle as mother's day right. Who even knows to look?
Speaker 3:at that, um, and so you show up to play, thinking I've got this really cool paddle, but maybe your opponent, who's only pickleball player, only does tournaments a lot, sees that right. Well, and that's the only paddle you have, because you were playing with your 1999 target paddle, right? Those kids remember that, we all started out with those kids. That's what I have from when my daughters come and play.
Speaker 1:It's like you buy the.
Speaker 3:they come in twos, that's right, exactly, it was two for $19.99.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you what it's so funny how quickly I went from that to an expensive paddle. Amen, it's all about the equipment right. All about the.
Speaker 3:I'll tell you, though, like my paddle, I think I paid I don't know 159, right For my paddle. And I was looking at paddles you know the $300 paddles and I mean you know that that's, that's crazy, right, there's. There's not very many, I don't think there's any three, I think. I think Rafa Nadal's pure arrow, that's the Rafa Nadal tennis racket, is 299. But I mean you can these paddles and they say the paddles if you play a lot, you may need a paddle every year. I mean that's an investment, you know.
Speaker 1:Well, especially if you happen to be, I'm a little bit of a paddle thrower. I don't throw it so much as I bang it.
Speaker 3:She's like you know that's a $200 paddle in your hand and all the honeycombs in there are just depleting. Now you hear that wonk, wonk.
Speaker 1:I'm just going to bring an old one, an extra one that I can just go there.
Speaker 3:The 1999 Target Specials.
Speaker 1:Let me reset real quick too, for everybody, because we are at Pickleball Kingdom in Plano, we're at the PCD boot camp, and it's not only going on here today, right.
Speaker 3:No, multiple, no, multiple, yes, multiple locations and are they all at Pickleball Kingdoms? No, Pickleball Kingdom, Pickler Universe. And that's putting me on the spot. I should really know. Good job, John.
Speaker 1:No, because I saw that we were set up here and I think there's another couple of podcasts that were set up too, yes. So this is really good for bringing awareness to what's going on.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and it good for you know, bringing awareness to what's going on, absolutely, and it's growing. So last last, uh year last was the first um boot camp we had the first, the first industry. Yes, that's right, the first into season event we had was at oasis and it was more of like a like a carnival we had. So we didn't have there weren't pros, but we had people playing and then we had games, um, like, uh. We had a game where on one of the courts was behind the net, was um laundry baskets and you had all the balls and whoever got the balls in the baskets you got tickets and at the end of the thing we had all these prizes you could choose from. So it was just, it was a really fun outside, it was really cool.
Speaker 3:Francine Jewett was the pickleball director at the time. That was her idea. And then the next one was where we did the no, it was at Oasis again and it was a boot camp, one location. And then last year it was at two locations and this year it's three. So we had a little under a hundred last year. Now we have a hundred and fifty this year. So it's growing, although, sad to say, we did open it up to men, and we didn't have one male player.
Speaker 2:Oh, man and boot camps.
Speaker 1:Somebody's got to pay for the electricity and the food for the children.
Speaker 2:It can't be on a Friday morning. That's true, that's fair.
Speaker 1:I think pickleball is great because we can play it together too. First sport we've been able to play together. Yeah, and even though do you play with your?
Speaker 3:husband, I do.
Speaker 1:Do y'all argue? Oh, biggest arguments we've had are probably on the pickleball court?
Speaker 3:Oh for sure, ours are never on the court, it's always on the drive home, oh. I'm just waiting for it Always on the drive home.
Speaker 1:I know when I'm getting it on the way home.
Speaker 3:Oh, and you know it's and I hate to say it, it's never from him, it's always from me, always and again. But to be fair, I told you he's a phenomenal tennis player. So when I see the amount of effort and what he and then, and then here, he's just kind of like oh, oh and. And this is not, pickleball is not a sport like tennis, where you can't have a slow start. You got to come out. There's no, okay, we're going to give you two games because we got, you know, four more to go. Every point counts, it's just it does. And it is not a slow start. You got to come out and you got to play, and you can't. You know when you hit that ball into the net the first time and that's it.
Speaker 1:Ooh, my blood pressure just goes up and I just have, and then pretty soon I just got to go, okay, you know whatever. But yeah, the drive. I have to say to her sometimes, like your hands are on your hips, stop it, cause I'm just sitting here about to serve or about to receive a serve, and I just see this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can't, I cannot help myself and he is happy Gilmore, he lovely man. So sorry, scott, you are a great man and it's it I mean I have. I'm uber competitive. But the weird thing is is that you know I have multiple partners right, not but him, because I'm the closest to him. I feel very comfortable just saying you know you suck.
Speaker 2:Do better. It's out of love honey. Yeah, Just play better.
Speaker 3:What are you thinking? Or you know? I'll just say whoever said feedback is a gift, is full of shit. Yeah, I agree, I do agree. I do because I would never talk to my female.
Speaker 1:No, never, ever well, unsolicited feedback is criticism. Yes, you know what?
Speaker 3:I please remember. I need to write that down because he will appreciate that. Yeah, that's how you take it, and it's tough, it is tough.
Speaker 1:Especially when you have somebody who's right about so many things and has to tell me all the time yeah, I can't help it.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, Lisa, thank you so much for sitting down with us. We can't wait to see how this thing wraps up and get to talk to some of the pros here, but thanks for inviting blazing paddles, thanks for coming.
Speaker 3:You know you guys. You guys do such a great job and you're such a joy to have, and the fact that you're also PCD members yes, we appreciate you.
Speaker 1:Yes, I didn't even know as a PCD member. I thought I was still a TCD member, and now I found out I'm a PCD member.
Speaker 3:Well, you've got that on my, you've got that on my husband, although every year he's my co-captain for my mixed team and my mixed tennis team. So when he sees me in the thrust because I do five different teams when he sees me and he'll look at me and he goes God, is there somebody who can help you? I said yeah, like a co-captain. And he says yeah, and I said do you know who that is. It's you Every season I have we're still married, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I think, scott, I don't know you, but I empathize.
Speaker 3:There you go. That's fair, that's a fair thing, it's a fair thing.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much. Thank you guys.
Speaker 2:Thank you guys, All right.